Nature is the work of the Devil

"Nature is the work of the Devil. The Devil is in us as far as we are Nature." -William Blake

In esoteric tradition, Satan represents the raw energy of nature. In this post, I will explain what that means.

As explained in other posts, this world is dualistic; from a Gnostic point of view, it was created by the Demiurge, a false god which embodies light and darkness. Thus, nature - the active, living character of the world he created, its essence - is equivalently ambivalent.

Nature itself is but a reflection of its creator - which is the Demiurge; and the Demiurge is Satan, Lucifer, the fallen angel. Nature is full of life and beauty; it enchants us. However, as Plato argued, the material realm is merely a reflection of the ideal world. The Demiurge stole light from Heaven and imprisoned it in matter; he created his own realm which he'd rule as god, and tried shaping it after the Heaven he'd fallen from (I argue he's continually shaping it, unconsciously, spontaneously, through evolution and the dialectic, ephemeral, mutating, erratic nature of matter as it interacts with energy). Paradise is like nature perfected, free of matter, free of darkness. In our world, suffering is a prerequisite of life. Every creature can only remain alive by feeding on the energy of others. A lion must eat the zebra. Non-carnivores eat mostly plants - though even they will eat meat opportunistically; they don't as the base of their diet because they evolved into less competitive ecological niches out of necessity -, and plants can only grow on fertile soil.

We must also understand ourselves as part of nature; though, paradoxically, we can attempt to free ourselves from it - from its logic, from its dualism - through distillment, through Christ, and that is how we find Heaven: a realm of pure light will only accept pure light within it, just as no shadow can arise from a light source, only be projected by it.

To be part of nature is to be a slave to duality. And to an extent, even the most devout Christians will be while they live, for they are shackled to a material body - only death can free them. Sin derives from matter. Matter covets, and through the free will of our souls, we can reject sinful desire.

With the knowledge provided by the above explanation, one may understand the depictions of Satan as a Dragon and a Satyr.

The Dragon symbolizes every animal as one; it is a chimeric being, the chaotic whole of the animal kingdom personified. The medieval depiction of the Knight slaying the Dragon portrays a man who's conquered his base instincts, his animalistic desire to sin.

The alchemical magnum opus - the hermetic gold, the Rebis - is depicted as standing above the Dragon precisely because the Dragon is Satan; the perfected man is he who has defeated his inner beast.

The Satyr is emblematic of wild desire. He's a creature of lust, a hybrid of man and animal, a drunk, a rapist, and so on. The flute he plays to attract Nymphs is a phallic symbol; he represents temptation as well as sin. All he can do is chase pleasure; though he personifies absolute freedom, unchecked hedonism, he's paradoxically a slave to matter.

Pan, the Satyr god, is the god of nature, and his name literally means ''all'' - in reference to the whole of nature, and to the primordial chaos (which informed Pan's essence), the utter blackness which existed before God distilled light from darkness and created Paradise. Thus, Pan is very similar to Lucifer, to the Demiurge; he is but a representation of him.

Thank you for your continued support! I hope you've enjoyed reading this article.

I must inform you that, unfortunately, I will be posting one article every two weeks as of today, at least for the foreseeable future. I've been too busy as of late, as a student, teacher, independent artist and writer; for the sake of The Firelink Conspiracy, I've been drawing, painting and writing (for my book, that is) less and less. I'll try to do my best with the limited free time I've got, and I hope you understand my decision.