Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...
Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...
Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...
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The <strong>An</strong>ticult Movement 7<br />
before making good on a bargain he made with<br />
Cyphre. The narrative unfolds in the gloomier<br />
districts <strong>of</strong> 1950s Harlem <strong>and</strong> Louisiana marshes<br />
in the quest for Favorite. The detective finally<br />
discovers that he is Johnny Favorite, who had<br />
previously failed to honor his contract when he<br />
sold his soul to the Devil.<br />
<strong>An</strong>gel <strong>of</strong> Death<br />
The notion <strong>of</strong> an angel or demon who extracts the<br />
soul from the body at death seems to have developed<br />
from earlier notions <strong>of</strong> divinities <strong>of</strong> death.<br />
Such figures are widespread in world culture. In<br />
Hinduism, for example, Yama is the god <strong>of</strong> the<br />
dead. In the earliest Vedic texts, Yama ruled an<br />
afterlife realm not unlike the Norse Valhalla in<br />
which the deceased enjoyed carnal pleasures. As<br />
Hinduism was transformed in the post-Vedic<br />
period, Yama became a rather grim demigod, who<br />
snared the souls <strong>of</strong> the departed <strong>and</strong> conducted<br />
them to the otherworld.<br />
The notion <strong>of</strong> an angel <strong>of</strong> death was most fully<br />
developed in rabbinical Judaism. Like Yama, the<br />
Jewish idea <strong>of</strong> an angel <strong>of</strong> death developed across<br />
time. The biblical emissaries <strong>of</strong> death were clearly<br />
under the direct comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> God, as, for<br />
example, in 2 Samuel: “Then the angel stretched<br />
out his arm toward Jerusalem to destroy it; but the<br />
Lord repented <strong>of</strong> the evil <strong>and</strong> said to the angel who<br />
was destroying the people, ‘Enough! Stay your<br />
h<strong>and</strong>’” (2 Sam. 24:16).<br />
None <strong>of</strong> the biblical references indicate that a<br />
particular angel or group <strong>of</strong> angels have the<br />
specialized task <strong>of</strong> meting out death.<br />
Only in postbiblical literature does the idea <strong>of</strong><br />
an angel <strong>of</strong> death as such emerge. This “angel”<br />
gradually develops into a demonic figure who<br />
begins to act on his own initiative. By the time <strong>of</strong><br />
the Talmud, the angel <strong>of</strong> death was identified with<br />
Satan, <strong>and</strong> the notion <strong>of</strong> an evil angel <strong>of</strong> death was<br />
reflected in many folktales <strong>and</strong> in many folk practices<br />
associated with death, burial, <strong>and</strong> mourning.<br />
For instance, one commonly known bit <strong>of</strong> folklore<br />
is that it is impossible to die in the midst <strong>of</strong> studying<br />
Torah.<br />
The many folktales associated with the angel <strong>of</strong><br />
death fall into roughly three categories. In the first<br />
group, which we might call tales <strong>of</strong> horror <strong>and</strong><br />
magic, the stubborn <strong>and</strong> cruel angel <strong>of</strong> death is a<br />
kind <strong>of</strong> antihero, somewhat like Dracula in many<br />
vampire stories. In the second group, the angel <strong>of</strong><br />
death is defeated, especially by human deception.<br />
In these tales he is portrayed as being rather<br />
stupid. <strong>An</strong>d in the final group, the angel <strong>of</strong> death<br />
is moved by compassion to spare someone’s life or<br />
otherwise to act benevolently. In many <strong>of</strong> these<br />
narratives, the confrontation with the angel <strong>of</strong><br />
death occurs on a wedding night, during which<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the two betrothed is fated to die.<br />
See also Hinduism; Judaism; Satan<br />
For Further Reading:<br />
Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan,<br />
1971.<br />
Sykes, Egerton. Who’s Who: Non-Classical<br />
Mythology. New York: Oxford, 1993.<br />
Wigoder, Ge<strong>of</strong>frey. The <strong>Encyclopedia</strong> <strong>of</strong> Judaism.<br />
New York: Macmillan, 1989.<br />
<strong>An</strong>gel on My Shoulder<br />
This 1946 film was first made as a comedy then<br />
remade for television in 1980. The central narrative<br />
is built around the timeworn theme <strong>of</strong> making<br />
a bargain with the Devil. The plot involves freeing<br />
criminals to harass society. The remake was about<br />
the resurrection <strong>of</strong> a convict. Other movies with<br />
the Faust theme <strong>and</strong> comic foils are The Devil <strong>and</strong><br />
Max Devlin <strong>and</strong> Damn Yankees.<br />
The <strong>An</strong>ticult Movement<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the groups that weighed in on the Satanic<br />
ritual abuse issue in its heyday was the so-called<br />
anticult movement (ACM). When the ACM first<br />
emerged as a coherent movement, its focus <strong>of</strong><br />
concern was minority religious movements. It was<br />
only after ritual abuse became a popular topic that<br />
it was incorporated into the ACM agenda. The<br />
ACM also supplied the nascent ritual abuse movement<br />
with the notion <strong>of</strong> “cultic mind control”<br />
(more popularly referred to as “brainwashing”),<br />
although the phenomenon supposedly explained<br />
by Satanic mind control was actually quite different<br />
from the phenomenon <strong>of</strong> commitment to socalled<br />
“cults.”<br />
The ACM arose in the early 1970s. In its earliest