postmodern Satanism

ye do not know what those who are without may do.Comment: A clear indication of the problem that arises among theAbrahamic understandings of the character of Melek Taus, who is theShaitan of Islam, and hence the Satan of the Bible. The gnostic andmystical view of the Yezidis regarding the status of the Prime Angelas fallen, yet unfallen, was bound to be interpreted by the outsidersas “devil worship”, which to them it was most clearly not. In gnosticsystems, the “opener of ways” was usually identified as an opponentof the exoteric god of popular worship, and hence these sects havetypically been persecuted as diabolists. The caution in this versespeaks to this concern of persecution by those who don’t understand.In many ways, the Satanist appears tothe outsider as the ultimatecontradiction in terms. Thoughabandoning mythic literalism, heunderstands the value and necessity ofmyth. Though rejecting theoppressiveness and blindness oftraditional religion, she is able to seeits cultural achievements and thebeauty of its relics. Though opposingthe gods offered by priests anddogmas, he intuits a transcendentalworld impinging on the visible, whichmay rightly be called divine. Though