Color

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the misconceptions and “facts” that are commonly held about our community. The difference between what is perceived and what is real. Some of these perceptions are thrust upon us, such as the Devil-made-me-do-it Oklahoma commandment smasher, who has of course, already been debunked as a lifelong Christian. But other perceptions we set upon ourselves. There is always a lot of focus on darkness when it comes to Satanism or Demonolatry, or really the occult in general. We talk a lot about the void, the abyss, infernal power. The black flame and the black mass. The upcoming holiday has a way of amplifying these perceptions and many among us, myself included, take the opportunity to indulge a little more than normal in the darker side of our path. But this year I decided to do something different. I conducted a very simple experiment. I popped open my copy of the CBoD with the intent of verifying how many Daemonic Divines actually had black listed as one of ‘”their” colors. The result? Two. Two out of nine. Belial and Eurynomous. And black isn’t even their solitary color. Belial has black with brown and green. Eurynomous has black with white. All of the others make use of other, usually much brighter colors, with white being even more prevalent than black. This was interesting, but not necessarily surprising. More of a reminder.

So I took the experiment a step further. Our symbols and sigils are almost always printed or displayed in black. What if they were colorized? I took the opportunity to rework some of my temple decorations, and the result has actually really surprised and inspired me. I now look around my temple space and see brightness. Color. Sigils jump out at me, and their colors remind me of the influence and significance of each Daemon they represent. And even in the simple doing of the task, I was pleasantly reminded of the Daemonic influence that helps drive me. I used the same process for coloring each sigil, and just used the colors listed in the CBoD, but the results I achieved fit each Daemon entirely too well for someone as artistically inept as me to have envisioned beforehand. I was challenged to go outside of my comfort zone in order to pursue a spiritual goal – and I found myself better for it. I feel that certain sigils, particularly Belial and Leviathan, were inspired and visually represent each of them extremely well. These are Dukante sigils found in the CBoD that I simply colorized for my own personal use.

It’s remarkable how much of a difference color can make. I am now visually reminded every day that this path is about balance. Light, as much as dark. The future, as much as the past. Life, as much as death.

MM