Spirits, creatures and beings of the world

Beings are the powers that magic deals with: spirits, ancestors, gods, djinn, fairies, orisha, nats, kami, demons, golems, ghosts and the many kinds of household and landscape spirit. People in most cultures have described a world shared with unseen others, who may help, trouble or ask for respect. This page covers what these beings are said to be and the very different ways communities relate to them. They are always described here as what communities believe, not as established fact.

Different kinds of beings

A being can be a god with a priesthood, such as an orisha served in Yoruba religion, Cuba and Brazil. It can be an ancestor, honoured in China, Africa and Mexico. It can belong to a place, such as the kami of Shinto, the Thai phi or the Burmese nats. It can be a trouble-maker, like the djinn of Arabic and Islamic tradition, formed from smokeless fire, or the fairies of Ireland, whom people avoided naming.

Relationship, not command

In many traditions, a person does not command a being but enters a relationship with it, through offerings, promises and respect. Possession and mediumship are forms of that relationship, as in Vodou, Candomblé, Korean mudang rites and Sufi gatherings. In ceremonial magic of the European grimoires, by contrast, the magician summons spirits by name and authority, which the Church condemned as demon-raising. The same being may be loved in one household and feared in the next, and a spirit helpful to its servant can be harmful to a stranger.

Religions and renaming

Dominant religions often absorbed beings by relabelling them. Christian missionaries called many African and Indigenous spirits demons. Islam reads the djinn as real creatures, some of whom are Muslim, and Hindu and Buddhist traditions fold local deities into their own pantheons. Pagan and fairy beliefs were sometimes recast as the devil's work, which fed witch trials in Europe. Churches and mosques have sometimes divided beings into good and evil in ways the older traditions did not, so that a neutral local spirit became a demon on the day a missionary arrived.

Harm and interpretation

Belief in harmful spirits has been used to accuse people. Children in parts of West and Central Africa have been branded as witches possessed by evil spirits, and some have been abused by pastors or families in the name of deliverance. Scholars read spirit beliefs as ways to make sense of illness, loss and conflict, and many communities see them simply as neighbours. That is why accusations tied to spirit beliefs fall hardest on children and the vulnerable, and why many agencies train local leaders to challenge them.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Ezili Dantor: Oficinalis, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Curupira: Sturm, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Chaneque: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Alux: Gary Todd, CC0, source

Pachamama: Penarc, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Lwa: Hector Hyppolite, Public domain, source

Maximón: Sapfan (Jan Pesula), Public domain, source

Folk saint: Sergio Serrano, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Boitatá: The ponta cabeça, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Folk Catholicism: Calvin Hennick, for WBUR Boston, CC BY 3.0, source

Belie Belcan: Domfranciscorodrigues, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Erzulie: anonymous, Public domain, source

Zemi: Unknown author, CC0, source

Spirits, creatures and beings