Trollheart

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“May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead” - Irish proverb

One thing that has been common to probably every religion and pantheon of gods is that there has always been a “bad guy”, someone who upsets the plans of the “good” gods and goes against them, hassles humanity, causes catastrophes both large and small, and basically makes life harder both for his (or her) fellow gods and for those who worship them. This being has usually been called everything from an evil god to a demon, and of course the Devil, though this seems to have been confined to the Christian mythology. Whether called the Devil or not, or by any of his many names, this being, this god, this dark angel is almost always responsible for - or said to be responsible for - all the bad stuff in the world, and is synonymous with the word evil. In many ways, he can be seen as a scapegoat, someone for both gods and humans to blame when things go wrong, don’t go to plan or upset them. Just about every phrase in any language connected with the Devil, to give him a catchall recognisable label, is negative, and refers to doing or saying the wrong thing, coming up against obstacles or being thwarted.

Because gods were seen to be generally omnipotent, and above human affairs, they weren’t expected to play by the same rules mortals did. They didn’t have to care about their worshippers, could keep them safe or destroy them on a whim, treat them like playthings and trifle with their affections just for the hell of it. But among their own kind, they were expected to maintain certain standards. Because gods were created by humans, our ancestors imbued them with human feelings and emotions, human values and ethics, and human relationships. In essence, they were us, only, you know, all-powerful. But most pantheons of gods followed the basic model of the human family unit: there was a father, a mother, sons and daughters, even in-laws and cousins. Everyone was connected, because this is how humanity survived and quite honestly, we couldn’t see any other possible scenario.

Some of the gods were solitary, yes, but most of these tended to turn out to be the evil ones, the ones who would be linked with that religion or belief’s idea of the Devil; the very idea of being isolated from their fellow gods, of not joining in, of being a loner, made them distrusted and often disliked by their brother gods and sister goddesses, just as we tend to look at someone who is different or stand-offish in this world. We don’t easily tolerate any threat to our societal structure, so why then should our gods?

And as a human who stays away from the crowd can tend to be seen as - even if they are not actually so - brooding, sullen, cold and aloof - so too did the gods see those who did not fit into their family unit. Sometimes these gods were pushed further away, as nobody liked them and had no reason to want to be near them, sometimes they removed themselves, scornful of the pursuits of the others and interested in darker, more dangerous things. To some degree, taking gods as, for the moment, autonomous beings and not the extension of human minds and desires, these “dark gods” created their own mythology, based around their difference from - or indeed, indifference to the other gods, and “became” evil, either intentionally or as a consequence of how they were seen and treated by others.

The earliest mention any of us who are Christians, even nominally so, hear of the Devil in our lives is in the tale from the Bible, where in the Book of Genesis he appears as a snake in the Garden of Eden, tempts Eve and gets she and Adam kicked out of Paradise by a wrathful God. Job done, thinks Satan. But of course the Bible only goes back about two thousand years or so, and civilisations such as the Egyptians, Babylonians and Greek and Roman predate it by many more. It’s not at all surprising that the Satan, Lucifer or Devil written of in the Bible appears in similar or often quite different form in the lore of other religions; Christianity was never an original religion, and almost all of its pantheon is taken from other beliefs, suitably changed to suit the new teachings of Christ.

So what is the truth about the Devil? Where did he come from? How did he develop, down the centuries, sliding into our literature, our art, our music and later our television and movie screens, to become as much a part of our world, our consciousness as God Himself? When did he become a force for rebellion rather than just evil, and when did people begin worshipping him? How has he fared, and how has he changed through successive transformations from one mythology to another, and what is the truth of his genesis?

In this latest journal my intention is to dig into the origins of the creature we came to know as the Devil, to rummage around in mythologies that were ancient before Christ was even born, to try to build a picture of the overarching figure seen now as the epitome of evil, of darkness, of rebellion and of resistance. I’ll be seeing how the Devil - mostly this will be the Christian idea I expect, as most literature and art was dominated by the Church for the first half of the millennium at least, though I’m sure other religions have used him in their literature and music and art too - has done on the printed page, the oiled canvas and the silver screen, big and small. I’ll be looking at how his presence has influenced musicians, from those who use him or references to him in their lyrics, to those who actually believe in him and one or two who are believed to have actually sold their soul to him, and I’m not talking about Black Sabbath here.

While the Devil may not be real (no I’m definitely not crossing my fingers behind my back, you must be thinking of someone else) there are a lot of people in this world who believe he is, and the worship of the Prince of Darkness, what gets termed colloquially as Satanism or Satanic worship, may be as prevalent now as back in the dark ages, when innocent women were burned for believing to have communed with him. Wicca is white magic, but there’s also a whole lot of black magic out there too, and no, I’m not talking about the chocolates.

On the other side of things, the Devil has also been ferociously lampooned in all forms of media, whether the idea is to deprive him of his power by mocking him or just to jump on the bandwagon and make a buck. He’s been used as everything from a corporate logo to a team mascot, and from the name of geological features to rock songs. But superstition still holds strong in many parts of the world, and where there’s superstition there’s usually the Devil. There are even reported instances (how reliable or not I don’t know) of people undergoing near-death experiences where they found themselves in a place that was, well, not Heaven.

Of course, I don’t expect to uncover any truth about the existence or non-existence of the Devil, black magic or even Hell. Those questions, to paraphrase something I read by Dickens this morning, are better left to theologians and men far more learned than I, which would not be hard. No, all I intend to do here is to trace the colourful and interesting history of the Devil and assess his impact on our society, right up to the present day.

So step into the circle with me if you dare, take off the crucifix from around your neck and don’t bother saying your prayers. They won’t help you where we’re going.

Perhaps there’ll be Hell to pay, but come on, let’s do it!
Let’s summon the Devil.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018