Daily Strange's hell-like dimensions: Field of Vampiric Demons & Demonographers

Daily Strange's Hell-Like Dimensions (Picture Source: PINTEREST)

As a writer, editor, and compiler of DAILY STRANGE, it is my goal to contribute to the DAILY STRANGE in the fields of anthropology, folklore, mythology, demonology, ufology, astrology, and religions. Being a professional vampirologist— a mythologist who specializes in cross-cultural vampire studies — I have come across a number of vampiric entities who were also described as being demonic in nature. According to their original mythologies, these infernal, vampiric demons were said to have been created in a hell-like dimension or were described as being agents of evil who worked directly against the best interests of humanity. There are not so great a number of vampiric species that are demonic or demon like in their nature or behavior, but the few that do exist and which were cataloged in my previous contents on here the DAILY STRANGE did pique my interest. As is often the case, a little research turned into a great deal of research, and the DAILY STRANGE began to write itself.

Demonology, the study of demons, has been in and out of vogue with mankind over the centuries. Its acceptability as a subject has varied depending on how threatening the changing, ruling religious powers deemed it. For example, King Solomon, the much famed last king of the united kingdom of Israel, was a man of great influence, wealth, and wisdom; he is credited with having ordered and overseen the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem. This is covered in the pseudo graphical work The Testament of Solomon, which describes quite clearly how the king was empowered by God to summon and bind numerous demons to work on the temple’s construction. Obviously, not only was it acceptable for a king to bind and utilize demons as a labor force, he had them working side by side with his human construction crews.

Solomon was not the only king who was concerned about and confronted by demons. Before King James the First acceded to the throne of England in 1603, he had written and published a book entitled Demonologies. In it, he speaks on the subject of witchcraft and the witches’ relationship with the DEVIL. He discloses how these people, most often women, conspire to summon up the Devil and barter their souls for a pittance of power and ability. He mentions how they often become a demonic FAMILIAR, a companion gifted to someone by the Prince of Darkness, and how taking up the profession of witch finding and hunting is both noble and necessary. As can be imagined, many witches were slain under his rule, even though the religion he embraced as his own clearly stated in the Epistle to the Romans (8:38–9) that neither sorcery nor witchcraft has the power to harm a Christian. This claim is based on the belief that when Christ died and was resurrected he simultaneously defeated all the forces of evil for all time. Nevertheless, in Demonologies, James went on to very carefully and meticulously describe the fine line between a scientific scholar who studied the course of the stars, namely an astronomer, and an internally aligned individual, an astrologer, who— empowered by demons (knowingly or not) — pretended through his ignorance to interpret their course across the night sky and explain how those movements relate to man and help predict a person’s future. Throughout his life, King James was obsessed with witches and their demonic familiars, believing they were constantly plotting to kill him.

As you can see with the study of demonology, timing is everything. It is fascinating that these two kings, separated by two thousand years of history, both list the names, abilities, and, in some cases, the physical attributes of the demons of which they spoke. They made, in essence, a very brief demonologia, a dissertation on demons. And they were not alone: many others before and since have done the same. Of special note are the French judge and DEMONOGRAPHER Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre, who conducted the witch hunts of 1609 under the order of King Henry the Eighth; Pierre Leloyers, who authored Discourse and Histories about Specters, Visions, and Apparitions, of Spirits, Angels, Demons, and Souls that appeared visibly to Men; and Johann Wierus, a Dutch demonologist and physician, who in his moral publications was among the first to speak out against the persecution of witches. He is also the author of the influential works De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis and Pseudomonarchia Daemonum.

It is not just in Christianity and Judaism that we find lists of demons and infernal servitors, but also Ashurism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Kemetic, Vodou, and Zoroastrianism. Demons appear in the mythologies and lore of virtually every ancient society, such as the ancient Africans, Assyrians, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Mayans, Persians, Romans, and Scythians, to name just a few.

There are a great number of books on the market that tell of individuals who claim to have been possessed by demons, as well as of people who admit to being able to drive infernal beings out of these afflicted souls. There are a handful of books that proved very useful. Gustav Davidson’s A Dictionary of Angels Including the Fallen Angels is a first-rate resource for anyone’s personal library. As the title indicates, it lists the angels who were driven out of Heaven during the Fall as well as those from Enochian lore, the Watcher Angels (see WATCHERS), who exorcized what can only be described as free will (a blessing man alone is alleged to have) and chose to leave of their own accord when they opted to take a human woman as a wife. This book also contains an impressive bibliography and a useful appendix with samples of angelic scripts, demonic seals and pacts (see DIABOLICAL SIG- NATURE), the various names of LILITH, the unholy sephiroth, and a list of fallen angels (see FALLEN ANGELS).

Francesso Maria Guazzo’s Compendium Maleficarum and Daemonologie by King James the First of England do not name the most demons but are essential in understanding how demons and witches are aligned and work against mankind. Two other books that list and describe demons are Fred Gettings’s Dictionary of Demons and Mack and Mack’s A Field Guide to Demons.

Books like The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey and the King James Bible had to be used sparingly because they are religious texts with content not only heavily flavored by opinion but also unverifiable by other sources. A favorite book on demons was written by Wade Baskin, but it is often overlooked because of its sensationalized title: Satanism: A Guide to the Awesome Power of Satan. I prefer this book because it contains short, brief descriptions and definitions with no hyperbole, opinion, fictional characters (such as the demons from the John Milton poem Paradise Lost), or erroneous entries. It is brilliant in that it is straight forward, simple, and concise in its nature.

Some of the most knowledgeable people in the field of demonology have never been recognized for their contributions. For example; Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Steven Ashe, Wade Baskin, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Augustin Calmet, Joseph Campbell, Richard Cavendish, Robert Henry Charles, Jacques-Albin-Simon Collin de Plancy, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Heinrich Kramer, Manfred Lurker, Anthony Master, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and Jacob Sprenger.

#demons #demonology #vampirologist #demonologia #demonographer #vampiricdemons #vampiricentities #entities #fallenangels #lucifer #devil #satan #witchcraft #witch

From the Innocent Souls: The Devil's Contortions (Demons and Exorcism)

From The Innocent Souls: The Devil's Contortions (Demons and Exorcism)

For reasons unknown, perfectly normal people sometimes suddenly exhibit a dramatic change of being. Their actions become violent and seemingly inhuman. They may expel foul substances, utter shocking profanities, make strange animal sounds, and distort their bodies in extraordinary ways. In some circles such actions are considered to be evidence of possession by the Devil, for which the only antidote is the ritual of exorcism.

In 1865 something ghastly entered the lives of two young boys in the small town of Illfurth, in Alsace, France. They were Joseph and Theobald Bruner, nearly 8 and 10 years old respectively, the sons of a farmer. According to records kept by Father Karl Brey, the parish priest, the first signs that something was seriously wrong with the children were their fascination with diabolic things and their aversion to anything of a religious nature:

While lying in their bed, the children used to turn to the wall, paint horrible Devil faces on it, and then speak to the faces and play with them. If, while one of the possessed was asleep, a rosary was placed on his bed, he would immediately hide under the covers and refuse to come out of hiding until the rosary was removed.

More extraordinary were the physical contortions the boys underwent.

They entangled their legs every two or three hours in an unnatural way. They knotted them so intricately that it was impossible to pull them apart. And yet, suddenly, they could untangle them with lightning speed. At times the boys stood simultaneously on their heads and legs, bent backwards, their bodies arched high. No amount of outside pressure could bring their bodies into a normal position—until the Devil saw fit to give these objects of his torture some temporary peace.

By these and other bizarre manifestations Father Brey was persuaded that the brothers were the victims of demonic possession.

At times, their bodies became bloated as if about to burst; when this happened, the boy would vomit, whereby yellow foam, feathers, and seaweed would come out of his mouth. Often, their clothes were covered with evil smelling feathers....

No matter how often their shirts and outer clothing were changed, new feathers and seaweed would appear. These feathers, which covered their bodies in some inexplicable way, filled the air with such a stench that they had to be burned. …

If further evidence that the boys were in the grip of a supernatural power had been needed, it was given in their frequent displays of clairvoyance.

"The Witches' Sabbath" (1828), Louis Boulanger

Theobald several times predicted the death of a person correctly. Two hours before the death of a Frau Muller, the boy knelt by his bed and acted as if he were ringing a mourning bell. Another time he did the same thing for a whole hour. When he was asked for whom he was ringing, the boy answered, “For Gregor Kunegel.” As it happened, Kunegel's daughter was visiting in the house. Shocked and angry, she told Theobald, “You liar, my father is not even ill. He is working on the new boys’ seminary building as a mason.” Theobald answered, “That may be, but he just had a fall. Go ahead and check on it!” The facts bore him out. The man had fallen from a scaffold, breaking his neck. This happened at the very moment that Theobald made the bell-ringing motions. No one in Illfurth had been aware of the accident.

When their parents and Father Karl Brey decided that exorcism was the only effective way of helping the boys, Theobald was sent to the St. Charles Orphanage at Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. The orphanage was run by nuns, and its superior was one Father Stumpf. For the first three days after his arrival, Theobald—or the diabolic entity was silent, but on the fourth day he said, “I have come, and I am in a rage.” One of the nuns asked, “And who are you?” A nonhuman voice answered: “I am the Lord of Darkness!” Later on Joseph was also sent to the orphanage.

Throughout the prolonged period of exorcism, performed by Father Stumpf, the demonic possession of the two brothers was manifested in many ways. Both boys, for instance, became infested with red head lice, which multiplied so quickly that three or four people with brushes and combs were not able to keep pace with them. Eventually, the priest poured holy water on the vermin, and they disappeared.

In all, the possession of Theobald and Joseph Bruner lasted four years before they were freed by the rites of exorcism. Theobald died two years later, on April 3, 1871, when he was 16. Joseph, in whom the symptoms had been less severe, died in 1882.

SOURCE: Demon Children, Martin Ebon, ed., pp.131-39

#possession #exorcism #ritual #enigmaticentities #demon #poltergeist

Mad Monday Discussions; Demonic Possession, Epilepsy, or Hysteria? Mystery behind the mystery

''Paranoia'' by Ankel Volkov (Buy this art from the link)

As far as many doctors and psychiatrists are concerned, the diagnosis of demonic possession is one that reeks of medieval superstition and ignorance, and the symptoms that lead to it are subject either to a wide range of medical and psychiatric interpretations or to being dismissed as misperceptions or hallucinations.

Other medical and psychological conditions likely to produce symptoms confused with those of possession are epilepsy, hysteria, and multiple personality. During a convulsive seizure, a person with epilepsy can experience extreme muscular rigidity and foam at the mouth and is sometimes subject to rapid back-and- forth head movements. The face may be distorted, and strange, guttural noises may be produced by a spasm of the throat muscles. During the period immediately before a seizure, the patient may experience auditory and visual hallucinations and various sensory distortions. Most seizures last no more than five minutes.

All these symptoms may also be present in a person diagnosed by the church as suffering from possession. But there are distinguishing characteristics. The first of these is that a demonic attack can continue for many hours. Extreme liveliness, rather than rigidity, is characteristic and muscular reflexes tend to be strong.

According to the Roman Ritual, other signs of possession include “the ability to speak with some familiarity in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; and the display of powers which are beyond the subject's age and natural condition.”

Hysteria also produces many of the symptoms of possession. The following description of a female hysteric was recorded at the turn of the century by Prof. Paul Richter, a doctor at La Salpetriere, a famous hospital in Paris for mental disturbances:

Suddenly, we heard loud cries and shouting. Her body, which went through a series of elaborate motions, was either in the throes of wild gyrations or catatonically motionless. Her legs became entangled, then disentangled, her arms twisted and disjointed, her wrists bent. Some of her fingers were stretched out straight, while others were twisted. The body was either bent in a semicircle or loose-limbed. Her

head was at times thrown to the right or left or, when thrown backward with vehemence, seemed to emerge from a bloated neck. The face alternately mirrored horror, anger, and sometimes fury; it was bloated and showed shades of violet in its coloration....

One of the most striking details in this description is that of the body “bent in a semicircle.” This is also known as the hysterical arch and is frequently seen in cases of possession. All the other symptoms described above have been observed by exorcists. In addition, the appearance of livid marks on the skin — sometimes resembling bites, letters, or graphic symbols — are also known to be produced by hysterics. Given this partial duplication of symptoms, how does the church distinguish between hysteria and possession? The determining factor is the context in which the symptoms occur. If they arise in relationship with a hatred of religious objects, and if they are accompanied by paranormal phenomena (the ability to detect religious objects that have been hidden, to understand languages never learned, to levitate, and so on), the church is likely to consider them manifestations of the Devil.

As mysterious as hysteria, and as likely to be confused with possession, is the multiple personality, in which the patient may at different times manifest one, two, three, or even more different personalities — each with its own goals, likes, dislikes, speech patterns, and memories. Each personality may be indifferent or opposed to the others, or ignorant of them. If one or more should have a diabolic cast, the church has no means of determining whether to treat the case as possession other than the criteria it applies to distinguish hysteria from possession.

Those criteria are the hatred of religious objects and the paranormal phenomena referred to earlier, and they are precisely the phenomena that many doctors and psychiatrists are likely to reject as misperceptions or hallucinations on the part of witnesses. Those less skeptical, on the other hand, are likely to view such things as para psychological but not as the work of demons. Again, the church’s test is likely to be whether or not the paranormal manifestations occur in the context of a general hatred of religion.

#possession #exorcism #poltergeist #epilepsy #hysteria #parapsychology #phenomena #paranormal #paranormalphenomena