The Mythology of Supernatural

by Nathan Robert Brown

  As is often the case, things get worse before they get better. The Winchester boys later fail to stop Lucifer from unleashing the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Death himself joins the terrible quartet. And when the Winchester boys cross paths with a young boy prophesied to bring future ruin upon the Earth as the Antichrist, the brothers choose to risk their own lives in order to help the boy escape from both the assassination attempts of Heaven’s angels as well as the demonic influences of Hell’s legions.

  While the creators of Supernatural may have developed their own unique spin on the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse, they also relied heavily on certain traditional source materials related to the end of times.

  THE APOCALYPTIC REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN

  What I do have is a GED and a give ’em hell attitude. And I’ll figure it out.

  —DEAN WINCHESTER, “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL” (5-1)

  The apocalyptic revelation of Saint John is contained in the final book of the Christian New Testament and is more commonly known by the simple title of Revelation. However, it has gone by a variety of titles throughout history—Book of Revelation, Book of the Apocalypse, Book of the Revelation of Saint John, Apocalypse of Saint John, and [Book of] The Revelation of Saint John the Divine. Interestingly enough, of all the books in the Christian Bible, Revelation has had the most significant impact on the evolution of human history. For centuries, the decisions and policies of various monarchs and world leaders have been influenced by the apocalyptic prophecies written of in Revelation. It is interesting to note that in the modern vernacular the word Apocalypse has come to be used in reference to something akin to “a world-ending event.” The original meaning of Apocalypse, however, was the same as that of its root word apokalypisis, a classical Greek term meaning “revelation.”

  In Revelation, the author identifies himself by the name of John. In religious circles, it is generally believed that the John who wrote Revelation, referred to as John of Patmos at the time, is the same John the Apostle who traveled with Jesus and wrote the Gospel according to John. However, many modern scholars challenge this assumption and believe that these “two Johns” were different individuals. Other commonly used names for the John who authored Revelation include Eagle of Patmos, John the Seer, John the Divine, and John the Theologian.

  Patmos is the Greek island in the Aegean archipelago where John resided while writing Revelation. Most scholars agree that he was not on Patmos of his own free will but instead had been forced to live there as an exile. This belief stems from an interpretation of a short but significant passage that John wrote in Revelation 1:9, which explains that he was living “on the island, which is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.” Many have interpreted this to mean that John had been exiled to Patmos as punishment for trying to spread the teachings of Jesus.

  John’s exile, obviously, did not stop the continuing spread of Christian beliefs. It did, however, hinder John in supervising the growth of young churches. His Revelation text offers clues to this fact and actually begins as a series of letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, some praising and others criticizing their recent actions/ practices. At the time John wrote to them, the Seven Churches of Asia were among the strongest footholds for early Christianity. These churches were located in the Roman-Asian provinces of Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamum, Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna, and Thyatira.

  While certain events related to the End Times are mentioned in other parts of the Christian Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, John’s Revelation is the only biblical book that is entirely dedicated to the subject. Revelation is John’s narration of what he claimed to be a divine vision in which an angel took him “in spirit” to Heaven and revealed the final events to him. In some places, these events are explained in literal terms. In others sections, they are portrayed through the use of symbols and metaphor. Unfortunately, John rarely explains which style of interpretation he intends. This unusual narration style has long made it difficult for religious scholars and clergy to agree on a standard interpretation. Just about every denomination of Christianity has its own unique take on at least one thing related to Revelation. When you think about it, however, this makes a strange sort of sense.

  There are certain texts in the Judeo-Christian tradition in which an individual will inquire about the exact dates and events of the End Times. However, the answer they usually get is that the Apocalypse, like death, will sneak up as a “thief in the night.” No one is allowed to know until it happens. So perhaps Revelation was intentionally designed so that it would not be widely understood in advance.

  66 SEALS VERSUS SEVEN SEALS

  This demon, Lilith, is trying to break the 66 Seals to free Lucifer from Hell. Lucifer . . . will bring the Apocalypse. So, smoke ’em if ya got ’em.

  —ANNA MILTON, “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER” (4-9)

  As with much of the lore in Supernatural, there is a lot of Internet chatter going on about the mythical origins of the 66 Seals portrayed on the show. The breaking of these seals, according to the show’s lore, can be done by accomplishing any sixty-six out of about six hundred potential seals. And, once sixty-six of these seals are broken, it kick-starts the opening scenes of the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse. Unfortunately, a lot of dishonest or just misguided people (mostly those scary creatures often referred to as “Internet Trolls”) have posted a plethora of misinformation on the Internet—especially in wikis and forums—about this topic, often claiming that these seals can be found in some obscure or ancient text, usually one that has not yet been translated into English (or any other modern language, for that matter). After all, it’s tough to check a source if you don’t know how to read it. However, no valid texts of this kind actually exist.

  While the creators and writers of the show did not allow viewers to witness the breaking of all 66 Seals, they did manage to write some details about several of these 66 Seals into a number of episodes:

  1. Though viewers don’t directly see it, the show explains that Dean Winchester broke the first seal when he was corrupted by Alastair and tortured souls in Hell.

  2. In “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester” (4-2) the spirits of the dead are resurrected in an event called the Rising of the Witnesses, which breaks another seal.

  3. The resurrection of Samhain, which the brothers fail to prevent in “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” (4-7), breaks yet another seal.

  4. The archangel Uriel breaks a seal by killing his brother and sister angels.

  5. Rufus Turner identifies the causes of three more broken seals in “When the Levee Breaks” (4-21): (a) the extinction of ten species in the area of Key West, Florida; (b) the sudden blindness of an entire fifteen-man fishing crew in Alaska; and (c) the murder of sixty-six schoolchildren in New York by their own (probably demon-possessed) teacher.

  6. The Winchester boys actually succeed in stopping Alastair from breaking another seal when the demon attempts to kill two Reapers during a solstice. Alastair manages to kill one Reaper but not the second.

  7. And, of course, the killing of Lilith was the final seal to be broken—by none other than Sam Winchester.

  While they make for a very interesting plot element in Supernatural , the truth is that there are no 66 Seals in the Judeo-Christian mythos (or in any other related mythos, for that matter). Supernatural’s use of the number 66 for these seals more than likely has a pretty simple explanation. The demons have to break sixty-six out of six hundred seals, right? And 66 + 600 = 666, which most people know as the “number of the Beast” mentioned in Revelation.

  However, the number 66 has a number of religious significances. So, just to be thorough, here are some facts related to the religious implications of the number 66:

  • In the year 66 CE, Halley’s Comet was visible from Earth (and, as we all know, Samuel Colt created his special pistol during a time when Halley’s Comet was overhead).

  • A rebellion of Hebrew t
ribes against the Roman Empire also began in 66 CE.

  • There is a total of sixty-six books in the canonical Christian Bible (Old Testament plus New Testament).

  • In the Islamic tradition, the numerological value of the name of Allah is 66.

  • There are sixty-six verses in Lamentations 3 in the Old Testament, which is a wailing of suffering, hope, and divine revenge (sounds somewhat fitting to Supernatural, doesn’t it?).

  • There are sixty-six chapters in the book of Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet credited with foretelling the circumstances of Christ’s birth as well as prophesying certain apocalyptic events.

  While there may be no 66 Seals in the Judeo-Christian tradition, there are Seven Seals of the Apocalypse that are described in John’s Revelation. According to the text, there is a book closed by Seven Seals. This book is opened by the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” which is an alternative title for Jesus Christ. These Seven Seals, according to Revelation 5:6, are then broken by “a Lamb” with “seven horn and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth upon the Earth.” The identities of these spirits are generally thought to be the seven archangels (see chapter 4).

  With the opening of each seal, certain apocalyptic events are allowed to occur. For example, the breaking of the first four seals will unleash upon the Earth the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who will be discussed in further detail later in this chapter.

  The horrors that are unleashed by the Seven Seals (as set down in Revelation, beginning in chapter 6 and ending at the start of chapter 8) can be summed up as follows:

  Seal 1—The White Horseman (The Conqueror, or a symbol of Conquest; however, there are differing interpretations of what this means)

  Seal 2—The Red Horseman (War)

  Seal 3—The Black Horseman (Famine)

  Seal 4—The Pale Horseman (Death)

  Seal 5—The “Vision of the Martyrs,” in which John sees the souls of those who have been killed “for the Word of God” asking when they shall be avenged.

  Seal 6—Begins with a terrible earthquake; the sun turns black, the moon turns red, stars fall out of the sky, and the planet’s geography is violently changed; humans hide in caves, fearing God’s wrath; lastly, 144,000 people from the tribes of Israel are granted protection from the terrible events still to come in the form of seals on their foreheads.

  Seal 7—Marked by one half hour of silence in Heaven; then the “seven angels” will appear in order to sound the “seven trumpets” that mark the events related to the rise and fall of the Antichrist (more on this later).

  THE FOUR HORSEMEN

  Apocalypse . . . as in ‘Apocalypse’ Apocalypse? The Four Horsemen, pestilence, five-dollar-a-gallon-gas-Apocalypse?

  —DEAN WINCHESTER, “ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, DEAN WINCHESTER” (4-2)

  Of all the figures associated with Saint John’s apocalyptic vision, perhaps none have become more iconic of the End Times than the infamous Four Horsemen. They are, in a sense, the “generals” of the Apocalypse. Set loose upon the Earth with the opening of the first four seals, their arrivals will open the way for some of the most terrible events of Armageddon.

  THE WHITE HORSEMAN: THE CONQUEROR

  The first White Horseman is often referred to as the Conqueror, and there is some controversy regarding the meaning of his presence. According to the writings of Saint John, his vision of the White Horseman was as follows:

  I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the Seven Seals. Then I heard one of the seven living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come and bear witness.” I looked, and behold I saw a white horse! The rider held a bow, and was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

  —REVELATION 6:1–2

  There are some religious leaders and scholars who assert that this White Horseman is in fact a symbol of Jesus Christ, or is literally himself the Christ, returning to Earth in order to “conquer” evil. On the other hand, some of those who disagree with this view often point out that Christ’s return is specifically mentioned in later verses of Revelation. This would seem to make the association of the White Horseman to Christ unnecessarily redundant.

  Another theory that contradicts the “Christ as Horseman” claim asserts that this Horseman is a symbol of the Antichrist, who is prophesied to conquer the world politically, financially, and militarily. This concept stems from the belief that the Antichrist, with his demonic powers of seduction and deception, will first unite the world under a single government (often referred to as the New World Order) and false religion. He will then lead a violent and worldwide persecution of those who refuse to follow his religion and rule.

  Still others have interpreted the bow, crown, and conquest symbols to mean that the number of nations will decrease as wars of conquest are waged against smaller lands by the more powerful countries of the world. Many proponents of this idea believe that the White Horseman has already arrived, seeing as how such events have already occurred in recent periods of human history. Many view this rider as a symbol of international power politics in the form of military conquest.

  Perhaps the various interpretations of the White Horseman explain why the creators of Supernatural chose to portray him as Pestilence. They likely chose to interpret the mention of “conquest” as a reference to the behavior of a virus. After all, viral organisms infect and take over healthy cells and use them to spread throughout the body; one might say that viruses are the “conquerors” of microorganisms.

  THE RED HORSEMAN: WAR

  While there is some debate as to the meaning of the initial White Horseman of the Apocalypse, there is next to none when it comes to interpreting the meaning of his brother the Red Horseman. It is almost universally accepted that he is a manifestation of War. According to the writings of Saint John, his vision of the Red Horseman occurred as follows:

  When the Lamb opened the Second Seal, the second living creature said, “Come and bear witness.” And behold another horse came out, this one fiery red. The rider was given the power to remove peace from the face of the earth, and to make men kill and wage war upon each other. To the rider was given a mighty sword.

  —REVELATION 6:3–4

  The Red Horseman will have the power to plunge the entire globe into a period of all-out war. The only real controversy related to the Red Horseman has to do with whether or not he has already arrived. Some claim that the mid-twentieth century to the present has been the age of the Red Horseman, pointing to such occurrences as the invention of the atomic bomb and other nuclear weapons as well as the increasingly global nature of warfare. There are some, such as members of the various apocalyptic-centered Protestant denominations of Christianity, who believe that the Red Horseman’s “mighty sword” represents a nuclear weapon itself, the use of which would spell the end of the entire planet as well as every living thing on it. If any country on the planet launches a nuclear weapon, its enemies will launch theirs, beginning a domino effect that could mean multiple countries launching their nuclear arsenals. This is a sobering fact, considering that there are enough nuclear weapons currently in existence to turn this planet to dust several times over, even after years of downsizing and disarmament of the world’s nuclear arsenals (during the latter years of the cold war, there were enough nuclear weapons to obliterate the planet over a hundred times).

  Others believe that the nuclear association of the Red Horseman is wrong, since he is listed before the Black Horseman of Famine in John’s visions. After all, how can there be a famine if the entire planet has been destroyed? However, those who follow this rationale fail to realize that nowhere in Revelation does it say that the events caused by the Four Horsemen will occur in the order that they were revealed to Saint John. When reading, most people tend to assume that events mentioned in a certain order are going to occur in a corresponding chronological order. When it comes to the occurrences of prophecies, however, such chronology often does not apply. For example, it is not made clear in Re
velation if there will even be a pause or period of time between the release of the Four Horsemen. For all we know, they could all four come at once.

  Even the creators/writers of Supernatural seem to have acknowledged this issue of chronology. For example, even though War is mentioned second in Saint John’s Revelation, he is the first of the Four Horsemen to arrive on the show. The Winchesters tangle with War in “Good God, Y’all” (5-2). They succeed in bringing this Horseman down by chopping off his finger, thus separating him from his red-jeweled ring, the source of his powers (in Supernatural lore, anyway). I guess that’s one way to get a ring off.

  THE BLACK HORSEMAN: FAMINE

  The prophecy of the Black Horseman, who is released by the breaking of the third seal, has received some close attention in recent years. Here is how Saint John described his vision of the Black Horseman: