Dealing With the Devil: A Reply to Tom

Recently I posted a collaborative piece with Pippa Harris on Faustian Myth to my blog. It’s spectacularly thrilling and I’m sure you’ve all read it and remember it fondly but just in case I’ll remind you of its hypothesis. Essentially there is a popular trend of accounts, both fictitious and apparently genuine, of very particular interactions with the devil whereby an individual will seek out Satan and sign a pact or contract with him in order to fulfil material pursuits in exchange for their soul. These greedy characters crop up from the 6th century all the way to modern times.

Aside from being largely informative and speculative its premise was to identify the striking popularity of these tales which I remarked is perhaps due to the abhorrence of these acts or a similarity in the desperation of our own situations… or indeed both. I also identified three rough categories or historical stages. The first of these were ‘Pre-Doctor Faustus’ accounts – stories of folklore and myth that served religious and sociological purposes of changing doctrine and generally making people shit themselves. Then we see the Faustian theme typified in the play Doctor Faustus which sets the paradigm for the myth so that all encounters of its type are now labelled under one name. Importantly here we see the idea moved into popular secular entertainment which had not occurred on such a wide scale. Then exemplified in the story of Robert Johnson we see a third type emerge which displays an even stronger popularity with the myth in ‘Post-Doctor Faustus’ occurrences. Here we see genuine people with these claims who commune with the devil through desire and ambition. Often these individuals are prominent members of society or unlikely characters who are not devil worshipers beforehand.

Now, Tom raised the question of devil worshippers, witches and Satanists and how they fit into my three categories and why they are largely ignored in my discussion of Faustian Myth. I suggested that they were excluded due to the fact that they were largely a historical invention overplayed by the more paranoid elements of a Medieval Catholic state; that they were in truth resembling nature worshipping Pagans. Now Tom was being difficult and clever and having recently acquired a first on an assignment on Medieval witchcraft he assured that me that contrary to popular belief this was not the case.[1] After telling me that these individuals did indeed sign pacts and agreements over their souls and held genuine beliefs as such and carried apparent evidence of their encounters he suggested they fit into the third category as genuine figures of history - like the Faustian musicians.

I decided after some consideration that these groups were not part of Faustian Myth; they represent a subcultural, religious and sociological phenomenon. In other words it is part of their social and religious practice to act in this way and these individuals can be seen to act alone or in groups. In contradistinction, the characters of Faustian myth always act alone and there is an emphasis not on their beliefs but their desires, ego and ambition[2] (which is why I am interested in the psychological and social aspects of this phenomenon). These figures are unsuspecting characters, maybe even people of reputable nature or religious belief who turn their back away from the social norms and expectations and through greed and jealousy seek out Satan. The distinction is one that relies on many variables but the categories are very rough and of course there is some crossover so I hope that provides a satisfying answer to Tom.

[1] P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Witch Beliefs and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages: Documents and Readings (London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)

[2] David Hawkes, The Faust Myth: Religion and the Rise of Representation (USA: Palgrave, 2007)