RE: "Hail Satan?" (2019)
May 14, 2019 at 6:55 pm
(This post was last modified: May 14, 2019 at 7:01 pm by Belacqua.)
(May 14, 2019 at 6:26 pm)prhill Wrote:(May 14, 2019 at 5:57 pm)Belaqua Wrote: What do any of their goals have to do with Satan? Why do they use that label?
From their website: WHAT DOES SATAN MEAN TO TST?
Satan is a symbol of the Eternal Rebel in opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty even in the face of insurmountable odds. Satan is an icon for the unbowed will of the unsilenced inquirer – the heretic who questions sacred laws and rejects all tyrannical impositions. Our metaphoric representation is the literary Satan best exemplified by Milton and the Romantic Satanists from Blake to Shelley to Anatole France.
It's good to see that they have some roots in history. Certainly using Satan as an example of rebellion has precedents.
I'm sorry to see that their knowledge of literature apparently doesn't go beyond this simple fact.
For Milton, Satan is evil. Though later Romantics found Satan the most interesting character in Paradise Lost, Milton himself didn't think so. Milton knew enough of theology to understand that God is not arbitrary authority, but goodness itself. To oppose goodness itself is not good, and people who work for women's rights, separation of church and state, and other good things, are not following Milton's lead.
; Walter Clyde Curry
; Irene Samuel
Their characterization of Satan as Blake's symbol of rebellion is not accurate. Blake's symbol of rebellion is Orc. And Blake was aware enough of history to know that when he succeeds, Orc changes his state and becomes Urizen, the fundamental cause of the Fall of man, who decrees the arbitrary laws. Blake, a Christian, is entirely against the imposition of arbitrary laws. For him, however, Jesus has nothing to do with such laws. Urizen (whose name comes from "your reason" and "horizon") decrees such laws out of fear and an inability to endure the roiling change of the world.
Satan, for Blake, is unmitigatedly evil. Blake's Satan is the limit of opacity, the lowest level to which human perceptual conditions can fall. Blake's goal is to redeem mankind from Satan's condition, by opening the doors of perception -- a change that comes about by sensual enjoyment. For anyone to hold up Blake's Satan as a model is to show that they don't understand the first thing about Blake.
; S. Foster Damon
; David Erdman
It's true that Shelley found a symbol of rebellion in Satan. As I recall off the top of my head, his own work used Prometheus for this role, however. Prometheus would be a far better figurehead for rebellion aimed at doing good in society. This might demand further thought, though, because the gifts of Prometheus are two-edged swords -- bringing knowledge but also the possibility of destruction.
So if American Satanists want to use the character in their own way that's their right. It's not really accurate to claim that Milton and Blake are on their side, however. Nor does the symbol work very well if people are aware of the roots and the nuances.
I remain skeptical that use of the Satanist label is overall a serious attempt at doing good, and not largely a desire to poke Christian neighbors in the eye for fun.
edit: Strange that the html thingy cut off the book titles above. In order, they should be: Milton's Ontology, Cosmology, and Physics; Plato and Milton; A Blake Dictionary; and William Blake, Prophet Against Empire.