Fallen Angels on the Rampage!

4/30/2015

I’ve had it with Fallen Angels and their hybrid offspring with human women. They are everywhere in fringe world, and you can’t throw a stone without hitting one. Several alert readers sent me notice that the latest episode of Survivorman S06E05 “Bigfoot: Smoky Mountain Sasquatch” involved a supposed Bigfoot “expert,” Scott Carpenter, speculating that the imaginary backwoods ape is actually a member of the Nephilim, the offspring of the Sons of God from Genesis 6:4. The Sons of God are better known in fringe world as the Watchers from the Book of Enoch.

Carpenter tells us that Bigfoot’s magical powers, such as invisibility and telepathy, are “mimicking angelic powers from the Bible, so there’s a theory out there that they could be Nephilim,” which he cites to Genesis 6. He claims Bigfoot might descend from the Nephilim after traveling to the Americas. In order to explore this theory, the expert made a cross from two sticks and a bit of twine and placed it on a tree in order to attract the attention of the angel offspring, who presumably are assumed to be diabolical but in the Christian tradition. When we see the tree, the two sticks had fallen apart, and Carpenter interpreted this as a message, presumably the anger of Bigfoot-Nephilim at Christian symbols. The Nephilim also enjoy moving rocks around, according to Carpenter. My, how the Nephilim have fallen since the days when they were “mighty men of old, men of renown”!

Meanwhile, the parents of the Nephilim, the Watchers, showed up on last night’s episode of Supernatural as the Winchester brothers finally got around to battling the fallen angels. Their version is a little different from the Watchers of ancient astronaut lore, and in naming them “the Grigori, the Watchers,” it implies that they borrowed the creatures from 2 Enoch (Slavonic Enoch) rather than 1 Enoch, as in 2 Enoch 18:3:

These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail (Satan) rejected the Lord of light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on the second heaven, and three of them went down on to earth from the Lord’s throne, to the place Ermon, and broke through their vows on the shoulder of the hill Ermon and saw the daughters of men how good they are, and took to themselves wives, and befouled the earth with their deeds, who in all times of their age made lawlessness and mixing, and giants are born and marvellous big men and great enmity. (trans. W. R. Morfill)

On Supernatural, however, the Grigori, while agreeing with Enochian lore in being an early and elite detachment of angels, are presented more like the Nephilim in that they are more or less cannibals, feeding off of human souls, as 1 Enoch and Jubilees say of the Nephilim. In those texts, the Nephilim become cannibals (1 Enoch 15:4), and God decrees that after the Flood a certain percentage of their souls shall continue on, tempting and corrupting humanity as evil spirits in thrall to Satan (1 Enoch 15:8-11; Jubilees 10:11).

In Christian myth, Satan is the most important fallen angel of all, and it’s rather disappointing to see that Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, returning for its second season this Sunday, is poised to make the Fallen Angels into this season’s Big Bad. Showtime placed the season premiere on their website for a free preview, and in the second season opener, the apocalypse attributed last season to some ancient Egyptian menace appears to be retroactively reassigned to a more Christian sources. Now the “Master,” implied last year to be Dracula, is identified as Lucifer, to whom a coven of blood-bathing witches (a trope done much better on the concurrently running Salem on WGN) do homage and plan to unleash, again just like on Salem. They also speak the Enochian language of Fallen Angels. It seems that someone on Penny Dreadful noticed that Bram Stoker’s Dracula talks in the language of the New Testament Devil and literalized the allusion. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed to have yet another show based on the Christian apocalypse. How many do we have to have? It’s an overdone trope, and it tempers my enthusiasm for a program that seems to desperately want to be Dark Shadows with better production values.

Enough Fallen Angels! In fact, we should impose a moratorium on apocalypses of all kinds. There are just too many on TV, and it must say something about our culture that its most consistent entertainment theme is the apparent longing to burn civilization to the ground and start from scratch.

Finally today, I hesitate even to mention this because it risks provoking another outburst, but Veronica K. Clark, self-described “iconoclastic enigma” and revisionist historian of Nazi Germany, has asked her readers to contact my internet service provider and domain name registrar in order to demand they take down my website. I had hoped that in ignoring Clark she would eventually grow bored with attacking me, but this was not the case. Over the past week she has posted several YouTube videos and made a number of blog posts expressing her continued outrage that I described her revisionist take of Nazi Germany as Nazi apologetics. Clark accuses me of cyberbullying (complete with a chart), defamation, and for “allowing” people to post comments on my blog that she considers offensive, misogynistic, and defamatory. Like most writers on the fringe, Clark is unable to understand that comments are open to the public and anyone may post without my permission, either in favor of her or against her. I neither “allow” nor encourage them.

Clark is aggressive, angry, and seems to be ignorant of the relevant laws. Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and associated legislation, I am not responsible for the comments made by others. Pursuant to the First Amendment, nothing I have said about Clark constitutes defamation or libel. My website fully conforms to DMCA procedures and all applicable laws, and the Terms and Conditions of my website lay out DMCA-compliant remedies for any comments Clark feels violate her rights or my policies. Clark accuses me of lying about her, but she in turn lies about me, falsely stating that I make “a living off” my website, which is untrue. The site makes no money. But to point any of this out is a waste of time. Because Clark chooses to communicate with me entirely by YouTube video and blog post, it is quite obvious where her interest lies.

30 Comments

Shane Sullivan

4/30/2015 07:37:15 am

Would it be better or worse if it turned out that the fallen angels on Supernatural and Penny Dreadful were really aliens?

David Bradbury

4/30/2015 09:18:26 am

Haven't you got that the wrong way round? So-called "aliens" are actually fallen angels, just like bigfoot.

4/30/2015 10:44:55 am

Well, yeah, the *real* ones are. But I was just talking about TV. =P

Alaric

4/30/2015 11:25:24 am

Actually, "Fallen Angels" and "Aliens" are really hairy, apelike hominids. They wear disguises.

terraform

5/1/2015 02:43:43 am

No no no, you are all wrong. Obviously the Watchers, Bigfoot and the Ancient Aliens are all cleverly disguised Ant People.

Hypatia

5/1/2015 03:16:52 am

Remains to bring in the zombies and Slenderman into the cacophonous mess.

kal

4/30/2015 08:02:11 am

So the lady stalker is back. Does she realize making the accusations and then doing them is cyber bullying? She can do this to another adult, but if she had done it to someone younger, she would have long since been banned. Also this web site is not YouTube and does not have to abide by YT rules. The commenters are not your responsibility either. I think the comments about her have been fair and balanced and not at all libelous. Sure one or two were suggestive, but they were shut down by other commenters. She should go somewhere else and troll them. This is hardly worth such ire.

CHV

4/30/2015 09:36:27 am

IMO, fallen angels are a fine grist for storytelling - provided the audience is aware that it's intended to be fiction. As for the SURVIVORMAN: BIGFOOT episode referenced above, it only succeeded in pushing my skepticism for squatches to the 99th percentile.

I still believe it's "possible" that they exist in nature, but every episode of shows like SURVIVORMAN or FINDING BIGFOOT shrink that possibility in my mind ever smaller - esp with quacks like Todd Standing and Scott Carpenter.

Josh

3/18/2016 12:28:23 pm

Shows like that only make a joke out of it all. If you want to experience someone's encounter then talk to those that have had an encounter. I know what I have seen and heard. Along with many others. This society we live in n not wrap the mind around the fact of Sasquatch. Low information people gather their "knowledge" from the boob tube.

lurkster

4/30/2015 10:02:11 am

Heh. From the headline, I expected this post to be about CW's latest variation of the fallen angels trope, The Messengers.

Jason Colavito link

4/30/2015 10:06:05 am

It might have been, but I'm so tired of fallen angels that I didn't watch that one!

5/1/2015 06:24:22 am

You didn't miss much aside from a rather unique CGI rendering of angel wings, a new twist on reincarnation and a really cool meteor crash that isn't actually a meteor..

The 30second rundown:

Rapture-craving Evangelical Apocalyptic End Times plot that can't be stopped? Check!

A dashing anti-christ and 4 horsemen? Check!

Divine 7s? Not quite there yet... 7 seals are on the table, but no trumpets and only 6 angels.

Prophecy spewing oracle? Check!

Doomsday preaching televangelists? Check!

Hero warrior to fight the forces of evil? Yes and no, Lucifer killed him off before the angels found him.

Government cover up conspiracy? Check!

Atheist conversion to see the light? Check!

Pick a path - stop it from happening or usher in salvation? Not clear yet.

Only Me

4/30/2015 10:13:50 am

I hope Clark is happy. There's nothing like controversy, even the self-serving kind, to pique the curiosity of people who may not even know this blog exists.

I find it interesting there have been no comments to her blog. Apparently, she's the only one raging. And no, I refuse to watch her YouTube videos or peruse the comments for them.

If I truly wanted to waste my time, I'd watch cute animals videos. At least those videos, and the attached comments, are palatable.

5/1/2015 04:58:14 am

And Clark says she's offended.

According to Clark:

"Though, it appears you *have* built your reputation via slandering and defaming the research of other people. That said, I doubt you will ever apologize to anyone you have slandered, defamed or lied about, Mr. Colavito. You're a callous man."

Worse, she linked to a cyberbullying website that provides stories of children committing suicide due to cyberbullying. Her justification? "What happens when you and your commentators take it too far one day, Mr. Colavito."

This is after she said filing a complaint is not the same as a DMCA takedown effort and, of course, claimed Jason had lied again.

5/1/2015 06:51:47 am

I humbly apologize to her if she truly needs mental care. If so, be well and prosper, Veronica, visit a doctor, smile at a few people, and take walks in the sunshine. No one hates you, people only criticize your comments and beliefs. Perhaps some day you will understand how absolving your ex-cult heroes of the purposeful genocide of millions of human lives, and belittling it in rambling tirades, ignoring reality, can provoke anger.

Cathleen Anderson

4/30/2015 10:14:02 am

Even though your site does accept donations, I'd be surprised if you even get enough in donations to maintain the site.

Supernatural is running out of ideas, but you would expect that after 10+ years. It is a remarkable show.

Even if the watchers exist, they probably aren't anything like what the fringers want them to be.

4/30/2015 02:51:53 pm

It's too bad about Survivorman. I really liked his show when he trekked in the wild and tried out all his methods of shelters, fire, food and showed the survival methods of rural people throughout the world. Before he got talked into doing Bigfoot.

4/30/2015 08:15:37 pm

What's most depressing is that "Survivorman Bigfoot" started out as just a two-part special in 2014, but evidently it was so popular that the bigfoot theme has hijacked the entire 2015 Survivorman season.

5/1/2015 03:14:11 am

Yech! Most depressing. Trashing the whole concept of his show, and probably trashing his show afterwards when it becomes the same old same old 'looking for Bigfoot' that ran out of steam and turned into freak shows on the other channels
Junk food for the mind, left hungry, unsatisfied and malnourished.

Platy

4/30/2015 03:30:28 pm

Jason: I occasionally browse through older posts and last week I stumbled upon one where you went after the current zombie craze, but also mentioned the torture-porn movies like Hostel and Saw. Do you think the apocalypse stuff you brought up be related to that? In the older post, you mentioned how the torture and zombies are what the audience is rooting for in those movies. Do you think the apocalypse craze might just be an elevated form of that? In that the apocalypse represents a wish-fulfillment of a catastrophe that acts as an eraser for all the world's current ills.

Or do you think it ties into the current movie and T.V. craze consisting of things like Noah and Exodus to God's Not Dead and Persecuted? I don't know if you are into current horror films but even The Conjuring had some of these overtones as well.

Blake

5/1/2015 05:49:25 am

I think it has more to do that our culture and our society's superstructure is deeply rooted and predominated with Christianity which is where the and Apocalypse craze in all it's interchangeable forms (Fallen Angels, Zombies, etc) comes from.

5/1/2015 02:22:53 pm

Good point. It just seems to be the current pop culture trend lately.

spookyparadigm

5/2/2015 03:26:43 am

IMO

Torture Porn = temporary mainstreaming of gorehound horror underground that's been there since the days of exploitation pics

Zombies = Resurgence began due to video games in the 1990s (zombies were effective video game enemies because they were "PC" to kill instead of "terrorists"/soviets/"thugs" and worked well with limited AI), and have been embraced more broadly in that spirit. Notice how a lot of zombie media hits on the theme of reveling in liberty in formerly restricting environments, and how it has venn overlapped with parts of the "tactical" community

Apocalypse = some combination of a lot of Baby Boomers feeling their mortality and about a third of Americans still losing their shit over Board v. Brown. Functioning postapoc (Hunger Games etc.) feels like something different.

4/30/2015 05:36:38 pm

"The Nephilim also enjoy moving rocks around, according to Carpenter."

You think the Nephilim have OCD, or are they just easily amused?

5/1/2015 02:46:42 am

I think it is patently obvious that they move rocks around because something something sacred geometry astrological alignments

5/1/2015 03:26:57 am

Archaeoastronomy (the Scott Wolter definition, not the actual definition)!

Duke of URL

5/1/2015 03:31:46 am

Er, I think Carpenter is using a metaphor for sex... as per Dr Hook & the Medicine Show

Colin Hunt

5/1/2015 04:27:06 am

Hate to raise the VRC issue, but her views of Hitler's religious comments about his Christianity undoubtedly come Mein Kampf written, supposedly supporting his Catholic belief, c15 years before he declared war on Europe and the Jews. It was written unquestionably, as he declared, as a propaganda manifesto to gain broad general public support (and he needed the dominate Christians) for his grandiose plans. Once he attained power, he changed his public views, probably because his original views were nothing more than politicking hypocrisy to gain power. So many years after Mein Kampf was published, and after he had gained his coveted power, it is more relevant to read his later vehement comments against religion, during the war years, as documented extensively from his peers in 'Hitler's' Table Talk'. There will always be those who believe otherwise, especially clerics in the Catholic Church which, now embarrassingly, apparently sided with his actions during the war period, particularly in Italy (he conned the Church!). Maybe VRC is trying to get notoriety by espousing outdated and superseded history, well, she is becoming notorious as she wished, in the worse sense, and in my view is now in the category of believers in alien bases on the moon (it's blue cheese, really, a century of hearsay tells me so, so it must be true!). She's an alien, protecting their historical actions! Now there's a story - Hitler must also have been an alien launching his attacks from the moon. That a theory for VRC to develop, Hitler was an alien hero, no less credible than her other incredible hypotheses and ignorance of historical facts. Going back to your article headline, Hitler, and her, are not wrong, just misguided angels!

5/1/2015 05:24:28 am

That's what her video looked like to me too, an adoring cult of Hitler and his henchmen, surrounded by auras of celestial swastikas against a blue moonlit sky, attentive german sheperds and huskies angels looking up to him, while her voice goes on babbling in mostly incoherent sentences about misunderstood beatified heroes
and saints. Which prompted my invented epithet to illustrate her deluded frame of mind, if she is not just faking it. I don't need to look at her videos any further; like Only Me said above, I prefer looking at cute babies, kittens and puppies.

5/1/2015 04:53:40 am

Not incidental to my earlier post, VRC quotes, very extensively, on her web page that Thomas Jefferson supported Hitler's' views - very strange considering Jefferson died so long before Hitler was born and Jefferson was born 150 years before World War 2. So Hitler was influenced by Jefferson? It's all Jefferson's fault? Is she saying Jefferson's' comments are responsible for Hitler's attitude and World War 2? Is she saying WW2 is all the USA's fault? is she confused. or is it just me?

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Fallen Angels on the Rampage!

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