Speaking of angels...
There's a story in GD about Jeremy Wagner, writer and musician, who donated his farm to a no-kill animal rescue group. An "angel" is a messenger. You could be watching one on stage or sitting next to one in a bar, "unawares."
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I got my 2nd only post hidden in all the years at DU. The 1st was in Religion, the last in Israel/Palestine. So being the good boy I am, I am "avoiding the near occasion of sin." At least for 90 days.
c. 1200, from Latin daemon "spirit," from Greek daimon "deity, divine power; lesser god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity" (sometimes including souls of the dead); "one's genius, lot, or fortune;" from PIE *dai-mon- "divider, provider" (of fortunes or destinies), from root *da- "to divide" (see tide (n.)).
Used (with daimonion) in Christian Greek translations and Vulgate for "god of the heathen" and "unclean spirit." Jewish authors earlier had employed the Greek word in this sense, using it to render shedim "lords, idols" in the Septuagint, and Matt. viii:31 has daimones, translated as deofol in Old English, feend or deuil in Middle English. Another Old English word for this was hellcniht, literally "hell-knight."
The original mythological sense is sometimes written daemon for purposes of distinction. The Demon of Socrates was a daimonion, a "divine principle or inward oracle." His accusers, and later the Church Fathers, however, represented this otherwise. The Demon Star (1895) is Algol.
According to The Encyclopedia of Spirits (by Judika Illes)
The word daimone or daemon means different things in different places and contexts. In ancient Italy, it referred to one's personal presiding spirit, a sort of guardian angel. This is the meaning from which the animal-daemons of author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy derive. In esoteric circles of the early Common Era, daimone was synonymous with angel.
The drink; they dance; they play flutes and percussion instruments. They are spirits of ecstasy, intoxication, and sex. They are not malicious and may find it fun to scare mortals just to see them panic, run, and scream. They may be spirits of temptation, offering pleasures of sex, intoxication, and nature. They don't want your soul; they just want company and fun.
They are gregarious spirits who travel in fluid packs or gangs. They are happy to expand their circle of acquaintances, providing that you are fun and do not try to exploit them. They may be drunken and rustic, but they're sharp-witted with a good eye for true inner character. Many can be benevolent and generous, if so inclined. They are spirits of prophecy and can reveal secrets of the past and future. They can locate who or what is missing. They are not tame spirit and will not live happily indoors, at least not for long. Relationships with them may need to be maintained on their turf. Post-Christianity, this unruly, wild bunch was reclassified as "demons."
(The author also has an entry on demon but it's several pages long. I used daimones because it's the original word to demon, which I regard as more important overall.)
(They sound like they'd love The Lounge!
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Those otherkin that identify as demons are often apologetic about their identity, that their human life isn't like their identity at all (I may have to show some of them this excerpt.) Personally, I still don't understand the psychological means of otherkin identity, whereas the spiritual kind is easy to figure out, especially if you believe in reincarnation.
it makes sense. I'll have to look it up.
I know of the shaman's use of ayahuasca to help them have such visions, and I'll say I'm like you; I wouldn't call them a liar, yet am still apprehensive about believing it. I want to believe it, though, and do feel they probably can, but we will never witness such a change.
I was looking earlier this week for something I could contribute to the group, thread-wise, and found an interesting story on Richard Smoley's page, about an Australian musician (Ben Lee) that has taken ayahuasca. It's part of his ninth album, Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work. The one video on that link is interesting, and I may have to hear more of the album 
You're welcome for the Otherkin link. I've been fascinated with how many there are, as well as how quickly it's exploded online, relatively speaking. While it may have started even as far back as the 70s, the 1990s are considered more like an "official" starting point. Even so, that's a rather short time to be in existence as a form of belief. The New Ager in me likens it to the Indigo- and Crystal-children periods that started around the same time.
