List : Judeo-Christian mythology related works
So, a while back I was chatting with piecesfalling about how we've both been enthralled by the mythology in SPN, and how that made us want to know more and read about the subject. I still can't get enough, so I decided to compile a list of works that have mythological or theological themes in them. Hopefully this will be useful to some of you.
This list will be continuously updated.
★ Entry added on July 16, 2010
♥ Recommended reading
Novels
⊗ A Kiss Before The Apocalypse | Thomas E. Sniegoski
Generations ago, angel Remiel chose to renounce heaven and live on Earth. He found a place among ordinary humans by converting himself into Boston P.I. Remy Chandler, but he can never tell anyone who he was or that he still has angelic powers. Remy can will himself invisible, speak and understand any foreign language (including any animal language), and hear the thoughts of others. All these secret powers come in handy for a private investigator, especially when the Angel of Death goes missing and he's assigned to find him. As he gets deeper into the investigation, he realizes this is not a missing persons case but a conspiracy to destroy the human race and only Remy has the powers to stop the forces of evil. Amazon.ca
⊗ The Angel's Cut | Elizabeth Knox
It's Hollywood, 1929. While Conrad Cole is working late on elaborate plans for his aeroplanes and his films, a mysterious stranger appears at his door. Xas soon finds himself caught up in the glamorous and treacherous world of movie-making and entangled with both Cole and a young woman who owes her life to the eccentric director. Both of them are drawn to Xas without knowing his secret - that under his shirt he hides the remnants of great snowy wings that set him apart from humankind, and that he is destined to wander the earth forever, always hearing the beating of feathers behind him, threatening him that his dark brother has found him again. Amazon.co.uk
★ ⊗ Angel Slayer The Winnowing War | K. Michael Wright
Believing in their right to rule, the Mother City of Etlantis, built in the shadows of Mt. Arom, sent ships to hunt the Western Seas and in them were the Nephilim, the Terrors, sons of Angels who had become addicted to human blood and flesh through the curse of Enoch. And when the skin of the earth became so weighted with the blood of its dead, it cried to heaven of the horrors it had witnessed…
Because when the earth passed through the endless dark it would be judged only by the souls of those left standing. And unless the unclean were bound in the heart of desert fire, unable to see the heavens that spawned them, the Aeon of time that was called Earth would end, and all existence would cease.
This is the story of mankind’s first stand against overwhelming dark, a story of Sunblades, Starwalker Queens, Nephilim, Blackships, the Mirrored Eye of Daath, the Fires of a Distant Star; the Light Whose Name is Splendor.
★ ⊗ Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim (series) | Ann Rice
Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past-a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins.
The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O’Dare-a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases-just now: Lucky the Fox-and takes his orders from “The Right Man.”
Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance. Now he is carried back through the ages to thirteenth-century England, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear . . . In this primitive setting, O’Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.
★ ⊗ Covet | J.R. Ward
Redemption isn't a word Jim Heron knows much about-his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charge with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he's good with that-until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. But then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart-and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.
⊗ Demon: A Memoir | Tosca Lee
Clayton has just been hired to author a memoir for Lucian, a demon with an extraordinary story to share. The fallen angel chronicles a life of heavenly bliss and rebellion, human creation and salvation, and God's relentless pursuit of mankind.
★ ⊗ The Fallen (series) | Thomas E. Sniegoski
On his eighteenth birthday, Aaron begins to hear strange voices and is convinced he is going insane. But having moved from foster home to foster home, Aaron doesn't know whom he can trust. He wants to confide in the cute girl from class, but fears she'll confirm he's crazy.
Then a mysterious man begins following Aaron. He knows about Aaron's troubled past and his new powers. And he has a message for Aaron: As the son of a mortal and an angel, Aaron has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.
Aaron tries to dismiss the news and resists his supernatural abilities. But he must accept his newfound heritage -- and quickly. For the dark powers are gaining strength, and are hell-bent on destroying him....
★ ⊗ Fathom | Cherie Priest
The ageless water witch Arahab has been scheming for eons, gathering the means to awaken the great Leviathan. She aims to bring him and the old gods back to their former glory, caring little that their ascendance will also mean an end to the human race. However, awakening the Leviathan is no small feat. In fact, Arahab can’t complete the ritual without human aid. Arahab’s first choice is José Gaspar, a notorious sea pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. But when the task proves too difficult for Gaspar, she must look elsewhere, biding her time until the 1930’s, when the ideal candidate shows up: a slightly deranged teenager named Bernice.
Bernice is sophisticated, torn from New York and forced to spend a miserable summer on Anna Maria Island, a tiny rock off the coast of Florida. She’s also been saddled with the companionship of her farm-raised cousin Nia. Eventually, Bernice’s disenchantment gives way to rage and she commits a deadly crime. When Nia won’t cover for Bernice, she turns on Nia, chasing her into the deadly coastal waves.
But the elementals have better ideas: the moment the girls go under, Bernice is commandeered for Arahab’s task force, and Nia is turned into a strange and powerful creature by a servant of the earth who doesn’t want to surrender his green fields and muddy plains-not yet, at least. Add in a hapless fire inspector who’s just trying to get his paperwork in order, a fire god whose neutrality has been called into question, and a bizarre religious cult, and rural Florida doesn’t seem quite so sleepy anymore.
⊗ The Fourth Horseman | Kate Thompson
The first time Laurie and her dad see the white rider, watching them from the deep, cool shadows of the trees, he is alone. Laurie is convinced that his appearance has a meaning that somehow he is trying to tell them something - something her dad needs to pay attention to. Is the rider somehow linked to the genetic research into squirrels that Laurie is helping her dad with in the lab? When a second rider with a bloody sword appears alongside the first, and then a third and a fourth, Laurie knows she must try to understand who they are and what they represent. With the help of her brother and his best friend, she discovers what the riders mean, but will it be too late to stop the inevitable chain of events that has been set in motion?
⊗ The Garden | Elsie V. Aidinoff
In the
beginning
There was the Serpent, there for Eve's awakening, and for all the days since. Teacher, mentor, companion, friend, and more.
There was God. The Creator. Quick to anger. Dangerous. Majestic. There was Adam: as God said, a joy to behold.
And there was Eve.
These four hold the future in their hands. And only Eve -- or perhaps the Serpent, too -- wonders what lies outside the Garden of Eden.
⊗ God's Demon | Wayne Barlowe
Inspired by Paradise Lost, Barlowe conjures up the creatures who sided with Lucifer and were ejected from heaven, thrown down into Hell to become freakishly mangled demons. After innumerable eons of exile, the demon Sargatanas has started to dream of being reunited with God. Sargatanas amasses an army to aid him in overthrowing Lucifer's regent, Beelzebub, in an attempt to catch God's eye. In a flash of inspiration, Sargatanas adds human souls to his army, under the direction of Hannibal. Together, human sinners and once-rebellious demons unite to vanquish Beelzebub in an all-out war. Barlowe's interpretation is not for the squeamish, with its horrifically explicit descriptions of demonic behavior, but it's a compelling view of Hell and of a demon who seeks redemption. - Publishers Weekly
⊗ Good Omens | Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them.
⊗ The Book of Joby | Mark J. Ferrari
Lucifer and the Creator have entered, yet again, into a wager they've made many times before, but this time, the existence of creation itself is balanced on the outcome. Born in California during the twilight of a weary millennium, nine year old Joby Peterson dreams of blazing like a bonfire against the gathering darkness of his times. Instead, he is subjected to a life of crippling self-doubt and relentless mediocrity inflicted by an enemy he did nothing to earn and cannot begin to comprehend.
Though imperiled themselves, the angels are forbidden to intervene. Left to struggle with their own loyalties and the question of obedience, they watch Lucifer work virtually unhindered to turn Joby's heart of gold into ash and stone while God sits by, seeming unconcerned.
Grown to manhood, Joby's once luminous love of life seems altogether lost, and Lucifer's victory assured. What hope remains lies hidden in the beauty, warmth, and innocence of a forgotten seaside village whose odd inhabitants seem to defy the modern world's most inflexible assumptions, and in the hearts of Joby's long lost youthful love and her emotionally wounded son. But the ravenous forces of destruction that follow Joby into this concealed paradise plan to use these same things to bring him and his world to ruin.
As the final struggle unfolds, one question occupies every mind in heaven and in hell. Which will prove stronger, love or rage?
♥ ⊗ I, Lucifer | Glen Duncan
God has decided to give Lucifer, the furthest-fallen of all fallen angels, a second chance. The Prince of Darkness can return to the fold, provided he manages to last one month on earth without sin. The human form chosen for this celestial experiment? A depressed novelist of little renown, currently contemplating suicide in his Clerkenwell garret.
Lucifer eagerly grasps the opportunity for a holiday on earth, and uses his host’s identity to re-write the story of Creation in a format that has Hollywood moguls kissing his feet. It’s not popular with Him Upstairs, of course, what with the Devil being portrayed as a maverick free-thinker and God as a humourless autocrat. But Lucifer’s having too much fun to care. He’s experiencing the pleasures of the flesh for the first time and everything - the odour of sweaty tube trains, cocaine, ice-cream, dirty sex--delights him. By the time the archangels are dispatched to bring him back, the Lord of all that’s inhumane can’t think of anything he’d rather be than human.
⊗ Lucifer's Flood | Linda Rios Brook
When Screwtape Letters meets Paradise Lost, the result is Lucifer's Flood--a tale told by an angel of wavering conviction who sided with Lucifer during the cosmic rebellion in heaven but realized his mistake too late. Writhing in fear of the judgment that awaits the rebellious angels and finding no solace for his misery, the fallen angel pours his emotions into a written account that details the war in heaven and the biblical events that followed.
⊗ The Offspring (1st of trilogy) | Liam Jackson
Readers who believe in angels and enjoy splatter films will best appreciate Jackson's muddled debut thriller, which centers on the never-ending struggle between the fallen angels and the forces of good. Lucifer and his army of allies target four American men from different parts of the country-Sam Conner, Paul Young, Michael Collier and Mark Pierce. As an epidemic of missing children sweeps the U.S., the quartet receive individual messages leading them to Abbotsville, Tenn., where they join forces. Aided by angels of light, the men discover that they are the "Offspring," descendants of both humans and angels, and thus feared by the demons who seek to kill them. Bloody mayhem ensues. - Publishers Weekly
⊗ Repossessed | A.M Jenkins
Don't call me a demon. I prefer the term Fallen Angel.
Everybody deserves a vacation, right? Especially if you have a pointless job like tormenting the damned. So who could blame me for blowing off my duties and taking a small, unauthorized break?
Besides, I've always wanted to see what physical existence is like. That's why I "borrowed" the slightly used body of a slacker teen. Believe me, he wasn't going to be using it anymore anyway.
I have never understood why humans do the things they do. Like sin-if it's so terrible, why do they keep doing it?
I'm going to have a lot of fun finding out!
★ ⊗ Soldier Boy: The War Between Michael and Lucifer | Raymond Dennehy
On the eve of his confrontation with Lucifer and his demons, Michael, Commander-in-Chief of Heaven's legions, finds himself hesitant to act against the angel who befriended him and taught him to believe in himself even though he turned out to be a false friend who used Michael to further his rebellion against God. Michael's mentor, Uriel, leads him to see that Lucifer's purpose in befriending him was to confuse him about his divinely appointed mission by gradually replacing his trust in God with dependence on him. Having regained his sense of mission and confidence in himself as Commander-in-Chief of the legions, thanks to Uriel's tutelage, Michael drives Lucifer and his followers from heaven.
After his defeat, Lucifer and Michael continue their struggle as Lucifer seeks to undermine God's plan for humanity. He protests that God committed an injustice in creating him as an autonomous agent but not allowing him to test the full range of freedom. Michael counters by arguing that freedom separated from truth is an illusion. Lucifer replies that truth is nothing but the power of God to impose his will on others. Not even killing innocent people is objectively wrong; in fact, he rhapsodizes, it can be a work of art. As the drama of their war unfolds, the real object of Lucifer's quest for self-realization becomes increasingly clear, as Michael slowly understands that what Lucifer wanted was not freedom, but something he himself was not ready to accept.
♥ ⊗ To Reign in Hell | Steven Brust
The time is the Beginning.
The place is Heaven.
The story is the Revolt of the Angels-a war of magic, corruption and intrigue that could destroy the universe.
⊗ The Vintner's Luck | Elizabeth Knox
The year is 1808, the place Burgundy, France. Among the lush vines of his family's vineyard, Jodeau, 18 years old and frustrated in love, is about to come face to face with a celestial being. But this is no sentimental "Touched by an Angel" seraph; as imagined by Elizabeth Knox in her wildly evocative and original novel, Xas is equipped with a glorious pair of wings ("pure sinew and bone under a cushion of feathers") and an appetite for earthly pleasures--wine, books, gardening, conversation, and, eventually, carnal love.
The fateful meeting between man and angel occurs on June 27. After an evening during which Sobran spills all his troubles and Xas gently advises him, the angel promises to return on the same night next year to toast Sobran's marriage. Thus begins a friendship that will last for 55 years, spanning marriages, wars, births, deaths, and even the vast distances between heaven, earth, and hell. In addition to the wonderfully flawed Sobran and his mysterious angel, Knox brilliantly limns secondary characters who are deeply sympathetic--from Sobran's unstable wife, Celeste, and his troubled brother, Leon, to his dear friend and confidante, the Baroness Aurora. Love, murder, madness, and a singular theology that would make a believer out of the most hardened atheist all add up, in The Vintner's Luck, to a novel that will break your heart yet leave you wishing for more. - Alix Wilber, Amazon.com
Non-Fiction
⊗ The Angelic Way: Angels Through the Ages and Their Meaning for Us | Rami Shapiro
Examining angels as metaphors-not only of God reaching out to humankind but also of humankind reaching out to God-this comprehensive study illuminates the philosophical, psychological, and spiritual implications of angels, both heavenly and fallen, for readers and seekers of every faith or none. It gives both an overview of angels in various religious traditions, and an explanation of angels as expressions of human spiritual awareness, and shows that the fascination with winged spirits is universal. Offering an accessible history of angels, an exploration of the contemporary implications of angelology, and a means to make sense of angels and the divine in life, this stunning addition to angelic studies is a beautiful invitation to embrace the angelic in the everyday..
⊗ The Case for a Creator | Lee Strobel
Are Christianity and science incompatible? If there is a God, is he only an impersonal starter force? An introductory high school biology class first propelled Lee Strobel toward a life of atheism. God and science, he reasoned, were mutually exclusive. When the former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune converted to Christianity, he decided to investigate the science he had once accepted as truth. Did science point toward or away from God? As Strobel interviews a variety of scientists on everything from debunking evolutionary icons to the implications of the Big Bang to the existence of the human soul, he builds his case: scientific evidence points toward Intelligent Design.
⊗ Demonology and Devil-lore | Moncure Daniel Conway (2 volumes)
⊗ The Devil's Apocrypha | John A. De Vito
The battle between good and evil began long ago. Before the birth of humanity, God and Satan fought for the domination of heaven. As everyone knows, God was triumphant over Satan’s evil. The tale has been told for thousands of years. But it’s all a lie.
A manuscript has been discovered, written over a century ago by a priest who was visited by the Devil himself. A priest who left the church to seek out Three Mad Prophets and learn the truth.
An Amazon.com international bestseller, The Devil's Apocrypha is a tale that begins in another universe, before creation, and ends with a chilling prophesy. Here is the truth about the origin of God, his journey to our universe, and the battle for heaven.
Discover why God manipulated the flesh of our race, the reason for his commandments…and why one being dared to try and stop him.
This is the true story of Satan and God…and it’s unlike anything you’ve been told.
⊗ Dictionary of Angels | Gustav Davidson
The result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts, the classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America.
⊗ Fallen Angels, the Watchers and the Origins of Evil | Joseph B. Lumpkins
Evil walked the earth when angels fell. Evil stalks us now in disembodied spirits; immortal wraiths once clothed in flesh when angel and women bred; spirits released from their fleshly prisons when their bodies were destroyed for drinking the blood of men. Evil also lives inside of the common man; set free when pride kills reason and eats integrity whole. There is evil that entraps us and evil that tugs from within. But neither have control until we choose to relent. Evil is a choice of action, of thoughts entertained too long, of arrogance pushing aside the last vestiges of compassion. Evil resides within the problem of choice. What is evil? Could it be as simple as pernicious selfishness? Could it be the drive for immediate gratification without regard for others? Man's life is limited; one hundred years or less. But, the souls of angel and watcher are eternal. Consider how much evil can be wrought through the millennia of immediate gratification on an eternal scale. By contrasting and comparing ancient texts such as Enoch, Jasher, Jubilees, the Bible, and various others containing stories of the creation of angels, demons, and man, a full and panoramic history of evil is produced. In this history the startling revelation of the descent of man and angels, and the evolution of evil on earth is clearly revealed.
⊗ The Key of Solomon the King: Clavicula Salomonis | R A Gilbert and S L MacGregor Mathers
This most celebrated of all magical textbooks, believed to be written by King Solomon himself, details the processes for summoning and mastering the spirits. Demonstrates that the usual theoretical distinction between black magic and white, evil magic and good, is not so siply drawn. Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French, Hebrew, Italian, Latin.
⊗ Lost Art of Enochian Magic | John Deslavo
⊗ The Origin of Satan | Elaine Pagels
Examines the New Testament tendency to associate the Devil with Jews resistant to the teachings of Christianity.
⊗ The Secret History of Lucifer | Lynn Picknett
Lynn Picknett explains in this highly readable and well-researched account that the horned Devil - now posited as an antithesis of God - is merely a new, and admittedly more evil, incarnation of the old woodland deity Pan; while Lucifer was once a personification of the Morning Star, the planet Venus, and its goddess. "He" was therefore originally "she," and a divine representation of love, beauty, and human warmth. Indeed, many ancient goddesses were known as Lucifera, or "Light-bringer" - an honor extended to Mary Magdalene in her true role as goddess-worshipping priestess and Christ's successor. While thousands follow Lucifer in order to achieve earthly wealth and power, Picknett explains that such misguided behavior is far from true Luciferan principles. Picknett draws together ancient heretical Christian and Egyptological texts, and the implications of abnormal psychology and the "extreme possibilities" of certain barely understood human attributes to pose the question: Have we humans actually created God and Lucifer, not merely as icons or metaphors, but in a terrifying way, literally? And if so, how do we know which is which?
Poetry
⊗ "Imagine Lucifer..." | Jack Spicer
♥ ⊗ brothers | Lucille Clifton
⊗ Lucifer in Starlight | George Meredith
⊗ The Damned | Roddy Lumsden
⊗ The Garden of Delight | Lucille Clifton
⊗ The Day of Judgment | Issac Watts
♥ ⊗ Paradise Lost | John Milton
⊗ The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri
⊗ Eve's Design | Moira Linehan
⊗ Adam and Eve | Marjorie Pickthall
⊗ The Wreck of the Deutschland | Gerard Manley Hopkins
♥ ⊗ Thy Brother's Blood | Jones Very
⊗ Mosaic | Linda Pastan
⊗ Ancient History | Siegfried Sassoon
♥ ⊗ Neutrality Loathsome | Robert Herrick
⊗ Absalom and Achitophel | John Dryden
⊗ seventh heaven | Patti Smith
⊗ New Heaven, New War | Robert Southwell, SJ
⊗ After the Surprising Conversions | Robert Lowell
Videos/ Documentaries
♥ ⊗ The Exodus Decoded
Approximately 40 minutes, 4 parts. Examines the plausibility of the Exodus story from a scientific perspective.
⊗ YouTube series about Fallen Angels by ArchangelCLK
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Nephilim
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angelic Army
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angelic Hierarchy
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angels of the Throne
⊗ Noah's Arc -- Uncovered
Approximately 45 minutes, 5 parts.
The list isn't very long at the moment, but I'll be adding to it as I discover more materials. If you would like to add to it, please feel free to do so in the comments and I'll add your recommendation to the list.
Thank you to piecefalling,captainpixie, thurzdaysangel and ladycrystal_c for the contributions!
This list will be continuously updated.
★ Entry added on July 16, 2010
♥ Recommended reading
Novels
⊗ A Kiss Before The Apocalypse | Thomas E. Sniegoski
Generations ago, angel Remiel chose to renounce heaven and live on Earth. He found a place among ordinary humans by converting himself into Boston P.I. Remy Chandler, but he can never tell anyone who he was or that he still has angelic powers. Remy can will himself invisible, speak and understand any foreign language (including any animal language), and hear the thoughts of others. All these secret powers come in handy for a private investigator, especially when the Angel of Death goes missing and he's assigned to find him. As he gets deeper into the investigation, he realizes this is not a missing persons case but a conspiracy to destroy the human race and only Remy has the powers to stop the forces of evil. Amazon.ca
⊗ The Angel's Cut | Elizabeth Knox
It's Hollywood, 1929. While Conrad Cole is working late on elaborate plans for his aeroplanes and his films, a mysterious stranger appears at his door. Xas soon finds himself caught up in the glamorous and treacherous world of movie-making and entangled with both Cole and a young woman who owes her life to the eccentric director. Both of them are drawn to Xas without knowing his secret - that under his shirt he hides the remnants of great snowy wings that set him apart from humankind, and that he is destined to wander the earth forever, always hearing the beating of feathers behind him, threatening him that his dark brother has found him again. Amazon.co.uk
★ ⊗ Angel Slayer The Winnowing War | K. Michael Wright
Believing in their right to rule, the Mother City of Etlantis, built in the shadows of Mt. Arom, sent ships to hunt the Western Seas and in them were the Nephilim, the Terrors, sons of Angels who had become addicted to human blood and flesh through the curse of Enoch. And when the skin of the earth became so weighted with the blood of its dead, it cried to heaven of the horrors it had witnessed…
Because when the earth passed through the endless dark it would be judged only by the souls of those left standing. And unless the unclean were bound in the heart of desert fire, unable to see the heavens that spawned them, the Aeon of time that was called Earth would end, and all existence would cease.
This is the story of mankind’s first stand against overwhelming dark, a story of Sunblades, Starwalker Queens, Nephilim, Blackships, the Mirrored Eye of Daath, the Fires of a Distant Star; the Light Whose Name is Splendor.
★ ⊗ Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim (series) | Ann Rice
Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past-a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins.
The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O’Dare-a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases-just now: Lucky the Fox-and takes his orders from “The Right Man.”
Into O’Dare’s nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives. O’Dare, who long ago dreamt of being a priest but instead came to embody danger and violence, seizes his chance. Now he is carried back through the ages to thirteenth-century England, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear . . . In this primitive setting, O’Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.
★ ⊗ Covet | J.R. Ward
Redemption isn't a word Jim Heron knows much about-his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charge with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option. Vin DiPietro long ago sold his soul to his business, and he's good with that-until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking, Harley-riding, self-professed savior. But then he meets a woman who will make him question his destiny, his sanity, and his heart-and he has to work with a fallen angel to win her over and redeem his own soul.
⊗ Demon: A Memoir | Tosca Lee
Clayton has just been hired to author a memoir for Lucian, a demon with an extraordinary story to share. The fallen angel chronicles a life of heavenly bliss and rebellion, human creation and salvation, and God's relentless pursuit of mankind.
★ ⊗ The Fallen (series) | Thomas E. Sniegoski
On his eighteenth birthday, Aaron begins to hear strange voices and is convinced he is going insane. But having moved from foster home to foster home, Aaron doesn't know whom he can trust. He wants to confide in the cute girl from class, but fears she'll confirm he's crazy.
Then a mysterious man begins following Aaron. He knows about Aaron's troubled past and his new powers. And he has a message for Aaron: As the son of a mortal and an angel, Aaron has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.
Aaron tries to dismiss the news and resists his supernatural abilities. But he must accept his newfound heritage -- and quickly. For the dark powers are gaining strength, and are hell-bent on destroying him....
★ ⊗ Fathom | Cherie Priest
The ageless water witch Arahab has been scheming for eons, gathering the means to awaken the great Leviathan. She aims to bring him and the old gods back to their former glory, caring little that their ascendance will also mean an end to the human race. However, awakening the Leviathan is no small feat. In fact, Arahab can’t complete the ritual without human aid. Arahab’s first choice is José Gaspar, a notorious sea pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. But when the task proves too difficult for Gaspar, she must look elsewhere, biding her time until the 1930’s, when the ideal candidate shows up: a slightly deranged teenager named Bernice.
Bernice is sophisticated, torn from New York and forced to spend a miserable summer on Anna Maria Island, a tiny rock off the coast of Florida. She’s also been saddled with the companionship of her farm-raised cousin Nia. Eventually, Bernice’s disenchantment gives way to rage and she commits a deadly crime. When Nia won’t cover for Bernice, she turns on Nia, chasing her into the deadly coastal waves.
But the elementals have better ideas: the moment the girls go under, Bernice is commandeered for Arahab’s task force, and Nia is turned into a strange and powerful creature by a servant of the earth who doesn’t want to surrender his green fields and muddy plains-not yet, at least. Add in a hapless fire inspector who’s just trying to get his paperwork in order, a fire god whose neutrality has been called into question, and a bizarre religious cult, and rural Florida doesn’t seem quite so sleepy anymore.
⊗ The Fourth Horseman | Kate Thompson
The first time Laurie and her dad see the white rider, watching them from the deep, cool shadows of the trees, he is alone. Laurie is convinced that his appearance has a meaning that somehow he is trying to tell them something - something her dad needs to pay attention to. Is the rider somehow linked to the genetic research into squirrels that Laurie is helping her dad with in the lab? When a second rider with a bloody sword appears alongside the first, and then a third and a fourth, Laurie knows she must try to understand who they are and what they represent. With the help of her brother and his best friend, she discovers what the riders mean, but will it be too late to stop the inevitable chain of events that has been set in motion?
⊗ The Garden | Elsie V. Aidinoff
In the
beginning
There was the Serpent, there for Eve's awakening, and for all the days since. Teacher, mentor, companion, friend, and more.
There was God. The Creator. Quick to anger. Dangerous. Majestic. There was Adam: as God said, a joy to behold.
And there was Eve.
These four hold the future in their hands. And only Eve -- or perhaps the Serpent, too -- wonders what lies outside the Garden of Eden.
⊗ God's Demon | Wayne Barlowe
Inspired by Paradise Lost, Barlowe conjures up the creatures who sided with Lucifer and were ejected from heaven, thrown down into Hell to become freakishly mangled demons. After innumerable eons of exile, the demon Sargatanas has started to dream of being reunited with God. Sargatanas amasses an army to aid him in overthrowing Lucifer's regent, Beelzebub, in an attempt to catch God's eye. In a flash of inspiration, Sargatanas adds human souls to his army, under the direction of Hannibal. Together, human sinners and once-rebellious demons unite to vanquish Beelzebub in an all-out war. Barlowe's interpretation is not for the squeamish, with its horrifically explicit descriptions of demonic behavior, but it's a compelling view of Hell and of a demon who seeks redemption. - Publishers Weekly
⊗ Good Omens | Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them.
⊗ The Book of Joby | Mark J. Ferrari
Lucifer and the Creator have entered, yet again, into a wager they've made many times before, but this time, the existence of creation itself is balanced on the outcome. Born in California during the twilight of a weary millennium, nine year old Joby Peterson dreams of blazing like a bonfire against the gathering darkness of his times. Instead, he is subjected to a life of crippling self-doubt and relentless mediocrity inflicted by an enemy he did nothing to earn and cannot begin to comprehend.
Though imperiled themselves, the angels are forbidden to intervene. Left to struggle with their own loyalties and the question of obedience, they watch Lucifer work virtually unhindered to turn Joby's heart of gold into ash and stone while God sits by, seeming unconcerned.
Grown to manhood, Joby's once luminous love of life seems altogether lost, and Lucifer's victory assured. What hope remains lies hidden in the beauty, warmth, and innocence of a forgotten seaside village whose odd inhabitants seem to defy the modern world's most inflexible assumptions, and in the hearts of Joby's long lost youthful love and her emotionally wounded son. But the ravenous forces of destruction that follow Joby into this concealed paradise plan to use these same things to bring him and his world to ruin.
As the final struggle unfolds, one question occupies every mind in heaven and in hell. Which will prove stronger, love or rage?
♥ ⊗ I, Lucifer | Glen Duncan
God has decided to give Lucifer, the furthest-fallen of all fallen angels, a second chance. The Prince of Darkness can return to the fold, provided he manages to last one month on earth without sin. The human form chosen for this celestial experiment? A depressed novelist of little renown, currently contemplating suicide in his Clerkenwell garret.
Lucifer eagerly grasps the opportunity for a holiday on earth, and uses his host’s identity to re-write the story of Creation in a format that has Hollywood moguls kissing his feet. It’s not popular with Him Upstairs, of course, what with the Devil being portrayed as a maverick free-thinker and God as a humourless autocrat. But Lucifer’s having too much fun to care. He’s experiencing the pleasures of the flesh for the first time and everything - the odour of sweaty tube trains, cocaine, ice-cream, dirty sex--delights him. By the time the archangels are dispatched to bring him back, the Lord of all that’s inhumane can’t think of anything he’d rather be than human.
⊗ Lucifer's Flood | Linda Rios Brook
When Screwtape Letters meets Paradise Lost, the result is Lucifer's Flood--a tale told by an angel of wavering conviction who sided with Lucifer during the cosmic rebellion in heaven but realized his mistake too late. Writhing in fear of the judgment that awaits the rebellious angels and finding no solace for his misery, the fallen angel pours his emotions into a written account that details the war in heaven and the biblical events that followed.
⊗ The Offspring (1st of trilogy) | Liam Jackson
Readers who believe in angels and enjoy splatter films will best appreciate Jackson's muddled debut thriller, which centers on the never-ending struggle between the fallen angels and the forces of good. Lucifer and his army of allies target four American men from different parts of the country-Sam Conner, Paul Young, Michael Collier and Mark Pierce. As an epidemic of missing children sweeps the U.S., the quartet receive individual messages leading them to Abbotsville, Tenn., where they join forces. Aided by angels of light, the men discover that they are the "Offspring," descendants of both humans and angels, and thus feared by the demons who seek to kill them. Bloody mayhem ensues. - Publishers Weekly
⊗ Repossessed | A.M Jenkins
Don't call me a demon. I prefer the term Fallen Angel.
Everybody deserves a vacation, right? Especially if you have a pointless job like tormenting the damned. So who could blame me for blowing off my duties and taking a small, unauthorized break?
Besides, I've always wanted to see what physical existence is like. That's why I "borrowed" the slightly used body of a slacker teen. Believe me, he wasn't going to be using it anymore anyway.
I have never understood why humans do the things they do. Like sin-if it's so terrible, why do they keep doing it?
I'm going to have a lot of fun finding out!
★ ⊗ Soldier Boy: The War Between Michael and Lucifer | Raymond Dennehy
On the eve of his confrontation with Lucifer and his demons, Michael, Commander-in-Chief of Heaven's legions, finds himself hesitant to act against the angel who befriended him and taught him to believe in himself even though he turned out to be a false friend who used Michael to further his rebellion against God. Michael's mentor, Uriel, leads him to see that Lucifer's purpose in befriending him was to confuse him about his divinely appointed mission by gradually replacing his trust in God with dependence on him. Having regained his sense of mission and confidence in himself as Commander-in-Chief of the legions, thanks to Uriel's tutelage, Michael drives Lucifer and his followers from heaven.
After his defeat, Lucifer and Michael continue their struggle as Lucifer seeks to undermine God's plan for humanity. He protests that God committed an injustice in creating him as an autonomous agent but not allowing him to test the full range of freedom. Michael counters by arguing that freedom separated from truth is an illusion. Lucifer replies that truth is nothing but the power of God to impose his will on others. Not even killing innocent people is objectively wrong; in fact, he rhapsodizes, it can be a work of art. As the drama of their war unfolds, the real object of Lucifer's quest for self-realization becomes increasingly clear, as Michael slowly understands that what Lucifer wanted was not freedom, but something he himself was not ready to accept.
♥ ⊗ To Reign in Hell | Steven Brust
The time is the Beginning.
The place is Heaven.
The story is the Revolt of the Angels-a war of magic, corruption and intrigue that could destroy the universe.
⊗ The Vintner's Luck | Elizabeth Knox
The year is 1808, the place Burgundy, France. Among the lush vines of his family's vineyard, Jodeau, 18 years old and frustrated in love, is about to come face to face with a celestial being. But this is no sentimental "Touched by an Angel" seraph; as imagined by Elizabeth Knox in her wildly evocative and original novel, Xas is equipped with a glorious pair of wings ("pure sinew and bone under a cushion of feathers") and an appetite for earthly pleasures--wine, books, gardening, conversation, and, eventually, carnal love.
The fateful meeting between man and angel occurs on June 27. After an evening during which Sobran spills all his troubles and Xas gently advises him, the angel promises to return on the same night next year to toast Sobran's marriage. Thus begins a friendship that will last for 55 years, spanning marriages, wars, births, deaths, and even the vast distances between heaven, earth, and hell. In addition to the wonderfully flawed Sobran and his mysterious angel, Knox brilliantly limns secondary characters who are deeply sympathetic--from Sobran's unstable wife, Celeste, and his troubled brother, Leon, to his dear friend and confidante, the Baroness Aurora. Love, murder, madness, and a singular theology that would make a believer out of the most hardened atheist all add up, in The Vintner's Luck, to a novel that will break your heart yet leave you wishing for more. - Alix Wilber, Amazon.com
Non-Fiction
⊗ The Angelic Way: Angels Through the Ages and Their Meaning for Us | Rami Shapiro
Examining angels as metaphors-not only of God reaching out to humankind but also of humankind reaching out to God-this comprehensive study illuminates the philosophical, psychological, and spiritual implications of angels, both heavenly and fallen, for readers and seekers of every faith or none. It gives both an overview of angels in various religious traditions, and an explanation of angels as expressions of human spiritual awareness, and shows that the fascination with winged spirits is universal. Offering an accessible history of angels, an exploration of the contemporary implications of angelology, and a means to make sense of angels and the divine in life, this stunning addition to angelic studies is a beautiful invitation to embrace the angelic in the everyday..
⊗ The Case for a Creator | Lee Strobel
Are Christianity and science incompatible? If there is a God, is he only an impersonal starter force? An introductory high school biology class first propelled Lee Strobel toward a life of atheism. God and science, he reasoned, were mutually exclusive. When the former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune converted to Christianity, he decided to investigate the science he had once accepted as truth. Did science point toward or away from God? As Strobel interviews a variety of scientists on everything from debunking evolutionary icons to the implications of the Big Bang to the existence of the human soul, he builds his case: scientific evidence points toward Intelligent Design.
⊗ Demonology and Devil-lore | Moncure Daniel Conway (2 volumes)
⊗ The Devil's Apocrypha | John A. De Vito
The battle between good and evil began long ago. Before the birth of humanity, God and Satan fought for the domination of heaven. As everyone knows, God was triumphant over Satan’s evil. The tale has been told for thousands of years. But it’s all a lie.
A manuscript has been discovered, written over a century ago by a priest who was visited by the Devil himself. A priest who left the church to seek out Three Mad Prophets and learn the truth.
An Amazon.com international bestseller, The Devil's Apocrypha is a tale that begins in another universe, before creation, and ends with a chilling prophesy. Here is the truth about the origin of God, his journey to our universe, and the battle for heaven.
Discover why God manipulated the flesh of our race, the reason for his commandments…and why one being dared to try and stop him.
This is the true story of Satan and God…and it’s unlike anything you’ve been told.
⊗ Dictionary of Angels | Gustav Davidson
The result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts, the classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America.
⊗ Fallen Angels, the Watchers and the Origins of Evil | Joseph B. Lumpkins
Evil walked the earth when angels fell. Evil stalks us now in disembodied spirits; immortal wraiths once clothed in flesh when angel and women bred; spirits released from their fleshly prisons when their bodies were destroyed for drinking the blood of men. Evil also lives inside of the common man; set free when pride kills reason and eats integrity whole. There is evil that entraps us and evil that tugs from within. But neither have control until we choose to relent. Evil is a choice of action, of thoughts entertained too long, of arrogance pushing aside the last vestiges of compassion. Evil resides within the problem of choice. What is evil? Could it be as simple as pernicious selfishness? Could it be the drive for immediate gratification without regard for others? Man's life is limited; one hundred years or less. But, the souls of angel and watcher are eternal. Consider how much evil can be wrought through the millennia of immediate gratification on an eternal scale. By contrasting and comparing ancient texts such as Enoch, Jasher, Jubilees, the Bible, and various others containing stories of the creation of angels, demons, and man, a full and panoramic history of evil is produced. In this history the startling revelation of the descent of man and angels, and the evolution of evil on earth is clearly revealed.
⊗ The Key of Solomon the King: Clavicula Salomonis | R A Gilbert and S L MacGregor Mathers
This most celebrated of all magical textbooks, believed to be written by King Solomon himself, details the processes for summoning and mastering the spirits. Demonstrates that the usual theoretical distinction between black magic and white, evil magic and good, is not so siply drawn. Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French, Hebrew, Italian, Latin.
⊗ Lost Art of Enochian Magic | John Deslavo
⊗ The Origin of Satan | Elaine Pagels
Examines the New Testament tendency to associate the Devil with Jews resistant to the teachings of Christianity.
⊗ The Secret History of Lucifer | Lynn Picknett
Lynn Picknett explains in this highly readable and well-researched account that the horned Devil - now posited as an antithesis of God - is merely a new, and admittedly more evil, incarnation of the old woodland deity Pan; while Lucifer was once a personification of the Morning Star, the planet Venus, and its goddess. "He" was therefore originally "she," and a divine representation of love, beauty, and human warmth. Indeed, many ancient goddesses were known as Lucifera, or "Light-bringer" - an honor extended to Mary Magdalene in her true role as goddess-worshipping priestess and Christ's successor. While thousands follow Lucifer in order to achieve earthly wealth and power, Picknett explains that such misguided behavior is far from true Luciferan principles. Picknett draws together ancient heretical Christian and Egyptological texts, and the implications of abnormal psychology and the "extreme possibilities" of certain barely understood human attributes to pose the question: Have we humans actually created God and Lucifer, not merely as icons or metaphors, but in a terrifying way, literally? And if so, how do we know which is which?
Poetry
⊗ "Imagine Lucifer..." | Jack Spicer
♥ ⊗ brothers | Lucille Clifton
⊗ Lucifer in Starlight | George Meredith
⊗ The Damned | Roddy Lumsden
⊗ The Garden of Delight | Lucille Clifton
⊗ The Day of Judgment | Issac Watts
♥ ⊗ Paradise Lost | John Milton
⊗ The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri
⊗ Eve's Design | Moira Linehan
⊗ Adam and Eve | Marjorie Pickthall
⊗ The Wreck of the Deutschland | Gerard Manley Hopkins
♥ ⊗ Thy Brother's Blood | Jones Very
⊗ Mosaic | Linda Pastan
⊗ Ancient History | Siegfried Sassoon
♥ ⊗ Neutrality Loathsome | Robert Herrick
⊗ Absalom and Achitophel | John Dryden
⊗ seventh heaven | Patti Smith
⊗ New Heaven, New War | Robert Southwell, SJ
⊗ After the Surprising Conversions | Robert Lowell
Videos/ Documentaries
♥ ⊗ The Exodus Decoded
Approximately 40 minutes, 4 parts. Examines the plausibility of the Exodus story from a scientific perspective.
⊗ YouTube series about Fallen Angels by ArchangelCLK
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Nephilim
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angelic Army
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angelic Hierarchy
⊗ The Fallen Angels & The Angels of the Throne
⊗ Noah's Arc -- Uncovered
Approximately 45 minutes, 5 parts.
The list isn't very long at the moment, but I'll be adding to it as I discover more materials. If you would like to add to it, please feel free to do so in the comments and I'll add your recommendation to the list.
Thank you to piecefalling,captainpixie, thurzdaysangel and ladycrystal_c for the contributions!