SATAN : GOD OR ANTI-GOD?

        "Satan is not the enemy of man, but he who made gods of our race,
        knowing good and evil..."  - Aleister Crowley (1)

        Often it is that we come across the terms 'devil-worshipper' and
'Satanist' used synonymously in the sensationalist press, funy smears,
T.V. dramas, hollywood horrors, and even among Satanists themeselves.

        What is the nature of this worship, and is it an appropriate
manifestation of the Satanic philosophy?

        'Devil-Worshippers' there undoubtedly are. As far as they exist in
the Western world they can be seen primarily among adolescents and
pyschotics/neurotics. Typically they are big on Denis Wheatley-type
theatrics, but philosophical lacking. Some are rebelling against parents,
trying to shock, or escape from reality by pandering to fantasy. In doing
so the devil-worshipper has substituted Satan for Jehovah/Jesus. He has
become and inverse Christian, but is a long way off from the truly Satanic.

Satan is the 'god' of such types, but Satan is NOT God, he is anti-God.

"The Fall"

        According to the Judaeo-Christian mythos, man was separated from
his 'Creator' when he partook the Tree of Knowledge ; i.e. gained wisdom
and self-consciousness. The legend states that this was offered
promethean-style by the Serpent, Satan. This put mankind on the road to
potential godhood, thus mankind fell from its state of grace in the eyes of
the Creator. (2)

        The Genesis legend is a Hebraic elaboration of the Babylonian
Creation epic which also recounts that Man drew the wrath of the Gods by
similarly acquiring a godlike capacity for wisdom, offered by a being in
the form of a serpent. (3)

        In both the Genesis and Babylonian legends, the central theme is
the separation of Man from the God(s), after acquiring godlike attributes
from a being considered "evil" by the godly on that account.

        The Satanic gift is thus one of separating Man from subordination
to the divine, and from the dull, static contentedness of an 'Eden' in
which nothing changes from millenium to millenium, acept by a godly whim.
It was this act of liberation which Aleister Crowley, British Magus and
self-proclaimed Beast 666, celebrated in his _Hymn to Lucifer_ as below:

                Ware, not of good nor ill, what aim hath act?
                Without its climax, death, what savour hath
                Life? an impeccable machine, exact
                He paces an inane and pointless path
                To glut brute appetites, his soul content
                How tedious were he fit to comprehend
                Himself! More, this our noble element
                Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned
                Life hath no spring, no axle, and no end.
                His body a blood-ruby radiant
                With noble passion, sun souled Lucifer
                Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant
                On Eden's imbecile perimeter.
                He blessed nonentity with every curse
                And spiced with sorrow the dull soul of sense,
                Breathed life into the sterile universe,
                With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence
                The Key of Joy is disobedience.

        It is precisely god-worship from which Man was freed by The
Serpent, just as Satan liberated himself and a large percentage of the
Angelic host from the divine-tyrant, as brilliantly portrayed by John
Milton in _Paradise Lost_ (4) and by Dr. Michael Aquino, High Priest of
Set, in _The Diabolicon_ (5)

"Devil Worship Negating the Gift of Satan"

        God-worship of any kind, including devil-worship, is a negation of
the very Gift of Satan, for his promise to mankind was that we shall be 'as
gods' if we so choose, by freeing ourselves from godly and priestly
tyranny.

        The only God the Satanist worships is his own Self, leading towards
a Godhead of our own conception. Today existentialist philosophers and
humanistic psychologists call this self-actualization ; self-proclaimed
Anti-Christ philosopher Nietzshe called it self-overcoming, and Crowley
propagated a similar idea of discovering one's True Will, declaring "there
is no God but Man."

        In all instances the emphasis is on the Self, freed from the
bondage of conformity to any 'divine will.'

        Worship other than this is to render worthless the Gift of Satan.
This principle was well stated by the late 19th century novelist, editor,
and satirist, Anatole France in his _Revolt of the Angels_. Satan launches
an attack on Heaven and is victorious. He casts Ialdabaoth (Jehovah) into
Hell and assumes his throne...

        "And Satan found pleasure in praise and the excercise of his grace
        ; he loved to heat his wisdom and his power belauded."
        "Satan, whose flesh had crept, in days gone by, at the idea that
        suffering prevailed in the world, now felt himself inaccessable to
        pity. He regarded suffering and death as the happy results of
        omnipotence...the savour of the blood of victims rose upwards
        towards him like sweet incense. He fell to condemning intelligence
        and hating curiosity. He himself refused to learn anything more,
        for fear that in aquiring fresh knowledge he might let it be seen
        that he had not known everything from the very outset."
        "Dense fumes of Theology filled his brain..."
        "Thus centuries passed like seconds. Now, one day, from the
        altitude of his throne, he plunged his gaze into the depths of the
        pit and saw Ialdabaoth in the Gehenna where he himself had long lain
        enchained. Amid the everlasting gloom Ialdabaoth still remained his
        lofty mien. Blackened and shattered, terrible and sublime, he
        glanced upwards at the palace of the King of Heaven with a look of
        proud disdain, then turned away his head. And the new god, as he
        looked upon his foe, beheld the light of intelligence and love
        pass across his sorrow-stricken countance. And lo! Ialdabaoth was
        now contemplating the Earth, and seeingit sunk in wickedness and
        suffering, he...rose up... and hastened hirther to instruct and
        console mankind..."

        "But all this was only a nightmare Satan was having. He had not yet
        begun his war against God, and he awoke, bathed in sweat..."
        "'Comrades' said Satan to those standing around him, 'No--We will
        not conquer the heavens. Enough to have the power. War engenders
        war, and victory defeat.'"

        "God conquered will become Satan ; Satan conquering, will become
        God." May the fates spare me this terrible lot ; I love the Hell
        which formed my genius. I love the Earth which I have done some
        good...Now, thanks to us, the god of old is dispossessed of his
        territorial empire, and every thingking being on this globe
        disdains him or knows him not. But what matter that men should no
        longer be submissive to Ialdabaoth if the spirit of Ialdabaoth is
        still in them, if they, like him, are jealous, violent,
        quarrelsome, and greedy, and the foes of art and beauty?...As to
        ourselves...We have destroyed Ialdabaoth, our Tyrant, if in
        ourelves we have destroyed Ignorance and Fear. It is in ourselves
        and ourselves alone that we must attack and destroy Ialdabaoth."

        The Satanist does not weakly, meekly, and humbly 'pray', he does
not beg to Satan, nor perform any knee-bending excercises or blood sacrifices
before him. He recognizes the God within and works to actualize it. His
cerimonies and rituals are Satanic affirmations to evoke the powers of his
own Being and to draw upon the energies which are only now being realized
by the mundane sciences.


"The Satanic Principle"

        Who or what then is Satan? A malevolent figure of hideous aspect
demanding that his adherents kiss his arse in homage? The description seems
more fitting for Jehovah. The following description of 'The Devil' by Paul
Carus states well the nature of Satan as perceived today by real Satanists:

        "Evil personified appears at first sight repulsive. But the ore we
        study the personality of the Devil, the more fascinating it
        becomes. In the beginning of existence the Evil One is the
        embodiment of everything of everything unpleasant, then of
        everything bad, evil and immoral. He is hatred, destruction, and
        annihilation incarnate, and as such is the adversary of existence,
        of the Creator, of God. The Devil is the rebel of the cosmos, the
        independent in the empire of the tyrant, the opposition to the
        uniformity, the dissonance in universal harmony, the exception of
        the rule, the particular in universal, the unforseen chance that
        breaks the law ; he is the individualizing tendency, the craving
        for originality, which bodily upsets the ordinances of God that
        enforce a definite kind of conduct, he overturns the monotony that
        would permeate the cosmic spheres if every atom in unconscious
        righteousness and with pios obedience slavishly followed a
        generally prescribed course"

        Satan is thus the embodiment of those forces which lead to progress
by upsetting the static order when necessary, which led Man from brute
existence towards that which is truly 'human', and ultimately 'godlike'.
This is the real significance of the Genesis legend, and the 'Fall' of Man
away from 'God'. By worshipping the god wihin we honor both ourselves and
Satan, as we strive towards ever higher states of Being, to 'Be as Gods'.


References

1. Aleister Crowley, _Magick in Theory and Practice_, Samuel Weiser, Maine,
            1984.
2. _Genesis_ Ch 2-3
3. _Chaldaen Acount of Genesis_, Tr. G. Smith, Wizards Book Shelf, Minn.
            1977
4. John Milton, _Paradise Lost_, Doubleday, NY. 1974
5. Dr. Michael Aquino, _The Diabolicon_, transcribed S. Vietnam 1970, Temple
            of Set, CA.
6. Paul Carus, _the Histroy of the Devil_, NY. 1969.