Barbatos — Nature Insulted
One of the greatest feelings accessible to the human mind is the sense of unity with the whole cosmos — with forests and clouds, with streams and mountain crags, with plants and animals.
This sensation, arising from the profound unity of all that exists in the Great Spirit, is not only mystical but fully magical as well: it impels one toward active deeds aimed at reducing suffering, toward reunification and reintegration in the Pleroma.
How much inspiration, how much poetry has been drawn from Dionysian ecstasies — and how much Power the mind can find in interaction with the Waves of Life!
And, of course, no less destruction arises from the dismantling of this feeling.
The force that compels one to struggle with nature — to harm it while masking itself as “unity” with it — is objectified as one of the Grey Demons —Barbatos.
The “Lemegeton” says the following of this Demon:
“The Eighth Spirit is called Barbatos. He is a Great Duke, and appeareth when the Sun is in Sagittarius, with four noble Kings, accompanied by great troops. He teacheth to understand the singing of birds, and the voices of other creatures, such as the barking of dogs. He breaketh open hidden treasures, and the magical enchantments that have been laid upon them. He was of the Order of Potestates, of which he still governs a part. He knoweth all things past and to come, reconciles friends and promotes unions of rulers…”
In the language of the Grimoire, the “teaching” given by a Demon is precisely the implantation of a false awareness.
In this case, the Demon instills a counterfeit sense of participation in nature.
A typical example of Barbatos’s influence is the contemporary “outing into nature.”
People get into a car, drive somewhere “away from the city bustle,” devour shashlik, drink vodka, and leave behind broken and hacked-off branches, mountains of trash, and trampled grass. Then — content — drive home, having “enjoyed the beauty and fresh air.”
And, of course, this action has a whole series of negative consequences.
Beyond the obvious harm and, as its consequence, the burdening of the soul, there also arises the retaliatory aggression of nature spirits disturbed by such “visitors.” And the unity itself, having been deceived, is disrupted: the Flow of energy is broken; thus one sets oneself in opposition to the Great Current of Power and, correspondingly, suffers losses of energy and Power in general.
Herein lies the chief danger. Barbatos places the human being, in effect, outside the common stream of the cosmos, pushes him beyond the limits of the field within which any development of awareness is possible at all, and thereby deprives him of any chance of perfection — turning him into a demonic creature capable only of consumption and of insulting others’ resources.
The “four noble kings” of which the grimoire speaks are, of course, the four kings of the principles — the interaction with whom Barbatos disrupts.
In essence, Barbatos is a distorted, parodic god of nature — Kernunnos, refashioned in a demonic mode — in which the striving toward creative transformation is replaced by a striving toward consumption and violation.
For the Magus, it is vital to notice the influence of this Demon. Every scrap of paper thrown into a forest or meadow, every branch broken without need, places a person in confrontation with the Great Current of Power. That is, it not only soils the mind, not only burdens one’s “karma,” but also disrupts the normal, harmonious course of awareness. Attentiveness, discipline, and, of course, the Magus’s sharpened sensitivity make it possible not to miss those great chances of development that union with nature offers — principles, Elementals, and, in general, the kingdoms of mind.
The Lemegeton System: Gates of the Mind
The Gloom of the Heavens
Inspiration and Obsession
Hagith and Dantalion: Enslaving Bliss
Baalberit: Authorities and Sources
Bael: Deceived Gods
Andras’s Lone Wolves
Being Beset by Demons
In nature, it’s clear with the shashlik. I saw in the city boys and girls paint their bodies and make additional holes in them or pump all sorts of color and shape transformers into their bodies. I think this is also the influence of this demon. In the city of Moscow, almost no one litters the streets. I began intentionally throwing small amounts of trash on the street, and this demon appeared. It turns out that this demon maintains cleanliness in the city. I started throwing mental trash, and this demon appeared too. It seems like it establishes itself as a spirit, a regulator in the four elements. Both in the microcosm and the macrocosm. I’m sure this demon turns Earth into a desert, which can live and bear fruit both externally and internally.
Is a zoo not a distortion of love for nature? What about keeping exotic animals at home, where they only suffer in such conditions? And natural history museums, where stuffed animals are displayed and schoolchildren are shown, with explanations like: “This is a bunny, and this is a fox”? And movies about unfortunate animals, where they are always tortured and end up killed? The series Flipper about dolphins, which led to the development of a disgraceful business, resulting in thousands of dolphins being killed and tortured in aquariums every year? And those aquariums themselves. This list can go on indefinitely. The issue of littering with bottles in the forest is far from exhausted.