Sacrificial Bliss

                

Excerpt from The Daimon:

                Elisabeth remembers seeing the devil.  Mother had sent him.  Elisabeth would come to realize that it had been a gift from her Great Grandmother. For Elisabeth would witness and respond through words and images.

 

 Sacrificial Bliss

Oil on canvas

                While on a professional trip, Elisabeth had spent the night with a friend who had moved away.  Before dinner they had taken a walk through the neighborhood, catching up on life:   their kids, their careers, their dreams.  Walking past a neighbor’s yard, on the other side of the picket fence, he had stood, smiling at her in a most beguiling manner.  He was too impeccably dressed to be raking leaves, as he stood rake in hand.  In stillness.  As if posing for the Grant Wood painting, American Gothic.    

                Elisabeth glanced back at him while she and her girlfriend strolled by.  His familiarity held her gaze.  She was quiet through dinner. After clearing the dishes, Elisabeth’s host played his flute and her hostess sang a soothing Celtic lullaby.  Elisabeth made up her bed on the couch and drifted off to sleep.  He appeared in her dream, donning a top hat and a three-quarter length coat, looking very dapper.  Again that smile and the taunting eyes held Elisabeth in a transfixed state.  He didn’t scare her, yet she felt uneasy with his spell-binding presence. 

               He tipped his hat to Elisabeth, arousing her attention.  Then she noticed two stubby horns on the crown of his head emerging forth.  In that moment, Elisabeth recognized the power of temptation.  She saw what Daddy had seen before violating her.  She felt Daddy’s shame, his guilt, his anger, his fear; she understood his vulnerability. Elisabeth released her hatred.  Her love flowed forth, washing away Daddy's sins.  
         
               Elisabeth took to painting.   Devil ears would appear.