I have also collected some Pagan texts which explain these Gnostic references, and I interpret them in light of later Western Occultism. Gershom Scholem argued that Gnosticism had a strong influence on Jewish mysticism, and so this Volume seeks to organize some of the texts on them in an effort to reconstruct their views and rituals, as especially those with references to Paganism. The first Volume of a collection of primary and secondary sources, and commentary, which show how various Pagan and Gnostic influences are at the root of Western Occultism, particularly the Merkabah, Kabbalah, and Goetia, but also ceremonial magick more generally. The paper then proceeds to suggest possible reasons for magic's lack of salience in the early Empire, including the role of various sceptical discourses concerned with the supernatural in general and magic in particular, and the consequence of the largely agonistic context of its use on the limited occasions that it was employed. Not only is evidence for its presence more equivocal than usually presumed, but magic is found to be strikingly absent from major popular cultural sources that shed light on the presuppositions and preoccupations of most of the empire's inhabitants, and to have had little explanatory or symbolic utility. However, this paper argues that if we attempt, having determined a contextually appropriate definition of magic, to gauge the prevalence and significance of magic in this period, it can be seen to have had little cultural salience. 1 A variety of written and material evidence is commonly taken to be indicative of both the regular use of magic and widespread anxiety about its deployment. Magic is usually assumed to have been ubiquitous and culturally significant in the early Roman Empire, something exemplified by Pliny the Elder's claim that "there is no one who does not fear to be spellbound by curse tablets". As the demon is something that is prevalent still today, not only in our own popular culture but also in religious realms as well, it is important to understand the background and history of the entity, and not merely hold the assumption that it did not “exist” prior to Christianity. This is significant, as it illustrates the influence of Christianity on the religious cultures of antiquity, and how monotheism played a large role in the evolution of the demon. By looking at both the literature of the Greek and Roman worlds, spells and incantations that were used in antiquity, and also texts relating to Judaism and Christianity, there is a sense that the evolution culminates in the work of Augustine, and that this is the most momentous change for the entity. This is the first time that this has been posited, as most historians have previously said that the point in which the daimon becomes demon is with the writing of Xenocrates in the 4th century B.C.E. At the same time, it postulates that the most important change to take place occurred with Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God, which ultimately gives the demon the negative characteristics that it still has today. This thesis traces the evolution that the daimon takes to eventually become the demon we know today. The demon itself has existed in religious culture and magic practice since antiquity, but most scholars tend to either ignore the entity, or conflate it with ghosts or minor gods. The question at hand in this thesis is whether or not the demon was always considered to be synonymous with evil. The demon is something that is present not just in various religious texts, but is also a staple of the modern horror film. ABSTRACT FROM DAIMON TO DEMON: THE EVOLUTION OF THE DEMON FROM ANTIQUITY TO EARLY CHRISTIANITY One of the most fascinating entities of religious thought is the demon, which is still pervasive in both religious and popular culture today.
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