The Stars are Angels and Demons (and Aliens)

Forget everything you know about space.

The title seems ridiculous. Clearly I am being hyperbolic and using clickbait, right? While I admit I made the title a tad sensational in order to grab your attention, I am going to make the case that the stars we see in the night sky are not what we think they are.

This is something which all of the ancients and medievals knew from their own studies and lived experiences. If you are a modern materialist who believes that we are ‘enlightened’ now because we have The Science™ to explain everything for us, you will probably accuse the ancients of being backwards superstitious people who ascribed supernatural explanations to things they just didn’t understand yet. Suspend your disbelief for a moment, because by the end of this article I will draw parallels between what the ancients believed about the stars and modern day ‘alien/UFO’ encounters we have been seeing more of in the past year.

Ancient Cosmology: the Three Heavens

Before we dive into the nature of the stars, it is necessary to outline a spiritual map of the universe. In the ancient and medieval West, as well as many spiritualities in the East, there was a shared cosmology that nearly all of humanity held to be true: there are three layers of heaven. For most people in the modern world, the word ‘heaven’ usually means ‘the place good people go when they die.’ This is NOT what this word meant for most of history. Heaven was quite literally understood as the sky above us.

The First Heaven

As seen in the diagram above, the first layer of heaven consists of the Earth’s atmosphere. However, most cosmologies of ancient times believed the boundary between the first and second heaven to be the Moon’s orbit. In Platonism, the Moon signified the border between heavenly order and earthly chaos; everything below the moon was considered to be flux and ever-changing matter, while the fixed stars above the Moon were eternally fixed in their processions.

Some ancient Christian thinkers believed that demons are sub-lunar entities who, due to the weight of their pride, became too dense for the higher heavens and sank down to the lowest heaven (though this is not a Christian dogma). Hence why Satan is referred to as ‘the prince of the power of the air.’

This is also where the first order of God’s angels operate. Principalities, archangels and angels are the lowest order of angels who deal directly with human affairs here on earth.

There is also a somewhat controversial belief within Orthodox Christianity called the ‘aerial tollhouses.’ I will lazily copy and paste the description of them from Wikipedia:

Following a person's death the soul leaves the body, and is escorted to God by angels. During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm, which is inhabited by wicked spirits (Ephesians 6:12). The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as toll-houses where the demons then attempt to accuse it of sin and, if possible, drag the soul into hell.

Basically, when we die, our soul must ascend through the first heaven unscathed by the demons lurking there in order to get to the second and third heavens where God and the saints dwell.

The Second Heaven

The second heaven which is above our Moon is what we would refer to today as ‘outer space.’ This includes the stars and planets. While the first heaven is associated with the element of air, this second heaven is associated with the element of water. As we see in Genesis, God created the firmament and separated the waters above from the waters below. Some believed the stars to be ‘pin pricks’ in the second heaven through which fiery light from the third heaven would shine.

In Platonism, the celestial sphere, where the fixed stars and planets move in perfect harmony, represents the realm of the soul and the mathematical laws governing the cosmos. It serves as a bridge between the earthly and divine, embodying the ideals of beauty, order, and reason. In Neoplatonism, this realm is associated with the Nous (Divine Mind), which shapes and orders the universe according to eternal forms it receives from the third heaven above.

In Christian cosmology, this is where spiritual warfare between the powers of the universe take place. The second order of angels (Dominions, Virtues, and Powers) dwell in the second heaven. These angels govern the forces of cosmos and execute God’s divine will.

The nine angelic ranks, divided into their three orders.

The Third Heaven

The third heaven would be considered ‘the heaven above the heavens’ where God’s throne is. It is associated with the element of fire and is also known as the ‘empyrean,’ where the Uncreated Light of God shines from. This was considered by the Platonists to be the realm of the Forms and the dwelling place of the One. This heaven transcended the visible heavens and sits above the physical universe; it is a timeless realm of unity, beauty, and truth. It is the source of all being and the final destination for the soul, which must transcend both the material and celestial realms to achieve union with the divine.

In Christian cosmology, this is where the saints dwell with God along with the highest order of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones). The word Seraphim quite literally translates to ‘fiery ones,’ as they are on fire with their eternal love and zeal for God. They orbit around the very essence of God and worship Him ceaselessly, in return receiving endless revelations concerning the divine mysteries of God’s uncreated nature.

The Nature of the Stars

Now that we have established a spiritual view of the cosmos, let’s move on to the main subject here. Are the stars actually spiritual beings? Or are they just symbolic metaphors used to represent these non-material entities?

Well, the answer is both.

To summarize my view on this, I will put it this way: to say that a star is just a ball of gas is to say that a human being is just a clump of cells.

While the stars are certainly physical objects with material characteristics we can observe, they have an immaterial and spiritual nature to them as well. Just like how the soul cannot be found in any specific part of the body, yet somehow the soul is mysteriously united with the body uniformly, the stars also have a soul which cannot be observed by physical means.

Sound crazy? Let’s take a look at the ancient sources here.

The Stars in Platonism

If we take a look at Timaeus, one of Plato’s many dialogues, we find a very in-depth look at how these ancient Hellenistic philosophers saw the cosmos. They speculate on the nature of the universe, the purpose of the universe, the demiurge who fashioned the material universe, etc. One of the topics they cover is the nature of the stars and the cosmos:

"He [the Demiurge] assigned to the stars their proper motions, distributing them over the whole circumference of the heavens; and he bade them become living creatures, partaking in the order of the universe, each one fulfilling its appointed function. And, having learned their nature and assigned to them their various functions, they were created as divine and eternal beings."

- Timaeus 40b-d

The stars as living creatures? Surely this is just a metaphor, right? If we look a bit further in the text, we will see that this viewpoint is even further explained:

"And when He had made their [the stars'] souls, He fashioned them in the form of a circle, and made them follow their orbits, binding them with rational necessity, and appointed each to its due course, with bodies made from purest fire. Thus they could live forever, seeing and knowing the harmonies of the cosmos, and rejoicing in their role as ministers to the divine order."

- Timaeus 41a-c

As we can see, these wise ancient philosophers believed the stars themselves to be bodies of fire which possess animate and living souls. They also believed the stars to be created by the demiurge (the pre-incarnate Logos) in order to be ‘ministers to the divine order.’ When I read this, I immediately recalled the verse from the Psalms: “Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.”

Keep in mind here that the term ‘demiurge’ (translated as ‘craftsman’) in this text is not the same thing as the evil demiurge in gnosticism. They believed the demiurge to be good and an architect who is a lower emanation of the transcendent One. They didn’t believe the demiurge to be God Himself, they reasoned that the demiurge would require an origin outside of itself. This belief gets rectified in Orthodox Christianity. Christ, the ‘demiurge’ in this context, is eternally begotten of the Father and co-eternally shares of the Father’s uncreated essence.

Centuries later, Neoplatonists like Plotinus would go on to say similar things about the stars:

"The stars, though of fire, are not purely material. They are alive, ensouled, and filled with divine intelligence. Their movements mirror the eternal order, and they are agents of the divine will."

- Plotinus, Enneads (II.2.1)

Proclus, another prominent Neoplatonist, states that these celestial bodies of the second heaven are gods which are subservient to the gods of the third heaven:

"The heavens are not the first principles, but they partake of them. They are secondary gods, radiating the light and goodness of the primary intelligibles into the world below."

- Proclus, On the Theology of Plato (Book I, Chapter 6)

Just as the soul serves as a mediator between the spirit and the body, the celestial bodies serve as an intermediary between the third heaven and Earth.

Much of Neoplatonic philosophy heavily influenced many of the early Church Fathers; this includes Pseudo-Dionysius, who wrote On the Celestial Hierarchy and expounded upon the roles of the three ranks of angels corresponding to the three heavens.

Which leads us to our next topic:

The Stars in Christianity

Let’s begin this section with the reason why I wrote this article: the Star of Bethlehem.

Around Christmas time last month, I saw several articles on Substack circulating about the Nativity story. One theological topic which naturally comes up every Christmas is the Star of Bethlehem, the star which lead the Three Magi to the infant Christ. This star defied the normal behavior of stars as we know it; it actively moved through the sky and hovered in place over the location of Christ’s birth. What was this thing? Was it an actual star? Or was it an angel? This has been a topic of speculation since the beginning of Church history.

My humble opinion: it was both.

This may seem like a cop-out answer. But let’s look at a similar story from the life of St. Simon the Myrrh-Bearer, the founder of Simonopetra monastery on Mount Athos:

Saint Simon the Myrrh-Gusher lived an ascetical life on Mt Athos, and was glorified by many miracles. He was the founder of the New Bethlehem monastery, now known as Simonopetra. One night, he saw a star of such brightness that he thought it must be the Star of Bethlehem. Seeing the star remain motionless for several nights, he thought at first that it was a demonic temptation. On the eve of the Lord’s Nativity the star stood over a high rock, and Saint Simon heard a voice say, “Here, O Simon, you must lay the foundations of your monastery for the salvation of souls.” He built the monastery and called it New Bethlehem.

So as we can see, this star served as a messenger (angel) and directly delivered a message to St. Simon.

Simonopetra monastery. Debatably, this location is the earthly heart of the Orthodox Church.

Assuming that the stars have souls, just as the Platonists believed, this implies that the stars themselves are autonomous beings with conscious agency. While the stars typically follow a path through the sky, if they are commanded by the Divine Will to do otherwise, they have the ability to consciously stop and change course so that they may serve the will of God.

This way of thinking is entirely opposite to our modern materialist understanding of the cosmos. Modern science concludes that stars are unconscious material objects whose motions are bound by the unbreakable laws of physics. The Christian and Neoplatonic view is that the stars are conscious beings whose movements in the sky are not blind compulsions, but rather, they are willful and voluntary habits.

The Star of Bethlehem is not the only occasion where we see this principle in Christian cosmology. Here, we see the prophet Joshua ordering the Sun and Moon to stay in place during a battle:

¹² On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
¹³ So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ¹⁴ There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

- Joshua 10:12-14

One could argue that it was God who directly intervened and stopped the Sun from moving. But during the crucifixion of Christ, we see evidence that the Sun and Moon are conscious. The Sun voluntarily turns away its face, because it could not bear the sight of its beloved Creator suffering upon the Cross:

Even that sun, the lamp of humanity, extinguished itself. * It took the veil of darkness and spread it out before its face * so that it would not see the shame of the Sun of righteousness, * in whose light the angels of the height also shines. * Creation had staggered, heaven, and inclined itself, * Sheol vomited and disgorged the dead.

- St. Ephraim the Syrian, Hymns on the Crucifixion

When we look at Orthodox iconography, the sun and moon are always depicted as living beings with faces.

Note the many Seraphim in the Third Heaven above the stars in the Second Heaven.

The stars are also described as ‘the host of heaven’ in scripture, they are explicitly said to be legions of soldiers which fight for God:

²⁰ They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

²¹ The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.

- Judges 5:20-21

Every Sunday during the Divine Liturgy, we chant the lines from the Psalms: “Praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all ye stars of light.” When the saints repose and join Christ, their faces are said to ‘shine like the stars of heaven.’ When we look at Psalm 19, we see David state that the celestial bodies have ‘voices’ that go throughout the Earth.

There are probably more points I could make regarding Christian cosmology, but we will stop here. In short, there is a reason why many Orthodox theologians refer to the angels as ‘celestial intelligences’ and we refer to the stars as ‘celestial bodies.’

The Stars in Occult Philosophy

Occultists and magicians throughout the ages have always taken the stars’ conscious agency to be a given fact. Sorcerers, since time immemorial, have offered sacrifices and liturgies to demons associated with specific stars in order to leverage their services.

Within Western occultism, we can see this association between demons and the stars in the ‘Testament of Solomon’, which scholars estimate to be written somewhere between the 1st - 5th centuries AD.

The Testament of Solomon is a syncretic text which synthesizes Jewish demonology, Christian theology, and Greco-Roman magic. While this is certainly not a canonical Christian text, it gives us a glimpse into what ancient magicians believed about the stars. The text tells a fictional story about King Solomon, who receives from the archangel Michael a magic ring which has the power to bind and command demons. He uses this ring to capture numerous demons, interrogate them, then command them to help build the Temple of Jerusalem.

The interesting part of this whole text: King Solomon asks each demon which celestial body they are subject to. Let’s look at two examples:

And when Solomon heard this, he rose up from his throne, and went outside into the vestibule of the court of his palace; and there he saw the demon, shuddering and trembling. And he said to him: "Who art thou?"

And the demon answered: "I am called Ornias."

And Solomon said to him: "Tell me, O demon, to what zodiacal sign thou art subject."

And he answered: "To the Water-pourer. And those who are consumed with desire for the noble virgins upon earth, these I strangle.”

The ‘Water-pourer’ which the demon refers to is the sign of Aquarius. Interestingly enough, some translators of this text write that the ‘noble virgins’ that the demon refers to here are under the sign of Virgo the Virgin.

But it is not just zodiac signs that the demons in this text identify with, but planets as well:

"I am called Onoskelis, a spirit wrought of Saturn[?], lurking upon the earth. There is a golden cave where I lie. But I have a place that ever shifts. At one time I strangle men with a noose; at another, I creep up from the nature to the arms [in marg: "worms"]. But my most frequent dwelling-places are the precipices, caves, ravines. Oftentimes, however, do I consort with men in the semblance of a woman, and above all with those of a dark skin. For they share my star with me; since they it is who privily or openly worship my star, without knowing that they harm themselves, and but whet my appetite for further mischief. For they wish to provide money by means of commemoration, but I supply a little to those who worship me fairly."

So here we see a confounding paradox here: the demon says that it has dwelling places here on earth (caves/ravines), yet at the same time it identifies with the ‘star’ which is Saturn (possibly the zodiac sign of Capricorn, based on the translation). If we think back to what the Neoplatonists say about the celestial bodies, we can see clearly that the stars that these demons are under are their authorities in the second heaven. The demons that King Solomon works with in this story are the sub-lunar ‘powers of the air’ which tempt us down here in the first heaven.

The Testament of Solomon would go on to influence grimoires like the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Picatrix, which are medieval guidebooks on how to cast spells and summon demons to do the bidding of the sorcerer. These grimoires include instructions on astrologically timing rituals in order to summon the demon associated with a specific star, zodiac sign, or planet.

I beg you all, please don’t try ANY of this. Sorcery will lead to your soul’s eternal damnation. King Solomon never actually did any of this. I only relay information about the dark side of these matters in order to emphasize the truth of the light side.

Modern Alien Encounters

“…and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.”

- Revelation 12:3-4

So I’m sure at this point many of you are rolling your eyes and thinking something along the lines of: “Okay, who cares if a bunch of ancient people thought this stuff? They were all superstitious and didn’t know any better. Now that we have science, we have and explanation for the stars and planets.”

Nothing has changed, my dear skeptical reader.

In the past two or three years, stories in the mainstream media about ‘aliens’ and ‘UFOs’ have been ramping up. It is impossible to ignore. Any Orthodox Christian convert in America is probably familiar with Fr Seraphim Rose’s work from the 1970s and how he compares modern UFO encounters with demonic assaults from ancient times. I will make even more comparisons here.

In May of 2024, a well-known alien encounter took place in Las Vegas (source). A doorbell camera captured footage of a bright object falling from the sky and making a loud bang. After this event happened, one family called 911 reporting that there were two 10-foot tall shadowy creatures in their backyard. One of the family members said that when he saw the creature, he froze as if he was in “sleep paralysis.” The family said that they were terribly frightened, so they went inside to pray after the police officers left the scene. When they were praying, they heard a loud scream of anguish coming from the backyard, then the creatures disappeared.

The most compelling part? The officers investigating this incident also saw the falling star, as we can hear in the police bodycam footage:

“I’m so nervous right now,” one officer said as he is preparing to drive to the house. “I have butterflies bro — saw a shooting star and now these people say there’s aliens in their backyard.”

“I’m not going to BS, you guys. One of my partners said they saw something fall out of the sky, too,” the officer said. “So that’s why I’m kind of curious. Did you see anything land in your backyard?”

“This might sound like a really dumb question, but did you guys see anything fall out of the sky?” an officer asks a passenger in a passing car. “I would normally discount it as probably not real but — however seeing as one of my partners said they saw it too, the only reason I’m investigating it further.”

When the witness to the incident went to go investigate the sight of the crash, despite the loud noise and velocity of the falling star, he claims to have only found this circle in the dirt:

The first thing I thought of when I saw this: in grimoires like the Lesser Key of Solomon, magic circles of protection are drawn in the ground in order to protect the sorcerer who is summoning the demon.

Of course, one could argue that he is lying and he just drew this in the dirt himself. But in addition to the all the other evidence at hand, I doubt he would make this small detail up.

Here is the full video of the eyewitness testimony uploaded to Instagram, including all of the bodycam footage from the police:

These tall shadow creatures were also claimed to be seen merely 4 months earlier in the infamous Miami mall alien incident of January 2024.

Another ‘UFO’ phenomena which has been reported: glowing orbs of light which look like stars, but hover in the sky and move autonomously. Look it up for yourself, you will find several videos like the one below. Reminds me of the Star of Bethlehem. But be vigilant and skeptical like St. Simon was, because demons can masquerade as angels of light.

Conclusion

I could go on and on, but I think my point is clear. ‘Outer space’ is still the heavens of old. The ancients were much wiser than modern scholars make them out to be. Things are getting very weird these days and I feel the need to warn everyone not to be fooled by any news regarding space or aliens in the coming years.

Are stars and planets actually angels and demons? To summarize my stance on the matter: angels and demons are immaterial beings who are not regulated to a physical place, but the celestial bodies serve as a hypostasis for them. Just like how you have an immaterial soul which is manifest in a material body, the celestial intelligences may be immaterial beings who manifest physically in material celestial bodies. The angels and demons may govern certain stars, or perhaps, be governed by certain stars.

But I could certainly be wrong, I am not a saint and God has not directly revealed these matters to me. Take everything I say with a grain of salt and make up your own mind. But I think one thing is for sure: the stars are not what we think they are.

Also, do not be fooled by any ‘aliens’ that start to show up in the news.