great questions. this is going to get long, and i shouldnt really be spending my time on this, but youre obviously a sincere and engaged person, so...

demon & angels - first we have to clarify the fact that when we are dealing with the occult words, concepts, and realities intertwine far more dynamically than when working with more mundane realities. if you asked me: whats the deal with rocks? are they really that much heavier than air? i would be able to give you a pretty simple answer, and even if i didnt know the answer, we could assume that there is a single answer out there. when it comes to occult entities, its more complicated. we cant jump to the other end of the spectrum and say that its all subjective and they are whatever you want them to be, thats wrong, and youll get get burned trying to take that approach, on the other hand we are accessing realms in which symbols and meaning are inherently active and essential. depending on the meaning that you direct yourself toward, you might access a different realm.

now then, there are a number of different ideas about demons - the word can be used in different ways. in these post-christian, morally ambiguous times the trendiest conception is that demons are beings composed of chthonic energies - that heaven and the subterranean realms are both important and worthy, and that angels and demons are the agents of these two poles. often this idea is extended with the idea that because they are more material, demons are more effective or quicker to bring about magical results. the meaning that i tend to work with - because i think we need this meaning and there are other, safer ways to access chthonic energy - is that demons are beings of psychic or spiritual sickness. basically they are turned away from the truth and they seek to turn us away from it in order to feed off the fear, hate, confusion, etc that this brings. check out an interesting conversation on this topic from a few months ago here. of course just because something is called a demon does not mean that you can apply your prefered concept onto it. a third, and often overlooked meaning, is that a demon is just a class of spirit that one's god or gods are hostile toward. they may not be fundamentally and essentially evil, but if you are sworn or allied to a being who is hates them, then you are going to get hurt by working with them. the term has been thrown around a lot, and for different reasons. on some level you dont know what a being's true nature is until you have worked with it for a while. angels are basically the opposite - they are either a) beings of celestial realms, beings which are fundamentally oriented toward the truth, and to the extent that they interact with us are trying to heal us and return us to the truth, or c) god's army. see my link above for more of my thoughts on the matter. all these kinds of things exist, and you can find them if you know where to look.

i dont know much about ghosts, skipping that one.

how do you know youre not fucking with something bad - this is an important question. you cant be totally sure, but there are two important ways to assess. first, learn about your teachers (or the authors you are reading, or their teachers): what were they like as human beings, how did their life go, how did they develop as human beings, are they people you would want to be more like? second, you can get a feeling for currents, beings, and traditions before you formally engage them. if you want to formalize this, you can do divinations to see how a certain practice will affect you, or you can ask advice of a being whom you already trust implicitly. more casually, if youre honest with yourself, you probably already know in your gut.

whats the point - at this point i have no doubt that it can produce manifest results, and there is no limit to how miraculous these results can be, its all a question of how far i manage to take this. its also about spiritual awakening. the two are intertwined for me.

meditation - important stuff, probably the bedrock for everything else. there are multiple right ways and a few wrong ways. at a minimum you should know the difference between shamatha and vipassana. shamatha is good and useful, but you dont want to turn into a jhana junkie all the while thinking that it is leading to spiritual progress. beyond that it is mostly a matter of learning as you go - one is always trying to use ones spiritual path and tools to avoid the very things they are seeking, but most practices will make this clear over time.

what do you think?