Welcome back to the season within which we are thrilled to terrify ourselves. For some in our society, that fear is channeled toward who may lurk in the adjoining lavatory cubicle, or who might be concealed under hairpieces and makeup, all gunning for the “children,” while more concerned with protecting their guns.
I’m not referring to Lady Bunny here, just those who may find a certain shade of orange in their future indulging in deflection.
While we can’t pinpoint when we realized that we shared this world with other intelligences constituted in a way that made interaction possible, communication would provide some assistance or a benefit. This is a belief that is held in various ways by all cultures.
In Western culture, we are often prone to divide the inhabitants of the invisible world into factions for our attention: For argument’s sake, let’s divide them up as demons and angels (oh my). Gus Portokalos, in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as in so many things, was correct in saying that we have Greece to thank for both team names: daimon, a guiding spirit, and angelos, a messenger.
We owe to the early Christian church all of the associations attached to these concepts, as they were employed in translating Hebrew scriptures into Greek, to go along with the Greek New Testament as well as the antagonistic attitude from a culture where the partisans of rival teams of charioteers battled it out on the street.
It is to this that we owe the earliest surviving lists of demonic forces, detailing their qualities, abilities, tokens, and symbols sometimes correctly referenced in popular culture. Music and movies are generally unconcerned by the dangers inherent in calling on these powers. For the most part their engagement with the material is on the par with trick-or-treating in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
Astaroth might be the best example for you to weigh available information and decide whom you might trust to provide you with accurate information. Described as a duke in the Infernal Hierarchy (right up there with the big “S”), mounted on a dragon with a snake in his right hand, he will explain the past, present, and future, also teaching every secret and science. He may appear as an angel, making it difficult to decide which team is being played for, especially when misgendered, as this is actually the goddess Astarte/Ishtar.
May you have wonderful experiences, while seeing what information you might be able to glean from the illustration, as we move into the season of darkness.
