Came across a very interesting article about “devil worshippers” in Iraq. I consider myself a student of religions, and this is a group I hadn’t ever looked into. I’ve copied some interesting bits from the article after the cut, added my own thoughts, and some links to Wikipedia on some of the terms.
Yezidism is syncretistic: it combines elements of many faiths. Like Hindus, they believe in reincarnation. Like ancient Mithraists, they sacrifice bulls. They practise baptism, like Christians. When they pray they face the sun, like Zoroastrians. They profess to revile Islam, but there are strong links with Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.
The Yazidis believe that God created the world and left it in the care of seven holy beings, the chief of those being Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel.
And who is Melek Taus? Halil looks slightly uncomfortable: “We believe he is a proud angel, who rebelled and was thrown into Hell by God. He stayed there 40,000 years, until his tears quenched the fires of the underworld. Now he is reconciled to God.”
This is where the devil-worshipper charges come in, I guess.
The parallels between the story of the peacock angel’s rebellion, and the story of Lucifer, cast into Hell by the Christian God, are surely too close to be coincidence. The very word “Melek” is cognate with “Moloch“, the name of a Biblical demon - who demanded human sacrifice.
As an interesting aside, ceremonies at Bohemian Grove are also said to invoke Moloch.
And an interesting bit from the wikipedia page for Yezidism:
The tale of the Yazidis’ origin found in the Black Book gives them a distinctive ancestry and expresses their feeling of difference from other races. Before the roles of the sexes were determined, Adam and Eve quarreled about which of them provided the creative element in the begetting of children. Each stored their seed in a jar which was then sealed. When Eve’s was opened it was full of insects and other unpleasant creatures, but inside Adam’s jar was a beautiful boychild. This lovely child, known as son of Jar grew up to marry a houri and became the ancestor of the Yazidis. Therefore, the Yazidi are regarded as descending from Adam alone, while other humans are descendants of both Adam and Eve.
Religions of the world are probably what fascinate me the most. I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about how we, as humans form our belief structures and traditions and the connections between all the different religions and belief systems of the world. Syncretism is certainly apparent in far more than Yezidism, as you’ll find if you read anything at all about the history of any of the Judaeo-Christian religions.
To bring this back into relevance with current events, the last paragraph of the article:
He sighs, and adds: “The Yezidi have been persecuted for thousands of years, we are used to it. But we thought the new Iraq would protect minorities. We thought that things would get better when the Americans came…” And then he turns, and stares at the serene blue image, of the great peacock angel.
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