By Sadon Blah
Oops ‘they’ did it again……The “They” here refers to the normally weird people who want to direct the way as to how human beings should live to attain the realm of spirituality by worshipping this or that entity. In simple terms we can say that the supposedly good one-God and the evil one –Devil or its several incarnations in Khasi such as Thlen, ka Bih ka Ban, Taro ka Shwar etc. Based on this the worshippers time and again create moral panic in the community at large by pointing to the need for revival or earth quake prophesies, the glowing buildings , the calendar images of god/s who either drink milk or are shedding tears in blood, the men ai ksuid (witchcraft) episode, the Nongshohnoh and now the devil worshippers. This is human insecurity in its diverse implications and disorder which is the natural consequence of the characteristics of our State, Meghalaya, a land of festivals where festive moods are only designed to suppress the prevailing frustration among the struggling youth; a sort of a pain killer for the insecure and uncertain future. Psychologically, in such a situation the human mind is bound to look for alternatives. Sadly for us, both the prescription and the alternative seems to be wrong.
Without delving into the different kinds of devils in different religions or cultures of the world, lets us try to find answers to the recent accusations of devil worship. My simple question is: whose devils are the devil worshippers in this part of the world worshipping? The oriental devils or the devils of Islam, iblis, or the Christian devils who come in different names, or are we just pretenders of religiousity? The term religious also mean the followers of the religion called Satanism. Satanism as a religion is practiced in different forms, from theism to atheism from peaceful religiosity to vulgar vandalism. The atheistic Satanists also known as Laveyan Satanists after the name of Anton Szandor Lavey, who authored the Satanic Bible and founded the Church of Satan in 1966. For them Satan is a mere symbol with characteristics and traits of individuality, carnality, independence and earthly success and power. For them Satan is a “Beast in man.”Laveyan Satanists do not worship Satan but worship the self as the centre of one’s own universe. The Gnostic Satanists worship Lucifer as the Bringer of Light, who helps us to transcend the imperfections of earthly existence by enticing us to indulgence, rather than abstinence.
The other is the Deistic or Pantheistic Satanists. They too do not believe that Satan is a personal being rather than the impersonal supreme being or force which is one with all things. This theistic branch of Satanism is divided into multiple sub-categories the oldest being the Gnostic Satanists, who are descended from the Ophidian Gnostics and believe that everything that existed was originally pure spirit ; then Demiurge( who was identified as the god of the old Testament by Ophidian Gnostic and with the Devil by Gnostic Christians) trapped our souls in matter and cut us away from the source. The Gnostic Christians believe in the way of discovering Gnosisie or knowledge of the divinity within-which was believed to be the only way to escape the sinfulness of the material world and to abstain from worldly pleasures in order to transcend the material world. On the other hand the Ophidian Gnostics believed that Gnosis could be achieved by indulging in worldly pleasure and by exhausting their sinfulness. This is where the Gnostic Satanist came from. The Ophidian Gnostics refused to identify the Biblical serpent as Satan but as Sophia the goddess of wisdom which tempted Eve to consume from the tree of knowledge of the good and evil and thereby freed from the authoritarian power of the Demiurge (Jehovah).
There are also the Christian –based Duo- theists who believe in a form of Satanism that is essentially more like versified Christianity. They believe that Satan in not a god but a fallen angel who has rebelled against the Creator, and who is attempting to usurp the Creator’s throne. This is probably a form of Satanism that most Christians are familiar with and what they believe such as the Fall of Man, the Crucifixion, the coming of Anti-Christ but they choose to stay on the other side of the fence.
Then there are the Joy of Satan-Style Satanists who like the Christian –based Duo- theists believe that there is a cosmic struggle going on between Satan and Jehovah. This school believes that Satan and Jehovah are not actually supernatural beings, but mortal aliens living on a distant planet across the universe, who communicate telepathically with human beings and who are engaged in a psychic mind wars over our allegiance. They believe that all the Gods worshipped by human beings throughout history are really extra-terrestrials. They also believe that Satan was originally the pre-Christian Sumerian deity Enki, before he became corrupted into the fallen angel concept. They call themselves Enkians.
There are also the Devil worshippers known as the Diabolators who believe in Satan and worship him. The Diabolators can also embark upon a wide variety of theological perspectives-polytheism, pantheism, henotheism, duo-theism etc. They openly worship the Power of darkness as their Gods and refer to that power as Masters, a term that most Satanists refuse to accept.
Bottom of the list in terms of chronology are the Black Metal Circle or the Black Metal Mafia. This was founded by a man who called himself Euronymous (after a Greek Deity of death and the underworld). Euronymous and his followers were musicians who played black metal music (not all black metal artists are Satanists). They chose to call themselves Satanist because they believed in Satan as this Spirit of Evil who only wants to spread misery and suffering throughout the world. In order to “serve” him, Euronymous and his followers began a long campaign of church-burning and graveyard desecrations, as well as murders. They made it a point to target churches that were historical monuments of architecture in Norway. The explanation that Euronymous gives to all these deeds was that by performing acts of terrorism cloaked in satanic imagery, they would cause Christian fanaticism to grow in Northern Europe a reverse psychology against liberal Christian attitudes in Northern Europe. The Black Metal Circle ended when Euronymous was murdered by his own member in 1993.
Coming back to Atheistic or Laveyan Satanists, in our State we are having more Church-going population and less Christian population. Our leaders in different capacities are corrupt to the core. Their corruption stems from the instinct of self-preservation and aggrandisement to the point that our whole political, religious, social, cultural ,economic and moral systems are corrupted. Our educational institutions run by different religious denomination are becoming unaffordable to many; consumerism is our way of life. Our humanity is judged not by standards of humanism but by the apparent spirituality. Broken homes, addictions, deprivations, poverty and landlessness for the majority and luxury and land grabbing for the rich and powerful is the order of the day. So are we not being carnal? Are we not being selfish? Are we not being self-centered? And are we not being one among the Laveyan Satanist with a pretention of being theistic.
A section of our youth is alleged to be the devil worshippers. They are either arrested or reprimanded or admonished by the elders. It is reported that these youth are indulge in desecration of churches and graves ,vandalism and midnight congregation. It seems they are subscribing to the Dark Metal Circle or Dark Metal Mafia Satanism of Euronymous, with or without knowledge of it. This category of Satanism lacks academic and philosophical bases .What do they get by burning, vandalising or desecrating churches? Church buildings have never been the prescription of the Bible. In fact it was only after the late 2nd century that the practice of building churches started and the idea of state-sponsored Church buildings started with the a converted Emperor Constantine who built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 326 AD. This means that Christians concept of church was different before the 3rdcentury. The Catholic encyclopaedia defines the last supper as the church. Prior to the 3rd century any congregation of believers be it in a private home or an open space is a church. There are many instances and verses in the Bible where even Jesus Christ did not approve the idea of church or temple building. Apart from the criminal fringe Euronymous Satanist, no other Satanist or Satanism endorses the idea of vandalism or desecration in any form.
I feel westernisation has to stop somewhere. We have westernised enough and imbibed it in all aspects of our lives to our worldviews and our standards of judgement. Recently we did not forget to even westernise a humble vegetable, “Tomato”, by copycatting the Spanish La Tomatina festival. We have westernised God and now we are on the march to westernising the Devil.
(The author is lecturer, Seng Khasi College)