Since the beginning of time, humans have looked up to the heavens and declared that there must be something more; something more than what could be detected by the senses or confined within the confines of the natural world. Humanity looked at nature, and the intricate intelligence of it all, and our hearts leapt, for we knew that something, someone, some being must have put creation in motion. We are not on Earth by happenstance, but for a reason. Dreams and prophecy, the occasional glimpse into the unknown made curiosity burn with a longing to understand why things exist and the story behind it all.  The search for our reason, our purpose, gave birth to the building blocks of religion.

Religion, myths and legends, mysterious beings, horrific creatures, supernatural abilities, and magic in all its miraculous forms infiltrated human consciousness and have dominated it ever since. The human mind ran wild with possibility. Sometimes truth and imagination became so intermingled that imagination became truth in the hearts of those who believed. So much so, we offered sacrifices of ourselves, others, and animals in the name of gods that we hewed from brick and wood. We built temples to the invisible and fought wars believing we were made invincible by cosmic forces that favored us above all, and every now and then, the Divine would actually descend upon us to let us know that the preternatural, in some instances, is very real.

Before long, tales of angelic beings, gods and goddesses, spirits, people with supernatural powers, and everything in between emerged within the oral traditions of Africans and permeated throughout the entire earth, eventually finding an immortal home within the written word and artistic expressions.

Yesterday’s religions became today’s myths and legends, and the tradition of merging the sacred and the secular still lives on today. This can be seen through the works of many writers. From Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower to Violette L. Meier’s Ruah the Immortal and her Angel Crush saga, the commingling of holy and common still provides fascinating and extraordinary entertainment that makes the reader question the mysterious world that we live in. It tickles curiosity, makes us anxious with its sacrilegious undertones, which brazenly challenge our embedded theologies.

Tananarive Due produces immortals through the blood of Jesus in My Soul to Keep, and the wisdom of Osun was shared to give a woman back her power in Malena Crawford’s A Fist Full of Honey. Ancestral magic toppled an oppressive society and topped the New York Times Best Seller List in Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone as indie-writer V. R. McCoy highlights the shamanic power of Native Americans in Shaman the Dawn’s People.

Fantastic worlds of science fiction, fantasy, sword and soul, urban fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal are being built by phenomenal writers like N.K. Jemison, Nnedi Okorafor, L. M. Davis, Marcus Haynes, Milton Davis, Jessica Hosten, Nicole Kurtz, Jeff Carroll, Balogun Ojetade, and a host of others every day.

 Religion

“The roots of religion lie in humanity’s quest to comprehend the world and our place in it.” (National Geographic). It seeks to answer questions about why and how we exist and if we exist for a reason; what reason is it, and who or what caused us to become. “Throughout history, humans have pondered the question of their existence. In nearly every society, part of the answer has included some form of god or goddess involved in the creation of the universe.” (Coulter) There are no definite answers, only infinite questions, a vast diversity of different understandings about how we came to be. “In Africa there are very many versions of the creation story, fitted to the circumstances and experiences of different people.” (Knappert)

On a basic level, religion is the belief and the practice of worshipping a supreme being or beings. It is also the system of practice of said sacred worship. Sacred means to be connected to a deity or deities deemed deserving of veneration. It also means religious, spiritual, or philosophical ritual.

What is considered sacred? Religious figures like God, Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, Osun, and Vishnu. Religious texts like the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, and the Vedas are considered sacred. Spiritual and religious beliefs like Christianity, Hinduism, Vodun, Wicca, and Islam are sacred; also, life philosophies like Buddhism, Confucianism, and Zen. Beings like angels, ancestors, and avatars, and places like churches, temples, certain landmarks, heaven, shrines, and altars are sacred.

Within the domain of the sacred, each culture places its heavenly hosts, supreme beings, principalities and powers, along with a pantheon of beings good and evil working towards the success or demise of humanity.

The supernatural is considered sacred. “There has never been a society without some concept of the supernatural, some awareness of forces moving in the shadows beyond human understanding.” (Singer) Within the world of the supernatural, not only do gods exist, but also their underlings and nemeses. There are also beings that are outside of the heavenly hosts and hordes of demons. There are ghosts, fairies, aliens, jinn, and all manner of creatures which blur the lines between fact and fiction. The blur began to happen early on in prehistoric times. Cave drawings of half-human, half-animal decorated walls. Claims of miracles and magic, giants and dwarfs, monsters and sea creatures circulated through oral traditions. After many generations, they became written words held holy to those who uttered them.

Myths & Legends

A myth, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a long-established story regarding the early history of a civilization or an explanation of a natural or social phenomenon which sometimes involves supernatural beings or miraculous events. It can also be a widely accepted but untrue belief or idea. An example of a myth is found in Native American creation stories of the Earth Diver. “In stories of the Earth Diver, found all over North America, various beings attempt to dive to the bottom of the primordial waters and bring back a bit of mud from which to create the earth” (Sullivan), or when Gilgamesh and Enkidu, in the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, kill the Bull of Heaven that was sent by the goddess Ishtar. “Myths are serious stories that reflect a society’s spiritual foundation. They are symbols of human experience that each culture values and preserves because they embody the world view and important beliefs of that culture.” (Rosenberg)

          A legend, according to Oxford, is an accepted, popular story that could be regarded as historical but cannot be authenticated. An example of this would be King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Adam and Eve (and in some tales his first wife Lilith) can also be considered legends because their existence is believed to be true by many, but it is impossible to authenticate. It’s unknown if these legendary men and women ever walked the earth or only existed in the human imagination. 

          In time, some religions become myths as people discontinued worship of certain deities and belief systems. There was a time when Zeus was spoken of in high regard, as Jesus is today. Some deities fade away with time and are only rediscovered in archeological digs or sparse mentions in ancient literature. They remain immortal through our imaginations, heroic odes, and legendary tales of fiction.

Speculative Fiction

          It has been established that religion and spiritual belief have always been an intricate part of the human experience, and some of these experiences have evolved into full-blown myths and legends; therefore, it was only natural that the creatures, deities, places, and ideas became a part of a rich literary tradition birthing what is known today as speculative fiction.

          Speculative fiction is literature that is based on speculation rather than real life and reality. It is stories that take place in a reality that is different from our real, tangible world.

Genres of speculative fiction include fantasy, science fiction, science fantasy, horror, paranormal, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic, steampunk, Afrofuturism, alternative history, fairy tales, and comics (superhero fiction). Speculative fiction is not new. It has existed for thousands of years. Stories of ghosts, blood suckers, dragons, and aliens have been around for eons.

          Vampire tales have been around for over 2500 years. Every continent has its own version of a bloodsucker, from the obayifo of West Africa to the kappa of Japan. Tales of the undead even found their way into the pseudo-Apocryphal book, The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, where Satan appears in the form of a dragon and sucks a girl’s blood until the Virgin Mary gives the girl one of Jesus’ swaddling cloths. When Satan sees the cloths, flames and burning coals fall on him and he is forced to leave the girl alone.

          Ghosts have made appearances in many cultures, from ancient Israelites in the biblical story when the ghost of Samuel was brought back from the dead by the Witch of Endor to talk to King Saul in 1 Samuel 28:3-25 to ancient Egypt. “In the earlier period of Egypt, the soul was considered a single entity known as the Khu, the immortal aspect of an individual, but in later times, the soul was thought to be comprised of five different components. Two of these components, the Ba and Ka (spirit and personality), came together after death in the form of the Akh, and it was this entity that would return as a ghost. If proper rites had not been observed in burial, or some sin had been committed by the living either before or after the person's death, the Akh was given dispensation by the gods to return to earth to redress the wrong” (Mark), to the Roman playwright  Plautus’ comedy Mostellaria (The Haunted House), where a troubled spirit in rattling chains haunts a house until its body is properly buried.

          Speculative fiction has played with ideas of spirituality and religion, mixing the sacred with the secular for just as long. Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost shaped Western Christianity’s concept of Hell. Mary Shelley is arguably one of the pioneers of science fiction with her novel Frankenstein, where she challenges man’s desire to be God. Octavia Butler in Parable of the Sower declares that God is simply change. In my novel, Ruah the Immortal, the son of God even offers a vampire salvation.

          Speculative fiction mixing the sacred and the secular reigns supreme in literature and on the silver screen, with TV shows like Sabrina on Netflix and Good Omens on Amazon Prime. As long as great stories can be controversial and entertaining, the mix will always exist in our literature and our imaginations.

References

Abingdon Press. The New Interpreter's Study Bible with Apocrypha. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.

Adeyemi, Tomi. Children of Blood and Bone. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2018.

Airey, Mark O'Connell and Jaje. The Complete Encylopedia of Signs and Symbols. Hermes House, n.d.

Allen, Judy. Fantasy Encyclopedia. Boston: KingFisher, 2005.

Barestone, Willis. The Other Bible. New York: HaperSanFrancisco, 2005.

Belcher, Stephen. African Myths of Origin. London: Penguine Books, 2005.

Bird, Stephanie Rose. 365 Days of Hoodoo. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2018.

Bowker, John. God: A Brief History. London: DK Publishing, 2002.

Boyd, Katie. Devils & Demonology. Atglen: Schiffer Books, 2009.

Budge, E. A. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. New York: Chartwell Books, Inc., 2011.

Cavendish, Richard. Encyclopedia of the Unexplained. London: Penguin Books, 1989.

—. Mythology An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1992.

Chireau, Yvonne P. Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkerly: University of Califonia Press, 2003.

Cohn, Amy L. From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1993.

Cooper, David A. God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.

Correal, Tobe Melora. Finding Soul on the Path of Orisa. Berkley: Crossing Press, 2003.

Coulter, Patricia Turner and Charles Russell. Dictionary of Ancient Deities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab. The Clear Quran. Lombard: Book of Signs Foundation, 2016.

Every, George. Christian Mythology. London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1970.

Gaiman, Neil. Norse Mythology. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Ganeri, Anita. The Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Heaven. Boston: Element Children's Books, 1999.

Greer, John Michael. Monsters. Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications, 2011.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Mules and Men. New York: Perennial Library, 1935.

Irvine, Alex. The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls. New York: Dey St., 2007.

Jeffrey B Webb, PhD. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Exploring God. New York: Alpha, 2005.

Kail, Tony. A Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo. Charleston: The History Press, 2017.

Karade, Baba Ifa. The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts. Boston: Weiser Books, 1994.

Karcher, Stephen. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Divination. Shaftesbury: Element, 1997.

Knappert, Jan. Kings, Gods, & Spirits from African Mythology. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1986.

Lebling, Robert. Legends of the Fire Spirits. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2010.

Lugira, Aloysius M. African Religion. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2004.

Lynn, Heather. Land of the Watchers. Cleveland: The Midnight Cresent Publishing Company, 2015.

Mack, Carol K. Mack and Dinah. A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998.

Mark, Joshua J. "Ghosts in the Ancient World." 30 October 2014. Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/ghost/. 19 February 2020.

Meier, Violette L. Angel Crush. Atlanta: Viori Publishing, 2013.

—. Archfiend. Atlanta: Viori Publishing, 2018.

—. Hags, Haints, and Hoodoo. Atlanta: Viori Publishing, 2020.

—. Ruah the Immortal. Atlanta: Viori Publishing, 2016.

—. Son of the Rock. Atlanta: Viori Publishing, 2015.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1994.

Mitchem, Stephanie Y. African American Folk Healing. New York and London: New York University Press, 2007.

National Geogaphic. Concise History of World Religions. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2011?

Neugroschel, Joachim. Great Tales of Jewish Fantasy and The Occult. New York: The Overlook Press, 1976.

Ogden, Tom. Wizards and Sorcerers. New York: Checkmark Books, 1997.

Ojetade, Balogun. Beneath the Shining Jewel: . Roaring Lions Productions, 2016.

Okorafor, Nnedi. Akata Witch. New York: Penguin, 2011.

Oliver, Lewis. Angels A to Z. Visible Ink, n.d.

Ortiz, Richard Erdoes and Alfonso. American Indian Myths and Legends. Pantheon Books, 1984.

Pickering, David. Cassell Dictionary of Superstitions. Cassell, n.d.

Pinn, Anthony B. Varieties of African American Religious Experience. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.

Regardie, Isael. The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic. York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1969.

Robinson, James M. The Nag Hammadi Library. Brill: HarperSanFranciso, 1978.

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, 1990.

Sandars, N. K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin Books, 1960.

Schwartz, Howard. Tree of Souls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Singer, Andre and Lynette. Divine Magic. New York: Viewer Books, 1995.

Sphinx, Aziza. A Moment Before Midnight. 2017.

Sullivan, Sam D. Gill and Irene F. Native American Mythology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Teish, Luisah. Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Pratical Rituals. New York: Harper One, 1985.

The Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

The Jewish Publicaiton Society. Tanakh. Philadelphia and Jerusalem: The Jewish Publication Society, 1985.

Time-Life Books. Eastern Mysteries. Alexandria: Time-Life Books, n.d.

Unger, Merrill F. Biblical Demonology. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1994.