Demons: Mediators between gods and humans

The demons of ancient Egypt, I learned today, were liminal figures that mediated between gods and humans. It got me wondering about entities that liaised between people and ogregores.

Figure, 18th Dynasty, Tomb of Thutmose III,
British Museum 1912,0210.42

In the opening paragraph of The World of Egyptian Demons (Archaeology Magazine, May/June 2022), Eric A. Powell writes that “… the ancient Egyptians also acknowledged another group of divine human-animal hybrids, magical creatures that scholars call demons. These were supernatural beings that took many animal forms and were thought to live at the threshold of the divine and real worlds, and to be able to move between them if called upon by either gods or humans. Egyptologists know very little about these entities, though it is clear that while demons were capable of causing great harm, they could also be a benevolent force and help maintain maat, or the cosmic order.”

There’s an analogy with powerful collective social agents, aka ogregores. While these godlike entities can affect humans directly, there are many lesser entities that mediate between them and us. Just as the Egyptian demons “would come to one’s aid as often as they acted as fearsome, dangerous creatures,” to quote Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska from the article, these modern demons can help or hinder.

In digital tech, helpers might include privacy-protecting browsers (PCMag) and browser add-ins (LifeHacker); VPNs; and identity monitoring and ID theft recovery services (Money.com). More fearsome beings might include malware marketplaces (NAF); the collectors and resellers of our personal information (Wikipedia; Duke); and PR and lobbying firms that help the giants burnish their image and advocate for their interests.

There are also product service providers to Big Tech giants that mediate between them and consumers, like Cloud Services and Infrastructure Providers (Cloudflare, Akamai, Equinix), software applications providers that integrate with the cloud providers (Salesforce, Slack, Atlassian), E-commerce and Logistics Partners (Shopify, FedEx, UPS), and payment and fintech providers (Stripe, Square, PayPal).

Figure, 18th Dynasty, Tomb of Thutmose III,
British Museum 1912,0210.42 

Generalizing from tech to ogregores more generally, it’s easy to identify priests, i.e., individuals who mediate between the divine and real worlds. Take tax lawyers, who help Americans propitiate and placate the Internal Revenue Service, and criminal lawyers, who defend people accused by the state.

From A Day in the Life of an Ancient Egyptian Priest,
Ancient Origins, Aug 2022