549. Is there any kind of truth to pacts formed with malevolent spirits?
“No, there is no such thing as a pact. It is merely sympathy between a vile nature and despicable spirits. For example, imagine you want to irritate your neighbor, but you do not know how. You call out for the assistance of lower order spirits. These spirits, like yourself, want nothing more than to do wrong and in return for the help they give you, they expect you to help them. This does not mean that your neighbor will not be able to fght such a conspiracy with an opposing scheme and the force of his or her own will. If you desire to do evil you call wicked spirits to your assistance by that desire alone, and you are in turn obliged to serve them as they have served you, because they need your help in the evil they seek to do. What you call a pact consists simply in this mutual assistance in doing wrong.”
Human beings sometimes fnd themselves dependent on wicked spirits and this stems from submitting to the bad thoughts suggested by them, and not from any sort of agreed upon stipulations. The idea of a pact, in the sense commonly attributed to that word, is a fgurative representation of the like-mindedness that exists between bad human beings and malicious spirits.
