Asmodeus
"Bring in the prisoner!"
Chained in bright gold shackles etched with the sacred name of
YHWH terminating in effigies of specters and demons is a man of
not so uncommon stature or bearing. That is beyond the column of
soldiers that have escorted him in. With the safety in numbers
on their side, the were terse with their eyes. Never falling
upon anything long enough to discern a grape from a mountain
lion. But you got this feeling that each one of them was to
become a grape for the lion. So when Solomon gave the order for
them to leave bewilderment gave way to comfort as the column
responded to their sergeant's curt call and filed out.
The man with the shackles prominent in front of him hung his
head low and shrugged as a laugh escaped the corner of his lips
that had been built up in the upper parts of his chest that was
held especially to be released during these moments of irony
like the radiator that held on too long.
" I see you bend your knee to the ineffable name of God!"
The man with the shackles of Iron looked to the sky with his
head tilted sideways with his hands behind his back reaching for
the ground. His hips gave way to a contrapposto and he looked
down into the eye of the great poet of the Song of Songs.
"Are you not going to speak! Foul demon. Befouler of Matrimonial
bliss. Humble yourself in my presence."
This demon in wooden shackles scratched his nose and
contemplated his withering host. Keeping an eye on the son of
David, he sat in one motion on top of crossed legs.
"Asmodeus, lover of Lilith and patron of all evil hosts that
scour the night. "
"Don't mention her name please, it gives me a headache! Four
months in a cave with that woman is enough to drive anyone
batty. Some how I think batcaves in the future will become
popular in the west, with another Adam who goes well, batty."
"What are you talking about host of nocturnal emissions."
"TV! You know your favorite fan will be a demon from Israel who
will sleep with more women than one could ever comprehend. One
that has a peculiar taste for platform shoes and spitting blood
and fire when he is not insulting educated women on the radio."
"What!"
"Never mind. What do you want anyway!" said the man with
shackles on his feet. "Befouler of matrimony? I have been known
to ease the pain of continual denial by throwing cold water on
ones lungs. Takes the breathe right out of the affair. Sometimes
the only way to save a frog from boiling is to turn the
temperature all the way up."
"What!"
"You know that is how the whole Eve thing came about. When they
sedated Adam and removed his rib for DNA...."
"DNA?"
"Yes DNA, kind of the father of sperm. Sort of, but I got to
keep Lillith occupied and distracted. At first the idea sounded
great. Have you ever seen Lillith, who would not take this
assignment. See we had to distract her until Adam got over her
and bonded with Eve. But after three months, in between sex and
copulation, I made the mistake of striking a conversation. My
head is still splitting. 'If it don't please me to please you,
it ain't happening!' and all. That laugh, I invented fellatio so
I would not have to listen to it. I do not know if half of the
demons were my agony of listening to her or her twisted psyche
we gave birth to in that cave. I really like people, I never
intended in opening that pandora's box. We should of sewed her
up before I plunged deep within for hours upon days on end. From
that moment forward, I swore I would do whatever I could to
break up unhappy marriages to anyone who might of ever
aggravated their spouse as much as she aggravated me. No one
deserves that. As in Latin, demon means mental blockade. I see
more myself as a liberator. After I get into your relationship,
there is no way but to be liberated from what ails you."
Solomon looked down in surprise to find the golden shackles upon
his own wrists.
"What bounds you old man. Is Sheba going back to Ethiopia? What
happened to 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for
thy love is better than wine' ?"
"That is my own affair, now set me free in the name of...."
"Ineffable, I know. Ok. Why do you think my nephew could help
you? He gave her that ring with his name on it. But you think
that kept him from sleeping with those woman disguised as cows
and swans. Imagine he got that cows cave mistaken for hers.
Imagine his surprise when those two women got hold of him after
their heart to heart. Samael, poison tongue! Is that the
ineffable name of he that should not be named. I am what I am!
It sounded better coming from Popeye! Bad taste and all, handing
down his lovers to his son."
Perplexed at this conversation which seemed to go nowhere. How
was he King of the Jews ever to get an appropriate tabernacle
built to house those 15 commandments. Granted no one knew more
than 10 since Moses dropped that tablet, but his followers swept
it up any hows. Now it sits in the ark with the rest,
occasionally giving those entering or leaving the tent a nasty
static shock. Some say that Sheba was leaving because she blamed
it for kinking her hair after she spent fortunes on spikenard to
have it straighten. He needed this demon to build him a great
temple. Especially with negotiations with Tyre being sour.
"So what binds you old man. Why did you seek a stranger's bed?
You think a queen in her own right would tolerate such actions.
How about your own heart. Is not the guilt building even now?
Free yourself old man before you build any housing for anything
so sacred. The builders hands must be pure or else the axe and
adze slips from ones hand into the leg."
"How do you see so much, foul demon?"
" Demon, look who is blocking the truth from his mind! The
future is plain for me as dates that linger on your tongue from
the morrow. No you thought you had power over me by knowing my
name, but I have many to be and many gone by. Some lost and some
on the lips of many. Of those to be will be Elijah and Jesus.
Before Melchizedek and originating in Christ from above in the
Plemora and not below. I sat at the tree when Eve was given the
fruit and played counsel weighed on two sides. I will come in
the end to break up the bride from her discontent of tedium and
boredom that runs to apathy into malice. The Alpha and the
Omega. I helped screw things up I can at least help fix it. You
laughed at me crying at a wedding when the bridegroom was to die
within the week and a man arguing over a pair of shoes when he
would only tread on earth for no more than seven days. But you
want me to build a temple that will fall twice. To build
something I will tear down myself. Do not look to external
praise, look within and free yourself. As you see I have. I
suggest you do the same."
With that the demon disappeared in nothing no more dramatic than
a desert breeze. Leaving the King bound behind.
In his place appeared a man recently from Tyre named Hiram
looking bewildered with a trowel in his hand and a helmet on his
head with an acquisition for a whole lot of cedar in the other.