a rambling we go…..
From the wonderful book: A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angles, & Other Subversive Spirits by Carol K. Mack & Dinah Mack
“Wang Chih was a traveler in the mountains gathering firewood when he came upon a few old men playing chess. He put down his axe and joined them. They gave him a stone to place in his mouth and, when he did, he lost all appetite and thirst. And so he played for a while. After some games, one of the other players said that perhaps it was time for Wang Chih to return home. He turned to get his axe but it was only dust. He left and returned to his village to find that many, many centuries had passed. So he returned to the mountain and practiced Taoism until he himself became an Immortal.”
Not unlike starting a weblog….
Anyhow, Wang Chih had a chance encounter with Mountain Fairies, perhaps on one of China’s five sacred mountains. In such a nexus, time flows differently; and it was not by his intention or even wisdom that he stumbled across it.
This is lore, my friends and fellow travelers, where demons lurk in the outer bounds: the mysterious seas, the sacred mountains, the teeming forests, and the harsh deserts. The further out one goes (alone and at night), the more wild and powerful the dark forces manifest… and the greater the treasure. The cartographers of old used to mark the uncharted lands simply as ‘where dragons lie’. Yet, is such a distance measured only in footsteps? Or could the supernatural inflect in other ways? As Carol and Dinah Mack explain, “the Other World surrounds us like undetectable ether.”
From Japanese Oni’s to Arabian Djinns, the Teutonic Nixie to the Greek Pan, demons manifest in all cultures and all stories. They are “the essence of human storytelling… Without the choice between the demonic and, for lack of a better word, the angelic, there can be no moral to the story. there cannot even be a plot. There can be no story without internal or external struggle; no hero without antagonist; no pain, no gain; no quelling, no quest. The demon is always a challenge.”
Behold the demon lord, Ravana, who, according to the Hindu epic, Ramayana, has ”ten heads, twenty arms, and fiercely burning eyes…. an almost invulnerable, champion shapeshifter… (who) can break mountains with bare hands and create storms at sea…. When he was born, the universe filled with hideous shrieking noises. His mother was the daughter of a demon chief, and his father was a saint she had tempted in mid-prayer.”
These are awesome and terrible forces, and they are not to be ignored or taken lightly. Carol and Dinah Mack warn, “When they crave they are relentless and almost unstoppable” and “outrageous in wrath“. They “are driven entirely by instinct” and embody “unconscious desires, unbridled lust, and gluttony… the distilled incarnations of our most havoc-wreaking emotions.” They are as seductive as they are powerful, manifesting at times in shadows, and ensnaring the unwise. The apostle Paul writes in Romans, “ What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate” and “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.”
Have you ever encountered a demon? Have you ever been bewitched? Have you ever unsheathed your sword in the darker strata of the psyche? You are a deep soul, my dear friend. Our most sacred stories show us that perceiving and overcoming the demonic is our rite of passage to the treasure. Such things are far beyond blog posts, wikipedia, science, and even words. They move in another sphere.
Yet ramble on I must! Let us consult our guide, “The human hero has the light of day as well as reason on his side because most demons are doomed to vanish at dawn.” There is something inherently human that can overpower even the greatest of demon lords. Mack and Mack explain further “love is so alien (to demons) it can melt them” and “When human heroes use consciousness, reason, love, and compassion as their ‘weapons’ the demon is rendered helpless.”
We are all heroes in our own journeys. We all have our own personal adversary and our own personal treasure upon overcoming. May the grace sown in your own hearts lead you to victory.
Thanks for reading and Godspeed!
* All italicized quotes are from the above link. Well worth the read.
(Update 6-17 1:44am Edited a sentence and changed a link)
