Legion der Teufel (devil), and the problem with evil, and its definition in the Apocalypse.

     Our understanding of evil is a thing unto each of us, in most cases. The Euro-American interpretation is unique, though it has some simularities in faiths that are not Judeo-Christian. The Islamic faith borrows from numerous older faiths, some pagan, and the Hebrew and Christian faiths, but due to the overbearing lunatic fringe of the Moslems we will avoid discussing Islam at the present time. We find that a great deal on the devil comes through Zoroastrian influence. In the roots of the Judeo Christian traditions there is no devil per se, it is a later construct added to the pseudo-christian rubric by Augustine, called by the roman pagans, 'saint', the saints being a continuation of the roman pagan customs of deifying men.
     Modern psychology sees religion as a construct, a fiction; animism, totemism, fetishism and fear of the dark, as well as a method for the manipulation of the masses (Marx's opiate of the masses). Religion has been all these things to many, but in its essence it is the direct communication between man, and God. Religion is designed to bring an ecstatic experience to its devotee's. For the intelligent it provides a means to sort all things into a useful set of correspondences for the furthering of culture, both scientific and artistic, and as a means for gathering with others culturally and for mystical experiences.
     Yet to the wise, religion is a means to further his intellectual capacity, by disciplining every faculty towards the contemplation and direct experience of the mind of God. The wise will then learn to work with the forces of God to shape the reality he lives within. This is the true definition of the occultist, one who seeks to control and make use of the hidden and secret forces of the universe, and does not imply the embracing of the forces of darkness.

The first devil, Lileth

     These forces grant the sage the ability to study almost any subject, so as to attain a working knowledge if not even proficiency or mastery of almost any field of study or pursuit. Whether it be baking or brick making, welding or horse archery, painting, writing or music or any form of engineering or design, and the list goes on;  in union with the mind of God, all things are possible. Effectively our goal is to succeed at whatever we set our hands to, on some acceptable level.
     Somehow, in the twentieth century, most probably due to the catholic propaganda machine, the word occult took on a darker meaning, to where in most minds in the west, it is representative of devil worship. As stated above, it is not the sum and total designation, as occultism is to explore the hidden and secret forces of the universe. Therefore, all the sciences were occultist before their great discoveries, and after in their pursuit of new studies. It is also the exploration of the hidden forces of God, and the way to master the physical plane. This is the yoga of the west, of the Alchemist and Qabalist; that is, the mastery of the physical plane.
     By seeking Divine wisdom and guidance, we attempt to contemplate and then master (or at least understand) the unknown. We might choose to learn about evil, but the sage knows of the destructive nature of evil. It is against life, it is against evolution, and its corrupting nature leads to destruction and even insanity.
     This then calls for an explanation of evil and what men have called the devil.

     The first mention of the devil, comes in the Zoharic commentaries on the story of Adam and Eve, and his first wife, who was Lileth. Lileth refused to be submissive to Adam, and did not want to have to bear children. God cast her out for not accepting her place, so in response she vowed to kill all children, and the creation of God itself. She is considered to be the temptress of Eve in an effort to destroy the order that God had created and the first feminist . She vampirizes men in their sleep, takes the life from children in their sleep, and is the patron saint of whores and prostitutes, in her constant attempt to cause people to rebel against God. Her perversions leave one empty and aloof to all the joys of life, so that only death is sought (hence the demoness of suicide). Her goal to bring an end to Gods creation, but there are many forms of evil. The first is that of seductress and murderess.
     The devil is blind perverse force, uncontrolled rage; Christ defines it as legion because it lacks unity. Lacking unity it lacks direction, though it can influence men to act out uncontrolled behaviors. Even an evil man has some unity of thought and direction. Evil pointlessly despoils, it corrupts through any of the passions, whether physical or mental. Giving complete unity to one evil entity is too generous, as legion has little direction. Evil gains direction from its intercourse with men. Evil of and in itself must form some bond with a soul in order to be effective. As Soloviev described the anti-christ as a funny little man with a funny little mustache, who can have easily placed the prediction with Hitler. Evil possessed the fuehrer, and together they carved out their little world of hate, until evil destroyed him, by using his own creativity and intelligence and forward looking tendencies against himself and the German people. In the end, evil leaves a pile of rubble, stinking corpses, and skulls littering the countryside. Evil makes deserts. As the old adage goes; Rome makes a desert and calls it peace.

Set-An the willful brother of Osiris

     The only thing we can expect from evil is the end Hitler brought to Europe. A burning heap. Evil of old was divided into three categories or principles.  Apophis, Set, and Typhon. The first is the oldest definition of evil. Apophis or Apep, sometimes referred to as Apeppi is the eater of souls. When God through His ministrations and processes weighs the soul and finds it beyond redemption, He allows Apep to feed upon it. Apep, the eater of souls, is a reptilian creature, rather and a bit dragon like.
     This opening prayer grants you an idea of what the Egyptian saw Apep as. 'Get thee back, Apep, thou enemy of Ra, thou winding serpent in the form of an intestine, without arms and without legs. Thy body cannot stand upright so that thou mayest have therein being, long is thy tail in front of thy den, thou enemy; retreat before Ra.' This was an incantation against noxious creatures. A catholic exorcism might appear simular in its get thee back satan, thou worm of slime!
      To the Greeks the devil was Typhon in his aspect of the destroyer. The Apeppi priesthood during the enlightened period of Egypt, would call up the form of Apep every night, to destroy it. Thereby ridding the world of evil each day. This Khemite or black ( or rich black earth) brotherhood would take this legion in what ever form it might arise and decimate it upon the astral. It was considered that evil arose constantly, sometimes from the evil egregores formed by mankind's dark thoughts and deeds, sometimes those formed by other types of life, whether intelligent or not. Thought builds upon the astral, that is in Yetzirah, and manifests in variant forms upon the physical plane, hence the moniker legion, that is blind perverse uncontrolled force. By creating a psychic construct of evil, it becomes easier to destroy its influence in the world. Thus Apep to the Egyptian priesthood, (which may have varied from place to place, but was fairly simular.) also took on the characteristics of Typhon the destroyer, though in earlier texts is very distinct as the eater of souls for the purpose of Divine punishment. What becomes apparent then is that this manifold designation is summated in the modern concept of legion.
     The  priesthood was considered to be essential to the preservation of the Egyptian civilization. The premise that civilizations rise and fall was an inherent part of Egyptian history and philosophy. It was essential to maintain society both on the physical and etheric planes. The premise being, that evil occurs in the unmanifest or etheric planes called Yetzirah. As it builds up in Yetzirah it attaches to life forms and drains their vitality. Growing in strength it begins to influence the living, sometimes forming their desires and influencing or even making their decisions.
     Being chaotic in nature it does not have order. It revels in fear, pain, suffering and need. The Qabalistic adage,  unbalanced force is Qliphotic refers to the basic nature of evil, and warns that if you are unbalanced you will attract evil. Evil is primal predatory contempt for all existence. The predator lives to capture its prey, thus if we could say that blind perverse force learns, it does so for the experience of bringing about the destruction of existence, even its own. It is the antithesis to the Chokmatha, the Divine wisdom of God which courses through the universe, and teaches, heals and guides all who perceive it.

     What may be shocking to most, is that in Isaiah, 45v7, God is quoted as saying that He creates evil. How then should we approach the subject of evil itself. As part of the nature of existence, in varying extremes? As a possible side of the forces which cause life? As a form of planned obsolescence, or as a principle of nature? All of the above and more.. What we must do, is to not presume  to comprehend all the forms of legion, but to evolve a method of dealing with it in conjunction with all the other principles of life as we understand them, and as we discover them. The message then is there is something to all of this, and each must be dealt with in its own way. One must beware of that which could destroy them. We must not cringe in fear of evil, but dominate and decimate it.
     The prime edict of God for His creation is free will. We must choose God. The soul must choose the highest thereby gaining its immortality. It must do so from the perspective of truth, We can choose to do good rather than evil, but more so we  must transform and elevate our desire nature, so that we do not desire to do evil. If the desire is there, so is the evil. To control ones evil nature is a good thing, but if the evil nature is there, then you are evil, and must transform your desire nature.

     This leads us to the explanation of the Set part of the triad, as the paragraphs above might lend to the reasoning behind developing a system of categorizing the nature of evil, so as to be capable of controlling it. In the Egyptian histories of the war between the gods they tell of two brothers, Osiris and Set. Noble, and gods. Osiris was the sitting monarch; Set felt him unworthy, and that the crown should be his. Through subterfuge Set captures Osiris and cuts his body into 14 pieces. The wife of Osiris; Isis, seeks to find all the pieces. If she can, she will be able to reanimate Osiris. She only finds 13 pieces and cannot reanimate him.  She does so the tale goes, manage to contact him in the other world, and become impregnated by him,; giving birth to his son, Horus. the first recorded virgin birth. 
     Set is so filled with hatred and jealousy of the fact that Osiris was made regent over the world that he sought to destroy it. He was in effect, a rebel against the unknown God who granted Osiris hegemony. Set became known as the maker of deserts, the only way so he thought, he could exact a toll against the Creator. We quote from the legend of Horus of Behutet, part of the tale of the war between the gods; And Ra said, "Set hath taken upon himself the form of a hissing serpent. Let Horus the son of Isis, in the form of a hawk-headed staff, set himself over the place where he is, so that the serpent may never more appear." Hence the first form of satan; Set-An the serpent.
     The war between Horus and Set carries on for some long time, until Egypt is made a desert from the destruction. As the old historical account goes, Horus hunted down the followers of Set until none survived, but the war set in motion the continually growing desert. The followers of Horus used long iron rods, described with a hawks head on one end, and a tuning fork shape at the other. Some say that Set was hunted, but accounts of the scorpion killing Horus, and his resurrection there after, imply that the war was perpetual, or at least lasting for quite some time.

Lucifer 

     It is noteworthy that Horus is often cited as being simular to Jesus and that Set-an (meaning the god Set or Set of the house of An, which is of course another discourse unto itself.)  is where we get satan from. Some say Horus is Michael the archangel. For his human form, and his immaculate birth, as well as his resurrection one can see how many have thought that this Egyptian story was grafted on to the Christ story through the coptic church, with the intent of absorbing Egypt into the Christian fold. The Egypt of the Ptolemy's then went on to  influence the rest of the Greek and finally Roman world.
     The formula of the resurrection may be found in many places throughout history. That this is a mystical formula is quite possible. That we do not frequently see such occurrence leaves it still a probable mystical experience. The catholic church, certainly guilty of sinning against biblical law quite frequently, especially in reference to Christs edict against harming children, unless you think buggering little boys is excusable, and taking advantage of a widows fortune, read plundering, is not much of a misdemeanor; has stated that the worst thing modern times have done is to deny the existence of the devil, thus leaving it free and unchecked reign over humanity in its naivety. The catholic church is filled with evil men, who live the satanic vice, while inflicting hurt upon the innocent. Physician heal thyself.
     To give the devil such unity of consciousness is the Manichean influence inflicted upon early Christianity by Saint Augustine, who was a Manichean first. This occurred in  Egypt as Augustine hunted down the remnants of pristine Christianity and attempted to destroy them. Christ is seen talking to the prince of the world, and offered rule over the  world if he will just (renounce God?) follow the devil. In the initiatory system of the Qabalists, one must first traverse the path of the devil or Ayin, before entering Tiphareth, the Sephiroth attributed to Christ ( the solar Beauty, Harmony); but indicative of his spiritual growth and development as an initiate, a man upon the quest to attain union with God, must pass through such experience of trials and tribulations to attain to a greater state. I and my father are one, that is Achad, the hebrew word for unity, which has been translated as one. One must walk through evil unscathed by it and embrace God with a union of consciousness.
     Should we worship Christ as God. This is satanism to the Jew and Moslem, and was one of the causes of the breakup between the protestants and the papist idol worshipers, the catholics. At least that is how early protestants saw the idolatry of worshiping Christ on the cross. The issue of the trinity was a major point of contrition. Simple enough to say that Christ prayed to his Father to have this cup pass, to be saved from his suffering. The difference between Christ, that is messiah or meschiach, that is messenger of God is at variance with the false christian belief that God came down to earth in the form of a man, which is just traditional Roman paganism. This does not imply that Christ did not have Union with God. He and God were one. The goal of all who are a part of the true faith. There is one God, one faith; where two or more are gathered in my name, so am I there. Thus is the nature of those who are a part of the body of God.
     Those who deny this unity with God, who say that only through a priest intercessor can man experience God are quite confused, one might say even manipulative. To say there is one church, and that is the Roman church is a mistake, pure satanism, Christ comes to those who seek him, God is open to all; through direct experience, through the substantive grace of intercession through a prophet or the directed effort of true prayer with a priest. There will be a great reckoning between God and the romish church when the judgement comes.
     Men have been using religion, to manipulate others, often forcing them into slavery in one form or another. This has given religion a bad name. It should make you think twice about the legion of religions that are out there, and realize that God is one. To prepare oneself for direct union with God will bring you into that unity. In a state of pure consciousness, in the depths of devout piety, one can experience God, if He see's that you are fit. Calming the mind, controlling the body, refining the passions, and developing a true relationship with God, will enable you to become fit for direct experience of God. He comes when He is ready, to those who are fit.  The practices of the Rosenkreutzer enable one to have direct experience of Divinity.

     The pagan rituals of the churches who are legion can lead one astray. Have an innocent passion for God...He knows His own. To elevate your consciousness to a point where Divinity can be perceived, a complete control of mind over body, and soul over body and mind should be had, yet with God anything is possible; the roads to mystical experience are multitudinous and varied, all depends upon your worthiness, your true gentle spirit, which God will know.
     As evil can hide in many guises, so can good. As religions confuse, for the true of heart, any one of them can become a guide to Divinity.  We seek truth where we can find it, as Jakob Boehme has said; one must embrace the meekness of the lamb.
   
     For those who do not  have a feel for God, who would like to believe, who say of God; 'Never met Him', there is little to say. It is nice that you have an open mind, but, as you approach God, so shall He approach you. If you do now have the open-mindedness of the scientist, to explore and attempt to experience God, you probably won't. As you approach, so God approaches you. Little effort exerted is rewarded with little. Though there are no hard set rules, that is generally the case. With God, all is possible.

     Now to speak of modern movements, of the recurrence of satanism and paganism in the twentieth century. This of course is part of prophecy, and another of the many signs of the apocalypse as given. That man is led astray by evil is not implied, but that man would embrace evil out of sensuality and gross self satisfaction, is what makes this one of the keys which opens the apocalypse. As evil is embraced, warfare becomes more common. The industrialist decides that capitalism cannot function without war, the Islamic cleric, that the infidels must die, the so called christian cleric, that the infidels must die, the soldier, that war is an honorable endeavor, the oil monger, that we must supply a steady supply of oil, the lobbyist, that we must support Israel, the Arabist, that we must turn back the crusader. The communist, that we must bring order to the chaos of the world, and freely distribute the wealth to all (read themselves), and kill the capitalist imperialist who would enslave all that are weaker than him. Rival communists; that we must kill the revisionists. Facists; we must bring order to the world, the needs of the state out weigh the needs of the individual, the modern fascist state is the merging of the state with the corporation; the military logic of fascism must not be hampered by sentimentalism; backward, therefore inferior must bow to the usage of the superior master race, the advanced civilization is better left in charge of the resources of the world. The excuse for war and petty destruction is endless, the final result seems to be too much of the same; a desert.
     From the earliest accounts then, we can imply that the devil is winning. Thus commeth the apocalypse; the belief being that evil will be purged and the world, that is, life as we know it or better, shall be saved, and a new golden age shall be entered into, after a time of tribulation.
     The popular satanic or anti biblical traditions which have evolved in the twentieth century bear some notice. Much of it starts with the catholic church and its off shoots obsession with evil. Looking for blame, or trying to blame others as being in league with the devil was a quick route to easy street, offering great financial rewards, but twentieth century satanism is somewhat original. There was much going on in the avant garde movement which started in victoriam England, with somewhat less activity in France and Germany. A fondness for the occult and its catholic interpretation became coupled with repressed sexuality and dominant deviant behavior, along with greed.
     People in the age of reason were disappointed with the catholic's answers to the problems of life. Partly with being corrupted by catholicism, and selfcenteredness of some form, wanting to be bad, or simply to see if there was some real supernatural experience to be had in this world; people began to practice and develop a system of satanic rituals. Hitler was in the Thule society. They were interested in occult power, and felt that Judaism and its offshoot Christianity were inferior representations of the truth. They looked to ancient texts from India, Egypt, Sumeria, the Reindeer hunters glyphs and old folklore, to reconstruct what was lost to humanity by the catholics unceasing effort to stamp out any learning or approaches to spirituality which they did not control. The Thule/Hitler camp wanted something unjewish, but something that would give them power.
     From the S.S. schools of study they evolved a new form of paganism steeped in satanism. They reversed the swastika and took the highest symbol of Gods spirituality, the symbol of Kether the primum mobile, symbolic of the center of all universes where the first creation began; and used it as a form for the  convocation of power. Hitler did (Magickal) projection of power forms of the swastika starting from the centre of Europe and outward. By creating in the ethers this force, he and his cult started a series of projections over the territory of the world, with the goal of eventual domination of the entire world.
     His extermination of the Jews was for the purpose of committing an abomination against the Lord; the complete obliteration of His chosen people. Evil takes many forms, ending in destruction. God had long before cast them out as His people, saying He would make them a mockery amongst all men for their sins against Him, showing the prophet Esdras what their fate would be in the vision of the ovens. So Hitler was duped of his goal of undoing God, the Jews are back again, stronger than ever, and evil is continuing to implant false reasons to kill everyone. It is what it does.
     This is a brief description of the Hitlerian SS cult. This gave birth to the Gardenerian school of witchcraft. He took the SS research into European witch cults, and mingled them with his own English observations (Druid, welsh, wiccan) and came up with his own system. This was in 1949. The modern witchcraft movement was born from his efforts, as well as from many others. Like weeds in fertile soil it grew in many directions through many forms. Lesbians wanted acceptance, and the God of the Hebrews would not give it to them, so they renewed goddess worship. The rest is open history.
     Anton  (Levy a nice jewish boy) Lavey (the way he spells it on his books) founded the church of satan in 1966 (I believe). He was a carvinal man, who saw a great opportunity. To the people of the era it became a good excuse to party (read get laid, as many had said). He would have rituals where a vampire priest would bite you on the neck and initiate you into the cult. You could make an animal call before a likely sex partner if you wanted intercourse, and they would respond if interested. The High priestesses were usually called Lillith, would deck out in fangoria style (Elvira-ish). It was said by disaffected members that they practiced blood sacrifice ( on the homeless, kidnapped children, and submissives) but that overall it was a means to power.
     Around the same time an order which claimed greater antiquity called the order of the Ram was on the scene. Some have said it was the gay offshoot of Lavey's church. The order of the Rams chief satanic purpose was to cause people to commit abominations against the Lord. When interviewed, the shaven headed leader circa 1970 said; ' We have nightclubs in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Paris, and will open more to promulgate homosexuality'. 'Our goal is to cause the act of people committing abominations against the Lord to be commonplace, so accepted by society that their common activity will be tolerated by all'. Obviously there must be some catholic influence there, but this was their goal, and they have succeeded.
     There were old satanic groups in New Orleans USA, and in Switzerland (fairly recent child abuse scandal), but as has been the long held practice, they are very secretive. Some people hold that the Bushes belong to one such club, who can say, I've seen it on you tube. The popular art is out there, the musical groups are out there, the black metal satanic faction, and many others. Satanism is alive and well, and open about their personal perversions, unlike the catholics who can't keep theirs under raps. Both spring from the same well.



     But in the end, there can be no sympathy for the devil,  because it is legion; just blind perverse disruptive, destructive force, and like any predator, must be put down.