Satan

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The Christian Anti-God is a Frankenstein Monster

Lucifer and Jesus may be said to share promethean interests (and thus both be claimed to deliver light or understanding). Spirituality and theology become one-dimensional within the context of a given cult's presentation, or from the pen or editing crib of a single orchestrator of scripture. Taken as "gospel" (a verity; a reflection of, or display, of the truth in its literal and historical valence), any single batch of writing will tend to become unidimensional as it is formatted into the style of a single narrative. This is no place more obvious than in the 'character' of Satan as composited by Christians and Muslims.

Have a gander at this video and you will see a very odd collage intending to be a 'documentary of the biography of Satan'. One of the problems of any such 'biography' (the book of the same title by Kersey Graves is very interesting, if flawed in many respects) is that, as one attempts to identify some kind of coherent narrative to resemble a single being, organism, animal, or humanoid, one has to navigate myriad contradictory details that make it clear that these are perceptual demonifications, mere fragments or shards. If these were all about a single person or event, such as in 'Rashomon', perhaps we might be able to reconcile the various pieces, explain away some of the minor contradictions as mistakes of an observer. Yet they are not! They are fragments of different enemy-views from different characters in different stories and from sometimes different cultures collaged together without regard for the sources of the original into which they are pasted or from which they were taken (cf. "Faces of the Enemy" by Sam Keen).

A good example here is the Jewish Eden stories (2 tales, smushed together, of the origination of human beings). These were based on Canaanite stories of a paradisical human-making. The 'serpent' was not connected with an anti-God as it came into Judaism, or as it yet resides in Judaism. it is not even called 'a satan' as the noun indicates about any adversarial being, even a helpful one (such as Balaam's angel). And yet, the Jewish scriptures were not only by Christian councils edited toward their interest, but then re-edited popularly in mind (at times also in text by extravagant religious proponents) so as to give the impression of an overall coherent narrative featuring the Ultimate Badguy ("the Dragon, Satan") and the Ultimate Goodguy (Yahweh, often aka 'God' to Christians, later providing the add-on Jesus a somehow mysteriously identical). Justification for this manipulative interpretation is derived from later writing, such as the text called the Revelation of John (itself actually referring to particular peoples, times, powers, etc., but cut loose from its context to apply to psychedelic fantasy futures that may be used sociopolitically in myriad self-serving ways).


Plotline Insertions to and Appropriations from Jewish Scripture

other devices or events leading to this kind of perversion of the Jewish scriptures include bad translations, where the term 'Satan' is inserted where it never was before. in the text of Isaiah, for example, in what is called the 'Vulgate' translation of the Bible, there is a reference made therein to a King of Babylon whose nickname is said to have been 'Morning Star', or, in Latin, 'Lucifer'. Christians accepted this as a reference to their 'fallen' anti-God, changed the name to 'Satan', and started thereafter referring to Satan also as Lucifer. this was an irrational conclusion (because presumably their anti-God brings darkness), but it served to help implant their anti-God into the Jewish scriptures as if it had been there all along.

Other Jewish tales, such as the 'Pseudepigrapha' of Enoch and Noah, feature other names for their antagonists against the Jewish god; rebels being 'cast out of the heavens'. While not accepted as scripture itself (and thus disclosing the fact that the leader of the rebel angels was named 'Semyaza' or 'Semihaza'), Christians incorporated this to the plotline of origins of their anti-God to help firm up the popular backstory, and connecting this to the Isaiah verse, presented 'Lucifer fallen like lightning' as a glimpse of the Satanic "Fall". This set up what has since in Christian theology and mythology been referred to as 'the Fallen angels', and constitutes another unfounded weaving composite which may be unravelled, leaving fundamentalist interpretation of their scripture in shreds around their feet.


Peering Beyond the Patchwork Veil

In almost no other instance may we find such blatant and egregiously fabricated composite-constructions as with the Christian anti-God (by Hir many names). This is because the Jews do not *have* such an anti-God in their Tanakh (scripture), which Christians launch off of what they fabricate and project there so as to justify their own scripture. In fact, the disparate tales patchworked together with different names of different characters, gods, etc., presumed to be presenting such an anti-God can easily be *pulled apart* like a fabric collage connected by thin strands of yarn.

Numerous instances of this pulling apart have taken place in books, by Christians and non-Christians alike. In some instances such as The Origin of Satan the author (Elaine Pagels) seems to have no apparent biases limiting her view, whereas in others such as the mammoth 4-part analysis of personifications of evil through time, the author (Jeffrey Burton Russell) is evidently a Christian but seems to do the subject justice. other works (such as those by Kersey Graves, Paul Carus, Henry Ansgard Kelly, Edward M. Bounds, Maximiillian Rudwin, Gerald Messadie, etc., etc.) do a variable quality of job in getting to the meat of the matter. Those who do serve to effectively unravel the Christian religious cosmology by its roots, undermining the believability of any religious cosmology featuring a consistent anti-God.

Therefore, when considering Satan as a character or being, realize this frankenstein-like quality from which you will start as its basis in Christendom and in Islam (where djinns and Iblis and sometimes the Yezidi god Melek Tawes are also added to spice the mix). Do not be surprised to meet up with an abundance of self-contradiction, historically unfounded contention, perturbations of translation, text, name and storyline intended to fit and retro-fit the current Bogey anti-God into a scare-story aimed at converting you to the One Right and True Way Worshipping the Anti-Satanic God.

The Gospel of Satan Clarifies this Frankenstein For Reference

This was in part, after having examined these texts, their contents, and coming to appreciate how they disclosed this Satan Frankenstein to the interested researcher, why, when i wrote the Gospel of Satan, i decided to change the name of Satan with every single reference to the character in the work. Not only does this provide the discerning reader a key by which she may unravel the fabrications of religious expositors through time and find the various dot-to-dots making up the Monster Mask, it also displays the quality or characteristic promoted by Christians and by me regarding Satan: Hir power to manifest in a variety of appearances (so many that i do not regard Hir as an integral entity, intelligence, or being, but as a vast array of natural phenomena lying outside the bounds of human control and direction: wild nature).

Christians Used Subversion Ideology Featuring
the Frankenstein Satan to Smash Jews and Others

In a consideration of several strains or traditions of religion, the Jewish religious from whom Christians appropriated their 'Old Testament' didn't have an anti-God, but did emphasize a priority for their deity over others for those of their cult (early Jews described a council, a sod, where the chieftain deity called the shots, and they recognized other gods as well, even as part of a pantheon, or 'elohim').

Citations from Christians are possible, such as "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." or about Jehovah being a 'jealous god', but in referencing these you're not talking about a religious who HAD an anti-God. The notion of the anti-God developed from strongly-dualistic Christian Jews and straight up Christians much later, re-using this text to suit their purposes.

The term 'satan' (a noun), as i indicated in the essay above, also applies to Balaam's angel (i.e. the Jehovah god or his extension becoming an adversary to Balaam, a character in this scripture). the title 'the Satan' in Job applies to the Jehovah god's employee angel, a wanderer (malak) occasionally coming in and taking over this district attorney-type role. Within these contexts, the term (satan/Satan) does not refer to 'the enemy of' the god of Jews. It is a NEUTRAL referent at worst.

It is important to me, as the author of the Gospel of Satan, that we recognize that Jewish notions of Satan are at worst neutral and at best positive. Within Christian culture we find Jewish scripture being forced (via the perturbations and corruptions and translations as i noted above) to refer to this Frankenstein Satan as 'evil evil evil', but when it comes to their 'Old Testament' (roughly, the Tanakh), it is a COMPLETE FABRICATION, a projection and fantasy, to try to locate an anti-God there. Instead of comparing Christians to Jews, the latter having no anti-God, we should be comparing Christian dualists to other, radical, dualists, such as the Mazdaists of Zoroastrianism. in these cults we will find Angra Mainyu aka Ahriman, the Evil Spirit. they, also, were dualistic growths out of more monolatrist cults.

Mixing up Jewish monolatrists with Christian dualists is just what the extremist Christians want you, and the rest of the world, to do. "their own writings", when referring to Jewish writings, makes no sense when speaking about Christian appropriation of Jewish scripture in which, not only does no anti-God appear, but there are angels employed by the god called 'The Satan' (as in Job).

More importantly, for the purposes of this supplement, (esp. folk) etymology is not a reliable means of examining peoples, their mythology/folklore, or history. If you want additional fuel to dissuade you from confusing monolatrist (or even monotheist) Jews and dualist Christians in this manner, please consider at least the subtitle to (if not the content of) text like Elaine Pagels', and note the included groups of victims here, "The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics", or other texts explaining how Satan, the Devil, etc., is directly related to the persecution of Jews by Christians (the best of which i have found are Joshua Trachtenburg: "The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism and Alan Dundes' Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook In Anti-Semitic Folklore"; i also happen to love Prof. Dundes' analysis of Jesus stories as folklore in: "Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore").

Reactionary 'Reclaiming' in Pursuit of Truth

in constructing this supplement, i have utilized a condemnation phrase employed by Christians to demonize Jews ('synagogues of Satan'). I am attempting here to "reclaim" (actually re-use to positive effect) the phrase, and provide an argument for seeing Jews as *natural allies of Neopagans and Satanists*.

it is no accident that modern Witchcraft religious have call their solar seasonable celebrations 'sabbats', for example, (directly related to 'sabbath' by way of the European Witch Craze). and while geometric figures like the pentagram (part of "Solomon's Seal") or the dual-triangle hexagram ("Star of David") may be considered by Christian dualists to be 'demonic', they are routinely employed by Hermetic ceremonialists, religious witches (e.g. Wiccans), and Satanists as part of their religio-magical activities. in some measure, this was adopted from grimoires, or an emphasis by Freemasons, whose Third Degree initiation rite features a figure, Hiram Abiff, likely named after 'Old Testament' character(s) of the same name (Hiram).

while that hexagram is well-known today as a Jewish symbol, the pentagram is an important higher-level instruction of Freemasons, and has flourished within the New Religious Movement, associated with Neoplatonic elements and their relation to manifesting matter in one orientation or another. it was then championed by religious Witches and Satanists in self-identifying icon of authority and purpose.

modern religious are more and more quickly turning condemnatory bogey-speech into self-identifying promotions, and this frightens the dualists from whom they are stealing it. it also takes the wind out of the sails of those who continue to promote these subversion ideologies, plastering the targets on top of their competitors to draw negative attention from authorities, as took place in emphasis during the Satanic Panic during the last part of last century in the US and UK, or in the McCarthyism Scare of the 1950s, or any number of other such 'witch hunts'. there are religious Satanists using the self-identifier 'Sinagogue of Satan' right now (High Priest Michael Margolin and his group), and Christians continue to slam their competitors using the original phrase, as they have for centuries. let's not let the dualists determine the standards of factuality and demonification.


Fostering Rational Standards and Forging Alliance Against Dualism

just as there are extremists of *every* religious group, so they may be found amongst Jews, Christians, Muslims, Wiccans, and Satanists. stepping away from any of the extremists requires a clear perspective on the actual socio-religious landscape (for example when looking at scripture and its origins), and not simply taking portions, or the opposite, of whatever they may tell us as truths; or misunderstanding them as somehow representative of the religious system of which they are part, those whom they may be attempting to displace or usurp, or those whom they may be trying to demonize.

we have far more to gain in ignoring the dualist propaganda as ignorant slams, and forging alliances with other targets of it, than we do in participating in the futile slamfest ourselves as their dupes, and falling away from potentially rational and helpful allies.