The Digital Bestiary: Baphomet

Baphomet, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1856)

    Baphomet is an image rich in symbolic import, perhaps uniquely so among the occult figures most commonly invoked in popular culture. Although originating in accounts of pagan worship dating back to the First Crusade, the popular image of Baphomet is the sole work of 19th century occultist Eliphas Levi, who illustrated the "Goat of Mendes" pictured above, appearing in his opus Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. After the fashion of alchemical illustration, Levi's figure is a representation of totality, and so consists of numerous binaries joined in one form: human and beast, man and woman, sun and moon etc. 

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

Witches fly over cavorting Devils 

    Nearly one century removed from its release, Häxan ("Witch"), alternately referred to in English as "Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages", remains a peculiar milestone in the history of occult horror. A lavish production, in fact the most costly Swedish film ever produced at the time, Haxan invokes a carousel of vivid imagery to explore notions of witchcraft in the western world- although, contrary to the English title, the film steadies its focus solely on the medieval period, avoiding explicit reference to the Salem witch trials while seeming to integrate certain details to expand its description of earlier episodes of persecution. 

The Digital Bestiary: Buer

Buer, Dictionnaire Infernal (1863)

"Buer is a great president, and is seene in this signe; he absolutelie teacheth philosophie morall and naturall, and also logicke, and the vertue of herbes: he giveth the best familiars, he can heale all diseases, speciallie of men, and reigneth over fiftie legions."

Welcome to the inaugural entry of The Digital Bestiary, where I'll be taking some time to trace the depictions of various mythological and supernatural beings as they appear across the infant medium of "videogames". I've chosen Buer as our first subject, being one of the most lovable members of the Ars Goetia, a text that is eternally sourced for representation in popular media (particularly in Japanese media, where it signifies the premier font of occult knowledge).

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Father Delaney (Rod Steiger)

    Viewed today, The Amityville Horror reads as a pastiche of thematic and narrative material culled from those genre staples which preceded and immediately followed its release, namely The Exorcist, Poltergeist, and The Shining. The influence exerted over this second film is too evident to demand elaboration, while the heritage it shares with The Shining (beyond the horror of the abusive father and the peculiar imagery which both films evoke) might be that both films are based in this idea of a terrible recurrence.