Fear of demons may have been watered-down by shows like Supernatural, but imagine ye olde days,
when it was the faithful telling followers that, along with a hope for a better world,
there comes the promise of a much more terrifying one. Think hell isn't so scary? Think again.
If you've never heard of this entity, here's a quick crash course on the Buddhist demon known
as Mara. He's evil, no two ways about it. Mara is deception, trickery, and dishonesty incarnate,
and it's difficult to sum up just how bad he is. In short? The fourth largest religion in
the world is based, in some small part, around the fact that nobody likes Mara.
The Buddhist scriptures known as the Samyutta Nikaya tell the story of Mara attempting to sway
Gautama Buddha on his path to enlightenment by using a number of underhanded methods.
There's the basic skullduggery, like rubbing bad news about the Buddha's family in his face, and
more supernatural horrors like starting terrifying storms made of rocks and darkness and summoning a
horde of hellish monstrosities. In a particularly dastardly move, Mara is said to have sent his
three beautiful daughters, the personifications of thirst, passion, and discontentment,
to do sort of a magical burlesque show for the great teacher and try to throw him off his guard.
In the end, the Buddha overcame all that Mara threw at him, which is still pretty
inspirational in our cynical, 21st-century world. It's a story powerful and important enough that
you've probably seen depictions of it and not even been aware. Statues and paintings of the
Buddha in which he's sitting cross-legged and holding his fingers to the ground are
depicting the moment of his calling on the Earth to witness his defeat of the diabolical demon.
Nasu was known by several different names, and as them all, she was Zoroastrianism's patron
demon of death and decay. She had a nasty habit of turning into a fly and taking up residence in
the bodies of the recently deceased. After that, she'd start the process of decomposing the corpse.
And it wasn't just the dead who had to worry about her. A strict set of guidelines were
put in place to ensure that anyone handling a dead body wouldn't be tainted by Nasu's sway.
It was important that nobody handle the deceased on their own, since Nasu,
in bug form, would climb out of the body's orifices and infect her new host.
At that point, there would be no way of cleansing the still-living victim of Nasu,
and they would have to live in an area far removed from everyone else, where they would
live out their life until they were elderly and then be beheaded and given to the vultures.
Belphegor began life in the Torah as Baal of Peor, a Moabite god worshiped by Israelites.
What follows is a little of that Old Testament God wrath that you just
don't see anymore, with a five-figure death toll and plenty of weirdness.
Over the course of the next several centuries, Baal of Peor made an astonishing transformation.
He went from being a respected deity to Belphegor, a demon who liked to ensnare
potential victims by disguising himself as a little girl and offering ungodly
wealth — literally — for little effort. Honestly, as far as temptation goes,
you've got to give it to Belphegor: He pretty much had human nature figured out.
Also, and not to bury the lede, but he's a poop monster. Yeah, he's a demon who accepts poop
as an offering. Go ahead and take some time to digest that. Belphegor is more than happy to wait.
"Be right out!"
"I hope you're not using the toilet, it's broken."
Okay, so as we were saying, Belphegor is a poop demon; 19th century rabbis recorded in
the Dictionnaire Infernal –"Infernal Dictionary" reportedly said that the
way to really worship him was while doing the sort of business best done behind closed doors.
Why? He just really appreciates a good bowel movement.
Sure, he's been associated with other things, like lust, laziness, and the ability to grant wealth,
but there are some better-kept-private revelations that, once they're out there,
there's no coming back from that. Belphegor will always be a poop demon first in our hearts.
The demon known as Asmodeus appears in the Book of Tobit, a Judeo-Christian book of the Bible that's
either religious canon or apocrypha , depending on which branch of Christianity you subscribe to.
Asmodeus is said to be the "worst of the demons."
He doesn't hesitate to kill, but he did have an oddly specific weakness.
In the Book of Tobit, there's a young woman named Sarah who very much wanted to be married.
She became engaged, got married, and then — right before the consummation of
the union — Asmodeus showed up and killed her husband. As a demon of lust and carnal desire,
Asmodeus kept doing it, and appeared on seven of Sarah's wedding nights.
For her eighth attempt, Sarah married a guy named Tobias. This time, the archangel Raphael
intervened, to tell the couple how to defeat Asmodeus before he could get all stabby. When
the demon appeared on the wedding night, Tobias tossed a fish's heart and liver onto some coals,
causing smoke that caused Asmodeus to flee, all the way to Egypt. Raphael — who has
presumably had enough of this guy — tracked him down, tied him up, and strangled him.
Aamon commands 40 legions of evil spirits, and that's a whole lot of
demons doing your dirty work. However, he took a step down in the dignity
department when he was given a physical description in the 17th-century grimoire.
The Lesser Keys of Solomon calls Aamon "great in power and most strong," then goes into a visual
description that's akin to the way a troubled 8-year-old might describe a monster they were
making up on the spot. He's said to have the shape of a wolf, a serpent's tail, and a mouth
"[...] vomiting flames of fire."
No doubt understanding the importance of a good first impression,
Aamon was said to be able to take another shape, too. When commanded,
he could turn into a man. Just a regular old man. With a raven's head. And dog teeth.
For all of the buzz about demons that you get in Christianity, they're pretty thin on the
ground in the Bible itself. There's Abaddon in Revelations, an upper management type in Hell.
And then there's Legion, a collection of demons that Jesus parlays with in the Gospel of Mark,
dropping them into the bodies of pigs and then watching them commit mass suicide.
And then there's Beelzebub, a demon with roots in old Philistine religions. His
name comes up in the Bible a few times in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, where he
is closely associated with Satan. But, another translation of "Beelzebub" is "lord of the flies."
John Milton's theory, described in Paradise Lost, is that he's a lieutenant of Hell,
second in power only to Satan, which is what folks in the industry refer to as "resumé gold."
The demon showed up in the Testament of Solomon under the name "Beelzebul,"
and gleefully took responsibility for everything from causing men to worship demons,
priests to break their vows, and causing the wars that brought down entire civilizations.
More recently — relatively speaking — Beelzebub's career took a bit of a turn to the smaller scale:
During the Salem Witch Trials, he was blamed for inhabiting the bodies of the accused.
Aim is another of the demons described in The Lesser Keys of Solomon. A duke of Hell,
he's one more in the great satanic conga line of servants of Lucifer.
The closest thing to a flattering remark that can be made about Aim's physicality is sort of
a backhanded compliment. One of his heads is supposed to be a real looker. The human one.
And here's the thing: Saying one head is objectively attractive is, at the same time,
leaving out the other two. That's on purpose, because the other two heads are…
non-traditional. One is a viper and the other either a cat or a calf,
depending on the translation. He rides a snake, and is apparently able to "maketh one witty."
His main job, though, is setting things on fire. If there's one thing he loves to do,
it's that. He's said to carry a "fire brand" in his hand, so as to be able to burn cities,
castles, and "great places" to the ground.
The demon lord known as Moloch started strong in the nightmare-fuel
department and just seems to have gotten more horrific with every successive description.
In the Bible, he's presented as another in a long line of heathen gods.
The Book of Leviticus seems especially worried about the guy, saying that anyone
who gives Moloch their children will be rocked to sleep (aka "stoned to death").
"By virtue of the authority vested in me…"
"Oh, lay off, we haven't started yet!"
"Come on, who threw that?"
There seems to be a good reason for concern. Moloch is big into chowing down on kids,
a habit that has added implied grossness when you find out that he had a cow's head.
It's just, if you know how cows eat, the visuals get exponentially more horrific.
Moloch shifted and warped from the time of Moses, turning into a feared, high-level lord of Hell.
In the second book of Paradise Lost, he gives an enthusiastic speech to the members of the
parliament of the underworld, encouraging them to go to war with Heaven immediately.
In the first book, we're given a description of his work attire. He's smeared with blood from
human sacrifices and the tears of mournful parents. So he's not just a baby killer,
but he's also a messy eater ... and one of the most terrifying demons from any religious text.
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