To: alt.magick.tyagi
From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva)
Subject: Re: are Wiccans, Satanists?
Date: 7 Oct 1994 00:37:26 GMT

[from alt.pagan: jjc4162@is.nyu.edu (John J. Collins)]

Had to get this off my chest:

Speaking from a purely Biblical/Talmudic stance, and ignoring other 
legends, Satan was among the "sons of God" (which, though taken to mean 
angels, is never exactly defined as such) and in his major OT appearance, 
teams up with God to test Job's faith.  There is no implication that he 
is in any way anything but a means by which God tests human's faith, and 
seems to be on God's side.  His name in Hebrew is ShTNN (Shatanan).  
Shaitan is Arabic.

Lucifer (I forget the Hebrew, but it also means "light-bringer") is a 
Lucifer is a different character entirely, the Archangel cast down for 
disobedience.  Satan and Lucifer seem to have been somewhat identified by 
the time of Jesus, but it was really Milton who created the story as most 
people know it today, and they simply assume it is from the Bible.

The Serpent in Genesis is just a serpent and not intended to be either of 
these characters.

As near as I can tell, there is no good explanation for why Satan is 
classically portrayed looking rather like Pan.  Pan was a rather minor 
part of the Greek Pantheon and portraying him as evil wouldn't have 
served much purpose in converting Greeks, especially considering that by 
the time of Christ, most Greeks had abandoned their classical mythology as 
religion.  Animal-man combination just makes for good monsters would be 
my guess.

"Wicca" (OE, a male witch) and "Wiccacraft" (OE, witchcraft) are, for the 
record, not synonyms.  The w's are pronounced as v's and the cc's as ch's 
so a witch in Old English is pronounced vi-chah.  The word does not come 
a root meaning "to bend" but most likely from the same Indo-European root 
which gives us "wit" "vision" and the Hindu Vedas.  It means knowledge or 
sight.

Sorry about all of that.  People building arguments on bad facts just 
bugs me.

As for whether Witches are Satanists, or if Satanists are Satanists for 
that matter, I'd think that is up to the Witch or Satanist in question.  
When Anton evoked the term "Satanist" he knew damn well what it implied.  
That is part of why he chose it.  Neo-pagans, on the other hand, invoked 
the word "Witch" and commenced to spend half there time trying to tell 
people that it DOESN'T mean what it implies.  Seems to me that if you 
don't want people to infer things from what you call yourself, yous 
shouldn't pick a word like 'Witch" that already has some very strong 
connotations.

Blackjack