If you’re heading down to Georgia* this month, you might have some extra traffic to contend with. June is the busy season for Berith, Satan’s notary and Great Duke of Hell. If you show up at the crossroads on any given Monday, he can be yours for the low, low price of a silver ring, one black chicken’s worth of blood, and your soul. Obviously.
*Hey kids! This comment is a reference to The Devil Went Down to Georgia, a 1979 song by The Charlie Daniels Band. The More You Know… *star sparkle*
And that is a reference to–you know what? Nevermind.
Please do so responsibly—and let me know! I want to see what y’all get up to.
Origins of Berith
Like most demons of rank, Berith started his existence as an angel. Specifically, a prince among the cherubim, aka the fat little babies with the lutes. Aww, so cute–until he decided to go dark side. I haven’t been able to find the circumstances that precipitated his fall, but Lucifer’s War for Heaven is always a pretty solid guess. In any case, fall he did. In the process, he took a hit in stature (Prince to Duke) but gained one hell of a work ethic.
I would say no pun intended, but at this point I don’t think I’m fooling anyone.
Berith is known by many names across cultures and disciplines, including Beal, Berithi, Bofry, Bolfry, and Bolfri by necromancers. He is also conflated in some contexts with Baal-zebub, “the king of flies.” Now, I thought Berith and Beelzebub have pretty distinct roles in the Hell hierarchy, so I’m not sure how widespread that belief is. But we’ll talk more about that next month.
Powers and Abilities
His title may be Great Duke, but Berith is more a jack of all trades. As a solider, he commands twenty-six legions of demons. As a noble, he is able to bestow positions of power on those he enters into contracts with. He’s also an alchemist, with the “Midas Touch” of being able to turn any base metal into gold. And in his spare time, he puts in hours as Satan’s notary and archivist where he validates and files the pacts made between humans and the lower offices. I mean, seriously, does the man ever sleep???
Also, according to some sources, he can bestow upon those he contracts with the ability to sing more beautifully and clearly than ever before. Which feels pretty random, but…someone’s got to do it? I guess?
For all his many hats, Berith most commonly appears as a solider in red, sitting astride a red horse and wearing a golden crown (not pictured).
Defeating Berith
This is typically the part where I tell you that, if you don’t want to fall under the sway of evil, don’t do evil things. In this case, that should be really easy. After all, Berith is a busy guy. He doesn’t have the time to wander around trying to trick people. The only way you’re going to get in touch with him is if you summon him. There are a couple of documented methods, but one of them is by “bleeding a black chicken at a Crossroads on a Monday night.” If you’re successful, Berith will do your work for 20 years, and then he gets your soul.
Personally, I would be very hesitant about taking that deal. First of all, he’s a notorious liar, even more so than your average demon. However, it is a point of pride with him to answer any direct question truthfully, so you’re gonna want to get *real* specific with those employment intake forms. And second…I mean, you’ve seen his workload. No way he can guarantee quality or efficiency with so little bandwidth. Damned gig economy, am I right? It gets us all in the end.
Happy June, my friends!
