Monday, June 18, 2012

Strangerside Scholar: Demon Urns

Demon Urns, jars of clay with wax seals. Jars wrapped in spells and wards. What do they contain?


http://signpoststoeden.blogspot.com/2009/08/mesopotamian-incantation-bowl.html
Most scholars say that Demon Urns contain evil spirits of Fire and Air. Only great wizards and powerful priests with the gifts of the gods themselves can seal such beings within jars of clay. In this way, for a time, demons are bound to and sealed within the Earth. They can't harm anyone while they are sealed within the jar. But who profits from their confinement and how? What bargains will be struck; what feats will be coerced?

http://rambambashi.wordpress.com/tag/herodotus/
Many priests say that Demon Urns are a work of human impiety, a sprung trap for the godlings of a particular city or place. The jars were placed where the godlings would find them, and deceptively appeared to them as spirit houses, palaces of clay.

Unfortunately, the godlings who choose to reside within Demon Urns soon find themselves trapped, wandering the corridors of an endless palace-become-tomb for the undying. Trapped within Demon Urns, such unfortunate godlings fall victim to their own Faults and furies, often unwittingly becoming vengeful and demonic, and soon completely beholden to the unscrupulous persons who tricked and trapped them.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17323/17323-h/images/122.jpg
But a few sages contend that the Demon Urns are remnants of realms that collapsed in upon themselves. Realms with a Virtue and a Fault, but no Fate. Realms with a Virtue and a Fate, but no Fault. Realms with a Fault and a Fate, but no Virtue. Realms with only one quality, or even less. These sages believe that Demon Urns contain the materials for making new gods - or that such jars, when broken and their contents spilled, give birth to Floodgates, and thus to new realms.

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