The Devil - Satan - Saturn
The concept of the devil appears to be an ancient one. According to the Bible it appears that his primary role is to use whatever guiles he may to cause humans to sin, so that ultimately they are sent to hell. The word Satan could have its origin in the Standard Hebrew word Satan’el; in English it means accuser. This term has come down to us from the Abrahamic faiths; it was traditionally applied to an Angel in the Judeo-Christian belief and a jinn in the Islamic tradition. The Hebrew word ha-Satan means ‘the accuser’ and the word Satan ‘to overcome’. Hence Satan was the one who challenged the religious faith of humans in the books of Job and Zechariah. The Abrahamic religious belief systems, other than Judaism, see Satan as a demon, a rebellious fallen Angel, devil, minor god and idol; it can also be an allegory for knowledge for the enlightenment of humankind.
The imagery of a devil as a being with horns, hooves and a tail, goes back at least as far as the ancient Greeks and their god Pan; nobody really knows but this myth could be much older still. The Greeks pictured Pan as a goat and worshipped him as the abundant and pro-creative God of wild and untamed nature, sexuality and life-giving fertility. Pan personified natural energy in its chaotic and disordered state. Included in this were our primitive, instinctive urges, in particular the sexual ones. In the days of the early Christians, such things were declared to be pagan worship. Even in those days, enlightened souls would have recognised that to suppress them altogether would be against nature and therefore impossible. However, whatever did not suit us about the old beliefs, we cleverly built into our new systems according to our changed perception of our world.
Whether this was for better or worse, is of no interest to us any longer. It was merely one of many evolutionary stages our race had to pass through. As we are here now, it is highly likely that at least during some lifetimes we reincarnated into and followed each one of the old and the new belief systems. Now, isn’t it a wonderfully sobering thought that it may have been us who, as early Christians, declared Saturn to be Satan. Pan we banished into hell and from then onwards the Devil was depicted with horns, hooves and a tail. We decreed that because all natural impulses and instincts are evil and of the devil, they had to be suppressed.
The only thing that seems to have survived that onslaught seems to be the symbol of Capricorn, the planet’s own sign; it has remained the goat. The three Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. In Taurus the soul is reminiscent of the freshly ploughed Earth at that time of the year, like Mother Earth herself it is ready to take kindly to the seeds that are planted into its consciousness. In Virgo the soul brings forth the harvest of that which has been sown in Taurus and nurtured and cared for since then. In each Earth sign the soul has to work hard for what it wants to get out of life. Yet, Capricorn is Earth at its coldest and densest; here the soul is required to work harder than ever. This is in preparation for the seeds that are to be sown next spring when yet another rebirth on the great wheel of life takes place and a new season of growing begins.
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The above is a chapter from ‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’
