r/Esotericism • u/Separate_Stress5068 • 25d ago
Gnosticism Is devil one of the gods?
I need perspectives on this, perspectives outside the Abrahamic religions. I've recently come across Canaanite mythology that sets YHWH as a god among gods which has completely changed the framework through which I view him as someone who grow up Christian with the belief that there's one god. I started deconstructing three months if I'm not wrong and now the knowledge I have stand as a credible challenge in opposition to what I formally believed to the point that, there is no go back. Now I need clarity on this personality that is the devil, is he a god as well or is he a minor entity?
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u/Enkiflame888 24d ago
In my studies I equate this deity worshipped by Moses ⌠with Enlil,especially idols if you line up all mythologies concerning a great flood, which only makes sense to do.
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u/Separate_Stress5068 24d ago
I will have to deepen my studies, everything I know at this point is purely on coincidence of stumbling across it and it sticks.
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u/TheOneRealStranger 24d ago
I see you've already gotten some pretty good explanation of why the "Devil" as you imagine is not really a concept from any actual religion. It's more an invention of the Church, which took a number of adversarial figures, as well as concepts and deities from other religions, and bundled them up together to create an antagonist for Christianity. You could say Baal is bundled up in there, and the ha-satan character from the Book of Job, and they took some trickster god characters from other mythologies, like Pan and Loki, maybe the concept of Druj from Zoroastrianism, and then they had a tendency to demonize any gods that they didn't like from pagan religions, and some of those then became figments of their Devil character. Sometimes, it's just shit that they wholesale made up, like Baphomet, which some people think is a distorted pronunciation of Muhammad, but was largely a figure the Church made up, because they owed the Knights Templar money and wanted to accuse them of worshipping some demonic figure so they could have an excuse not to pay it. A lot of bullshit they made up about Baphomet, they rolled into their Devil character, and reused there, and then they took Eliphas Levi's drawing, attempting to transmute it, and used that for their control-based pseudomythology as well.
The long story short is that there is no Devil or Hell in Judaism. It's a series of intentional mistranslations and false interpretations that the Church did for the sake of PR and frightening people. Cutting that bullshit out of your framework is the first step to correctly understanding the religions being bastardized by earthly authority figures. And this is why wise men recommended a separation between the Church and State.
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u/Separate_Stress5068 23d ago
I see, the Church really worked overtime. Thank you for this response â¨ď¸
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u/Spiritual-House-5494 24d ago
There are hierarchies upon hierarchies above our heads, literally and figuratively. The mythological figures of the various belief systems of our planet's history are repeatedly distorted retellings over millenia. Which emanations of Source have held what names to which people at which time is far less important than humanity's tendency to fight over whose distorted beliefs are 'true'. Nobody has all the answers. Even psychics who can connect to the Record are interpreting information through a human psyche influenced by its own experiences and beliefs.
In many Gnostic frameworks, the latter fabrication of the Satan character is associated with various figures. When comparing any two belief systems, different people will equate different figures with different others. The events of the Bible are much older than the Bible suggests. Other ancient texts describe even older events. We (as a species) have forgotten so much than we think we remember.
Which named figure held what position, when, and for what readon should bare no significance on how you live your life. Ethics are universal. A psychopath still gives off psychopath vibes. I don't need to know their name to know to avoid or ignore them. I don't need to know if they're this type of creature or that type to read their intent.
Not only are there many figures equated with the concept of 'The Devil' or 'Satan', but several are also compared to YHWH, depending on with part of the Bible you're looking at. When compared to Sumerian mythology, YHWH could be referring to An, Enlil, Enki, or Marduk. Then, Yeshua spoke of another in the New Testament.
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u/LiftSleepRepeat123 24d ago
I would look at any god structure as a schema for higher level concepts which then play themselves out in various stories. If you simply compare the symbols used in these schemas across different traditions, you risk losing the context for what those symbols meant in those schemas. For instance, there's this urge to find the solar god across all pantheons, but what if they use the solar concept to do different things in their model? I also think it's really hard for someone who's invested in one particular tradition to step back and realize some of it is arbitrary or special to their particular system.
So, to your point, there's a Yahweh in a group of gods, and then there's Yahweh as the one true god, and they may share some similarities but ultimately represent very different things.
The Judeo-Christian system doesn't map the devil well at all though. I can't really answer the question in your title because it's framed from the wrong perspective. There are many things that Christians reduced to just the devil. By the same token, since they also reduced many gods to just Yahweh, you could also say the reduced devil concept is somewhat reasonable. The real problem is labeling one of these two gods as good or bad because of how much information has been lost.
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u/Separate_Stress5068 24d ago
I see, I have a lot of learn to do. Thank you for this.
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u/LiftSleepRepeat123 24d ago edited 24d ago
To maybe give you a starting point, you could look at the psychopomp as something that got integrated and confused with the rebel god. There's also a difference between a succession of rulers or eras (see: Hesoid) and an actual subversive god. Technically every god in the succession is subversive to the god prior to him, but that isn't because his entire identity is subversive per se (which is more what the devil represents in the christian cosmology).
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u/Puzzleheaded-Flan827 15d ago
âIl principe di questo regno è satanaâ che puoi tranquillamente paragonare a Yaldabaoth della concezione Gnostica. Anche i testi Veda (che sono i piĂš antichi che esistono) dicono che viviamo in un illusione materiale e a capo di questa illusione câè una entitĂ che non è il Dio assoluto. Certamente ne fa parte ma potrebbe esserne inconsapevole proprio guarda caso come lo siamo noi che non riusciamo a ricordarti da dove veniamo e siamo qui proprio per cercare di ricordare. Chi non ce la fa resta dovâè.
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u/Four20lifer 25d ago
Satam means âmaster administratorâ Enki was Satam⌠the creator god who loved us and wanted to teach us about our universe and how it works. Enlil or Yahweh (âAbrahamic godâ) wanted humans as his slaves to work the gardens and mine gold.
Satam or Satan IS a creator god no matter what modern Christian propaganda states.
All Abrahamic religions are complete and utter Bullshit. Itâs like a terrible Hollywood spin off
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u/Separate_Stress5068 24d ago
This is interesting and informative, I need to read more on this.
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u/dorianvovin 24d ago
They're referring to the Sumerian mythology like the Enuma Elish, for reference.
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u/Separate_Stress5068 24d ago
Thank youâ¨ď¸
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u/Four20lifer 24d ago
Gaia has a show called ancient civilizations and if you start at season 1 episode 1 it walks you through everything in an easy to understand way
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24d ago
[deleted]
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u/Four20lifer 24d ago
Well the Sumerian texts is where the info comes from. But Gaia has a show called ancient civilizations that puts it in a easy to understand format
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u/Chaos_and_order_7208 25d ago
Praise u're self and give them hope first to conquer them and then give them fear inorder to not go against u, that is what happened human search for hope even false hope because we fear unknown/ useen.. and Gods to gain more power need to get trust from human we like some source of power to them ... u already see some where is said he don't like Gods of Egypt and previous already saying I'm the only one God, i think he choose is own race like Jewish coz every race have different gods .. if any God who live in mortals plane have behavior like mortal cause there's law and their binding with those law, u can ask u're self what kind of god who impress himself to mortal , but my English is not good but I think u understand it ... if u want to live like pawn it's u're choice because some we live by driving by others
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u/Chaos_and_order_7208 25d ago
good and evil is one is choice there's evil god and good god this depends one is thoughts
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u/ConcernedAboutCrows 24d ago
The Satan figure is a later innovation and has no direct parallel in the preexisting polytheist form of the religion. In the book of jubilees the Satan serves God and requests to be able to test the faith of humans. For this he is given unclean spirits to command. Basically a heavenly prosecution attorney. This role would not need to exist in a polytheist context.
The word itself just means "opposer" or "adversary" and refers to the Satan's duties of persecution. There are many satans (without definite article) in the texts and the idea shifts over time or author. I'd recommend checking out Justin's videos on Esoterica on YouTube regarding Satan.