The Devil You Think You Know

The words "devil" and "Satan" are loaded. For many, they bring to mind a giant monster with horns, stomping around the flames of hell wielding a pitchfork. For some, the words invoke genuinely terrifying images of blood sacrifice and murder. Some view the devil as nothing more than a fictional fairy tale character while others believe he is an energetic force in nature. In addition to all of this, unlike other religious figures, he shows up in pop culture, marketing, and politics. Across the scope of his reputation, there are many misconceptions but also some surprising truths.

The devil was not originally in the Bible. The words "Satan" and "devil" appear in many modern copies of the Christian Bible, in which he represents all that is evil. However, the devil or Satan wasn't originally named in the Old Testament, which dates back to 400 BCE. In it, the being that eventually became Satan was referred to only as "the adversary" or "accuser" in several stories. This adversarial being acted with God's permission to test peoples' devotion and faith. It was only with the advent of the New Testament, which emerged in the first century and became widely popular by the fourth, that the moniker "Satan" came to be. The words devil and Satan were applied retroactively to the Old Testament. For example, in the story of Adam and Eve, the serpent that entered the Garden of Eden to wreak havoc was known merely as a snake. However, hundreds of years later, this snake was dubbed the devil in disguise. In this way, a nameless adversary working under the permission of God gained a title and became an independent character with significantly more power than before.

The devil is a symbol of light and creativity. Some of the most well-known Western occultists have had ties to the devil, but not in the stereotypical way that is expected. Often these ties were forged by the public, who didn't understand their practices, however, Lucifer played a significant role in some of their philosophies. Éliphas Lévi, who created the famous goat-headed drawing of Baphomet, was among the first to posit Lucifer as an entity that was not evil. Lévi believed in a concept called the "astral light," which was an all-encompassing energy containing good, evil, and everything in between. He sometimes called this astral light Lucifer. The energy of Lucifer was given moral characteristics only by how humans chose to channel it. Helena P. Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, associated Lucifer with liberation and healthy adversity. He was a balancing power of light and darkness within humans and a bringer of knowledge. Aleister Crowley also considered Lucifer a harbinger of mental enlightenment, although the media at the time often mistakenly dubbed Crowley an evil Satan worshipper.

The devil is non-gendered. Satan is generally referred to as "he," but when you dig into art and literature, many instances say otherwise. One famous example is the artwork by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, wherein the devil is depicted as a serpent with the upper body of a woman. The word Lucifer means "morning star" in Latin and is in reference to the planet Venus, the brightest visible star in the sky at dawn and dusk. Venus also happens to be the Roman goddess of love, known as Aphrodite in the Greek pantheon. In folklore, the devil shapeshifts between male, female, neither, and both, and in a religious context, angels were sometimes considered genderless. Lucifer was in in fact an angel before his fall from grace. All of this indicates that the devil can be any gender or no gender at all.

Some witches acknowledge the devil. If you're immersed in the world of modern witchcraft, you've probably heard it said that witches venerate gods much older than the devil. While this is often true, that doesn't mean the devil doesn't exist among any witches at all. This stance against the devil became pronounced during the 1980s when a hysteria known as the Satanic Panic swept the Western world. People believed that Satanic cults were taking over, creeping into every aspect of modern life, and were a genuine threat to children everywhere. This notion was supported by the media, books, and even law enforcement. Innocent people were accused of unspeakable acts of abuse and violence while engaging in underground Satanic cult activity. There was not a shred of proof; however, when a moral panic takes hold, there doesn't need to be. People were sent to jail and their lives destroyed. During this time, Wiccans, witches, and neo-pagans of all kinds were often erroneously lumped in with the imagined devil-worshippers, which was genuinely dangerous. For obvious reasons, this necessitated neo-pagans to organize and make it abundantly clear to the public and press that they were not involved or associated with any of these alleged satanic activities or the Christian devil. A strong stance formed that witches only work with old deities, and do not acknowledge the devil at all, an idea that is echoed in many popular witchcraft books of the past. Today, there is a little more openness to the devil, particularly among traditional witches, who refer to him as the witch father or horned god of the witches.

The devil is not always religious. The devil has shown up in many contexts that are not religious, such as pop culture and politics. In fact, much of what we associate with the devil today is secular, based on art and literature. One of the most influential versions of the devil comes from Milton's Paradise Lost, a lengthy poem about Lucifer's expulsion from heaven and his foray into the Garden of Eden. While originally written to illustrate the power of God over Satan, it had unintended effects. During the Romantic era, writers like Lord Byron and Percy Shelley were inspired by the poem to write about the devil, not as a villain who'd been kicked out of heaven, but as an archetypal hero who refused to bend under the will of an arbitrary force. They, and other radicals, drew allegory between their own political stances and social climates and the powerful story of Lucifer as a trailblazer, a rebel, and a voice against oppressive structures. This glorified version of Satan was canonized in their writing and has gone down in history to influence the philosophies of modern Satanism today.

Satanists aren't evil. Modern satanism is often atheistic, or at the very least, non-theistic. Satanists do not believe in an actual devil but identify with what he symbolizes, which is rationality, earthly knowledge, self-enlightenment, and rejection of superstition. The notion that Satanists must make sacrifices to appease the devil is entirely fictional and blatantly out of line with their beliefs. Satanists have an understanding that humans are part of the natural and scientific world and therefore must operate within it in the best way we can, without fear and subservience to an invisible entity. Some Satanists focus on carnality, which is all the pleasures of the flesh that some religions dub sinful, and others on the Miltonian Satan as a symbol of revolt and personal empowerment. Modern Satanism in general is a philosophy of realism, freedom, and autonomy.

The devil has been many things to many people, but only a fraction of his image comes from the stereotypical Satan of absolute evil. The devil stands for one who strives for truth and light, rejecting tyranny, and enjoying earthly existence. He also provides a handy scapegoat for human ills.

The devil has cycled through the lives of humans again and again, and will continue to do so, changing form and adapting to whatever roles people choose to cast him in.