(urth) Father Inire Theory

[Lee Berman]

Someone (I forget who) brought up an objection that I forgot to address. The
objection was that we can't compare the shapeshifting and multiple body versions
of Tzadkiel with Father Inire because they are two completely different sorts of
beings.
 
Using what I've been calling the gnostic religious view I think it can be demonstrated
that the opposite is true. As Greece went from primitive to civilized we see a 
a replacement and demotion of old pantheons of gods for new. Major vine god Dionysus gets
demoted to minor wine god among the Olympians, but he's still around and not a bad guy.
 
But when the Greeks expanded their conquest outward, and more foreign cultures were conquered
a different thing happened to the gods.  A process of demonizing the foreign gods and 
angelicizing one's own gods started to take place. The fortunes of war could change the status
of any given god back and forth. So, angels, demons and pagan gods are all immortal, shapeshifting
types but are labeled based on whether they are perceived as being good, bad or has-beens.
 
The goat god Dionysus/Pan might be elevated to the highest deification by some groups, demonized 
into Azazel or Satan by others and dismissed as mythology by yet others.
 
In BotNS, I think we have the analog or allegory for pagan gods (Inire, Cumaean), demons (Abaia,
Erebus) and angels at a couple levels (hierogrammates, hierodules). Given that this is a 
pre-Christian, gnostic world/universe, I think we can understand that these beings are essentially 
of a similar kind and have similar power and abilities. As Wolfe has Horn suggest in a religious
opine from Short Sun, the only difference between a minor god and a major devil is good intentions.