Blavatsky on Satan and Lucifer

 Satan and Lucifer – Her views on Satan and Lucifer were situated in a social current of Luciferiansim and still get noticed by various more fundamentalist Christians; below some of the major pieces on this controversial topic. Blavatsky does not worship the devil, she is rather cautious about questions of ritual and worship and she does not support any form of idolatry, sacrilege, profanation, desecration, blasphemy, or immorality. She considers the popular understanding  of the devil to be a superstition, and she makes a distinction between what are known as Satan and Lucifer. Her writings are situated within a current of theological debates of the time, spurred by a greater critical approach and historical research. Her basic approach to the question is to challenge the anthropomorphic, literal, superstitious, and dogmatic approaches in favour of considering the question in a more philosophical, theological inquiry into the nature of good and evil and theodicy. 

This is an area where the debate has changed. Christians no longer engage in intricate theological defence as in Blavatsky's day. They have more or less acquiesced to the  skeptical, rationalist, modern approach and accept the historical temporality of textual and social history. Realizing perhaps that there is little solid testimonies for the first fifty years of Christianity, they can safely posit that there's little about the origins of Christianity that can be proved or disproved, therefore no one can totally discount their traditions, faiths and beliefs. Consequently, there is little interest in doing a historiographical survey of those debates, for example of the reception of an important text that Blavatsky used, which made an enormous impact, went through many printings, and has been largely forgotten, Supernatural Religion: An Inquiry Into The Reality Of Divine Revelation, 1874, Walter Richard Cassels.

 

Regarding an oft-posted Blavatsky quote on the Interwebs,  “It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god…”? Well, it's from SD2, 234 https://theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-1-13.htm She' s paraphrasing & commenting on Anna Kingsford's intriguing text, The Secret of Satan https://sacred-texts.com/wmn/cws/cws71.htm

an intriguing mystical Origen-type universal salvation theology text. At worst, the quote is supporting Origenist universal salvation. If one wishes to condemn her for that, fine, otherwise, I think that the use of the quote is misleading.

1- She devotes a full chapter in Isis Unveiled, vol. 2 to an intricate theological research into the question of the existence of Satan. One of her most erudite, focused and sustained pieces of historical research.

Chapter 10 – The Origin and History of the Dogma of Satan 

(The Devil-Myth)

1- Eternal Damnation / Christian Missionaries (473)

2-Dogma of the existence of Satan (476)

3- Biblical Passages (480)

4- Serpent-Dragon Pagan Sources (482)

5- Job (493)

6- Demons / Church History (500)

7- Avatars (503)

8- Sun and Dragon Myths / Hell (506)

9- Descent into Hell / Gospel of Nicodemus (514)

10- Israelites and Saturn (523)

11- Judaism and Christian Theology (525)

12- Bacchus (527)

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/isis/iu2-10a.htm

 

2-What’s in a Name?

Lucifer, Vol. I, No. 1, September, 1887, pp. 1-7] Collected Writings vol. 9, pp. 5-13

This with the next article, explains the reasons for the magazines controversial title and gives very erudite and esoteric explanations for the connection of Lucifer with the planet Venus.

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v8/y1887_008.htm

 

3- History of a planet [Lucifer, Vol. I, No. 1, September, 1887, pp. 15-22] Collected Writings vol. 9, pp. 14-27

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v8/y1887_010.htm

 

4- The Fall of Ideals

[Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 261-274] Blavatsky Collected Writings vol.12, pp. 33-52

A good succinct exposition of her ideas on Satan and Lucifer based on commentary of a Victor Hugo poem.'he is the ideal synthesis of all discordant forces & each separate human vice or passion is but an atom of his totality.' CW 12, 51, The Fall of Ideals [Lucifer, Dec., 1889, p. 274]

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1889_079.htm

 

5- Her major esoteric, theological, cosmological exposition: 

The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, part 2, Chap. 18. XVIII. On the Myth of the “Fallen Angel,” in its Various Aspects,  pp. 475-505

 https://theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-04.htm

Academic study:

Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture, Per Faxneld, 2017

https://academic.oup.com/book/1486/chapter-abstract/140901200?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false

a more recent book that has similar arguments and research to the Isis Unveiled chapter, more accessible:

Elaine Pagels (1995) The Origin of Satan NY: Vintage Books 

https://archive.org/details/originofsatan00page

 

PS - sound bite on Satan/Lucifer- 'he is the ideal synthesis of all discordant forces & each separate human vice or passion is but an atom of his totality.' CW 12, 51, The Fall of Ideals [Lucifer, Dec., 1889, p. 274] Victor Hugo poem comm