Are you interested in angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, influence, and how to protect against the unknown? If so, then welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more.
If you had no idea what I just said, this is the standard refrain that both prayers and magical scrolls found in the Ethiopic Orthodox Church starts with. And it simply means in the name of the Father and of the Son and in the Holy Spirit of the One Lord. It then continues the ritualistic phrase Salot Ainta, which means a prayer concerning, and then will relate the matters to which the work is dedicated. With protection scrolls, they will typically list out the specific demons from which the wearer should be protected.
Now, we've looked at a fair number of cultures here: Japanese yokai, Western demonology, the haunting shape of generational curses, and a whole cavalcade of night terrors from my own personal collection. But today I want to take us to the Horn of Africa, to a spiritual tradition that is both ancient and living, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. More specifically, I want to shine a light on the demonic landscape that this tradition identifies. And trust me, it is as rich, complex, and terrifying as anything we've explored so far. Hello all, and welcome back to the Southern Demonology Podcast.
As always, I am your friendly neighborhood Ancient Demonologist JJ. If you wouldn't mind, please like and follow on whatever platform you happen to be watching or listening. And if you truly want to earn 10,000 JJ Awesome bonus points, you can even become a Patreon member for as little as $1.99 a month. Link to that, all of our episodes, and social media accounts can be found at Southern Demonology.com. And if you have a particular question or just want to say hi, you can contact me there as well.
Where we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Ephesians 6.12. The generic word for demon or evil spirit and geez or classical Ethiopic is ganan. The word is very important as the root G-N-N also gives rise to the word genun or demonaic and genanawi or demon-possessed. In fact, this particular root you are more than likely familiar with, as it's the same as from which the Arabic word jen is derived.
If you don't know, Classical Ethiopic is a Semitic language and therefore shares many roots with other Semitic languages. Arabic and Geoz actually have a great deal in common from its spoken plural system to a very large overlapping vocabulary. That is one of the reasons why a prerequisite to studying G'eas at Harvard, or at least it was back in my day, which was a while ago, was to have studied either Hebrew or Arabic for two years. Our initial look into Ghanan comes from the protection scrolls.
I've discussed the protection scrolls before, but today I wanted to do a deep dive into what these infernal creatures or negative influences are, so that you can get the sense of not only the magnitude of the onus might be, but also its historical context, which is lengthy indeed. Now, I will be delving into some of the philology of the names and get us, so in this particular episode, as they are rather revealing.
Now, to get into specifics, the next few are ones that are mostly commonly cited in magical protection scrolls created by Dubtra, the individuals who are sometimes part of and sometimes outside of the purview of the Ethiopic Orthodox Church. Worry not, as they will be covered in a part two, as they are equally fascinating in their own right. The first two are Barya and Lega One. Now, when I was studying the scrolls for the first time, I was told that these refer to the twin serpents that encircle the earth, constantly swallowing each other's tails, similar to Ouroboros.
However, the meaning behind their names goes so much deeper than that. Yeahs has a ton of loan words from Greek, especially around specific terms concerning the priesthood or Christianity. Legaon is one search word. Can you guess what extremely famous demon that's the name of? I could, without copyright protection, I would happily play the Jeopardy themed song here, but I'll give you a small hint. The Greek word is Legion. Okay, the answer is Legion. Now, Barya has several different meanings. The first is slave, the second is demon. And the third is epilepsy. Yep, epilepsy.
Hang in there with me. And that's because Barya is viewed as a particular demon that inflicts epilepsy onto its victims. Just as ancient societies for centuries before have postulated, all bad things stem from the demonic or spirits. In fact, the exorcist of ancient Babylon could be considered a stopgap between priests and doctors as they treated everything from curses to headaches, while dependent upon the wealth of the individual in question. That is. Etymologically, the word comes from the root Zed Raish Alef, which means to sow or scatter.
This is the noun form, which means either seed or progeny. This is why the czar could also be considered a generational curse, as it can be inherited from one's ancestors. But here's where it gets interesting. While the czar are undoubtedly seen as malevolent, the way they are treated can be more diplomatic in nature.
Unlike the full loan exorcisms we've seen with the Western Christian model, shouting priests, flailing limbs, projectile vomiting. If you go by the Hollywood standards, which we do not, the czar ritual in Ethiopia is more negotiative. The afflicted person, often through a spiritual medium or ritual leader, engages with the spirit. And it's not so much about casting it out as it is appealing to it. The czar is spoken to, listened to, even offered food, incense, or clothing. There's a kind of grudging respect in this model, like dealing with a volatile but powerful house guest.
You don't evict them, you give them what they want so that they'll leave on their own. It's not exactly Christian orthodoxy, which is why czar rituals are often conducted outside the direct control of the church. But the Ethiopian religious ecosystem is nothing if not complex. You have priests and one in Deptera, more on them in another episode in the middle, and then you have community ritual leaders who may be women, Muslim, and may not answer to any ecclesiastical hierarchy whatsoever. And yet they all deal with the czar. Next up is the Buddha, and this is where things get a little darker.
The Buddha isn't just a spirit, it's also a class of people. Yes, people believe to wield the evil eye. The Buddha are thought to be born with the ability to shape shift, usually into hyenas, and to harm other people out of envy or sheer malevolence. In many ways, they function like werewolves or skinwalkers and other traditions. But here's the thing accusations of being Buddha are almost always linked to class or caste or race.
In Ethiopian society, Buddha is frequently attributed to artisans like blacksmiths, potters, or leather workers, groups that historically lived on the margins of village life. It's a textbook case of spiritual marginalization. People who live outside social norms become repositories for spiritual blame. And to this day, someone suffering from an unexplained illness or sudden misfortune may consult a devtura or local priest who will say, You've been afflicted by the Buddha. Protective rituals might involve iron tools, talismans, or magical scrolls that absorb or deflect the gaze.
In fact, one of the most commonly cited things to protect against is the evil eye. And it's not just a metaphor. People have been ostracized, assaulted, or even killed over accusations of being Buddha. Demons here are not just mythic creatures, they are interwoven with power, politics, and prejudice. And if the word Buddha sounds familiar, that's because it is, is derived from Buddhists who regularly were discriminated against as they were viewed to having supernatural powers. Now, let's talk about a lesser known but incredibly fascinating category. Literally eyeshadow or eye shade.
These spirits are believed to obscure vision, not so much in the optical sense, but in the sense of spiritual perception and clarity. Victims of this category may suffer from what looks like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. They can speak in riddles, they scream, they tremble, they can see things no one else can. In fact, you can even throw in the spirit of epilepsy here. And yes, from a Western medical standpoint, these are mental health conditions. But within the Ethiopian worldview, there is a different interpretive lens.
Ayinetila spirits are blamed for everything from confusion, hallucinations, and derangement. They are often thought to attack people who have violated certain taboos or who have walked in places where spirits congregate, crossroads, cemeteries, and sacred groves. And once afflicted, the individual is typically brought to a priest or deptera who will use prayers, holy water, and yes, magical scrolls to drive the spirits out. And what's so compelling here is how tightly integrated the spiritual and psychological are. There is no clean divide.
Mental illnesses are often depicted in spirit as spiritual affliction. And spiritual affliction is often addressed with both prayer and herbal medicine. In a way, it's a holistic system, deeply problematic from one perspective and yet deeply attentive from another. Finally, we arrive at Yedigman Memphis, which roughly translates to spirits of curse. Memphis actually is one of the words I said during the beginning of the introductory prayer. Monfa simply means spirit. These are the malicious entities invoked when someone lays a curse on another person.
Sometimes they're ancestral, sometimes they're free-floating, just waiting for someone to get on the bad side. And sometimes they are associated with demons that operate like lawyers for the damned, persecuting cases of wrongdoing with spiritual consequences. If someone has suddenly lost their livelihood or developed a wasting disease or became barren after an enemy's curse, these spirits are often to blame. And what I find fascinating is how legalistic. This system can be. You don't just get cursed. There's often a process.
Someone committed an offense, knowingly or unknowingly, and a curse was laid in response. The spirit acts almost as a kind of karmic retribution. And this opens up some really interesting theological tensions. Is the spirit evil or simply acting in the name of justice? And if it is justice, then who can stop it? In the church, in the Deptera, anyone. The demonic landscape of Ethiopian Orthodoxy is not some distant museum exhibit. It's a living, breathing belief system.
And unlike the sanitized categories of good and evil we often work with in the West, the Ethiopian worldview embraces ambiguity in addition to magic. A spirit can be malevolent and yet appeased. A person can be cursed and yet deserving of compassion. A healer can be holy and yet feared. Even more fascinating, the demonic is not just a thing to be afraid of, it can also serve as a battery to fuel God's will in terms of the protection scrolls. And maybe that's the lesson here. Demons are not just things that go bump in the night.
They're everything from cultural narratives, projections of fear, and trauma and injustice. They are a relic of bygone beliefs that are the root of both physical, mental, and spiritual maladies. And yet, for all of that, they are also very, very real. In the next part of the series, we'll focus on the people who fight back against this world of darkness: the Deptra, the Rogue Priests, the mystical musicians, the exorcists who aren't quite sanctioned, and yet who might be your only hope.
And in this episode, I may have talked about how the Ethiopic worldview might hearken back more to ancient times. However, I never once attempted to cast aspersions against it. And this is because I don't know if it's the love of the language, the love of the culture, but I deeply respect Ethiopian Orthodoxy. And I hope that by listening to this, you've learned a bit and you've come to have that same type of admiration. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do a deep dive in this, because so few people know about this very amazing religion.
So few people actually know the liturgical language that it makes me extremely sad. Which is why I'm considering teaching this language through courses. If you are interested, please reach out to me on southerndemonology.com and let me know. And I will then decide how to put this together and offer it. Until then, thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Stay safe out there. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com, which offers links to all of our social media and episodes.
Southern Demonology is solely owned, produced, and edited by myself, and the intro and outro music are composed by me as well. If you have a moment, please rate, like, and share this podcast, as it is the best way to help support my work. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure to speak to you today.