Creepy Images: Faith

In most global spiritual traditions, faith in a higher power of some kind is supposed to be a surefire method of warding off evil. However, in this set of eerie imagery, the forces and talismans of salvation seem twisted into malevolent threats of their own. To see what I mean, observe the towering menace of the Christian God above. Faceless, ethereal, and incredibly powerful, this depiction almost more aptly represents H.P. Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep than
an entity worshiped by billions. What does it mean to put faith in this representation of God?


And what of corrupted scriptures? This Bible, half-strangled by the onslaught of bulbous fungi, is certain to contain quite a few omissions and perhaps even some strange mutations of holy passages as paragraphs and pages melt together. This adulterated book borders on the accursed, as it becomes the emissary of a new religion that demands a new faith. Nature, or something more sinister, has possessed it for its own mysterious designs.


In a realm of nightmare saviors, what would the faithful themselves be like? Perhaps not much different than the above depiction. Beneath the austere clothing is something that can no longer be called human. And yet, the dress and symbolic cross suggest strong fealty to a religious creed very well known to those of us in the Western world and beyond. Still, one cannot fail to note the puppet like features of this creation. If a puppet is an imperfect manifestation of a man or woman, then do puppets have warped faiths as well? Do puppets worship a being of hideous imperfection: a puppet God? And within the vastness of the whole multi-verse, are we puppet facsimiles ourselves?


In Eastern Orthodox Christian communities, ubiquitous icons of various saints stand as symbols of faith and shields against evil. This image holds a surface resemblance to the famous wooden icons you might find across Eastern Europe. Does it depict an unknowable mutation of an existing savior, or possession of another holy talisman by some entirely independent wicked agency? The strangest thought conjured up by this, in my opinion, is the fact that this imagined corrupted icon would experience a shift in audience, but would remain true to its purpose. After it sends the old faithful screaming away into the night, there is someone else--probably multiple individuals--who would readily seize upon it as an article of their own faith, albeit a faith very different from the supposed one spawning such iconography.

-Grim Blogger