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From: tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: alt.satanism,alt.magick
Subject: Re: Satanic vs. Promethean (was: 'Reclaiming' Satanism?)
Message-ID: <60893@toad.com>
Date: 1 Jan 95 20:07:17 GMT
References: <5ff_9412290610@astaroth.sacbbx.com>
Reply-To: tim@toad.com.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: As Little As Possible
Lines: 46
Xref: shell.portal.com alt.satanism:13139 alt.magick:36207

>>> I don't recall any thing said about abandoning his religion, your inference
>>> is incorrect.

>JP> He said that he would no longer consider himself a Satanist because of
>JP> this newsgroup. Nuff said.

Dark.Star@125-430.astaroth.sacbbx.com (Dark Star) writes:
>Dr. Aquino did not say that. It was Tim Moroney who said that about himself.

It should be noted (by anyone who cares about my decision) that this
was only a shift in terminology.  It represents no change whatsoever in
my spiritual understanding or approach.  "Satanism" is only a word.
It's a word that I have come to realize is too tainted to facilitate
reasoned conversation.  Therefore, I will use words which communicate
my meaning better, such as Promethean, Luciferian, and Diabolonian.

There is a close parallel in Shelley's Preface to "Prometheus Unbound":

    The only imaginary being resembling in any degree Prometheus,
    is Satan; and Prometheus is, in my judgement, a more poetical
    character than Satan, because, in addition to courage, and
    majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent force,
    he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints
    of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal
    aggrandisement, which, in the Hero of _Paradise_Lost_,
    interfere with the interest.  The character of Satan engenders
    in the mind a pernicious casuistry which leads us to weigh
    his faults with his wrongs, and to excuse the former because
    the latter exceed all measure.  In the minds of those who
    consider that magnificent fiction with a religious feeling
    it engenders something worse.  But Prometheus is, as it were,
    the type of the highest perfection of moral and intellectual
    nature, impelled by the purest and the truest motives to
    the best and noblest ends.

My idea of Satan is more noble than Shelley's, but from a literary
perspective he is accurate in describing the character as it exists.
In the popular mind "Satan" is still less noble, and for that reason
"Satanism" creates a meaning of obsession, juvenile rebellion, crudity,
and unreasoning malice.  So it is no wonder that in looking at the
"Satanists" here, we find people behaving without the slightest trace
of the wit, elegance, and sardonicism with which my own Satan is
invested.  I have not lost that figure in my mind, but I feel well rid
of the odious terminology.
-- 
Tim Maroney.  Please CC all public responses to tim@toad.com.