This is yet another article in the series inspired by Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. books.
The temptation articles stress how important it is to be wary of people who offer positions of power and to think about their motives. This article has something to say about how important it is to avoid falling under the spell of people and other entities with very glamorous images and to think about what they might be hiding.
There are questions to ask and lessons to be learned.
Why do some people need to create a very glamorous image? What is behind the alluring façade? What are they concealing below the surface? Is the glittering image all that they have got to attract and influence people with?
Perhaps evil people need glamour in a way that good people do not.
Perhaps glamour, like the Attack-dog Syndrome, is a dead giveaway.
It is essential to understand that many people – and other entities - who at first sight appear to be angels may turn out to be demons!
As with the temptation articles, there are a few references to relevant material in books by other authors.
In The Whispering Skull, Lucy Carlyle saves her colleague George Cubbins from the ghost of the evil Doctor Edmund Bickerstaff; in The Empty Grave, George returns the favour by saving Lucy from being destroyed by a glamorous theatrical ghost.
George had been unable to resist the spells of Dr. Bickerstaff and his artefact, but luckily for him Lucy managed to foil the evil necromancer. Lucy however was unable to resist the spell of the Visitor in the theatre; without George’s intervention she would have been lured to her death.
The factors that led to Lucy's vulnerability have already been covered, but there is something more to say about this encounter.
George Cubbins and Lucy Carlyle have very different views of the same ghost.
The Visitor uses psychic glamour to make her victims see her as she wants to be seen, not as she really is. What is left of her is the exact opposite of the beautiful radiant person she appears to be; the glamour is in inverse proportion to the horrific reality.
George is immune to the spectral glamour; he sees the ghost's real aspect immediately. Lucy first sees the ghost as an enticing, wise and sweet woman; she sees the blackened bones and shrivelled flesh of the decayed corpse only when George grabs her arm, hurting her enough for the pain to break the spell.
His words and actions are not at first welcome. When George says how awful the ghost looks, Lucy feels a jarring anger with him: she keeps telling him to shut up; she wants to punch him. She behaves, in fact, like a cult member whose leader is being criticised. This behaviour is a good example of the Attack-dog Syndrome.
Some people have a similar ability to cast a spell that beguiles people; they appear beautiful on the outside, but inside they are the exact opposite. They are whited sepulchres. What we see is an attractive front that hides the evil and corruption within. Some cult leaders come to mind here, and so does Penelope Fittes, the arch-enemy of Lockwood & Co.
Penelope Fittes, high-powered businesswoman and head of the elite Fitttes Agency, makes an exceptionally good first impression. She is strikingly attractive; she is glamorous and elegant; she wears expensive clothes, jewellery and perfume. She also appears charming, caring and sympathetic.
However, as Anthony Lockwood and his colleagues discover when they reject her flattering offers, behind this carefully-constructed glamorous image is a ruthless, arrogant and vindictive personality.
Penelope Fittes is hiding much more than her unpleasant real self; some of this will be covered in the next article.
The Lockwood books have this definition of glamour:
“The ability of some ghosts to appear beautiful and good, even if the reality is markedly different. It often takes great effort of will for an onlooker to see past this illusion.“
This applies to more than ghosts: witches and others use glamour to conceal their true selves.
Beverley Nichol's witch Miss Smith is a classic example of someone who is very different from what she appears to be. She uses illusion to hide her true age and her cruel personality.
Terry Pratchett's elves project glamour to make people see them as beautiful, strong and infinitely superior to humans; anyone who breaks the elves' hypnotic spell sees that they are nothing without it.
It may take more than willpower to break the spell; pain is another way to do it, as we saw when George hurt Lucy's arm.
In C. S. Lewis's Silver Chair, the Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum breaks the spell of the beautiful and bewitching Queen of Underland by stamping out her fire with its sweet, heavy, entrancing smell; this badly hurts his foot:
“There is nothing like a good shock of pain for dissolving certain kinds of magic. “
The witch then reveals her true self.
Before and after the enchantment is broken:
