If You Hail Satan, Come Correct

Woof.  I wanted to like The Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves, but I randomly came across the real scoop on what low-down fash-friendly piles of shit they really are.  Representing myself as satanic, I feel the need to address this, and while I’m at it, help fix some of the harm they are doing in the world.

To start with, I need to make clear that I do not believe every member of TST is fascist or a scumbag.  Some just haven’t gotten the facts yet, and some who have feel too invested to acknowledge the truth.  To those of you who are good people, I hope you work things out.

But I also hope you can realize you don’t need TST and can represent Satan in your own ways.  There is absolutely nothing stopping you from walking away from TST en masse and starting your own Satanism.  Maybe it starts small, a facebook group or a twitter account, but it can turn into something just as big and certainly better.

 

Eugenics and Nazi Friendliness

I was ill-informed and had little idea that modern satanists were so cozy with antisemitism and nazism until I fell down this unfortunate rabbit hole.  What in the name of Hell is the point of rejecting Christ only to wallow in the shit ideals of his worst fanboys?

Lucien Greaves has made some half-assed apologies for antisemitic comments made on a radio show in 2003 as that came to light recently, and in the narrow context of that clip one could think of his comments as being more antitheist than antisemitic – he was saying jewish religious belief is his problem and jewish blood is not, in disagreement with the hosts of the radio show he was on.

But broaden that context just a little bit more, and things look much worse.  Why did he not rebuke the whole proceedings when his pals on the show went full sieg heil?  Why didn’t he bail?  Because he knew they were nazis going in, and he was OK with that.

The show itself was the “Might Is Right 24-Hour Radio Special” in honor of a new printing of racist / antisemitic book “Might is Right” – and Greaves (as “Doug Mesner”) was invited because he illustrated the book.  Whatever terms or qualifiers he’s used for it (he had a site called “dysgenics” as late as 2018), Greaves has wholeheartedly endorsed eugenics on many occasions.  As recently as the founding of The Satanic Temple ten years after his appearance on that show, he was willingly associating with and involving the sieg heiling host of that very broadcast.

(Quick aside – the event hosts may or may not have identified as nazis and they didn’t actually say “sieg heil” but I don’t give an earthly shit about distinguishing between flavors of antisemite and the finer points of their ideologies.  Another guest on the show was prominent KKK figure Tom Metzger – in a segment of the show Greaves (Doug Misicko in the transcript) happily participated in.  Y’all are nazis; eat shit and die at your soonest convenience, thanks.)

(Aside Deux – because this is an atheist blog network and the “thought leaders” of modern atheism seem to think some nice guy version of eugenics, as a concept, can be salvaged for good, I should emphasize that ain’t true.  I’m not up to linkspamming support of that point, but feeling tempted to give nazi ideas an inch of your mental bandwidth should give you great pause.)

Anyone who would oppose the hypocrisies and injustices of cultural christianity has to decide for theirself what they will propose in the wake of christianity’s defeat.  Because you’re not going to defeat xtianity at large, of course (only they can do that to themselves lol), but you are going to win some hearts and minds away from the pews and pulpits.  What are you giving them in exchange for what they’ve given up?

For some opposing xtianity is enough, like dictionary atheists who are iconoclasts without a care.  LaVey was in the pitiful thrall of Ayn Rand and his satanic bible owes its soul to her “objectivism.”  His Church of Satan and the satanic movement generally from that point on carried those values of cruelty and greed forward.  This was the movement from which Greaves emerged, only differing in that he was more fully atheistic than his predecessors.  Or maybe just more ableist.  From what I’ve seen, ableism was always his biggest hobbyhorse.

OK, greed as a value does seem to oppose the charity spoken of by Jesus, so satanic, right?  Wrong.  If we were just going to oppose xtianity as described in the bible, maybe.  But I don’t give a fuck about that.  I want to oppose xtianity as it is practiced in my culture, and all the harm it does – most of which is fueled by greed.  If you’re not doing that – fighting for the ability of people to enjoy life, fighting oppression – what’s the fucking point?

In their stances on gay rights and reproductive rights and religious freedom, The Satanic Temple has lured in thousands of progressive people – taken their time and money.  But was this truly deserved?  The organization is rotten at its core for the same reason the gnu atheist movement was: the founders centered ableism, the ability to feel superior to the “stupid” xtians, which is just about the quickest path to eugenics and nazism.

To this day, there are high ups within TST that have a history of consorting with nazi clowns like Mike Cernovich and Milo Yiannapolis.  TST have gone on record as being anti-antifa, and you know what you get when those antis zero out.

 

Reproductive Rights People Hate Them

Just because anti-abortion scumbags have had a great deal of success lately does not mean that the defenders of reproductive health have been failing at their jobs, only that fascists have been achieving horrific victories across the board.  But The Satanic Temple has opted to use that messaging to suck up activist dollars – to claim “We must accept the fact that traditional efforts to protect reproductive rights have failed.”

And what are they doing with the pro-abortion activist dollars?  They’re acting like $cientology in the way they veer between saying they’re a religion and denying that depending on what’s most advantageous in a given financial or legal situation, and not being at all transparent about where the money goes.

 

SLAPP Suit

All these issues and more led some Satanists in my part of the country to rebel, to make public critique of the organization.  The law protects criticism of religious organizations, but they’re still suing for business harm – a business when it suits them, a religion when it doesn’t.  The apostates are just regular people facing tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses they can’t afford.  It’s a SLAPP suit working as intended, and you can see why I might find that something worth fighting against.

Support the Queer Satanic Apostasy.  Help defend them against the SLAPP suit.

EDIT:  The people who brought this to my attention and had to defend themselves from the SLAPP suit finally won their case, but also, they are anarcho-shitbird fucks who promoted the idea it’s OK to not vote, in the runup to 2024 election.  I would as soon shoot them in their unthinkable fucking heads as help them in any way, as right as they were on this one issue, and as much as it’s a good thing they were able to beat the SLAPP.

 

Full Disclosure:

TST and FtB have both employed the same lawyer in free speech cases, a man who is a strong partisan on that issue, but easy to find very negative articles about.  That lawyer is specifically named as one of the reasons for dissenters leaving TST.  Due to our prior relationship with him, I will not be addressing that one specific issue here and prefer it not be discussed in this space, except to say I understand and very much sympathize with those concerns.

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Paymon – Gotta Catch ’em All

The famous Paymon, who recently had their day in the movie Hereditary.  There is an abbreviation in this I cannot fathom.  I might have a clue for you culled from the same part of the description of the same demon in another source, but first the Geomanticarum:

Notandum est quod si memoratus Paymon si solus venerit ut vocatus fuerit (wtf?) libanum seu sacrificium : ut si coactus fuerit : semper cum eo duo magni reges veniunt scilicet Belial, et Basaam, et reges alii magni atque potentes : 25. legiones semper cum eo incircuiti eius sunt : quam spiritus qui ex eis erunt non semper cum illo pergunt, nisi virtute divina cogantur :-

Anyway, same part of the same demon’s description in Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum:

Notandum adhæc, si Paymon solus fuerit citatus per aliquam libationem aut sacrificium, duo reges magni comitantur, scilicet Bebal & Abalam, & alii potentes. In hujus exercitu sunt vigintiquinque legiones: Quia spiritus his subjecti, non semper ipsis adsunt, nisi ut appareant, divina virtute compellantur.

Which esotericarchives.com also includes an English translation of:

Note that if Paimon be cited alone by an offering or sacrifice, two kings followe him; to wit, Beball & Abalam, & other potentates: in his host are twentie five legions, bicause the spirits subject to them are not alwaies with them, except they be compelled to appeere by divine vertue.

I’m going to just disappeere nowe, and sleepe forevere alwaies.  It’s just a sad sleepy kind of weekend.

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Latin Heat

Content warning: Misogynist Magic

Back on that Latin shit.  I was translating a spell and one particular scribal abbreviation was giving me the business.  It looks like “heat” with an arc over it.  I couldn’t easily track it down on internets, was looking for second opinions.  On the other hand, I think I’ve gotten a lot better at the transcription / de-abbreviation process than I was.  Check me out…

Including any grammatical and spelling mistakes of the original writer and likely adding my own, here you go:

“…et per omnes virtutes celorum , ut in hoc speculo hanc virtutem venire faciatus : et infundatis : ut quecunque mulier ut virgo , ut vidua intuita fuerit , ut nullam requiem sui corporis he^at : neque sedendo , neque stando : neque dormiendo , neque vigillando , neque comedendo , neque bibendo , neque aliquid faciendo : donec meas omnem voluntatem impleat :- ”

This is a spell to dominate women, because Renaissance wizards were incels.  Lacking any Latin skills, bouncing between wiktionary and google search and google translate, this is my rough interpretation of this part of the spell, slightly rearranged grammatically for ease of reading:

“…and by all the heavenly powers, as bound and established in this mirror: Whatsoever woman observed within, be she virgin or widow, shall not rest her body (he^at), shall not sit, not stand, not sleep, not see, not eat, not drink, not do a thing, until all satisfy my will.”

So what is the Latin “heat”?  Based on the usual way these abbreviations go, “hemat,” but what would that mean here?  This grimoire often reduces compound vowels from Latin to a single letter, for example turning ae into e, like in “celorum” from the first phrase.  The closest word then that I could find was “hiemat,” which would turn the phrase into something clunky like “shall not rest her body though it be winter.”  Also if this was a dip into Greek, it could be something to do with blood.  “Shall not rest her body though it bleeds.”

What do you think?

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Last Demon Drop

This is the last one where I’ll be looking at demon descriptions, but I have a few other things I found in the book I’d at least like to touch on in future posts.  Once I’m done with all of this, I intend to bring the disparate sources together into a single demonology, more “authentic” in its underlying content, but with some art and ideas of my own as well.

Unless I’m mistaken:  “Lambes magnus rex et preses apparet insimilitudine mulierum : loquitur suave prestat amorem tam hominum quam mulierum : si exorcista volvent omnes homines ad amorem fuum povocare faciat imaginem auctam en cum vicinus fronte snibatur amor amore vincitur , et precipiat : ut consacret dando sibi talem virtutem , ut omnes utrius q3 sexua homines accedatur in amorem exorcista qui nullus presumat contra eum in alium farere ad tuum presignant . et habet sub se 19 legiones :–”

Best attempt, degenerates into extreme nonsense:  Lambes, great king and president, appears in the likeness of a woman, speaks pleasantly, gives love of both men and women.  When the exorcist turns all men who have love povocare? make picture subsequently and with close front fribatur? love is overcome by love, and commanded, or hallowing him with such power, or all / both genders of people allows in love for the exorcist, no presuming against him in another of nothing with your noteworthy. And has under him 19 legions.

Hilarious aside:  google translate says “prestat amorem tam hominum quam mulierum” means “I should love both men and women” – word to the wise MFers.  Go bi or go home.

Another stab at transcription:  “Torcha magnus marchio , et dux fortis apparet in similitudinem Grifonis : cum a?ut suscipit formam humanam loquitur rauca voce dupliciter : Ep?ot per ipsum omnes volucres ligare , et omnia volatilia que sunt supra terram , et in aere : qui si exorcista sapiens fint? unam avem ex ere faciet , et ipsam consecrari faciet sibi talem virtutem dando qui omnes aves liget sub voluntate exor : ita qui omnes aves coadimet in illa perte ubi est avis illa profita fuit? : et emittent dulciter cantus suos , et sint mansuete et humane voluntati obedientes in omnibus . Nota qui exorcista potest con ea omnes aves exprere f3 qui sibi p Lacuerit . Dat n dignitates exor. et illas confirmat:–”

Best effort, I got my ass kicked:  Torcha, great marquis and strong duke, appears in likeness of a griffon.  With another human form, speaks in a rough duplicitous voice (or two voices?).  By him all flying creatures can be bound, and all fowl which are over the earth and in air.   If the wise exorcist makes a bird of copper and consecrates it, he gives himself the power to have all birds bound willingly under him.  Ita qui omnes aves coadimet in illa perte ubi est avis illa profita fuit?  …and produces sweet songs, and without mansuete? and kindness willingly obeys in all.  Note who exorcist can with this/it all birds exprere? f3 who/which himself p lacuerit.  Gives dignities and confirms them.  …This one makes me want to take a long nap.

It’s the last guy in the book!  “Triplex fuie complex magnus dux et marchio Apparet insimilitudinem angeli pulchri : et est humilis et fidelus omnibus mandatis exorciste , et est ideo triplex : quia per en? possunt omnia triplinter ligari , et ideo potentior est alus . Ideo possunt ligari volucres bestie , serpentes , Basilisii , et dracones in puteis et internis : et facit ad voluntatem exorciste , reges , magnates , principes , et minores ad voluntatem : super tronum sedere coronam hns? auream que consecretur a predicto preside  ad tempustale . et ponatur in aula regis , ut in camera et habet sub se sua portate · 43 · legiones , et fuit de ordine principatus :– Amen :–”

Triplex ? complex great duke and marquis appears in likeness of a sexy angel, and is humble and faithful to all of the exorcist’s commands, and is therefore Triplex.  Because per en? they can all three be bound, and therefore strong are others (?).  Therefore they can bind flying creatures beasts serpents basilisks and dragons in pits and inside (?).  And at the will of the exorcist, makes kings, great princes, and servants subject to his will.  On thrones set crowns hns? of gold, which is to be consecrated on this president with such a time.  And on thrones are set crowns and places in a king’s court or room, and has beneath him carrying 43 legions, and is of the order of Principalities.  Amen.  (You can say that again!)

This is another one confirmed with an entry in The Book of Oberon, which really makes me wonder what books the author of that grimoire was looking at.  Enjoy the weird dipshit version of Triplex… Friblex!:  “42. Friblex a greate duke & a marques, & appeareth like an Aungell, he is both meeke & trewe,& that in all commaundements, of the Maister, & therfore he is called Friplex, & is the moremighty & hath under him 6 legions.”

In celebration of this milestone, have a marginalia weirdo:

More Geomanticarum Demons

Content Warning: Flashing Lights, Extreme Cheesiness:

Got some more demons to ponder.  I was able to work out a lot on some of them, less on others, but mostly I just need to fill in a few gaps.  Some of these are more interesting than others.

The first boy in the book, “King Avedje, a great duke appearing crowned with a diadem, there is nothing visible of him but his head, and before him proceed two ministers carrying trumpets.  (I love that trumpets are tubas in this BS.)   Teaches fully logic and (hycam?) and all (pereimi?) gives best arts, best understanding of all languages.  Gives best familiars.  Gives full true responses of past present future, arts or things occult consecrated and arcane, and secrets.  (gibberish coming…) And of consecration them of the (Lupyh?),  let him be then forced into a corner, and then  gives true responses without being asked, 30 legions.”

I think I confirmed this guy for appearing in The Book of Oberon under the name “Ebeyeth,” where he is also described as a floating head crowned with a diadem, but the rest of the description there is too short, leaves too much out to be of much use.

This one man… no fucking idea.  Trying to implement what I can learn from cartomancer in the comments:

“Ara dux et marchio Apparet insimilitudine draconis : cum nomine suscipit formam humanam mirabiliter cogit omne genus serpentum si preceptor fuit sapiens potent omne genus sapientum constringere si fili plaenerit et faciat fieri imum serpentem de quoruma?? metallo et faciat consecrari : ut nullus genus serpentum audeat in illis pribus accedere : et istud stabit ad bene placitum sine in eternum . et caveat me frangatur imago que statim virtutem admitteret . Dat responsa de pretentis presentibus et futuris : et habet sub se 29 legions.”

My best effort to make sense of that: “Ara, duke and marquis, appears in the likeness of a dragon.  When assuming the form called human, has marvelous knowledge of all types of snakes, if the teacher is able to be wise, all kinds of wisdom contained.  If son (plaenerit?) and makes it one snake of (quorumas?) metals and makes hallowed, that no kind of snake dare to approach them first, and this rule does not stand well forever.  And should I break the image, then power is allowed. Gives responses of past present and future, has under him 29 legions.”

Hilariously, depending on what word it’s next to in google translate, “serpentum” becomes “florida.”  There is no demon that appears in the form of a dragon and has this snake-obsessed of a description in the sources I’ve read.  Volach has the snake control and rides a dragon, but has a separate entry in this book and is otherwise fairly different.  Most demons appearing in the form of a dragon are more elaborately described, with multiple heads and what have you.

“Paragalla – great marquis and count – appears in the likeness of a knight, head like a lion, riding on a fiery flame.  Controls (carries over?) birds and animals and makes the exorcist knights of copper in hand carrying sword that is sharp, and show himself Paragalle and (consacrer?) aforementioned knight.  ( worse gibberish coming) Has carrying wounds or (interfiriendi?) with sword or knife only (mom? mon?) be fixed later placed in kings house, between many discords or between husband and wife.  Has under him 30 legions.”

There are a few lion-headed knights in demonologies: Boab and Saylmon from this book, Allocer Sabnach and Purson/Curson from the Pseudomonarchia Demonum and related books… And that’s not including demons that are just lions, or lions with wings, or lions with snake tails or duck feet or whatever.  I think these writers imaginations were broken.  Anyway, none quite match the description of Paragalla here.

This is my favorite for one weird detail.  I think he appears in the form of a cicada, which is unusual and interesting.  That word looks like “cichade,” and later “cichadas” appears.  Latin for cicada is “cicada,” Italian is “cicala.”  This isn’t quite either of those and I could be dead wrong, but what else can it be?  My best translation:  “Great count Acar appears in the likeness of a cicada, and then in human form speaks with a rough voice, and is the prince of flies and locusts, and per the exorcist powerfully help people control and bind cicadas and other similar things.  Let there be, therefore, an image from copper or other metals, of aforementioned president consecrated. Provides love between men and women, gives true responses of past present and future, has 20 legions.”

A Bunch of Latin Shorties

Y’all know what time it is.  The way I translate these is in part from google translate but also in part by recognizing repeated subject matter, similarity to other sources on demonology, and recognizing some Latin roots.  I don’t have a background in this, and the source material is pretty scratchy, so…  I’m going to post my translations, insofar as I have them, and you make fun of me in the comments, right?

Lanima – AKA Pneuna – is a great count, appearing in angelic seeming (smonibus blamois?) ceases, and knows strengths of herbs, and has under him 20 legions.  It’s hard to pin down a demon in another source I could compare against to find meanings for those words.

Judifligei is a great duke, appearing in the likeness of ravens, and then appears in human form, preceded by teachers (preptore fui inbente?), makes heard unseen trumpets and symphonies, and transfers (et ora gna?) instruments, teaches to play, is best familars, has 19 legions in his dominion.  Again, I can’t find an equivalent to him in other demonology to help here.  On those ravens, I have a frustration I’ll get to in just a bit…

Gomens or Caym, a strong powerful duke, appears in the likeness of a beautiful woman, crowned with a duchal crown, riding on a camel.  Gives full true responses on past present and future, on the occult (ravernis?), in which appear (spentes?) is princes, and (rustos?).  Gives best love of women, and has under him 2j legions.

This is the one known as Gremory, Gomori, or a half dozen variants thereof in many other grimoires!  A lovely gender weirdo on a camel.  On that “spentes,” I feel like I’ve seen “serpentes” – snakes – abbreviated that way somewhere else in here, but not positive.  Rustos sounds like it would mean farmers, but doesn’t come up in translate.  Don’t know.

Furfur, a great count, appears in the likeness of ravens, his tail in flames, lies unless trapped in a triangle. Then can be ordered into angelic form, with a raucous voice…  Here’s my problem with those ravens.  Furfur is in lots of other demonologies, always described as a deer or hart.  I can see how one missed transcription could lead to a chain of error, with “corvii” looking like “cervus.”  Or maybe the Geomanticarum has it wrong, or I do.  But if Furfur is ravens, so is Judifligei.  And if he’s a deer, likewise.

This is mostly gibberish to me, but it’s clearly about Berith – here called Berich.  Most demonologies open his description saying he is known by at least three names – known to the jews (lovely) as Berith, to some nigromancers or necromancers as Bolfry, and to unnamed third party as (insert random garble here).  I imagine the “vocatur Salmonazi vocant” is about him being referred to in the “notary art of Solomon” as Berich.  Are Gramatiri and Belfarit alternate names?

This guy is known in other demonologies as Aym or Cabeym.  Here… Bachimy or Albermi or Cabeym is a great strong duke appearing with three heads.  The first is like a (nason?), the second like a man (tyng?) two bodies (wtf?), third as a mouse hunter (cat), rides on a viper, carrying in hand a blazing (valcham?), makes man ingenius in all arts, and gives true responses, and has under him 26 legions.  In other demonologies, the first head is a snake, the human head has two stars on it.  But is a “nason” a snake?  And that really looks like it’s saying one of his heads has two bodies, which is bonkers.  The blazing thing elsewhere is a firebrand, but the word valcham doesn’t seem to mean shit in Latin, and reminds me of the sound of “falchion” – a kind of sword.

Simias or Gumas is a great marquis, appearing in the likeness of a lion, riding on a strong (ursum?  bears?), the tail of a serpent, flames proceeding from his mouth. In his right hand carries…  OK, this guy is really similar to Egyn in The Book of Oberon, The Book of Spirits, and… Also this book.  In those descriptions, Egyn rides bears or a dragon, so…?  I don’t know.  However, he’s maybe even more similar to Orias, from the Pseudomomarchia Demonum, Lesser Key of Solomon, and other sources – and that guy rides a horse.  I may be overthinking this one.

Ras, a great governor, appears in the likeness of a (cervi?) with then a subsequent human form, speaking gravely.  Belvow (?) makes subside, and limp.  Gives true responses, gives grace of friends, has under him LX9 legions…  Whatever, buddy.

I hope this one, being Latin, draws as much attention as the previous posts – and doesn’t get whiffed on like the Italian Demonds.  Thank you for what help you’ve already given me.  It is imperative that I summon these demons, pronto.  I swear.

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Italian Demonds

I might be the first person online to note that in the Fasciculus rerum Geomanticarum that there are a dozen-ish demons listed much earlier in the book than the main list, but these descriptions are less consistent and often less interesting than the usual demon lists.  Also, they seem to be in late Renaissance Italian, possibly with a skosh of Latin mixed in.  The handwriting was great so I was able to translate most of them, but a few things I couldn’t work out…

Andaras e gran conte fa parere uno homo grande como uno castrono et ancora picolo como uno capreto ha si suo dominio 12 generatione de dimonii.  Andaras, a great count, makes a great man seem like he’s castrated, and yet small like a baby goat.  Has  in his dominion 12 generations of demons.  There’s some guesswork in that.  Any other ideas, my scholars?

Hey, it’s somebody familiar…

Apparently, I’m e re possente fa de lo di nocte et de la noote di a fn suo dominio 12 re de corona.  Satan, a mighty king, makes (what?) night of the night, has in his dominion 12 crowned kings.  Don’t know what this means, but it sounds cool.

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The English Faust Book, Fury

Content Warnings: Blood and Guts, Kinda Dark Thoughts.

I didn’t think much of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, despite the hype.  It seemed slight and breezy.  Might make a good play, but as prose, not that interesting.  It was an adaptation of The English Faust Book, or The Historye of the Damnable Life and Deserued Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus:  A Discourse of the Most Famous Doctor Iohn Faustus of Wittenberg in Germany — Coniurer and Necromancer —  Wherein is Declared Many Strange Things That He Himselfe Had Seene and Done in the Earth, and in the Ayre, with His Bringing vp, His Trauailes, Studies, and Last End.  Marlowe basically did the kiddie adaptation of some adult material (not that it makes Marlowe’s Faustus child appropriate).

The play is a play, the book is prose, so it surely fares better in comparison on dead pages.  The story isn’t amazing, it’s offensive in the expected ways, and it’s boring in a way one might not expect, being 21st century people.  There are big sections where the writer just wants to show off their knowledge of interesting things in heaven and earth, literally a travelog of “hot spots to visit in Renaissance Europe.”

However, it has one hot advantage over Marlowe’s Faustus.  When the action heats up, it’s bad ass.  Here’s our man Faust summoning devils:

…Then began Doctor Faustus to call on Mephostophiles the Spirit – and to charge him in the name of Belzebub, to appear there personally: then presently the devill began so great a rumor in the wood, as if heaven and earth would have come together, with wind, that trees bowed their tops to the ground: then fell the devill to bleat as if the whole wood had been full of Lyons, and suddenly about the circle ran the devill, as if a thousand wagons had beene running together on paved stones. After this, at the four corners of the wood it thundered horribly, with such lightnings as if the whole world to his seeming had beene on fire…  suddenly over his head hung hovering in the air a mighty Dragon: then calls Faustus again after his devilish manner, at which there was a monstrous cry in the wood, as if hell had been open, and all the tormented souls crying to God for mercy…

Here’s the first time devils get mad about Faust getting cold feet:

Suddenly upon these words came such a whirlwind about the place that Faustus thought the whole house would have come down, all the doors in the house flew off the hooks: after all this his house was full of smoke, and the floor covered over with ashes… and flying up, Faustus was taken and thrown down into the hall that he was not able to stir hand nor foot: then round about him ran a monstrous circle of fire, never standing still, that Faustus fried as he lay & thought there to have beene burned.  Then cried he out to his spirit Mephostophiles for help, promising him he would live in all things as he had vowed…  Hereupon appeared unto him an ugly devill, so fearfull and monstrous to behold that Faustus durst not look on him.  The devill said, “What wouldst thou have Faustus? …What mind art thou in now?”  Faustus answered, he had forgot his promise, desiring him of pardon, and he would talk no more of such things.  “Thou wert best so to doe,” and so vanished from him.

And I’m gonna spoil this for you.  These are literally the best three paragraphs in a book that is full of boring crap.  Here’s what Faust looked like after the devil came for his due:

But when it was day, the students that had taken no rest that night arose and went into the hall in which they left Doctor Faustus…  They found not Faustus, but all the hall lay besprinkled with blood, his brains cleaving to the wall, for the devill had beaten him from one wall against another: In one corner lay his eyes, in another his teeth, a pitifull and fearfull sight to behold.  Then began the students to wail and weep for him, and sought for his body in many places: lastly they came into the yard, where they found his body lying on the horse dung, most monstrously torn and fearfull to behold, for his head and all his joints were dashed in pieces.  The forenamed students and masters that were at his death, have obtained so much, that they buried him in the village where he was so grievously tormented.

There’s something about this violence I find appealing.  I’m not big into horror where blood and brains are dripping off the wall.  But the extreme nature of the movement – trees bending to the ground, fire and lightning blasting all around, men being tossed like rag dolls – it’s exciting.  And the cause of it too.  Oh no, Faustus, you gave yourself to Satan, and now you are his plaything.  Throw yourself in the garbage and see what happens.

There’s a part in the 1941 movie version of The Devil and Daniel Webster where sexy succubus Simone Simon is dancing with a lost soul, and as they twirl his feet are lifted off the ground – light as dead leaves or empty clothing.  In my memory of this there was a trick with camera speed to make the moment more unnatural and alarming.  It has that motion, the fury of hell sweeping you away.

It’s a shame this stuff is all very xtian, and that it pretty much has to be.  I’d like to own a piece of the action – the movement and fury.  What is this feeling for me?  I have some primal feelings about motion and motivation, this is probably related.  The feeling of being helpless before the fury of violent forces, that can’t be good, can it?

Maybe it works because in the real world we are helpless before the world ruining evil of the human ability to elaborately diffuse blame, of the rich to absolve themselves of their direct hand in fucking us all to death because the weapon they used was the abstraction of money – something they can’t see.  And there’s a dark feeling like, why not just turn that into a literal bomb and sweep me away?  It’s faster, more exciting.  A lot of the dark humor of the 1980s comes from this attitude, inherited from Dr. Strangelove.

Hail Satan.  Get wrecked.  Why not?

In seriousness, my ultimate goal is to try to treat the art of hell and devils as neutral to positive, and all things holy as despicable.  I gotta change up this situation in my writing.

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The Hell is a Hois?

More Latin, and I don’t think this one will be so easy.  These two characters apparet in similitudine “hois.”  One of them is a hois pugnatis, portani arma – unless I got that wrong.  A combative hois carrying weapons, right?  But what the hell is a hois?

gibberish

Near as I can tell:  “Strong Duke Ponicarpo appears in the likeness of a pugnacious (hois) carrying weapons.  Let therefore image (exealhris arma armta and faciat a pdicto) confers.  and (pipa) strongly bound infantry.  Gives love of women and true responses to questioning.  Has under him 30 legions.”

Some problems with this whole endeavor:  This was written by a speaker of 15th century Italian and may have some of that sprinkled in.  A few parts of the book are almost entirely in that language.  The writer’s understanding of Latin could be quite different from modern scholars.  Also there are clearly abbreviations and inconsistent spelling in parts.

gibberish

“Saylmon or Zamon is a strong duke and president and/or earl appearing in the likeness of a (hois) riding on a pale horse, having the head of a lion and in the hand carrying an (aqbla), speaking in hoarse voice.  He makes peace between many and discords between men and women, and has under him 30 legions.”

By the way, don’t think the fact that one is holding weapons and one is riding a horse that this “hois” is humanoid.  It could be, but some of these demons are lions riding on horseback or gripping things.  It could well be a profession rather than an animal or other oddity.

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One Latin Word Plz, I’m Dyin’ Here

OK, I understand asking ye random scholars and gentlepeeps to translate twenty pages of scrawled Renaissance Latin from a mediocre res pdf is like asking for days of labor for free.  Not cool.  I withdraw that request.  But there is ONE SINGLE WORD which would be awesome to understand here, in the Fasciculus rerum Geomanticarum: the likeness of the demon Cambea, starting in the top line of page 617 of the pdf.

i can't even with this

Why?  Because from the rest of the description I can tell Cambea is another name for Decarabia from the Pseudomonarchia Demonum.  In that tome, it says he appears in the likeness of *.  Literally it has an asterisk to nothing there, like maybe he appears in the likeness of a butthole.  I believe the Ars Goetia in the Clavicula Salomonis interpreted that as a star, so it’s saying he appears in the form of a star.

However, the Geomanticarum is an older document and includes an actual word there!  If we can translate it, we know what Decarabia is actually supposed to look like!  Can you feel the excitement?  Anyway, the word is divided between two lines with a –, and every way I try to transcribe it gives me nothing in google translate.  Is it fanni? fairni? farns? sanni? sairni?  I can’t tell, I’m not a classics major.

Enlighten me.  Summon Decarabia.  I’m beggin’ ya.

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