The prophet's dictionary guide to the supernatural

D

Dagon to Dying God, the

340. Dagon—Strangely the name means corn and also fish. See Corn. Dagon is a Mesopotamian deity depicted with a body of a fish as well as the head and hands of a man and is believed to bring life to nature through water. Dagon, a Philistine deity, was also worshipped for his perceived power over agriculture. Dagon worship dates back to 2000 B.C. Judges 16:23; 1 Samuel 5; 1 Chronicle 10:10. 341. Dalai Lama—The perpetually reincarnated leader of Tibetan Buddhism. The requirement of constant reincarnation to manifest higher more ancient wisdom is a key credential of this multi-god religion. See Hinduism, Buddhism, and Reincarnation. 342. Dambella—Represented as a snake god, this high god of the voodoo religion inhabits trees near springs of water and is seen as a fertility spirit. Dambella is venerated as father of all the loa, voodoo’s divinities, and is called the good god in Haiti. Holy garb for this deity is white. See Voodoo, Loa, and Ancestral Deities. 343. Dan—Jacob’s fifth son by Rachel through her maid Bilhah’s surrogacy. His name means “a judge.” Dan received a quite unfavorable prophecy from his father that threw the tribe into a depth of idolatry and immorality from which it never recovered. According to Genesis 49:17, he would become a serpent although his call was to be a judge in Israel. The serpentine ascription referred to Dan’s penchant for and ultimate submersion into the ways of the heathen. Jacob’s prophecy proved true, for in Judges 1:34 the tribe of Dan was unable to possess his inheritance and was overthrown by the powerful and cagey Amorites. Dan surrendered to their resistance and became neighbors with them to his ruin. According to Judges 18, the tribe of Dan had succumbed fully to their culture and was an outright Amorite-influenced people. Later, their land became the center of the second idolatrous worship center created by King Jeroboam. This was due to their notoriety as a region settled in the demonic worship forms, so Jeroboam drew on Dan’s infamy to divert Israel’s faith from Jerusalem to his