Bernard Conway

Myths became images and shadows of higher ideas, and by their mysterious character inculcated a profounder veneration. -Plutarch In the last post, we looked at of myth of Satan’s fall in order to articulate its unique characteristics. To restate: Satan is thrown out of heaven for insubordination. In Hell, he has a chance to make due. Instead, he feels compelled to continue seeking power, or at the very least, vengeance. This moves the myth beyond a simple schematic of good versus evil. But as the myth transforms into a more relatable form—incorporating universal themes of human drama—it becomes more difficult to recognize the underlying symbols.    We saw this in John Milton’s Paradise Lost . In Hell, Satan finds himself in the company of the other fallen angels who express a litany of emotions; doubt, fear, anxiety, and anger. They console and contest each other. The figure of Satan becomes relatable to the reader because he is able to interact with these other vo...

Prolegomena to the Luciferian Archetype and Myth There is no point in trying to write about anything related to the Devil as if it can be disinterestedly. The subject never fails to elicit certain reactions. As such, we may address the two most common of those reactions head-on with the further caveat that we are not interested in propagating either. The first is fairly well known. It is the kind of thought-process that also would see a ban on everything from Halloween to Charles Darwin. A bit like how normally solitary animals have a way of finding each other over long distances, nothing draws a particular type of Christian fundamentalist out quite like the suggestion that somebody is considering the myth of Satan with anything other than gut-wrenching revulsion. This creates an obstruction to deeper introspection that is not only wrong, but also increasingly futile in our own times. The second type of reaction is more modern, but less recognized. While many people have simply...