whynot: etc: oh deer (AWOOGA)
Las ([personal profile] whynot) wrote2010-02-06 08:00 am

if i can stand up to angels and men / i'll never get swallowed in darkness again

This is not the research I am looking for.

I was trawling through a Hetalia ficcer's LJ for Inglourious Basterds fic (as one does) and in one post she was like, "Guys, check out this Sacred-Texts.com! It's got books of blahblahblah and blahblahblah and also Enochian magic, so I am swooning geekily right now," and I'm like hey? 'Cos geeky swoons over Enochian stuff are up-and-coming in my world right now.

Through the magic of internet, I have turned a quest for WW2 AU slash into a trip through Angelology 101.


-- Holy shit, is this like a sample of Bobby Singer's library?? 'Cos it's all THE RITUAL OF THE HEPTAGRAM and SUMMONING THE CACODEMONS and other things you need to write pretentious angel lore fic. Which I don't have any plans of writing, but kind of wish I did now. Then I saw that these books were published in the 80s and I was like LOL, eighties. But I guess they're older than that...? Pardon my ignorance: what do ecclesiologists and theologians make of this Enochian stuff? What's its role in the Abrahamic religions?

-- Then I saw that a bunch of these texts reference John Dee. I was like who is John Dee? John Dee was a motherfucking badass advisor to Elizabeth I, back in the day. "Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. ... Dee did not draw distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations into Hermetic magic, angel summoning and divination. Instead he considered all of his activities to constitute different facets of the same quest: the search for a transcendent understanding of the divine forms which underlie the visible world, which Dee called "pure verities". ... In his lifetime Dee amassed the largest library in England and one of the largest in Europe." YOU TELL 'EM, JOHN DEE. EVERYTHING IS JUST SCIENCE AND ANGELS TO YOU.

So, okay, then I was like what the hell is up with angels?

-- What I learned about Islamic angels: 1) they have no free will, 2) I ship Raqib/Atid, and 3) I will not be surprised if Raphael's trumpet comes into play in Supernatural.

-- What I learned about Satan: in Judaism, his name means 'the prosecutor'. "In the book of Job (Iyov), ha-satan ("the accuser") is the title of an angel submitted to God. In Judaism ha-satan does not make evil, rather points out to God the evil inclinations and actions of humankind. In essence ha-satan has no power unless humans do evil things." Talk about sympathy for the (non-)devil. Also, he and God are gambling buddies apparently!

-- What I learned about the name Lucifer: The name Lucifer is etymologically related to Eosphorus (aka PHOSPHORUS lol) of ancient Greece, called the Morning Star, son of the dawn goddess Eos. He's got a brother Hesperus. "Hesperus is the personification of the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. His name is sometimes conflated with the names for his brother ... since they are all personifications of the same planet Venus." Which in my mind translates to LUCIFER --> VENUS therefore LOVE. LUCIFER IS LOVE.

-- And then I was like, what the hell was up with Enoch? What was his deal? Aside from... ascending to become the Metatron. Enoch was six generations down from Adam. He is the son of one JARED and I am not writing crackfic SPN RPF AU, guys, I won't do it. (facepalm)

There is so much to absorb! Different angelic hierarchies! The seven heavens! (This site has lulzy angel pictures!) Uses of holy oils! WHO IN THE WHAT NOW ENOCHIAN DICTIONARY. Oh man. Everything in this post is a fic bunny. Stop it, self. Just stop. And these are just the Abrahamic stuff, we haven't even covered my personal canon of how all (ALL) the pantheons have to share the cosmos and this results in a lot of pouty faces.
ext_7893: (Dean-Cas)

[identity profile] mikes-grrl.livejournal.com 2010-02-06 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Sacred-texts is one of those sites I purposefully avoid because TIME SINK OF EPIC PROPORTIONS. And, RABID PLOT BUNNIES!

There is so much angel and demon lore out there, it makes my head spin. My big_bang fic is soaked with it, thus making me run screaming every time I open the file. *sighhhhhh* One thing is beauty: there is so much conflicting mythology, and SPN whisked so much up, that at least no one can call me on being inaccurate. *face!palm*

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
SO MUCH TIME SINK. So much lore! Ooh, what is your Big Bang about?
ext_7893: (Dean-Cas)

[identity profile] mikes-grrl.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, send in a rescue team!

Here on my big_bang:
http://mikes-grrl.livejournal.com/138130.html
(the winner was Black Celebration)

[identity profile] zempasuchil.livejournal.com 2010-02-06 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
RESEARCH IS LOVE

I wonder about the Venus thing - like, is that another one of the smashing-the-old-religion things that the Jehovah cult does? Like, you know, trees and snakes that represent fertility cults becoming evil in Eden? Because, for example, in Mesoamerica, Venus is associated with Quetzalcoatl, the good white god who is actually pretty analogous to Christ. Obviously the Old Testament is not reacting to religion of the Americas, but if it happened there maybe it happened that way somewhere else too? Venus is a bright shiny planet that is most visible at the summer solstice, right? agriculture = total fertility cult. Which is what the nomadic pastoral Israelites are wanting to bring down. HMMM SPECULATION.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Looooooove. Hmm, against the snakes and fertility cults! I like this idea. Even if the Old Testament didn't mean it, that is too much good symbolism to pass up. STUPID AGRICULTURE, why cannot everyone have a more Protestant ethic??

[identity profile] lettersandliars.livejournal.com 2010-02-06 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
in latin, lucifer translates literally to 'carrier of light,' and i love love love what z said about venus and quetzalcoatl. what i'm getting out of this is that something meaning light evolved into something meaning evil, which, when we bring venus into it, also goes as far as to say love is evil? (also, i swear i've seen ha-satan referred to as 'the illuminator' somewhere which just makes my brain go SKDGHL;KSJHSL;)

i think your talking about religion is my favorite thing on the internet, no lie.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
<3

Man, how is it that sometimes it's like, "Things that are awesome suck!"

[identity profile] lazaefair.livejournal.com 2010-02-06 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
What I hate most about my life right now is that I'm so busy and so logged with stuff I need to know and do for my classes/work/other shit that I have no time or brainpower to just roll through archives like this and learn about random knowledge for hours on end. D: Waaaaah.

[identity profile] 22by7.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
Reading this post made me smile fondly, because it was like a trip to the past. This was me, one year back!

[identity profile] 22by7.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
And you know how I feel about pantheons sharing the cosmos. When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers...

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2010-02-07 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I actually didn't know how you feel, but now I do! And like, the suffering grass would make for a good story, I bet. How is SPN so addictive?