Chapter 10: On Symbols

In which we learn about harmful symbols.

Back to the library. The stories about demons destroyed by exorcism worried me, so I looked for books about other dangers to avoid "up there". Maybe kind of a beginner's handbook, I thought - but it turns out there is no such thing as a "Junior tempter's guide to reality". Too bad.

However, the old librarian demon helped me - again. This apparent selflessness is suspicious, I wonder what he really wants. He gave me a lesson about dangers and traps in the world of humans. Besides encounters with enemy agents, there is actually one thing that can harm a demon : Symbols. According to my "mentor", symbols are a link between both worlds - somewhat halfway between matter and ideas.

Of course I am familiar with symbols - they are very common in Hell. Everyone and everything has a symbol. Take for example my personal sigil. It looks like this :

Well, it doesn't look exactly like this, of course, I'm not stupid - I made some modifications for my own protection. Sigils are, just like names, very powerful, and knowing one demon's real sigil or real name gives you power over him.

One of the fundamental "natural laws" of our world is that a symbol - be it a sigil, a name, a melody, a gesture, whatever - is in a fashion identical with the symbolized. Whoever has my sigil has me. Woever speaks a word of power has power. Whoever makes a gesture of destruction causes destruction. this has nothing to do with causality - it's mystical identity. Difficult to explain.

Now, according to my mentor, humans know instinctively this principle : The symbol is identical with the symbolized. They call it "magic". I didn't remember everything my mentor told me, and my lack of knowlege of human customs make it difficult for me to illustrate this with examples. Maybe I will write another post about magic, later, when I know more about humans.

But what's important right now for me is that a lot of humans, in particular servants of the Enemy, know a lot of formulae, gestures and other symbols that can hurt a demon: The cross symbol, prayers, holy water, blessing gestures, holy books like the Bible or the Quran, incense, the color green... Of course, those things are only harmful when used as religious symbols - green harms only when used as symbol of the Islam, and a cross used as plus sign isn't dangerous at all.

By the way, symbols are also the weapons exorcists use to expulse and destroy demons. Experienced demons know techniques and counter-symbols to defend against symbol attacks, but for rookie demons like me there is only one advise when stumbling upon a religious symbol: Run like hell!

My mentor gave me advice about the most common religious symbols, and how to avoid them. And again, he didn't want anything in exchange for his help. Strange... If I only knew what he is up to...