Symbol Dictionary: Gods/Underworld Guardians
Underworld Guardian: Most underworlds are ruled by a supreme deity, who is often the twin of the heavenly supreme deity. See Twin. Below are some of the Underworld Guardians.
Charon: Charon is the Styx ferryman of the underworld. Other representations of this guardian to the afterlife are Hermes, Christianity’s Peter, and the Greek St. Charus. Also China and the Balkans both have traditions of burying the dead with money to pay for the crossing to the next world. This cross-cultural archetype represents the gatekeeper between life and what comes after.
Devil: The evil Christian Devil comes from the need of every dualistic religion for god to have an opposite. In fact, devil and divinity share the same root word Devi (feminine) or Deva (masculine), meaning Divine and Goddess or God. Originally Divine and Devilish were fairly neutral terms and simply meant good and bad, or nice and hurtful and the Gods and Devils could act in both ways. According to The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), by Barbara Walker, “If there were any devilish attributes on which most myths agreed, they were the rather godlike qualities of (1) superhuman intelligence, and (2) superhuman sexuality… The devil was essential to the dualistic theology that Christianity copied from Persia.” The Persian belief of God and the Devil is that they were twin brothers, and the Devil was the creator of earth and worldly things, so they made sacrifices to him. It was even acknowledged that Pagan “Devil Worship” could heal the sick around the same time as early Christianity. Walker (1983) states, “The Christian devil became a composite of ancient deities in a single Protean form,” with the goat-horns of Pan, Marsyas, and Dionysus; the trident of Neptune, Hades, and Shive; the reptile characteristics of Leviathan, Pythion, and Ouroborus; the fire of Agni and Helios; the breasts of Astarte and Ishtar; the wolf face of Dis, Feronius, and Fenrir; wings of Babylonian cherubim; and bird talons of ancestral spirits.
The belief that the Devil seduces people to give him their souls has been cause for punishment by the church, even death during the witch-trials. As Walkerpoints out, “the Fathers and theologians never explained how the devil could profit from the pact, other than to receive a ‘soul’ that was his anyway. As Samuel Butler said, no one heard the devil’s side of any story, because God wrote all the books.” Christianity and Judaism both claim that God is the cause of all good in the world and man is the cause of all evil, so human fascination with the devil may come from wanting to pass on the responsibility of producing evil. Therefore the Devil became the scapegoat for man’s sins. Accordingly, the seven Devils correspond with the seven deadly sins: Lucifer with pride, Mammon with avarice, Asmodeus with lechery, Satan with anger, Beelzebub with gluttony, Leviathan with envy, and Belphegor with sloth.
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Hades (Greek)/Pluto (Roman): Pluto is the Roman ruler of the Underworld, and consort to Persephone. The combination of the initials Pluto-Lowell makes up the glyph, according to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002). Hades is the Lord of Death, pagan God of the Underworld, partner of Hecate or Persephone. He has also been called Eita and Ade in Rome, partner to Persipnei. In Greece he became the abductor of Persephone, which became the creation story of the seasons. Hades was also called Aidoneus, Pluto, Pluton, and Lord of Riches. |
According to Barbara Walker in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Hades represents “the phallic Hidden God in the womb of the Earth.” Due to his location within the earth, he is often regarded as knowing how to find gems and precious metals. Christianity later turned him into the devil. Walker explains that “like all underground deities, Hades was thought a leading resident of hell, which was often called by his name instead of by the name Hel, the Goddess.” See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course.
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Hermes (Greek)/Mercury (Roman): Messenger of the gods. According to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002), “Its glyph—the moon’s crescent (the soul) over the circle (spirit) over the cross (matter)—encompasses all the other planetary glyphs and may be derived from the caduceus.” According to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Hermes was the consort to the Great Mother Goddess Aphrodite, and as She was the Lady of Life, He was the Lord of Death, and Conductor of Souls. This union was recognized all over Indo-Europe. Egypt recognized him as Thoth, Rome as Mercury, and he was one and the same with Buddha. Walker explains, “An Enlightened One born of the virgin Maia, he was the same as the Enlightened One (Buddha) born of the same virgin Maya in India,” Maya translating as Moon. Hermes was the god of magic, letters, medicine, and occult wisdom. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course. |
Iblis: Iblis is the Arabic name for Satan, leader of the djinn spirits more ancient then even Allah. In her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Barbara Walker explains that “Satan, or Shaytan, the angel who rebelled against Allah and refused to worship Allah’s creation, Man.”
Lucifer: From the Latin title means “Light-bringer,” represented as the Morning Star god who “announced the daily birth of the sun,” as Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983) puts it. He was called Shaher by the Canaanites, who also honored his brother Shalem, the Evening Star who nightly announced the death of the sun. The Jewish Morning Service is still known as Shaharit. These two brothers, Shaher and Shalem were sons of the Great Mother Asherah (also called Helel). Canaanite mythology states that Shaher tried to steal the throne of the powerful sun god, and was cast out of the sky (heaven) by a lightning bolt. This story was later borrowed by Judaism and then Catholicism.
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Pautiwa: The Indigenous American Zuni people recognize Pautiwa as the Chief of Kachina Village, an underworld located at the bottom of a lake near Zuni. When a Zuni dies, they are received at the bottom of the lake by Pautiwa, a helpful and benevolent god. According to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002), “For all Pueblo peoples, Kachinas are spirit beings who embody the essences of all aspects of life; in Pautiwa’s case, these are dignity, beauty and leadership.” |
Satan: Satan originated as a god of death as the Egyptian Great Serpent Sata, son of the Earth, who is daily regenerated in the Goddess’s womb and thus is immortal. Satan appeared as the underground twin of the sun god Horus Ra and was the phallic consort of the Goddess Sati, or Satet, who was similar to the virgin aspect of Kali in Hinduism (Walker, 1983). The snake god was often paired with a fountain image of the goddess as a fertility symbol and associated with oracles of Delphi. In her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Barbara Walker explains, “The serpent was often a symbol of the sun god’s alter ego, the Black Sunk spirit of night or of death” in such pairs as Osiris/Set, Apollo/Python, Anu/Aciel, Baal/Yamm etc. Lucifer, another lightning-serpent was identified with Satan as a fallen god (meaning god of death or the underworld). As with other gods of death, Satan was demonized by the early Christian Church. See Devil and Twin.