The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology

This is a very informative book but I wouldn't exactly call it light reading. Reading a book like this is more like research. It contains a lot of references to other interesting books also. This is a potentially very broad subject and I suspect it was difficult to decide what to include in the book. It talks about the demons themselves, exorcists and exorcisms, the Inquisition, Aleister Crowley, and other things. This is a rather morbid and dreary subject. The demons are foul, vile creatures who are filled with hate. The book contains drawings that depict the physical characteristics of the demons. These aren't the types of creatures you would like to meet up with in a dark alley. It's hard to know how much of what people believe about demons is true. The book quotes a lot from books that are associated with the biblical king Solomon who supposedly was able to control the demons with his magic ring. But according to the bible Solomon was lead astray by witches and rejected God. There are many other legends which may or may not be true such as Adam's first wife was the demon Lilith. I don't believe this. Aleister Crowley felt that some spirit was communicating messages to him from the Egyptian gods. This is undoubtedly untrue as Crowley turned everything into evil. I guess some people look up to Crowley as a highly evolved person but he was mainly a womanizer and drug addict. The book shows how accusations of witchcraft were used during the Middle Ages to get people killed. She talks a lot about one case in particular where a sexually frustrated nun in France accused a priest of cursing her after this priest rejected her affections. The forward was written by John Zaffis who is related to the late Ed Warren. John was involved with the famous 'Haunting In Connecticut' case: In a Dark Place I heard about this author when I saw her on an episode of the TV show 'The Haunted' about the energy vampire as I recall. The famous demonologist Carl Johnson also appears on that episode. Update 1/19/12: I guess I can mention here that I came under demonic attack in October of 2011. My life has not been the same ever since. In fact my life is for all intents and purposes basically over. They ruined any hope I had of being happy back in the mid 1990s but this was kept hidden from me until October. I made a terrible mistake when I wrote in letters about putting curses on people. Those words gave the demonic gods power over my life. This is something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life and far beyond I'm afraid. I have made the most serious of mistakes. Maybe Carl Johnson, John Zaffis, or the author of this book can help me. If yes please contact me. Jeff Marzano The Devil in Connecticut Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere Des ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work) Haunting in Georgia / Haunting in Connecticut 2-DVD Set A Haunting - Seasons 1-4 Paranormal State: The Complete Season One

A good read and packed full of information

Awesome book!

Perfect collection of information, neatly put together. Keep in mind, for any of you who did internet searches to get your information in the past, there is a LOT of information here, about a lot of different of demons and items associated with demons, so in that sense you can find yourself reading for a while and still not past the 'A' section. In short, I only knew of maybe 50 or so demons from various religions. This book has hundreds more. It would be nice to see a book breaking demons down by 'type' but that could take forever and of course many function in different ways. I especially love that she has all of her resources after each entry. She also tries to remain neutral, which can be hard when you are writing about people faking that they are possessed to further their career. In addition, she acknowledges when a particular demon is viewed as a god by some and a demon to other religions.

I'm not sure who i bought this from but i got it quickly and it was in great shape, so kudos to them for that. The book itself is a pretty good buy but not for someone just starting out on the topic of demonology as I am. I'd gather that it is better for someone who has studied demonology for a while, and when they get stuck trying to remember how many Aerial Spirits of Solomon there were, or whether Beelzebub looked like a fly or a spider, then this book is a good place to jog the memory. But for someone starting out, you won't get a clear coherent story. You'll start reading at A, encounter your first of Solomon's many demons, and then you'll flip to the section on Solomon. You'll be intrigued and find the whole thing interesting but you'll want more than is available. From what I've been reading, a lot of the information on a lot of the demons is limited even in the original texts in which they appeared. But still, it's an encyclopedia, so perhaps much of the information was just omitted. If you're looking for a good historical analysis of the origin of a demon, or how a "demon" evolved after its first appearance in the Old Testament, then you should look elsewhere. The book does have good "further reading" notes at the end of each section. The suggested books are likely the ones you'd want to read first. I'm eager to learn more about the history of the origins of these demons, how their stories evolved and their legends came to be throughout history. If that's what you're looking for, do a little more research and skip this one. But if you're just looking for a demonic freak show of sorts, or you're trying to come up with some baby names that'll piss off your religious parents, this is book is for you.

I have been ordering and studying every book out there that has anything to do with Paranormal, so far every book I have bought on Amazon has been in excellent shape. After I read these books I add them to the shelf for everyone in my group to read, so far we have over 28 Paranormal Books and one Paranormal Map. This should be something every Paranormal group should do if they are serious about the Paranormal and starting or running a group. Ky. P.A.S.T. (Paranormal Active Scientific Teams) is a very well qualified paranormal group, between all of our members we have studied the paranormal through Books, seminars and college courses and have a vast knowledge of the paranormal world but each of us still read every book we can get our hands on to stay current in the field. Besides Paranormal books we also study and buy Photography books, electronic repair and assembly books, physics book and so on, I think you get the picture. So if your into Paranormal add this book to your collection and if you ever have any questions we can be found on Facebook.

It is a very beautiful encyclopedia that explains the topic very well. I am an academic and researcher in the occult, paranormal and esoteric doctrines. It is an academic work and that in itself is very good. What I like about Rosemary's encyclopedias (this one and the others) is that after almost the majority of terms you have a "Further reading heading": that states tons of resources (books etc..) to dig deeper into specific concepts. I have read the whole encyclopedia in 3 days ( I took of course a lot of breaks :-)) but it was enjoyable! 5 Stars ! I have also bought both: The encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca (completely read!), The encyclopedia of Angels (completely read!) - Both amazing! - Any esoteric student/scholar should have these encyclopedias in his/her library.

This is such an interesting book, really is helping with my demonology and witchcraft course! Covers a broad range of names and offers clear explainations of each name and their purposes. Very informative!

Can't wait to collect all the books in this series. Even if you are not into this kind of stuff the book itself is good for naming a character if you are having trouble figuring out a name for a story you have or character in a game you are playing for creating a character etc.

It's like a dictionary set in alphabetical order, covers pretty much basic stuff (but with good details and nicely written). I was expecting something more dramatic and the stuff I never heard of before. The size and quality of the book are great, many pages and some illustrations. My daughter loved it.

Sehr informativ und wenn man mehr über dieses Thema wissen möchte, lohnt es sich dieses Buch zu holen.