when i was about 15 and dressing for the meeting that night, I heard something outside my window, pulled the curtain back (it was a high window) and an inhuman face was there smiling and sort of laughing, our eyes did meet. I let out a blood curtling scream, bringing my father to my door. I told him i saw a face at my window and described as an ugly man laughing at me. As my dad made for the door outside to look for this man, I heard a whoosing noise like the man in the window running away. at least that's how my mind described it. my dad found no one.
I never told myself it was "the devil"as i really did not feel it was. later, when i was about 20, my husband and i would often drive down this one country road and there was this one house, the front door having a window at the top. driving by one time i was moved to look closely at the window, and guess who was there? the same face. after seeing it the first time, i was always compelled to look and see if it was still there. it was. but i still never really felt i knew the identity. we later had a terrible accident not 50yds from that house. only i was seriously injured, lost control of the car and it went end over end and rolled. my injuries were all to my scalp and face, potentially disfiguring, but received many hours of fine work by a talented physician. in fact the recovery was so complete that the surgury films are still used for instruction. i was then plagued with wondering if this being had caused this or protected me, due to the outcome, i now lean towards the later.
i never talked to anyone about this. my husband never knew about the face. you can't be a good jw and have visitations, right?
anyway, a few years later, in a different town far from there, my then 4yr old daughter used to like to work with me in the vege garden which also had very large avocado trees, and she would play there sometimes by herself (it was a fenced area). one day she came running in to me and said there was a goat in the tree and it was laughing at her. I think, oh my god, he's back. she wants to show me, so we go back out and look into the tree, he's not there, so i ask her to describe it to me. horns, a face looking at her and laughing and hooves for feet. so i then think, sheesh, this must be the devil. she saw him a few times after that in the same location. we moved a year or so later. this was many years ago and haven't seen him since, neither has she. I didn't leave the org until 10yrs later.
We now feel it was the architypical aspect of god as Pan. I had never seen a picture of Pan until a couple of years ago when i decided to start learning about mythology. there he was same face, & expression, and the rest like my little daughter described!
