Demons in Buddhism

Demon Priest by Tawanabe Kyosai (1864)

I have been a little obsessed with demons for a while now, mostly in terms of wanting to understand their fundamental nature. I strongly suspect that many of the deities we call demons are actually deities of rival pantheons, and the process of “demonisation” is designed to strengthen the legitimacy of one religion over another. It may even be that some neglected deities become wrathful and seemingly demonic (while others leave desecrated locations or just lose interest in humans). I tend towards believing in voluminous polytheism, by which I mean there are many types of deities, and some of them really are demonic, as conventionally understood.

I recently watched a horror movie called “Incantation” (original title: “Zhou”) – I didn’t enjoy it but was genuinely spun out by it afterwards and thought about it for weeks. The effectiveness of the film was that it used Buddhist themes and turned them upside down, so that instead of Buddhist practice and iconography being benevolent (which is what I have associated with Buddhism my whole life – I was raised as a Buddhist) it delved into the world of curses and demonology. When I sat before the Mandala on my shrine to do some chanting I was reminded that demons are depicted on it – in particular Mara, Hariti and the Ten Demon Daughters. The reason for this is that the Mandala represents the universe in its entirety. I have also heard it said that the Mandala I pray before (called the Gohonzon) is a mirror – and a mirror does not show you only the things you want to see, but everything in you, including the potentiality to become demonic.

Venus and the Path

"Choosing the Rose" by Portaels (1860s)

Any spiritual tradition that venerates motherhood is operating in accord with the regenerative aspect of nature. When we look at the most prominent Gods of ancient Rome we see what aspects of nature they revered most: Venus and Mars – thus love, fertility and virility (Mars is not only a God of war but also agriculture). To get these very fundamental things right is to light the path to success, though it’s clearly a path on which many descendants of Europa have lost their way. It is not so much that we are not sexually active but that too few of us are in long term relationships.* This not ideal, as a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses demonstrates:

“The Propoetides – fools who denied Venus divinity – she stripped off their good names and their undergarments, and made them whores. As those women hardened .... their features hardened like their hearts. Soon they shrank to the ... heartless, treacherous hardness of sharp shards of flint.

The Heimdall Caste System in Germanic Polytheism

"Heimdall returns Freyja's necklace" (1846) by Nils Blommer

In the Rigsthula what appears to be a Germanic caste system is described:

• The caste of Nobles (aristocracy, military leaders and shamans) – their skin is pale, their fingers are long, their hair is blonde, their eyes are piercing, they are wise, understand the language of birds, know the runes, and the spells associated with them; the men are skilled at using weapons, horse-riding, hunting, swimming and war – causing them to own large estates and treasure, with which they are generous; couples love each other deeply and their children have names such as Noble, Kinsman, Heir and King.
• The caste of Freemen (landholding farmers, artisans and soldiers) – they are skilled and industrious workers, eg, the men are skilled at wood carving, working the plough, and building wagons, barns and homes, while the women engage in wool-spinning and weaving; their hair is tidy and they wear nicely tailored clothes; they are married (they've “exchanged rings”) and their children are described as red-haired and keen-eyed; their sons have names like Manly, Brave, Swordsman, Soldier, Smith, Farmer and Trim-beard, while their daughters have names such as Sensible, Smart, Swan, Lady, Shy and Vivacious.

Interpreting the Gohonzon (Buddhist Object of Veneration)

The object of veneration in Nichiren Buddhism is the Gohonzon, a sacred mandala which practitioners are encouraged to chant in front of twice a day. Nichiren Buddhism originated in Japan in the 13th century and is now practised worldwide, particularly (when outside of Japan) by members of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). Members of the SGI receive a Gohonzon when they join the organisation. They then enshrine the Gohonzon in a Butsudan (a small cabinet for housing sacred objects) in their homes.

The images on the Gohonzon consist of beautiful Chinese-Japanese calligraphy representing many things, including important deities. Most of the Gods on the Gohonzon refer to ancient Indian Gods, thus in attempting to understand the nature of these deities I have looked to their Roman equivalents. Given that these deities have a shared Indo-European origin this approach seems suitably viable. Using the interpretatio Romana the major deities represented include Dis Pater (top left), Neptune (top right), Venus / Cupid (centre left), Aurora, Diana, Jupiter, Apollo, (middle centre), Vulcan (centre right), Juno (just below the middle), Ceres (lower left), Mars (left of the lower middle), and Mercury (lower right). 

Neo Feudalism

Castle of the Duc de Berry by the Limbourg Bros (15th c.)

Sometimes I wonder if I am, in reality, a tax-serf and this point in history marks the beginning of neo-feudalism or techno-feudalism. 

There is an idea that has emerged in recent years which holds that Western nations are increasingly dominated by billionaire elites and multinational corporations who seek to transform our nations into authoritarian surveillance states, wherein censorship is widespread and widely tolerated, real property is so hideously expensive that large portions of the population never even try to acquire it, and so many people live in what feels like a profaned world devoid of spiritual aspiration that nihilism is commonplace. On the other hand, a smorgasbord of transitory pleasures (junk food, online games, porn, prescription meds, etc) is perpetually within reach. Perhaps Tacitus’ observations about the actions of the Governor of Roman Britain in the 1st century CE are germane:

“Agricola … described his campaign … as ‘keeping a conquered people under control’ … His intention was … [that the native Britons] become accustomed to peace and quiet by the provisions of amenities. Hence he gave … assistance to communities to build temples, market-places, and town houses. He praised those that responded promptly [to Romanisation] and censured the dilatory. As a result they began to compete with one another for his approval, instead of having to be compelled … even our style of dress came into favour and the toga was everywhere to be seen. Gradually, too, they went astray into the allurements of evil ways, colonnades and warm baths and elegant banquets. The Britons … called it ‘civilisation’, although it was a part of their enslavement [Tacitus, Agricola and Germany, Oxford World’s Classics, Ch 18-21].”

Could it be that we are at risk of succumbing to the illusion of good living while in fact being profoundly unfree? In order to explore the possible answer to this question one first needs to understand what bondage actually is, hence the following exploration of some forms of servitude that have historically existed within European societies

The Virus – A Pagan Sci-Fi

(A fictional short story inspired by the Australian lockdowns of 2021)

Statue of Mercury at Pavlovsk Park
Image by Aleksandrov (Wikimedia Commons)

The television turned itself on because it was time to get up. She lay in bed half-listening to journalists speaking in serious tones about various things, none of it was any more consequential than the faint sound of cars swooshing past on the road near her apartment until the voice of one man said sternly “what’s wrong with mandatory vaccinations?” Two men spoke to each other on the telly, one was a union leader complaining about activists hijacking a protest that had happened the day before – he explained that it wasn’t the case that workers were protesting against their own union for not pushing back against a government mandate that all tradies be vaccinated. What had actually happened was protestors had turned up and impersonated tradies … even so, the official union position was to support choice. The journalist on the State-run morning show chided the union boss for suggesting that adults should have the right to choose whether or not to be vaccinated.

The Priests Are in Charge and It Feels Dystopian

"Abbot Armand-Jean le Bouthillier de Rance"
by Hyacinthe Rigaud (17th century)

Earlier this month every Australian was required to fill in the 4 year census. When it came to answering the question in relation to religion the form displays “no religion” as the first choice, because “no religion” was the single most popular answer to this question in the last census – 30.1% of Australians giving this answer in 2016 (followed by Catholic at 22.6% and Anglican at 13.3%; all other religions were at less than 4% each). In theory Australia is a fairly irreligious nation, but in practice the quasi-religion of Scientism is wildly popular. 

Science is the “the systematic study of ... the physical and natural world through observation and experiment” (Oxford Dictionary) – it is a method by which hypotheses can be either plausibly dreamt up or validated. Scientism is an “excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge” (Oxford), and there now seems to be a large body of people professing to hold such sacred knowledge. They are our “experts” (typically scientists and doctors of one kind or another) who are more than willing to present themselves as the true holders of the only kind of knowledge worth having any faith in. The worst among them are the de facto astrologers and haruspices of our time – these priests of our secular age who tell us they know how to confidently predict, via the magic of modelling, variable and unpredictable things, such as controlling the spread of a highly contagious virus. 

Social Media Blitz

Roman Forum in 2011 (image is my own, as used on my Facebook page)

Just a quick post to let you know that I have deleted the Facebook page (called “Neo Polytheist”) associated with this blog, in case you’re wondering where it went. Reason being that I recently deleted just about all of my social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, etc) and I can’t run a Facebook page without a Facebook account. Although social media can be very useful I feel my journey with it has run its course. 

If, for whatever reason, you ever want to get in contact with me please leave a comment at the end of any blogpost, even if it is unrelated to the post itself. I’m very happy to respond to (polite and civilised) comments, questions and observations. 

If you have questions about Roman polytheism and are still on Facebook I recommend joining the group “Cultus Deorum: Religio Romana (original)”, I learnt a lot in this group during my first few years of exploring Roman polytheism and I am very grateful to some of the people I engaged with there. I also quite like the “Roman Religion Reformists Group”.

The Ancestral Diet of the Germanic People

"Julaftonen" by Carl Larsson (1904)

As creatures of evolution we should ideally be consuming a diet consistent with our human biology, which arguably means looking at what our ancestors ate. As someone with predominately Germanic heritage (plus a little bit of Celt) I want to take a look at as many reputable sources as I can to understand what the indigenous diet of the Germanic people is, noting that it will overlap a good deal with the indigenous diet of other Indo-European peoples. 

Before humanity 

Humans are primates belonging to the subgroup known as great apes. Primates are believed to have evolved around 65 million years ago, following the mass extinction event which brought an end to the age of dinosaurs. Apes evolved around 25 million years ago, mostly or exclusively in heavily forested environments. Our primate cousins – monkeys and lesser apes – never really left their homes in the branches and tend to eat mostly leaves and fruit. Other great apes are still animals of the forest but they are bigger and able to roam forest floors. At least 87% of their diet is plant based (especially fruit), supplemented by insects. Chimpanzees, our closest relative, also eat meat. Our lineage separated from the chimpanzee line around 7 million years ago, so it is likely our ancestors have been eating meat (and other parts of animals, such as organs and bone marrow) for millions of years – ie, long before we evolved into modern humans.