Since Lucifer and Satan are said to be different...

[The Sum of Awe]

Then who or what exactly is Satan? And where did he come from? Was he born in the eternal pit? Was he once an angel?

Of course I'm looking at this from a mythological standpoint. In fact, that's why I placed this thread here; it seems more LHPers are more enlightened in demonology than RHPers.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I've never been able to find any definitive answer or general consensus to the question. It really just seems to depend on who you ask, just as it does when you ask if they are the same entity or two separate entities.

 

[Satans_Serrated_Edge]

Then who or what exactly is Satan? And where did he come from? Was he born in the eternal pit? Was he once an angel?

Of course I'm looking at this from a mythological standpoint. In fact, that's why I placed this thread here; it seems more LHPers are more enlightened in demonology than RHPers.

He is largely a collection of mistranslations and misinterpretations, sadly, given life and character though works of fiction.

Satan is the translation of the Hebrew word for accuser, adversary or opponent, a title rather than a name. The biblical 'satan' was simply one of God's angels called upon to put mankind on trial as it were.

 

[EtuMalku]

Who the Hell is Satan?

Here's my understanding of this "Old Enemy" as the literary scholar Neil Forsyth coined and what I consider to be the foundation of what is called Satanism.

Obviously Satan is not the anti-Christian boogeyman created by the Judeo-Christian world, that was yesterday. He is much more than that Abrahamic name, Satan has always existed, only under other names and guises, Satan is a powerful and primordial archetype of man's psyche . . . a meme, or what some may now call a "Godform", I think the Magus of Chaos, Peter Carroll uses that term?

This archetype is the reflection of how we perceive ourselves in relation to what we call the "others". Satan is a social and cultural phenomenon as old as the mind of humanity itself. There has always and will always, be essentially two worldviews consisting of oppositions and they are "Us & Them" or "Me" and "the rest of you" . . . etc.

Sumerian and Akkadian tablets concur this worldview from the earliest known writings, the ancient Egyptian word for an Egyptian meant "human", which excluded all who were not Egyptian to be relegated to 'non-human', the Greek word for non-Greeks was "barbaroi" (barbarians). The Jewish Essenes called anyone not an Essene "ha satan" (the adversary), Zoroastrianism set forth the dualistic "good" (what we believe in) and "evil" (what they believe in).

"A society does not simply discover its others, it fabricates them, by selecting, isolating, and emphasizing as aspect of another people's life, and making it symbolize their difference" - William Scott Green (Professor of the history of religion - ancient Judaism, biblical studies, and the theory of religion).

So, who/what is this Satan? He simply is who you are not!

 

[1137]

Satan is a long perverted version of the immaterial, non natural, chaotic, questioning aspects of ourselves. Originally respected for its strength and magical ability, it became shunned as solar/Osirian religions took over with a focus on present, material control.