A little bit of fairy tale and myth

original content on http://www.groundzeromedia.org/el-duende-dont-look-under-the-bed/

EL DUENDE

DON’T LOOK UNDER THE BED

Last Night we asked the question. “Can a country with deep Christian roots like Mexico find itself at the mercy of demons or evil entities? The Catholic Church thought so and decided to hold an exorcism for the entire country.

The church cited many reasons why they would conduct such a massive exorcism and that of course is because of the country’s criminal activity like drug smuggling, prostitution and also the high abortion rate.

However many people who have been south of the border know that Mexico and even South America is an area where due to the enormous amount of faith in God, there seems to be an inordinate amount of reports of flying witches called Brujas, ghosts or Phantasmas and even poltergeist activity provided by a number of shadowy creatures called Los Cucuy, Los Duendes, Las Lechuzas.

El Cucuy is said to be an evil monster that hides under children’s bed at night and kidnaps or eats the child that does not obey his/her parents or goes to sleep when it is time to do so. Social sciences professor Manuel Medrano says popular legend describes El Cucuy as a small humanoid with glowing red eyes that hides in closets or under the bed. ‘Some folklore claims that he is a kid who was the victim of violence… saying that he’s alive, but in reality he’s not.

One of the creepiest films that deal with “El Duende” is a film called “The Babadook.”

The Babadook, like many “imaginary” monsters, starts out subtle in its manifestations and slowly gets bolder and more visible but the meaning of the Babadook as a monster and how it affects a young boy and his mother.

At first, the Babadook seems to be the classic “monster under the bed” that children are scared of – however the young boy in the story, Samuel believes that this creature is out to kill his mother.

The film is an emotional rollercoaster for most people who have had imaginary friends when they were kids, or had terrifying experiences with shadow entities.

We all know of shadow creatures that appear in bedrooms. When we were kids we always wondered if there were monsters under the bed or in the closets waiting to take us away in our sleep.

The monsters that lurk under the stairs or under that bed have been a belief that has been encouraged since childhood, in fact there have been many nursery rhymes or songs that have a common theme in Grimmifcation – many have been called Grimmdarks.

It is a common belief that most traditional Children’s songs and stories were designed to inform kids via metaphor about a potentially harsh world in a time where children worked and traveled and were essentially treated more like miniature adults than “kids”. But originally, fairy tales were told to many different audiences, ghost stories and tales of witches, child catchers and conjured entities were also told by frightened villagers.

The legends were based in a belief in paranormal machinations; poorer people were always encountering demons, specters, goblins, and shadowy figures.

These stories were common amongst the peasants – they were graphic, terrifying and even recorded in history as real events. They were then changed and metaphor was used to illustrate a lesson. Only after they were first recorded by early folklorists did the stories obtain morals and, eventually, kiddie-friendly endings that removed the graphic violence and occasional Cruel Twist Ending.

Such is the legend of the Poem Ring around the Rosy, pocket full of posies ashes to ashes we all fall down.

The Black Death had been known in England for centuries as a ghastly and horrible way to die. The victim’s skin turned black in patches, and the inflamed glands or ‘buboes’ in the groin, combined with compulsive vomiting, a swollen tongue and splitting headaches, made it a horrible, agonizing killer.

Though the disease was originally called the “Great Mortality” and the “Great Pestilence,” the name “Black Death” was eventually adopted because of the appearance of black boils caused by dried blood under the skin from internal hemorrhaging.

The first indications of the disease were a red ring that formed around your cheeks. Then you would begin to sneeze as the bacterial infection held you in its deadly embrace. The bacterium would spread to the victims’ lungs, causing them to fill with frothy, bloody liquid. This derivative of the disease was known as the pneumonic plague, and would quickly spread from person to person through the air.

In the spring and summer of 1665, an outbreak of bubonic plague spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full. People were dying at the rate of 7000 per week.

The smell of death permeated the streets, and it was wise to carry with you a pocket full of flowers to give relief the pungent smell of putridity. Physicians used to carry scented herbs and flowers, in front of their noses in an attempt to ward off the plague. Traditional 17th century London physicians wore long robes and a long beaked mask with posies stuffed inside.

The bodies needed to be burned to kill the bacteria before the mass graves were filled, resulting in the phrase “Ashes Ashes”. In other versions of the verse, the phrase was “Achoo Achoo”, indicating the sneezing associated with the pneumonic plague.

There are many people who have decided that this particular rhyme does in fact have ties to the plague of 1665; however, the first renditions of the rhyme were not written until 1881. This means that, if it were truly a rhyme that was created during the plague, it would have to have been recited for nearly six hundred years. This makes the plague connection suspect.

However, one third of the earth’s population, perhaps more, succumbed to the plague and it could have been picked up very quickly as an elegy or a culling verse, taken from something that was created before. It could be a parody of a previous song or verse.

It is also possible that the rhyme was taken from a Hindu ritual. Richard Stoney has researched the possibility of the rhyme’s being attached to the destruction and reincarnation ritual, “The Twilight Dance of Shiva.” Shiva is known as the god of destruction.

In the ritual, Shiva is encircled with roses. Then a circle of fire moves about Shiva, and mountains flatten and the Universe is burned. The idea is to dance around Shiva until you fall down from exhaustion.

You cough and wheeze “Achoo Achoo “, they all fall down.

Rock a bye baby is a song about the accidental death of an American Indian baby.

Rock-a-bye baby
In the tree top
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock;

When the bough breaks
The cradle will fall,
And down will come baby,
Cradle and all.

The words and lyrics to this nursery rhyme are reputed to reflect the observations of a young pilgrim boy in America who had seen Native Indian mothers suspend a birch bark cradle from the branches of a tree enabling the wind to rock the cradle and the child to sleep. There were times the boughs were too weak and the cradles would fall and break, severely injuring or killing the baby.

Native American dream catchers are intended to trap nightmares. Many parents whose children are victims of demonic harassment hang dream catchers in their children’s bedrooms in hopes of providing their children with peaceful sleep. What these parents don’t realize is that — in addition to not preventing nightmares — hanging the dream catchers will attract more spirits — perhaps even those who play the role of a “poltergeist,” “bogeyman” or a “Duende.”

Old Puritan practices of the 17th century in New England would have parents warning their children of the Incubus and succubus. Namely, sexual demons that would visit them at night and molest them. The parents of the children would encourage putting the Holy Bible kept under their pillow to prevent these beings from creating night terrors.

There are some clergy that believe that the bible becomes an occult tool when special powers are assigned to it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to use it for protection.

An old prayer offered by children is also said to ward off the dark entities that may lurk under the bed or in a closet.

Now I lay me down top sleep,
I pray the lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the lord my soul to take.

Bedtime stories of The Frog Prince, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood are full of fetishism, necrophilia, and shape shifting from humans to serpents to werewolves.

The story of the Frog Prince is the childhood story of an attempted abduction of young girl by a reptilian shape shifter or shadowy figure. A creature with bulging eyes and slimy skin “frog” arrives at a time when a young girl is in distress.

The creature agrees to help her obtain a bauble of great wealth, as long as she allows the creature into her bedroom. The frog helps her, but afterward, the girl ignores the frog. The frog continues to stalk her until she finally allows him into her bedroom. Finally the “frog” changes into a handsome man. Most often he is a Prince, or a member of a royal lineage.

It was simply a tale of warning that those of Royal lineage are deceptive and abuse and abduct the poor.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood seems to be a story of an exorcism being given to a shape shifter that prefers the form of a wolf.

The shape changing wolf appears as Grandma, lying in the bed awaiting the arrival of the young virgin girl with the red hood. The girl offers wine and bread. It is symbolic of trying to get the shape-shifting creature to partake of the holy sacrament.

The entity must shift before it attacks, and so the young girl begins to notice the big teeth and large eyes protruding from Grandma’s skull. In an exchange with her “grandmother” the girl with the red hood points out how you can tell that you are in the presence of a vile creature.

There are bigger eyes that can see you, bigger hands that can hold you down and bigger teeth that can devour you.

Another question is whether or not the little red riding cap or hood belonged to a girl, or an earnest clergyman doing the work of the church in delivering a soul from the clutches of the devil?

As early as the tenth century a member of the Catholic clergy would wear a red biretta. Historically, the biretta was used by all ranks of the clergy from cardinals to deacons and priests.

If we are to believe that these unholy monsters exist, then it would take a man of God to take on the evil of a shape shifting demon that fornicates with the dead and eats their remains.

After all, the story of the hero exists in every account of contacts with these unearthly beasts.

Jesus Christ himself performed an exorcism on the demoniac of the Gerasenes, and yet his story is similar to that which was written by Homer in book 9 of the Odyssey.

Notice how the story in the Bible has been reversed.

Both Jesus and Odysseus sail to a strange land and both meet up with a villain that is possessed by some evil spirit. Polyphemus the Cyclops in the Odyssey and the demoniac in the Bible both live in caves; the demoniac in Jesus’ case lived amongst the rotting dead and had probably had intercourse with the bodies.

When the Cyclops asks the hero who he is, Odysseus says “I am nobody.” When Jesus asks the demoniac who he is, he says that his name is “Legion, for we are many.”

Both monsters feed on the animals around them. The Cyclops would feed on goats nearby and the demoniac on pigs. Did the apostle Mark read Homer and make up the story of Jesus and the demoniac?

It is quite interesting how the stories are interchangeable.

In the book The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, Father Damien Karras enters into the bedroom of the MacNeil home to talk with the little girl Regan.

Karras stops as he sees Regan on the bed, arms held down by a set of restraining straps. It seems to be no longer entirely Regan. The possession has changed her face. It is now puffy, scratched and bruised. Karras is momentarily taken aback. Then, reining in his revulsion, he slowly and warily closes the door behind him, and walks around to the other side of the bed.

He asks the girl questions.

Karras asks the girl “Are you Regan?

Regan snaps in a dark voice, “I’m the Devil! Now kindly undo these straps! ”

On the movie soundtrack, there are many ethereal voices that accompany the so called devil remarks and you can hear, in both forward and reverse, the words:

“I am no one, I am no one!”

Father Karras then asks “Where’s Regan?”

Regan and the demon reply “In here. With us.”

This, of course, is the same theme as the demoniac claiming that there are many demons inside him. The other demons saying that they are nobody.

Notice how the story is so familiar. It is an unholy simulacrum of what the Apostle Mark wrote about Jesus, what Homer wrote about Odysseus, and what was written about Little Red Riding Hood.

The character enters the dwelling of the possessed human. The human is changed into a hideous looking creature, and an exchange is given. It is acknowledged that the hero is here to destroy the demon, and later the hero is victorious.

As you can see, when you examine selected popular folk tales and children’s stories you begin to see a pattern of death, rebirth and inhumanity. They illustrate basic human problems and appropriate social prescriptions.

They tell us of the constant struggle that plagues mankind, the struggle to remain human and not succumb to the primal urges that are considered demonic.

We are told that it is all a fantasy, yet the stories are told and retold. They are programmed into us in different ways with different interpretations.

They all come from different countries, demons from every shape and belief system and our children develop a fear of the little creatures under the bed because of the probable grimdarks we subject them to.