Demons to Daemons

The demons that torment you are not your enemies. They are exiled parts of yourself-sparks of holy light trapped in shells, waiting to be freed.

For a thousand years, Jewish mystics, rabbis, and Kabbalists did not run from their demons. They named them, bargained with them, drew circles and spoke the holy names, and walked right up to the forces they feared-because they understood something we have forgotten: a demon is a daemon you have not yet learned to work with. The tormentor and the muse are the same word, split down the middle.

Demons to Daemons is a bold, warm, and deeply personal guide to that lost art-and to putting it back to work in your own life. Rabbi Ben Newman braids the shadow wisdom of Jewish mysticism-Torah and Talmud, Kabbalah and Hasidut-with the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd, Christian Qabalah, and the depth psychology of the shadow into a single, practical method for meeting the parts of yourself you were taught to cast out.

You'll meet the great demons of the tradition-Samael the accuser, Lilith the first wife who refused, Ashmodai the demon king who unseated Solomon-and discover why each one is a spark of holy light trapped in a shell, starving for the very thing it guards. Then, step by step, you'll learn to free that light:

• Know the demons - the strange, funny, unforgettable history of Jewish demonology, from the shedim of the Talmud to the scapegoat driven into the desert
• Draw the circle - build a protected inner space using the old angel liturgy and Psalm 91
• Feed the demon - the offering practice, adapted from Milarepa's cave, that turns terror into an ally
• Free the spark - ask the four questions that convert a mazik (harmer) into a malach (angel)
• Live integrated - carry the freed energy back into a fuller, less haunted life

Part history, part memoir, part working manual, Demons to Daemons is for anyone drawn to Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, shadow work and Jungian psychology, comparative religion, or the honest, lifelong work of transformation. Written by a rabbi who spent twenty years studying this magic before he dared to practice it-on the hardest demon he had.

This is not a book about banishing your demons. It's about befriending them-and coming home whole.

The spark in you is holy. Come home.