Romanticizing Satan & Modern Satanism

How did we go from this   to this wow, or well at least to this. Stay tuned to find out… Hello everyone, I’m Dr Angela  Puca, and welcome to my Symposium.  I’m a Ph.D. and a university lecturer  and this is your online resource   for the academic study of magic,  witchcraft, and all things esoteric. In this video, we will talk about the  romanticising of Satan and how that evolved from  

The conceptualisation of him as the arch-enemy  of God, which is – by the way – not found in the   Hebrew Bible but in the New Testament if we are to  endorse a collation between Satan and the Devil.

But this, along with the history of the worship of  Satan, may be topics for future videos. In fact,   leave me a line in the comment section and let  me know if you’d like me to cover these areas. Now we are going to discuss how Satan  became a romantic hero for poets,  

Artists and how that played a role in  the rise of modern religious Satanism. My source for this video is  going to be ‘Children of Lucifer’   by Ruben van Luijk, published  by Oxford University Press.   Yet, you are welcome to recommend and pursue  the investigation of other academic sources.

As my long-time viewers know, I always  encourage your independent research   and to see my videos as appetizers  rather than “the truth” on a matter.   Research is always ongoing and it’s  more important to master the skills   to find and critically evaluate reliable  sources rather than clinging onto information as  

Truth. As they might and will likely be  obsolete in 50 years, sometimes in 5 years. Right, premises out of the way!  Let’s move onto the topic now… According to Van Luijk, Satanism is an invention  of Christianity as it was within the context of  

Christian religion and of a society shaped by  Christianity that the idea of Satanism first   arose. Christianity played, in fact, a central  role in the proliferation of the concept of Satan   as the Devil as well as Lucifer, lumping together  different – and diverging – adversarial roles  

And depictions found across the  Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. After all, if we define Satanism as the  intentional religious veneration of Satan,   it follows that there can be  no Satanism without a Satan. Another element that played a significant role in  the conceptualisation and imagery of Satan was the  

Demonising of the Pagan Gods and of their worship. The well- known image of the devil as goat-footed   and horned is reminiscent of the Greek God Pan  and of the Fauni and Silvani of the Roman forests. In other parts of Europe, the  devil has assimilated traits   of native gods from other traditions.

For instance, in a late medieval Dutch  miracle play ‘Mariken van Nieumegen’ he   appears as “One- Eyed Moenen”, quite  resembling the Nordic God Odin,   whose worship had already  been abandoned for centuries. But when and how did Satan start to be seen   as a heroic figure instead of the  embodiment of pure God-less evil?

Well, that happened after the  Enlightenment and during the Romantic era. As Van Lujik highlights, there  were two main cultural changes   that fostered a reshaped idea of Satan. And  these are: Secularisation and Revolution. The demise of the literal belief  in Satan brought about by a more  

Secular society was an essential prerequisite  for the emergence of the Romantic Satan.   Those who endorsed this poetic view of the Devil  didn’t quite believe in the existence of a real   Lucifer just as they didn’t espouse  the reality of the Christian God. This transition led to abandoning the  perception that Satan constituted an  

Actual threat and allowed cultural space for  re-imagining its mythic role and the possible   relatability to our human condition.  And, what appeared to be domineering   during the Romantic era if not rebellion against  the status quo, in the form of Revolutions?! As Satan’s fall started to be associated  with proud, unlawful insurrection against  

Divine authority, that appeared to mirror quite  nicely that sense of popular and political   insurrection against oppressing monarchs  and the subjugating systems of government   of the time. Giving new meaning to his role in  the grand scheme of things, the Romantic Satanists  

Transformed the fallen angel into a noble champion  of political and individual freedom against   a supreme power that deprives people of their  agency, leaving submission as the only option. From the nineteenth century  onwards, the romanticised perception   of Satan has been linked to three key elements:  sex and sexual liberation, science and reason,  

Individual freedom and agency. These elements,  perceived as adversarial stances to the   Christianity morality, have fostered the birth  of both the atheistic and theistic Satanisms.   Satan, in his aspect of Lucifer the light- bringer  now works against the dogmatism of religion  

And, as a fallen one, he got associated with  Earth, nature, and “the flesh,” particularly   in its manifestations of passionate love and sex.  This sexually charged representation was informed   by the Book of the Watchers in First Enoch,  which embeds the Lust of Fallen Angels  

For the daughters of men in its narrative. Van  Luijk argues that there are three crucial ways   in which Romantic Satanism contributed to  the late rise of modern religious Satanism. 1. For once, they mark the first historical  appearance in Western civilization   of an influential cultural current  that positively revaluated Satan.

2. Second, they show a new, post-Christian,  and post-Enlightenment way of dealing with myth   and meaning. This allowed for a resurrection  and reconstruction of Satan as a cosmic symbol   with which modern people could  sympathize and even identify. 3. Third, romantic Satanism exerted a  decisive influence on the shape of the  

Rehabilitated Satan that would continue to haunt   nineteenth-century counter-culture and  eventually emerge in modern religious Satanism. So, this is it for today’s video. Please,  if you like my content and want me to keep   the academic fun going consider supporting  my work with a one-off donation on PayPal,  

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