The unhealthy idea of the devil

I have written already some sentences about the devil. Today I want to add only a few things.

The idea of a devil (which has been created by the youngest religions) is a simplification and so far from truth. I want to point here especially at the Christian idea of the devil. As I have said already, the early Christians just took the god of nature – Pan – and taught that this is the devil to stop people from celebrating nature and lead them to God.

Although thousands of years have passed already we have still the image of Pan in mind when we speak of the devil. Pan does certainly look not like in former days – a friendly god or spirit of nature – but he has an evil make up. When you think about countless horror movies with devils or the devil in hell it is somehow not nice and an offence for Pan. And it also does not fit the truth at all.

In conclusion it is a simplification and a fraud to present a devil to make people fear and follow the priests.

When you study the old religions then you cannot find a devil and you won´t find a devil who looks like Pan. Indeed the old religions were more complex and more orientated on reality than on using tricks to make people follow.

So what do you find? You find a diversity of good, neutral and bad beings of all classes on all planes in all places. And these bad beings are the traditional demons or evil, destructive creatures. And all of them had their place or function in creation. These beings look fearsome with big teeth, claws, wild hair, big eyes, etc. This appearance is certainly analogue to their nature, symbolic, but again they do not look like Pan.

So here in conclusion in reality we have to face countless beings of good, dualistic and bad, destructive nature and they all appear according to their nature.

And a last point which is also quite bothering: The typical horns of the devil. Thanks to early Christian priests we still connect horns to the idea of the devil. In fact the typical horns are a symbol of power, especially the horns of a bull. For this reason the old warriors in nearly all cultures put such horns on their helmet to say “I am as powerful as a bull!”. The bull represents the earthy power and in this sense the strongest power. And when you check the old religions – nearly no evil being has such horns.

Simplification is quite unhealthy, somehow stupid. And the misuse of beings for selfish purposes is also quite unhealthy. When I think of all these poor souls who had to suffer or to give their lives just because this idea of a devil ruling hell and eating or punishing bad souls… But this is typical for humans and I hope that one day people focus more on compassion, understanding and wisdom than on fearing the devil or hell.

By the way, this hand position with the spread index finger and little finger originally was a symbol of power against evil threats. Later it was used as “may the devil take you”. Today fans of heavy metal use it and circles to worship the devil. Again you can see the unhealthy changing of symbols.

If you want to get closer to spiritual truths and reality then I suggest to study the old religions as they are the relicts of flourishing spirituality of ancient times.