wildwizardcrafts:

The Devil you say?

“The Devil” makes his appearance in the annals of Traditional Witchcraft, and he gets his own mentions in more intimate places, including in the spellwork and even religious rites of some Traditional Witches. Is this diabolism? Is this done for horror or shock effect? The answer there is “no” to both counts.

People who were raised with unqualified dualistic christian spiritual logic all their lives often hear of “the devil” in Traditional Craft and “feel” that it is “dark and scary”. As I said, he gets his “due” as it were, his mentions. Is this “Devil” the “Satan” or the “Shaitan” of the Arab and Semitic peoples? No, most certainly not.

“The Devil” has been a term applied by the church to the Gods of Witches and pagans since the 1st century, literally.

It has nothing at all to do with a “Satanic” spiritual reality. There is no Satan. The notion of moral evil is not one you will find in the pre-Christian worldview. To pre-Christian peoples, what was “good” was anything that benefited or preserved the healthy life of a person or a community. What was “evil” was anything that threatened it; these things ranged from diseases and warring tribes or crimes within the community. These “evils” could be starvation, fires, or just the plain sort of selfishness or greed that led one person to hurt another. These are not “moral evils”; they are natural evils, based on what stands in the way of life, and what upholds it.

The Real Demons

The notion of a conscious entity (like the Devil) who floats around the universe trying to corrupt souls is… well, let’s just say it; it’s absurd. The idea of an immortal evil spirit that is conscious of what it is doing, and quite powerfully capable of doing it, was not an idea that appeared in Pagan myths. Among Northern Heathens, the forces of “evil” that were pictured as beings were called “jotuns” or “giants”.

The giants represented the destructive powers of nature; they were also either dimly conscious (described as “oafish”) or unconscious totally, unconscious, destructive forces who presence was inimical to human life and consciousness. The Gods of Heathen people represent the very conscious powers that maintain order in the cosmos, and through their power, hold Giants at bay. Conscious powers or spirits, therefore, had a duty and a task to hold back the tides of natural, powerful or harmful forces that also existed ‘within’ nature.

Human beings, with their ability to reach a pretty abstract level of consciousness, were thought to be endowed by the “Fire” of the Gods, or the gift of Witch-fire; this goes to the notion of the “Fire Brand of Tubal-Cain” or the “Ember” that was given as the Weird of the Master to the primordial ancestors of humankind, endowing them with the special consciousness that gave them the power to hold back harmful, unconscious forces. But notice that we are discussing natural forces, and the “harmful” or “evil” powers are not “demons”- they aren’t hyper-intelligent and powerful entities out to get your “soul”; we are dealing with a much more realistic and organic notion.

The divine conscious gift in humankind has created many sorceries to deal with the forces that threaten us; from the ancient charms and spell-works of the ancestors which held back harmful powers in the Land, to the surgical and medical miracles that fight the unconscious forces of diseases, which are very much manifestations of harmful powers, threaded through Nature.

No demons! No team captain named “Satan”! The universe is not a bad dualistic soap- opera with two camps: Good and Evil. That is BAD Religious Hollywood. Those ideas were half-wise and devoid of value back when Zoroastrians and then Christians got together to help make them up. When the church calls something “Satan”, it is nothing more than a political statement. All it really means is “Not Us.” “Satan” was every God or Goddess outside of their narrow, absolutist and greedy control. The Spiritual power that was most often called “Devil” in Europe is nothing more than the Goat-Horned God, Whether he was Pan or Old Master Pouck-Buccos, the oldest and most primal image of a God known to man. It’s that easy. If you call yourself a witch, and really maintain some new-agey foolishness like “Satan is real because many people believe in him” (the ridiculous “thought-form” theory) or if you think that Satan is literally just a real guy, you need to consider going back to church.

Deal with the Devil

Use of the term “Devil” to refer to the Old One is going on 1500 years old, and older- like it or not, it IS a title for the Old One, and even though Christianity brought it and applied it to Him, that makes no difference. HOW WE use it is all that matters; outsiders shouldn’t be hearing your prayers and invocations anyway- so there is no fear that Christians will hear you and become alarmed.

Gods all over the world gain titles and names from various cultures that they come in contact with- the Hindu God Shiva (whom the Muslims think is the Devil, and who call him “The Devil”) has hundreds of Titles thanks to the many people that have been around his heartland, and encountered him. Some of those titles are less than complimentary- but “Devil” in the west has many connotations that are powerful and positive, at least to modern Pagans: Animal-Like Power, Positive Lust, Vigor, Cunning, and even a natural sort of Wisdom, leading up to the grandest and most sublime Wisdoms. He’s Wily; He’s Clever, and He represents something about the individual that is very important.

The Goat-Horned Master got a new title from the Christians: Devil. You might as well accept it, and realize that using a title or a name for a being is quite secondary to knowing in your heart to whom it is you call. This is an important, if subtle point. Of course, there is another point to using hot-button titles like “Devil”- I’m rather certain that the Christian church never meant for this to happen, but they have not only given the Old Witch-God a new name, but they made his name powerful, too.

For people raised in the West, “Devil” is loaded with real force- it shocks the mind to hear it, to bring it up; it makes the deep mind sit up and listen. Few people understand how important it is to have the deep mind “react” when a person reaches out with words to touch the Powers; no invocation is successful until you feel, literally feel, deep in your spine, a shake, a shudder, and feel the eldritch force of it. For most in the west, the word “Devil” does just that.

I have no doubt that in pre-Christian times, the names of certain spirits caused the same sort of trembling and awe that the mere word “Devil” does now for some. At all times there have been certain names and things you just didn’t say with impunity. Using the names of Gods in the old days was seen as a dangerous business to begin with, because the Gods were real, powerful entities, and their names were connected to them; they were immense and beyond the linear minds of humans to easily understand; their effect on the world was not just amazing, it could be frightening.

Feeling Brave?

If you want to do a fine “mystical psychology” experiment, and if you are relatively new to the world of Traditional Metaphysics (or perhaps even if you aren’t) go outside one night, one good windy night, and go far from people- go to a place that seems “creepy” even during the day. When you are in a good enough place, pray to the “Devil”. Naturally, I’m not telling you to pray within the christian context; I’m telling you to pray to the Old One, but wax darkly poetic- “I CALL UPON YOU, OLD ONE, CALLED THE DEVIL BY MEN…OLD HOBB, GOAT-EYED MASTER…” You get the drift. You may be surprised what happens.

There were enough witches all over Europe and the British Isles who did so. And once you’ve done the “experiment” I suggest above, you may understand why. The mind is a bottomless well; if you have come up in the Christian West, they have done things to the deep, dark places of your mind; and they have set certain “words” that will explode deep down there, causing strange powers to rise up.

The dreaded “Left Hand Path” is a hidden path of light for just this reason- do you go towards evil and death when you approach the dreaded Luciferian Arts, True Witchcraft of any kind, or so-called “Black” Magic? The Right-Wing of Social Conditioning would say “yes, absolutely.” But behind that dark door, waits a light that is our only hope. The light we seek and need doesn’t hide in a place where it can be easily found; cowards and people who do not take risks will never find it. It hides in the last place most people will look. This is the dreaded notion behind “ritual reversal”. It’s not about death or evil; it’s about life and realization. And the light of Gnosis or true Wisdom hides in the last place most people will look; never in their worst nightmares would 99% of living humans go towards their own death or possible spiritual “damnation” for the sake of Wisdom. But the Old Rite tells us that this is actually required.

We can’t just dump tradition because some Christians (and most neo-pagans and Wiccans) have some issue with it. They started this “Devil” business, and we will continue it, just like the Basque witches did- They had no problem calling the Old One the Devil (among other things).

Both the Lusty “Old Hornie” deep in his caverns and woods, and the Refulgent Lucifer both come from Pagan figures, they were and are Pagan figures; nothing will ever change that, or their place in the Mysteries. Again, it has nothing to do with “Satan”, except in one sense- it is outside of the Church’s power.

By Robin Artisson: Scaresprite.