5 of the Most Dark Religious Beliefs and Places
All of the world’s religions almost by definition have to be a little dark.
One of religion’s concerns, after all, is often the afterlife.
Here are the 5 of the creepiest things found in organized religions.
5. The Pishacha is found in both Hindu and Buddhist folklore. Its name is often translated as flesh eaters. They are the worst of the worst and are born from anger and wrath. They feed on human energies and are said to drive people mad. It is still believed in some parts of the world that people can and are possessed by these demons even in modern day.
4. Karni Mata Temple in India is also known as the Temple of Rats. The story goes that the son of the Goddess Karni Mata drowned trying to drink from a pond. She begged the God of Death, Yama, for her son’s life. Yama at first refused, but later he decided to bring the son back as a rat and now all of her sons are reincarnated as rats. The rats in this temple are revered. They are given drink and food. When visiting, if you accidentally kill one, you have to replace it with a rat made of solid silver. It is considered a high honor to eat food that has been nibbled on by the rat.
3. You may have heard of golems as fictional characters. Maybe even the Pokémon. But this folklore is much older than that. The Golem is a person made of mud and animated. They follow orders perfectly and literally. We have all seen that movie. And you never want to see one enraged.
2. The Hindu Goddess Kali is a pretty scary looking badass. Yes, she’s holding someone’s head. Yes, that’s a necklace made of heads. Yes, her skirt is made of arms. Also, that dude she’s standing on? That’s Shiva. That posture symbolizes her taking over the world. I will not be writing more about her here, because I will be writing more about her next week when discussing the religious festival of Diwali.
- Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic is also known as the “Bone Church.” The Ossuary located underneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints contains the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, mostly plague victims. The place became a popular resting place because a ruler had come back from the Holy Land with some soil from the hill on which Jesus had been crucified. People wanted to be buried near that soil. It had been an ordinary ossuary until 1870 when a local woodcarver was hired to make something beautiful out of the pile of bones. He definitely succeeded.
