DAEMONOLATRIA

L

Lamia

The Greeks knew Lamia as the beautiful daughter of Belus, the king of Libya. She was loved by Zeus, who thanked her for her favours by giving her the power of plucking out and replacing eyes at will. She bore Zeus several children, but they were all killed by Hera, in a fit of jealous rage at her husband's shamelessly public amorous adventures. Embittered, Lamia became a demoness who took her revenge by snatching and destroying the children of others, and she joined a group of demons known as the Empusae.

The Empusae were children of Hecate, the witch-goddess of the underworld, and were known for their incredibly filthy habits. Sometimes they were described as being ass-haunched and wearing brazen slippers, though usually they were represented as having one leg of brass while the other was an ass's leg. The Empusae, whose name means the 'forcers in,' disguised themselves in the forms of bitches, cows, or beautiful maidens. In the latter shape these greedy demons would lie with men at night or at the time of midday sleep.

Lamia gave birth to a whole family of female demons, known as Lamiae, who were sorceresses with the face and breasts of a beautiful woman, and the body of a serpent. They enervated, seduced, and sucked the blood of youths.

In Canaan, Lamia was known as Alukah, which means horse-leech. The horse-leech is a small fresh-water animal, with thirty teeth in its jaws. When a beast goes to drink, the leech swims into its mouth and fastens on the soft flesh at the back of the throat, sucking blood until it becomes completely distended. The same kind of relentless greed is attributed to Lamia.

Larajie

See Leraie

Legba

The guardian demon of crossroads

Leonard

A first order demon, Inspector General of black magic and sorcery, Master of the Sabbats. He presided over these as a great black goat with three horns and the head of a fox.

Leraie

A great marquis of Hell. He commands thirty of the infernal legions. He shows himself in the likeness of a handsome archer, carrying a bow and quiver. He is the author of all battles, causes arrow wounds to putrefy, and drives away mobs.
Also Oray, Loray, and Larajie.

Leviathan

The Apocryphal Book of Enoch gives the following description of this monster's origins:

 

     'And that day will two monsters be parted, one monster, a female named Leviathan in

     order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; and (the other), a

     male called Behemoth, which holds his chest in an invisible desert whose name is

     Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden.' - 1 Enoch 60:7-8

Leviathan was the enormous whale who appeared throughout the legends of the Hebrews. He was the demon master of the ocean, and reigned also as king of beasts, feared by God and men alike. No man-made weapons could hurt him. It is thought that he is derived from the Canaanite Lotan, and that he is related to the Babylonian Tiamat and the Greek Hydra. Descriptions of him say he had seven heads. According to the medieval hierarchies he was the Grand Admiral of the maritime regions of Hell.

He is perhaps best known from the Biblical tale in the Book of Jonah. Jonah had fled in fear of God towards the city of Tarshish which lay across the sea. But during the sea journey, God created a mighty tempest. The ship's crew found out that Jonah was the cause of the story; they threw him overboard, and he was swallowed by Leviathan. The monster kept Jonah captive in his belly for three days, until God commanded him to vomit 'out Jonah upon dry land.'

In Paradise Lost, Milton depicted Leviathan as 'the Arch-Fiend' inhabiting the waters around

Scandinavia. The beast permitted sailors, who thought the dark mass sticking out of the ocean was an island, to anchor their boats on his back. When all was dark, Leviathan would plunge into the depths, dragging the ship and its crew after him.

In the Book of Job, Leviathan is described as an invulnerable demon connected with the primeval waters of the ocean:

     'His back is made of rows of shields,

     Shut up closely as with a seal...

     His sneezings flash forth light,

     And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

     Out of the mouth go flaming torches;

     Sparks of fire leap forth...

     In his neck abides strength,

     And terror dances before him.'

Also, according to Isaiah 27:1, on the Day of Judgement the Lord will slay Leviathan:

     "In that day the Lord will punish,

     With His great, cruel, mighty sword

     Leviathan the Elusive Serpent--

     Leviathan the Twisting Serpent;

     He will slay the Dragon of the sea.

According to a passage in the T.B. Baba Bathra (75a), at the time of the resurrection, Gabriel will fight against Leviathan and overcome.

Of course, in Psalms 74:26 God is praised as having crushed the heads of Leviathan:

     'it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan,

     who left him as food for the denizens of the desert'

 

Lhamo

In Tibetan Bon religion, she was originally a female demon. Later she became the patron goddess of Lamaism.

Lilith

In the Babylonian tradition, there is a triad of demons that Lilith is associated with. The male is called Lilu, and the two females are called Lilitu and Ardat Lili, the 'maid of desolation.' Lilitu was a frigid, barren, husbandless demon who roamed the night searching for men as a succubus for she would drink their blood.

Lilith is thought be the demon of waste places who originally lived in the garden of the Sumerian goddess, Innana, queen of heaven. She is mentioned only briefly in the Hebrew Bible in Isaiah 34:14.

In Jewish traditions, God gave Lilith to Adam as his first wife to banish his loneliness. Like him, she had been created from the dust of the earth. She insisted upon enjoying full equality with her husband, deriving her right from their identical origin. Rather than acknowledging Adam as her superior and becoming his servant, she left him and was turned out of paradise. Ever since, Lilith has been roaming the world, making the air and all desolate places her home, howling her hatred of mankind through the night, vowing vengeance for the unjust treatment she received. She is called the 'howling one' and her name means 'screech owl.' It is mistakenly thought that Lilith's name was derived from the Hebrew word lailah, which means 'night.' This was probably derived from the similarity of the two words, and the idea that Lilith was mostly active at night.

Before creating Eve, God dispatched three angels to induce Lilith to return to Adam. When she refused, God put a curse on her that made one hundred of her offspring die every day. Lilith became the mistress of Sammael, the archdemon or the serpent who tempted Eve, and thus a queen of demons. But after the expulsion, she slept one more time with Adam, and from that union were born the Shedim, Linin, and Ruchin.

Lilith is usually portrayed with long flowing hair, and she also possesses wings. She is the queen of the class of demons known as Lilin or Lilim, who were monsters with human bodies, the hindquarters of an ass, and wings.

In the Zohar, the first important book of Jewish Kabbalah, is found the following description of how Lilith takes vengeance:

     'She adorns herself with many ornaments like a despicable harlot, and takes up her

     position at the crossroads to seduce the sons of man. When a fool approaches her, she

     grabs him, kisses him, and pours him win of dregs of vipers' gall. When she sees that he

     is gone astray after her from the path of truth, she divests herself of all ornaments which

     she put on for that fool. Her ornaments are: her hair is long and red like a rose, her

     cheeks are white and red, from her ears hang six ornaments, Egyptian cords and all the

     ornaments from the land of the East hang from her nape. Her mouth is set like a narrow

     door comely in its decor, her tongue is sharp like a sword, her words are smooth like

     oil, her lips are red like a rose and sweetened by all the sweetness of the world. She is

     dressed in scarlet and adorned with forty ornaments less one. Yon fool drinks from the

     cup and commits with her fornications. She leaves him asleep on the couch, flies up to

     heaven, denounces him, and descends. That fool awakes and deems he can make

     sport with her as before, but she removes her ornaments and stands before him in

     garments of flaming fire, inspiring terror and making body and soul tremble, full of

     frightening eyes, in her hand a drawn sword dripping bitter drops. And she kills that fool

     and casts him into Gehenna.'

No wonder that the Zohar calls Lilith 'Serpent, Woman of Harlotry, End of All Flesh, End of Days.' Eternally furious at the cruel punishment inflicted upon her, Lilith stalked through the night, stealing children from their cribs, unless prevented by specific charms. Infants, especially girls, were most susceptible during the first two to three weeks of their lives. The charms that warded off her evil influence were amulets inscribed with the name of the angels sent to bring her back to Adam - Samvi, Sansavi, Semangelaf. Or else they invoke the names of Adam and Eve, and the phrase 'Lilith be gone.' These charms had to be distributed around the room according to special magical patterns. Even today, among the Jews of Palestine, Lilith - succubus, childstealer and evil eye - is averted from the bed by hanging over it a charm in Hebrew. It is made of special Kabbalistic paper and tied together with a piece of rue, garlic, and a fragment of a mirror. On the first possible sabbath all the relations assemble in the room and make a hideous noise to drive away the evil spirit.

Although unproved, there is a strong possibility that the English word 'lullaby' is nothing more than a corruption of 'Lilla-bi' - Lilith be gone!

Furthermore, in medieval times, Lilith was considered the cause of nocturnal emissions and was believed to be a dangerous presence in the marital chamber. On this, another Kabbalistic text comments as follows:

     'And behold, that hard shell (embodiment of evil), Lilith is always present in the bed

     linen of man and wife when they copulate, in order to take hold of the drops of semen

     which are lost - because it is impossible to perform the marital act without such a loss

     of sparks - and she created out of them demons, spirits and Lilin...But there is an

     incantation for this, to chase Lilith away from the bed and to bring forth pure souls...in

     that moment, when a man copulates with his wife, let him direct his heart to the holiness

     of his Master, and say:

     In the name of God

     O you are wrapped in velvet

     You have appeared!

     Release, release!

     Neither come nor go!

     The seed is not yours,

     Nor is your inheritance.

     Go back, go back!

     The sea rages,

     Its waves call you.

     I hold on to the Holy One,

     Wrap myself into the King's holiness!'

Loray

See Leraie

Lucibel

Name given to Lucifer before The Fall.

Lucifer

     "How art thou fallen from heaven

     O day-star, son of the morning! (Helel ben Shahar)

     How art thou cast down to the ground,

     That didst cast lots over the nations!

     And thou saidst in thy heart:

     'I will ascend into heaven,

     Above the stars of God (El)

     Will I exalt my throne;

     And I will sit upon the mount of meeting,

     In the uttermost parts of the north;

     I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

     I will be like the Most High (Elyon).'

     Yet thou shalt be brought down to the nether-world,

     To the uttermost parts of the pit."

     - Isaiah 14:12-15

In Christian tradition, this passage is proof for the fall of Lucifer. However, it may be that this

passage is an allusion to a Canaanite or Phoenician myth about Helel, who is the son of the god Shahar. Helel sought the throne of the chief god and was cast down into the abyss because of this. El, Elyon, and Shahar are members of the Canaanite pantheon, while the "mount of meeting" is the abode of the gods, which corresponds to Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. There is an Ugaritic poem about two divine children, Shachar (dawn) and Shalim (dusk), who were born as a result of the intercourse of the god El with mortal women. There are, however, no Canaanite sources that tell about Helel ben Shahar or a revolt against Elyon.

Many Apocalyptic writers interpreted this passage as referring to Lucifer, and wrote about the fall of the angels. 1 Enoch refers to the falling angels as stars (see the watchers) and may be the beginning of the overlap between the story of the watchers and Isaiah.

The name 'Lucifer' means light-bearer, and is not used in the New Testament, where the "bearer of light" is Christ. He was once one of the Seraphim (sometimes called the fiery, flying serpents).

Later authors, such as St. Jerome, associate Ezekial 28:13-15 with Lucifer, the greatest of the fallen angels. It has been argued that this passage was actually addressed to Nebuchadnezzar.

     "You were in Eden, the garden of God;

     Every precious stone was your adornment:

     Carnelian, chrysolite, and amethyst;

     Beryl, lapis lazuli, and jasper;

     Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald;

     And gold beautifully wrought for you,

     Mined for you, prepared the day you were created.

     I created you as a cherub

     With outstretched shielding wings;

     And you resided on God's holy mountain;

     You walked among stones of fire.

     You were blameless in your ways,

     From the day you were created

     Until wrongdoing was found in you

     By your far-flung commerce

     You were filled with lawlessness

     And you sinned.

     So I have struck you down

     From the mountain of God,

     And I have destroyed you, O shielding cherub,

     From among the stones of fire."

Later interpretations of the fall tell that Lucifer was upset because God the Father made Lucifer's brother, Jesual, the Son. From his head, he gave birth to Sin, and by copulating with her, fathered Death. He was then cast out of heaven.

According to the hierarchies he was the Emperor of the Infernal legions.

There are characters similar to Lucifer in other mythologies. In Egypt, there is a serpent god, Sata, who is father of lightning and who likewise fell to earth. A Babylonian god, Zu, was also a lightning god who fell as a fiery flying serpent.

Lucifuge

Prime Minister of the demons of Hell. He is served by Baal, Aguares and Marbas and has power over all the treasures of the world. He avoids light and can only assume a body at night.

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