Who is Satan?

One of the least asked, but most necessary, questions one must keep in mind when discussing any form of Satanism at all is a very basic question of identity. Who exactly do we mean when we say 'Satan'?

Are we speaking of a rebellious angel? The near cosmic god of evil that fundamentalist Christians fear so much? Another name for older gods of darkness and chaos? A symbol, perhaps, of rebellion against archaic and choking social norms and the churches that enforce them? The realized godhead of the magickian? Something else, stranger even?

Um... yes.

As cliché as it is, all of the above and none. Ask ten Satanists, get fifteen... ah, you get the point!

Satan is different for each Satanist, so all I can tell you is what he is not, and what he may be.

He is not:

The Christian devil.

Well, not really. Who would side with a hateful, doomed weakling whose only goal was to see as many people tortured in hell as possible? As well side with a cruel tyrant who condemns all who do not worship him to torture... oh, bad example.

Regardless, few outside of the ranks of rebellious teen Satanists agree with the Christian idea of Satan, something Christians might keep in mind during their discussions with us.

He is also not a cosmic god or force of Evil. Most, if not all serious Satanists reject the Abrahamic good versus evil dualism for a more nuanced view of reality. The world is viewed as a beautiful, if somewhat harsh existence devoid of meaning that we not make ourselves, and Satan is often seen as a patron in that quest to create meaning.

Besides, who would knowingly worship that which is the abnegation and opposite of all that they value?

For how else might one define evil?

As to what he is, that is more vague.

To some, he is an ideal, a symbol of freedom, an icon of rebellion, but not an existent being of any sort.

To others, the name of a personified Dark Force, a force which uplifts the individual and makes men like unto gods, defamed and degraded by weak men in pretty robes cowering in their churches.

To others, he is all the darker god of that which society it unwilling to face, outcast and called demon for millennia.

There is no one answer, there are many. But this lack of one particular identity of Satan is vital to keep in mind when discussing Satanism.

To me, he is an archetype and the god personifying an archetype. He is the eternal doubter, the questioner and challenger of corrupt and repressive dogma, patron of the outcast and terrifying, lord of that which the sheep do not wish to see, protector of those with no champion, god of passion and the earth. He is no tyrant to be groveled before, he is a guide, a teacher, and a patron on the path to apotheosis.

Welcome!

Hello, all.

Obvious though it may seem, this blog is going to be my place for storing thoughts relating to my spiritual path- Theistic Satanism- and other related Left Hand Path topics.

Please, no prosyletizing or 'soul-saving.' Such irritants will, in the paraphrased words of Edmund Blackadder, be cursed with "Something mildly unpleasant, like an onion falling on your head."