Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short…
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six.
– Revelations 13:18
The only bit of the Bible I can quote, and that has more to do with Iron Maiden than anything I was taught at school, and I gather even this isn’t accurate. Anyhow, it is widely believed to refer to the six day of the sixth month of the sixth year. Or, 06/06/06, today’s date. Actually, this isn’t accurate either. Our ways of calculating the passing of time have changed since biblical days, and using their schedule 06/06/06 would actually have occurred in the year we called 2002. Also, the numbers aren’t supposed to refer to the anti-Christ at all, but to the Roman empire, which spent a great deal of it’s time persecuting Christians. So now you know. And here to thrill and delight you is a little selection of spooky and devilish trivia.
Fear of the number 666 is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
Meon Hill, near Stratford on Avon, is reputed to have come into existence when Old Nick attempted to destroy Evesham Abbey by hurling a huge boulder at it. However, his aim was off, and the rock landed several miles short, producing the hill which has a pretty spooky history!
A similar tale exists about Silbury Hill. Apparently the Devil wished to destroy Marlborough, but was distracted and dropped a big pile of rocks in the area of Silbury. He may be the ultimate evil but he’s a bit crap at throwing isn’t he?
They say the Devil has all the best tunes. This is linked to the belief that Lucifer was cast out of Heaven for playing musical instruments – the human voice and bells being the only sacred forms of music. I wonder if church organists realise they are actually in league with Satan?
The word Satan actually means adversary. There are at least 57 other names for him.
A Tasmanian Devil is not actually demonic, it is really a marsupial, similar in appearance to a large weasel. They are supposed to be quite bad tempered though.
On the other hand, the Jersey Devil is supposed to have spooky origins.
Cutting your toe nails on a Sunday is a bad idea because the Devil will chase you. I have no idea why. However, you will be able to get rid of him by flinging a handful of salt over your shoulder.
When removing your shoes, always place them with them with left one on the left, and right on the right. Otherwise, the Devil will inflict serious bad luck on you. For the same reason, you must never allow knives to cross. So, not only is the big evil dude a crap throw, he is also suffering from OCD.
A northerly facing door in a church is known as a Devils door. Very few churches actually have this feature, and of the ones that did most have now been bricked up. Christians believed this was a way for Satan to enter a church. However, the practice of entering a sacred building from the north is more likely to have it’s roots in Paganism.
Suggested listening for today: Number of the Beast – Iron Maiden, Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones, Running with the Devil – Van Halen, Devil Inside – INXS
Finally, want to know how evil you are? Try this quiz:
How evil are you?
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Kate
Mum, blogger and editor based in the north of England; interests include fog knitting, cat herding and jelly juggling. If you want to get in touch for any reason you can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn or drop me a line via the contact page on my portfolio. Alternatively, you can follow this blog via it's Facebook page, or subscribe to the feed.
Jack Yan
hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
Phew! I thought this had something to do with abusing my . . . never mind.
Boy, the devil sure has been busy in England. What did you folks do to make him angry?
The North door: I never realized that Christians are superstitious.
My mom used to freak out if you opened an umbrella in the house. I used to it just to torment her, poor thing.
Mom, however, always got her revenge: when it was pouring rain she hid my raincoat.
I got ‘angelic’ too – though I was so annoyed when they put ‘England’ in the list (ignoring Scotland etc) that I clicked on Canada just to be spiteful. Partly. Also, what on earth is ‘oldies’ rock’? One person’s oldie is another person’s kiddie. (Goes off muttering, halo starting to tarnish…)
I got ‘angelic’, too. I am going to spend the next hour working out which boxes one needs to click to get classified as ‘evil’
.
came out as neutral.
luckily I was using Firefox and not IE!!
Charlie – I have no idea what we did to give him such a grudge against us, it must have been bad though LOL
I don’t know if all Christians are superstitious, it might just be my Mother. She believes in every superstition in existance, including umbrellas. My Brother and I had to step away from the door before opening a brolly, just in case a small part of it happened to open in the house.
Diddums – I was a bit puzzled by the oldies rock option too. I decided it must mean 70s and 80s, but as you say it is relative. I mean, teenagers nowadays think Nirvana are old.
Ally, – I was really hoping I would get the evil result. No one ever believes I am, even at school I had to play a goody in drama.
Pete – after my recent experiences with IE,I have to say using it would be grounds for me to believe you truly were evil LOL
Loved this post! So informative about evil. LOL
Attila – thank you. I was trying to steer away from the Omen and talk of the Apocalypse.