The Biography of the Devil E-Book

Harry Eilenstein

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 238

Beschreibung

Few religious-mythological figures evoke such fierce emotions as the devil - for this reason alone it is worth taking a closer look at him. He is anything but a uniform figure: he is the god of the wilderness, the archetype of the dead at their re-procreation, the explanation of injustice in a world that a just God is supposed to have created, the prosecutor and executioner at the afterlife court, the god of the heathens, the rebel, the sex demon, the shadow of an entire civilization and even more ... He is the lord of the dead, his hell used to be the burial chamber of the tumuli, the fire of cremation has become the fire of hell and the devil's grandmother used to be the afterlife goddess a long time ago. The devil is what the majority fears - and he is the shadow, the repressed, what is missing - and thus also what is secretly most longed for. In Christianity, the devil is the punished perpetrator in hell and Christ is the redeemed victim in heaven - but who is the one who is whole? Who does not embody the power-molded perpetrator role like the devil, nor the powerlessness-molded victim role like Christ? Who is the one who embodies the independent, sovereign, self-contained and creative power?

Leseprobe

for Axel Büdenbender

Table of Contents

1. Who or What is the Devil?

2. Goat Horns and Horse's Foot

3. Death and the Devil

4. Hell

5. The Evil Serpent

6. God and Devil

7. Order and Chaos

8. The God of Wilderness

9. The God of the Witches

10. Christ's Rivals

11. The Accuser

12. The Name of the Devil

13. God Father and the Fathers

14. The Lustful God

15. The Rebel

16. The Collective Shadow

17. The Individual Shadow

18. Devil and Trauma

19. Globalization

20. Fool and Devil

21. The Devil in the Four Elements

22. The Devil in the Ten Planets

23. The Devil in the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac

24. The Devil and the Qliphoth

25. The Devil in the Tarot

26. The Devil and Black Magic

27. The Black Mass

28. The Chöd Ritual

29. Tabular Curriculum Vitae of the Devil

30. Sympathy for the Devil

Book List

1. Who or What is the Devil?

First of all, one can find many different opinions on whether the devil exists at all – and basically none of these opinions can really be substantiated. But the word "devil" triggers all kinds of feelings in almost everyone.

The question of who or what the devil is is important, if only because of the emotional connotation of this topic, but also because even today many people believe in the existence of the devil:

In 1997, about 25% of the people in the USA believed in the devil; in 2009, it was 26%; in 2013, it was even 57% in one survey.

In 2002, 23% of people in Germany believed in the devil; in 2019, it was 20%, or 25% in another survey; in 2021, it was 20%.

So we can say that about a quarter of people in Western Christian civilization believe in the existence of the devil.

This raises many questions:

Is he a remnant from the Neolithic worldview?

Is he simply the Greek god Pan?

Is he a mythological figure from the monotheistic religions?

Is he the god of the pagans?

Is he the Antichrist?

Is he the archetype of the rebel?

Is he the seducer of evil deeds?

Is he a real being?

Is he the secret ruler of events on earth?

Why is he nowhere depicted as a woman?

However, since the stories about the devil are, on the one hand, very diverse and, on the other hand, have changed significantly over the millennia, a "history of the devil" can be written – or, to put it more personally, a "biography of the devil".

1st Dream Journey to the Devil

There is also the possibility to make a dream journey to the devil and to see what one experiences. Since on the one hand dream journeys lead into the subconscious and on the other hand telepathy and telekinesis are the "eye" and the "hand" of the subconscious, it could be that one discovers things by such dream journeys, which one would not have found out otherwise.

Of course, one should not simply believe what one experiences on dream journeys as "reality", but check the experienced for its plausibility – but almost every dream journey is worthwhile, since one finds as good as always also something unexpected, which broadens one's own horizon.

One can also argue about whether one actually talks to the devil on such dream journeys or not. However, the answer to this question is actually not of too much importance, because the essential question is whether one receives meaningful information on these dream journeys and whether one can develop and become healed by them.

This effect they have in any case … and if also the devil can help with one's own healing – why not?

Therefore now follows the first "interview" with the devil:

"Hello devil …"

"Hello Harry."

"I would like to write a book about you, so first of all about what I have found out about your history over the decades. I'd like you to have your say, too – especially since I certainly don't know everything about you. What do you think?"

"Let's see …"

"Is there anything you'd like to tell about yourself?"

"Asshole!"

"Um … why?"

"You don't really want to see me! You're secretly afraid of me!"

"Um … is that an allusion to the evocation I made with Axel a good 40 years ago at a nighttime crossroads in the woods?"

"That alone would be enough."

"All right – then I'll tell you this: After I met Axel, he accepted me as a sorcerer's apprentice …"

"Don't be so long-winded – tell the actual thing and that's it!"

"Alright, if you want – this was supposed to be a short version already … So I drew the prescribed circles and symbols on the crossroads with chalk, then took my divining rod (and held it the wrong way around) and then at midnight summoned the demon Astaroth – one of the devils from hell. At first nothing happened, then red lights floated over the path to the right of us, then a bright blue flash of light crackled in the tree above us on the left, someone invisible kept coughing between Axel and me, and it began to smell of sulfur, and the presence of someone could be clearly felt in front of the circle.

Then it all became too much for me and I said that I wanted to stop. Then I said the spell and we went back through the forest, but the smell of sulfur remained and so did the coughing of the invisible man between Axel and me. Then we cast the spell again, after which the sulfur smell and the coughing stopped.

When Axel and I separated in the city, I hardly knew where to go because of fear. At home I locked my room, left the light on and hid under the covers.

There I realized that either the fear gets me or I get the fear. So I went to the crossroads in the woods every day until I could lie there in the grass, completely relaxed, and think of something completely different."

"Look – there I gave you a gift: you met your fear and you learned to deal with it. If you hadn't learned that back then, your psyche would have been in shambles afterwards."

"A rather scorpionic method …"

"It worked after all – what more do you want?"

"Much later I found out that the name 'Astaroth' is a derivative of the goddess name 'Astarte'. This name, like the name 'Isis', comes from the Neolithic 'Aset' in Göbekli Tepe, which means 'sitting one'. Aset was the mother goddess of that time, who sat on the panther throne in the early Neolithic temples. That Axel and I just invoked Astaroth was probably no coincidence, since I got my greatest trauma from an experience with my mother."

"I am fear,

I am panic,

I am trauma,

I am madness,

I am loss of self…

I am darkness,

I am that which you fear,

I am your shadow,

I am the figure with the billowing black cloak,

I am the archetype of the Black Riders and the Dementors –

I am the repressed,

I am that which comes from beyond,

I bring death and destruction…

… at least that is your image of me …"

"And that's not quite true?"

"No … really not … even though I am quite also what you have made me to be."

"Hm … do you want to say more about it?"

"Later …"

"Thank you."

"That's all right … it's nice for a change to talk to someone who isn't afraid of me …"

"Ho!"

2. Goat Horns and Horse's Foot

The images of the devil are all pretty similar:

he is a man,he has goat horns,he has billy goat legs or a horse's foot,sometimes he has shaggy billy goat legs,he often has thick eyebrows, a pointed upper lip and prominent facial features, which suggests that he has a Scorpio Ascendant, andhe spreads sulfur smell, which also suggests a Scorpio Ascendant, since people with Scorpio Ascendant seem to like this smell.

To grasp this animal symbolism, one must go back very far – to at least the late Paleolithic, i.e. the last phase of the Ice Age between 50,000 and 10,000 BC. During this time, Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to Eurasia and met Homo erectus and Neanderthal there – which led to an intercultural exchange that initiated many new developments.

It is possible, however, that the origins of devil symbolism go back much further into the Paleolithic period to possibly a million years ago. The exact age of these roots, however, is not very important for understanding the history of the devil.

The names of animals were probably something like adjectives in the early language of man. For example, a fast, strong and successful hunter was "like a panther", that is, a "panther". This could be represented and at the same time magically strengthened by wearing the hide of a panther. Also the cave paintings from the late Old Stone Age can be "read" in this way.

The most important "adjectives", which can be found in later times with the same meaning in mythology, are listed below. Among them are also some "adjectives" which are not animals:

Obviously, the symbolism of herd animals is important for the story of the devil – after all, he has goat horns and goat legs or a horse's foot.

There has been another simile, that is, another symbolism early on: the arrival of people in this world is a birth, so the arrival of the dead in the afterlife should be a second birth, that is, a rebirth. As is generally known, birth is preceded by procreation and followed by breastfeeding – this was also known by the people in the Paleolithic Age.

So the dead had to procreate himself again in the hereafter. With whom? Obviously with the greatest archetype of the people (and the mammals in general): with the "great mother". She has been, before she becomes the rebirth-mother, the reprocreation-lover of the dead, and after that then his nursling-fostress.

In the course of time, ritual potions have developed from this nursing: the milk of the Egyptian goddess Hathor in the afterlife, the haoma of the Persians, the soma amrita ("immortality potion") of the Indians, the nectar amrita ("immortality honey potion") of the Greeks, the mead of the Germanic and Celtic gods, the balché of the Mayas, the elixir of life of the alchemists in Europe and India, etc.

Because of the symbolism of reprocreation, after a while, of course, the fear arose that one might have potency problems after one's death and then not be able to reprocreate. What to do? Well, the creatures with the greatest procreative power were obviously the herd animals, which always appear in large flocks. So, in order to secure the procreative power of the dead man, a male herd animal was killed and the dead man was wrapped in the hide of this animal when he was buried, in order to transfer its potency to him – a "magic Viagra", so to speak.

This identification led to the idea of animal/human hybrids, i.e. strictly speaking man/animal hybrids. This whole symbolism applies only to men – to the rebirth of women there seems to have been no symbolism.

During the rebirth of the dead the Great Mother, i.e. the goddess of the beyond, had to take the same animal form as the dead, because otherwise a unification would have been difficult. These motives are still found in the mythology of the later time, in which there was already a written tradition.

The following myths are only a very small selection especially from the Indo-Europeans and the peoples in the Mediterranean area – just because the figure of the devil originated in this area.

It shows up thus that the origin of the goat horns and the goat legs and/or the horse foot of the devil lie in this procreation symbolism. Strictly speaking, the beginning of the devil-symbolism was thus the potency-failure-anxiety of the men at the reproduction in the hereafter – without successful reproduction no rebirth in the hereafter … the absolute end. So this potency failure fear was at the same time a death fear …

A violent combination – and against this the animal transformation should help. So the devil has originally once been the magical helper against the fear of failure during the reprocreation. Therefore the devil is always male.

2 nd Dream Journey to the Devil

"What do you say to what I have written, devil?"

"Do you want to hire me as an editor or reviewer? You can go whistle for that!"

"Is the development I have described correct?"

"Why do you ask? You are already convinced that it is correct."

"Hm, yes, I am … I've thought and researched a lot about it … but your own opinion on it would be quite dear to me, because I'm not so presumptuous to think that I already have it all figured out."

"Fuck you!"

"Now is that to be taken as an approval of the reproreation?"

"Bullshit! If you don't have a real request, then stop bothering me!"

"Fine – I want to know if you are the evil one."

"Of course! What else would it be? Evil is always what you don't want, what you fear, what frightens you. Why do you think I am a figure of death and pain and torture? That is what you fear. I am your shadow, I am what you run away from, what you fight against, what you try to avoid, what you banish instead of looking at. Is there a difference between 'evil' and 'fear'? It's the same thing: you fear something and don't want to have it, so you call it evil. What does 'evil' mean? It just means that you don't want it."

"And that changes over time …"

"For the Indians, the Germanic tribes, and many other peoples organized as tribes, it was a badge of honor if a man killed another man, or better yet many other men, in battle – today murder is the worst act. Slavery used to be normal – today it is outlawed. For some peoples sex with multiple partners is perfectly normal – for others it is punishable by death. What is evil? There is no 'evil' except what you call it, what you make it, what you don't want. Your will is what creates evil – evil is simply what you do not want. I am your anti-will, your anti-desire, your anti-need. Without you, I would not exist."

"Hm … yes … that was very clear now … thank you."

I just hear the devil grumbling to himself ….

It is strange to thank the devil.

"Ho!"

3. Death and Devil

"Death and the devil" are the two dreaded archetypes. They are the two most feared cards in the Tarot as well – possibly along with the "Tower", symbolizing the destruction and collapse that occurs when you have built something based on false assumptions.

Death as a goat-man and generally as a herd-animal-man is created in connection with death – and the devil dwells in the afterlife. So the devil is closely related to death.

Our image of the grim "reaper" for death comes from an ancient parable from the early Neolithic period. After agriculture was developed in northern Mesopotamia about 8500 BC, people began to describe the cultivation of grain with a simile to man:

By the fact that this simile was represented in a pictorial way, the motive of the ancestor connected with the motive of the grain to the "grain man". He then became the graingod and the god of the dead like e.g. the Egyptian Osiris.

By the annual repetition procreation and birth became a reprocreation and a rebirth. This suggested that people are also reborn – not only in the afterlife as souls, but in this world as physical people. This image for reincarnation, of course, does not show that reincarnation is not true, but only how the image for it came to be.

This simile was still supplemented by the analogy to the course of the sun:

This shows, among other things, that the afterlife is assigned to the night – appropriately enough, the devil is usually summoned at midnight.

A closer look at these old ideas about the "life after death" shows that there is a mistake:

The image of rebirth was initially used to describe only the arrival of the soul in the afterlife – as an image, this is fine. But if one concludes from this that this rebirth must be preceded by a reprocreation, this is not a conclusion from a concrete observation, but a conclusion from a picture. Reprocreation is an extension of a pictorial description, which lacks any concrete basis.

A mythe should always be a description of experiences and observations that is as accurate and precise as possible – only then can it be "real" and helpful.

So, at the root of the origin of the devil there is also another error: The herd-animal-man has been created to solve a problem which does not exist in reality at all – there is no reprocreation really …

This has not been the only error in connection with death which appears in the myths.

One wondered where the souls might be after death, since, as a rule, one did not meet them again. Just as the arrival in the afterlife after death was compared to a second birth, that is, to a rebirth, so it was imagined that after death the souls went to a fertile land (Egyptians), to a paradise-garden (Bibel), to a palace under the earth (Sumer), to the happy hunting grounds (Indians), to a kind of second world (Celts), to Valhalla to Odin and the Aesir (Germanic peoples), and so on.

However, if one takes it exactly, one can say only certainly that the souls have no more their bodies after death. The motive of the hereafter as a place serves only the figurative orientation.

The soul in the body of a living person and the soul of a dead person are not in two different places – the only difference is that in one case the soul has a body and in the other case it does not. Therefore, when a living person travels to his own soul, he travels, so to speak, to the beyond.

For this reason also the journey of a shaman into the beyond is ultimately only a figurative paraphrase for the fact that he or she travels to a soul, i.e. makes contact with it. The same is true for ancestor worship and meditations. For this reason, the Tibetan Book of the Dead is at the same time a guide for the afterlife journey, on which the shaman accompanies the dying, and for meditation, with the help of which the yogi finds his own soul, among other things.

Thus, the afterlife, where the devil dwells, is not a real place at all, but only the "disembodied state" of the soul.

It is interesting that here also an error appears as one of the roots of the devil – Buddha described hatred, greed and error as the three basic evils in life and the devil is the basic evil in the monotheistic religions, i.e. especially in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Error is one of the roots of the devil – what about hatred and greed? They can also be found quite easily …

The normal state of man is self-expression, i.e. a radiance. When this radiance meets an obstacle, this ray becomes stronger to remove the obstacle: effort. However, if the obstacle does not give way, there are first of all two ways of reaction: