mysterium-esoterica:

The History of the Devil (2007) is wickedly good, informative and concise. A no-frills Welsh film produced in association with SBS Australia and distributed by Siren Visual.

The documentary itself is made up entirely of mostly still images alternating sporadically with talking heads; religious scholars, theologians and reverends. Directed by Greg Moodie and written and produced by Dave Flitton, it was researched by Eibhleann Ni Ghriofa, Deirdre Learmont and Craig McGregor. It’s an impressive and very open-minded account and offers some fantastic insight into the evolution; the hows and whys the spectre of the Devil has existed and morphed through the ages from the dawn of civilization through to the new millennium.

So just what is exposed and discussed?

The Devil, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, the Beast, the Dark One, the Prince of Darkness, Diabolus, Old Nick, Satan. He’s had many names. As it turns out the Satan is probably the oldest tag. It means “the accused”. He was a servant of God in Heaven, and wasn’t evil. It was the Persians, 3000 years ago, under Zoroaster’s teachings that essentially reduced the deities down to two: good and evil.

The Greeks had Hades who ruled the underworld. Although he wasn’t particularly liked by the other Gods, and had a disgruntled disposition, he was not evil by nature. He was more of a God of justice, deciding whether the dead should be punished for bad deeds or patted on the back for good ones. Hades did however provide the Devil with his inherent moodiness and powers of damnation.

Along the way The Devil and Hell’s characteristics plucked from this and that. The fires of Hell originated from Gehenna in Jerusalem, where a huge rubbish dump in the valley of Hinnom was frequently set alight and would often burn for days sometimes weeks. The New Testament’s explanation of the Beast baring the number 666 is apparently a reference to the Roman Emperor Nero (by adding the letter values in Hebrew ’Neron Caesar’ adds up to 666). 

By the time Christianity was in full swing the Devil was black with talons as feet and huge dragon-wings. The Church used the Devil as a way of staying in power, basically a scare-mongering tactic. Armageddon was when the big show-down would take place between the Devil and the Second Coming, and if you weren’t on the right side you’d feel the heat.

Pan gets panned.

It was inevitable that witch-hunts would escalate as the Church sought to find scapegoats to illustrate the insidious evil doings of the Devil. Pan, the God of rejoicing and love-making (amongst other things) was bastardized and the Devil mutated into having horns and hairy goat’s legs and hooved feet. He’d become the great wicked seducer, and spawned incubi and succubi (male and female demons that raped innocent and pure of heart people as they slept). 

During the Middle Ages, after 1000 years of Christian rule, the diabolical Inquisition was instated and over the next 300 years anywhere between 60,000 to 300,000 innocent people were accused of being witches or involved in witchcraft and killed (usually burned alive at the stake). The superstitious date of Friday the 13th stems from this period (from the year 1307). Necromancy was a dangerous past-time, and women were the most susceptible, apparently much more prone to temptation than men. 

Demonology was a book written by King James VI about the Devil and witchcraft. He fervently believed he was fighting a war. As a result witch-hunting intensified. A famous case was the mass executions in the township of Salem, America where 150 people were arrested and 19 were hanged or crushed to death. Years later the Jury apologized and rested the blame on the Devil. The event was made popular to modern audiences in the play The Crucible.

The ‘80s produced conspiracy with the Satanic Panic; supposed child kidnappings and sacrifices which spread like hellfire across America. But authorities dismissed it as mostly the product of hysteria; it seems human nature lends itself to this kind of behavior, especially in this exponentially-curved age of telecommunications.

Apparently in a recent survey 50% of Americans believe in the Devil. I’m sure the events of 9/11 didn’t do much to dispel that belief. The whole “us and them” concept was compounded and hammered over Americans’ heads; President Bush’s Axis of Evil being the centerpiece. In fact, the War on Terror crusade is uncannily like the witch-hunts of hundreds of years ago; arresting and detaining without real reason and the torture. Osama Bin Laden became the new face of Satan.

The History of the Devil is a fascinating account of the lengths and measures the civilized world has gone to with its invention and manipulation of the Devil; a creation that has rebounded and allowed humankind to commit the most terrible atrocities against each other. Sure, Satan has been an interesting element to use throughout literature and beyond as a figure of poetic license to represent evil, but it seems humankind can’t shake the ghost. The Devil it seems, in all his grotesque glory, is here to stay.





bored and chatty for once. any questions?

not that im interesting but feel free to ask.