Nonetheless, Buddhist mythology does have the figure of Mara, the Lord of Illusion, a demonic deity whose name means “thirst” or “death” who sought to tempt Buddha away from the path of enlightenment in much the same way that Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the desert of Judea. Buddhism did not divide reality between ideas of absolute good and evil in fact the teachings of the Buddha explicitly sought to break people out of this way of thinking. Oil painting by Fra Angelico, circa 1431.Įvery culture has had to deal with the concept of evil in some fashion. Bottom: Satan depicted in The Last Judgment devouring the damned. Top: Lucifer raising the rebellion in heaven in Paradise Lost. But whether he is portrayed a character of black humor or extreme terror, he is always an enemy of humanity who unequivocally represents our understanding of evil. He has appeared as a foul beast or a smiling trickster, as a beautiful angel Lucifer the light bearer or a horned demon more animal than anything resembling a human. He often appeared as the darker side of the internal decision-making process of characters in Saturday morning cartoons. In my lifetime, he’s been played by a variety of actors: George Burns ( Oh God, You Devil) Al Pacino ( The Devil’s Advocate) Robert De Niro ( Angel Heart) Jack Nicholson ( The Witches of Eastwick) and Elizabeth Hurley ( Bedazzled). We’ve seen him in the most terrifying paintings from throughout our history to the earliest days of film. The Devil goes by many names: Belial, Beelzebub, The Lord of the Flies, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus, Baphomet, Nicholas Scratch, The Father of Lies and of course, Satan. I spent many hours of the night watching my bedroom window closely just in case that foul beast decided to venture out and come for me. When an older kid named Bobby who rode on my bus told me that an old dilapidated storefront a few blocks from our neighborhood was one of the Devil’s dwelling places and a gateway to our world from hell, I was primed to believe him and often laid awake at night in terror that Old Scratch was so close by. Compounded with the fact that I was an avid watcher of horror films and reader of books and comics that featured the fallen angel as a deadly villain, Satan scared me in a way that other monsters couldn’t. Not only did some grown ups tell me that The Devil existed, but they warned me that he presented a very grave threat to my very existence. I am a product of several years of Catholic education and, although the modern Church (particularly in the liberal Northeastern US) doesn’t focus as heavily on the Prince of Darkness, my teachers never denied his existence, either. But one terrifying entity that haunted my darkest nightmares was an exception. As is the case for most children, adults around me were always explaining how ghosts and witches were not real and so whatever, my emotional reactions to scary movies, there was always a rational voice inside saying “don’t be afraid”. I should be clear that even as a kid I never entertained much belief in malevolent supernatural beings. If you’ve read any of the previous ten installments of this series, you’ve probably figured out that I have a bit of a thing for monsters. The Synaptic History of Halloween Part 31: Terror from Beyond the Stars, A History of Alien Invasions.The Synaptic History of Halloween Part 32: Haunted Airwaves, the Golden Age of Horror Radio.The Synaptic History of Halloween Part 33: “Upon that Night, when Fairies Light,” A Celtic History of Halloween.The Synaptic History of Halloween Part 34: The Kids Aren’t Alright, A History of Creepy Children.The Synaptic History of Christmas Part 11: Santa’s Better Half, the Story of Mrs. Claus.
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