Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sex with Demons

2020 has been quite a year for history lessons. In the midst of so much madness, folks keep looking to historians for parallels or templates, or even just what not to do (this last is our professional specialty).

And so, to round out your weekend, I give you this fantastic piece from Going Medieval, “On Sex with Demons.” For what it’s worth, I had hoped to share this link with y’all earlier in the week, but life is crazy with pandemic + baby (demon baby?).

I will let you click to Dr. Janega for all the scene-setting (in case #demonsperm is not what you’ve been following this week), because, of course,

The idea of having sex with demons or the devil, through astral sex or no, has a long and proud history. A concern about sleep sex demons traces at least as far back as Mesopotamian myth…

Read on for a concise analysis of medieval engagement with incubi and succubi, and the inevitable intervention of witch-hunting into early modern sexual ideologies. The conclusion is worth emphasizing here, however, since this is all a bit of fun before we need to get back to the more pressing health crisis:

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic here, and while I myself spend a lot of time trying to argue against ideas of feminine sexuality as evil, that is just a part of the air we breathe. At this point, my major concern is that the physical air we breathe is full of fucking COVID 19 viruses and you should be wearing a mask when you are out in public. Oh and also not taking a drug that exacerbates the deadly virus because some stranger told you it was a good idea. Please make a note of it.

By all means, let’s tackle the unironic belief in sex demons and concern trolling of women’s sexuality, but let’s do it with a mask on while in enclosed public spaces. Please and thanks.

Also, I figure there’s now a chance I’m raising the next Merlin (seriously, go read the whole thing).