siterlas:

fallen angels choosing their own religion

#a nation in exile #fallen angels still going to church #fallen angels refusing to go to church #fallen angels going to the mosque #fallen angels praying five times a day facing mecca #fallen angels fasting during ramadhan #fallen angels leaving the abrahamic ideology altogether #buddhist fallen angels and hindu fallen angels #fallen angels reading the quran #’remember when gabriel revealed the quran to the prophet?’#’yes gabriel was very excited about that’ #fallen angels burning incense #fallen angels going to confession #fallen angels having no ancestors to pray to #’does our father count?’ #fallen angels fasting during lent #fallen angels laughing at mel gibson’s passion movie and crying at dogma #fallen angels on the haj #fallen angels going on pilgrimage to see hagiographic relics #’i was the one who spoke to her y’know she was very kind but i think i scared her’ #fallen angels refusing to sing any of the traditional christmas carols because they have their own songs #fallen angels alone in their houses of worship and its gods visit them curiously #’fancy seeing you here’ #fallen angels wearing saint medallions #fallen angels carrying prayer beads #fallen angels wondering if they get a patron saint

supernatural does an incredibly frustrating thing where they fail to write or plot well, put giant, gaping holes in their mythology, kill off all your favorite characters (who happen to be ladies), and make such a godawful mess of everything that you’re ready to call it quits—

—and then they get you with a single fucking hook that sets your imagination alight and gives you hope that they know what they’re doing, but all it means is that you’re going to have to go through this whole messy process again next season.

Have you written before about Supernatural's treatment of religion? It's obviously heavily influenced by a lot of Judeo-Christian stuff... I should have a better idea of this myself but it'd be nice to hear someone else's thoughts. I'm someone who's very protective over ancient culture and I was totally offended by their handling of Celtic mythology in the episode with "Samhain"... It seems they can't get any of the religions right.

I feel like I should preface this with, I genuinely do love Supernatural, and particularly seasons 4&5, despite how little they actually resemble the religion I practice. I wrote a bit about the Biblical basis for Supernatural’s angels here, generously calling the show “about…55% Christian.” And certainly the show is drenched in the mythology— angels, demons, exorcisms, priests, apocalypses, heaven/hell/purgatory, Latin, etc. No viewer could come away unaware that this is a show heavily inspired by the Christian religion, and Catholicism in particular.

However, Supernatural appeals to what I like to think of as the McNugget version of Christianity. It might be recognizable as Christianity, and irl Christians might even be able to stomach it—but in reality, it’s just pink goo made from chopped up bits of theology, accessories like rosaries and exorcisms, select portions of the Bible and some demonology, all flavored with dramatic convenience. And just like it would be sad if your only experience of chicken was McNuggets, it would be a really bad idea to base any idea of Christianity off Supernatural. The show’s about 55% Christian, but the part of Christianity it cares about is approximately 2% of the actual religion.

(If you have six hours to lose to tvtropes, The show is basically a Jesus Taboo with some Christianity is Catholic thrown in for fun.)

It gets worse when the show steps outside the Judeo-Christian framework—“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” is just one example. Even I know that the Celtic rite of Samhain had nothing to do with a demon, and “guising,” the practice of dressing up to protect yourself from evil spirits, was a later development in the celebration of the festival. I mean, every story in Irish myth where drunkenness is a plot point takes place on Samhain. It was a party. It might have been a festival for the dead, but only insofar as you set places for the deceased at your feast table.

(Also, All Soul’s Day is a much different holiday than Halloween, and it was the transitional step between Samhain and Halloween. Like…way to ignore the actual Christian holiday associated with Halloween, Supernatural writers.)

Another example of how bad Supernatural is at non-Christian religions is “Hammer of the Gods.” One of the things that baffled me even on first viewing was how the episode set Hinduism up as though it were analogous to Norse/Greek mythology—as though the religion practiced by 1.5 billion men and women worldwide were equivalent to the mythologies of the Vikings and Ancient Greeks. It is the third largest religion in the world, guys, not some fringe cult. Then, they made these gods—gods of a people who practice ahiṃsā (non-violence) and vegetarianism because divinity suffuses all life—devour humans. That’s not just a creative remix of a faith, that’s twisting its nature.

Supernatural’s track record with characters of color doesn’t give me any faith in their intentions either. Did you remember that Baron Samedi (a loa in Haitian Vodou) was in the episode? Probably not, because he didn’t get any lines. Or how about Zao Shen, the Kitchen God of Chinese folklore? How about the djinni that appeared over the seasons—despite being supernatural beings akin to demons and angels in Arabic folklore, they were presented as straight monsters and not one was played by an actor of color. Even the Wendigo, a monster identified as having roots in Native American folklore, was an all-white episode—though that was so early in the show I’m more willing to give them some leeway.

Supernatural is just…staggeringly bad at owning their mythology, of all stripes. The Christian-lite I can understand; I get wanting a Christianity familiar enough to be recognizable but malleable enough to put your own twist on things. But Christianity is practiced by over 200 million people in America alone and saturates the culture already, the twist would be evident to many people. Hinduism, not so much. After a while, the show’s shallow engagement with mythology stops looking like room for creativity, and starts to seem like laziness. You can taste the pink goo where there ought to be chicken.

And I find that disappointing.

confusedtree:

hisnamewasbeanni:

confusedtree:

Jesus’ disciples constantly asked him for advice like they hadn’t once witnessed him shove a demon into a pig because he had nowhere else to put it

Holy fuck I forgot that story! It sounds like some thing Dean Winchester would do.

…was Jesus a Winchester?

No he fucking wasn’t

[rebloggable by request]

So Supernatural (particularly season 4&5) is about…55% Christian and only 15% Biblical. There’s enough of it there to spark recognition, but doesn’t really engage with it on a serious level. For example, the whole “vessel” concept is completely original—angels in the Bible either appear as men (to pass unnoticed) or they manifest as terrifying many-headed monstrous divinity (when they are speaking to the prophet/holy person). The idea that angels could “borrow” a body is actually so wrong in the Catholic worldview that it drives me to distraction sometimes but THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW.

For all I know, the SPN writers sat around one day and went, hey, you know what would be really cool…? But let’s pretend they actually did some research, and cracked open a Christian Bible.

The only place I can find any mention of angels’ voices (in particular) is Daniel:

His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. Daniel 10:6

But one quote, buried in Daniel of all places, probably isn’t enough to inspire an entire understanding of angels. However, the Bible has a lot more to say on the subject of God’s voice, which “thundereth” upon the waters (Psalms 29:3), “breaketh the cedars of Lebanon” (Psalms 29:5) and is “the noise of great waters…and the voice of speech” (Ezekiel 1:24). There’s also a long, long tradition in both Jewish and Christian belief of not being able to look at the face of God or hear His voice during one’s lifetime, because you are not in a state to perceive the Holiest of Holies.

(I think this is also where the Jewish teachings on the Tabernacle spring from—I definitely know that “Holiest of Holies” originally referred to the inner sanctum where only the priest could enter, and only then on Yom Kippur, when he made sacrifices before the Ark of the Covenant. With the destruction of the Solomonic temple, I believe it just refers to any place where God dwells, but my point stands—there is a layer of separation between you and the almighty God, and so you cannot comprehend the truth of Him.)

ANYWAY

I think that’s it’s a combination of all these different strains running through Judeo-Christian belief—the destructive and mighty power of God’s voice, plus angels as the messengers and pieces of that voice, plus the strange and terribleness of angels (on which the Bible has much more to say), plus the SPN crew’s creativity.

Does that help?

I just watched Lazarus Rising (the first spn episode w/ Cas) and after flailing over angelfeels for an hour I started thinking about his voice. Not his voice when in a human body but Castiel’s True Voice- the one that broke windows and brought Dean to his knees, the voice that was so wrenching it made the VIEWERS cover their ears. And I remembered hearing once that angel’s voices are so unearthly that they sound like ringing bells and thunder. And I wondered where that idea came from. Any idea?

So Supernatural (particularly season 4&5) is about…55% Christian and only 15% Biblical. There’s enough of it there to spark recognition, but doesn’t really engage with it on a serious level. For example, the whole “vessel” concept is completely original—angels in the Bible either appear as men (to pass unnoticed) or they manifest as terrifying many-headed monstrous divinity (when they are speaking to the prophet/holy person). The idea that angels could “borrow” a body is actually so wrong in the Catholic worldview that it drives me to distraction sometimes but THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW.

For all I know, the SPN writers sat around one day and went, hey, you know what would be really cool…? But let’s pretend they actually did some research, and cracked open a Christian Bible.

The only place I can find any mention of angels’ voices (in particular) is Daniel:

His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. Daniel 10:6

But one quote, buried in Daniel of all places, probably isn’t enough to inspire an entire understanding of angels. However, the Bible has a lot more to say on the subject of God’s voice, which “thundereth” upon the waters (Psalms 29:3), “breaketh the cedars of Lebanon” (Psalms 29:5) and is “the noise of great waters…and the voice of speech” (Ezekiel 1:24). There’s also a long, long tradition in both Jewish and Christian belief of not being able to look at the face of God or hear His voice during one’s lifetime, because you are not in a state to perceive the Holiest of Holies.

(I think this is also where the Jewish teachings on the Tabernacle spring from—I definitely know that “Holiest of Holies” originally referred to the inner sanctum where only the priest could enter, and only then on Yom Kippur, when he made sacrifices before the Ark of the Covenant. With the destruction of the Solomonic temple, I believe it just refers to any place where God dwells, but my point stands—there is a layer of separation between you and the almighty God, and so you cannot comprehend the truth of Him.)

ANYWAY

I think that’s it’s a combination of all these different strains running through Judeo-Christian belief—the destructive and mighty power of God’s voice, plus angels as the messengers and pieces of that voice, plus the strange and terribleness of angels (on which the Bible has much more to say), plus the SPN crew’s creativity.

Does that help?

a glory of angels

A (not at all comprehensive) guide to the portrayals of angels, from Biblical to comedic, and how to research your friendly terrifying representations of divinity. Please note, I cannot vouch for the quality or reliability of all these sources, this is meant to simply be a compilation.

ORIGINAL SOURCES

• The Torah / The Christian Bible—the Bible website also has this topical list of references to angels with chapter and verse; this tumblr post discusses angels’ true forms with quotes. In particular, pay attention to the books of Ezekiel, Tobit, Revelations, and some of the chapters of Daniel.
• The Holy Quran—search for Jibrael or Gabriel (this translation has both.)
• The Book of Enoch and Jubilees—apocryphal Jewish works that expand on Genesis, and feature the fall of the Nephilim and the fallen angels.
• At this point you start getting into Jewish mysticism and its ginger stepchild, Kabbalah—the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh (Book of the Angel Raziel) in particular features an elaborate angelology; The Magus, by Francis Barrett is a good guide to Kabbalah as a whole, and The Celestial Intelligencer (scroll down on that page) has a lot to say about angels and planets.
• Aleister Crowley would continue this line of thought in Hermetic magic, particularly in the Book of the Law, where he converses with his Guardian Angel, and the 8th Aethyr in the Vision and the Voice, which describes him.
• In addition, there’s always John Dee and his Elizabethan angel magic as well. The Enochian that Supernatural uses is originally his.
• Encyclopedia articles—Jewish angels, Zoroastrian angels, Thelemite concept of a guardian angel, wikipedia

FICTION

• his dark materials trilogy (philip pullman)
• good omens (terry pratchett and neil gaiman)
• a wind in the door (madeleine l’engle)
• the vintner’s luck (elizabeth knox)
• the glory days (isobelle carmody)
• daughter of smoke and bone (laini taylor)
• the space trilogy (cs lewis)
• angelology (danielle trussoni)
• skellig (david almond)
• angel fire series (andrew greely)

MOVIES AND OTHER MEDIA

• wings of desire (1987)
• touched by an angel (1994-2003)
• the prophecy (1995)
• michael (1996)
• city of angels (1998)
• dogma (1999)
• constantine (2005)
• supernatural (2005-present)
• gabriel (2007)
• legion (2010)

NONFICTION

• angels in late ancient christianity (ellen muehlberger)
• from gabriel to lucifer: a cultural history of angels (valery rees)
• heaven and its wonders and hell from things heard and seen (emanuel swedenborg)

[many thanks to my followers who contributed and this post by dottewa, which helped point me in the right direction when it came to crowley and thelemite literature]

I’m the one that gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.

↳ nature!angel series- naomi + the moon 

“The moon did her best. She carved each of these blocks of sorrow into a man or a woman. She spent the rest of her time watching out so that her other stars wouldn’t fall. She spent the rest of her time holding onto whatever scraps she had left.”

—There’s a lot more in me now
—Than a lost heaven’s purpose
—And the universe’s star dust.

↳ nature!angel series- gabriel + supernovae 

“I like the stars. It’s the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they’re always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend…I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don’t last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend.“