Paul Doherty - The Rose Demon

‘But what does it mean?’ Matthias asked. ‘Where will it end?’

‘I have been privileged,’ she replied, ‘to study all that is written about angels and demons. What I am going to tell you is not an article of faith but legends handed down from the Jewish into the Christian tradition. I believe your father, on the night he died, gave you certain texts?’ She held her hand out. ‘Do you have these now?’

Matthias felt deep into his jerkin. He drew out two pieces of parchment. One the scrap he had found at Barnwick with Rosamund’s handwriting all over it. He kissed this and put it back into his pocket. The other he handed to Dame Emma. She opened it and read it, nodding understandingly.

‘Your father was a learned man,’ she declared. ‘Now let me put these texts into context. Imagine, Matthias, a creation before the world existed. God and his angels — the latter are beings of pure light and intelligence.’ She tapped herself playfully on the wrist. ‘I must not forget, Matthias, that you studied in the halls at Oxford but what I am going to tell you has no evidence in scripture.’ She picked up the parchment knife. ‘Imagine a world of spirits. The angels are beings with intelligence, power and will. God reveals a plan to them. He will create a visible world. He will make man in his own image. More importantly, God will become incarnate. He will take flesh and become one of these beings. You’ve heard of that theory before?’

‘Yes.’ Matthias replied. ‘The great Anselm in his book Cur Deus Homo — Why God became Man proposed an original thesis: how the incarnation of Christ was planned from all eternity: that God would have become incarnate whether man had fallen from grace or not.’

‘Precisely,’ Dame Emma replied. ‘But this decision caused a great revolt in Heaven. One of the greatest beings, Archangel Lucifer, rose in revolt. He would not accept God’s plan. According to legend he fell from Heaven and took others with him. We know from Genesis that Lucifer, whom we now call Satan, brought man into his revolt to wage a cosmic and eternal war on God.’ She pulled a face. ‘This is the staple diet of many sermons.’ She tapped the parchment Matthias had given her. ‘However, there is this curious verse in Chapter Six of Genesis: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” According to a Jewish legend, written in the Book of Enoch, one of the fallen angels, the Archangel Rosifer, joined Lucifer because of his love for Eve. He took a golden rose from the gardens of Heaven, a mystical, magical flower, and seduced Eve.’

‘Why?’ Matthias asked.

‘Because of her beauty,’ Dame Emma replied. ‘Because the Rosifer also wanted to experience what God had planned: the conception of a son. This is what happened at the incarnation when the Virgin Mary accepted God and conceived Christ.’

‘The Rosifer wished to imitate this?’

‘Yes, he did. Not just as an act of defiance but because of love.’ Dame Emma shrugged. ‘Some theologians even argue that that was the real cause of the fall of Satan and all his angels. To be like God in everything, in particular his plan to become incarnated, to be fully man.’ She picked up the parchment. ‘This explains the verse from the prophet Isaiah. Some commentators believe that the prophet is talking about the King of Babylon. Others claim that the verse, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”, is a reference to Lucifer and his brother the Rosifer: their determination to be like God in all things. Do you understand what I am saying, Matthias?’

‘Yes I do, but me?’

‘Time and again through history, the Rosifer has tried to conceive a child. The Book of Tobit, Chapter Three, Verse Eight, describes how the young, beautiful Jewess Sarah was the object of the Rosifer’s desire, a being we should properly call the Rose Demon. In the Jewish text he is called Asmadeus. So jealous was he of Sarah that any man who tried to have intercourse with her was promptly killed.’

‘And the last verse?’ Matthias asked. ‘The words of Christ: “If anyone loves me, I shall love him and my Father will love him. And my Father and I will come and make our home with him.”’

‘Ah, I’ll explain that in a short while, but what you must accept, Matthias, is that the Rosifer has, and does, love Eve and all her daughters. Some, like Sarah, are more special than others. Your mother, Christina, was his choice.’

‘But am I his son?’ Matthias asked.

‘I don’t know. But, Matthias, in God’s world, in the realm of the spirit, the intelligence and the will are all that matter. We humans recognise that. I can make you cry, Matthias. I can make you laugh. I can make you weep but I cannot make you love me. The Rosifer loves you. He sees you as his incarnation.’ She put the knife down. ‘Rightly or wrongly, yet that is not the important matter. What is important to the Rose Demon is that you know who he is, that you accept who he is, and that you love him in return.’

‘But the deaths?’ Matthias exclaimed. ‘The violence?’

‘Is your life any different from others’, Matthias? Go out on the streets of London. Men, women and children are dying in many barbaric ways. The Rose Demon sees that as a part of life.’

‘But why the deaths?’

‘Whatever his beauty,’ she replied, ‘whatever his power, whatever he says, whatever he does, the Rose Demon is a powerful being with his face and will turned against God. He will not be checked. He will not allow anyone to block his way. If people do, if they frustrate him, as happened in Sutton Courteny, they are to be punished.’

‘But why the blood-drinking?’ Matthias asked.

‘Again, a mockery of what God does. Christ came among us and the price he paid was in his own blood: the Rose Demon turns this on its head. If he becomes incarnated in someone, he needs, both physically and spiritually, the blood of others to sustain him.’

‘And he can do that?’ Matthias asked. ‘Move from one being to another?’

‘Of course. If the door to someone’s soul is open, he can enter. Read the gospels, Matthias. Remember how Judas betrayed Christ. The words used.’ She closed her eyes. ‘Yes that’s it: “And Satan entered Judas.” We can all do it, Matthias. That’s why your father wrote the last quotation from the gospels about Christ and His Father making their home in any of us. If God the Creator can enter the human soul why can’t any other spirit? If we love Christ, if we love our neighbour, God will come to us. If we hate, if we steep our lives in wickedness, we send out a call which the Powers of Darkness will always answer.’

‘So, why doesn’t he enter me?’ Matthias asked.

‘Two reasons, I suppose. First, Matthias, whatever you’ve done, your face is turned towards God. Rosamund saw that: she recognised the goodness in you. As long as your will is turned to the good you are protected. Secondly, the Rose Demon himself wants to be accepted. You can force yourself into someone’s house, Matthias, but you are hardly welcome.’

‘But look at me,’ Matthias declared. ‘I am twenty-six years of age. My life has been shattered, my parents died barbarously, as did my neighbours and my beloved wife. I have the smell of death on me. Does the Rose Demon think he will persuade me?’

‘Of course.’ Dame Emma pointed to a crucifix. ‘Read the gospels, Matthias. We know the Devil confronted Christ on two important occasions. The first, when he was in the desert after fasting forty days. Satan thought Jesus would be vulnerable in mind, body and soul. He thought Christ would accept his offer. Christ, of course, refused.’

‘And the second occasion?’

‘By implication, in the garden of Gethsemane, the night He was betrayed. Jesus was tired, dispirited, full of anguish at Judas’ treachery. I am sure Satan would have been waiting for Him amongst the olive groves, ready to tempt, to place another reality before Him.’