Weird Mythology for Weird People

One of the earliest definite mentions of Azazel was in the Book of Enoch, particularly in what is known as The Book of the Watchers. This text, written between the 3rd and 1st century BCE, is a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and is not considered canon by most modern day denominations but the characters and stories in this text remain a popular source of intrigue even to this day. In Enoch, we are told of the Grigori (Watchers) who were a group of 200 angels in charge of, you guessed it, watching mankind. In the process of watching humanity, they began to notice the “beautiful and comely daughters” of mankind and were overcome with lust for these women. Collectively, they agreed to take wives and father children but their leader Semjaza expressed concern that some of his men would back out. In an effort to guarantee that he would not be the only one commit this great sin, they all took an oath on Mt. Hermon, binding themselves ‘by mutual imprecations.’ Of the 200 Grigori, there were 20 leaders, with Semjaza holding the highest rank. The second highest rank went to Azazel who taught mankind how to make weapons and use cosmetics (get yourself an angel who can do both!)

Each of the Watchers taught humanity different ‘secrets of heaven’, which ended up being subjects like astrology, meteorology, and various practices considered ‘witchcraft’ in those times. However, some of them taught subjects still considered taboo in certain cultures. Tamiel, also called Kasdeja, for instance, was said to have taught women about abortion. Each of the Watchers also slept with mortal women and fathered monstrous giants called Nephilim. The Nephilim were said to be 3000 ells high, which is a little more than 2 miles tall. They were ravenous, even cannibalistic. When the labors of humanity could no longer keep up with the Nephilim’s appetites, the Nephilim turned on humanity, devouring man, animal, and each other. Those who were killed by the deeds of the Watchers arrived in heaven and brought God’s attention to destruction on Earth. To combat the devastation brought on by the Watchers, God sent he archangels. Uriel was told to warn Noah of the upcoming flood. Gabriel was in charge of killing the “bastards and the reprobates” as well as the Nephilim. He was instructed to pit them against each other while Michael bound Semjaza and the rest of the Watchers so that they could see their son’s rip each other apart. But God specifically set out an individual punishment for Azazel. “The Lord said to Raphael: 'Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there forever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire.” He further adds “the whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.'

Art: Azazel by Peter Mohrbacher ( @bugmeyer ) for his work, Book of the Watchers. 

Azazel is a figure found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and has been featured in multiple forms of media, so will I cover everything there is to know about him? Absolutely fucking not. Contrary to popular belief, I do value my sanity. 

To start off, let’s talk about the word/name ‘Azazel’. It is mentioned in the bible, in Leviticus 16, in which  Moses’ brother Aaron, the High Priest, takes 2 male goats for a ritual performed during Yom Kippur. He “cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for Yahweh, and the other lot for Azazel.”(16:7) Yahweh, of course, is ‘God’ but the meaning of ‘Azazel’ has been debated. It’s hard to say if myths of Azazel as a demon existed before the ritual, but if there were myths, there isn’t strong evidence of them. Most commonly, the word ‘Azazel’ is translated as something that is to be removed. In terms of the ritual described in Leviticus, the goat marked for Azazel was ceremoniously burdened with the sins of the Israelites and then removed from the village, symbolically removing the sins themselves. In 1530, a scholar named William Tyndale translated ‘Azazel’ as ‘scapegoat’ (a term he coined) and it’s sort of retroactively been applied to this ritual. Leviticus is estimated to have been written anywhere between 1400 - 500 BCE. I want to stress the age of this text because I’ve come across a lot of people saying Azazel is a demon or a god of other ancient Near-Eastern civilizations. And while I can’t say the concept of the demon Azazel didn’t come from a pre-existing mythical figure, Leviticus is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, mentions of ‘Azazel’ in religious text. It’s not the earliest religious text and there are certainly myths from the older civilizations, but those myths don’t include the name Azazel.

Painting: The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt (1854)

So I just had to go through my follower list because I saw a few recent follows from white supremacists. I’ll always try to keep the focus of this blog on mythology but I put a lot of effort into researching these myths and I’ll be damned if that work is used by someone to justify, spiritualize, and legitimize their own bigotry. 

If you’re a white supremacist, save us all the trouble and fuck off. 

   Baphomet doesn’t have a long history of myth. The name “Baphomet” began to appear during and after the Crusades. In the early 1300s, King Philip IV of France had Templar Knights arrested and charged with everything from spitting on the cross, to homosexuality, and worshipping false idols. After being tortured and coerced into confession, many knights admitted to engaging in idolatry by worshiping a figure referred to as Baphomet. The most popular belief is that Baphomet was a corruption of the name Mahomet (Muhammad). At this time, Baphomet was not described as being goat-like. Many of the confessions claimed the idols worshiped were shaped like severed heads, sometimes with 3 faces. The image most commonly associated with Baphomet wasn’t created until the 19th century.

   In the 1850’s, a French occultist named Eliphas Levi published ‘Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie’ and included an image of Baphomet  he had drawn himself. This is the famous depiction of Baphomet, complete with a goat’s head, wings, and female breasts. This image is steeped in dualism. On one arm is written “SOLVE” (meaning ‘separate’) and on the other “COAGULA” (meaning ‘join together’). Together “solve et coagula” is a reference to the alchemic concept of breaking something down to build something new. Each of these arms, one described as being female and the other male, are pointing to separate moons. Levi calls these moons Chesed, referring to the Sephiroth that represents God’s love/kindness, and Gevurah, the Sephiroth which represents the punitive aspect of God’s judgement. “This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice.” Even the breasts, said to represent humanity, can be traced to the idea of divine androgyny, the idea that the first creations of god were born as one, androgynous form.The goat head is said to symbolize the “horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively”. Baphomet is sometimes called the Goat of Mendes, a god described by Herodotus as being the Greek god Pan but is more closely related to the Egyptian god, Djedet, who was the ram-headed god of Mendes. Though, if I may add, the “Bear punishment exclusively” part is reminiscent of the ritual of the scapegoat which is linked to the desert spirit/demon Azazel. In one myth, God even said to his arch angels “to him [Azazel]  ascribe all sin.” It’s this image of Baphomet that is most commonly known and often associated with Satanic organizations which is partially the reason why a lot of people mistakenly associate this image with the devil. I mean, if we’re to believe that the origins of Baphomet stem from a bastardization of “Mahomet” then it’s entire existence in the human psyche is based off the demonization and needless fear of differing beliefs.

This is the last and final post on the wives of Samael!

 Before, in the post about Eisheth Zenunim, I mentioned how she wasn’t always mentioned with her fellow Queens and I think that might be because some of these myths DON’T consider her as one of the Queens. Instead, They list Mahalath as a wife of Samael. In the last post I said that Moses Cordovero listed Mahalath as a consort of Samael and possibly as the younger Lilith character. So, who is she? In the bible, she is the daughter of Ishmael (the first son of Abraham) and a wife of Esau. Kabbalist texts expand on her story. Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, married him to the daughter of Kasdiel, an Egyptian sorcerer. Ishmael’s father objected to this marriage and they were soon divorced, but not before they conceived a child. The wife was sent back into the desert where she gave birth to a daughter named Mahalath. They roamed the desert for years until Mahalath, now a beautiful woman, caught the eye of the demon Igrathiel. She became pregnant by this demon and gave birth to her daughter, Igrat (Agrat). She then marries Esau but it’s assumed that didn’t work out either and she became a Queen of Hell. (#goals ) Which brings us to my favorite segment: Making Connections That May or May Not Have Any Relevance But Are Fun Anyway! (We’ll come up with a catchier title later). If Mahalath is “Lilith the Younger”, that would make her the wife of Asmodeus. Asmodeus, as mentioned before, was captured by King Solomon. King Solomon’s heir was his son Rehoboam. Rehoboam had a wife named Mahalath (possibly the same character). The mother of Rehoboam was named Naamah, the same name as the 2nd wife of Samael, the mother of Asmodeus! 

Final Lilith post!   The last thing about Lilith we’ll discuss is the belief that there are 2  Liliths. It’s not a particularly radical idea given that the concept of Lilith originated from multiple, similarly-named spirits of ancient Mesopotamia. I mentioned in the last post about The Treatise of Left Emanation by Rabbi Isaac Ha-Kohen. In the same text, Rabbi Ha-Kohen talks about  Lilith the Elder, the wife of Samael, and Lilith the Younger, wife of Asmodeus (Asmodai). Lilith the younger was the daughter of Qafsefoni, “The Prince and King of Heaven” and is described as being “ a beautiful woman from her head to her waist. But from the waist down she is burning fire--like mother like daughter.” Her mother, Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, was believed to be evil and pitted the elder and younger Lilith against each other. Lilith and Asmodeus had a son named Harba di Ashm’dai, which means “Ashmodai’s Sword”, who ruled over 80,000 other demons. Ha’Kohen states that there is animosity and jealousy between the couples, stemming from Samael lusting after the younger Lilith. This animosity is expanded upon in the works of 16th century Kabbalist, Moses Cordovero. In his writings, Lilith is said to be at the head of 480 demons (480 being the numerical value of her name) who she leads to the desert on The Day of Judgement. There, she engages in battle with one of Samael’s concubine, Mahalath, who heads 478 demons. According Cordovero “all this is arranged by God so that they should not make accusations against Israel while they pray.” Now, Mahalath is connected to Lilith the Younger because they are listed as having the same mother. More interesting, in my opinion, is that Mahalath might have closer ties to Agrat Bat Mahlat (also called Igrath Bat Mahalath). I’ll go more into this in the next post just to make it all neat and tidy. 

Let’s talk about Lilith’s birth. Both the Zohar and the Treatise of the Left Emanation discuss her origin and list her as a wife/consort of Samael so we’ll focus on those myths. The Treatise of the Left Emanation is a Kabbalistic text attributed to Rabbi Isaac ha-Kohen. In this text, Lilith is not only the wife of Samael, but she and Samael “were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above.” What’s meant by this is that Adam and Eve and Samael and Lilith were born with each couple sharing one androgynous form before being separated. Samael and Lilith are then united in unholy matrimony with the help of Tanin'iver (“Blind Serpent”) God, of course, can’t just let these two lovebirds go around reproducing so he castrates Samael. This part appears to draw heavily on the myth of the male and female Leviathans who were kept from reproducing because their offspring would destroy the world. In the Zohar, as in the Treatise of Left Emanation, Lilith is born conjoined with Samael. It’s clear in this text that God was not directly involved with her creation. Instead, she and Samael come either from the ‘Great Supernal Abyss’ or from the “dregs of the wine.” Anthropologist Raphael Patai describes this best. He says the dregs of the wine refers to “Gevura or Din, the "Power" of God, chiefly manifested as the power of stern judgment and punishment, one of the ten Sefiroth or mystical attributes of God. This stern, punitive aspect of God has, at its lowest manifestation, some affinity with the realm of evil which is referred to as "the dregs of the wine," and it is out of this that Lilith emerged together with Samael.”

Lilith and her kind were often listed as the cause for a man’s nightly emissions and were believed to use their semen to create more demons. But this fear stretched further to the point where having sex with their wives in any lust in their hearts was giving into sin and sperm that was spilled could be used by Lilith to father demons and plagues. Prayers were spoken to combat the imagined threat. Children, particularly boys, who were born from unions considered unclean or unholy were thought to be targets of Lilith. If a child laughed in their sleep or laughed when no one else was around, it was believed that Lilith was playing with them. Incantation bowls from the 6th and 8th century AD have prayers written on them which expel Lilith and other spirits like her from the house of those believed to be afflicted. These bowls were used as a way to symbolically divorce humans from the demons that had been sleeping with and reproducing with them. 

(I’ll be doing a few posts about Lilith.)

Let me start off my saying that not only is t(I’his in no way the entirety of information on Lilith but that, with such a vast amount of myths that cross and often blur the borders of belief systems, it wouldn’t be possible to go into detail about every aspect of this mythological character. But lets see if we can’t still discuss a few things about this badass (yet horrendous) woman. Lilith is connected to numerous beings throughout mythology, including Lamashtu (Mesopotamian), Ninlil (Sumerian), and Kali (Hindu). She is also associated with/possibly originates from the incubi and succubi classes of ancient Middle Eastern religions which were known as Lillu, Lilitu, Ardat Lili, and Irdu Lili. A lot of these associations deal with illnesses and death caused to expectant mothers and young children which is a theme that is often touched upon in later folklore involving Lilith. I’ve seen many different interpretations of her name but all have something to do with “night”. It could mean “Night monster”  or “of the night”. The general idea here is that she is a seductress that is active at night. 

Many people come to understand Lilith as Adam’s first wife. This belief, though not actually found the Bible, the Talmud, or the Midrash, comes from the Alphabet of Ben Sira (dated between 800-1000 CE). The text is considered satirical and plays on the creation story of the Bible where it’s stated that god created man and woman simultaneously (Gen 5:2). In the story, Lilith is made from the same dirt in which Adam was made. Adam, wanting her to be subservient, demanded that Lilith be on the bottom during love making. Lilith rejects this idea saying “We are both equal because we come from the earth.” In their disagreement, Lilith speaks God’s ineffable name and runs off. Adam turns to God who dispatches 3 angels (Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Samangelof) to return her to Adam along with the threat that 100 of her children will die each day as a consequence of her disobedience. When they find her, she refuses, saying “Leave me alone! I was only created in order to sicken babies: if they are boys, from birth to day eight I will have power over them; if they are girls, from birth to day twenty.” The angels threaten to drown her. Out of fear for her life, she agrees to do no harm to any child wearing an amulet with the names of the 3 angels on it. It’s possible that the term ‘lullaby’ comes from the phrase “Lilla abi” which means “Lilith begone” but most sources trace the word to “Lull”

Well, shit. I abandoned this blog for a few months and come back to see people actually interested in it. 

K, I’ll add some posts.

Also, there was a response to one of the post which (I assume jokingly) said that people who research this stuff must look up to the figures we research, even the bad ones. Just to clarify (in case anyone cares), I’m not applying any spiritual importance to these myths. If someone who reads them wants to do that, that’s up to them. You do you, as far as I’m concerned. But I don’t think reading and researching mythology means you believe in it any more than I think reading Harry Potter means you believe a nose-less Ralph Fienes is a threat to our wellbeing.

Liking weird things is not bad. From a personal viewpoint, there is something reassuring in knowing that ‘weird’ is inherently human. In fact, there is a long history of ‘weird’. ‘Weird’ has captivated our imaginations for as long as we’ve existed. And mythology is proof of that. It’s proof that, as a species, the unknown, the bizarre, and the seemingly inhuman have all been a focal point of human interest throughout our history, regardless of location, race, age, or religion. 

Another reason I made this blog was because I’ve seen how both ignoring the history of myths and repurposing myths to fit a spiritual or religious narratives has contributed to harmful ideologies. The fact is, there are many people who are into the more spiritual and/or religious aspect of the occult who use these myths to preach hatred and nurture dangerous thoughts. That bothers the fuck out of me. So I try to retell myths as accurately as possible. Cutting down on the spiritual additions to these stories and making them more accessible to everyone makes it harder for them to be twisted into something they’re not. Anyway, bottom line is I believe putting too much moral, ideological, and spiritual importance on stories from the past is regressive. Be inspired by myths, find solace in them, but don’t use them to be a dick. 

Agrat Bat Mahlat is almost always mentioned with her fellow queens, Na’amah and Lilith. “Bat” means daughter so her name translates to Agrat, daughter of Mahlat. She is descried in Raphael Patai’s work as being the daughter of Mahalath (another Queen) and a desert demon named Igrathiel (her name is sometimes spelled Igrat). The Zohar states that Agrat Bat Mahlat, Na’amah, and Lilith are to “abide in the world until the day the Holy One will banish and drive all evil and impure spirits out of the world” (1:54b-55a). Some lore also states “a person should not go out alone at night, on Wednesdays and Sabbaths, because Agrat bat Mahalath and 180,000 destroying angels go forth, and each has permission to wreak destruction independently.” The Jewish Encyclopedia says “According to Yalḳuṭ, Ḥadash, Keshafim, 56, she dances at the head of 478, and Lilith howls at the head of 480 companies of demons.” She is often described as being an aspect of Lilith, a daughter of Lilith, or BEING Lilith, but that might have more to do with Mahalath who is sometimes thought to be “Lilith the Younger” Art: Titania and Bottom by Henry Fuseli