Of course, popular legends developed this belief and thus, the demons also get a "Black Book", that holds all the evil deeds of a human being. It's interesting that the angels' "white book" and the one held by the devil will be used in the Final Judgement, obtaining an equilibrium and eventually cancelling each other out.

If we explore the mentality of the common man, centuries ago, we see a crowd of people going to church, some of them afraid of the priest/father/holy man wielding The Book and some frustrated and starting to believe that the book is the devil's work. This is the way that "the Black Book" gained more mentions in legends, as a weapon for wizards and an unfair advantage for some mortals, who travelled from village to village to get acolites and rule over people, sometimes even torment them with black magic.

Fear of the unknown? Checked! Mystery of the book (be it white or black? Checked! Clear wizardry… or is it? There's also the Book of Faith/Destiny, where legend claims that all of us have our destinies written before we're born, as we're all subjects to the same unchangeable fate. This literary motif is still present in some writings and destiny will probably be debated for many more thousands of years.

Let’s see what happens when a common man starts reading one of these magical books… Since the white one is unavailable, being in Heaven and all, the book of Faith has never been seen, but the Black Books are easier to get a hold of, since they're in the bag of each wizard. Many tales claim that common men reading such books learn to master demons, who perform the most complex of tasks and then demand more "work". They keep wanting more and more stuff to do, till the book's reader becomes exhausted and eventually defeated by his curiosity.

Even nowadays, the Book, Bible in this case or the Holy Scripture is used as a… “weapon” shall we say during exorcism. It’s the primary and most important "tool" of an exorcist chasing demons away, through a very complex ritual. It's fascinating how by simply reading out loud the pages of a Book with great significance and connotations, demons go away, or ghosts have their spirits cleared and leave the house they're haunting. Sometimes the Book/Bible gets a medical use, but sadly many people don’t grasp the significance of men possessed by demons, that is… a series of mental ailments. Solve those and you've got a new attribute of the Book – curative powers.

Author: Alex Stanescu

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