Beelzebub

Beelzebub ( /biːˈɛlzɨbʌb/ bee-el-zə-bub or /ˈbiːlzɨbʌb/ beel-zə-bub; (Arabic: بعل ألذباب‎, Ba‘al Azabab; Hebrew: בעל זבוב‎, Baʿal Zəbûb, literally "Lord of the Flies"; Greek: Βεελζεβούλ, Beelzeboúl; Latin: Beelzebūb), with numerous archaic variants, is a Semitic deity that was worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron. In later Christian and Biblical sources he appears as a demon and the name of one of the seven princes of Hell.

Beelzebub is commonly described as placed high in Hell's hierarchy; he was of the order of cherubim. According to the stories of the 16th century occultist, Johann Weyer, Beelzebub led a successful revolt against Satan, and is the chief lieutenant of Lucifer, the Emperor of Hell, and presides over the Order of the Fly. Similarly, the 17th century exorcist, Sebastien Michaelis, in his Admirable History (1612), placed Beelzebub among the three most prominent fallen angels, the other two being Lucifer and Leviathan, whereas two 18th century works identified an unholy trinity consisting of Beelzebub, Lucifer, and Astaroth. John Milton featured Beelzebub as seemingly the second-ranking of the many fallen cherubim in the epic poem Paradise Lost, first published in 1667. Wrote Milton of Beelzebub "than whom, Satan except, none higher sat." Beelzebub is also a character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678.

Sebastien Michaelis associated Beelzebub with the deadly sin of pride. However, according to Peter Binsfeld, Beelzebub was the demon of gluttony, one of the other seven deadly sins, whereas Francis Barrett asserted that Beelzebub was the prince of false gods. In any event, Beelzebub was frequently named as an object of supplication by confessed witches. Within religious circles the accusation of demon possession has been used as both an insult and an attempt to categorise unexplained behavior. Not only have the Pharisees disparagingly accused Jesus of using Beelzebub's demonic powers to heal people (Luke 11v14-26) but others have been labeled possessed for acts of an extreme nature. Down through history Beelzebub has been held responsible for many cases of demon possession such as that of Sister Madeleine de Demandolx de la Palud , Aix-en-Provence 1611, whose relationship with Father Jean-Baptiste Gaufridi led not only to countless traumatic events at the hands of her inquisitors but also to the torture and execution of that "bewitcher of young nuns" Gaufridi himself. Beelzebub was also imagined to be sowing his influence in Salem, Massachusetts: his name came up repeatedly during the Salem witch trials, the last large-scale public expression of witch hysteria in North America or Europe, and afterwards Rev. Cotton Mather wrote a pamphlet entitled Of Beelzebub and his Plot.

Beelzebub from Russian icon of Harrowing of Hell.

In the aftermath of the 1634 Loudun possessions, as the priest Urbain Grandier was burnt at the stake, onlookers saw a fly appear and alleged it was Beelzebub fetching his soul.

2012: The Year of the Dragon

Far off, unknown, beyond the range of thought,
scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother,
stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast,
is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses,
the Cave, consuming all things with slow power,
and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours,
the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces,
its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits,
the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely,
and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits.
A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws.
He fixes the number of stars in every constellation,
makes some of them move and others hang at rest.
So all things live or die by predetermined laws...
When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold,
Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent
grey hairs to the proud rays.

Claudian (c. 370-408), Roman poet

Of all the world's monsters, the dragon appears to be the most universal. Dragons appear in the early literature of the English, German, Irish, Danish, Norse, Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, and Egyptians - and in oral tales from every inhabited corner of the globe.

The word "dragon" is derived from the Latin dracon, which came from the Greek word for serpent, spakov. Spakov can be traced to the Greek aorist verb, spakelv meaning "sharp-sighted one" (a reference to the perceived good vision of snakes), and is related to many other ancient words to do with sight, such as darc (Sanskrit for see), derc (Old Irish for eye), torht (Old Saxon) and zoraht (Old High German) which both mean clear, or bright.

The distinctions between words that describe dragons and snakes are often blurred, and are to some degree interchangeable. The old German word for dragon, "lindwurm", literally means "snake-worm" The ancient Anglo-Saxon word "wyrm" has been translated as meaning any of "dragon," "serpent," or "worm". An English folktale which dates back to the early fifteenth century tells of Sir John Lambton battling "the Worm." The original story makes no mention of this "worm" having legs. Early pictorial representations of dragons were almost always shown as large snakes, but from the sixteenth century onward images associated with the Lambton story are of four-legged dragons. We must consider ancient dragons to be more like giant serpents, and less like the more modern fantasy images that we know so well from role-playing games and books like The Hobbit.

The Bible interchanges the words dragon and serpent liberally.

"When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child."

"Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth."

(Revelation 12:7)

The themes of chaos and disaster are often linked to dragon lore, as well as the processes of fertility and re-birth, and the revolutions of the cosmos.

Ouroboros

Dragons or serpents having importance in the cosmos are present in most ancient cultures. Also common is the image of a serpent swallowing its own tail. It is commonly known as the Ouroborus/ Uroboros.

	Graeco-Byzantine The image is from The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra - an alchemical tome. The words in the centre mean "the all is one". The dark and light halves represent the same opposing principles as the Chinese yin and yang.
	Greek Old Sages by the Figure of the Snake Encircled thus did oft expression make Of Annual-Revolutions; and of things, Which wheele about in everlasting-rings; There ending, where they first of all begun .. ...These Roundells, help to shew the Mystery of that immense and blest Eternitie, From whence the CREATURE sprung, and into whom It shall again, with full perfection come .
	Aztec ( image of unknown source)
	North American Indians A ceremonial disk found at Moundville, Alabama, USA (diameter 12.5 inches) [curious about the eye in the hand? Visit http://www.darkfiber.com/eyeinhand/ - a very large single page]

The Ouroborus was known as far back as the twenty-first dynasty in Egypt, on the papyrus of Dama Heroub. It shows up in alchemical texts such as Chrysopoeia and Codex Marcianus, and the Greeks used it to symbolise the universe. It represents the revolutions of the cosmos, an eternal cycle of destruction and renewal. It shows catastrophism and the re-emergence of life at its most basic.

[1] Claudian, full name Claudius Claudianus (c. 370-408), Roman poet. This passage ends the second book of his poem, On the Consulship of Stilicho

[2] George Wither's A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (London, 1635)

Water Legends

In Greek mythology, Scylla (pronounced /ˈsɪlə/,sil-uh; Greek: Σκύλλα, Skulla)^[1] was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite its counterpartCharybdis. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa.

Scylla was a horrible sea monster with six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve tentacle-like legs and a cat's tail and with four to six dog-heads ringing her waist. She was one of the children of Phorcys and either Hecate, Crataeis,Lamia or Ceto (all of whom may be various names for the same goddess). Some sources, including Stesichorus cite her parents as Triton and Lamia.

Traditionally the strait has been associated with the Strait of Messina between Italyand Sicily, but more recently this theory has been challenged, and the alternative location of Cape Scilla in northwest Greece has been suggested by Tim Severin.^[2]

The phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis" (popularly reworded "between a rock and a hard place") has come to mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger from the other.

Nils Johan Olsson Blommér

(1816–1853) was a Swedish painter. Blommér's best known works are based on Norse mythology and folklore. Näcken och Ägirs döttrar (The Water-Sprite and Ägir's Daughters)1850.

Water plays an important role in many legends and myths. There are mythological water beings and gods, stories of heroes that have something to do with water, and even stories of isles and continents lost below the surface.

Fosse grim

According to Scandinavian mythology, Fosse grim was a water spirit that played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes and streams. However, in some stories he is depicted as a harmless creature, simply entertaining men, women and children with his songs. According to myth Fosse grim even agreed to live with a human that fell in love with him, but he supposedly left after some time because he could not live away from a water source too long.

Dragon Kings

Dragon Kings were believed by the Chinese to consist of four separate dragons, each of which ruled over one of the four seas in the north, east, south and west. These Dragon Kings could shape-shift to human form, and lived in crystal palaces guarded by shrimps and crabs.

Kappas

Kappas are presumably intelligent water spirits in Japanese mythology. They are monkey-like creatures with saucer-shaped heads, long noses, and a yellowish-green skin. Kappas are said to lure children to the water and pull them under, feeding on their blood. Their main weakness is that their heads are filled with water, and when this is spilled they lose their powers.