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k0na-core · 7 months

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Have you done a theory about the in-game symbols? I’m trying to figure out what they mean. Like Levi’s is the most obvious and personally my favorite since it’s a fishing hook with a drop of water since he’s the one with the ocean theme. I feel like Asmo’s symbol looks like a heart which is cute if that was intended. Other than that, I’m not sure about the others

Obey Me: The Theory of Demon Symbols

Ooh, okay I'm gonna answer these both together as they kind of overlap as you'll see.

The symbols are interesting as they're a mix of nods to the demon's symbolic animal (Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Beel) and more abstract looking ones (Mammon, Asmodeus, Belphegor).

For the Obey Me demons, there are four main symbolism sources we can look at: their battle stages; their symbolic animal; their demon-form; and their traditional seals aka sigils.

The first three are obviously the most canon, while the latter is associated with the historical characters themselves (ie if you google their name and "symbolism" these are what you will find).

Disclaimer: many things are not included here, because symbolism is literally endless!

Demon Sigils

One important thing to note is that the vast majority of demon sigils that are held as "true", are from The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as the Lemegeton. The popularity of this book cemented the 72 sigils within, but the book itself lifted heavily from sources that came before it, as well as plain changing already established sigils.

A lot of classical grimoires did this, either overtly stealing or being extremely influenced by those that came before them, and the original sources don't always still exist. The Lesser Key is a prime example, positioning itself as older than it really is (mid-17th century), and eclipsing earlier depictions of demon sigils like Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533), and Fasciculus Rerum Geomanticarum (1410) to name but two. (The original Key of Solomon also dates back to this time vs the newer Lesser Key.)

What this means is that while there are popular sigils for many demons, there are also multiple sigils for many of them, and it would be very hard to point to one alone as the correct sigil. In fact, it would be easier to argue that each demon has multiple sigils, and that both older and newer are just fine.

So sigils are handy to look at for symbolism, but if the demon sigils were to appear to signify the pact, I could not provide a solid theory on how they'd appear - it's entirely up to you!

There's basically no wrong way, but you needn't feel restricted to one set of sigils, or to sigils at all for that matter. The pact could be marked by a more personal pattern or tattoo item, a symbolic animal, a flash of colour, literally anything 😊

One last note via sigils - depending on who you ask, they either originated via magic squares (part of what we now call numerology), meditation, or from the demons themselves. The first is certainly true in the oldest cases from the classical age, as maths was a huge part of early magic and humans loved making sigils for absolutely everything. Angel sigils also exist.

And they are almost always used when contained within a circle, similar to the symbols we're looking at here, as a safety barrier and focus in one.

Back to the OM demon symbols, and let's go through them one by one! 🧐

Obey Me Symbols

Lucifer:

Starting with a fairly straightforward one, Lucifer's symbol shows the same peacock and diamond symbolism as on his demon-form and his battle stage, and also happens to fit the traditional Lucifer sigil fairly well too.

Lucifer's sigil often appears mislabelled as Satan's, as the two demons are often conflated (see Satan). One thing to note is Lucifer's other well known moniker, the Morning Star. His connection with Venus is fairly well catalogued, and explains his name - Lucifer is the Latin for Venus, and his original name Helel is the Hebrew for "shining one" and "morning star".

Flipping his demon-form upside down really shows the match of his collar-piece well, and the sigil isn't exact but it's pretty damn close. The symbol also looks like the tail feathers of a peacock, his symbolic animal, while the diamond shape is also seen in the mark on Lucifer's forehead, and everywhere on his battle stage.

The diamond shape situated on the symbol at the centre of the smallest ones also suggests the status of the Morning Star - the brightest "star" in the morning sky.

Side note: four-pointed stars in this configuration are often just representative of actual stars; the eight-pointed stars on the battle stage have a myriad of meanings including resurrection, salvation, and the end of suffering via the breaking of attachments.

Leviathan:

This is another easy one as Leviathan holds pretty close to his mythical nature as a monster of the ocean. His battle stage features curved waves and whale tails, as well as dangling and entwining S-shapes that could indeed be fishing hooks, or two serpents representing the demon himself.

Mythologically, the Leviathan of the deep was a beast of two - the masculine and feminine - and in the OM universe there is only one, or both combined, Levi himself. His room echoes his own origins with jellyfish and aquatic blues, and even his headphone wire follows a similar curving pattern. Both his battle stage and demon-form have emphasised droplets of water to further cement the link, and one is suspended in the symbol.

The Leviathan Cross is what will show up if you google this demon's sigil... but it is not his sigil. This is the alchemical symbol for sulphur which became attached to demonology only in the 1960s, because sulphur = brimstone = Satan. This symbol is also known as Satan's Cross.

Still, it's the popular symbolism if looking today, so it's no coincidence that not only is the bottom infinity sign recognisable in those entwined serpents on the battle stage, but in Levi's symbol and tail positioning too.

Note - Leviathan originates in the coiled sea monster known as Lotan, a serpent with dragon properties which further cements that serpentine connection (Lotan stems from the same ancient culture as Beelzebub and Belphegor, see below!). In recent OM Lessons, we learn that Levi can summon Lotan at will.

Satan:

Poor Satan gets a rough deal when it comes to symbolism as his name became the go-to for describing absolutely anything to do with demons and hell - ie all things satanic. He is also frequently conflated with Lucifer, either seen as a dark aspect of Lucifer, or Lucifer as a light aspect to Satan, or they are seen as separate demons but with still overlapping symbology.

(Googling his name will also turn up the plain old inverted pentagram, but the associations of such with Satan are entirely modern. Originally, the pentagram in many cultures simply pointed to the five elements, seeds of Chronos, or general good omens. It's orientation was by the by until decreed evil in the 19th century, then later reclaimed by the Church of Satan and co.)

Fortunately, Satan's symbol in OM is very straight forward - the horn of his symbolic animal, the unicorn, takes centre stage, with demon horns on either side curved like the ends of his own horns, and a four pointed star at the base, a little like Lucifer's symbol base but more equal in shape. This lozenge shape has many meanings, but a key one is inner balance, unveiling the authentic self, and accepting both negative and positive. (Lucifer's symbol diamond does not fit this symbolism, but his forehead one does.)

Unicorn horns also adorn Satan's battle stage, clashing and trapping eight pointed stars - the symbol of beginnings and renewal locked beneath the symbol of solitude and wrath.

His symbol also reflects this, the unicorn horn centred between the horns of his own (curved horns in general symbolising power), and perhaps suggesting that his solitude and wrath are both what he projects first and what he most seeks to heal. Remember, a ferocious unicorn can only be tamed by the touch of a gentle and pure soul.

Additionally, tilt the symbol on its side and we get the crescent moon and star from his battle stage, another sign of power.

One of Satan's many demon sigils loosely has the same three pronged fork layout, but perhaps most significantly shows that Satan's OM symbol is also rather similar to a crown...

Asmo:

Asmodeus has a few sigils under both his name and that of Asmoday - sometimes these are considered separate demons, sometimes they are combined. However, the prominence of Asmodeus in the stories of Solomon means that his Lesser Key sigil is by far the most well known.

But Asmo's OM symbol focuses more on that well known motif of lust and love - the heart. This pops up again and again on his demon-form and on his battle stage, and is also the shape of his markings. Fittingly, the symbol uses the heart twice, once explicitly at the top, and the second more abstractly in the entire rest of the symbol.

The spiral is also used here, and that is a symbol with near infinite interpretations. But some common ones are that of rebirth, fertility, life force, and growth. All things that suit a demon reborn from an angel, focused on the sin most likely to lead to the creation of new life.

Spirals lay at the foot of Asmo's bed, and his symbol is repeated rather faithfully in his personal bathroom.

His symbol also brings to mind both the uterus and symbol of Aries, ie a ram's head. Those two concepts have often been linked in symbolism and their meanings build upon each other - the former traditionally symbolises fertility and motherhood, and the latter virility, power and youth. If binary concepts are your jam, they also represent the feminine and masculine respectively, meaning that the combination is both more than the sum of its parts and even a subversion. Something I've theorised is true of Asmo.

Beel:

Like Satan, Beelzebub is another demon oft conflated with Lucifer and Satanism in general. He was once held to be the King of Hell, a senior demon that Solomon conversed with. However this is partly down to a one letter difference - it is Beelzebul that Solomon summons, a former angel associated with Venus, aka the Morning Star himself, Lucifer. Then again, the bible states Beelzebub as Prince of demons so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Beel, like his twin Belphegor, has a name stemming from the indignity of ancient gods thrown into the pantheon of hell - a task that humans excel at. Ba'al Zəbûb, Lord of the Flies, was however possibly a deliberate mistranslation of Ba'al Zəbûl, Lord of the Heavens, because y'know, insulting other cultures, and humans are always terrible.

Anyway, the point is that Beel has a lot of different sigils, symbolism and imagery to pick from, most of which sadly has little to do with his real origins as an actual god. Instead, the mean connection to flies stuck, which is exactly what we see in his OM symbol.

The fly hanging on his battle stage is an exact match for his symbol, and his own demon-form wings make it pretty obvious too. Diamonds and insects litter his battle stage, and beneath the hanging fly are symbols very similar to Beelzebub's popular sigil (which originated as Bael's sigil, who is or isn't a different demon depending on who you ask), and another that echoes the ending cross branches.

The triangular angles of the symbol are repeated on Beel's casual wear, and are also visible in the sigil which is an intriguing mix of curves like a ram's head (see Asmodeus above), and angles that aren't that far away from looking like a bug. Even his bedroom sun symbolism echoes power emanating from a centre.

The stars/diamonds on Beel's symbol are the same as Satan's with the same meaning: inner balance, unveiling the authentic self, and accepting both negative and positive.

Belphie:

Like his twin, Belphie's name comes from an ancient god, in this case Ba'al Pə'ôr (which became Beelphegōr then Belphegor). The god of the mountain Pe'or, and "Lord of the Opening", he is mentioned as such in the torah, hebrew bible, and new testament.

Little is actually known of him in this form as the tale is told by the victors who obeyed god's will and murdered all his followers, soooo. Allegedly he was worshipped via sex, oral sex, gay sex, and poop, but a little digging beneath the surface seems to suggest veneration of women rather than the penis which of course is the worst sin of all.

Anyway. Belphegor has been lumped in with phallic and fecal worship ever since, and changed from the demon who helps humans make discoveries and grand inventions to the demon who tempts via laziness (which as I've previously written, is not what the sin of Sloth means!).

Like Beel, he has numerous sigils, including the Bael one shown above for Beelzebub. (Ba'al btw simply meant "lord" and was used for innumerable ancient gods of the ancient near east, but translations often lumped different gods/demons together in error).

It's no coincidence then that the Bael sigil is a pretty neat match for Belphie's symbol too, while his own newer sigil looks fairly similar but more, well, phallic.

Instead of the ram's skull though (see Asmo) here we definitely have more of a cow skull shape, as demonstrated by twin Beel in his Arabian outfit. The cow is Belphie's symbolic animal, and he wears cow print in his demon-form, has a cow-style tail, and even carries a cow print pillow that has its own cow tail in his casual wear. The boy like cow 🐮

The spirals of his own horns match the curves of his symbol, as does his horseshoe (oxshoe?), and even the crescent moon that hangs above his head. Once you look for those curves, they're everywhere.

The five-point star on his symbol is echoed on his battle stage repeatedly, and greater pointed stars are in his bedroom and stage. The five-pointed star is of course a pentagram (see Satan), while the ten-pointed star represents balance, and the sixteen-pointed star above his bed symbolises the sun - ie, his twin, and perhaps our next demon...

(Side note - that Arabian outfit of Beel's not only points to Belphie via the cow skull, but also to Lucifer via the peacock feathers, representing Beel's position as peacekeeper between the two.)

Mammon:

I saved my best boy for last, as his symbol was the most difficult to puzzle out. Pretty much everyone else has some form of their symbolic animal involved, or in Asmo's case is still very clear in meaning.

Mammon has so many sigils that there isn't really one that is definitively most popular. A google search turns them all up. However, I kinda like the pentagram and infinity sigil, as it looks like Mammon's sigil is wearing his shades 😎

Here's what I see when I look at Mammon's symbol - a rising sun, a peacock displaying its full tail, a burst of energy. Breaking it down geometrically, there are five points extending above and one point below, for a total of six. There's a lozenge shaped star, like Satan and Beel's, and a horseshoe or crescent curve facing downwards, similar to Belphie's symbol, and the inverse of Satan's. Two more tiny lozenge stars flank the large one at the bottom. (See Satan.)

Mammon's demon-form has very intricate markings, that have points flying upwards, and sharp triangles pointing downwards. Diamond shapes are present on his lower half clothing, and the overlapping markings and harness are not entirely dissimilar from the sigil.

As I've written before though, Mammon's markings are most similar to Lucifer's sigil, and I go into depth on the symbolism of that there.

His battle stage heavily features six-point stars, a choice unique to Mammon and one reflected in the six points of his symbol. Like the equally ancient pentagram, the hexagram has long stood accused of being evil - not helped by its origins in religion as the Seal of Solomon himself. (The symbol predates this.)

And similar to the pentagram, its meanings are endless. There has been one constant for many centuries however - the hexagram is used to raise and channel the energy of entities including demons, and in such a case is perhaps fitting for the first of guardian demons.

At the centre of Mammon's battlestage is another hexagram, the point from which a sun seems to burst forth. Everything about this symbolism and the demon himself seems to suggest sunlight, warmth, power, energy, and good vibes.

He shares his eye colour with Simeon and Luke, two angels, the yellow acting as another rising sun in his blue irises, his face bathed in a yellow glow. For the most angelic of demons, the sun is a fitting symbol.

Still, the symbol does also remind me of a peacock in full display, and Mammon carrying a talisman made of feathers, when the only feathered wings we ever see are Lucifer's, are perhaps more than a nod to his symbolic animal. They are, after all, two of the closest brothers...