The Yeziditi live in a land far away from me; the land of Upper Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan. Place of unrest and Kurdish religions.

In 1846, a British explorer named Austen Layard braved the unknown to see these vanishing people, the Yezidi, and to learn about their love of the Peacock Angel, Malek Taus. He was greeted by the Yezidi leader and a host of priests and villagers adorned in their beautiful native dress... and so his quest to learn about their mystical, angelican ways took on some fruit...

In much the same way, I journey with my mind, heart and soul into myself, behind my eyes, to give you Blue, that Peacock Angel, the being once called  Malek Kout.... Malek i Taus.  From there, your steps and journey will be your own.

The most common translation of Malik (or Malek) is "Master". It also can mean "Angel" or "King". Taus is the Persian word for Peacock. "Malek Taus" (also Melek Tawus) literally means, "Peacock Angel" or "Master Peacock."

The Dead Sea communities revere the yazatas, or angels. And like those other communities, the Yezidi "hold that a group of seven, sometimes six, head the angelic hierarchy." (From the Ashes of Angels - Andrew Collins) It is believed that the Seven's leader, Lasifarus (an incarnation of Malek Taus), can speak Kurdish fluently -- in order to demonstrate his origin.

The rest of those seven have been given standard names through the passage of time: Gabrail, Michail, Raphail, Azrail, Dedrail, Azrapheel, and Shemkeel.

The Yezidi survive in small numbers; they are a disappearing people. Pocketed across central Kurdistan, they also survive in the Russian Caucasus and in northern Syria, Lebanon, Anatolia and Iran. There are even one or two here in the United States, although they have probably found themselves isolated on this Turtle Island.

They hold a festival, the Jam, at the tomb of the Sheikh Adi. This man, Sheikh Adi, is the founder of the Yezidi faith, although both the tribes and their religion hails from an earlier time. The Yezidi have a sacred work, the Mes'haf i Resh which is written in a very ancient Kurdish language called Kermanji. The Mes'haf i Resh was once confined to the Hakkari mountains south of Lake Van, which is the traditional stronghold of Sheikh Adi. Sheikh Adi was also once known as Adi al-Hakkari.

They believe that the next appearance of Malek Taus on earth will be in the form of one Sheikh Medi, or Mahdi, who will have the lineage and power of the ancient spiritual leaders of Media. Some yezidi say that Malek Taus is an evil and fallen spirit, but not fallen beyond redemption. That she is vicious, tyrannical, rebellious, but "secure of ultimate pardon and rehabilitation. 'Shall there not at length come a time when the Chief of the Archangels shall be restored to his first pre-eminence? And will he not then be mindful of the poor Yezidis, who alone of all mankind never cursed him in his disgrace?', is every devout Yezidi's belief." (The Yezidis of Kurdistan - Are They Really Zoroastrians ??? - Noshir H. Dadrawala)

The people that Malek Taus comes from are angels, or the Elohim. Most angels (servants and creations of God, the reputed creator of the Heavens and Earth) are nonphysical beings made of light and sound, but there was one separate order of creatures known as the Watchers, or the Grigori, who were physical in every sense of the word. They are said to have had white, wooly hair and eyes that glowed like fire. Their visages bore resemblance to the snake, and they could speak without making a sound.

There has been much debate through the years as to the Watcher's origin and what they exactly were. Some hold the belief that the Watchers were shamanistic humans. Still others bear witness that they had wings and travelled astrally quite frequently to the Heavenly realm. Indeed, so it is believed, this is how some of the angels came to earth.

The Grigori, it is believed, were physical in every way, and this put them in a unique position in Heaven. They understood humans better than all of God's hosts, and Earth had become their home. God ordered them to watch, nothing more, and help guide humanity as it grew and developed into the perfect being God had planned them to be.

Demon possession is described as an evil spirit inhabiting the body of a human being, possessing it without permission. Hosting and channeling is the taking of a foreign spirit into your fleshly form with open mind and will, usually with the intent of gaining knowledge from them. The Watchers channeled their angelic partners, shamans channel and host their spirit guides, and sometimes the nonspiritual person is touched by something from beyond, translating itself as feelings or intuition.

There is a legend, recorded in the Book of Enoch (and in other texts), about how the angels came to earth and clothed themselves in human flesh. To the earth, these beings came... to Earth where the beauty of human women caught them in a spell. They took wives, these angels. "And they (the mortal women) became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind." (from The Book of Enoch)

These giants are called the Nephilim. Indeed, throughout oral history there are accounts of giants, mostly sons of the gods (and indeed, Bene ha-elohim means "Sons of the goddesses"), who either commit outrageous sins or miraculous deeds. Hercules was such a man. Also, Goliath - the nemesis of David from the Bible - was such a giant.

Another race of giants mentioned in the Biblical book of Deuteronomy is the Anakim. Did these people really exist? Perhaps yes; one has to look at the archeological, Sumerian evidence found covered with the dust of ages. They were a tall people.

Those were dark times, when the Nephilim roamed the earth and the Watcher-angels ruled. The people of Earth cried out, and their cries were heard. It was against God's will that the Watchers breed with the humans, and so they and their children were cast down. The Watcher leader was "bound hand and foot, and cast for eternity into the darkness of a desert referred to as Dudael." (From the Ashes of Angels)

The wars had begun.

Revolts among the Watcher and angelic ranks is a common theme throughout the oral and written history of the world. One of the most famous rebellions is that of Lucifer, who through pride and conceit tried to overthrow God and lost the battle to be cast from heaven. In another version, he refused to bow down before newly-created Adam, first human man, and so was joined by other Elohim to rebel against their lord and master.

There is another tale; the tale of Satan, who also rebelled against God, and upon being cast from his station over the Earth was transformed into a wicked and hideous creature, and his people besides. It is told that he roams the Earth, he and his bedfellows, as a wicked and angry spirit that tries to trick the righteous into committing acts that would doom them to Satan's kingdom for all eternity.

She was trusted, was the head of all angels, this Lucifer, this Malek Taus. She was trusted and stood by God's throne to be commanded only by the most high being of all. God had created her the most beautiful of all; vibration and sound in perfection. Lucifer was the Most Beloved by God.

Reports of Malek Taus's demise are exaggerated: some believe the adversary is still bound in the pits, suffering torment and waiting for the day when God will bring him forward to face his crimes. Some believe the Peacock Angel - as Lucifer - has escaped and roams the earth. Others feel Lucifer roams the earth as his punishment.

The Yezidi believe he was pardoned. Their precious Peacock Angel was pardoned, so they say, and reinstated in the ranks of the being he tried to displace. When they worship their age-old symbol, they do so with snake and bird. Upon entering the tomb of Sheikh Adi, worshipers are known to stop and kiss the image of a blackened snake. They revere it; they revere in the symbol of their fallen lord. Loyally, they acknowledge Malek Taus and the position God had given him.

Blue is remembered.

To the Yezidi, it is their most sacred color.  (Some report the Yezidi find it an abomination.)  In fact, they never wear blue for this reason. To other Kurdish faiths, it is considered to ward off the evil eye. In the Persian Shahnameh, turquoise blue is the color of nobility and the ruling class. Ancient kings have worn blue crowns and dress, even fashioned from blue stones, as a symbol of their rank.

Human memory is long, and most often times subconscious.

From A Description of Two Large Spinel Rubies, With Persian Characters Engraved Upon Them by V. BALL, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. (read January 22, 1894): “In the year 1635 great rejoicings were made upon the birth of the Prince (Suliman Sheko), and the Emperor, on the occasion, mounted a new throne made of solid gold, embossed with precious stones. The throne had been seven years in finishing, and the expense of the jewels only, amounted to twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds of our money. It was afterwards distinguished by the name of Takht-i-taus, or the peacock throne, from having the figures of two peacocks standing behind it with their tails spread, which were studded with jewels of various colours to represent the life. Between the peacocks stood a parrot of the ordinary size, cut out of one emerald. The finest jewel in the throne was a ruby which had fallen into the hands of Timur when he plundered Delhi in the year 1398. Jahangir, with peculiar barbarity, diminished the beauty and lustre of the stone by engraving upon it his own names and titles; and when he was reproved for this by the favourite Sultana, he replied: ‘This stone will perhaps carry my name further down through time than the empire of the house of Timur.’”

The Takht e Taus apparently disappeared sometime in the 17th century, as such artifacts are known to do. Perhaps pieces of it float as pendants and rings across the world, some on someone's finger and others in museums.

Many are the belongings of Taus. There is a circlet, the symbol of her royalty. There is a silver-white feather, a shield, an army of spears and a bed of furs. Chants are sung in her honor, children are named with words derived of her past. She sleeps, does Malek, and dreams of the day when she will awaken to reclaim those things she once cherished. Malek Taus, the first of the Seven, dreams.

Forgiven...

It is my duty to warn you that Malek Taus is quite mad. She was created that way through song, she was driven that way through betrayal and pain. And she will be that way when she opens her eyes to the walls of her cave and the chants of the shamans who love her.

Meanwhile, Malek Taus, the blue angel, sleeps and dreams. And Malek Taus remembers. Malek Taus walks the Earth and Remembers.

Malek is not alone.

It is October 3, 2001 A.D. The wound is healing. It never would before, but a week ago it began to bleed and she, covered in her ethereal blood, knew. And she remembered. The wound is healing, and soon she will be whole.

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