I was reading a paper by Alessandro Roccati, of the University of Turin in which he suggested that demons were a reflection of the lower classes in society. He noted that while demons tend to get talked about using street language, gods tended to get addressed in the formal language of the higher classes (in this case he was talking about Egyptian). Throughout human history, the structure of the divine hierarchy has reflected the political systems of human society.
This evolution exists in magical texts with the move to feudalism having a direct impact on the structure of the status of demons and angels. An Angel or demon might be a Duke of heaven or hell.
So, I started thinking – why did this evolution stop?. Civilised societies don’t have autocratic divine-right monarchs any more, so why do magic systems still uphold them, when do things get more democratic?
For some reason, this development ends abruptly with the rise of democracy and the nation state. It seems curious that humanity had worked out that the divine right monarch system no longer worked, but seemed to believe that it did for Gods and angels?
It is not difficult to update the religious hierarchies to match a democratic human government, yet for some reason, no-one attempted it. It is as if, following Homer, magicians said: “A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.” Possible reasons for this are:
1. Magicians are not progressive and look to the past rather than the present or the future.
2. democratic governments were “weak and human” next to the glories of a divine court or a platonic rule of the elite.
3. Magicians were part of a conservative society that secretly holds to ideas of platonic rule by an elite team of occultists rather than democratic “mob rule.”
4. There is a belief that the universe is not democratic and cannot be represented by such a hierarchy.
All four of these reasons are somewhat weak and miss a significant magical opportunity for magicians. If divine hierarchies were adapted to follow more democratic systems, then we are allowing heaven and earth to match each other. Our political regimes might benefit from divine wisdom (as above so below).
In a medieval society if you were against the king you were a traitor and therefore “evil” in a democratic structure the forces which opposed evolution and light would be the “official opposition.” Their job would be to keep the forces of light from calcifying (something which is seen when a government stays in power too long). However, it would remove good and bad guys from the equation. The universe would be created and sustained by an interaction between the forces of light and darkness rather than a war. If the two sides have equal powers, then the final vote will be decided by the Prime Minister who appoints a cabinet. The situation would not be party politics but an ideal democracy where the best person for the job would be appointed (much like the war council in the UK during WW2), but decisions would be made by the final democratic body of spirits. The good part about it is that since they are spirits and daemons, they are not going to need to play political games but will instead focus on function.
The question as to who or what would rule is ultimately moot. There is always going to be One Divine being, but it is going to be removed from government (much like a constitutional monarch or president). It might be relatively stable too because the government works, its ministers are not going to be embroiled in corruption scandals or get caught by the tabloids sticking their sexual organs in dead pigs. However, like parliamentary democracy, it would be more efficient at making decisions.
The operative part of democracy is that not only do politicians vote, but we get a chance to choose the government. If we think about it, this has largely happened. We have seen the more religious daemons take a back seat to those who offer more secular “things” and objects. It should be possible to see the changes in humanity and the planet regarding a democratic history of heaven.
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