Satanism and the Importance of the Adversary
Alice Scarlet Death
Due to our Christian upbringing as a nation, the idea of Satan has always been a negative one. Puritanical propaganda still leaves its mark even today. I would like to Satan is a necessary force. Not a necessary evil, mind you, but a force for good.
First, we must explore our typical narratives of Satan in popular culture. Satan is generally viewed as a demon, and a symbol of evil. Satan gives you immense power at the risk of selling your soul. He represents the evil in our lives, and the darkness in our hearts. When making a decision, there’s the devil on your shoulder. He is evil, he is terrible, and he wants to ruin your life by giving you Earthly pleasures that will ultimately take away from your ability to reach some sort of enlightenment.
However, this is wrong.
The idea of Satan represents the adversary, the rebel, and the one who fights against tyranny. While his narrative is spun so that he is ‘evil,’ there is little evidence to support that he is in fact evil.
Think back to the Christian bible and the story of Job. God sent Satan to be disruptive towards Job’s way of life. Satan took away a lot from Job. It was a test. The important thing to remember here is that God sent Satan. From this, we discover that Satan is just part of the natural order of things. However, people interpret this as a story about ‘evil’ things happening to a ‘good’ person.
First, we must look past this illusion of good and evil. Taking that out of the equation you just one force testing another force. We apply labels like ‘evil’ onto Satan because it makes us feel safer to have a tangible force we can blame for bad things happening.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of wisdom. God said that eating from tree will give you knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge separates you from God, who is beyond these concepts.
In many traditions we have a union of forces to achieve divinity. In Thelema, you have Hadit and Nuit. In Taoism you have Yin and Yang. The idea in many ancient traditions is to bring together opposites. Good and evil. Lingam and Yoni. Et cetera.
While yes, eating from the tree did bring you down from the divine. Through Satan’s temptation, we were given choice. We were given free will. We were given the ability to choose good or evil.
Satan gave us the freedom of choice. Satan gave us individualism.
Satan translates to “adversary.” He is there to remind us there is always an option. There is always a choice. There is always a plurality to our existence. A gray area. He took us away from oneness and made us individuals. He made us self-aware.
Granted, these are all just stories. Some Satanic groups run with the idea of Satan as self-indulgence. I’m more of a Satanist that runs with Satan as the entity that provides an alternative. A rebel. A hero for individual’s rights to express themselves. A fighter against the tyranny of oppression and and advocate for all human beings.
Satan is neither good nor evil. He is the force that allows us to make our own mistakes and learn from them. Without Satan we would not question things, we would not rebel, and we would not fight for people’s right to choose.
And today, I choose Satan.
