Satan

Who is Satan?  I have freely interpreted him as being the devil, the archangel Lucifer or even the conscious will of Man unaware of common identity with other individuals. Others disagree.  I have made a cursory search of the Internet and discovered some links which you could pursue, but as I am not a theological scholar, and as concepts of the meaning of good and evil are metaphysical, I cannot say whether any author proposes a categorical definition. If we begin with the extract from the Authorized Version of the King James Bible, which was used to describe Blake's painting, Thou wast perfect till Iniquity was found in thee, now entitled, Satan in glory (part of the Tate Gallery collection).

Michael binding Satan - William Blake

This author contests that no mention is made of the devil, or Satan, or even a fallen angel in the passage in Ezekiel 28 from which the title is taken.  The figure is actually the King of Tyrus, described as the "anointed cherub that covereth"  who has been corrupted by his beauty and his great wealth.

"Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness."  And God vows to cast him down to the ground as an example to other kings.  Even though this is a particularly literal interpretation, the language still seems to have mythological or archetypal undertones.

What of Lucifer?  Lucifer was one of the three great archangels created by God, along with Michael and Gabriel.  Occultopedia defines him as such but fails to distinguish Lucifer distinctly from Satan.

Since when was Lucifer intrinsically evil?  It is said that when God created the Earth, Lucifer thought it so beautiful that he wanted to possess it for himself, and God indulged him.  But Lucifer thought that he would be in command of Earth and third in the hierarchy of things, whereas it was God's intention that all men should become sons of God and equal to him.  Which brings us back to another meaning.  Was it  Lucifer's insatiable desire that provoked retaliation?

When Lucifer fell, he became Satan, the destroyer of things.  "Absolute power corrupts absolutely," to quote a cliché.

Even those who reach the summit of earthly power must face the fact of death and annihilation.  Nothing on Earth lasts, not even the Earth from the perspective of aeons.

The Archangel Michael led the heavenly hosts against Lucifer and his demons (fallen angels).  The battle between Michael and Lucifer is a cosmic story of a battle between good and evil.  Although Michael defeats Satan, the composition of Blake's image, shown above, suggests that the two are inextricably linked.

A New Age psychological interpretation
C.G. Jung, psychoanalyst and former disciple of Sigmund Freud,  remains controversial.  Revered and echoed by many, his image and legacy continue to stand at the periphery of the Establishment. 

If you have any time for Jungian psychology, you might agree with him that Satan/Lucifer represents the basis of the personality. 

From The Collected Works of C.G. Jung:

"If the name Lucifer were not prejudicial, it would be a suitable one for this archetype [the Self].  (vol. 9 i p. 567)

"It is also worth noting that Lucifer, the Morning Star, means Christ as well as the devil."  (vol. 9 ii p. 192)

 "Therefore Lucifer was perhaps the one who best understood the divine will struggling to create a world and who carried out that will most faithfully. For, by rebelling against God, he became the active principle of a creation which opposed to God a counter-will of its own."  (vol. 11 p. 290)

"...the inner voice is a "Lucifer" in the strictest sense of the word, and it faces people with ultimate moral decisions without which they can never achieve full consciousness and become personalities."  (vol. 17 p. 319)

I imagine that Jung considered each individual to contain a microcosm of the universe, in which both light and dark are combined.  The goal of each man is to reconcile the polarities of power which light and dark represent in order to express creativity and achieve balance.

Significantly, his theories also place a responsibility for collective salvation in the hands of each man or woman inasmuch as collective fate depends on whether the individual realizes his or her need for continuing mental and emotional growth in the face of irrationality, futility and the knowledge of the impersonal.

The mythology of William Blake
William Blake seemed to be ambivalent about Satan's identity.  His art on the one hand reveals an athletic, beautiful young man in his prime, or else a dark adversary smitten with terror and despair (see Michael binding Satan above).  Even this could be a clue.  Only when the light and the dark are reconciled can Lucifer transform into something else.

Blake was most definitely aware of evil.  His life covered the period of the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the rise and fall of Napoleon, with all the battle, slaughter and exploitation that ensued.  His poetry and art called for Man to transcend the blight in which it existed and to aspire to enlightenment.  He saw the Law and organized Religion as the agents of repression, not the upholders of Freedom.

Walt Whitman's poetry echoes these ideas.  Although considered a 'nature' poet who was proud of his country's progress towards achieving independence and individual freedom, he also challenged the notion that Society's organizations were the arbiter of statehood.  For him, the finest and noblest exemplars of human potential were independent-minded men and women.  See Song of the Broadaxe.

There is no doubt that Blake perceived Christ as a loving, forgiving character who showed the light of love to men and interceded with God for the forgiveness of men.  God held the law, the book of judgment, but Christ said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged" Matthew 7, v 1.

Indeed, the Law is often represented as being blind, and can be exploited by those who wish to exploit.  There is such a thing as natural justice, which works more slowly, more subtly, and yet is more ultimate in its outcome.  

The art of William Blake 
As I write (December 2000), The Tate Gallery in London has mounted an exhibition of over 400 works of Blake's art including an interactive site where interested readers can learn more about Blake's vision, his characters and his works.

"In Jerusalem, his greatest prophetic book, Blake famously wrote: 'I must create a system, or be enslav'd by another man's. I will not reason & compare: my business is to create'. So while other poets might be content to use characters from the Bible, or from Greek and Roman myth, Blake created his own mythology populated by a host of beings that he himself had either invented, or re-interpreted."

Of these characters, Los is said by The Tate to be the spirit of freedom, of rebellion and of insatiable lust.  He forges Urizen, the keeper of laws.

At which point, I should quote from Blake's There is No Natural Religion (version published 1795):

I    Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception, he perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover

II    Reason or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more

IV    The bounded is loathed by its possessor, The same dull round even of a univer[s]e would soon become a mill with complicated wheels

V    If the many become the same as the few, when possess'd, More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul, less than All cannot satisfy Man

VI    If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be his eternal lot

VII    The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite & himself Infinite

Conclusion
If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character, the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things, & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again

Application
He who sees the infinite in all things, sees God.  He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only

Therefore
God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is

Blake refined and developed these ideas for the rest of his life.

Post Script
I could link you to sites which claim that Christ was the anti-Satan, if not himself identified with Lucifer.  I'm not convinced of the arguments, which tend to emphasize the mark of the Beast.  More erudite books remark on the parallels that Blake drew  between Milton's Messiah and the Satan of Job. 

Interestingly, the early cult of Christianity tended to be confused in the minds of Romans with Mithraism.  Mithra was a powerful, male sun-god worshipped in several religions of the east.  Women were excluded from the cult.

Just to finish, here is St John 1 vv 1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (my italics).

Now, does comprehended mean 'understood', or, 'included'?  Or could you turn the expression around and suggest that the light did not comprehend the darkness?  Or that the midst of dark chaos harbours the only hope of redemption through our horror of its hopelessness?

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