Really enjoyed this article! What you said about artists ( and David Lynch in particular) really rings true. As with so many myths and stories, the "mind-bending" genre of movies (like Angel Heart, the Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City, etc) seem to point to a deeper, perhaps darker reality: surface-level appearances can be deceiving, there may be sentient hyperdimensional beings manipulating us and our perceptions of reality for their own purposes, there is a larger reality that encompasses ours about which (at least some of) the hyperdimensional beings want to keep us ignorant, etc. And somehow, things seem to be building to some sort of a climax, perhaps followed by an upcoming big "reveal." Anyway, we live in a spiritually charged world, and I truly do appreciate the insights you are sharing here! Looking forward to what comes next in this series!
A brilliant and interesting merging of science, art, philosophy, religion, and mythology. You are a true generalist! Your method of observation is very reminscient of McGilchrist models of how pieces of the puzzle are passed back and forth between the left and right brain hemisphere to create a contextualized big picture (ps McGilchrist is starting to speak out more loudly and raise the alarm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686heq5QFPk ). pps according to the book The Fourth Phase of Water by Prof. Gerald Pollock, our scientists don't even have Brownian Motion correct.
Thanks, Gary. It is interesting; I've heard many in our circles talk about McGilchrist's work for many months now, but still haven't investigated it. I think you've finally convinced me to check it out.
Your story sounds amazing and inspiring, by the way. God bless you.
You can check out my wandering though part of the last chapter of his book The Master and His Emissary here https://escapingmasspsychosis.substack.com/s/psych in 11 parts. I'm making my way through his latest book, The Matter With Things, and will write on some of that as well.
Thanks for sharing this - couldn't comment on your post, but McGilchrist is now speaking out much more strongly about the predictions you highlight in part 11 are coming to pass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686heq5QFPk
Mark, please forgive me for giving you gratuitous advice...but I hope/trust that you are being proactive about your mental health. Any focus directed at radical evil has the potential to destabilise people. My advice...pursue these interests intermittently and take time out to devote yourself to life-enhancing activities and interests that fortify your wellbeing. Fascinating as it is, evil corrupts and degrades those who observe it or focus upon it too long.
Hahaha! Yes, you are forgiven. :) Actually, I'm quite moved that you would write this. The first sign of true friendship is to give a head-check, in my opinion.
As for my my proactive mental health, tell me how this sounds: My wife and our friends dance, sing songs, tell jokes and pet friendly dogs on a regular basis.
We also watch good-bad movies from time to time. Last night, for instance, a good buddy and me watched this incredible gem on Blu-Ray:
At the risk of giving my own gratuitous advice, I highly recommend my method. And if you ever decide to watch "The Miami Connection", I also advise that you have a beer in hand. Or three. Doctor's orders.
Hahaha! I’ve seen this movie, as deconstructed by the guys of Rifftrax, and it’s one of the best worst movies ever! I highly recommend watching either their live version or the recorded one in all their zany glory.
Rifftrax and it’s precursor, MST3K have helped immeasurably to keep laughter and sanity alive during these not-so-funny times. God bless the artists whose craft is humor.
Mark, there is much to digest in this article, which I will have to reread. In the meantime, I'd like to make a few points which may come across as an antiquarian rant or as plain weirdo, but which may be useful.
One way to approach this is to disentangle the various real-life cult sources of Satan/Lucifer. The stock character derives from a synthesis of traditions...Biblical, Egyptian, Mazdean and Greco-Roman. Each of these were formed by particular contexts and the specifics complicate everything, but they illuminate it too.
For example, the first historical example of the Devil Incarnate may have been the grandfather of Khosrau (Cyrus the Great). When the latter went to war against his grandfather (to seize his kingdom, naturally) the priests who served the youngster (recruited from a tribe we call the Magoi) apparently came up with a story that grandad had serpents growing from his shoulders. This sounds like post-Axial Age psy-ops, but the armies of Khosrau/Cyrus were made up in part of men who may well have had first hand experience of shamanistic experiences involving entheogens and hallucinogens, so the story may well have been a reference to the sort of thing people saw in visions. Propaganda only works if the targets regard it as plausible. And the "Devil" was simply understood as the god, god-ruler or divinely descended chieftan of a defeated tribe or nation.
The Israelite take on the serpents/evil connection is not confined to the Eden/Fall narrative, but is connected to the cult practices of a subset of the Canaanites subsumed into the Israelite amphictyony. The only exception Moses made to the ban on graven images was the bronze serpent, which was used as a magical cure for snake-bite. The bronze serpent was the totem for a clan too important to be excluded from the newly developed national cult. The actual figure disappeared very early on. The mystery IMHO relates to the formation of the OT concept of the god-image from a confluence of sources each related to the ancestral origin of one or other of the original 12 Tribes.
What is curious is that the seraphim who surround the divine Throne are winged serpents...very, very curious indeed. It suggests that the seraphim were tutelary demigods or supernatural beings conceived as dragons.
Re dragons...all winged animals or winged humans in ancient art represent beings experienced in dreams/trances/hallucinations....beings from another dimension by definition. They were real in so far as the dreams/trances/hallucinations were most certainly real and formed a vastly important role on religion/psychology in ancient times. NB in the old days psychiatry was essentially confined to exorcisms.
Re Lucifer's rebellion. The angelic rebellion was clearly a variation on the titanomachy theme common to all cultures from the Balkans/Mediterranean to India. In ancient times the Israelites believed that the Fallen Angels were led by an angel called (if I remember correctly) Shemyaza...he was associated with the constellation Orion. The angels, 220 in all, fell to earth on Mt Hermon in the Golan Heights. The rabbis who wrote the Talmud candidly admitted that the children of Israel only learned the names of the angels in exile (Mesopotamia). IMHO the angels were simply the demigods of the Mesopotamian pantheon and the devils simply angels associated with malefic forces, human or divine.
As for present-day organised evil, it makes sense that a cabal or more than one cabal would form. Given the state of travel and communication, people with a common interest in structured, organised, malice and evil for profit would identify each other and co-operate. A cabal of the kind you suggest may well simply be your standard elite mafia bonded by cultic/ritual ties...and there is no reason not to imagine that the people involved in taboo-breaking and the occult would be perfect targets for a shared spiritual experience of one kind or another.
"One way to approach this is to disentangle the various real-life cult sources of Satan/Lucifer. The stock character derives from a synthesis of traditions...Biblical, Egyptian, Mazdean and Greco-Roman."
Oh, I absolutely concur. That's sort of what I meant when I spoke of "dirt drawings" and "filthy, hairy proto-men". In fact, you'll find I have quite a bit to say about the titanomachy, Prometheus, and the intersections of our surviving ancient myths in general. Whew! Like I said; it's going to take a while to get there. Hope you'll stick with me.
What I feared most about my chosen language model (Satan, demons, angels, etc.) is that people who have knowledge of ancient myths and religions would be put off by the specificity. Again: it's a propositional model, in an attempt to make sure we are talking about the same things (or, at least, that my descriptions are intelligible to others). You may call them "simply the demigods of the Mesopotamian pantheon" if you like (though I'd contend there is much complexity in that description.)
"As for present-day organised evil, it makes sense that a cabal or more than one cabal would form..... A cabal of the kind you suggest may well simply be your standard elite mafia bonded by cultic/ritual ties"'
I think that's the reason I included a link to a troll like Anton Lavey. This is certainly happening (and has always happened, from my observation). But that is only one structure of being, easily calculable at the local level. My purpose here is to study other potential structures of being, that aren't so easy to grasp.
Am with you...the side-show/theatrical stuff has always been with us and complicates the feedback loop of neuroscience, culture and ideas, to say nothing of the harm inflicted on the gullible. The various ethereal and abstract dimensions are something else, but are becoming more explicable IMHO because of neuroscience.
perhaps it is the psychological import which is key - lucifer/satan representing our own spiritual ego. vladimir solovyov is a reference here.
in short, lucifer represents the individual's discovery of their own power, their own centrality/autonomy/divine origin. satan representing this realisation being exclusive, ie the individual not recognising this same divine centrality/autonomy in others.
kazantzakis famously says that angels are nothing more than refined devils; osho says that everyone can become a buddha, but first they must become a zorba (kazantzakis again).
i guess what i am saying is that lucifer/satan is an integral part of the cosmic hierarchy....the devil works for God, even when he is rebelling against him....theologically speaking, the Gods periodically renew themselves, altering the structure of their divine architecture....this 'rebellious' action is necessary to the maintenance/renewal, evolution of the cosmos.
whitman's 'the square deific'
lucifer is the archetypal rebel, he is the ultimate iconoclast. he destroys what is no longer effective, spiritually speaking. when the forms become too rigid and dogmatic, enter lucifer to reveal the hypocrisy. jung and others have pointed out how similar the devil and Jesus are in this respect.
Jesus denied the devil 3 times and in this way was freed from him as adversary. the devil's job is to tempt and seduce, to test.....if we pass the test we integrate the devil as instinct/intuition, transforming the adversary into an ally.
the whole world is going through this testing process right now: confronting the reality of evil and understanding why....understanding what purpose it serves in the evolution of consciousness.
being belongs to the intellectual realm, the archetypal ideas....
the devil as the archetypal rebel is one such
plotinus said that evil is not a real (archetypal) being, but it is an hypostasis...it has a real existence for us as ensouled incarnate beings. it is a sort of negation or absence of divine penetration associated with matter, which is itself not real in the true (archetypal) sense....a chimera rather....as physics has revealed.
the absolute must be the Good if the Godhead is unified....a split Godhead, manicheanism, has been the position of some (john cowper powys for instance), but does not ring true to me. If God is one and Good and the source of all then, at the level of the absolute (the one, the good) there can be no evil, nor can there be in the secondary realm of the archetypal ideas, as this realm is an emanation from the Good (this is all plotinian language).
the soul comes next in this hierarchy, one part remaining above in touch with the realm of unsullied intellect and morality, one part incorporated here below. and this incorporation is a sort of bond or admixture of the soul with matter, the essentially unreal, but still real for us: thus is maya.
so it is this essential unrealness that is associated with evil, which is why i believe evil = fake. ie evil is the belief in the unreal, and the participation in it....the gnostic simulacrum, the matrix, the spectacle....the solution to the problem of evil being, therefore, to keep it real.
if that was all a bit too much, this is a more imaginative and simple take on the same question:
Perhaps I will respond to this. But first, I am curious about something. I noticed that your substack bio merely contains a single line: "I am your enemy". Would you care to describe what you mean by that?
probably written during pandemic nonsense, where i did seem to be a bit of a leper (no mask, jab, shits given)....no real import attached.....was just playing round with substack, and have yet to get serious with it - but i do like the way it works, and the quality content.
Not sure if this would be of any interest to you Mark but I'm listening to a book by Jonathan Cahn "The Return of the Gods", and Cahn seems to do a good job of outlining the history of the 'gods' and then relating their influence to today (well is seems like a good job for a simple guy like me ;-) - maybe those with deep insight into ancient religious practices might find it a bit simple. He takes the stand that these are fallen/evil spirits (not just philosophical/religious concepts) and have a direct influence on culture (reminds me of another book The Twilight Labyrinth: Why Does Spiritual Darkness Linger Where It Does? by George Otis Jr.). Both books, for me, are refreshing non-philosophical treatments of the history and nature of evil in the world.
Both books are fundamentally Christian - which will of course offend many, which is unfortunate because the unfolding drama is more compelling than any fiction.
Thanks for your awesome writing - I'm hooked - looking forward to what comes next!
"From some of the feedback I’ve gotten (including from people I respect and admire), I worry that this series is coming off as navel-gazing or wheel-spinning — or, worse, a diversion from the “real fight.”"
You are free, and welcome, to write what you have intuited, and are inspired to write, as far as I am concerned.
That is of itself a great contribution to the "real fight".
Growing up super fundamentalist Pentecostal, it’s very interesting to see a worldview that I have always taken for granted being explored in this novel way
“How-To Guides on what I believe to be unique tactics with which to combat the entity and its minions.”
Do not tarry, Brother. Godspeed. This appears to be the most articulate, non-ecclesiastic treatise on understanding and combating Evil that I’ve come across. (Not that the ecclesiastic path should be disregarded, by no means).
Regarding, “From some of the feedback I’ve gotten (including from people I respect and admire), I worry that this series is coming off as navel-gazing or wheel-spinning — or, worse, a diversion from the “real fight.””: Disregard. I say again, disrefuckinggard. Those fine folk are either, 1) jealous, or worse, 2) fearful that you’re getting dangerously close to the target. I’m serious. Carry on.
I know it's been a hot minute since you posted this but, via John Carter, I'm just starting to parse your material on the devil incarnate and would like to expand upon a few points.
1. I like how you expound on the Lucifer Light-Bringer analogy but imo this is a misnomer. Not that following a wild goose trail never lead anywhere interesting, but Lucifer is not Satan. Nor is the intended listener in Ezekiel Chp 28. Lucifer is the Latin translation of the Greek Phosphoros, which DOES mean "bearer of light" but it's a reference to the King of Babylon's traditional epithet as the Morning Star (aka. Venus). Likewise in Ezekiel, the target of God's revenge fantasy isn't Satan, but a human king, the King of Tyros (Tyre). The allusion/comparison to Satan (and hence the Devil) is a symbolic exegesis overwritten by the later translators and interpreters.
Now, this is all academic-sounding. But I think it matters, as part of what you're doing is deconstructing and recontextualizing Satan from mere allegory to participant in reality (in whatever form). If you'll forgive my materialism: we want to know more of the historical Satan. Of course that's not the full story, as your excellent disquisition has persuasively argued. But I'd love for you to be aware of this line of reasoning, if you're not already.
I think most of our mythology is traceable via shadows to events that were actually experienced by real humans in prehistory (most writing dates to no earlier than ~15th century BC), and given the seminal and disruptive information that the Archaeogenetic Revolution is unleashing as we speak, we now know far more about the past 20,000 of history than we dreamed possible. In more concrete terms we have Indo-European mythology which permeates language and culture from Ireland to India with Sky-Fathers. But that culture was a palimpsest overwriting the traditions of Neolithic farmers who emigrated from Anatolia and settled Europe between 6600 and 4300BC. Additionally, the proto-Greeks were refugees of the last native Indo-European culture, so their arrival in the Thessalian Plain, Attic Peninsula and Peloponnese mixed the two irrevocably. Considering Helladic and later Mycenaean intercourse with Semitic cultures (in addition to the Pelasgian substratum) it seems clear that the Titans were cognates of the Nephilim. Their gigantic nature is perhaps a vestigial memory of early interactions between farmers and hunter-gatherers (prior to the latter's extinction).
Hellenistic culture didn't explicitly adopt the Satanic Revolt concept until the inception of Christianity and the translation of the Septuagint - so another palimpsest occurred again!
If you can again forgive my pedantry, Satan is Hebrew for "obstructor" (as in obstructing the plan of God) and this was translated to Greek as Dia-Bolos, meaning "to throw across" (as in to obstruct a path). But Diabolos can also be translated as slander or calumny and thus Satan actually got smeared as the Great Deceiver in Western culture by historical accident, the Semites are unlikely to have viewed him that way imo.
The conclusion here is that while I love the ironic ideal of the Light-Bringer and Information-Deceiver, I'm not sure they are without debate.
2. I love that you address, in connection with an ancient evil, the monstrosity of extreme long life. If the past is a foreign country, imagine how unhuman a person would be who lived for aeons. They would be utterly unrecognizable - something the tech-boosters and longevity-optimists never address. A lifespan no longer than ~100 years is a feature that humans have almost certainly shared since our species emerged (about ~200kya). If a person could live 5,000 years I'm not sure they'd be human, as the one thing we all have in common (death) would be totally alien. But they would be a monster, perhaps even a demigod.
3. I have much more to say on the quasi-historical nature of prehistoric myth, and the understanding it brings to the current human condition, but I'll save that for a post of my own. I will say, of my own accord, that I always thought of Satan as the embodiment of entropic forces, always nipping at the heels of the life force. These two seem to me to be so diametrically opposed as to signal who stands where in the pantheon of gods. This seems more natural as it obviates considerations of morality and suffering and brings us back to an indifferent, amoral universe. I'm not saying I believe this, or think this theory is above reproach. But it's an idea.
Anyway, best regards and I look forward to the rest.
In no way should you think of your thoughts and search for coherence as somehow secondary to the timeline fight of our lives. Far from it! The exact opposite would be true, IMHO. Unless we (humanity) can pull together as one and craft (perhaps mostly unknowingly with many divergent paths to get to the same/similar conclusions) an egregore that will focus our efforts to defeat the great enemies of mankind…well, I think such efforts divorced from that are doomed to fail; because we can’t fight or defeat what we don’t know of or understand. So keep up the good work and fight on! I do believe people are for the most part slowing having the scales fall from their eyes. It’s a painful transition period we are in right now, moving from darkness to light.
Really enjoyed this article! What you said about artists ( and David Lynch in particular) really rings true. As with so many myths and stories, the "mind-bending" genre of movies (like Angel Heart, the Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City, etc) seem to point to a deeper, perhaps darker reality: surface-level appearances can be deceiving, there may be sentient hyperdimensional beings manipulating us and our perceptions of reality for their own purposes, there is a larger reality that encompasses ours about which (at least some of) the hyperdimensional beings want to keep us ignorant, etc. And somehow, things seem to be building to some sort of a climax, perhaps followed by an upcoming big "reveal." Anyway, we live in a spiritually charged world, and I truly do appreciate the insights you are sharing here! Looking forward to what comes next in this series!
Thanks, Daniel. I'm still working my way through your Pascal-ish Wager (which is excellent, by the way). Will comment soon!
A brilliant and interesting merging of science, art, philosophy, religion, and mythology. You are a true generalist! Your method of observation is very reminscient of McGilchrist models of how pieces of the puzzle are passed back and forth between the left and right brain hemisphere to create a contextualized big picture (ps McGilchrist is starting to speak out more loudly and raise the alarm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686heq5QFPk ). pps according to the book The Fourth Phase of Water by Prof. Gerald Pollock, our scientists don't even have Brownian Motion correct.
Thanks, Gary. It is interesting; I've heard many in our circles talk about McGilchrist's work for many months now, but still haven't investigated it. I think you've finally convinced me to check it out.
Your story sounds amazing and inspiring, by the way. God bless you.
You can check out my wandering though part of the last chapter of his book The Master and His Emissary here https://escapingmasspsychosis.substack.com/s/psych in 11 parts. I'm making my way through his latest book, The Matter With Things, and will write on some of that as well.
Thanks for sharing this - couldn't comment on your post, but McGilchrist is now speaking out much more strongly about the predictions you highlight in part 11 are coming to pass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=686heq5QFPk
I would recommend this short animation as a good starting point and introduction to Iain McGilchrist's work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI
Mark, please forgive me for giving you gratuitous advice...but I hope/trust that you are being proactive about your mental health. Any focus directed at radical evil has the potential to destabilise people. My advice...pursue these interests intermittently and take time out to devote yourself to life-enhancing activities and interests that fortify your wellbeing. Fascinating as it is, evil corrupts and degrades those who observe it or focus upon it too long.
Hahaha! Yes, you are forgiven. :) Actually, I'm quite moved that you would write this. The first sign of true friendship is to give a head-check, in my opinion.
As for my my proactive mental health, tell me how this sounds: My wife and our friends dance, sing songs, tell jokes and pet friendly dogs on a regular basis.
We also watch good-bad movies from time to time. Last night, for instance, a good buddy and me watched this incredible gem on Blu-Ray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVtyOwcQo-w
At the risk of giving my own gratuitous advice, I highly recommend my method. And if you ever decide to watch "The Miami Connection", I also advise that you have a beer in hand. Or three. Doctor's orders.
God bless!
Hahaha! I’ve seen this movie, as deconstructed by the guys of Rifftrax, and it’s one of the best worst movies ever! I highly recommend watching either their live version or the recorded one in all their zany glory.
Rifftrax and it’s precursor, MST3K have helped immeasurably to keep laughter and sanity alive during these not-so-funny times. God bless the artists whose craft is humor.
Sounds like you are on the right track. Good to know.
💕❤. 💖
Just can’t help repeating myself 😊
Happy to see Lynch make an entrance. That man understands demons.
Mark, there is much to digest in this article, which I will have to reread. In the meantime, I'd like to make a few points which may come across as an antiquarian rant or as plain weirdo, but which may be useful.
One way to approach this is to disentangle the various real-life cult sources of Satan/Lucifer. The stock character derives from a synthesis of traditions...Biblical, Egyptian, Mazdean and Greco-Roman. Each of these were formed by particular contexts and the specifics complicate everything, but they illuminate it too.
For example, the first historical example of the Devil Incarnate may have been the grandfather of Khosrau (Cyrus the Great). When the latter went to war against his grandfather (to seize his kingdom, naturally) the priests who served the youngster (recruited from a tribe we call the Magoi) apparently came up with a story that grandad had serpents growing from his shoulders. This sounds like post-Axial Age psy-ops, but the armies of Khosrau/Cyrus were made up in part of men who may well have had first hand experience of shamanistic experiences involving entheogens and hallucinogens, so the story may well have been a reference to the sort of thing people saw in visions. Propaganda only works if the targets regard it as plausible. And the "Devil" was simply understood as the god, god-ruler or divinely descended chieftan of a defeated tribe or nation.
The Israelite take on the serpents/evil connection is not confined to the Eden/Fall narrative, but is connected to the cult practices of a subset of the Canaanites subsumed into the Israelite amphictyony. The only exception Moses made to the ban on graven images was the bronze serpent, which was used as a magical cure for snake-bite. The bronze serpent was the totem for a clan too important to be excluded from the newly developed national cult. The actual figure disappeared very early on. The mystery IMHO relates to the formation of the OT concept of the god-image from a confluence of sources each related to the ancestral origin of one or other of the original 12 Tribes.
What is curious is that the seraphim who surround the divine Throne are winged serpents...very, very curious indeed. It suggests that the seraphim were tutelary demigods or supernatural beings conceived as dragons.
Re dragons...all winged animals or winged humans in ancient art represent beings experienced in dreams/trances/hallucinations....beings from another dimension by definition. They were real in so far as the dreams/trances/hallucinations were most certainly real and formed a vastly important role on religion/psychology in ancient times. NB in the old days psychiatry was essentially confined to exorcisms.
Re Lucifer's rebellion. The angelic rebellion was clearly a variation on the titanomachy theme common to all cultures from the Balkans/Mediterranean to India. In ancient times the Israelites believed that the Fallen Angels were led by an angel called (if I remember correctly) Shemyaza...he was associated with the constellation Orion. The angels, 220 in all, fell to earth on Mt Hermon in the Golan Heights. The rabbis who wrote the Talmud candidly admitted that the children of Israel only learned the names of the angels in exile (Mesopotamia). IMHO the angels were simply the demigods of the Mesopotamian pantheon and the devils simply angels associated with malefic forces, human or divine.
As for present-day organised evil, it makes sense that a cabal or more than one cabal would form. Given the state of travel and communication, people with a common interest in structured, organised, malice and evil for profit would identify each other and co-operate. A cabal of the kind you suggest may well simply be your standard elite mafia bonded by cultic/ritual ties...and there is no reason not to imagine that the people involved in taboo-breaking and the occult would be perfect targets for a shared spiritual experience of one kind or another.
Thanks for the detailed comment, Philip!
"One way to approach this is to disentangle the various real-life cult sources of Satan/Lucifer. The stock character derives from a synthesis of traditions...Biblical, Egyptian, Mazdean and Greco-Roman."
Oh, I absolutely concur. That's sort of what I meant when I spoke of "dirt drawings" and "filthy, hairy proto-men". In fact, you'll find I have quite a bit to say about the titanomachy, Prometheus, and the intersections of our surviving ancient myths in general. Whew! Like I said; it's going to take a while to get there. Hope you'll stick with me.
What I feared most about my chosen language model (Satan, demons, angels, etc.) is that people who have knowledge of ancient myths and religions would be put off by the specificity. Again: it's a propositional model, in an attempt to make sure we are talking about the same things (or, at least, that my descriptions are intelligible to others). You may call them "simply the demigods of the Mesopotamian pantheon" if you like (though I'd contend there is much complexity in that description.)
"As for present-day organised evil, it makes sense that a cabal or more than one cabal would form..... A cabal of the kind you suggest may well simply be your standard elite mafia bonded by cultic/ritual ties"'
I think that's the reason I included a link to a troll like Anton Lavey. This is certainly happening (and has always happened, from my observation). But that is only one structure of being, easily calculable at the local level. My purpose here is to study other potential structures of being, that aren't so easy to grasp.
Am with you...the side-show/theatrical stuff has always been with us and complicates the feedback loop of neuroscience, culture and ideas, to say nothing of the harm inflicted on the gullible. The various ethereal and abstract dimensions are something else, but are becoming more explicable IMHO because of neuroscience.
Yes. And IMHO because of art, as well.
perhaps it is the psychological import which is key - lucifer/satan representing our own spiritual ego. vladimir solovyov is a reference here.
in short, lucifer represents the individual's discovery of their own power, their own centrality/autonomy/divine origin. satan representing this realisation being exclusive, ie the individual not recognising this same divine centrality/autonomy in others.
kazantzakis famously says that angels are nothing more than refined devils; osho says that everyone can become a buddha, but first they must become a zorba (kazantzakis again).
i guess what i am saying is that lucifer/satan is an integral part of the cosmic hierarchy....the devil works for God, even when he is rebelling against him....theologically speaking, the Gods periodically renew themselves, altering the structure of their divine architecture....this 'rebellious' action is necessary to the maintenance/renewal, evolution of the cosmos.
whitman's 'the square deific'
lucifer is the archetypal rebel, he is the ultimate iconoclast. he destroys what is no longer effective, spiritually speaking. when the forms become too rigid and dogmatic, enter lucifer to reveal the hypocrisy. jung and others have pointed out how similar the devil and Jesus are in this respect.
Jesus denied the devil 3 times and in this way was freed from him as adversary. the devil's job is to tempt and seduce, to test.....if we pass the test we integrate the devil as instinct/intuition, transforming the adversary into an ally.
the whole world is going through this testing process right now: confronting the reality of evil and understanding why....understanding what purpose it serves in the evolution of consciousness.
This seems oddly similar to your comment on Part One. You do realize I am describing an actual being, not a representation, yes?
yes.
is God a being?
or is God the source of being?
being belongs to the intellectual realm, the archetypal ideas....
the devil as the archetypal rebel is one such
plotinus said that evil is not a real (archetypal) being, but it is an hypostasis...it has a real existence for us as ensouled incarnate beings. it is a sort of negation or absence of divine penetration associated with matter, which is itself not real in the true (archetypal) sense....a chimera rather....as physics has revealed.
the absolute must be the Good if the Godhead is unified....a split Godhead, manicheanism, has been the position of some (john cowper powys for instance), but does not ring true to me. If God is one and Good and the source of all then, at the level of the absolute (the one, the good) there can be no evil, nor can there be in the secondary realm of the archetypal ideas, as this realm is an emanation from the Good (this is all plotinian language).
the soul comes next in this hierarchy, one part remaining above in touch with the realm of unsullied intellect and morality, one part incorporated here below. and this incorporation is a sort of bond or admixture of the soul with matter, the essentially unreal, but still real for us: thus is maya.
so it is this essential unrealness that is associated with evil, which is why i believe evil = fake. ie evil is the belief in the unreal, and the participation in it....the gnostic simulacrum, the matrix, the spectacle....the solution to the problem of evil being, therefore, to keep it real.
if that was all a bit too much, this is a more imaginative and simple take on the same question:
https://hermetrix.wordpress.com/sympathy-for-the-devil/
Perhaps I will respond to this. But first, I am curious about something. I noticed that your substack bio merely contains a single line: "I am your enemy". Would you care to describe what you mean by that?
super-evil.....its a line from a song,,,
probably written during pandemic nonsense, where i did seem to be a bit of a leper (no mask, jab, shits given)....no real import attached.....was just playing round with substack, and have yet to get serious with it - but i do like the way it works, and the quality content.
Ah, okay. I thought perhaps this referred to Miller's quote, "I yam my own worst enemy."
This might sound like a strange question, but what do you think about independence in Taiwan?
Not sure if this would be of any interest to you Mark but I'm listening to a book by Jonathan Cahn "The Return of the Gods", and Cahn seems to do a good job of outlining the history of the 'gods' and then relating their influence to today (well is seems like a good job for a simple guy like me ;-) - maybe those with deep insight into ancient religious practices might find it a bit simple. He takes the stand that these are fallen/evil spirits (not just philosophical/religious concepts) and have a direct influence on culture (reminds me of another book The Twilight Labyrinth: Why Does Spiritual Darkness Linger Where It Does? by George Otis Jr.). Both books, for me, are refreshing non-philosophical treatments of the history and nature of evil in the world.
Both books are fundamentally Christian - which will of course offend many, which is unfortunate because the unfolding drama is more compelling than any fiction.
Thanks for your awesome writing - I'm hooked - looking forward to what comes next!
“ I’ve always thought the choice of Latin for English taxonomy was both unctuous and incredibly stupid.”
Because there are no other languages than English.
"From some of the feedback I’ve gotten (including from people I respect and admire), I worry that this series is coming off as navel-gazing or wheel-spinning — or, worse, a diversion from the “real fight.”"
You are free, and welcome, to write what you have intuited, and are inspired to write, as far as I am concerned.
That is of itself a great contribution to the "real fight".
Growing up super fundamentalist Pentecostal, it’s very interesting to see a worldview that I have always taken for granted being explored in this novel way
“How-To Guides on what I believe to be unique tactics with which to combat the entity and its minions.”
Do not tarry, Brother. Godspeed. This appears to be the most articulate, non-ecclesiastic treatise on understanding and combating Evil that I’ve come across. (Not that the ecclesiastic path should be disregarded, by no means).
Regarding, “From some of the feedback I’ve gotten (including from people I respect and admire), I worry that this series is coming off as navel-gazing or wheel-spinning — or, worse, a diversion from the “real fight.””: Disregard. I say again, disrefuckinggard. Those fine folk are either, 1) jealous, or worse, 2) fearful that you’re getting dangerously close to the target. I’m serious. Carry on.
Mark,
I know it's been a hot minute since you posted this but, via John Carter, I'm just starting to parse your material on the devil incarnate and would like to expand upon a few points.
1. I like how you expound on the Lucifer Light-Bringer analogy but imo this is a misnomer. Not that following a wild goose trail never lead anywhere interesting, but Lucifer is not Satan. Nor is the intended listener in Ezekiel Chp 28. Lucifer is the Latin translation of the Greek Phosphoros, which DOES mean "bearer of light" but it's a reference to the King of Babylon's traditional epithet as the Morning Star (aka. Venus). Likewise in Ezekiel, the target of God's revenge fantasy isn't Satan, but a human king, the King of Tyros (Tyre). The allusion/comparison to Satan (and hence the Devil) is a symbolic exegesis overwritten by the later translators and interpreters.
Now, this is all academic-sounding. But I think it matters, as part of what you're doing is deconstructing and recontextualizing Satan from mere allegory to participant in reality (in whatever form). If you'll forgive my materialism: we want to know more of the historical Satan. Of course that's not the full story, as your excellent disquisition has persuasively argued. But I'd love for you to be aware of this line of reasoning, if you're not already.
I think most of our mythology is traceable via shadows to events that were actually experienced by real humans in prehistory (most writing dates to no earlier than ~15th century BC), and given the seminal and disruptive information that the Archaeogenetic Revolution is unleashing as we speak, we now know far more about the past 20,000 of history than we dreamed possible. In more concrete terms we have Indo-European mythology which permeates language and culture from Ireland to India with Sky-Fathers. But that culture was a palimpsest overwriting the traditions of Neolithic farmers who emigrated from Anatolia and settled Europe between 6600 and 4300BC. Additionally, the proto-Greeks were refugees of the last native Indo-European culture, so their arrival in the Thessalian Plain, Attic Peninsula and Peloponnese mixed the two irrevocably. Considering Helladic and later Mycenaean intercourse with Semitic cultures (in addition to the Pelasgian substratum) it seems clear that the Titans were cognates of the Nephilim. Their gigantic nature is perhaps a vestigial memory of early interactions between farmers and hunter-gatherers (prior to the latter's extinction).
Hellenistic culture didn't explicitly adopt the Satanic Revolt concept until the inception of Christianity and the translation of the Septuagint - so another palimpsest occurred again!
If you can again forgive my pedantry, Satan is Hebrew for "obstructor" (as in obstructing the plan of God) and this was translated to Greek as Dia-Bolos, meaning "to throw across" (as in to obstruct a path). But Diabolos can also be translated as slander or calumny and thus Satan actually got smeared as the Great Deceiver in Western culture by historical accident, the Semites are unlikely to have viewed him that way imo.
The conclusion here is that while I love the ironic ideal of the Light-Bringer and Information-Deceiver, I'm not sure they are without debate.
2. I love that you address, in connection with an ancient evil, the monstrosity of extreme long life. If the past is a foreign country, imagine how unhuman a person would be who lived for aeons. They would be utterly unrecognizable - something the tech-boosters and longevity-optimists never address. A lifespan no longer than ~100 years is a feature that humans have almost certainly shared since our species emerged (about ~200kya). If a person could live 5,000 years I'm not sure they'd be human, as the one thing we all have in common (death) would be totally alien. But they would be a monster, perhaps even a demigod.
3. I have much more to say on the quasi-historical nature of prehistoric myth, and the understanding it brings to the current human condition, but I'll save that for a post of my own. I will say, of my own accord, that I always thought of Satan as the embodiment of entropic forces, always nipping at the heels of the life force. These two seem to me to be so diametrically opposed as to signal who stands where in the pantheon of gods. This seems more natural as it obviates considerations of morality and suffering and brings us back to an indifferent, amoral universe. I'm not saying I believe this, or think this theory is above reproach. But it's an idea.
Anyway, best regards and I look forward to the rest.
A.B.
Yes, continue with this in any way you like. Amazing writing...
In no way should you think of your thoughts and search for coherence as somehow secondary to the timeline fight of our lives. Far from it! The exact opposite would be true, IMHO. Unless we (humanity) can pull together as one and craft (perhaps mostly unknowingly with many divergent paths to get to the same/similar conclusions) an egregore that will focus our efforts to defeat the great enemies of mankind…well, I think such efforts divorced from that are doomed to fail; because we can’t fight or defeat what we don’t know of or understand. So keep up the good work and fight on! I do believe people are for the most part slowing having the scales fall from their eyes. It’s a painful transition period we are in right now, moving from darkness to light.
Thanks, Nina. I have a lot to say about this, actually. Right now I have my Deerstalker cap on. Sorry for the delay.
A bit of both, I would say.