Recently in angels and demons Category

I'm really excited about my new project, which has me thinking about all things paranormal. Turns out, they're all around us -- almost, well, normal.  The Bible is one source for images and ideas, but the appeal (some would say awareness) seems basic to our humanity. If we don't believe, exactly, we are nevertheless captivated and strangely affected by the supernatural. There's the vampire craze, of course; but angels and demons (thank you, Dan Brown, we cannot use that phrase in exactly the same way ever again), hybrid beings, and mysterious doings are part of the warp and woof of our lives.

Some weeks ago, when the summer ahead seemed endless, I opened a hulking book that has been quite a ride -- Galilee, by Clive Barker. Immortal beings intersecting with extraordinary human beings in ordinary settings. It's wild, not least because the narrator is a curious being and so self-aware of telling the story (another layer that's intriguing). Besides that, I've been watching old episodes of Saving Grace, True Blood, and the pilot of Neighbors from Hell (didn't do it for me), Supernatural, and the Gates. So many more! -- and I'm open to suggestions. Hope you enjoyed a magical Fourth~

There's Twilight of course, and True Blood, and going back in time a little, there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all those Anne Rice novels. I shouldn't have been surprised to stumble on two more that feature vampires front and center -- Moonlight and The Gates. You'd have to live under a rock in the wilderness to be ignorant of the vampire craze. They're everywhere these days. But did you know there are biblical tie-ins, too? Take this, for example: The Greek word that denotes the evil serpent figure in the Christian book of Revelation is drakon (yes, like "dragon"). A variation of it became the Romanian word for "devil" -- dracul. You can probably see where I'm going with this. Dracul became the nickname of a fifteenth century Transylvanian gent, who belonged to the fraternal society "Order of the Dragon." His son Vlad Tepes grew up to be the cruel count "Vlad the Impaler," also known as Dracul, Jr., "the little devil" dracula (being the diminutive form of dracul). Centuries later Bram Stoker came along, and the rest is history. More to come on the blood, the sex, and those ultra long lives... Wha ha-ha ha-ha.

"Yuck-o and the Fiery Serpent" sounds like a YA short story or moralistic tale. It is neither. Instead, it's how anyone might react to reading about a particularly awful parasite called the guinea worm. Because it burns like hell on its way out, it shares description as a "fiery serpent" with strange biblical creatures.  I'll spare you the details of how drinking infected water gets the little buggers growing in one's gut til they're mature enough to burrow out of your skin. Slowly. Some relief may be had by soaking the site in water,... and so the cycle goes. The good news, I'll tell you upfront, is that this particularly gruesome and painful parasite can be completely eradicated. Human beings are the worms' sole host.  

Some people associate the "fiery serpent" with snakes described in the book of Numbers (chap 21). According to the story, God sent biting snakes to afflict the Israelites whose complaining on their desert trek exasperated God. But I wonder if it isn't rather the "fiery serpent" of Isaiah 14:29 that we should think of -- predicted to plague Philistia, when they rejoiced over the death of Judah's king. Whatever the case, the biblical (Hebrew) term is "seraph," which certainly adds another dimension to our ideas about that order of angels.

 Out of the heaps of snow we've been getting lately, someone in my neighborhood has fashioned a great big Cupid in her front yard...or is it a cherub? Shoot, is Cupid himself some kind of cherub? I stood contemplating those questions for a minute or so until my dog started snuffling about at the smooshed remains of a sandwich beginning to emerge from under the packed snow, and I figured it was time to move on.
 Christmas came and went with its cards adorned by chubby-cheeked winged babies. Now it's Valentine's Day, and they're back again. We're accustomed to calling these charming figures cherubs. But it's a biblical word, and in the Bible, cherubs are nothing like that.

Given its title, I figured that the movie would have something to do with demons -- a whole, well, legion of them... in full-on "possession" mode. After all, "Legion" is the name of a biblical demoniac, according to the stories in Mark and Luke, because many demons were involved. But in the movie, Michael (our hero-angel gone rogue) actually goes to some trouble to explain explicitly that the troops of zombie-like murderers are not possessed by demons but rather are angels fulfilling the command of God. And yet. Here the movie suggests that the line between angels and demons frays as God's patience wears thin. That's just one thing among many that I found intriguing about this movie. Another (and I admit I loved this) is the paradox of obedience. [spoiler alert!] Michael is finally deemed a better servant of God than the hyper-obedient Gabriel, set on fulfilling God's command to kill off the human race. Precisely by disobeying, Michael satisfies the "need" (vs. "want" hmmm) of God. That part's a little silly (God as some adolescent to the angels' maturity?!). But hope for a future unwritten (no theological fatalism, here), and mercy at the hint of goodness... I like that.

Wonder and awe, wise men and shepherds, and the angels say, "Fear not." These are the days of extraordinary happenings, and in their very marvelousness, unnerving. The angels say, as biblical angels do, "Fear not," even while they dazzle and disturb. These are also the days, in pop culture, of vampires -- terrifying and dangerous. They, too, go in the between-places, and sometimes act as powerful guardians, just like the angels. Yet vampires and angels are categorically different, as Anne Rice recently noted. Or are they? I'm investigating the biblical shape, ways, and doings of angels, these days. And as I do, I can't help but think about our fascination with vampires, about life and death, courage and fear. In the biblical Christmas stories, the angels are heralds of life; vampires of death (no, no, they're not in the xmas stories; you know what I mean). The angels encourage; vampires terrify. But when we dig a little deeper, their roles are more nuanced and the boundaries less clear. And as we dig, we confront our own fascinations and repulsions and the wide wide realms of wonder and awe, mystery and possibility.

Doing some research on images of angels in biblical texts, I came across the captivating icon painted by Russian Andrei Rublev around 1410. Men, angels, or God? The peculiar story of Abraham and Sarah's visitors in Gen 18 uses a constellation of Hebrew vocabulary that has intriguing theological implications. For Rublev, it afforded an opportunity to meditate on the Christian mystery of the Trinity. In this icon depicting Gen 18, Rublev gives the messengers halos and wings. Not only that, but although the story appears in the Hebrew Bible (and predates Jesus by centuries), its interpretation in Rublev's hands is an exquisite representation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

This makes me think about the business of taking texts out of context. We are right to be anxious about such practice, but can there be a place for it, too? Maybe it's a little like grammar -- once you know the rules, you can break them. So long as you know about the Bible well enough to know that Gen 18 is not "about the Trinity," you can go ahead and meditate on how it could be about the Trinity.

Although scholars debate whether the figure on the left or center is Jesus or God the Father, it would seem that the central figure is Jesus -- the color and style of his clothes are typically used in this form of art for Jesus. The meal they share is at once the meal prepared by Sarah, who hurries to bring the best (and hears from the visitors that finally she's to have a son), and the Eucharist, commemorating Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection. Rublev's Three-in-One God is both host and guest -- a gracious image of profound hospitality, simulataneously communicating paradoxical ideas, as art so richly enables us to do.

I've just begun (re)reading Milton's "Paradise Lost." Truth is, I don't remember ever reading the whole thing through before. Snippets here and there for lit classes over the years but never from the beginning to the end. What a ride it is! And to think that Milton wrote it blind. Contemplate that, for a minute.

This, too, impresses: Where most English translations read Gen 1:2 as "the spirit of God hovered over the face of the deeps," Milton follows the Hebrew verb describing the spirit like a bird "brooding" over the waters. That's the way that verb appears elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible -- the protective hovering of a bird over its nest... though Milton imagines the spirit in a masculine form impregnating "the Abyss" below despite the Hebrew's feminine Spirit subject in this verse.

But that's small stuff -- a tiny example of the thousands of ways that Milton appeals to and shifts the biblical text. Fascinating. I'm still a little puzzled by the bad guys that open the story. I mean, Satan appears to be a different character than Beelzebub, and there are cherubim and seraphim in hell. Well, back to it, as the dark powers prepare for war.

Halloween, when ghosts, demons, and (judging from my neighborhood anyway) a lot of pirates walk the streets unrestrained and with an insatiable sweet tooth. All Hallows Eve (Halloween) inaugurates the celebration of All Saints' Day (Nov. 1), which commemorates the especially righteous dead who are privileged in heaven to behold God immediately (an idea developed out of biblical texts including 1 Corinthians 13:12). Right after All Saints' Day comes All Souls' Day, which is more inclusive -- commemorating all those who died and went to heaven. This year, All Souls' Day will end with a full moon, which many find particularly auspicious. On Halloween, what separates this world from others becomes barely discernible. So the forces of evil that want to prevent the Saints from interceding for humans take shape and work their mischief on earth... or that's what some believe, anyway. Wandering Richmond last night with fellow revelers, I can attest to lots of "demons" -- little and big, alike -- having a whee of a time. As for the forces of evil, I suspect they may not take quite the shapes we imagine on that night.

I am finally following Donna Freitas' enthusiastic recommendation to watch old episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Hey, just because it's research doesn't mean it has to be dull. As I investigate how the Bible portrays supernatural beings and places and how that portrayal has influenced pop ideas about evil personified, angels, the undead, heaven, and hell, I'm finding connections everywhere. In "Buffy," consider how it is that "the anointed" is a little boy... and rules (?) the evil contingent of demons below; and the head vampire called "The Master" rises to life again after three days. Strikes me that a lot of Bible language associated with Jesus is co-opted by the dark side in "Buffy." More watching to do...