I wasn't sure where to post this, so I hope it's ok here, but I'd like to get your views/opinions/beliefs on something, do you think demons and gods are the same thing?. For example, in the Goetia, a lot of people say Ashtaroth(sp?) is the same as the Canaanite goddess Asherah, and I know that Asherah was domonized at first by the Israelite leaders as they were enforcing their monotheism on the Israelite people (monotheism is rather a late development in the history of the Jewish people), and then by some Christians and some Muslims, but do you think Ashtaroth and Asherah (or for another example, the demon Ba'al and the Canaanite god Ba'al, etc) would really be the same being.

For myself, I don't, just 'cause their personalities don't seem to be the same (not to mention Ashtaroth is male and Asherah is a female).
I asked this on another board and one experienced occultist (who's not just an armchair occultist but a practical one too) said:



I see the demons (most anyway) in a similar way, I think that they may be related to some of the gods, but they aren't the "same", that Ashtaroth may have evolved from Asherah, but he's not the same being, or that the demonic Ba'al may have evolved from the god Ba'al but again they're not the same being (kind of like you're not the same person as your grandfather, although you may share similar traits).

I'd like to hear your opinions on this though.

Spirits like Beelzebub and others are said to be fallen angles and the Isrealites turned most of their old gods into angles when they turned monotheistic. It was beleived back then that the human's beleifs and world(the physical) and the gods affiars and world(the spiritual or at least more spiritual) mimiced eachother. I have not meet any god or god like in power entities to ask something them so anything could be a possability as far as Im concerned. However there is a demon god from mesopotamia called Pazuzu. In modern occult he is most famous for the necronomicon and is treated mostly as a demon although back in anciant times he was worshiped a bit and considered a god in his own right aswell as his rival Lamashtu although I dont beleive she was worshiped at all. Where Pazuzu would spare people from his own evils and fight off the evils of Lamashtu Lamashtu mostly went around killing babies and pregnant women.