The Vengeful Djinn: Unveiling the Hidden Agenda of Genies (29 page)

Middle Eastern texts and rituals for summoning the djinn have
existed for centuries and are still available for use in modern times.
Muslims may not think others have the "right" to engage the
djinn, but the djinn pre-date Islam, and they are, in some form or
another, everywhere.

Some djinn-conjuring rituals are taught orally, and others are
written in magical handbooks. Like Western grimoires, djinn magical manuals are for sale everywhere, in marketplaces and on the Internet. One can even buy rings, pendants, and bottles allegedly holding djinn who are waiting to be released in order to grant wishes; it
is more than likely many of these objects have little or no value.

Some djinn rituals that have made their way to the West come from the Sufi tradition. The djinn can be conjured in various ways: through child mediumship; through mental clairvoyance and dreams; and through manifestation in mirrors, water, and other objects.'
Gazing into a reflective surface such as a mirror is called "scrying" in the Western tradition, and is a time-honored method of remote viewing, seeing into the future, and getting spirits to manifest. The Book of 1001 Nights also tells how to summon djinn.

Like demons, djinn are difficult to summon and control. According to lore, their natural form is hideous and few people can tolerate it, so God decreed that when they appear to people, they must morph into a more pleasing human or animal form. We have noted that two of the favored animal forms of the djinn are a black dog and a snake. Once summoned, the djinn must be bound to the practitioner, which may be accomplished through binding into an object such as a bottle. For example, The Book of 1001 Nights tells of inscribing the name of God in Hebrew on a knife, and drawing magical symbols with incantations written around them. Similarly, a tradition exists in Western magic of capturing small demons called imps into rings, vessels, and other objects. The imps are summoned out to do the bidding of the practitioner, a magician or a witch.'

Justification for Summoning the Djinn

Islam considers it acceptable to call up the djinn in order to educate them on Islam and convince them to convert and worship Allah. Asking the djinn to attack others or aid humans in committing sins and disobedience, however, is forbidden. For the most
part, it is believed that consorting with djinn leads to trouble, and should not be undertaken. The medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Taymeeyah (1263-1328) regarded the djinn as "ignorant, untruthful, oppressive, and treacherous."8
Djinn, he said, will lie to their summoners and will not necessarily do as commanded. If they are ordered to harm a person or a djinni whom they hold in high regard, they will ignore the command: "Neither the one chanting incantations nor his incantations have any power to force the devils to help them."9
Furthermore, djinn are fond of creating illusions, appearing in visions and speaking in voices that conform to a conjurer's expectations. They are the ultimate deceivers, masquerading as other spirits such as angels and even religious figures. From that perspective, Christian visions of saints and the Virgin Mary could be djinn illusions-a view the Christian faithful would vehemently reject.10

Sheikhs (religious authorities) have the knowledge and skills for
summoning and controlling djinn-but any one sheikh may not
be able to control all djinn. Some learn their skills in a shamanic
fashion, through healing themselves in an initiatory illness, in
which they identify the djinni responsible and expel it from their
bodies.

Islamic sorcerers (male and female) are said to traffic with evil
djinn, the children of Iblis. They use "red magic" to summon them
for such tasks as fortune-telling and procuring love and money,
and they use "black magic" to summon them for evil purposes
such as harming people through the evil eye, illness, misfortune,
and even murder. Witches use djinn to "tie" spells, and also consult djinn for untying spells cast by other witches.

Some of the rituals for conjuring djinn are simple, and some, like Western magical rituals, are quite complex, involving fasting, meditation, supplications, and incantations over long periods of time, such as forty days. Any break in the ritual dooms it to failure.

One method of djinn summoning involves a combination of the Qur'an and a magical text. The text has incantations for summoning djinni in a progressive manner, from weakest to most powerful. The Qur'an is read in conjunction with the summoning. The practitioner begins with the weakest djinni. If that djinni can be subdued and bound, the practitioner moves on to the next higher djinni. He keeps going until he reaches a djinni too powerful for him to bind, and then he moves back to the previous and last djinni he was able to bind. This is the one he will work with."

A Dangerous Game

The risks of djinn conjuring are substantial, even if the practitioner intends to only work with a "good" djinni for a purpose such as healing. The same risks apply to any magical practice involving any type or pantheon of entities. A spirit invited to enter the energy space of a human being has the potential for takeover, a prospect that includes insanity and possession. Inexperienced practitioners can quickly find themselves in deep trouble, and may have difficulty finding someone with skills powerful enough to banish a djinni who has attached to a person.12

Dealing with and conjuring one's qarin, the djinni companion assigned at birth, is dangerous and risky, as it is with most other djinn. Trying to command or enslave the qarin can jeopardize one's
health or even one's life, according to lore. If a qarin becomes problematic by exerting too much negative influence over a person,
relief may be sought from a professional to perform a banishing
ritual, but this, too, is considered a risky undertaking. If the ritual
is not successful, the qarin may become vindictive and cause more
problems.

It is possible to summon djinn with little effort, which can land a person in trouble. Even talking about djinn can summon them, and so one must speak of them in whispers or refer to them with euphemisms, such as "them" and "those other people." According to Turkish beliefs, green djinn are easy to summon because they are very curious about us and will take any opportunities to get closer. The different forms a green djinn can take will depend on its age and experience. If their motive is harmless contact or curiosity, they may take on a number of forms pleasing to the human eye and to hide their true nature. However, if a djinni is angry or annoyed at a person, it may take on a very hideous appearance that would terrify even the bravest.

If open to communication, a green djinni may take on the form of a friendly dog, elf, fairy, or even a beautiful, glowing, angelic being. On the other hand, if you summon a djinni who does not want to be bothered, you might be in for a great deal of trouble.

Can djinn ever be conjured for beneficial purposes? The Qur'an states that God gave humans authority over all things in creation, which implies inclusion of the djinn:

Do you not see that God has subjected to your (use) all things in the heaven and on the earth, and has made his bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, (both) seen and unseen.
'I

Sheikhs are able to conjure djinn for mediumship, and to learn about a person's illness. For example, a sheikh will ask his personal djinni to talk to the djinni of a sick person in order to find out valuable information about the affliction.

It has been suggested that the djinn's abilities of invisibility, rapid movement, flying, and penetration of the human body and material objects could be harnessed for surveillance, intelligence gathering, crime investigation, weather reporting, transport of objects, and medical diagnosis and treatment.14
Given the inclinations and temperament of the djinn, however, the feasibility and even desirability of a cooperative relationship is questionable.

Djinn Sorcery

According to Islamic views, djinn attach themselves to disbelievers and enable them to perform miraculous feats that amaze others, such as predicting the future. This is considered sorcery, and the lies of the djinn influence the disbelievers themselves to lie to others. The Qur'an states that the lies are based on the information the djinn glean from eavesdropping on angels:

Should I tell you upon whom the shaitan descend? They descend upon every forging sinner. They cast to them the hearing (which they "snatched" from the heavenly assembly), and most of them are liars.15

Disbelievers beguiled by such glamor become themselves the servants and allies of Iblis.

We cannot leave the subject of conjuring the djinn without giving more consideration to their possible influence on Western culture. As we have noted, the distinctions between djinn and
other entities are often blurry. Western magic is syncretic, that is,
it blends diverse sources, among them Egyptian, Greek/Roman,
Judeo-Christian, and pre-Islamic Middle Eastern influences absorbed into the culture of the early Hebrews. So, we must consider
the hidden role of the Hidden Ones, who are part of that mix.
Perhaps the entities who answer the call of magic and who arise in
the imaginations of artists and writers are really djinn. We do not
have space to examine all of the influences in detail here, but the
following examples show the complex picture that emerges when
one starts tracking down all of the interwoven connections that
trace back to the hidden djinn.

Did H. P. Lovecraft Know the Djinn?

Strange, unnamed entities who may be djinn populate the fictional works of the famous American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). An atheist, rationalist, and scientific materialist, Lovecraft disavowed any personal belief in the supernatural.
However, he was steeped in fascination with the supernatural, and
created his own original mythos, Cthulhu, based on his knowledge
of Egyptian and Arabian mythologies and occultism. His extensive knowledge of Arabian lore brought him into contact with the
djinn. Did he weave the djinn into his horror stories? He certainly
excelled at evoking a sense of dread of unknown and unnamed
horrors dredged up from dark depths, evocative of the djinn.

Of particular note is Lovecraft's Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of powerful magical rituals. The Necronomicon was born in
his 1936 essay, "A History of The Necronomicon." Lovecraft said the
grimoire was originally titled Al Azif and was written by "the mad
Arab Abdul Alhazred," a fictitious name he derived from The Book
of 1001 Nights, and an epithet he used to call himself. According to Lovecraft, the mad Arab was a poet who lived in Yemen and wrote the ritual book in 950 CE.

Lovecraft said a copy of the book existed in his fictitious city of Arkham. He referred to it in some of his other stories, but never produced an actual book. As interest in his works grew, cult status around the mysterious Necronomicon arose as well. Whether or not such a manuscript ever did exist, versions of it have been "found" and published. Some Lovecraft enthusiasts believe he knew genuine secret rituals for conjuring the dreaded entities he called the "Old Ones" or the "Great Old Ones," an ancient race older than humans beings, huge in size, and of immense power. The Old Ones have a physical form composed of a different kind of matter than exists in the human universe. They are imprisoned beneath the sea, inside the earth, and on far-flung planets. They either removed themselves, or they were banished by the gods for using black magic. They are waiting for the opportunity to rise again and rule the world. The Old Ones have been compared to extraterrestrials, demons, archetypes, "Aristotelian elementals," and "specters of a future mentality."16
But they could very well be based on djinn, banished for their transgressions and residing in remote and far-flung places in this and other dimensions until they can return and reclaim the earth.

One of the central Old Ones is Cthulhu, whom Lovecraft introduced in 1926 in "The Call of Cthulhu," describing it as "a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on its hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind." Cthulhu lived in R'lyeh, an ancient city that had sank beneath the sea. This is an interesting cross-correlation to djinn, for according to Muhammad, the throne of Iblis lies beneath the sea, surrounded by sea serpents:

Jabir reported: I heard Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The throne of Iblis is upon the ocean and he sends detachments (to different parts) in order to put people to trial and the most important figure in his eyes is one who is most notorious in sowing the seed of dissension.
17,11

As noted earlier, some of the djinn conjured by King Solomon came up out of the sea, specifically Abezithou, a one-winged djinni who lives in the Red Sea. Cthulhu's unsettling octopus-like form is not out of the question for djinn, who can shapeshift into any form, especially a disturbing one.

According to Lovecraft, the Old Ones are worshipped by a depraved cult with origins dating back to the first human beings. The cult, wrote Lovecraft in his story:

... had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.
'9

Similarly, the djinn reside in wasteland-type places and desolate areas, biding their time.

The theme of liberating the Old Ones to let them back into the world appears again in the story "The Dunwich Horror" (1929). The protagonist, Wilbur Whateley, the son of a deformed albino woman and Yog-Sothoth, a type of god, searches for a Latin edition of the Necronomicon so he may open the gates for the return of the
Old Ones. Whateley is unfortunately killed trying to steal the book,
and his twin brother terrorizes the town of Dunwich as an invisible
monster.