Supernatural Friday: Don't Open That Cursed Box!

Today’s Supernatural Friday is about cursed boxes. It is said that curse boxes are locked, wooden containers with sigils on the exterior. They are designed to contain magic, evil spirits, or cursed objects to prevent them from causing harm. Cursed objects are created by magic, and can kill their owners. The idea for the curse box may have come from the legend of Pandora's Box, a box that holds all the evil and all the diseases in the world, until - once opened - it released all this evil upon the world, leaving only Hope behind.

 

In the fictional world of television, one show, Supernatural, Dean and Sam Winchesters' father, John Winchester, had curse boxes made for him by Bobby Singer. He kept these at his secret storage space in New York. One of his curse boxes was stolen by thieves working for Bela, who worked for those who paid to get their hands on supernatural objects, and when they opened it, they found a cursed rabbit's foot inside.

One now well-known cursed box, thanks to an episode of Paranormal Witness about four years ago, and a movie, The Possession, that came out in September, dybbuk box, or dibbuk box. It is a wine cabinet which is said to be haunted by a dybbuk. In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a restless, usually malicious, spirit believed to be able to haunt and even possess the living. The cabinet has the Shema carved into the side of it. Its dimensions are 12.5" × 7.5" × 16.25”. Shema are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and are the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services.

The term "Dibbuk Box" was first used by Kevin Mannis to describe the box in the item information for an eBay auction to describe it as the subject of an original story (not the story for the film) describing supposedly true events which he considered to be related to the box. Mannis, a writer and creative professional by trade, owned a small antiques and furniture refinishing business in Portland, Oregon at the time. According to Mannis' story, he purportedly bought the box at an estate sale in 2003. It had belonged to a German Holocaust survivor named Havela, who had escaped to Spain and purchased it there before her immigration to the United States. Havela's granddaughter told Mannis that the box had been bought in Spain after the Holocaust. Upon hearing that the box was a family heirloom, Mannis offered to give the box back to the family, but the granddaughter insisted that he take it.

She said, "We don't want it."

The box had been kept in her grandmother's sewing room and never opened because a dybbuk live inside it. Upon opening the box, Mannis found that it contained two 1920s pennies, a lock of blonde hair bound with cord, a lock of black/brown hair bound with cord, a small statue engraved with the Hebrew word "Shalom", a small, golden wine goblet, one dried rose bud, and a single candle holder with four octopus-shaped legs; all items supposedly used in Jewish folklore to exorcise demons.

Numerous owners of the box have reported that strange phenomena accompany it. In his story, Mannis claimed he experienced a series of horrific nightmares shared with other people while they were in possession of the box or when they stayed at his home while he had it. His mother suffered a stroke on the same day he gave her the box as a birthday present — October 28. Every owner of the box has reported smells of cat urine or jasmine flowers, plus nightmares involving an old hag accompany the box.

Iosif Neitzke, a Missouri student at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri and the last person to auction the box on eBay, claimed that the box caused lights to burn out in his house and his hair to fall out. Jason Haxton, Director of the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri, had been following Neitzke's blogs regarding the box, and when he was ready to be rid of the box, Neitzke sold it to Haxton.

Haxton wrote The Dibbuk Box, and claimed that he subsequently developed strange health problems, including hives, coughing up blood, and "head-to-toe welts" Haxton consulted with Rabbis (Jewish religious leaders) to try to figure out a way to seal the dybbuk in the box again. Apparently successful, he took the freshly resealed box and hid it at a secret location, which he will not reveal.

Skeptic Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths' College, told an interviewer he believed that the box's owners were "already primed to be looking out for bad stuff.  In other words, if one is primed to believe they’ve cursed. Bad stuff that happens is what you perceive to be the cause. 



Another cursed box is used in the film, Silent Hill. I can’t tell you for sure if it was used in the video game, as only a gamer that has played it, can testify to that.

Of course, the most famous cursed “box” is Pandora’s. The original Greek word was 'pithos', which is a large jar, sometimes as large as a small person (Diogenes of Sinope was said to have once slept in one), mostly used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions, or, ritually, as a container for a human body for burying. In the case of Pandora, this jar may have been made of clay for use as storage as in the usual sense, or of bronze metal as an unbreakable prison. The mistranslation of pithos is usually attributed to the 16th century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam who translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Erasmus renderedpithos as the Greek pyxis, meaning "box". The phrase "Pandora's box" has endured ever since.

I will end this article with the Greek myth, “Pandora’s Box.”

Once up a time, a long time ago, Zeus ordered Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband) to make him a daughter. It was the first woman made out of clay. Hephaestus made a beautiful woman and named her Pandora. 

Zeus sent his new daughter, Pandora, down to earth so that she could marry Epimetheus, who was a gentle but lonely man. 

Zeus was not being kind. He was getting even. Epimetheus and Prometheus were brothers. Zeus was mad at one of the brothers, Prometheus, for giving people fire without asking Zeus first.  

Zeus gave Pandora a little box with a big heavy lock on it. He made her promise never to open the box. He gave the key to Pandora’s husband and told him to never open the box. Zeus was sure that Epimetheus' curiosity would get the better of him, and that either Epimetheus or his brother would open the box. 

Pandora was very curious. She wanted to see what was inside the box, but Epimetheus said no. Better not. "You know your father," Epimetheus sighed, referring to Zeus. "He’s a tricky one."

One day, when Epimetheus lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box.

Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.

Epimetheus woke up at the sound of her sobbing. “I opened the box and all these ugly things flew out,” she cried. “I tried to catch them, but they all got out.” Pandora opened the box to show him how empty it was. But the box was not quite empty. One tiny bug flew quickly out before Pandora could slam the lid shut again.

“Hello, Pandora,” said the bug, hovering just out of reach. “My name is Hope.” With a nod of thanks for being set free, Hope flew out into the world, a world that now held Envy, Crime, Hate, and Disease – and Hope.

Supernatural Friday: The Truth or Maybe Falseness of Legends and Urban Legends

Everyone participates in the reading of legends, myths, or folklore at some point in their lives. Who hasn’t read Greek mythology in school, or the folklore of Paul Bunyan, or even tall tales of famous, real people like Calamity Jane or Johnny Appleseed? What about urban legends? Urban legends are myths told in modern society, in cities or online, unlike many of the old tales set in the countryside. Even now, these get passed around in emails or are posted on the Internet—stories about the serial killer with the knife hanging around Lover’s Lane, Bloody Mary, the terrible smell under the bed in a hotel room or even the computer virus story that may have been true three years ago, but is still sent out as a warning.

A legend (Latin, legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions told about someone that existed in reality, once upon a time, but the true events have been twisted, making them more fascinating. Legend includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility,” defined by a highly flexible set of parameters. These may include miracles that are perceived as actually having happened. There is the specific tradition of indoctrination where the legend arose, and in which the tale may be transformed over time, in order to keep it fresh, vital, and realistic. It is kinda like that game you played with your classmates in school, where you whisper to the next person a story, and by the time it comes full circle, that story has changed drastically from what it began as.

A myth is a sacred or traditional story that concerns the origins of the world or how the world and the creatures in it came to be in their present form. Myths serve to unfold a part of the world view of a people, or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. Parables and allegories are myths. Nothing is supposed to be real about it at all, even if someone mentioned in the story is a real person, like some famous Virginians in my book, Haunted Virginia: Legends Myths and True Tales. There are stories told about their habits or life that are not true.

Folklore is the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. It is popular, but unfounded beliefs. Or, as Merriam-Webster says: “traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people.”

The flavor of people and their culture, all interwove with day to day life when settlers came to the New World. They brought with them their folk tales and beliefs, and founded new ones in the new country. Some old stories mutated into different ones. There were older tales told by the Native Americans who were already living in Virginia before the white man came. Then, when slaves were brought to the New World, they brought with them tales from Africa and changed them, molding them to fit their new home.

Today, in modern times, we continue this with urban legends. Who hasn’t heard of the killer with the hook in lover’s lane? Or who hasn’t said, “Bloody Mary” while staring into the mirror, hoping to make a ghost appear? Or spread the story of the fried rat found in a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There’s the hitchhiking woman dressed in an evening gown that is picked up and climbs into the back seat, giving directions to an address to the driver. Once they arrive at the house, though, the driver discovers that she has mysteriously disappeared. When he goes to the door, he is told that his hitchhiker is the daughter of the owner of the house, who had been killed just after she left a party several years before, never making it home. But stories like the hitchhiking ghost existed long before they ended up as urban legends. I know I’ve read stories when it was a buggy or wagon being driven, not a car. So how many urban legends started as folk tales by those who colonized America? How many are false, but again how many are based on truth? Like the smell under the bed in the motel--that was proven to be true, both happening in Northern Virginia motels.

Many of the legends and folk tales told by our ancestors have some kind of moral attached to them. These may be warnings. Watch your womenfolk and children, so that marauding Indians could not kidnap them. Don’t dare approach some old woman living in the woods for a much needed potion to rid one of an unwanted pregnancy, for she may conjure a spell and convince you to crawl into her oven to be cooked.

All of the above are the start of human storytelling, most likely around the campfire at night and told by the village shaman or official storyteller. What stories do you remember and still like to tell?

Supernatural Friday: Demons-Part 2

Last week I talked about demons, and how they are a part of Judaic and Christianity. Today, demons of other rleigions and races get their chance.

Assyrians may have had the first demon tales. Besides having the public and official cult of the "twelve great gods and subordinate divinities," they also did sorcery and magic. Below the upper gods, there was a huge lore of spirits, some good, others evil and hurtful. Interestingly enough, these spirits were classified with same methods and more to the choirs and orders of Judaic and Christian angelic hierarchy.

There were three books (most likely clay tablets) that had a great magical work. Each of these tablets ends with the title, Tablet #--of Evil Spirits. Besides known as udukku (spirit), a demon was also called ecimmu, or maskimmu.On of these was a special class called sedu--divine bull. It is represented as a man-headed bull (not unlike the Greek myth of the Minotaur--maybe even the Christian devil represented with horn and a forked tail?). No doubt the name was the source for the Hebrew word for demon. Though it was also a beneficient or tutelary spirit, to rival nation it can be corrupted to an evil being.

Demon lore in Mesopotamia was rich; the Mesopotamians feeling they were under constant attack from evil on all sides. Demonic entities usually were spirits caused by natural forces such as fire, plagues, droughts, infants dying from crib deaths and diseases. They assumed fantastically-shaped creatures made up from several parts of living things like scorpions, lions, serpents and hawks. One example of this was the Sumerian demon, Pazuzu, who was made famous by the horror film, "The Exorcist." It had four wings, clawed feet of a hawk, and a snarling lion-like face.

Mesopotamians fought these demons back with magic. Placing special bowls inscribed with special word charms upside down under their houses' foundations, they hoped to catch these demos and prevent them from entering their homes through the ground. Amulets with avertive verses against certain demons (like those who attack the lives of women giving birth) also were made.

After Babylonians were captured, ancient Hebrews assorbed much of Sumerian demons and lore into their own folklore. Over time, these became Jewish demons, like Lilith, who strangled children in their cribs and visited solitary men in their beds to seduce and caused nocturnal emissions. Lilith began life as a Babylonian demon known as the lilitu. She mutated into the first wife of Adam, who refused obedience to God.

Another source of demonologies is presented in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Mazdean religion of Zoroaster. Zoroastrianism is the doctrine teaching of Zarathustra, also known as Mazdaism, Bah Din, Parasiism, and Fire-worship.

This doctrine was founded by the Persian prophet, Zoroaster of Zarathustra around 720-541 B.C. He claimed he received these revelations when conversing with Ahura Mazda (Lord of Wisdom). These ancient religion, not popular like the Assyrians, still exists in the Parsee community. It talks about the war between light and dark, that good and evil is eternal. This myth is based on the Persian worship of the ahuras, good deities eternally at war with evil daevas. Is this not sound like Christian doctrine of eternal struggles between Heaven and Hell? What Zoroaster's system did is do away with a single deity in favor os a cosmic struggle between the good Ahura Mazda (Ormzad) and Ahriman (Anro Mainya), the cruel Evil Spirit, the Demon of Demons (Daevanam Daeva).

Though differences prevailed between the Avesta and the devil in Scripture and Christian theology, the essential fight between good and evil is similar in both cases. Also the pictures of the holiness and fidelity of Zoroaster when assailed by the temptations and persecutions of Anro Mainyus and his demonic entities is faintly close to the scene of the temptation of Jesus Christ in the desert.

Demons in Greek mythology may have gotten their heritage from the former civilizations of the Indus. Some of the creatures from Greek mythology are integrated into Jewish and Christian demonology--the hydra, Titans, Pan, and mermaids.

Tibetan demonology integrated into Buddhism and the main local branches. Though often misunderstood or misinterpreted, the scope of the still-know iconography is living proof that the pre-Buddhist Bon-Po tradition gave birth to their terrifying monsters. Today they are considered as an angry form of divinities and pure emptiness, before they were considered fearsome demons and gods who ruled the mysterious heights of the planet.