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From:
http://www.sociopathic.net/Misc/incubus.htm
Also known as demon lover. In occult lore, a lewd male demon or goblin which takes on the illusory appearance of a male human being and seeks sexual intercourse with women, usually while they are asleep.
According to the church fathers, the incubus was an angel who fell from grace because of his insatiable lust for women. As a demon, the incubus continued with his carnal desires, preying upon vulnerable women, raping them in their sleep and inciting sexual desires that only himself could satisfy.
Traditional wisdom professes that demons were only spirits and had no corporeal form. To be able to do his 'thing', Incubus was presumed to come upon his physical form in one of two ways: he either reanimated a human corpse, or he used human flesh to create a body of his own, which he then endowed with artificial life.
Especially mischievous and clever incubi made themselves appear in the persons of real people - a husband, a neighbour, a friend, the handsome young stablehand. In one case, a medieval nun claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a local prelate, Bishop Sylvanus, but the bishop defended himself on the grounds that an incubus had assumed his form. The convent took his word for it.
So how could a woman tell for sure if her lover was a demon or not? There were a few clues. If she freely admitted the incubus to her bed, it would have the power to put everyone else in the house into a deep sleep - even her husband, who might be lying right beside her. Other clues were even more obvious - the incubus often proved to be a nasty lover, with a sexual organ that was painfully large, freezing cold, made of iron, or even double-pronged.
Occasionally, these unholy unions were believed to create offspring. Children born with any type of deformity were automatically suspect. Twins were also suspicious. The magician Merlin was thought to be the fruit of one of these demonic intercourses. Medieval records are filled with graphic accounts of half-human, half-animal creatures that were reputedly fathered by incubi. These offspring were called Cambions.
But even with all the attention that was paid to them, there never seemed to be a foolproof way of warding off these demon lovers. Sometimes prayer worked, sometimes exorcism and benediction, but in many cases, even these proved futile.
Ludovico Sinistrari, a 17th century Franciscan friar, author of 'Demoniality', wrote:
"Incubi do not obey the exorcists, have no dread of exorcisms, show no reverence for holy things, at the approach of which they are not in the least overawed ... Sometimes they even laugh at exorcisms, strike at the exorcists themselves, and rend the sacred vestments."
According to the friar, if incubi were sufficiently irritated by these attacks, they could respond with random violence and mayhem. When Sinistrari himself tried to free a virtuous matron from one persistent incubus, the demon gathered hundreds of roofing stones and with them erected a wall around the woman's bed. When it was finished, the wall was so high, Sinistrari reports, "the couple were unable to leave their bed without using a ladder."
The term 'incubus' is from the Latin incubo meaning 'burden' or 'weight'. It may have become applied to demonic lovers, because it was thought that nightmares involving a feeling of oppressive weight on the chest were the consequence of the act of somnambulant copulation with a fiend. The corresponding demon who appears to men is the Succubus.
From:
http://www.sociopathic.net/Misc/succubusinfo.htm
Succubus
Summary
A lewd female demon or goblin which takes on the illusory appearance of a female human being and seeks sexual intercourse with men, usually while they are asleep.
The princess of all the succubi (plural) is Nahemah. Its male counterpart is called Incubus. A semi-human offspring is called Cambion.
According to the view of most medieval theologians, incubi outnumbered succubi by nine to one, but the ladies made up in menace for what they lacked in numbers by being alluring and persuasive, using their considerable charms to seduce men and lead them to eternal damnation.
What are they?
They are incorporeal sexual energy feeders, generally regarded to be a type of incorporeal vampire.
In a masculine form, they are called incubi (singular: incubus), and in a feminine form, succubi (singular: succubus).
What do they look like?
Incubi and succubi have no specific appearance, generally taking their form from the mind of the person they're feeding. They rarely materialise physically (although they can be induced to do so through various rituals), preferring to appear in the dreams, or (more rarely) to induce sleep paralysis in the victim. They may also be encountered on the astral plane.
Their appearance in dreams and astral states can be hard to discern from more conventional dream images, but it is worth noting that they are not good at the details of human anatomy, as they don't really understand it. Nipples, navels, similar apparently minor cosmetic details will often be blurry or indistinct, even when the entity is in clear focus otherwise. Such details may also be completely missing.
When evoked into the physical plane, they will often not have a very clear appearance. Their evoked energy form will be visible and tangible to one trained in seeing such things, but they might even go unnoticed by the untrained eye.
What do they do?
They drain energy from their victim by causing or taking advantage of sexual arousal or frustration. In the middle ages, monks, nuns, and other celibates were particularly unfond of these beings, as they manifested to them with some frequency, due to the sexual frustration which is often an innate part of celibacy.
Incubus and succubus experiences are usually pleasurable for the victim, and will only cause any problem if they are already extremely ill or weak, although they may not. Some vampires and vampiric magicians dislike these beings as they hate being drained of vital energy.
It seems to only be rarely in modern times that an incubus/succubus experience will not be regarded as pleasurable. Generally, these will be situations in which the entity explores the hidden sexuality of it's victim (for example, appearing as a male to a homophobe). This exploration of hidden and forbidden sexuality is part of what made the Christian church revile them to such a great extent and regard having sex with them as so sinful.
Thomas Aquinas, darling of the Catholic Church and 13th Century founder of "scholasticism," believed that devils, in the form of succubi, performed fellatio on sleeping mortals. Then, as incubi, they used the seed so obtained to impregnate virtuous unmarried women in their sleep, thus producing half human/half demonic monsters. In fact, this was a convenient excuse for unmarried women who became pregnant, more often than not. Incubi and succubi are evidently incapable of fertilizing humans in any normal sense. However, this belief does inspire certain possibilities in relation to creating a magical child of some description.
How do they come into being?
There are a number of theories as to how these beings are created in the first place. Some schools of though theorise that they are created by the more powerful beings they are often found serving, such as Lilith. Magicians of more materialistic paradigms regard succubi to be entities created by their victim's own mind.
It has also been theorised (possibly after the consumption of large amounts of intoxicants) that a magician could cooperate with a succubus to create a Tulpa or Moonchild, which would be a mating of sorts. Such a thing could have a number of results, and the method can be adapted to create both corporeal and incorporeal beings with innate succubitic tendencies.
How can you get rid of them?
They can be prevented from attacking by using substances such as salt and gold, and may be gotten rid of with a simple banishing such as the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram or one of it's derivatives (the Gnostic Pentagram, for instance). Dream catchers are also generally reported to be effective against their attacks upon the sleeping. They can be eliminated by being completely drained of energy, although this is blatant cruelty towards a largely harmless entity.
Where do they come from?
Regions of origin: The terms "incubus" and "succubus" are European in origin, but similar beings appear in the mythology of most regions of the world. As they are incorporeal, geography is largely irrelevant. They are related to (although possibly not the same as) beings such as Mara and Night Hags, which, while they also take their appearance from the minds of their victims, are often more nightmarish in their appearance, feeding on fear rather than lust.
Are they dangerous?
No, not really.
On rare occasions, swarms of these entities will attach themselves to one person, and will be able to physically affect them. As ever, this experience is generally harmless and pleasurable assuming the victim is healthy and suffers no strange repressions regarding sex. It can be rather exhausting to them, though. Under such circumstances, banishing and the use of appropriate prophylactic talismans is recommended should they subject wish to get rid of the beings.
Some mortal vampires and rather more vampiric magicians can project themselves into dreams in order to feed in a manner similar to that of succubi. It is also possible for corporeal vampires (of various sorts) and vampiric magicians to feed on sexual energy in just such a manner as the incorporeal succubi and incubi. Such magicians can also evoke, invoke, and summon succubi, among other entities, and can "create" one with a specific form to send to a chosen victim.
Incubi and succubi often form an entourage to more powerful entities, particularly those entities with vampiric and sexual associations.
These beings are attracted by the use of magic as well as by sexual desire and frustration. Once they decide they like someone, that person will generally receive multiple visitations over the course of his or her life. Some people regard the exchange of a little energy for the sexual pleasures offered by these beings to be well worth it, and will seek to encourage visitations by them.
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Popo Bawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Popo Bawa, also "popobawa", which means "bat wing" in Swahili is a monster purported to live on the spice islands of Zanzibar. Its existence has not been documented. Variously described as either a ghost or ogre with a gigantic penis and bat wings. His presence is usually announced by the sound of scraping claws on their roof and a sharp, pungent smell. Different from other incubus legends, Popo Bawa only attacks men and only in their own beds, resulting in many men sleeping outside in streets or on porches after recent reported attacks. He attacks men as they sleep, overpowering them, holding their face to the floor and sodomizing them for up to an hour. Popo Bawa victims are mostly poorer residents on the island of Pemba, though other reports have also come from other islands and coastal Tanzania. The victims are threatened with repeated, and longer, sodomizations if they do not let their friends and neighbors know of their experience. It is thought the cause of the Popo Bawa appearing is the result of episodes of sleep paralysis.
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Origin and history
As legendary creatures go, Popo Bawa is a fairly recent story. A popular origin story of Popo Bawa proposes that in the 1970s an angry shiek released a djinni to take vengeance on his neighbors. The shiek lost control of the djinni, who took to demonic ways.
It is said because of Zanzibar's past as an Arab-run slave market, the story of Popo Bawa is an articulated memory of the horrors of slavery. Many of the legends on Zanzibar came from the colonizers and traders of the past, including Arabs, Portuguese, Hindus, Chinese, Britons, Persians and Africans. Reports of Popo Bawa attacks rise and fall with the election cycle in Zanzibar, although victims argue Popo Bawa is apolitical. Popo Bawa reports rose dramatically relatively recently, in 1995.
Villagers maintain that Popo Bawa becomes enraged if his existence is denied. It is said Popo Bawa spoke to the villagers in 1971 through a girl possessed by the monster. The girl, called Fatuma, spoke in a man's deep voice and then villagers say they heard the sound of a car revving and rustling on a nearby roof. Many of those on the islands believe in exorcisms, and place charms at the base of fig trees or sacrifice goats.
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Cambion
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A cambion is the half-human offspring of the union between a human male and a succubus or an incubus and a human female. The cambion is a still birth that shows no sign of life outside of being alive, meaning that the child has no pulse, no breath and it's brain operates on thetawaves. This continues until the child is about seven years old, where it becomes increasingly difficult to differenciate one from a human. A cambion is usually devilishly cunning, and angelically beautiful, able to persuade even the most strong-hearted individual to do their bidding. Most cambions have evil tendencies due to their demon parent. This belief is medieval in origin. Caliban, the son of the witch Sycorax in "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare, is a cambion.
Fascinating what one can stumble upon when doing a bit of research.