B. IN MEDIA
Many fiction and nonfiction books have been written about Nazism and the Occult, some of them pretty darn spooky.
Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut features ritual sex magic. The Mummy movies villain is still around because of powerful anti-death magic.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon introduced movie viewers worldwide to the exhilarating genre mix of Eastern Dark Arts with high-flying martial arts. Plot drivers in the Japanese anime film Spirited Away are the Dark Arts.
The TV series Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are full of the Dark Arts used by young people juggling the senior prom with saving the world from evil sorcerers, demons, and vampires.
Anne Rice’s book The Queen of the Damned reaches back into the sands of time to the Egyptian source of the vampiric Dark Art.
His Dark Materials books and The Golden Compass movie are fabulous explorations of the consequences of both humans and gods using the Dark Arts.
C. IN YOUR CREATIONS
Inner Drives Center of Motivation – Lower Solar Plexus: the power grab, & Ajna: magic central.
What tools can your characters use to bewitch others? Try sex, fear, money, power, ambition, religious devotion, and even spiritual aspiration.
Most temptations of major holy men and women include really big stuff such as world domination. Be sure in your stories the temptations and rewards fit the environment, and that you set up your character’s desires early on.
The Dark Arts go waaaaaaaay back in time, so show that with old books, references, ancient artifacts, creaky advisors.
The Dark Arts are a perversion of the physics of metaphysics, which is mostly just science that doesn’t have instruments to measure it yet. Pitting your wizard against a scientist who figures out how it works could send sparks flying.
WITCH HUNTS
Most witchcraft is simply the alignment of human will with Nature’s ways, usually to beneficial results. Problems arise when those who aren’t as aware feel supernatural forces are involved. Because humans are often spooked by what they don’t understand, the supposed powers of the W’s seem scary, and as we’ve seen above, some Dark W’s do take advantage with their superior skills.
Humans also typically shoot down those who rise above the norm. Accusations of witchcraft and wizardry have an astonishing coincidence with rivalry and revenge. Be it the witch burnings of centuries past, the Red Scare trials of the 1950s, or continuing persecution in many cultures today, the “witch” label can unfortunately condemn people to exile, loss of property and profession, torture, and even death.
A. IN ACTION
Masons and Jews are often accused of witchcraft and persecuted for being different and exclusive. Blood sacrifices and “unholy kisses” are often included in the accusations.
The Yale University secret society Skull and Bones, with many political leader alumni, is rumored by conspiracy theorists to include wizardly secrets and sex-death rituals.
In Ghana and many other places in Africa today, women who are too successful, too old, or simply in the way are often accused of witchcraft and sent off to exile in wretched witch camps.
B. IN MEDIA
In the Bible, Moses pits his magic against Pharaoh’s wizards as they turn staffs into snakes and rivers into blood.
The Salem witch trials are the subject for many books and media, as are the four centuries of witch hunts throughout Europe during the Catholic Church’s Inquisition.
The gorgeous film Dangerous Beauty, based on real-life courtesan Veronica Franco, finds her accused of witchcraft when 16th-century Venice is hit by the plague.
Monty Python has an hilarious skit about no one expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
Wizards at war is a huge subplot in The Lord of the Rings.
There’s the entire game genre of Sword and Sorcery, such as Dungeons and Dragons.
C. IN YOUR CREATIONS
Inner Drives Center of Motivation – Ajna: that magic center (for the accused), & Sacral: the fear-sex-money center (for the accusers).
In stories about this situation you’ll want three factions: the accused, the accusers, and the manipulated populace.
Witch hunts usually spring out of strict religious-superstitious societies, or societies under stress. Show the build up of societal problems and that there are few other ways for people to express their fears and hostilities.
Show some of the actions of the accused in ways that could indeed be misinterpreted: they alone reap a bountiful harvest because they alone planted at the correct moon phase; they take a gift to a new baby and the baby gets sick; they’re attractive and others’ spouses eyes wander, etc.
Politics plays a huge role in witch hunts. Show the scare tactics used to intimidate and paralyze the populace, then how the controllers turn their targets into scapegoats.
CONCLUSION
We’ve looked at some aspects of how these characters fit into a society, a situation, a story. Crafting them as more than cardboard bad guys can greatly enrich your creations. Keep in mind the Dark Side Witches, Wizards, and Warlocks will be prideful. After all, they know more than most people and can seemingly control the environment in many dimensions. That makes them dangerous, including to themselves.
Though black magic and dark wizards are usually ominous, you can use this archetype in comedy, too, like the comedy-romance Witches of Eastwick starring Jack Nicholson or the classic musical Damn Yankees! Most of Stephen King’s stories include ill-doing magical people, creatures, or machines, and the ancient world of fairy tales is filled with these types.
Giving characters varying degrees of magical abilities, from basic intuition to full galactic dominance, allows you to mix and match them for dramatic conflict, like the wizards Saruman (bad) and Gandalf (good) in LOTR. Also use a sliding scale along which they can grow or decline, like Willow the teen witch learning to control her addiction to magic in Buffy.
Using magic in your stories allows us to glimpse the mysteries of life and experience the wonders of unseen worlds.
9.
GHOSTS, GHOULS, AND
GHASTLY GODS
Ye gods
Nature spirits
Ghosts
Vampires, werewolves, zombies
Monsters
Aliens
Haunted things and places
It starts with the monster in the closet, moves on to the ghost stories around the fire, and graduates to a fascination with unexplained phenomena. The eternal popularity of scary stories is evidence that most of us love to be mystified and sometimes a little terrified, maybe because it reminds us that we’re alive, maybe just for the adrenaline rush.
Humans demand meaning and always come up with explanations for any experience, whether created by external or internal stimuli. Since we tend to create pictures with our imaginations and anthropomorphize the world around us, it’s no wonder we turn our sometimes vague perceptions into ghosts and ghouls, angels and aliens.
On the other hand, some myth systems offer taxonomies of non-human entities with hierarchies, job descriptions, and genealogies so extensive you think there must be something to it. Anyone who’s ever sensed other presences, “heard voices,” or “seen” shades of dead people knows that the perceptions themselves are quite real, and debates have raged for millennia over the nature of reality, so who can really say for certain?
Science can point to which part of the brain lights up under specific stimuli, but we’re not quite sure why some people seem to perceive from afar, or why you sometimes know who’s phoning, even without Caller ID. Esoterics posits we have an “etheric body” that is larger and more sensitive to the nonphysical realm than is our physical form.
The Mystery Schools teach that the astral (emotional) plane is where many of these entities exist and that any human can access that plane on purpose through drugs, dance, drink, ritual, sensory deprivation, special training, or through illness or accident.
Archetypes and devas created
on the astral plane are sustained by emotions, so just like in lots of sci-fi stories where a creature feeds off intense emotion, these devas get stronger with attention and celebrity. There’s a speech in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare about how story character Freddie Krueger became an embodiment of evil who’s now crossing over from the astral to the physical plane.
There are many books, Web sites, training systems, people, and media dedicated to all this lore, so deeper research on these topics will be easy for you.
YE GODS
Bad gods play a part in most religions. Typically they’re the old gods who got whupped by the new gods, or they’re the other guy’s gods.
CHARACTERISTICS
Pick a type from the “Bad Boys and Girls” chapter and just give them lots more power.
A. IN ACTION
The Bible’s Yahweh was very strict about “no other gods,” and when Mohammed took over the Kaaba in Mecca, he first destroyed the 360 idols that’d been worshipped there for centuries.
The Goddess movement posits a nomadic warlike male god system overthrowing a peaceful female system and setting up a patriarchy. Though some art, archaeology, and mythology support some of that idea, debates rage over interpretation of the data.
B. IN MEDIA
Ancient Hindu scriptures, Greek myths, and many other mythologies tell of war between one group of gods and another. Harry Hamlin as Perseus witnesses this in Clash of the Titans.
Maria Gymbutas, Rhian Eisler, and many others write about the displaced goddess. The Harlot by the Side of the Road reveals Biblical evidence for Israelite persecution of goddess religions. The Mists of Avalon pits patriarchal Christianity against the goddess ways of Arthurian Briton. The Da Vinci Code does the Mary Magdalene version of the displaced goddess theory.
C. IN YOUR CREATIONS
Inner Drives Centers of Motivation – Crown: the door to higher realms, & all others: as most deities tend to act like humans.
Since deities are usually created in the image of humans, have the gods reflect your story’s conflicts at a greater level of reach and consequence.
Remote deities aren’t very interesting; get yours in actual touch with individual humans.
If humans are pitting their deities against each other, as in religious wars, what do the deities think? Are they amused? Annoyed? Apathetic? Appalled?
Show us how deities get their power, and how it can be lost.
NATURE SPIRITS
Since humans came so late to the party, most mythologies cite creatures who ruled the world before us, some of whom aren’t too thrilled we’re here.
You doubt there’s more to reality than our human senses can perceive? Just watch a cat stalking “invisible” things. Paleobiology discovered that early mammals had four color-sensitive cones in their eyes rather than today’s three. Back then, nocturnal mammals could see infrared just like insects and birds still do. What if people who see auras have some kind of throwback vision thing and are seeing in the infrared spectrum?
CHARACTERISTICS
Not bound by the laws of nature or DNA. Species can mix with kingdoms: mermaids, tree maidens, fire monsters. Carry a grudge against humans. Seriously lacking some human aspect: can’t love (or sometimes can’t have sex), can’t eat, bound to a certain place. Vulnerable to certain things (iron is kryptonite for some).
A. IN ACTION
Goblins, trolls, fairies, sprites, demons… these nonhuman beings populate folk tales, legends, and myths. Some see them as projections of human fears or desires, some as personifications of elemental forces and things, some see them as faint remnants of past eras, others as trespassers from other dimensions.
Responsible teachers warn students not to get caught up in the astral phenomenon that’s a by-product of some meditation and yoga techniques. An activation of the Solar Plexus chakra is said to give greater access to the astral planes where people frequently see angels and aliens and develop ESP powers. It’s one of the crossroads that can lead to the Dark Side, lured by the seeming power of controlling elementals, fairies, and such. It will only come to tears — and to good scary stories.
B. IN MEDIA
Arab legends feature evil djinn, or genies. European folk tales warn hikers away from fairy rings and to watch out for trolls under bridges.
Offering both science and mystery, the villains in the film Photographing Fairies are deadly fairies. Tinkerbell in Peter Pan is so jealous she tries to kill Wendy.
The Harry Potter series has gremlins, goblins, bad fairies, and more. The Lord of the Rings trilogy has a wealth of elves, fairies, trolls, dwarves, orcs, etc.
C. IN YOUR CREATIONS
Inner Drives Centers of Motivation – Solar Plexus (both Lower and Aspirational): supernatural perceptions and phenomena.
How would earth-based elementals such as trolls or dwarves react to their modern cousin — silicon chips? Would they free them from the mainframe prisons or commune directly with them, no keyboards required?
Know what your demons and sprites want: to be left alone, to get rid of humans, vengeance, to rule, to eat, to sleep, to finally die?
Ideally, humans are supposed to help these creatures evolve in consciousness, as they help us interact with the physical world. How could your story’s humans partner up with the elementals to solve global warming, construction costs (moving giant stones as in legends), transportation, etc.?
GHOSTS AND POLTERGEISTS
Unlike the creatures in the last category who exist in and of themselves, ghosts are the leftovers of creatures, usually humans. They’re most commonly thought of as stranded souls of dead humans either unaware they’re dead or really pissed off about it and determined to wreak some havoc.
Exorcists know that these phenomena often result from a suppressed Sacral chakra, particularly in hormonal pubescent youth, as all that emotional energy surges through the poor kid looking for somewhere to go. Without proper creative outlets, drawers open, knives fly about, and tables toddle across rooms while terrified teens shriek in horror. Or so the theory goes.
CHARACTERISTICS
Usually one strong emotion motivates ghosts’ actions: anger, sadness, vengeance, loneliness, regret, etc. Their presence lowers the temperature. They usually appear as they did in their last alive moment. Animals can often perceive them.
A. IN ACTION
Many people think they’ve encountered a ghost. Common beliefs are that ghosts are not bound by laws of nature (walk through walls, fly, invisible). Ghosts have a limited affect on the physical world (often can’t speak, can’t move things). Poltergeists can move physical objects.
Ghostbusting and exorcisms use magic, chants, religious rites, herbs, and spiritual intervention to either get the ghost to vacate a place, or to help them move on to the afterworld.
B. IN MEDIA
All the spooky ghost stories, books, movies, and TV series.
Ghost Busters, Poltergeist, Beetlejuice, X-Files, and many more. In Ghost, dead guy Patrick Swayze can’t leave until he solves the mystery of his own death and protects his beloved wife.
In the anime film Spirited Away young human Chihiro enters a world of trapped, disembodied spirits and helps release some of them.
The Sixth Sense is from the point of view of the ghost, Bruce Willis, who helps the human boy figure out how to help other ghosts resolve their issues and move on.
C. IN YOUR CREATIONS
Inner Drives Centers of Motivation – Lower Solar Plexus: where most souls exit the physical body, and what ties those souls to earthly life.
From the “What Dark Side?” chapter, determine what your ghost believes about the afterlife, evil, etc. so you can keep their motives and actions internally consistent.
Pit two characters with different belief systems against each other. What if your ghost does not believe in ghosts?
Explore various cultures’ annual festivals for ghosts to get ideas for plots and characters: the Mexican Day of the Dead, the Chinese Festival of Hungry Gho
sts, Celtic All Hallow’s Eve, etc.
Do animals have ghosts? Do buildings? Cities? If so, what would they do? What would they want? How could you “bust” them, or send them to their next step?
VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES,
AND OTHER EX-HUMANS
Whether they’re just symbols of psychological traits gone bad or the remnants of ancient genetic engineering, these creatures have filled our stories forever. Most cultures have local versions of these things: in Southeast Asia it’s were-tigers, in South America it’s were-jaguars. Likewise there are local explanations of how they came to be and how to kill them.
CHARACTERISTICS
Some remnants of their humanity remain — sometimes physical, sometimes psychological. Often have super-strength. Often seemingly human except on full moons, at night, when blood-hungry, etc. Often can only be killed by certain things: sunlight, silver bullets, magic earth, etc.
Power of the Dark Side Page 14
