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History
of the Succubus
The Biblical Lilith
(From The
Lilith Gallery)
When the Almighty created the first,
solitary man, He said: It is not good for man to be
alone. And He fashioned for man a woman from the earth,
like him (Adam), and called her Lilith. Soon, they began
to quarrel with each other. She said to him: I will not
lie underneath, and he said: I will not lie underneath
but above, for you are meant to lie underneath and I to
lie above. She said to him: We are both equal, because we
are both created from the earth. But they did not listen
to each other.
When Lilith saw this, she pronounced
God's avowed name and flew into the air. Adam stood in
prayer before his Creator and said: Lord of the World!
The woman you have given me has gone away from me.
Immediately, the Almighty sent three angels after her, to
bring her back.
The Almighty said to the Angels: If she
decides to return, it is good, but if not, then she must
take it upon herself to ensure that a hundred of her
children die each day. They went to her and found her in
the middle of the Red Sea. And they told her the word of
God. But she refused to return. They said to her: We must
drown you in the sea. She said: Leave me! I was created
for no other purpose than to harm children, eight days
for boys and twenty for girls.
When they heard what she said, they
pressed her even more. She said: I swear by the name of
the living God that I, when I see you or your image on an
amulet, will have no power over that particular child.
And she took it upon herself to ensure that, every day, a
hundred of her children died. That is why we say that,
every day, a hundred of her demons die. That is why we
write the names Senoi, Sansenoi and Semangloph on an
amulet for small children. And when Lilith sees it, she
remembers her promise and the child is saved.
Pope Gerbert and the Succubus
One story of a succubus was told by
Walter Mapes in his De Nugis Curialium [Courtier's
Trifles] (approx 1185) about Gerbert of Aurillac, who
became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003). As a young man,
Gerbert fell in love with the daughter of the Provost of
Rheims. She rejected him, and he became despaired. One
day he met a beautiful maiden named Meridiana who offered
him sex, magical knowledge, and money if he would only
stay faithful to her. He agreed and prospered rapidly
becoming Archbishop of Rheims, Cardinal, Archbishop of
Ravenna, and ultimately Pope. All the while, he kept
Meridiana secret, and she even forgave him when the
Provost's daughter found him inebriated and seduced him
one day. Finally, Meridiana prophesied that Gerbert would
die as he celebrated mass in Jerusalem, which turned out
to be a church close by possessing an alleged piece of
the Cross. Realizing he was about to die, Gerbert made a
public confession of his sins and died repentant. Mapes
also noted that Gerbert's tomb in the Lateran sweats
copiously before the death of a Pope.
Execution
of Johannes Junius for Witchcraft
Johannes Junius ( 1573- August 6, 1628) was the
Burgomeister of Bamberg, famous today for his letter
written to his daughter from jail while he awaited
execution for witchcraft.
Junius became Burgomeister in 1608 and remained in
that position until his arrest, which came shortly after
his wife had been executed on similar charges. He was
implicated in witchcraft by other victims of the witch
craze (which was particularly pronounced in Bamberg,
where five burgomeisters were burned at the stake), who
had been pressured under torture to reveal the names of
their accomplices. Court documents describe how Junius at
first denied all charges and demanded to confront his
witnesses, and continued to deny his involvement in
witchcraft after almost a week of torture, which included
the application of thumbscrews, leg vises (Beinschrauben),
and strappado. He finally confessed on July 5, 1628, and
was publically burned to death one month later.
In his confession, Junius relates that in 1624, while
in a difficult financial state, he was seduced by a woman
who later proved to be a succubus and threatened to kill
him unless he renounced God. At first Junius refused, but
soon more demons materialised and attacked him further,
finally convincing him to accept the Devil as his God. He
took the witch-name of Krix and was provided with a
familiar named F??in ("Vixen"), at which
point several local townsfolk revealed themselves as
similarly allied with Satan and congratulated him.
Thereafter he regularly attended witch's sabbats, to
which he rode on the back of a monstrous, flying black
dog. At once such sabbat he attended a Black Mass at
which Beelzebub made an appearance. Although his fellow
witches and familiar demons had commanded him to kill his
children in their name, he had been unable to perform
this sacrifice, for which he was beaten. However, he did
admit to having sacrificed his horse and burying a sacred
wafer.
On July 24, shortly before his execution, Junius
managed to write a letter to his daughter, Veronica,
which was smuggled out of jail by his guard and
successfully delivered. In the letter he defends his
innocence, claims that those who testified against him
have secretly begged his forgiveness, and recounts the
abject horror of his torture (inflicted upon him by his
brother-in-law and three others), from which his hands
still shake at the time of writing the letter. He also
says that at first he attempted to create a confession in
which he could not identify the other witches, but was
forced to name names under threat of further torture. The
letter begins: "Many hundred thousand good-nights,
dearly beloved daughter Veronica," and ends
"Good night, for your father Johannes Junius will
see you no more."
Herdsman and the Dairymaid
(From Legends
of the Succubus)
The 16th Century author, Nicholas Remy also tells of a
herdsman found guilty of witchcraft who, when asked how
he had first fallen into the company of witches,
explained that he had been corrupted by a succubus. The
herdsman said that he had fallen passionately in love
with a dairymaid who, alas, did not return his
affections. One day, he was, in his own words, 'burning
with desire in his solitary pasturage' when he saw what
at first he took for the person of his beloved hiding
behind a bush. He ran to her, made violent advances, and
was repulsed. After a while, the 'dairymaid'- in reality,
a demon who had assumed the girls appearance- allowed the
herdsman to do with her body as he would on condition
that he 'acknowledged her as his Mistress, and behaved to
her as though she were God Himself'.
Exercising the Succubus
(From Legends
of the Succubus)
One line of defence against the succubus was the
employment of prayer , fasting and other religious
devotions.At some time around the year 1500, the Bishop
of Aberdeen is recorded as having successfully prescribed
such remedies for a young man who approached him for
spiritual guidance. For many months, the young man had
been pestered by a succubus who came to him by night and
either coaxed or forced him into sexual embrace which
lasted until the break of day. The Bishop ordered the
victim to engage in devout prayer and austerity.
Apparently, the measure was successful, for after a few
days, the young man was 'delivered from the succubus
devil'.
Huysmans
Encounter with a Succubus
(From Legends of the Succubus)
Sometimes, however, those following a life of religious
devotion found their prayers of little efficacy against
the wiles of the succubi. Thus, for example, towards the
end of the last century, the French writer, J. K.
Huysmans claimed to have been attacked by a succubus
whilst staying at a monestary. Huysman, a novelist of
distinction, was in the process of returning to the
catholic church whilst on the short monastic retreat.
This was intended as a spiritual antidote to the
psychological effects of the several years he had spent
in what he himself called 'the latrines of superstition'-
a reference to his contacts with the oft sinister
subculture of 19th Century Parisian occultism.
One night, lying in his hard monastic bed, Huysmans awoke
from the climax of an erotic dream to see a succubus
vanishing away. That it has taken a physical form, and
was not illusiary, was apparent, Husman said, from the
appearance of the sheets he had shared with the demon.
Huysman's dream had ended with 'an intense ejaculation'.
According to many demonologists, the fruits of such
succubi-induced climaxes were bourne away by the demons
who then, taking on the forms of incubi, used them to
fertilise human women.
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