Whether Divination Practiced by Invoking the Demons Is Unlawful?
Objection 1: It would seem that divination practiced by invoking the
demons is not unlawful. Christ did nothing unlawful, according to 1
Pet. 2:22, "Who did no sin." Yet our Lord asked the demon: "What is
thy name?" and the latter replied: "My name is Legion, for we are
many" (Mk. 5:9). Therefore it seems lawful to question the demons
about the occult.
Obj. 2: Further, the souls of the saints do not encourage those who
ask unlawfully. Yet Samuel appeared to Saul when the latter inquired
of the woman that had a divining spirit, concerning the issue of the
coming war (1 Kings 28:8, sqq.). Therefore the divination that
consists in questioning demons is not unlawful.
Obj. 3: Further, it seems lawful to seek the truth from one who
knows, if it be useful to know it. But it is sometimes useful to know
what is hidden from us, and can be known through the demons, as in
the discovery of thefts. Therefore divination by questioning demons
is not unlawful.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Deut. 18:10, 11): "Neither let there
there be found among you . . . anyone that consulteth soothsayers . . .
nor . . . that consulteth pythonic spirits."
_I answer that,_ All divination by invoking demons is unlawful for
two reasons. The first is gathered from the principle of divination,
which is a compact made expressly with a demon by the very fact of
invoking him. This is altogether unlawful; wherefore it is written
against certain persons (Isa. 28:15): "You have said: We have entered
into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell." And
still more grievous would it be if sacrifice were offered or
reverence paid to the demon invoked. The second reason is gathered
from the result. For the demon who intends man's perdition endeavors,
by his answers, even though he sometimes tells the truth, to accustom
men to believe him, and so to lead him on to something prejudicial to
the salvation of mankind. Hence Athanasius, commenting on the words
of Luke 4:35, "He rebuked him, saying: Hold thy peace," says:
"Although the demon confessed the truth, Christ put a stop to his
speech, lest together with the truth he should publish his wickedness
and accustom us to care little for such things, however much he may
seem to speak the truth. For it is wicked, while we have the divine
Scriptures, to seek knowledge from the demons."
Reply Obj. 1: According to Bede's commentary on Luke 8:30, "Our Lord
inquired, not through ignorance, but in order that the disease, which
he tolerated, being made public, the power of the Healer might shine
forth more graciously." Now it is one thing to question a demon who
comes to us of his own accord (and it is lawful to do so at times for
the good of others, especially when he can be compelled, by the power
of God, to tell the truth) and another to invoke a demon in order to
gain from him knowledge of things hidden from us.
Reply Obj. 2: According to Augustine (Ad Simplic. ii, 3), "there is
nothing absurd in believing that the spirit of the just man, being
about to smite the king with the divine sentence, was permitted to
appear to him, not by the sway of magic art or power, but by some
occult dispensation of which neither the witch nor Saul was aware. Or
else the spirit of Samuel was not in reality aroused from his rest,
but some phantom or mock apparition formed by the machinations of the
devil, and styled by Scripture under the name of Samuel, just as the
images of things are wont to be called by the names of those things."
Reply Obj. 3: No temporal utility can compare with the harm to
spiritual health that results from the research of the unknown by
invoking the demon.
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