Eventually, Kelley claimed that he was able to visually communicate with the angels through the use of a crystal. This cut down on the time needed to complete their sessions, since up to this point Dee and Kelley had no choice but to decipher the letters by listening to series of taps. Kelley claimed that by looking into the crystal he could see the angels, who would open their mouths and remove small slips of paper. Upon these were written messages, pieces of “secret” information. Oddly enough, these messages were not in Enochian but instead written in English, adding yet another suspicious inconsistency.
The Enochian alphabet, as written down by Dee and Kelley, contains twenty-two symbols/letters (for more on the significance of the number 22, see chapter 3), which are listed below with both their letter name and English equivalent:
1. Ceph/z
2. Don/r
3. Drux/n
4. Fam/s
5. Gal/d
6. Ged/g and j
7. Ger/q
8. Gisg/t
9. Gon/i
10. Gon (with point)/ w and y
11. Graph/e
12. Mals/p
13. Med/o
14. Nach/h
15. Or/f
16. Pal/x
17. Pa/b
18. Tal/m
19. Un/a
20. Ur/l
21. Van/u and v
22. Veh/c and k
3
A CRASH COURSE IN DEMONOLOGY
On the night of November 2, 1983, the yellow-eyed demon Azazel took the life of a young mother named Mary Winchester. Her husband, John, would spend the rest of his life hunting down that demon, all the while raising their young sons to be skilled supernatural hunters who could continue his mission should he fail. Years later, when a soul contract between a crossroads demon and one of those sons, Dean Winchester, expires, Dean’s body is torn to shreds and his soul is dragged off to Hell by Lilith’s demonic hellhounds. Needless to say, demons play a key role in the mythology of the Supernatural universe, but where did the dark spirits we call demons come from and, perhaps more importantly, what are they?
DEMONS OF OLD
The concept of demons is not as old as one might think. In actuality, most ancient civilizations did not even have a word for demon. There were certainly spirits and gods that represented negative or destructive forces, but these forces were commonly considered a necessary part of the balance of the cosmic order. There are people who hold the mistaken belief that the notion of demons originated with the Judeo-Christian ideas regarding Lucifer or “fallen angels.” This is not entirely correct, either. The demonology of Judaism has a number of malevolent entities that predate Lucifer’s fall in the mythical chronology. Lucifer aside, many of the figures now referred to as demons have their origins in preexisting, sometimes even prehistoric, religious traditions.
ZOROASTER’S DEMONS: DAEVAS
DEAN: What’s a daeva?
SAM: It translates to “demon of darkness.” Zoroastrian demons, and they’re savage, animalistic. You know, nasty attitudes—kind of like demonic pit bulls.
—SAM AND DEAN WINCHESTER, “SHADOW” (1-16)
Daevas first came onto the scene in Supernatural in “Shadow” (1-16), when the troublesome demon Meg summons them to kill the Winchester brothers and draw out their father, John. The “daeva sigil” used on the show is definitely a fabrication, but it is interesting to note that it resembles a Z, likely in reference to the prophet Zoroaster, the founder of the Zoroastrianism tradition and from whom the religion gets its name (for more, see chapter 9).
Zoroaster revealed to his followers that a race of evil spirits roamed the Earth seeking the ruination of humans, often fooling the unsuspecting into worshipping them as gods. Zoroaster called these evil spirits daevas, a word he likely borrowed from the Hindu people in nearby India. According to the Hindu faith, devas are a form of benevolent intelligence, spirit, or deity. By naming his evil spirits daevas, Zoroaster was claiming that the deities of the Hindu Dharma tradition were actually evil spirits in disguise. Additionally, Zoroaster became the first to put a word to the demon concept. And this word remains in our vocabulary to this day. In fact, the modern word devil has its roots in the Zoroastrian word daeva.
According to the cosmology of Zoroastrianism, the daevas served an evil god named Angra Mainyu (or Ahriman), who opposed a benevolent god named Ahura Mazda (or Ohrmazd). For the darkness there must also be light, however. Zoroaster also explained that a race of benevolent beings, called ahuras, served the loving god of light Ahura Mazda (for more on this, see chapter 9). This idea likely influenced later Judaic concepts regarding angels and demons. Interestingly enough, however, it would seem that the Hindu Dharma religion did some word borrowing of its own. The word for demonic spirits in Hindu Dharma is asura, and it is generally believed that this word was taken from the Zoroastrian word ahura.
RAKSHASAS
While we’re on the subject of Vedic mythology, Sam and Dean first tangled with a rakshasa disguised as a clown in “Everybody Loves a Clown” (2-2). The rakshasas were demonic beings from the Hindu Dharma mythical tradition. However, they were more like monsters than demons in that they existed in physical forms. They could change their shapes but were not said to take possession of human bodies like demons or spirits might. Their favorite food was human flesh, and male rakshasas took great enjoyment in raping both betrothed virgins and married women. The rakshasas, according to the lore, have been extinct ever since they were wiped from the face of the planet in a battle with the prince Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu.
The most popular tale regarding the rakshasas may be found in the Hindu epic Ramayana (The Power of Rama). The king rakshasa was a particularly nasty fellow named Ravana. Aside from being cruel, Ravana was also pretty crafty and cunning. Taking advantage of a boon offered by the god Shiva, Ravana asked that he and the other rakshasas be protected from being harmed by the gods and any other spiritual beings. As a result, no god or spirit, the only beings strong enough to destroy the rakshasas, could raise a hand against them (when a god makes a promise, after all, it must remain absolute). However, Ravana did not view humans as a threat and so did not include them in his deal with Shiva. This meant that a human with godlike powers would be able to destroy Ravana and his flesh-eating rakshasas without breaking Shiva’s vow of divine protection.
According to the Hindu Dharma mythical tradition, the god Vishnu can come in and out of our world when he wishes, commonly by taking the form of an avatar. One such avatar was the Vedic hero Rama. Prince Rama was born to a human king who prayed to the gods for a son but was in fact an incarnation of the god Vishnu. As his Rama avatar (Vishnu has come to Earth many times as avatars; Rama being the seventh), Vishnu came to Earth in order to save humankind from the terrible reign of the rakshasas.
Rama does not attack the rakshasas unprovoked, of course, as this would be unethical of a god (even an avatar). In fact, he has to be exiled to the wild by his manipulative stepmother before he even encounters these demons. There he cuts the nose from a female rakshasa after she attacks him for refusing to give up his wife and marry the female demon. This female rakshasa just so happens to be Ravana’s sister. In a fit of revenge, Ravana disguises himself as an elderly woman and tricks Rama’s wife, Sita, into leaving the protection of a magic circle while her husband is away hunting. Ravana then kidnaps Sita. To rescue his wife, Rama enlists the aid of the leader of the monkeys, Hanuman, who is himself an avatar of Shiva who has also come to Earth as an avatar in order to aid Rama in destroying the rakshasas.
With Hanuman and the monkey army at his side, Rama leads an attack against Ravana’s palace in order to rescue his beloved Sita and end the rakshasas’ reign of terror once and for all. He slays the rakshasa king, wipes out all of the rakshasas, and rescues Sita. Then, in a less heroic manner, he nearly burns his rescued wife alive because he believes that she has been defiled by rape. Luckily, the supreme god Brahma intervenes and scolds Rama for not following his dh
arma (fate/role/duty) and for not trusting in his wife as she has always trusted in him. It looks like even divine avatars can make mistakes when they are restricted to a human form.
DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES: DJINN
Dean Winchester spends an entire episode under the spell of a djinni, who traps him in a dream world in which his mother is still alive (“What Is and What Should Never Be,” [2-20]). While this depiction of djinn is in keeping with the Western understandings about them, their mythical portrayals are usually far more frightening.
The word djinn (alternatively spelled jinn) has actually long been used to refer to demonic spirits in the Arab world. Djinn is the plural form of the word, with djinniyah being the feminine singular and djinni the masculine singular form. The word djinni is where Westerners got the word genie (as in “I Dream of Jeannie”). According to the Arab mythical tradition, there are commonly five different classes of djinn, separated by how troublesome or powerful they are:
1. Shaitan: Referring to fallen angels, this is a transliteration of the word Satan (meaning “adversary”).
2. Ifrit: Almost akin to fallen angels (in the Muslim tradition, this word actually refers to some fallen angels), this is the most troublesome type of djinn.
3. Djinn: While most powerful in terms of brute force, they are not quite on par with fallen angels when it comes to the scope of their powers and abilities. Apparently, there are some things that a shaitan can do that a regular djinn can’t.
4. Marid: They aren’t the most powerful, but they are the most evil and cruel type of djinn. This class revels in causing misery and ruin among humans.
5. Jann: The least powerful type, the jann are usually more playful in nature and are similar to tricksters. Think Aladdin, the story from 1001 Arabian Nights. (You did not just think about the Disney movie!)
While the above are the accepted classes of djinn, very few myths about these desert spirits actually acknowledge to which class a djinni in a story belongs.
More than likely, the djinn carried over into the Muslim tradition from the pre-Islamic, nature-centered religious traditions of the nomadic warrior tribes of the desert known as the Bedouin. Most of the available early lore supports the idea that the djinn were originally malevolent spirits believed by the Bedouin tribes to inhabit those places considered dark, secluded, and/or accursed in the Arab world. In their earliest depictions, djinn often assumed the shapes of animals. Lore also claims that djinn could render their forms invisible, or appear and move as clouds of mist.
When the Islamic religion came to dominate the Middle East, the djinn were integrated into the new religious mythology. This did, however, cause the lore to undergo some changes. Djinn were no longer portrayed as purely malevolent. In fact, post-Islamic djinn were sometimes depicted as having capacities for both good and evil. Their likenesses also lost many of the animal traits, often becoming more humanlike in appearance. But the animal traits did not disappear entirely. For example, the female djinniyah might be described as having the face and body of a human woman. Their hands or feet, however, would be replaced with cloven goat hooves or panther paws that revealed their true natures. Often, djinn would also sport serpentlike tails. According to post-Islamic lore, the king of the djinn is called Iblis, the Prince of Evil. Iblis is generally considered the Muslim equivalent of the Judeo-Christian figure Lucifer.
Most Westerners are familiar with djinn owing to the Aladdin story in 1001 Arabian Nights. However, few are aware that djinn appeared to the Judeo-Christian king Solomon (a character also included in Islamic lore), who was at first filled with terror by their terrifying countenances. Because of his God-given wisdom, however, Solomon was able to overcome his fear, and eventually he became a master over the djinn and was able to capitalize on the abilities of these powerful spirits and use them to his benefit.
THE TRUTH ABOUT SAMHAIN
Among the pre-Christian demons encountered by the Winchester boys, there was a mean little number by the name of Samhain who was summoned by a warlock wearing a high school art teacher as a meat suit and his homicidal witch of a sister, who was wearing a cheerleader—very fashionable (“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester,” [4-7]). Unlike the daevas and djinn, which have Middle Eastern origins, the concept of Samhain comes to us from Europe. While the Samhain portrayed in Supernatural is a demonic entity, Samhain’s nature isn’t quite that simple to explain.
Many believe that Samhain is the name of a pre-Christian Celtic death god. Technically speaking, however, Samhain isn’t the name of any supernatural entity; it is neither a god nor a demon. Instead, Samhain refers to a specific time of year. The word actually means “the End of Summer.”
The misinterpretation about Samhain is thought to have occurred sometime during the eighteenth century and was likely caused by the fact that Celts celebrated a feast of Samhain. Among other rites and prayers, the festival involved a ritual in which a corncob doll was ceremonially thrown into a fire by a rider on horseback being chased by two other riders who pretended to be trying to stop him or her. The burning of the corncob doll was a symbol of the seasonal death of the fertility god, who would be resurrected once more at the arrival of spring. As often happens in mythological studies, an early academic text misinterpreted a single piece of information, claiming that Samhain was a Celtic god of death, and then later texts cited this initial piece of misinformation as a source. This trend continued until the initial misinformation became widely accepted as a valid fact.
LUCIFER
Luci! I’m hooooooooome!
—GABRIEL, “HAMMER OF THE GODS” (5-19)
Whether you’re talking about demons or fallen angels, Lucifer is the undisputed alpha dog in the room. The name Lucifer actually means “light bringer,” but the name has also been commonly translated as “morning star” or “morning light.” In ancient Judaism, spiritual beings such as angels were often associated with celestial bodies. It is generally thought that Lucifer was at one point associated with the planet Venus. Some others even claim that he may have been a preexisting solar deity, but there is little concrete evidence to support this theory. Lucifer’s name later came to be interpreted as a reference to his fall from Heaven. The former angel’s fall from grace is commonly said to have resembled a fiery star falling from the sky.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Lucifer is that his name is literally Satan. The word Satan is actually more of a title than a name and translates as something like “adversary” or “enemy”; this term is in no way exclusive to the fallen angel Lucifer. A number of demonic entities (and even certain “accusing angels” of the early Judaic tradition, before they added demons to their mythical tradition) are also referred to as Satan. Basically, the word is used to refer to demons as enemies or adversaries of God and humankind. Satan can also have a more figurative meaning, used in reference to the internal conflict of good versus evil that occurs within the human soul. Mistranslations of the word Satan have led to a number of mistaken conclusions regarding certain verses in Judeo-Christian texts.
There are a number of differing versions regarding the “what” and “why” of how Lucifer got his icy butt booted out of Heaven, especially when it comes to the nature of his rebellion—namely, why he rebelled. The one common element that remains the same across nearly the entire board is the fact that Lucifer began his existence as the single most beautiful, powerful, and beloved of all God’s angels. His domain was the entire night sky, from dusk to dawn, and his abilities far exceeded those of his angelic brothers (considering that night is seen as contrary to the warmth of day, this may explain why certain parts of lore claim that Lucifer is “icy” by nature).
At some point, however, Lucifer was no longer content with the many gifts he’d been given. This is where the various stories about him start to differ. Some myths claim that the war began when Lucifer refused to bow to God’s new creation, humans, after being commanded to do so (as you’ll see in chapter 8 on Lilith, the Old Testament God could ge
t pretty creative with the whole “wrath thing” when he was disobeyed). Others claim that Lucifer’s anger stemmed from the fact that God gave humans souls and free will, both of which had been denied to angels. Most Christians will tell you that Lucifer believed he was more powerful than God, though you’ll have a hard time finding that directly explained in the Christian Bible. For the most part, the Christian lore (in the canonical texts, anyway) basically says that Lucifer rebelled owing to his pride. However, if Lucifer’s indignant feelings were due to humans being given free will, something he’d been denied, then this poses an interesting question—how does an angel rebel against God if he/it does not have free will?
Using his beauty and radiance, and offering them promises of power and glory, Lucifer was able to convince a third of Heaven’s angels (though not all versions of the myth support this estimate) to join him in rebellion against their father and creator, God. The rebellious angels, according to the story in the book of Enoch, numbered two hundred. As everyone knows, the battle did not end well for Lucifer or his angel coconspirators. When the war in Heaven neared its end, Judeo-Christian lore claims that God himself had to intervene. Michael was given the same powers as Lucifer and, with God’s favor, was able to defeat and subdue his rebellious brother. Lucifer was shown no mercy as he was judged for his blasphemous betrayal. The once highest of all angels was then stripped of all angelic titles, which were replaced with the shameful title of Satan, and the former angel of light was cast into the realm of suffering known as Sheol.
The Mythology of Supernatural Page 5