Stone-Throwing Devils

The Trickster Spirits of Early New England

The early New England colonies were, in large part, intended as a utopian experiment to establish a model Christian society in preparation for Judgment Day. To guide this lofty vision the founding patriarchs cobbled together a social blueprint based on archaic Old Testament precedents and stern Calvinist church-state doctrine. The resulting “biblical commonwealths” of their design were, in stifled reality, highly regimented settlements ruled by a strict religious order and moral code. Enforced church orthodoxy dominated civic life. Neighbors regularly turned on neighbors in righteous condemnation, with even minor infractions inviting swift and often cruel punishments by authorities. And those who transgressed the established order could expect no less than to be banished, tortured or hanged.

The rigid demands of Puritan life made for a fairly bleak existence that centered around one's predestined relationship with a cold, demanding and, at times, highly erratic God. It also fostered a psychological culture of repressed volatility. For the faithful devout, it was only by the fortified sanctity and purity of their godly settlements that the dark forces of the land were kept at bay. Sacred space was safe space; a symbolic means to ward off the unknown, unpleasant and unacceptable – and when cracks appeared in this fragile edifice it triggered sudden and unpredictable outbursts, including the seemingly paranormal...

He Who Walks Among Us On Cloven Hooves

The Goatman in Legend and Lore

“Imagine this – a young couple drives out to some deserted road. It is a spot that people call “lover's lane”. They park the car and turn out the lights. Then suddenly, without any warning, a great hairy thing rushes out of the woods and begins beating on the windows and doors of the car. For a moment the couple are too surprised and terrified to do anything. Then the driver starts the car, and drives away as fast as he can. Over the roar of the motor the couple can hear the monster screaming in rage.”  – Daniel Cohen, Monsters You Never Heard Of

In timeless tropes teenagers have been frightened by cautionary tales of the shadowy beings that haunt the secluded wooded areas on the outskirts of town. An intimate evening spent parked along an old country road could very well attract the unwelcomed company of restless ghosts, hook-handed madmen, or strange and unknown creatures. Or so the legends go.

Among the most terrifying of these abstinence-inducing creatures of the night is The Goatman – a large, hairy, hoofed and horned monster that has been ruining the romance all across North America since at least the 1950s, and throughout history going back to ancient times.