Satan as the Spirit of Wild Nature

Satan and the Natural World

Many Satanists feel that Satanism is a focus on the material world, and because of this, Satan personifies the natural world and nature.

With Satanism, we are asked to look at ourselves as animals, and as creatures living in the natural world that we exist in. We are encouraged to seek out and understand our own human nature, instead of denying it or feeling guilty for who or what we are.

Nature itself is neither good nor evil. It is amoral, meaning that there is no morality attached to it’s existence. Things live and die without consequence. The creation of the earth came from violent events like volcanoes, earthquakes, and asteroids.

Nature is wild, but it is neither cruel nor kind; it is what it is. What gives our lives meaning, however is being able to understand the world around us and to find purpose. It is only through seeking to return to nature as a source of understanding we can understand ourselves and our place in this universe. It is through Satan that we find this understanding.

Satan represents these forces of nature that are wild and unpredictable. These forces come with consequences that are neither good nor evil. Despite this, throughout the centuries the forces of nature that had caused destruction and disease were all to often blamed on Satan or some other dark god of the past.

Even looking back into what the Christian Bible generally said about Satan makes this clear: Satan is called the ‘Prince of the power of the air’, in Ephesians 2:2; Satan is labeled as “ruler of the world” in John 12:31; In Luke 4:6-7 Satan states: “I will give you all their authority and splendor as it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours”.

It is clear that the makers of the Christian Bible did not want humans to trust in their own natural instincts or to depend on the natural world for their own happiness. Over time, the religion and spirituality of the old ways were replaced with Christian beliefs, forcing society to move farther away from the natural world and from our own humanity.

Even today, Christian leaders like Pat Robertson blamed natural disasters on the Devil. When the earthquake of 2011 destroyed the island nation of Haiti, he blamed the event on the idea that the people of Haiti had made a “pact with the Devil”¹.

The Demonization of Pan

The Greek god Pan was for centuries, depicted as a shepherd figure, in the form of a half man half goat. This god represented many positive things for the ancient Greeks, including music, the enjoyment of life, and of course, sexuality. Pan had more stories and tributes written about him more than any other god of that era. However, when Christianity took over society later on, by 300 AD, theologians and society in general had begun to demonize Pan as a Satanic figure².

It was Pan’s association with sexuality that lead society to shun people awy from this figure of nature and to demonize it as something that was Satanic in their eyes. In pre-Christian times, sexuality was something that was accepted by society without the idea of sin and guilt attached. Moving towards Christian ideals, society was forced to see sexuality and nature gods like Pan as something that belonged to a ‘pagan’ and sinful society.

Satan as the Chaos, or Void

Metaphysically speaking, all things that come into existence begin from the void or the abyss. It is this darkness that enables light to exist. This concept is shown through the teachings about the Baphomet, the Satanic figure that became popularized through Eliphas Levi’s works. Within Levi’s teachings, he explained how the Baphomet is a symbol of initiation, a beginning from which all things emanate.

What does this “initiation” mean? According to Levi, the Baphomet was symbolic of the void and the creation that comes from it. Simply meaning, that it is the initiation or beginning from where all things come from. Through Baphomet we are taken to the source and the beginning of creation. In simple terms, the Baphomet is symbolic of Satan, representing the manifestation of nature in the material world. For more insight on Satan as a force, visit my article: The Force of Satan

Throughout time the spirit of Satan had been compared to wild nature. Gods that were associated with nature were demonized by Christians. It is through this force that we can return to ourselves and who we are supposed to be as humans.

References:

1. The Continued Tragedy in Haiti, Revelations of a Modern Witch Hunt, The Spiritual Satanist Blog, 2011 (accessed 10/9/2017)
2. http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/pan.html The Demonization of Pan, Kevin Hearne, 1998 (accessed 10/9/2017)

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