Who
is Satan?
by Don David Scott, the Raven
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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.
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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.
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"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).
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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.
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"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).
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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 Judaic 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-cChristian 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