Devil

Why do they have angel-food cake and devil's food cake. Is that what these supreme beings actually eat? Probably thay have some ephemeral afterlife version of these cakes, which are, like, 10,000 times better than our finite, earthly version.They probably have everyone go to the breakroom, sing "Happy Birthday, Dear Gabriel, or Beelzebub, or whatever, and have the most delicious, most badass cake ever. Cake so good that it would kill you or me. Well, I really like chocolate, so I guess I know where I'M going. I just hope they have baseball.

Lucifer, having sinned, was banished from Paradise to the Nether Region. On his descent, he paused for a moment, then went back and approached the Almighty. »I just had a thought,« he said.

»Go on,« God allowed.

»I understand that you are about to create mankind.«

»What of it?« replied God.

»He will need laws....« Lucifer mused.

»Wretch!« thundered He. »You have committed the most grievous sin, yet you ask if you can write mankind's laws?«

»Beg pardon,« bowed Lucifer. »I only ask that he be allowed to write them himself.«

The word 'devil' spells 'lived' backwards. Is this a reference to what poor old Lucifer did before he fell – or an intimation of what he could do again, if only he could turn himself around.

This talk of the devil recalls the media reports of »satanic abuse« in the early-1980s United States and mid-1980s Britain and their emphasis on purported devil worship – as if this would have made the sexual abuse and torture of children any more abhorrent. Drawing on Wilson (1951), anthropologist and DHSS-commissioned investigator La Fontaine (1998:93) attributes this to »shared fears of figures of evil«:
»There is no evidence in these cases that what is alleged to have happened has happened... There is evidence that children have been sexually abused and subjected to perverse treatment and there is also evidence that children's interest in magic and witches may be used to lure them into participating in sexual activities and to make sure that they keep these activities secret. However, the satanic conspirators of the satanic abuse allegations, like night-witches or the celebrants of the witch's sabbath, reflect «the nightmares of the group.»«

La Fontaine, Jean S. (1998): Speak of the devil: tales of satanic abuse in contemporary England Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Wilson, M. (1951): »Witch beliefs and social structure« in American Journal of Sociology 56 307-313

Why is the Devil such an attractive figure, you ask? It's because the Devil can do all the bad self-destructive stuff that would kill us, and he just laughs it off.
To wit:

The Devil can smoke (unfiltereds),
he can drive too fast,
he can drink too much (but he's never an asshole because of it)
he can shoot heroin, sniff cocaine, and have group sex with his best friend, his wife, and her hairdresser, all at once,
he can jump off a building,
he can eat oysters in July,
he can pump gas while puffing on a Lucky Strike,
he can eat red meat and scotch every meal of his life,
he can steal your honey like he stole your bike,
he can dodge the bullet you and I can't even see.

We need someone to be this bad, because, like it or not, Keith Richards isn't going to be around forever.

"Tell me the TRUTH about the Devil !

Does the Devil really exist? Some Satanists view the Devil as the first individual -
the first being to acquire consciousness and self-awareness. This lends itself to free
will and is the true meaning behind Lucifer's »fall from grace.« We are all
inheritors of that gift, so if you are asking me what the devil looks like, I would
simply tell you to go look in a mirror. In other words as the Inxs song lyrics read "every
single one of us ... the devil inside." We have a choice as to whether we decide to utilize that
aspect of ourselves.

The most common misconception about the Devil is that the Devil is somehow responsible
for the free will choices we make as individuals. Is the Devil behind all the evil in the world?
It would depend on what you would define as the devil. We, you and I, and all other
individuals are responsible for the evil and all the good as well. Human beings are creatures
of habit and whenever the force of change is introduced to a system it is upsetting,
perceived as »evil.«

Change itself is the universal constant. Just when you think you've got everything figured
out and all your beliefs neatly categorized, the trickster Satan comes along and whacks you
upside the head with an apparent contradiction. You see, we are being "fooled by the
Devil" because that is how we learn – through our own mistakes! Without problem solving,
existence becomes futile, meaningless! The Devil represents life's onslaughts and challenges
which we must face and overcome to evolve physically and spiritually. John Milton put it
this way, »Satan is the force of change that wills forever evil, but does forever good.«

Those who trash the Devil are beating up on themselves. The good guy/bad guy mentality
sanctioned by the Islamic and Christian faith is dehumanizing and dangerous. The same
technique is used by the military establishment. When John Allee served in the army during
the Vietnam war, the troops were shown propaganda films depicting Asians as slant-eyed
devils who pillaged and raped women. The objective was to dehumanize the enemy so they
could be killed without conscience. It is effective programming and excellent military
strategy. The point is whether you choose to use it in your own personal life!

More recently, here in the United States, commercial airliners were hijacked by a group of
Islamic fundamentalists who were taught from a very early age that America was "the
Great Satan." With fanatic religious devotion, they commandeered the planes to crash into
strategic locations, killing themselves and everyone aboard, along with thousands of
innocent people. Again, these hijackers were desensitized. They were not murdering men,
women and children; they were vanquishing Satan. Thus, anything that they did, could not
be seen as more evil than what they were attempting to overcome.

Many Christians fear that the Devil wants their soul. Again, you have to understand the
definition of the Devil. Secondly, for there to be want, there must be separation or division.
The source of all life is the One, whose center is everywhere. All layers of intelligence in the
Universe are cut from the same dark cloth. We are it. It is us.

You cannot be separated from your soul. It is what makes you ... you. You may worry
about what the agenda of Satanism really is and what the Devil's purpose is on this planet.
In essence, you are really asking the age-old question, "What is our purpose on earth?
What is the meaning of life?" Free will determines what you believe and how you perceive
things. You are an aspect of divinity, therefore life means exactly what you think it means.
Decide right now whether you will define your life from a perspective of free will or fear.
One path is that of passive acceptance. The other is that of the trail blazer."

John D. Allee, FCoS Founder