On Demons and the Wilderness
On Demons and the Wilderness
Thoughts on a sacred and spiritual vision of Nature.
There has been a very interesting online discourse recently on the various views of Nature and forests between the European continent and America. I became aware of this dialogue a couple weeks ago thanks to a Distributist podcast where Dave makes a brief remark on the differences between European and American forests. The next occurrence happened in the last week with a cool article written by an anonymous user for the Old Glory Club Substack. The common theme with both articles is characterizing the look and feel of forests in Europe and America.
European forests seem to have this air of innocence, timidity, and magic underneath their eaves based on what both Dave and the Old Glory Club describe. It’s not that hard to imagine gnomes, elves, and fairies inhabiting the various nooks and burrows of a European forest, playing childish tricks on wanderers and pilgrims alike. European forests seem to blur the line between fantasy and the real world with a childlike innocence. Not that I know entirely what that feels like. I’ve never been to Europe before, so I’m going to take Dave and the Old Glory Club at their word.
On the other hand, I know American forests intimately, especially those in my beloved home state of Missouri. American forests seem to have a much darker undertone to their atmosphere. Something about American forests are inherently wild, untamed, and dangerous. American forests are the dwelling of demons and eldritch, ancient horrors. I can personally attest to these feelings. I commonly feel while camping that I’m being watched by an unseen, hostile presence especially if I’m by myself. The feeling is especially acute at night around the campfire. The light the fire provides only does so much to beat back the darkness and provide comfort. The darkness could conceal anything, and you’d never spot the coming danger until it's too late. Few tales exist of friendly gnomes and fey folk living in the American forest. American forests have wendigos, Black Dogs, skinwalkers, and shunka warak'in instead. All of these entities, plus the numerous others, are known to be openly hostile to human life and wish its destruction.
All of this talk made me wonder why this weird dichotomy exists in the first place. What about American forests is so demonic that most of its cryptid population wishes destruction upon humanity? The problem with this question is I believe something is missing from Europe rather than unique to America. I firmly believe the Industrial Revolution and the destruction of European forests have led European cultures of all kinds to systematically forget the dangers of the woods and the demons that live within. America is not peculiar for having forests that are uniquely evil. It's the other way around. Europe is peculiar for having wilderness and forests that are uniquely innocent.
Desolation and Evil
Forests have been viewed in a variety of ways throughout history due to humanity’s changing relationship with the land. Humanity went from pastoral hunter gatherers to semi-nomadic and then a settled agriculturalist lifestyle in the very broadest scope of history. Times existed when these various lifestyles conflicted heavily with one another as well. The Bronze Age Collapse portrays lifestyle conflict quite well with the wars between the agriculturalist, landed empires of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Mycenaean Greece versus the mysterious, nomadic “Sea Peoples” emigrating from central and northern Europe.
However, the common view I’ve seen among the historical documents that I have read is that Nature is not to be trifled with. Nature can be a wrathful lover as well as a fertile, loving mother. The Ancient Greeks believed the primordial Earth-goddess Gaia spawned the Titans from her bosom to overthrow their tyrannical father Uranus. Then Gaia gifted the Olympian gods the power to overthrow their own tyrannical father Cronos when he attempted to avoid his own fate. A similar dichotomy occurs in the Bible. God repeatedly threatens Israel through the prophets that he will obliterate Israel and destroy its people thanks to their transgressions against the law, their unrepentant hearts, and their stiff necks. One such instance occurs in the Book of Ezekiel, where God threatens to turn all the land of Canaan into an uninhabitable wilderness:
Son of man, what are they saying, the folk that now inhabit yonder ruins of Israel? Enough of us, they say, to be the true heirs of this land! Abraham was granted possession of it when he was all alone. Tell them this from the Lord God: You, that cook your meat with the blood in it, that look to false gods for aid, that thrive by murder, the land’s heirs! You, that live by the sword, that practise foul rites, that dishonour your neighbours’ wives, the land’s heirs! This is the Lord’s message to them: As I am a living God, ruin-dwellers, the sword shall be your ruin! Or choose you the open country, you shall be a prey to the wild beasts; choose you mountain-fastness and cave, the pestilence shall take you. A lonely desert this land shall be, all its proud boast at an end; the hill-country of Israel shall lie desolate, untrodden by wayfarers; desert and desolate their land must be, in punishment of all their foul doings, before they learn to recognize my power. (Ezekiel 33: 24-29).
The message is clear enough. The wilderness is something not to be trifled with. Whether Nature is a goddess herself or the handmaiden of the Lord wrath, Nature is a dangerous entity to guard against. The wilderness, forest and non-forest alike, are connoted as being opposed to human life and flourishing. Civilization and cities are good because they denote prosperity. Commerce takes place in cities, and growing cities are signs of fertility. The community is growing, and there is enough wealth to go around. Everyone can have families and live productive lives. The wilderness encroaching upon the city, upon civilization, is a harbinger of evil times. The harvest has been bad, and starvation is gnawing away at the people. Disease could be stalking the community, or enemy armies could be lying in ambush on the periphery of the city. The threats to the community’s way of life are multiplying when the forest, when the wilderness, begins to encroach on territory formerly held by civilization.
In other words, Nature is the realm of chaos and disorder. The rules, customs, and traditions (order) humanity lives by, that is a necessity for its flourishing in society, is absent in the realm of Nature. The order of the world, with humanity on top as the embodiment of God and divinity, is suddenly inverted. Humanity becomes prey and vulnerable in Nature. Our predators are not just natural (bears, big cats, snakes) but also the supernatural working through the natural (immanence). The lines between the supernatural and the natural blur in the wilderness, to the point where we cannot tell the difference between the two realms. The blurring produces a liminal space where strangeness is allowed to flourish, and that scares humanity. That is why many gods and demons are associated with an animal of some kind. Leviathan is associated with whales and the snake in the Garden. Baphomet is associated with goats. Moloch is associated with bulls.
Transformation and Magic
It is in this immanence of Nature, in its strangeness and dangers both natural and supernatural, that man actually finds his greatest meaning. Civilization does not grow on its own. Civilization must be cultivated and continually worked upon, like a vast garden. Nature must be battled back by every generation, lest Nature overtake Humanity’s strongholds and destroy us. Each generation sends out its bravest and most powerful to force back the demons in the woods, to clear space for the next generation. Nature, and those who live on the fringes of civilization, tend to be threats as is played out constantly throughout human civilization. From the Mongols to the Sea Peoples and the Europeans in North America, the invaders and destroyers of civilization always come from the hinterlands and from Nature. Societal outcasts, witches, and heterodox cults often lived in the embrace of nature as well. Their dissident values were too much for society to bear, so society cast them out. If Nature and her continually beaten back and cleared away, Nature will easily reclaim the ground Humanity once took from her. Nature, after all, is a primordial force. She has all the time in the world.
Nature, and the forest by extension, are not only places of great evil but also transformation and magic. Many of the great tales of Shakespeare, the Bible (Matt 4:1-11), Arthurian legend, Sumerian and Greek mythology, Indian tales, and more all take place in a natural setting because the hero of the tale needs to encounter Nature to grow as an individual or convey an important value. The hero brings order, justice, or wisdom into Nature and conquers it. However, he rarely does it alone. God often battles alongside the hero to increase his chances of succeeding against the chaos of Nature and its demons. Magic items, special spells, potions, amulets, and master crafted weapons all feature as gifts of God to destroy the forces of Hell and as agents to transform the character of the story. Contact with the divine in the forms of their blessings and gifts allows the hero to access the transcendental truth of the universe and apply it to his own life in a previously unimaginable way.
When the hero returns to civilization, he brings these newfound gifts, powers, and values with them. The hero will use this newfound knowledge and power to shape society for the better. Society turns to worship the God whom the hero found while battling back the forces of evil and darkness under that dark canopy. Society and civilization will begin to worship what is good, true, and beautiful. These newfound powers and values propel society into prosperity as God, who fought alongside the hero, blesses him and all of society. It's not uncommon either for the hero to be crowned king of society. As the man who conquered Nature and defeated her minions, society finds that he is the man with the requisite virtues to rule over them as a Priestly King like David. The Priestly King serves as the community’s point of contact between the divine and mortal worlds, and through his conquests of Nature the Priestly King has legitimize his rule in the eyes of God and the community.
However, these heroes of old are not always successful. They may actually be detrimental to the cause of civilization by allowing Nature into civilization by accident. Through their own human frailty and sinfulness, these heroes will sometimes create the cracks Nature will exploit to destroy civilization. Like how Aeneis’ exodus from Carthage set the groundwork for the Punic Wars, our choices ultimately lead to Nature seeping into civilization gradually which causes hamartia and hubris. Nature will cause the downfall of civilization and the destruction of order. All societies experience the effects of Nature, using hamartia and hubris, to divide and set the community against itself. The collective sins of individuals, organizations, governments, and communities compound upon one another until society can no longer bear the collective damage. Civilization then begins its retreat or collapse. There’s no telling how long the retreat will last. Maybe a couple years. Maybe decades or centuries. Society will either find new ways to defeat Nature and exist in a new form, or Nature will defeat society, and that society dies.
Connection
So what does the last two sections have to do with my thesis? How do the previous sections relate to the gnome infested European forests and the wendigos stalking me outside my campfire in Missouri? I think the Europeans have forgotten about the demons in the woods and the dangers of the wilderness. Sure, it's entirely possible that European forests are simply miniature Gardens of Eden, and American ones are infested with demons. I don’t know. I’ve never been to Europe before. However, I think some of this view of their forests as benevolent can be explained by the destruction of European wilderness and forests.
If I’m not mistaken, European forests were largely heavily logged or nearly destroyed just before the Industrial Revolution thanks to centuries of population growth and fuel use. British forests, for example, were nearly destroyed by the shipbuilding, fuel, and housing industries well before the Industrial Revolution occurred. Whole oak forests were cut down to feed the shipyards of the growing British Navy and towns around the Isle. The poor were literally freezing to death in the streets during winter because the price of firewood doubled between 1540 and 1570. Part of what fueled colonial expansion in North America was getting the raw resources necessary to continue feeding domestic industries.
I’m more than willing to bet that a similar story was playing out in Europe at the time as well. The population was recovering from the Plague’s devastation by the Renaissance. Fuel, food, and housing needs, and the demand for wood would have also increased dramatically in response to the much larger population. The widespread destruction of forests and wild places only accelerated once the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. Humanity finally tipped the balance against Nature through chainsaws and materialist economic philosophy. The taming of Nature in Europe began once we saw forests only as an economic resource. The rest is history.
Europe has largely tamed what little forest is left. Their wildernesses have taken on a fundamentally innocent tone because they now “control” and cultivate their wild spaces. In a sense, they have driven the demons from the woods. However, Nature is a being of bounty and wrath. You cannot control or tame Nature forever since all she needs is time. The demons of the woods will one day return when Europe isn’t looking, and that will be a dark day for Europe and the world.