Asmodai
Just a fun factoid: My header pic this week (and last) is the Asmodai (Asmodeus from Collin DePlancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal). As it was explained to me during my apprenticeship, three headed, the Asmodai (desires) are Asmoday, Asmodeus, and Amducius. Three aspects of a similar motivating force. Asmodeus is sexual desire. Amducius is desire for vengeance/wrath. Asmoday is desire for wealth/success.
Of course for those of you who are hard-nosed scholars, you can always google it and read the Wikipedia page which is sure to give you your historical contextual fix. I see no reason to regurgitate the same dull information all over my blog.
Asmodai encourages us to explore our desires and find the source of them. He/it (they) encourages us in our momentum forward toward our goals and that exploration of desire. Desire motivates. Desire can also be crippling, manifesting jealousy or addiction. Desire drives us to work hard, mate, and build empires. It can also drive us to war. It can help us find companionship or cause us to be forever alone jumping from mate, to mate, to mate. Without desire, what are we?
Desire is great meditation fodder.