Are we Leagion?

  A sweet innocent looking girl vomits split pea soup in a fire hose like manner, attempting to quiet the angry Latin words of a Catholic priest holding tight to his crucifix and tighter to his faith. As both are under attack for this vile abomination dragged up from the pits of hell and given life in the flash of the foolish mortal that strayed far enough from god’s path to fall prey to the temptations of the adversary.

Like many people this scene from the popular movie is one that stays with you. Regardless of your views on faith and the church, in 1973 when The Exorcist premiered in theaters it had a profound effect on the general masses inspiring a generation to “satanic panic” as it was later coined.

With its new found popularity in the media the fallen host’s of heaven were given a fame they likely wouldn’t have any other way.

The questions about them barely scratch the surface of people’s fascinations with them. But the church has a few nice neat answers in response to the out poring of public interest and fear.

Q: What is a demon?

CA: A demons are fallen angels that join with Lucifer in defiance of god, and for this crime were cast in to hell where they serve the lord of lies in tempting mortal men away from the path of Jesus.

Q: Can a demon inhabit your body and take you over? 

CA: Possessions While rare according to the church, can and does still happen. What qualifies you as genuinely possessed changes from one denomination to another. Great acts of evil and exploration of the Occult, or pagan religions are reputed to be the gate way most commonly used by demons to enter a good person.

Malevolent spirits are not a Christian only concept. The Middle East has had tales of the Iferet, there is also the yin and yang spirits of Shinto, the Babylonian Daemon or strange spirit, Celtic Unseelie fey and many many others.

In most religions there is a flip side to the glorious and all loving benefactor. This is true in almost every religion that has a divine structure, or ordered and ranked to their heaven.

In general when more the one religion agrees or has the same intrinsic view of a subject I tend to believe that there is a thread of truth that though the details vary on in the middle of lay some truth. But on this one I am not so sure and here is why.

The concept that evil has a face is a self comforting notion. The quintessential “devil made me do it” response in which a person places responsibility for their darker impulses on some unseen force outside of their control, is a covenant way to absolve yourself of a bad behavior that you might other wise have no way of processing.

Because it so easy to point the finger at what ever vile boogie man you like, we over look another concept shared by many faiths. The duality of man. good and evil existing in one person in equal parts. We of course would like to believe that we are all good or at least marginally better then are darker self. But to give over to the concept that nothing bad done is truly are fault because some silent menace is really to blame: To is both spiritually stunting and a copout.

Own your darkness and shame the devil.