The Mythology Behind Eels of Catawissa
We have been told that there is a dangerous enemy, prowling in the darkness like a lion, seeking to devour our souls and drag us into hell. That there is a war being fought on our behalf to defend us from this enemy, occurring in the shadows, between God and the Devil. This is a lie.
Before us, God created the angels, purely spiritual beings, far superior to us in beauty and intellect, yet lacking His image — the duality of His physical and spiritual nature. The Creator commissioned the angels to guide and protect humankind, but like us, he also gave them free will — the choice to serve Him and humanity or serve themselves.
Intoxicated with his own significance, Lucifer, God’s most glorious angel, would not serve lesser beings. He could not accept that God chose to place His image upon humankind and withhold this noble birthright from the angels. In his envy, with perfect clarity and foresight of his damnation, and like all those whose minds are infected with pride, Lucifer chose his own desires over God’s.
When Lucifer rebelled and was cast from heaven, a third of the angels followed him and they came to earth to rule over mankind.
In a war, both sides can deal death to the other. God, in human terms, would need only to have the thought, and the Devil would be no more. There is no war between God and Lucifer for the Devil is a created being, infinitely less than God and incapable of defeating Him. Still, Lucifer’s intelligence far surpasses that of human understanding. His pride, and his hatred and envy of God are so great that he and his demon horde have dedicated their eternally damned spirits to one desire — attack, disfigure, and destroy the image of God that has been placed in each one of us.
It is said that the greatest lie the Devil ever told was to convince mankind he doesn’t exist. He is too prideful for this ambiguity. The greatest lie Lucifer ever told was that the battle was between him and God; that he is powerful enough to stand up to the Creator. With masterful manipulation in his craft of lies, Lucifer painted this illusory image in the minds of humankind. The fight is not between the Prince of Darkness and the King of Light, but there is still a fight.
The first book says that God placed enmity between Lucifer and the Woman, and between his offspring, and hers. She will crush the snake’s head, while it will strike her heel. God is not vindictive, He is just. The Devil fell from glory due to his pride, just punishment for this sin is humility. What would most humble the magnificent fallen angel than to be fought and defeated by God’s handmaid—the Woman.
Like the Devil, the Woman is a creation, infinitely less than God. But by His power, design, and choice, she is God’s sword in the fight against the Devil. But she is not the only soldier in the Creator’s army.
The Daughters of the Evening tended the golden fruit and the garden in which it grew. They were the nymphs of the west, also called the Atlantides, for they were the three daughters of the titan, Atlas. Though the daughters were not of his ilk, Atlas was commanded to protect them and the Woman.
The fruit was named Hesperides and grew only from the orange blossom trees of the western world, in the Islands of the Blessed. It was safeguarded by the Atlantides and kept secret, for it was the weapon prophesied to defeat the fallen angels.
Through the many ages of the earth, the fallen third of the angels and their leader have chosen many god-forms, whatever guise deemed most efficient in the exploitation of humankind. In the beginning they were called the Nephilim, today they are demons, in the time of the Atlantides before the great flood, they chose to be named after the stars – Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Humankind fell before them and worshiped them.
The fallen ones that ruled the sea admired the Woman and the daughters. They observed them from the waves, and from beneath the sea, for they were beautiful. Soon, their curiosity turned to envy of the women's given flesh. Their captain, Lucifer, desiring the destruction of the Hesperides fruit, charged his underlings to feed their tormented souls, and the lust of their unnatural bodies on the women’s gentle flesh.
In defense of his daughters, Atlas brought war against the fallen angels, but he was no match for their leader. Lucifer, then in his most favored god-form – Zeus – subdued Atlas, placing the weight of the world on his shoulders and leaving his three daughters unprotected.
The horde of water-demons pursued the daughters of Atlas, killing them and destroying the healing fruit. But not before the Woman placed the healing essence of the fruit into a stone. By God’s will and power, all that carried the stone would be covered and protected by the intercessory prayers of the Woman. It was from this time, during the first battles of the world between those that fell and those that remain, that the orange blossom flower and its fruit came to represent her.
The golden-saffron hue of the stone was of a muted luster, like the flesh of a clementine. It allured the eye and invited the touch. The Daughters of the Evening named the stone Hesperidium. Now, for its color, we call it Citrine. The stone is mined in the Ural Mountains of Russia, where the Islands of the Blessed were cast upon the greater lands by the waters of the great deluge.
The legends of Atlas, Zeus, and the Atlantides are, perhaps, merely fanciful tales—a snippet of ancient Greek mythology. But in most stories such as these, some truth remains, amended by the currents of time.
