"He had been growing shabbier and shabbier with the years, and now prowled about like a veritable mendicant; seen occasionally by humiliated friends in subway stations, or loitering on the benches around Borough Hall in conversation with groups of swarthy, evil-looking strangers. When he spoke it was to babble of unlimited powers almost within his grasp, and to repeat with knowing leers such mystical words or names as “Sephiroth”, “Ashmodai”, and “Samaël."'
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook
"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living. And she called his name Yaltabaoth."
"Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come."
The Apocryphon Of John, The Secret Book Of John
"There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of frightful mien. His height was so great, it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe. "This one," said Metatron, addressing Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man."
Louis Ginzberg, The Ascension Of Moses
"Red Samael, who was then a seraph, led Lilith away from the warm sunlit paths of Eden, into the refreshing shade of a huge tree which thrived in the midst of this garden, and away from the paths of virtue also."
James Branch Cabell, The Devil's Own Dear Son
H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook
"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living. And she called his name Yaltabaoth."
"Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come."
The Apocryphon Of John, The Secret Book Of John
"There was another angel in the seventh heaven, different in appearance from all the others, and of frightful mien. His height was so great, it would have taken five hundred years to cover a distance equal to it, and from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet he was studded with glaring eyes, at the sight of which the beholder fell prostrate in awe. "This one," said Metatron, addressing Moses, "is Samael, who takes the soul away from man."
Louis Ginzberg, The Ascension Of Moses
"Red Samael, who was then a seraph, led Lilith away from the warm sunlit paths of Eden, into the refreshing shade of a huge tree which thrived in the midst of this garden, and away from the paths of virtue also."
James Branch Cabell, The Devil's Own Dear Son
Gah!
ReplyDeleteSeriously...hahah
ReplyDeleteGood take. Though my image of Yaltabaoth (or however the hell you want to spell it) tends towards the huge, and the more serpentine overall, the humanoid element (and the eyes, if you know what that's all about) seems more fitting with the traditional view of "angels".
ReplyDeleteIf you know anything about Gnosticism; according to that, this is what believes itself to be God, but blinds humanity with its own ignorance.