Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

282 Wormwood
Witches of Eastwick (1987) (Kobol Collection/Warner Brothers)
holding a scroll kept closed with seven seals that no
one can open except for a seven-eyed and sevenhorned
lamb (Christ). The narrative goes on to
relate how with each opening of a seal another
cataclysmic or wondrous event occurs for the
earth. First there is the release of the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Death,
and Civil Conflict. This is followed by martyrs
calling out for justice, then an earthquake on earth
while the sun turns black and the moon red. When
the seventh and last seal is opened, Wormwood
appears: “a great star fell from heaven, blazing like
a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the
fountains of water. The name of the star is
Wormwood” (Rev. 8:10–11). Here on earth
Wormwood causes the death of many mortals by
his poisoning of the rivers and waters.
Wormwood is also referred to in a work of
fiction by C. S. Lewis entitled The Screwtape
Letters. The letters are addressed to Wormwood,
who is the nephew of Screwtape (“an important
official in His Satanic Majesty’s ‘Lowerarchy’”).
Wormwood himself is characterized by Lewis as “a
sort of junior devil on earth.”
See also Demons
For Further Reading:
Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary of Angels Including
the Fallen Angels. 1967. New York: Free Press,
1971.
Ronner, John. Know Your Angels: The Angel Almanac
with Biographies of 100 Prominent Angels in
Legend and Folklore, and Much More.
Murfreesboro, TN: Mamre, 1993.