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"I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him,
in the ordinary sense of the word. I
wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff."
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Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), British occultist. The Confessions
of Aleister Crowley, ch. 5
(1929; rev. 1970).
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Perhaps the dictionary definition of Satan will shed some
light on this subject: (perhaps not):
"Satan ... noun
Theology.
The profoundly evil adversary of God and humanity, often identified
with the leader of the fallen
angels; the Devil.
[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin Sat'n,
from Greek Satanas, Satan, from
Hebrew satan, devil, adversary, from satan, to accuse.]"
The American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.
-----------------------------------------
The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia says:
"Satan [Heb., = adversary], in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,
the principle of evil conceived as a
person; also called the Devil. In Christian tradition Satan was
the leader of the angels who rebelled
against God and who were cast out of heaven. He and his
followers are seen as tempters of
humanity and the source of evil in the world. He has numerous
other names, such as Lucifer,
Beelzebub, Evil One, and Prince of Darkness."
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Dictionaries attempt to provide us with basic definitions, defining
words in their broadest sense.
One purpose of a dictionary is to supply the speakers of a language
with meanings common to all,
thereby allowing us to understand each other. Encyclopedias also
define terms of common usage,
but they go a step farther by providing essays on subjects which
words invoke. The philosophies
from which Satan arose sprang from the distant past, and from
a clash of cultures. We will need to
descend (as from the Gate to Hell) deeper in to the chasm of
history. --------------------
"Those who consider the Devil to be a partisan of Evil and angels
to be warriors for Good accept
the demagogy of the angels. Things are clearly more complicated."
Milan Kundera (b. 1929), Czech author, critic. The Book of Laughter
and Forgetting, pt. 2, ch. 4
(1978; tr. 1980). ---------------------
Philosophies in general and this subject in particular require
diligence to comprehend. Dedication
to truth, not an acceptance of the teachings of others but rather
a scientific study of reality, is
required. Logic should be your tool of choice in any study. Many
Scholarly works have covered
this subject and I do not claim to do more than scratch the surface
of Satan's origin. My intent is to
stimulate the need for knowledge. I hope that my casual essay
will arouse the desire in others to
study this subject in more depth. In the future, I will expand
my essay in greater detail. Now, let's
get our hands dirty...
In the beginning, the Hebrew god
was without form and void. His people, the Hebrew tribes, were
primarily hunter-gatherers; if you had it, they hunted you down
and killed you for it. They took
from others and then made it their own. When the "walls of Jericho"
came tumbling down, as you
can see in the Torah, the Hebrews killed every man, woman and
child. Then, by direction of their
"god," they severed the heads of the fallen and pounded them
to the tops of stakes for display.
This was to serve as a warning.
It also provided the Hebrews with an income.
The idea that only "our tribe" is human and everyone else is "not human"
is not unique. Actually, it
is common among tribes even today in "primitive," for lack of
a better word, societies. Yet their
violent adherence to their god was noted by other tribes. Noted,
and dealt with. Civilization after
civilization used them as slaves after winning the war against
them and thus saving their own heads
from the stake.
Hebrew philosophy
has, throughout recorded history, been eclectic. They often absorbed the
ideas of their "oppressors" into their religion. "We are being
punished by god" the holy men would
say, "why are we being punished?" The answers to these questions
usually took the form of "god is
teaching us..." During the years 586-538 BCE the Hebrews entered
a period historians call the
BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY, where the Persians used them as slaves.
The Persians believed in
two basic gods, the god of night and the god of day, a god of
light and a god of darkness. Since
you could pull off unscrupulous behavior at night, the god of
darkness seemed less-than perfect to
the Hebrew captives. They reasoned that the god of light must be JHVH,
their god, and that the
god of darkness must be his adversary. "Satan" in Hebrew means
"adversary," and thus, Satan
was born.
Shortly after Satan's
"birth" the idea of Hell gained acceptance. Prior to this, the official
doctrine
was that all people (Hebrews) who died went to Sheol. Sheol was
a place of shadows where the
world still existed but remained forever out of your grasp, a
phantom world that you walked for
eternity. You went to Sheol despite your blasphemy or holiness.
Our idea of ghosts emerged from
this belief.
The Persians also
are responsible for the doctrines of a final judgment, the resurrection
of the
dead, a scheme of world history, new beliefs about the end of
time, and a more involved and
extensive set of beliefs concerning angels. Frankly, the Hebrews
did not come up with much on
their own. Their belief system reminds me of a well-organized
pawn shop. -----------------
"We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet,
but we can at least respect his
talents. A person who has for untold centuries maintained the
imposing position of spiritual head of
four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole
of it, must be granted the possession
of executive abilities of the loftiest order."
Mark Twain (1835-1910), Concerning the Jews, in Harper (New York, Sept.
1899; repr. in
Complete Essays, 1963). ------------------
A survey of the Bible will yield
no explanation of Satan's origin. Further, no explanation of gods'
reason for allowing Satan to exist is given. The christians,
who built their religion on a
reinterpretation of Judiastic thought, further elaborated on
the origin and nature of Satan. Most
christian theology personifies Satan as god's real opponent,
who is an entity, a real being. This idea
is nowhere to be found in the christian bible or Hebrew torah.
In the bible, he is only a "principle"
in a "created order," not a real being. The title "fallen angel"
was also appended by christianity.
The belief in a master of the powers of darkness belonged to
many ancient cultures, most notably
the Chaldeans, the Persians, and the Babylonians. Zoroastrianism's
Ahriman and the Egyptian God
Set, all possessed similar characteristics to Satan.
Satan has been called many things,
in the New Testament he is named "the tempter," "the
slanderer," "the enemy," "the liar," terms which the Hebrews
undoubtedly used for Jesus. A survey
of the teachings of Jesus next to the doctrines of the Torah,
would provide an excellent case for
proving the Hebrews correct, at least with regards to Judiasm.
With the preceding in mind, we will return to the original meaning
of "Satan," adversary. To me, as
a Satanist, Satan represents the opposer to all judeo-christian
ideals and ideology. Satan is the
personification of Evil, where Evil means fleshly, unspiritual,
and ungodly. Satan represents the
fulfillment of the fleshly life, the enjoyment of the here and
now, and the liberation of the psyche
from the chains of judeo-christian guilt.
Who is Satan?
Oh hear the names He has been given:
Archfiend, Prince of Darkness, Prince of this world, serpent,
Old Serpent, Tempter, Adversary,
Antichrist, Common Enemy, Enemy of mankind Diabolus, Father of
Lies, fallen angel, rebel angel,
evil genie, Shaitan, Eblis, spirit of evil, principle of evil,
Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, the Foul Fiend,
the Devil, the Evil One, Wicked One, Old Nick, Apollyon, Abaddon,
Satan, Lucifer, King of Hell,
angel of the bottomless pit...
Who is Satan? He is the mighty adversary of the inhuman death-cult
religions. He is the light
springing from the darkness of history. He is the true friend
of mankind.
But most of all....
"The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman."
(William Shakespeare in King Lear, act
3, sc. 4. Spoken by Edmund the Bastard.)
Hail Satan!
Don David Scott