Spirituality in the World of 07-Ghost

Distinctive beliefs

Concept of God

The religion in the series is a polytheism (the belief in multiple deities), which is distinct from the religion of Christianity (a monotheism- belief there is only one God), the religion which many of its elements are based upon. However, only the Chief of Heaven is addressed as "God", although the minor and secondary deities are also openly acknowledged as gods in their own right.

Hierarchy

The followers subscribe to the belief of an heirarchy of deities, where one God, the Chief of Heaven, has power over the other Gods.

The creator deity, the Chief of Heaven, is the closest thing to the one God of the abrahamic religions (Christianity), and he is responsible for the creation of the other Gods, such as the death deity, Verloren.

Abilities and Attributes

The gods of the 07-Ghost universe are immortal. Regardless of their true ages, they maintain a youthful appearance, e.g. the Chief of Heaven and Mikhail's true form have a youthful appearance, despite being at least 1000 years old. 

The gods of the 07-Ghost universe also have a higher/stronger resistance to things that would physically or spiritually harm ordinary humans. For example, the Seven Ghosts' vessels have a higher tolerance of low temperatures than ordinary humans, as their hearts do not beat and their bodies do not give off heat, and can hold cursed objects like an unsealed Warsfeil Dagger without experiencing any adverse effects. As shown with Frau, the Ghosts can also sleep in coffins with no oxygen available to them. 

It is possible that some of the gods do not need dietary sustenance, as Verloren, Eve and the Chief of Heaven have never been seen eating or drinking. Verloren's current vessel, Ayanami, can also survive and remain healthy despite often skipping meals. However, the Seven Ghosts and Mikhail are known to consume human food, although it's unknown if they truly need to eat and drink like ordinary humans, or only do it for the sake of enjoyment. Mikhail and Raphael certainly seem able to go for very long periods of time without food and drink.

The human hosts/vessels of the Seven Ghosts, Mikhail and Raphael are all blessed with strong Zaiphon, and the hosts of the Eyes of Mikhail and Raphael can use the Eyes to cause massive explosions, form craters in the ground, level forests, and kill multiple people simultaneously. Vessels of the Ghosts and the Archangels are also capable of attacking and killing so quickly that their victims have no time to react.

Verloren's followers, Warsfeil, who pledge half of their souls to him, also possess greater physical resilience and regenerative abilities than ordinary humans, as shown when Hyuuga survived an attack during the Raggs War and said that it would have killed him if he wasn't a Warsfeil. 

Naturally, all the gods of the 07-Ghost universe can speak the language of the gods.

Weaknesses

The gods of the 07-Ghost universe are as vulnerable to strong emotions that can cloud their judgment as humans are, as shown by the negative impact of Eve's death on Verloren's personality and sanity. Also, they can be killed, as shown in Eve's case, or banished from Heaven if it's the Chief's will. A death god will die if he is cut by his own scythe.

Without vessels, they cannot interact with the mortal world, forcing them to bind themselves to humans and human families.

Personality

Despite being considerably more powerful than humans, the gods of the 07-Ghost universe are similar to humans with regards to the variety of personalities they can have. Their personalities can range from optimistic and outgoing (Eve), to pessimistic and morbid (Verloren), to aggressive and hotheaded (Zehel and Mikhail), to sarcastic yet compassionate (Chief of Heaven), to sensitive and emotional yet also with a ruthless side (Raphael).

Practices

Rituals

In the world of 07-Ghost, believers stand before the statues of the Seven Ghosts in the Barsburg Church and pray to the statues. An example has been seen, when it was shown that people pray to the statue of Fest for love, or that their love will never falter. Festivals are also held to honour the Seven Ghosts.

In the Barsburg Church, similar to the Catholic church, Mass is held, and attended by members of the clergy and the common folk alike.

There is a statue of Mikhail in the Church, suggesting that there is a chance he is also worshipped, like the Seven Ghosts, and in a similar manner.

Scriptures

Main article: Barsburg Bible

The Barsburg Bible is the holy book of the nameless and only religion of the world of 07-Ghost, and consists of 77 volumes which contain 7700 scriptures. In the Bishop's Apprentice Exam, candidates are required to memorise the scriptures, 100 of which are chosen at random for the written portion of the exam.

History

There has been no clue in series as to when, and by whom the religion was founded, but the Chief of Heaven is widely regarded to be the first of the Gods created.

The Chief of Heaven then had a daughter, Eve, though the circumstances surrounding this are unknown.

The creation of Verloren

Verloren is a Shinigami (a death God), and was created by the Chief of Heaven to preside over souls.

Verloren's purpose was to sort the souls entering Heaven; allowing the pure souls to enter Heaven, but punishing the 'bad' souls by devouring them. Devouring the soul was a process that involved either sending the soul back down to earth to be reincarnated in a different body with no memories of their previous life, or sending them to purgatory. The worst souls which are irredeemable even by Verloren would be destroyed.

The creation of the Ghosts

The Seven Ghosts are amongst the earliest 'gods' created by the Chief of heaven and their existence dates back roughly 1000 years. At the time of their creation, humanity was already present.

The legend of the ghosts tells that Verloren (the God of Death) was in love with the Chief of Heaven's daughter, Eve, but after her skeleton was found and her soul devoured, the Chief of Heaven accused Verloren of killing her. As Eve's soul being devoured automatically forced it to be sent to earth and reincarnated, Verloren escaped the heavens and fled to earth to find her reincarnation.

Verloren began looking into the hearts of humans in order to find the soul that originally belonged to Eve. However as he looked, that person's heart was instantly tainted by his presence, and slowly slipped into despair. This meant those souls could not enter Heaven in this life because they were no longer pure, and they would be forced to reincarnate again once they died.

“	The Chief of Heaven dispatched seven heavenly lights from the heavens, in order to punish the wicked Verloren. They are said to have sealed the detestable Verloren on this earth.	”
—A nun, explaining the legend of the seven ghosts.

When the Chief of Heaven noticed the consequences Verloren's actions had on those souls he looked into, he fashioned seven heavenly lights out of Verloren's fragments, each with one of Verloren's powers, and sent them to execute him.

Schedel's crusade

The ghosts drove Verloren to Seele, but were unable to destroy him. Faced with this, they instead used the powers of the two angel eyes (Mikhail and Raphael) to tear Verloren's soul from his body, in the hope that they never join again so he could never be at his full power.

They sealed his physical body in Pandora's Box on earth, and used the Eye of Mikhail to make sure it could not escape from its prison. They sealed his soul using the Eye of Raphael, putting his soul in a human- and forcing it to undergo a process of constant reincarnation whenever the human body died- regardless of how the person had lived their life- so it could never enter Heaven again.

Once the threat of Verloren was eliminated, the Seven Ghosts did not return to heaven; instead staying in the mortal world to serve as guardians.

After sealing Verloren

Now on earth, each Ghost assumed human form and went onto live human lives; they married humans, had children and died as humans. The Seven Ghosts and their human families went on to form the Seven Houses of God, and the Ghost's powers were passed onto their children, and further generations.

The current ghosts are the descendants of the original seven.

During the Raggs War and return of Verloren

Main article: Raggs War

Around 990 years after Verloren had been sealed, the Eye of Raphael malfunctioned- resulting in Verloren's soul awakening (the human who was currently holding Verloren's soul regained all of Verloren's memories) and continued with Verloren's crusade against the Chief of Heaven.

The descendants of the ghosts that first fought Verloren were again forced to re-group and fight.

Currently, very little is known about the Ghosts' roles in the Raggs War.

A member of the Raggs family (the God house of Vertrag) and person acting as the Ghost Vertrag, Fea Kreuz, was accused of stealing and escaping with Pandora's Box, and it was this theft that sparked the Raggs War. Pandora's Box had been moved into a human - meaning Verloren's body was at a risk of escaping if the human's soul is devoured by Verloren - so four Ghosts protected and guided Vertrag through the Seven God Houses in order to receive the cursed tickets and travel to the Land of Seele to destroy Verloren's body.

This, coupled with the fact Verloren's soul had awakened, caused Ea and Landkarte to separate from the others and go undercover into the military.

“	The military's actions are disturbing. We will investigate further.	”
—Ea and Landkarte's last words before disappearing.

However, the Ghosts were not successful in their mission, and it resulted in the death of one Ghost, Vertrag, whose reincarnation (Fea Kreuz) was killed by Ayanami and devoured by Verloren.

The remaining six, however, escaped with their lives.

It was later hinted by Ea that Landkarte may have betrayed his duty. In Kapitel 88, it was shown that Landkarte wanted to erase both love and hate from the world, and fill the world with darkness.

Modern history

Even though Verloren had been sealed away for 1000 years, the Kor, his messengers made up of the souls that were tainted by his presence, continue to find and contact humans, and try to taint their souls by bringing them under his influence.

Around a decade after the Raggs War, Ayanami killed Lance and devoured him.

Later, Ayanami captured Frau (Zehel), Labrador (Profe) and Castor (Fest). He tried to devour Fest first, but spat him out shortly afterwards, because Verloren's present vessel (Ayanami) has reached its limit and cannot devour any more Ghosts after he devoured Lance.

Relation to real-world religions

Most of the mythology in the series appears to be based heavily on the Catholic religion, with the Kor tempting people to 'sell their souls' in a similar way to how the devil is believed to do, Eve being the daughter of the Chief of Heaven, Verloren sharing some similarities with Lucifer, and medieval folklore, particularly from Germany, as many of the names of the Gods and other creatures are derived from German words, such as the word Vertrag (contract), Landkarte (map), Fest (tightly, fixed), Verloren (lost, goner), Mikhail, Raphael, Kor. Although there are many similarities between Catholicism and the mythology in the series, the mythology does not use the same deities.

Other spirits in the series

Apart from the gods and the Kor, within the 07-Ghost series, there also exist other spiritual beings such as ghosts (see Marie and Graveyard Dog) and the Guardians of the Bridge of Trials. These minor spiritual entities remain in the human world for various reasons, such as fulfilling a specific purpose or because they have been trapped in the human world by someone they knew when they were alive. Heaven also contains some other spiritual beings about whom not much is known, such as Heavenly Birds, the Chief of Heaven's advisors, some animals that Eve mentioned, and Verloren's prison guards.  In a manga extra, when Teito tried to board a special bus that took Mikage to the afterlife, a voice told him not to board , and it seems that the same voice spoke to Teito when Verloren left the human world . The source of the voice is unknown, but it is definitely of spiritual origin.

Other forms of spirituality 

Fortune-telling is practised in-universe, in the form of horoscopes and streetside consultations. As shown in Katsuragi's backstory, humans are sometimes worshipped as gods and sacrificed in order to appease malevolent forces of nature. Certain items, such as a special type of vase seen in the side chapter Hyuuga vs Konatsu, are thought to bring good fortune. Archangels' names may be invoked in spells. Labrador's Uncle successfully managed to build a cult that worshipped the powers of a special incense made by himself.

Sometimes the humans in the series call each other "gods" to express gratitude and affection. For example, Rutia once called Teito and Frau her gods, and Frau thinks of Guido as his god.

Trivia

• It is worth noting that only one of the Ghosts, Profe, has been shown to have been reincarnated as a woman so far. This could mean that the Ghosts are more often reincarnated as men than as women. A possible reason for this is that since Verloren is male and the Ghosts are his fragments, it makes sense that the Ghosts have a greater tendency to be reborn male.
• Another possible reason for the Ghosts being more often reincarnated as men is that the Ghosts are sanctioned to protect the Church. Since only men can become bishops, and nuns are not very influential within the Church, it is possible that the Ghosts are more likely to be reborn male so that there can be at least one Ghost protecting the Church at any one time. This is proven by the fact that in the previous generation of Ghosts, three male Ghost reincarnations were shown to be bishops (Fea Kreuz, Raggs War Fest and Raggs War Relikt), and four bishops exist in the current generation.