2.1 What Spirits Are
The Origin and Nature of Spirits
Spirits are the intelligent beings of creation. They populate the universe beyond the material world.
Spirits are beings distinct from the Divinity, not emanations or portions of the Divinity. They are God’s work. It is like a man who builds a machine, for example: the machine is the man’s work, but it is not the man himself. When individuals make good and useful things, they call them their children, their creation. It is the same with God. We are God’s children because we are products of the divine work.
Spirits had a beginning and have not existed from all eternity like God. If spirits had no beginning, they would be equal to God; on the contrary, they are God’s creation and subject to the divine will. God has existed from all eternity; that is incontestable. But we know nothing as to when and how spirits were created. It may be said that they had no beginning if this means that, since God is eternal, God must have always and unceasingly created spirits. Nevertheless, when and how each was created individually, no one knows. It is a mystery.
Since there are two general elements in the universe, the intelligent element and the material element, spirits are formed from the intelligent element, while inert bodies are formed from the material element. Spirits are individualizations of the intelligent principle, just as bodies are individualizations of the material principle. It is the time and manner of this formation that we do not know.
The creation of spirits is continuous, which means that God has never ceased creating them.
Spirits are not formed spontaneously or proceeding from one another. Like all other creatures, God creates them by the divine will; but their origin is a mystery.
It is not correct to say that spirits are immaterial. “Immaterial” is not the right word; “incorporeal” would be more precise, because, since it is a creation, a spirit must be something. A spirit is quintessentialized matter; thus, there are no analogies for describing it. It is also so etherealized that your senses cannot perceive it.
We say that spirits are immaterial because their essence differs from everything we label as “matter.” A nation of blind people would not have any words for expressing light and its effects. Those who are in fact born blind imagine that they perceive everything through their hearing, smell, taste, and touch, but they would not be able to comprehend ideas that came to them through the sense they lack. In the same way, we too are “blind” regarding the essence of supra-human beings. We cannot define them except by an effort involving our imagination or by making comparisons that will always be imperfect.
Spirits do not have an end. Though it may be difficult to understand how something that had a beginning would not also have an end, spirits’ individual existences never come to an end. There are many things that you do not understand because your intelligence is limited, but that is no reason to reject them. A child does not understand everything that its parents understand, nor does an uneducated person understand all that a scholar understands. This is all that can be said for now.
The Primitive, Normal World
Spirits comprise a separate world beyond the one we see: the world of spirits, or incorporeal intelligences.
In the order of things, the spirit world is the principal one; it is preexistent to, and will survive, everything else.
The corporeal world could cease to exist, or might never have existed in the first place, without altering the essence of the spirit world. They are independent of each other, yet their correlation is unceasing because they continually react upon each other.
Spirits do not occupy a specific, circumscribed region of space. They are everywhere. They populate infinite space in infinite numbers. There are even some who are constantly at your side, observing and acting upon you without your being aware of it. This is because spirits are one of the powers of nature and one of the instruments that God uses for fulfilling providential designs. However, not all spirits can go everywhere, because there are regions that are forbidden to those who are less advanced.
The Form and Ubiquity of Spirits
Spirits do not have, to human eyes, a specific, limited, and constant form, though to spirits they do. They may be said to resemble a flame, a glow, or an ethereal spark.
This flame or spark varies, to human eyes, from the color of a dark ruby to a brilliant one, depending on the degree of the individual spirit’s purity.
Spirit beings are ordinarily represented with a flame or a star on their brow. This is an allegory alluding to the essential nature of spirits. The flame or star is placed there because that is the seat of intelligence.
Spirits do take time to travel across space, but they are as fast as thought itself.
When thought is in a place, the soul is there too, since it is the soul that does the thinking. Thought is one of its attributes.
A spirit who moves from one place to another may be conscious of the distance traveled and the space crossed, or may be suddenly at the place to which it wanted to go. If it wants to, a spirit can be perfectly aware of the distance it crosses, or such distance may seem to disappear completely. It all depends on the spirit’s will and the degree to which its nature is purified.
Matter is not an obstacle to spirits. They can pass through anything: the air, the earth, water, and even fire are all equally accessible to them.
A spirit cannot be divided. However, each is a center radiating in different directions, and that is why it appears to be in many places at the same time. The sun is only one body, yet it radiates all around and sends its rays to great distances; nevertheless, it does not divide itself.
Not all spirits radiate with the same power. It depends on their degree of purity.
Each spirit is an indivisible unit, but each one can extend its thought in different directions without dividing itself. The gift of ubiquity attributed to spirits should be understood only in this sense. A spirit is like a spark that projects its light far off and can be perceived from all points of the horizon; or like an individual who, without changing places or dividing himself or herself, can transmit orders, signals, and movement to different points.
The Perispirit
The spirit is surrounded by a substance that might look vaporous to you but that is still quite dense to spirits. Nevertheless, it is sufficiently vaporous to be able to rise into the air and travel wherever it wants to go.
As a fruit seed is surrounded by the perisperm, the spirit per se is surrounded by an envelope that, by comparison, may be called the perispirit.
The spirit gets this semi-material envelope from each globe’s own universal fluid. That is why the perispirit is not the same on all worlds. In passing from one world to another, spirits change their envelope just as you change your clothes.
When spirits from more highly evolved worlds come to ours, they take on a denser perispirit. They must clothe themselves with your matter, as has already been said.
The spirit’s semi-material envelope has a specific form and can be seen. It has a form according to the spirit’s volition, and that is how it sometimes appears in dreams or in the waking state, and how it may take on a visible or even tangible form.
The Different Orders of Spirits
Spirits are of different orders, according to their individual degree of self-purification.
The number of orders or degrees of purification is unlimited because there is no line of demarcation that acts as a barrier between each order; thus, the divisions may be multiplied or decreased at will. However, considering their general characteristics, they may be reduced to three principal orders.
First Order
In the first order are those who have already reached perfection: the pure spirits.
Second Order
In the second are those who have reached the middle of the scale: their main concern is the desire to do good.
Their ability to do good depends on their degree of purification: some possess scientific knowledge; others, wisdom and goodness. All of them, however, still have trials to endure.
Third Order
In the third are those who are toward the bottom of the scale: the imperfect spirits. These are characterized by ignorance, the desire for evil, and all the passions that delay their advancement.
Not all spirits of the third order are altogether evil. Some do neither good nor evil; others, however, take pleasure in evil and are pleased when they find an opportunity for it. Still others are frivolous or foolish spirits, more mischievous than wicked. These take more pleasure in spite than in evil, and they also take pleasure in amusing themselves by vexing people and causing them petty annoyances.
The Spirit Hierarchy
Preliminary observations. The classification of spirits is based on their degree of development, the qualities they have acquired, and the imperfections from which they have not yet freed themselves. This classification is by no means absolute; no single category displays a well-defined characteristic except as a group. The transition is hardly noticeable from one degree to the next. The gradations blend together at their borders, much like what occurs in the kingdoms of nature, in the colors of the rainbow, or in the different phases of human life. Thus, we may form a larger or smaller number of classes, depending on how we consider the subject. Such is the case with all systems of scientific classification. Such systems may entail various degrees of completeness, reasonableness, or convenience for the intellect. Whichever way they are viewed, however, in reality they change nothing regarding science itself. In this regard, the Spirits questioned about this could have given various answers as to the number of categories without harming the overall idea. There are persons who have latched on to this seeming contradiction without considering the fact that spirits do not give any importance to what is purely conventional. For them, the thought is everything. To us they leave the form, the choice of terms, the classifications—in a word, the systems.
Furthermore, among spirits, as among human beings, there are some who are very ignorant, and we must always be on our guard against the tendency to believe that they know everything simply because they are spirits. Every attempt at classification demands a methodical analysis and an in-depth knowledge of the subject. In addition, just as there are ignorant individuals in this world, there are those in the spirit world with limited knowledge, who are incapable of learning and formulating any kind of system. They know or comprehend any classification only imperfectly. To them, all spirits who are more highly evolved than themselves are of the first order because they cannot discern their differences of knowledge, ability, and morality, as would be the case with an uneducated person among us in relation to learned individuals. Even those who may be capable of formulating a system can vary in the details according to their own points of view, especially when a division has nothing absolute about it. Linnaeus, Jussieu, and Tournefort each had their own method, but botany did not change because of it. They invented neither plants nor their characteristics but merely observed analogies, forming groups and classes accordingly. We have done the same: we invented neither spirits nor their characteristics; rather, we watched and observed. We judged by their words and acts, and afterward we classified them according to their similarities, basing our classification on the data they themselves had furnished us.
The Spirits generally acknowledge three main categories or large divisions. In the last category, at the bottom of the scale, are the imperfect spirits, characterized by the predominance of matter over spirit and an inclination toward evil. Those of the second are characterized by the predominance of the spirit nature over matter and by their desire to practice the good: they are the good spirits. Finally, the first category includes the pure spirits, who have reached the highest degree of purification.
This division seems perfectly rational and displays well-defined characteristics, leaving only the need to discern, through a sufficient number of subcategories, the main nuances of each group as a whole. That is what we did with the help of the Spirits, whose benevolent instructions have never failed us.
With the aid of the following classifications, it will be easy to determine the order and degree of the more highly evolved or less evolved spirits with whom we may associate, and consequently the degree of trust and esteem they deserve. In some ways, this is the key to Spiritist science because it alone can explain the anomalies that sometimes appear in communications by enlightening us regarding spirits’ intellectual and moral inequalities. However, spirits do not perpetually and exclusively belong to this or that class. Their progress is gradual, and, since it often occurs in one area more than in another at any given time, they can display characteristics of several categories, a fact that is easy to discern through their language and acts.
Third Order
Imperfect Spirits
General characteristics: Predominance of matter over spirit; a propensity toward evil; ignorance, pride, selfishness, and all the evil passions that result from them.
They have an intuition of God, but they do not comprehend God.
Not all are essentially evil, however. Some are more frivolous, thoughtless, and malicious than downright wicked. Some do neither good nor evil, but the simple fact that they do no good reveals them to be imperfect. There are others, however, who take pleasure in wickedness per se and are gratified when they find an opportunity to practice it.
Third-order spirits can ally intelligence with wickedness or malice, but regardless of their intellectual development, their ideas lack elevation and their sentiments are more or less contemptible.
Their knowledge about the things of the spirit world is limited, and the little they do know is confused with the ideas and prejudices of corporeal life. They cannot give more than faulty and incomplete ideas of that world, but the attentive observer may frequently find in their faulty communications great truths taught by the highly purified spirits.
Their character is revealed by their language. Every spirit who betrays an evil thought in its communications can be placed in the third order; consequently, every evil thought that may be suggested to us comes from a spirit of this order.
They see the happiness of the good spirits, a sight that tortures them endlessly because they experience all the anguish that envy and jealousy can produce.
They also retain the memory and perception of the sufferings of their corporeal life, and this impression is often more painful than the reality was itself. Therefore, they indeed suffer from the wrongs they themselves endured and from those they caused others. And since they suffer from them for a very long time, they believe they will continue to suffer forever, a belief allowed by God as a punishment.
These spirits may be divided into five principal classes:
Tenth Class
Impure Spirits. These are inclined toward evil and make it the object of all their preoccupations. As spirits, they give unscrupulous advice, incite discord and distrust, and use all sorts of disguises in order to deceive more effectively. They associate with individuals whose character is sufficiently weak to make them yield to their suggestions and be led into misfortune, and they are pleased to retard these individuals’ progress by causing them to succumb in the trials they must undergo.
In their manifestations, these spirits may be recognized by their language: triviality and coarseness of expression among spirits, as among humans, are always indicative of moral, if not intellectual, inferiority. Their communications reveal the baseness of their inclinations, and if they try to fool us by speaking sensibly, they are unable to maintain the ruse for very long and always end up betraying their origin.
Certain cultures have transformed them into malevolent deities, while others have designated them as demons or evil spirits.
During incarnation, they are inclined toward all the vices that are engendered by vile and degrading passions: sensuality, cruelty, deceit, hypocrisy, covetousness, and sordid greed. They do evil for the pure pleasure of it, most often without reason. Out of hatred for the good, they almost always choose their victims from among honest people. They are the true scourges of humanity, no matter what position they occupy, and no veneer of civility can ever cover their dishonor and ignominy.
Ninth Class
Frivolous Spirits. These are ignorant, mischievous, thoughtless, and mocking spirits who meddle in everything and respond to every question with no concern for what is really true. They love causing petty annoyances and little thrills, creating intrigues, and misleading people into error through deceit and mischief. To this class belong the spirits commonly designated by the names of hobgoblins, imps, gnomes, and pixies. They are under the subjection of higher-order spirits, who often use them as we use servants.
In their communications with people, their language is often spirited and facetious, but almost always without depth. They seize upon human oddities and absurdities, which they comment on with sarcasm and satire. If they take distinguished names, it is more out of mischievousness than wickedness.
Eighth Class
Pseudo-Learned Spirits. The knowledge of these spirits is quite broad, but they think they know more than they actually do. Since they have made a certain amount of progress in some sense, their language has a serious tone that can be deceptive as to their true abilities and enlightenment. However, this is frequently nothing more than a reflection of the prejudices and theoretical ideas they held during their earthly life. Their language contains a few truths mixed with the most absurd errors, giving rise to the presumption, pride, envy, and stubbornness from which they have not been able to free themselves.
Seventh Class
Neutral Spirits. These are neither moral enough to do good nor bad enough to engage in wickedness; rather, they vacillate between the two. They have not raised themselves above the ordinary human condition regarding either their moral qualities or their intelligence. They are attached to the things of this world and long for its coarse satisfactions.
Sixth Class
Boisterous and Disturbing Spirits. Strictly speaking, these spirits do not form a distinct class as to their personal qualities, and they may belong to any of the third-order classes. They frequently make their presence known through perceptible and physical effects, such as raps, the movement and abnormal displacement of solid objects, the movement of the air, and so on. They appear to be more attached to matter than the others, and they are the principal agents of instability in the globe’s elements, whether by acting upon the atmosphere, water, fire, and solid bodies, or in the entrails of the earth. One can recognize that such phenomena are not due to any fortuitous and physical cause because there is an intentional and intelligent character about them. Although all spirits can produce these phenomena, higher-order spirits usually leave them to subaltern ones since they are more suitable for material rather than intelligent matters. Thus, when the higher-order spirits deem that manifestations of this type are useful, they use these spirits as their agents.
Second Order
Good Spirits
General characteristics: Predominance of spirit over matter; desire to do good. These spirits’ qualities and ability to do good are in proportion to the degree of advancement they have reached. Some possess scientific knowledge, while others display wisdom and benevolence; the more highly evolved ones combine knowledge with moral qualities. Since they have not yet dematerialized themselves completely, and depending on their class, they still preserve stronger or weaker traces of their corporeal existence and might display some of their former eccentricities in their language or habits. Were it not for this, they would be purified spirits.
They comprehend God and the infinite, and they already enjoy the happiness of the morally upright; in addition, they feel happy when they do good and hinder evil. The love that unites them is a source of ineffable happiness that cannot be affected by envy, remorse, or any of the other evil passions afflicting imperfect spirits. Nevertheless, they must continue to undergo trials until they reach perfection.
As spirits, they encourage good thoughts in people and dissuade them from the path of evil. They also watch over the lives of those who have made themselves worthy and neutralize the influence of imperfect spirits on those who do not yield to them.
When incarnate, they are good and benevolent toward others; they do good for its own sake, and they neither allow themselves to be led by pride, selfishness, or ambition, nor do they display hatred, bitterness, envy, or jealousy.
In popular belief, this order includes the spirits called good spirits, guardian spirits, and spirits of benevolence. In times of ignorance and superstition, they were regarded as beneficent deities.
This order may be divided into four principal groups:
Fifth Class
Benevolent Spirits. Their dominant quality is kindness. They take pleasure in serving and protecting human beings, but their knowledge is limited: their progress has occurred more in the moral sense than in the intellectual.
Fourth Class
Learned Spirits. These are especially distinguished by the extent of their knowledge. They are less concerned with moral issues because they have a greater aptitude for scientific ones, but they pursue science only for its usefulness. These spirits are also free of the passions that characterize imperfect spirits.
Third Class
Wise Spirits. These are characterized by moral qualities of the highest degree. Even though they do not possess unlimited knowledge, they are endowed with an intellectual capacity that enables them to judge people and things precisely.
Second Class
High-Order Spirits. These combine science, wisdom, and goodness. Their language displays only benevolence and is always noble, elevated, and frequently sublime. Their lofty status renders them more able than the others to impart the most correct notions concerning the things of the incorporeal world within the limits of the knowledge permitted to us. They willingly communicate with those who in good faith seek truth, and whose souls are sufficiently freed from earthly connections to enable such understanding. However, they turn away from those who are motivated only by curiosity, or who, through the influence of matter, turn away from practicing the good.
When they incarnate on earth under exceptional circumstances, they accomplish a mission of progress, displaying to us the type of perfection to which humankind can aspire in this world.
First Order
Pure Spirits
General characteristics: No influence from matter; absolute intellectual and moral superiority in relation to the spirits of the other orders.
First and only class. These spirits have ascended through all the degrees of the hierarchy and have freed themselves from all the impurities of matter. Having reached the highest perfection possible for created beings, they have no more trials or expiations to endure. Moreover, because they are no longer subject to reincarnation in perishable bodies, they live eternally in the bosom of God.
Since they are no longer subject to the needs or vicissitudes of material life, they enjoy unalterable bliss; nevertheless, such bliss is not a monotonous idleness lived in perpetual contemplation. They are the messengers and ministers of God, whose orders they carry out to maintain universal harmony. They direct all the spirits beneath them, help them perfect themselves, and assign them their missions. They assist humans in their distress and inspire them to do good or to expiate the wrongs that keep them from supreme bliss. Sometimes these spirits are called angels, archangels, or seraphim.
Humans may communicate with them, but those who claim to have them constantly at their orders are very presumptuous indeed.
The Progression of Spirits
Spirits may improve themselves, and as they do so they pass from a lower order to a higher one.
God has created all spirits simple and ignorant, that is, without knowledge. God has given each of them a mission aimed at enlightening them and progressively leading them toward perfection through knowledge of the truth in order to draw them near to God. In that perfection, they will find eternal bliss without any troubles. Spirits acquire knowledge by experiencing the trials that God has imposed on them. Some humbly accept these trials and thus arrive more quickly at their destiny, whereas others cannot endure them without complaining. Through their own fault, these latter ones remain far from the perfection and bliss promised to them.
At their origin, all spirits are ignorant and inexperienced like children, who gradually acquire the knowledge they lack by passing through the different phases of human life. This is an accurate comparison. How much children improve depends on their behavior: rebellious children remain ignorant and imperfect. However, human life has an ending, whereas that of spirits extends to infinity.
No spirits remain forever in the lower orders. All will become perfect. They change, albeit slowly, for a just and merciful father cannot banish his children forever. God, who is so great, so good, and so just, could not be worse than human beings themselves.
It depends on spirits themselves to hasten their advancement toward perfection. The amount of time it takes them depends on their desire and submission to God’s will. A well-behaved child learns faster than one who is obstinate.
Spirits cannot regress. As they progress, they gain an understanding of what is holding them back from perfection. When a spirit finishes a particular trial, it never forgets the knowledge it acquired. A spirit may remain stationary, but it never regresses.
If spirits had been created already perfect, they would not deserve to enjoy the benefits of that perfection. There would be no merit without the struggle. Besides, inequality among them is necessary for their personalities to develop, while the missions entrusted to them in the various degrees of the hierarchy reside in the designs of Providence for ensuring the harmony of the universe.
Since it is possible for everyone in societal life to reach the highest positions, it might just as easily be asked why sovereigns of countries do not make generals of every one of their soldiers, why all entry-level employees are not made supervisors, or why all students are not professors. There is, however, one distinct difference between societal life and spirit life: the former is limited and does not always allow everyone to reach the highest degree, whereas the latter is unlimited and assures everyone the possibility of reaching the highest position.
All spirits must pass, not through the trial of evil, but through that of ignorance in order to reach the good.
God does not create any spirits evil from the start; they are created simple and ignorant, that is, capable of both good and evil. Those who are evil have become so through their own will.
Free will develops as the spirit acquires self-awareness. There would be no actual choice if it were made by a cause extraneous to the spirit’s will. The cause is not within the spirit, but outside, in the influences to which it yields in virtue of its free will. This is the great symbol of the fall of humankind and original sin: some yielded to temptation; others resisted it.
The influences that act upon spirits come from imperfect spirits who seek to involve and dominate them, and who delight in making them succumb. This is what is represented in the allegory of Satan.
This influence follows the spirit over the course of its existence until it has acquired so much self-control that evil spirits no longer bother it.
God allows spirits to follow the path of evil because the wisdom of God is found in the freedom of choice that has been granted to each spirit so that each one may have the merit of its own deeds.
There are spirits who follow the path of absolute good from the beginning, while others follow the path of absolute evil, and there are certainly gradations between these two extremes; these are the paths of the vast majority.
Those spirits who follow the path of evil will be able to arrive at the same degree of elevation as the others, but the eternities will be much longer for them.
The expression “eternities” means the way in which imperfect spirits regard the perpetuity of their sufferings, whose end they are not allowed to foresee. This belief is renewed every time they succumb to a trial.
In God’s sight, the spirits who reach the highest degree after having passed through evil are not less meritorious than the others. God looks upon those who have gone astray with the same regard and loves all of them in the same way. They are called evil because they have succumbed; before that, they were nothing more than simple spirits.
All spirits are created equal with regard to their intellectual faculties, but, since they do not know where they come from, they must develop their free will. They progress in both intelligence and morality at different rates.
Spirits who follow the path of good from the beginning are not therefore perfect because of it. Although they have no evil tendencies, they must still acquire the necessary experience and knowledge needed for perfection. They may be compared to children who must develop and learn no matter how good their natural instincts are; they do not suddenly go from infancy to adulthood without a transition. Just as there are individuals who are good from childhood and others who are evil, there are spirits who are good or evil from the start, but with the crucial difference that a child possesses its instincts already formed, whereas a spirit is neither evil nor good at its formation. Rather, it has both tendencies, taking one direction or the other in virtue of its own free will.
Angels and Demons
The beings called angels, archangels, and seraphim do not form a special category different in nature from other spirits. They are the pure spirits: those at the highest degree of the hierarchy and inwardly perfect in every way.
The word angel usually rouses the idea of moral perfection; however, it is frequently applied to all beings, good or evil, that are beyond the human sphere. We say a good angel, a bad angel, an angel of light, an angel of darkness. In this case, the term is synonymous with spirit and is used here to refer to good beings.
Angels have also passed through all the degrees. As already stated, some accepted their mission without grumbling, and thus were able to arrive more quickly; others took a longer or shorter amount of time to reach perfection.
The opinion holding that there are beings created perfect and superior to all others from the start is erroneous. Their presence in the traditions of nearly all cultures is explained by the fact that the world has not existed from all eternity, and that long before it existed there were already spirits of the highest degree; hence, people assume they have always been perfect.
There are no demons in the usual sense of the word. If there were demons, they would nevertheless be the work of God. But God would not be just and good if he created unfortunate beings eternally turned toward evil. If there are demons, they reside on this less evolved world and on other similar ones: they are the hypocritical men and women who portray a just God as an evil and vindictive one. They are those who imagine they can please God by the abominable behaviors they commit in the divine name.
Only in its modern meaning does the word demon imply the idea of evil spirits, because the Greek word daimon, from which it derives, means genius or intelligence and applies to all good or evil incorporeal beings without distinction.
According to the common meaning of the word, demons are essentially malevolent entities, but, like everything else, they would have to be one of God’s creations. God is supremely just and good, and could not have created beings predisposed to evil by their very nature and condemned for eternity. On the other hand, if they were not one of God’s works, they would be eternal like God, in which case there would be many sovereign powers.
The first condition for every doctrine is that it be logical; therefore, in its absolute meaning the doctrine of demons lacks this essential point. In the beliefs of less evolved cultures that do not understand the attributes of God, it is conceivable that alongside their evil deities they also believe in the existence of demons. Nevertheless, for those who accept the goodness of God as an attribute par excellence, it would negate the divine goodness, and be illogical and contradictory, to suppose that God would have created beings dedicated to evil and destined to indulge in it forever. Proponents of demons find support in the words of Christ, and his authority is not contested. But it is not certain what meaning he attributed to the word demon. The allegorical form is one of the characteristics of his language. Everything contained in the Gospels should not be taken literally. No further proof is needed beyond this passage:
Immediately after those days of affliction, the sun shall be darkened; the moon shall not give its light; the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away before all these things are fulfilled.
The form of the biblical text has been contradicted by science where it refers to the creation and movement of the earth. It could be the same regarding certain figurative expressions employed by Christ, who had to speak according to the time and region in which he found himself. Christ could not have consciously made an erroneous statement. Therefore, if in his words there are things that seem to contradict reason, it is either because they have not been understood or because they have been wrongly interpreted.
Humans have treated demons in the same way as they have treated angels. Just as they have believed in the existence of beings perfect from all eternity, they have also taken the least evolved spirits as beings who will be evil forever. The word demon should therefore be understood as referring to impure spirits, who often are no better than the beings normally designated by that name, but with this difference: their state is only temporary. They are the imperfect spirits who protest against their trials, and as a result they will have to endure them for a long time. Nevertheless, they will finally arrive at perfection after having made the decision to do so. The term demon might be accepted with this restriction, but because it is generally understood according to its exclusive meaning nowadays, it could lead to error and give credence to the belief in the existence of beings created especially for evil.
As for Satan, he is the personification of evil in allegorical form because it is impossible to believe in a malevolent being who fights on equal terms against the Divinity, and whose sole concern is to contravene God’s designs. Since humans need images and figures to impress their imagination, they have depicted incorporeal beings with material forms, endowed with attributes that portray their qualities or defects. Thus, in wishing to personify Time, the ancients pictured it as an old man with a scythe and an hourglass. In this case, it would have been contrary to common sense to portray Time as a youth. The same was true of the allegories of Fortune, Truth, and so on. In modern times, humans represent the angels, or pure spirits, as radiant beings with white wings, symbolizing purity, while they portray Satan with horns, claws, and other bestial attributes, symbolizing the passions. Common folk, who are prone to take things literally, see real entities in these symbols just as they formerly regarded Saturn as the allegory of Time.