Sympathy for the Devil

He goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, the Great Deceiver, the Dragon, the Serpent. This spiritual persona remixed from many mythologies, the Devil stands as an enduring symbol of absolute evil in western culture. Yet, is it possible, that over the trajectory of his evolution, this much maligned character has been given short shrift? Perhaps we have misunderstood where he comes from, and what he really represents to us.

The emergence of homo sapiens occurred only some 130,000 years ago¹. Conceptual knowledge, including that of good and evil, arose gradually during that time, accelarating within the last few thousand years. Merely the blink of an eye in the context of the natural processes that have been ongoing for the last 4.6 billion years on our planet.

This incredibly slow and deliberate evolutionary process saw the earliest forms of life emerge from the ocean, then on to land in the form of plants, amphibians, trees, dinosaurs, mammals, birds, primates, and only in the last 10 million years or so, the development of hominids, to which we owe our existence².



It is from this gradual building of more complex forms that comes the development of personified consciousness. With the vanquishing of the Neanderthal species some 30,000 years ago, homo sapiens now occupies the sole position of such heightened awareness. The stage just prior to what we consider modern civilization, is that of the typhon, a level where humans begin to develop a vague notion of mind/body separation³. In typhonic consciousness, early humans existed in a dreamlike state, connected to nature, yet also beginning to gain awareness of an individual, separate existence from it.

This is the place, where magical images of the cave walls appear, in which drawings of human/animal hybrids mark the beginning of what is now thought of as art. The next great stage, when humans begin to develop agriculture and livestock, as the organization of villages and then cities lead to increased social interaction, and ultimately to the full emergence of the self. This is defined first, and most eloquently as "atman", the sense of an individual and eternal self, expounded in the Upanishads around 600 BCE⁴.

It is from this same point in history, in the middle east, we find the beginnings of what would eventually coalesce into the persona known as Satan. In the creation myths of the west, the Great Serpent, in the Garden of Eden prompts the "original sin" of increased awareness of self and separation from nature: "then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil⁵."



Here, the serpent is adapted from Ningishdiza, literally "lord of the good tree", a Mesopotamian deity who would go on to become the healing emblem of the caduceus. He is here inverted from an emblem of deep wisdom, to one of tempation and rebellion against the divine⁶.

Next he appears as Satan ("the accuser") in the book of Job, convincing Yahweh to let him destroy the life, wealth, and family of a mortal, all to prove the righteousness of this one human soul⁷. And again, sampling from earlier myths, as so much of the Bible does, in the book of Isaiah, the planet Venus is conflated with the character of Lucifer (Latin: lux-i-foros "light bearer"), who is being brought low for the sin of pride, in attempting to ascend the heavens⁸. Confusingly, Jesus is also referred to as the "morning star" in the book of Revelations, a title which persists to this day in the Exultet rite of the Easter Vigil.



And so, Satan, as the closely related al-Shaitan in Islam, one who is punished by Allah for not bowing down to the newly created humans⁹, becomes Lucifer in Christianity. And as Mick Jagger sings, pointing out the subjective nature of the duality which brought this entity into existence, "just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints, as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer, 'cause I'm in need of some restraint¹⁰."



So just who is this Devil, anyway? Depictions of him are pretty much a dead giveaway as to what we are up against. Mostly human, yet with horns and a tail, he is nothing more (and nothing less) than a far removed descendant of the Sorcerer image from the cave of Trois Freres in southern France, part human, with antlers and a tail, yet walking on two legs. The Sorcerer persists in the form of Katcina among the Neolithic tribes of the American Southwest¹¹. Yet, as the modern typhonic Devil he is not integrated into contemporary consciousness, but rather is split apart from it.

It is important to understand, that with each new level of consciousness that arose in early humans, the prior levels of consciousness were not discarded, but rather were built upon, a macrocosmic duplicate of the process that human awareness builds onto and expands within the individual from birth to maturity. But, due to a deeply conflicted distrust of our animal nature, these earlier levels of consciousness, still buried deep within us, are no longer integrated here in the west.

Rather, we are split into an unreconciled dualism of mind and body. For indeed the devil represents that deep, earlier body consciousness of which we are still vaguely aware, and yet have lost the connection to, as our higher mind developed. Instead of hating and disavowing huge parts of ourselves, perhaps it is time for a reconciliation with the Devil. For instead of some eternal demigod counterpoint to divinity, more truly he is the body self connected to nature that we have been taught to deny.



In affecting such a reconciliation, many of the psychoses of the modern world may be let go of. On a societal scale, it could lead to a reinterpretation of manufactured enemies, from the fake "war on terror" to unnecessary "homeland security" with its obscene border fences and prison camps in the desert, that detain untold numbers of "illegal aliens"¹². Gay bashing, race mongering, the "war on drugs", and many of the things done in the name of righteousness might be reexamined. For when the Devil is once again integrated into ourselves, there is no "other" that must be stood against.



Yet, as the recent conservative political protests sporting posters of President Obama in joker/minstrel face attest, there is still a significant group here wanting to vilify that "other"¹³. Yes, it is probably too much to ask for a change of heart in regard to the horned one, especially in these divisive times we live in. But, if nothing else, perhaps we can find a little "sympathy for the devil."

¹ Smithsonian Institution
http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm

² Origins, by Richard E. Leakey
1977, E.P. Dutton, pp. 12-15

³ Up from Eden, by Ken Wilber
1981, Anchor Press / Doubleday, pp. 40-41

⁴ "He who, dwelling in the earth, yet is other than the earth...He is your Soul." Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: III, 7
The Thirteen Principle Upanishads, Robert Ernest Hume translation
1921, Oxford University Press

⁵ the Bible, book of Genesis 3:1-5

⁶ Brittanica Online Encyclopedia, "Ningishzida (Sumerian deity)"
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/415722/Ningishzida

⁷ Job 1:6-12

⁸ the Bible, book of Isaiah 14:3-20

⁹ the Qur'an 7:11-12

¹⁰ The Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil
1968, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

¹¹ Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest, by Alex Patterson
1992, Johnson Books, pg. 129

¹² The Austin Chronicle, August 7, 2009
"Judge and OAS find T. Don Hutto Lacking" by Patricia J. Ruland
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A819427

¹³ Politics Daily, November 6, 2009
"Is the Tea Party Gang Turning GOP into a Party of Hate?" by David Corn
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/06/i/

Illustrations: 1. Chalcidian vessel, 6th c. BCE
2.. Ningishzida, Sumerian Deity (c. 2200 BCE)
3. Gustave Dore, Paradise Lost illustration, 1866
4. Sorcerer, Trois Frere Cave, France
5. Obama as the Joker, Tea Party protest, Washington DC, September 12, 2009
6. Cartoon by Greg Strid