Satan as the Hero — Paradise Lost Decoded
Satan volunteers to travel alone through hell and the abyss to reach humanity. Secret societies read this as the soul's map home — and use it as an initiation ceremony for new members.
The previous post introduced Paradise Lost and the scene it opens on: Satan and his devils in hell after losing the war against God. They will never win a direct confrontation. The question is what to do instead.
Satan's answer is to go to Earth and destroy the thing God loves. No one else volunteers. The journey out of hell is nearly impossible: nine walls of fire, then the abyss of space, where you could drift for eternity and never arrive anywhere.
When no one moves, Satan stands up and says he will go alone.
The First Speech: The Volunteer
Satan's speech to the assembled devils has been read for centuries as a great villain's monologue. The esoteric tradition reads it as something else entirely.
He begins by acknowledging the reality of their prison:
This prison strong, this huge convex of fire, outrageous to devour, immerse us round ninefold and gates of burning adamant barred over us, prohibit all egress.
In plain English: the walls of hell are made of fire. They are designed to last forever. Even if you get through them, what waits on the other side is infinite empty space where you could wander until the end of time.
These paths, if any paths, the void profound of unessential night receives him next. Wide gaping of utter loss of being threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf.
In plain English: beyond the fire is nothing. No landmarks. No direction. Just endless dark. You could dissolve in it and cease to exist entirely.
Yet he continues. He is their leader. A leader who steps back from danger when it arrives is no leader:
Wherefore do I assume these royalties and not refuse to reign, refusing to accept as great a share of hazard as of honor... I will go by myself to redeem us, to deliver us from our torment.
In plain English: why should I call myself a king if I won't share the risk? I will go alone.
The mainstream university reading is that this is a heroic villain doing something wicked. The esoteric reading says: this is the hero of the poem.
What Secret Societies See in This Speech
The tradition that preserves this reading sees Satan's journey out of hell as a description of something that happens to every human being.
When you die, according to this belief, your soul begins an ascent from the material prison toward the light. The path is terrifying and disorienting. You move through layers of darkness without a guide.
The first being you meet is Satan. He is the only one who has made this journey and knows the way.
He is not the enemy of your soul. He is the one who navigated the abyss before you and can take you through it.
The imagery in the speech also maps onto birth. The womb is a warm prison. The baby must force its way through a narrow, dangerous passage into a world it cannot yet comprehend.
To be born, you must leave the world you know. To die, you are born again into the real one.
This is why the speech is used as an initiation ceremony in some secret societies. The new member is told: you have chosen to seek the truth in a world that will punish you for it. People will want to silence you. The journey is dangerous. You will take it alone.
Do you still want to go?
The initiation asks you to be Satan. To volunteer.
The Second Speech: Convincing Eve
The more important speech comes later. Satan, now disguised as a serpent, speaks to Eve in the Garden of Eden and tries to convince her to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
He begins by invoking the tree itself:
Oh, sacred, wise, and wisdom-giving plant, mother of science, now I feel thy power within me clear.
In plain English: this tree actually works. I ate from it and I can feel the difference.
Then the argument. God has told Eve that eating the fruit will kill her. Satan says that is not true:
Queen of this universe, do not believe those rigid threats of death. You shall not die. Look on me, me who have touched and tasted, yet both live.
In plain English: God told you that you would die. I ate it. I am still here.
He goes further. He argues that a true God would reward transgression, not punish it:
Shall that be shut to man, which the beast is open? Will God incense his ire for such a petty trespass, and not praise rather your dauntless virtue?
In plain English: a serpent can eat from this tree without punishment. Would a fair God really destroy you for the same act?
If God is genuinely good and genuinely all-powerful, he would want humanity to grow. Growth requires reaching beyond what you are permitted. A true God would recognize that courage and reward it.
You can only be good if you know what evil is. A God who keeps you ignorant of both is not helping you. He is managing you.
And then the sharpest question:
Why then was this forbid? Why but to keep ye low and ignorant, his worshipers? He knows that in the day ye eat, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.
In plain English: there is only one reason a God would ban this. Because he is afraid of what you will become.
Two possibilities: either God is testing you and will reward transgression, or God is a false God who fears what you might become.
If he were the true God, your transgression could not possibly threaten him. The only being who fears your knowledge is one whose power depends on your ignorance.
The next post takes this argument to the actual text of Genesis and shows that the Bible itself confirms Satan was telling the truth.
Further Reading
- Book: Paradise Lost by John Milton, Books I and IX for the two speeches analyzed here
- Wikipedia: Paradise Lost · John Milton · Serpent (Bible) · Gnosticism
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