Your Own Personal Daemon

By Jaime Paul Lamb

[The soul is drawn to] the star which is in harmony with the character and power which lived and worked in them; and each will have a god of this kind as its daimon.

Plotinus, Enneads, III, 4.6.27-29

Since antiquity, the dæmon (Greek: daimon, English: demon) has been associated with the individual’s relationship to fate and has been largely considered synonymous with one’s ‘higher genius’. Locations (cities, temples, water fountains, etc.) and inanimate objects (boats, weapons, tools, etc.) were also believed to be inhabited by an indwelling spirit, or dæmon; some of which were to be propitiated, or otherwise placated, in the hopes of securing their good fortune.

In the philosophy, mythology, theurgy and astrology of the civilizations of the ancient world, the concept of the dæmon was accepted as a given. We can trace its presence all the way back to its first emergence in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures, through the Homeric epics, through Plato and Aristotle, through the various sects of the Alexandrian milieu (Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, etc.) and all the way into the Florentine Academy of the early Italian Renaissance and beyond.

The Demonization of the Dæmon

While the concept of the dæmon informed the largely Abrahamic idea of the (guardian) angel, overtime, the word ‘demon’ has been, well, demonized. Anciently, a distinction was drawn between a good dæmon (agathodaimon) and a bad dæmon (kakodaimon) but, over time, this distinction seems to have blurred, leaving the angel with the majority of the positive significations and the negative relegated to the dæmon.

The reputation of the dæmon may gradually be recuperated, as we learn more of the practices of the ancient world through modern translations of ancient texts, and a more nuanced conception of the dæmon is formulated. Those studying ancient philosophy, theurgy and astrology, particularly, would benefit from becoming more familiar with the history of these entities, as well as by testing the efficacy of some of theoretical and technical methods by which the personal dæmon may be astrologically determined and theurgically utilized to liberate the native from their fate.

According to Plato’s ‘Myth of Er’ (a legend concluding his Republic), the nature of the dæmon is said to be formed as the soul passes down through the planetary spheres, taking on a certain quality from each, on its way to incarnation in the terrestrial, or sublunary sphere. This very same Platonic spherical cosmology informed Aristotle’s, finally resulting in the Ptolemaic model, wherein we find the four Empodoclean elements, in the order of their natural place (from dense to rare: earth, water, air and fire), in the sublunary sphere, and the planets forming seven concentric, aetheric spheres. This is the cosmological model upon which Hellenistic astrology and theurgy is predicated.

Porphyry and the Dæmon

There is a method, outlined in Porphyry’s Introduction (Ch. 30) to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos (“four books” of astrological theory), by which the native (the subject of a natal chart) may discern the planetary identity of their personal dæmon. According to Porphyry, the natal chart was integral to this process…

Concerning the peculiar dæmon, it must be inquired how he is imparted by the lord of the geniture, and according to what kind of efflux, or life, or power, he descends from him to us? And also, whether he exists, or does not exist? And whether the invention of the lord of the geniture is impossible, or possible? For if it is possible he is happy, who having learned the scheme of his nativity, and knowing his proper dæmon, becomes liberated from fate.

Porphyry, Letter to Anebo

It is not the purpose of the present piece to describe the process of determining one’s dæmon in any significant detail, as it is quite involved and ancient sources vary, but the salient points are as follows:

First, the predominator (Arabic: haylāj, or “hyleg”) is determined. This is usually the luminary of the sect in favor – the Sun in a diurnal chart, the Moon in a nocturnal – providing the sect light is angular (in an “aphetic” place) and in aspect to the lord of its domicile. If neither light meets these requirements, the pre-natal syzygy (full or new lunation preceding the birth of the native), the Lot of Fortune (a hypothetical point, based on a lunisolar equation) or the Lord of the Ascendant (planetary ruler of the 1^st house) may be used. This part of the process also figures prominently in many Hellenistic and medieval ‘length of life’ techniques.

Second, the bound lord (the planet ruling the bound/term) of the predominator is used as the oikodespotes (Greek, meaning: “house master”, Arabic: kadhkhudāh, or “alcocoden”) and, according to Porphyry, this is the planetary ‘familiar’ corresponding to the dæmon of the native. The condition and dignity of the oikodespotes are also considered – sometimes ruling the planet out. Later, Porphyry also considers the Kyrios (“lord”, or “lord of the geniture”; later, the almuten figuris) as a contender for the planetary dæmon. The Kyrios is also determined by essential and accidental dignities in a certain place or degree of the nativity.

It certainly gets confusing – and ancient accounts vary widely – but the contenders may be narrowed down on a case-by-case (or, rather, nativity-by-nativity) basis. Similar to the process of temporal chart rectification (which is usually employed when the exact birth time is unknown and involves a sort of reverse delineation by which significations are considered as to when/how they have manifested in the biography and chronology of the native), a species of rectification may be employed in the discovery of the personal dæmon.

The Theurgical Application of Dæmonic Astrology

Once the planetary sphere corresponding to the native’s personal dæmon is identified, the composition, construction and consecration of amulets and talismans may be undertaken. Planetary synthemata – such as appropriate ‘ensouled’ statuary (genii), fumigations of herbs or resins ruled by the determined planet, etc. – are typically employed in this process.

The name of the dæmon may also be obtained by assigning the letters of ancient alphabets, such as the Phoenician, Greek, Hebrew or Latin, to the 360° of the ecliptic. Once the chosen alphabet is made to ‘wrap around’ the degrees of the zodiac (counterclockwise, with the order of the signs), the letters falling on the degrees of the natal planetary placements are isolated and ordered by the dignity and condition of their corresponding planet in the chart, revealing the entity’s name. Once obtained, this name may then be employed in ritual composition.

The discovery of one’s personal dæmon – though an arduous and intricate process – is integral to the construction of personally efficacious, theurgic rituals involving the sympathetic “chains of being” linking the native with their dæmonic planetary sphere and, ultimately, freeing the native from the bonds of fate. This astro-theurgical process was summarized by the great, early-Renaissance Neoplatonist, Marsilio Ficino, in his Three Books on Life…

I have said elsewhere that down from every single star (so to speak Platonically) there hangs its own series of things down to the lowest […] Under the celestial Serpent or the entire constellation of the Serpent-bearer, they place Saturn and sometimes Jupiter, afterwards daemons who often take on serpent’s form, in addition men of this kind, serpents (the animals), the snake-weed, the stone draconite which originates in the head of a dragon, and the stone commonly called serpentine […] By a similar system they think a chain of beings descends by levels from any star of the firmament through any planet under its dominion. If, therefore, as I said, you combine at the right time all the Solar things through any level of that order, i.e., men of Solar nature or something belonging to such a man, likewise animals, plants, metals, gems and whatever pertains to these, you will drink in unconditionally the power of the Sun and to some extent the natural powers of the Solar daemons.

Ficino, Three Books on Life, Book III, Ch. 14

Works and Online Resources Consulted:

Greenbaum, The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology, Brill, 2016

Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, Amor Fati, 2017

Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book III, Ch. 26

Ficino, Three Books on Life, Book III, Ch. 14

www.sevenstarsastrology.com

www.medievalastrologyguide.com

As well as ancient source works, such as Plato’s Republic & Timaeus, Plotinus’ Enneads, Vettius Valens’ Anthology and Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo & Introduction to the Tetrabiblos

Jaime Paul Lamb is the author of MYTH, MAGICK & MASONRY: Occult Perspectives in Freemasonry (The Laudable Pursuit, 2018) and APPROACHING THE MIDDLE CHAMBER: The Seven Liberal Arts in Freemasonry and the Western Esoteric Tradition (The Laudable Pursuit, 2020). He is a member of Old Well-Saint John’s Lodge no. 6, F.&A.M., a Charter member of Ascension Lodge no. 89, F.&A.M., a Frater of the Arizona College, Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, and of the Hermetic Society of the G∴ D∴, and is Past Master of Arizona Research Lodge no. 1 for the year 2016. Lamb is the Instructor of Astrology for the Institute for Hermetic Studies. For more information, see the link below.


https://institute-for-hermetic-studies.teachable.com/courses/1788803