Origins

Today I thought I’d talk about the origins of the system a lot of us long-time Daemonolaters use and whether or not one’s belief in its origins invalidates the system.

So the first thing people need to know is that initially the book Modern Demonolatry was written for a SPECIFIC group of people, not the general public. We hadn’t thought members of the general public would be interested in buying the book. Then, when people outside our group started purchasing the copies, I honestly did not stop to think that because my friends, including Dukante’s daughter, had given me information from their family works – specifically for the purpose of publishing the book for our group — that I would be throwing myself into an impossible position. I never thought that far ahead. Had I, I would have most certainly edited a lot of things out and just stated “unknown origins”, for which I STILL would have been criticized for.

Sure, I could have just taken credit for everything – the enns, the sigils, the hierarchy and all the stuff that wasn’t mine, but then that would have opened another can of worms. The people who knew where the material came from, would have accused me of appropriating their family or traditional information and claiming it as my own. I imagine at this point you can see what a precarious position I put myself in.

I was damned either way. The only way to have NOT made the mistake either way would have been to not publish the work at all. What’s done is done though.

Now that said – a LOT of what is in my books comes from my group or my own work. When it comes from another source, I cite that source, even if it’s unverifiable, because I believe in giving credit where credit is due. I am not going to take credit for someone else’s work like people want me to just because we need an origin point by which authenticity is gauged. It’s dishonest and I have no desire to lose friends by not citing my sources. Not to mention, I imagine that even if the Dukanté notebooks, or other information were in a library somewhere, my critics would STILL bitch and whine that it wasn’t authentic enough because some of it comes from 20th century people. There is a certain part of the occulture that doubts the authenticity of anything less than 500 years old.

It is what it is.

I also can’t help it if some of my sources would prefer to stay out of the public occulture. They’re the ones who, ultimately, have to choose to release *their* records to the public for scrutiny and judgement of “authenticity”. While I have permissions to use “some” of it (and all of that is mostly published in my books) — I do not have access or permission to take away people’s family records, notebooks, and journals and start handing them out. That would be stealing.

But, Steph, you ask — are you sure what these people gave you is authentic and historical? Maybe you were duped! Let’s just say that I have seen some of the journals, and notebooks. They’re not published material – folks. These are hand written, personal journals of people’s grandparents and family members. Yes, I suppose it is possible I could have been duped. However, if that is the case, then a lot of people went through great lengths to dupe me. Including getting their grandparents, parents, and kids in on it, and hiring book binders and hucksters to help them age paper or forge handwriting. If that is the case – then I am one of the most gullible people on the planet. But on the other hand — I also know that what I have is authentic because I’ve used the system and IT WORKS. It has worked better than all of the systems I’ve tried. Why would I question its authenticity? Because it’s not documented in a published 500 year old book somewhere?

So next, I am going to tell you a few things that may come as a shock.

1. Richard Dukante only put together a hierarchy. He did not create “Daemonolatry”. Guess what? His hierarchy was HIS personal gnosis. But a lot of people liked it and started using it. That is why it is so prevalent to many practitioners of Traditional Daemonolatry. There are also a lot of people who like the Goetic Hierarchy. There are also a lot of people who have created their own set of Daemons to work with. A hierarchy alone does not make one Daemonolater more or less authentic than another. If you’re not comfortable with the Dukanté hierarchy and it’s not authentic enough for you — don’t use it. It’s that simple. You have options!

2. Dukanté was a nom de plume. Richard Dukanté did not want his family thrust into the spotlight due to his occult practices. This is no different than what a lot of modern occult authors do with regard to pen names.

3. The biography of Dukanté printed in Modern Demonolatry and the later The Complete Book of Demonolatry was based on information I was given by his daughter. I know that using Dukanté’s real name would reveal that the biography is correct, but I cannot release that real name as that was one of the agreements I made so I could publish the information to begin with. Dukanté was a popular figure WITHIN traditional Daemonolatry – the people the book was originally written for. That was why the biography was originally included in the book at all. Now that Daemonolatry has grown beyond what it started as, the relevance of Dukanté outside the traditional groups is not nearly as important as it would be if ONLY traditional Daemonolaters were using the book.

4.I have explained in The Complete Book of Demonolatry and many other places online where the Enns and Sigils come from.  This has never been a secret, but my critics would have you believe it is.  Maybe they need to learn how to read. These sigils and invocations (enns) come from magicians like you and I, who have have the ability to go into the astral (via ascension practice) to get those sigils and enns from Daemons themselves. (How do you think ALL the grimoires came to be? Someone was the first person to write it down! Every published grimoire out there started as someone else’s PG.) Not everyone will find the sigils and enns gotten “Daemonolatry-style” will resonate with them. But a lot of people do. Why do you think my books are so popular and why I write about this particular form of Daemonolatry? Because IT WORKS and I love the Daemonic Divine. No other reasons.

“To me, the validity of any system is based on how well it works. Not who started it and/or how old their work is.” – S. Connolly

Please note that I’ve ALWAYS said in all of my books that you are welcome to take what works for you and leave the rest. I’ve never preached my books as gospel as I believe all books about spirituality are merely collections of ideas. I’m not anyone’s mother. I am not here to tell you what you should believe (as I believe you should find what works best for you), and I don’t want followers like some other occult personalities might.

“People can either ignore me, walk beside me, or get the fuck out of my way.” – S. Connolly

I don’t write the books I write for people who have no use for them. I write the books I write for the like-minded people who will be inspired by them and find them useful. If you’re not one of those folks – great, go find something else.

So yes – it is true – I cannot prove my sources because some of them have chosen to not come forward or release their personal family information. Perhaps some day in the future they will, at which time I bet the critics will still scream, “Inauthentic!” In the meantime there is nothing I can do about that. For all historical purposes, I will likely go down in history as the mother of modern Daemonolatry.  While I accept that, I will still continue giving credit to those magicians who contributed, whether they or their executors choose to speak up or to release their family records – or not.

If people don’t like that – too bad. I am not going to become an unethical, thieving oath-breaker just to pacify a few vocal critics.