- "The First of the Fallen gives temporary power to those who believe his lies, but they become his possessions."
- —Manny on John Constantine's use of the Icon of Pazuzu[src]
Icon of Pazuzu was an artifact owned by John Constantine. It was a nexus of Pazuzu's powers, allowing John to unleash them on Lamashtu, and was also connected to Satan, whose dark magic allowed to insert Pazuzu into John's body at the expense of healing him and protecting from the Invunche.
History[]
Icon of Pazuzu symbol on John's hand.
At some point the Icon of Pazuzu was created with the involvement of both the Assyrian god and Satan. It allowed to unleash Pazuzu's rage and connect him with the body of the artifact's user through the magic of the First of the Fallen. John Constantine acquired the artifact and told Anne Marie Flynn of its properties. He used it to summon Pazuzu's powers during the confrontation with Lamashtu, allowing the demon king to unleash purple flames on his estranged mate. After being shot by Anne Marie and attacked by Invunche, John dispelled his own protective words and used the Devil's magic to welcome Pazuzu into his body. Possessing John, the demon king scared Invunche away, but put John into even worse danger. The user of the mark left a burning symbol on John's hand.[1][2]
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
John Constantine unleashed Pazuzu on Lamashtu, allowing him to consume her in purple flames.
- Pyromancy/Pyrokinesis: The Icon unleashed purple flames through the rage of Pazuzu.[1]
- Demonic possession: The Icon allows Pazuzu to possess the caller through the dark magic of Satan.[2]
Appearances[]
Constantine[]
Behind the scenes[]
- An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn "image") is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting of some religious entity.
- Historically, the iconography depicts Pazuzu as a combination of diverse animal and human parts. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, talons of an eagle, two pairs of wings, and a scorpion's tail. He has his right hand up and left hand down.
- Concept design Dave Blass, 3d Modeling and prop development Adil @iamscumbag Muschelewicz. abs 3d print Troy Harding, Bodywork Travis Wood, Painting and weathering Joshua Cavender Cole of Hex Mortis Design Syndicate, Led Wiring Adam Greene.[citation needed]
- Twitter #saveconstantine Giveaway artists: Adil and Adam, paint and wheathering touchups by Josh Cole to screen match formula.
- "We made a choice to remove the phallic imagery snake for the two-part mid season finale and return. We wanted to imply that this vessel containing Pazuzu is old. To be Adults, a snake phallus airing on tv didnt seem like a great idea... not for NBC at least. We had 3 variants of the amulet in 3 forms only 2 aired. mid season finale the Icon of Pazuzu is thick. The joke on set when delivered was "who ordered the 3 piece pazuzu nuggets?" Josh Cole originally painted in a sandstone fx that we later decided in a group vote it'd be cooler if it looked as if it were cast in a strange meteorite so it could read better on film. An archaic variant of the sygil of pazuzu on the back is sunk in and never seen on camera in the mid season finale. Upon return, Dave Blass and Dort Clarke thought it'd be interesting to "deflate it more" so it doesnt look so "preggers." The interesting thing is that worked almost accidentally brilliantly in a pracital subliminal effect to fool and disorient the mind. your subliminals see the change, and the posession scene is more believable. When John squeezes and shoves the sygil symbol on his arm we used the deflated with the sygil popping outward. The practical effect allowed Mat to transfer the symbol on to his arm in a really interesting way, the prosthetics department did a spectacular job making it look as if the sygil deflated into his arm. Accidental practical effect that plays with the mind's eye. we even had a joke to have the used up icon be even more deflated but lost detail on the even more deflated cast.
- In an attempt to #saveconstantine we gifted William Shatner and a select twitter and instagram following a replica prop of the ones we had extra cast. Adam and I with Josh and Dave's permission painted them up exactly as the show aired that is now in a museum in LA, California. We dug into a lot of the hellblazer comics and lore of other films and depictions of the character. To stay sane, we listened to Gorillaz. Specifically Rhinestone Eyes as inspiration because their artist had also depicted Pazuzu multiple times, and we were REALLY GOOD at quoting it. By the time the project was finished we were jamming. We sang and kept ourselves focused sinking deep and believing we were helping John Constantine himself, allowing pazuzu to posess us to help make this as accurate of a depiction as possible. True Demonology is about respecting the demon. "Never say a demon's name or write it down" they say it envokes nightmare creatures. Bad stuff, I wouldn't suggest it. During the production multiple team members reported dreams of these winged creatures, gollum in appearance, winged sinister. Naturally we would collaborate on monsters. Some of the team would often dream visualize in full depth how a monster acts, breathes, moves. our occultist specialist and Consultant Brandon Lovey Crowley aided in the editing of how to handle this demonic prop. We saw it fitting to want to give chas something as well to protect in case John couldnt return from the posession. these props exist. we wanted to elaborate more on the posession so during the season 2 pitches we came up with this:
- THE LOST EPISODE inspired by the icon of pazuzu: While working on the prop, holding it in our hands... we imagined an original type backstory for the prop scene that never got to hit the writers table with, so we figured a pitch meeting would be fun and came up with a bunch of ideas for a return season idea. When we were talking about the possibility of season 2 with Dave on handing off to the CW from NBC, we'd talked about funding and filming a "where is constantine now" featurette clip in hopes of riling up the internet to demand more John Constantine. in the Expose, we are all wearing dark robes, and one of us wearing Red with sacred geometry symbols, but ancient. I would be playing the occultist leader because my beard reeks of Allister Crowley vibes, so we thought it fitting for farts and fun to imply an actual occultist and depict a guy who goes down a SINISTER path. not to pick religious agendas, we just wanted to stay true to folklore and occult rituals and what specifically one would be accomplishing with them. we got a taste with Shaw's journal. and what spawned was a story of a group of occultists using an actual darkmagick spell to summon an infinity portal... in hopes of trapping a meteorite in thin air. They track the meteorite and the meteorite's trajectory is viewed through a telescope and pre mapped location of landing is where the Occultist team is headed. they wait and watch as it falls, glowing brighter, chanting actual demonology studied and accurate to the sumerian era. "zooooo ooohm... Sumar, Zusu, Pazu PAZUzu" is the chant they start. the meteorite falls and lands in this invisible mould boiling molten it forms the purest pazuzu amulet... snake dick and all, baby!. their intention is for a greater good, but something has in store for them a dark sinister twist. We were ultimately going to have Pazuzu and zephyr even because there is a west wind theme with the lore of both demons, and we were going to have pazuzu be one of many where Zephyr was the BIG DADDY BAD GUY prop to make. an 8 foot tall shadow entity sentinel. Talks of Dezmond Ross playing the role. Tate Rollins and I couldnt stop visualizing and we collabbed on a pretty nice Ring of Solomon Zephyr gives to my now posessed character to control the lower djinn. We sacrifice some super hottie giving it to Zephyr the duke of hell, dude or chick didnt care needed to be pure and eye candy. when Rex (my character) puts on the ring his eyes turn red and a darkness overtakes everyone. as the demon pazuzu TRIBE just spews out of the portal one by one in almost like a wicked witch of the west shot. We really dug this west wind theme. it just worked. couldnt really pass this off under the writing room's door because they sold to legends, and constantine never saw a 2nd season. dealing with a groady demon army taking over and posessing the planet seemed like nightmare fuel. It was just so fun to get lost because... We were the team that brought constantine his weapons. and in this our intent was to save him, but unleash a SWARM of PAZU led by Pazuzu himself. Zephyr leaves through the portal after soul snatching the sacrifice feeding on it's fear to intensify the gravity field for him to blip through. We referenced a ton of dark matter ideas, to try to bring this to a more realistic and biblically plausable story. Pitch Team Credit: Adil Muschelewicz, Dezmond Ross, Tate Rollins, Troy Harding, Kimber Nicholson, Tim Williams