Hellboy: On Earth as It Is in Hell (17 page)

BUREAU FOR PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND DEFENSE
Field Memo UK-000164-01

Date: October 25, 1996

Issued by: Dr. Kate Corrigan

Classification: Open Access

Subject: Moloch and Moloch worship

Whether through official channels or the grapevine, by now you're all no doubt aware of Hellboy's encounter off the north coast of Scotland, some time during the late hours of Wednesday, October 23. After spending approximately 92 hours in the stomach of the mytho-historical creature known as the Leviathan, Hellboy was subjected to the Jonah-like indignity of being regurgitated onto the island colloquially known as Dreich Midden. For reasons that may only be symbolic, or that may have some thus far undetected significance, this was the same island where the ritual was conducted that directly or indirectly triggered Hellboy's appearance in East Bromwich, England (December 23, 1944). Regardless of whether the choice of Dreich Midden was symbolic or significant, one conclusion is inescapable: that the sinking of the charter vessel
Calista
was orchestrated for the purpose of bringing Hellboy there so the Masada Scroll could be taken.

It is Hellboy's belief that, although carried out by the physical forms of two unidentified men, this theft was engineered by the demonic entity known in various grimoires and other sources of arcana and history as Moloch, with the assistance of Surgat, a lesser demon infamous for opening locks.

For those of you who didn't grow up in ancient Palestine (and, the totally uncalled-for cracks about my age from you novice agents notwithstanding, neither did I), a background on Moloch should be helpful in letting everyone know what we're dealing with.

Although clearly a malevolent entity to our, ahem, enlightened sensibilities, Moloch was worshipped as a sun god in first millennium B.C.E. Palestine and beyond. You can hardly rub two historians together without generating sparks of disagreement, but Moloch has been associated variously with the Ammonite and Canaanite tribes, and biblical accounts indicate that Solomon imported the cult of Moloch worship into Israel at a location outside Jerusalem called Tophet (likely translation: "place of abomination"). Moloch worship, or something very similar, also appears to have gone on in North Africa at Carthage and elsewhere, as well as Malta, Sardinia, Sicily, and other locations around the western Mediterranean.

If we refer to later sources, although concerning events even more ancient, we find a greater consensus on Moloch's identity, disposition, and inclinations. There is a concurrence among medieval- and Renaissance-era demonologists that Moloch is a prince of Hell; according to some sixteenth-century sources, his power is greatest in December. (As we are just weeks away from December, the events we're now experiencing suggest that we should take seriously the possibility that they are proceeding according to a definite timetable.) If you recall your Milton, Moloch was one of the instigators among the host of rebel angels, as well as one of its greatest warriors, and is described in
Paradise Lost
as "besmeared with blood of human sacrifice and parents' tears..." A similar passage in the twelfth-century grimoire
De Vermis Mysteriis
describes him as one who "takes supreme pleasure in causing mothers to weep."

The BPRD has in the past observed that incorporeal entities can indeed be strengthened by devotion. So I--and I'm far from alone in this--consider it a possibility that Moloch was greatly empowered by his worship among various peoples of antiquity that mistakenly regarded him as a sun deity.

Their worship was invariably sacrificial in nature, and there is also little room for doubt that (a) immolation was the means of delivery, (b) when human beings were sacrificed, the chosen victims were children, and (c) the centerpiece of the sacrificial rite was a large statue, likely made of bronze. Less certain is the precise methodology of burning, as the surviving ancient writings vary.

Some rabbinical accounts describe a hollow statue having seven compartments, each of which was reserved for a specific offering--the seventh being the child--which were consumed by a fire kindled within the base of the statue. In other accounts, the child (whether alive or freshly killed by some other means) was placed on the statue's outstretched arms directly over a firepit kindled in front of the statue. Multiple accounts refer to priests and others present at the rite playing drums, tambourines, flutes, pipes, etc., in order to create a cacophony that would drown out the victim's screams.

As always, we have to allow for two considerations: regional differences in idol worship that really did occur, and the possibility that some accounts were exaggerations or complete fictions, as propaganda generated by a tribe or city-state's enemies.

Although it certainly wasn't intended as propaganda, the greatest enduring misperception about these rites does have its origins in fiction. French novelist Gustave Flaubert's 1862 novel
Salammbo
described Carthaginian Moloch worship as involving a large statue whose movable arms were rigged with chains so that the priests could raise them; a child placed upon the statue's outstretched hands was then mechanically deposited into Moloch's gaping mouth, and delivered to the flames within.

It wasn't true then. Unfortunately, it appears to be true
now.

Although widespread, institutionalized Moloch worship died out over 2000 years ago, small cults and other pockets of devotees have been sporadically reported over the centuries. The last such group that the BPRD is aware of was active in post-World War I Germany:
Der Horn-Orden
(translation, the Order of the Horn, presumably in deference to Moloch's traditional appearance as having the head of a bull). This group thrived in the decadent atmosphere of Weimar Republic-era Berlin under the leadership of war veteran-turned-occultist Matthias Herzog, who was frequently described by the more sensationalist press of the 1920s as "the German Aleister Crowley." (Predictably, Crowley was quick to denounce him in every way possible.) The group was devoted to the typical secret society goals of knowledge, power, and influence, although they apparently went so far as to profess their chief ambition to be the ushering in of a new age of Hell on Earth.

Certainly that description could apply to much of Europe during World War II, but
Der Horn-Orden
was long gone by then. The group appears to have vanished by 1932--not merely disbanded, but completely disappeared, along with most of its initiates. Estimates put the number at over 860. Although it is possible to trace a handful of the group's members to later Nazi-era occult circles, the BPRD has found no connections to any individuals identified as being involved with the December 23, 1944, incident linked to Hellboy's appearance.

Virtually all of our knowledge about
Der Horn-Orden
comes from a book whose intimidatingly long Teutonic title translates into English as
Things Better Forgotten
. It's an uneven but generally useful history of then-contemporary German occult lodges/societies, with an expected emphasis on the Fraternitas Saturni. It was published in 1942 by a Munich press in an edition of fifty copies (only six of which are known to have survived World War II, with two in BPRD possession), and was the work of Ernst Schweiger, who was dead of an undiagnosed bacterial infection within two months, at the age of forty-four.

Schweiger was a fellow veteran of WWI who purports to have been active in
Der Horn-Orden
during its early years. He describes sacrifices to a Moloch statue that was constructed in obvious accordance with the Flaubert version, complete with raising arms, although he does not describe the use of chains, and in fact seems not to have ever learned how the illusion of motility was accomplished. Since the existence of such a statue has never been verified, even in photos, we do have to consider the possibility that Schweiger was making it up. However, there are two arguments in favor of his claims' authenticity:

(1) Although Schweiger adopts a more distant tone in his book concerning his activities with
Der Horn-Orden,
a small collection of his private correspondence, found in 1957, professes unrelieved guilt at having helped procure sacrifices meant for the statue, most of them unwanted infants born to performers and prostitutes in Weimar Berlin. He cites his involvement as having begun on Walpurgisnacht in 1924, and goes beyond his book with the claim that Matthias Herzog was actually the father of many of the procured children, because to Moloch, these children made more acceptable sacrifices than those of strangers. In short, these children were destined for the furnace from birth.

(2) The existence of an operable Moloch idol in the early twentieth century is not the most outlandish assertion in Schweiger's book. That honor would have to go to his claims that
Der Horn-Orden
leader Matthias Herzog regenerated an arm lost at the shoulder in World War I, much like some reptiles are known to regrow a missing tail. Mere propaganda and occult cachet? Hardly. This
is
documented by verifiable evidence: a sequence of six photogravure plates from 1924/1925 that were discovered in the archives of Oskar Dorfman after his death in 1962. Though now known only to collectors of vintage smut, Dorfman was a popular pornographer during Germany's interwar years, who fit right into Berlin's licentious climate. He also happened to be rigorous in his recordkeeping. The gravure plates cover a sixteen-month span and show the same man, shirtless, with his left arm in various stages of regrowth, from entirely missing to newborn to child to adult. Both the plates and the imagery have stood up to all BPRD analysis attempting to debunk them as some sort of optical fraud, or accomplished with a series of prosthetics. A follow-up memo will be coming out of HQ to notify you as soon as the plate sequence is ready to go up on network for general viewing, although at the moment we're still waiting for the IT department to come in after-hours.

In the meantime, here's the directive: Cross-reference the attached list of names, terms, phrases, dates, etc., with all active and dormant case files, beginning with the last five years and then working backward. All hits pertaining to Scotland or populated islands (Shetland, Orkney, Skye, the Hebrides) or Northern England should be accorded a top priority for immediate follow-up investigation. If there's anything out there relevant to the continued existence of
Der Horn-Orden
or other twentieth-century Moloch worship, it's imperative that we get a handle on it.