I have recently been accused of demonic possession on this forum (no, seriously, people still beleive these things...). Therefore, I am starting the official ENFPforum.com Lucifer-worship thread.



Here is a picture of my darling devil, painted by the greatest Satanist of all time. William Blake. Shut up. He was. I don't care about your facts. No dissent is allowed:




RANDOM COPY PASTED STUFF ABOUT SATAN THAT I HAVEN'T EVEN READ BUT THAT SHALL BE THE OFFICIAL AND SILVERTONGUE VERIFIED BASIS OF OUR NEW RELIGION. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME READING BELOW THIS POINT:

Satan's Truth

Some of the most blatant heresy, dualism and/or unorthodoxy in Milton occurs, of course, in the irreverent, though very 'charming' discourse of Satan in Paradise Lost, which, at least until the early nineteenth century mysterious (re)discovery, translation (from Latin) and publication of Milton's antinomian theological treatise, Christian Doctrine, could be regarded - in spite of Blake's (and Shelley's) contrary notions - as representing, for the poet, the positions he opposed. However, since the dissemination of this 'theology' in print it has seemed likely that some of Satan's views, and not the least essential, were in fact Milton's own. Especially disturbing was an Arian (denying the divinity of Christ, who is regarded as merely the highest in the order of created matter) drift of the treatise, reminiscent of Satan's resentful defiance of Jesus, for him, someone simply who was better armed and prepared for the 'War in Heaven'. This resemblance between Doctrine and Poem, led the eminent Miltonist Maurice Kelley to even qualifying Paradise Lost as 'an Arian document'.[1] Christian Doctrine turns out to be a prodigiously antinomian tract. Basic here is the notion, reminiscent of the mood at once of Cabala and Spinoza's 'scientific' theology, that scripture is an unreliable and inconsistent guide, full of paradoxes and contradictions, and that it is up to each reader to use his own judgment in deciding which passages and interpretations would be authoritative, based rather on an internal, unwritten scripture, conveyed by the Holy Spirit, intrinsically less corruptible than any writing can possibly be.[2]Milton thereby implies that no priest or intermediary is necessary or desirable for an individual to come to an informed decision as to what he will regard as his own 'Christian Doctrine.' This doctrine never seems more individualized, or pertinent to Renaissance ChristianHebraism and Cabala, than when Milton suggests that Jews are more Christian

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than Catholics are since it makes more sense to believe Christ was not divine at all than to think, with Rome, that he was coeval with the Deity! [3]

Underlying the Miltonic cosmogony would be a shattering, if logical notion that any deity we could conceive of, pray to, or who could affect us would be a radically compromised one. Jesus, followed by the Angels, fallen and unfallen, in this system, would represent this aspect of the lesser divine in Milton, one that could relate to corrupted humanity. A real God, as conceived of by Milton in Christian Doctrine, at once the concluding theological-political statement of his official career and the grounding one for the epistemology and teleology of the great sacred epics, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, that were to follow, would guard a quality of eternal and profound inscrutability, mystery and distance. Such a deity, reminiscent of Spinoza's, as well as being in tune with Gnostic-Lurianic notions, has withdrawn from the realm of existence, or was never really involved in it, leaving man "to his own desires and devices and to the ceaseless promptings of Satan." (334).

When, however, Milton considers the Manichean-dualistic 'abyss' into which these notions can lead he tends to fall back on a kind of intuitionist fideism, piling up the Gnostic evidence in citation after citation only to 'deny' it all with what I think is an unconvincing Tertullian fideism: "Although in these quotations and in many others from both Testaments God openly confesses that it is he who incites the sinner, hardens his heart, blinds him and drives him into error, it must not be concluded that he is the originator even of the very smallest sin, for he is supremely holy." (332) Such reassurances were, in fact, insufficient for a dismayed British reviewer complaining pertinently, in 1826, when the work was first published, that Milton's apparent acceptance of the inextricability of existence and evil "...leaves the grand aboriginal

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Milton as a young man
difficulty untouched; namely the existence of the perverse will, and the mischievous propensity in such persons as David and Absalom." [4] More cautiously than Maurice Kelley, who leant to Milton's great epics the full antinomian force of Christian Doctrine, but nevertheless coming down on the side of a 'demonic' or at least heretical Milton, William B. Hunter Jr. affirms: "If, that is, Milton were an Arian as many have argued, he is just as certainly of the devil's party as he depicts that party in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Blake and Shelley were right about Milton's views in a deeper sense than has hitherto been realized." [5]

Constantinos Patrides defends against this assault on Milton's Christian orthodoxy on two fronts; first of all by questioning, in theological terms, the attribution of Arianism to the position of Milton's treatise, which he defines otherwise as a more familiar 'subordinationism' (making Christ a lower order of divinity rather than a higher earthly creation); and, secondly, by insisting on an epistemological dichotomy between two orders of truth, that is a poetic as distinct from a theological one.[6] It's interesting that for the sake of this latter argument Patrides seems ready to 'float the signifier', in a style so thoroughly consistent with what the structuralist religious historian, Michel de Certeau, has called 'mystics', or 'mystic discourse',[7] involving ineluctably a notion of language as merely a temporary, ephemeral and unreliable home for a numinous, but vagabond and nomadic Being. In effect, Patrides is relying, in this separation of Milton's poetic from his theological (and, ostensibly other) words, on a sophisticated, pluralistic attitude toward language, that in fact was the more-or-less hidden and occult subtext of those very heterodoxies of the nineteenth century he insists had nothing much to do with Milton![8]

Coincidentally Milton's famous plea for toleration, and corresponding stand against censorship, in the prose tract, Areopagitica, alluded to a hermetic myth that recounts a primordial separation of truth from any absolute identification with any of its embodiments:

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Truth, indeed came once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when He ascended, and His Aposteles after Him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb, still as they could find them. We have not found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever shall do, till her Master's second coming.[9]

It is significant that the occult-Hermetic myth in the above is treated as a 'typology' that anticipates Christianity, as also commonly was suggested for Cabala, so frequently disseminated under the rationale of conversion; and as for Cabala, for which no Torah we can know is the Torah, so for Milton's Hermetic-Christianity, no single sign would be, enduringly, the signified. Interestingly, Milton chooses this occult myth of a truth that, within history, can only be sought, never found, to corroborate a position that he thought would obviously be less convincing on the basis of scripture alone; in much the same manner, for example, H.C. Agrippa found allusions to Cabala helpful in establishing a basis for positions (toleration, feminism, relativism), where literal scripture was insufficient. As for Sir Thomas Browne, the appeal is made to the heterodoxies regressively but for progressive purposes, as if to substantiate that which is most contemporary and advanced no evidence could be stronger than something taken from supposedly the oldest, pre- or para-Christian provenance.

In Milton's bold hermetic metaphor, Truth and Words are seen as, in human history, in a dialectical, impermanent and temporary relation; since no single text can be trusted indefinitely, the subject is thrown back on his own experience and judgment, and must remain open




William Blake's "Elohim and Adam"

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to a plurality of interpretations, commentaries and further explorations. However repelled Milton may have been by the aberrations of seventeenth century Jewish Cabala, incarnated in the mass-following and catastrophic apostasy (conversion under threat of death to Islam) of the 'false messiah', Sabbatai Zevi, news of which may have been communicated to him directly,[10] I think he would have found support, corroboration, maybe even inspiration in the more traditional cabalistic notion, according to which no single written word, not even scripture itself, can be totally trusted.

Milton understood, however, that action, often urgently required by the teleological subordination of means to ends, must be based on a kind of 'suspension of disbelief'; nevertheless, here, the very excellence of the poet I think has opened him, especially in our century, to accusations of dogmatism, moralism and arrogance. What has been often thought of as the self-righteousness, vindictiveness, sadism[11] and complacency of the kind of discourse that Milton attributes to God and his agents, for example, have disturbed many,[12] who have been lured by the poet's eloquence into believing they were meant to embody the exact intentions and will of the divine, rather than being merely a version of it in words, meant only as an approximation. Many also have been disturbed by Satan's mastery over language; and indeed it seems that no one in Paradise Lost can speak more charmingly, persuasively and compellingly. However, consistent with Milton's baroque (style-alternating) epistemology unquestionably certain elements of truth would be present in Satan's discourse, as well as certain elements of falsehood in God's. As in The Zohar, for Milton the devil must be somehow honored and recognized.[13] That left, instinctive, dark side of the human is all the more dangerous and influential for being totally neglected, which is not to say that the poet would ever have followed it, at least explicitly, into the Sabbatian temptation of embracing evil or 'seeing it through to the end'; and Milton seems to

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reject such a literal, exponential escalation of 'the powers of darkness' clearly in Paradise Regained, wherein Christ-in-the-wildness eschews Satan's offers from a vast range of demonic options that range, subtly. from earthly comfort, consolation and pleasure to spiritual glory[14] and messianic notoriety.

Although an attempt, like Denis Saurat's discredited one,[15] to link Milton definitely and directly to primary cabalistic texts, such as The Zohar, seems unrealizable, I think that, once the serious Hebraism of the poet is established, and given the Cabala-tinged quality of Hebrew studies in the Renaissance, especially that aspect of which was aimed at Christian students, there is no doubt that Milton knew about Cabala, that it must have had some impact, conscious or unconscious, direct or indirect, upon him, the problem being only how much, and at what points in his life and work. To the circumstances connected with the study of the Hebrew language should be added also a profound homology between the evolution of Cabala in the seventeenth century and the 'apocalypse now' direction taken by the English Puritan Revolution, with which it was coextensive. It seems reasonable to suppose that the conclusions that Milton seems to have drawn regarding adventures like that of Sabbatai's, as well as toward the messianic-revolutionary-utopianism of Diggers, Ranters and "The Fifth Monarchists,"[16] which was so much a part of his own political and cultural context, and that he gave voice to in the Paradises, Lost and Regained and Samson Agonistes, were related to his disillusion in and with England.

The Part of Evil

A strange aspect that has not I think been sufficiently acknowledged and accounted for is the sheer dimension of Milton's attention, in Paradise Lost, to the problematic of evil; and here I think the heterodoxies of the Renaissance supply an important explanatory context, source and inspiration.

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I don't think it's enough to simply say, for instance, as some mischievous poets and radical critics have, that since Satan is the mainstay of the first two, supposedly best of the books of Paradise Lost, that he is the epic hero, which puts Milton in the 'devil's party', whether he admits it or not. We need to recognize also that Satan, his cohorts, friends, lovers (Eve, notably, who he has no trouble seducing, she who already has fallen into a Narcissus-type love with her own image in the Edenic lake)[17] and relatives are very much in control of most of the rest of the epic. Everything, indeed, that starts up in Heaven or on Earth is in response to demonic initiatives; while the rationale that these are in the service of divine ends might compare in lameness to the effrontery of a similar apology for modern fascism, AIDS, and Rwanda-level decimations!

Additionally, in the central and very weird 'War in Heaven' episodes, as told and retold in Paradise Lost [centered, however, in Book VI], inescapably it is the demonic forces that, as courageous underdogs, must garner much of our sympathy. Such literal and titanic cosmic struggles of the forces of Good-and-Evil, Light-and-Darkness seem to be related more likely to a tradition of Dualism, reaching back, through Cabala, Hermeticism and Gnosticism, to Zoroastrian Manicheism, than to the more abstract unities and plenitudes of the Judeo-Christian style. Milton's source for this controversial episode is, indeed, the chapter of scripture, The Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John, that has been most often cited by religious dissidents, mystics, occultists and Christian cabalists. D.H. Lawrence mentions, in his fascinating little book on the subject that the entry of the Apocalypse into the canon was opposed by the eastern Fathers in the early days of Christianity, ostensibly because they were suspicious of a certain undercurrent, elan vital, or 'dragon' of paganism beneath the veneer of John of Patmos' neutralizing, emasculating text. For Lawrence the War in Heaven is exactly that place where the violent instinct of pagan inspiration, which granted its gods no exemption from a savage 'all-too-




William Blake, "Fall of the Angel"

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human rule of desire for satisfaction, victory and control, boils closest to its Christian surface:

'And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.'

This fragment is really the pivot of the Apocalypse. It looks like late pagan myth suggested from various Greek, Egyptian, and Babylonian myths. Probably the first apocalyptist added it to the original pagan manuscript, many years before the birth of Christ.[18]

Even a modern critic who distances himself from Saurat's claims of Milton's cabalism, J.H. Adamson, will see occult traditions surfacing in these particular passages.[19] Equally provocative of wonder is the very noise and urgency with which Milton has to reassure us (directly, or through God, the Son or angels such as Raphael or Michael, 'explaining things' for Adam-and-us, or even through Satan's occasionally rueful regrets at his 'permanent exile' from the light) that everything is still under control of the 'highest'. Curious also is the amount of space, time and sheer majestic, charming and cunning eloquence Milton allows to Satan's heresies, unorthodoxies, temptations, justifications and imaginations. A 'free spirit' of the time cannot account for this, since the twenty-year lifting of censorship that allowed so much unprecedented radical rebellion, dissidence, provocation and just plain anomaly to appear, especially in the popular pamphlet form, is finished by the time Milton is composing such enormities. Milton has, additionally, barely and enigmatically (no one was more involved in the death of Charles I than he, except perhaps the executioner) escaped with his life under the restoration, another factor that might have led him to disguise his own views as Satan's. At any

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event, this Age of Restoration is once more a time when religious dissidents tended rather to be silenced, or, more characteristically, to silence themselves. Milton, however, in his Paradises, lost and regained, is allowing Satan to speak, act, enjoin, cajole, and manifest himself and his ideology to an extent and a degree that is totally unprecedented.

Following Lucifer

The Italian Renaissance Lucifers of Marino and Tasso which played a part in Milton's daring invention, were flatter, more transparently dramatic or aesthetic creations in comparison. This 'eccentricity' of the Miltonic Lucifer is back-and-foregrounded very well by Mario Praz. [20] The immediate models for Milton's Lucifer were Tasso and Giambattista Marino, both evidently quite familiar to the poet. Tasso's Satan, as presented in Jerusalem Liberated "...keeps his terrifying medieval mask, like that of a Japanese warrior." (53), as of a stock figure and stereotype, which, in the next century, Marino renders sad, pathetic and humanly sympathetic, adding also an aspect of beauty. Milton, according to Praz, certainly knew also Crashaw's translation into English of the first canto of Marino's posthumously published Strage degli Innocenti [Massacre of the Innocents], of 1632. There is a whole world, however, separating Marino's baroque and neo-pagan sensibility, for which Christianity is the merest veneer and pretext for games with language and rhetoric (as in 'marinism') from Milton's 'high seriousness'. Where Marino allows us 'sympathy for the devil' it is Milton who compounds this affect with a dimension of moral grandeur and 'infernal' sublimity that changed Satan, in literature at least, for all time. Milton's 'hero' then pushes on, according to Praz, to 'canonization' as the arch-rebel and resistor for the Gothic novel of such as Monk Lewis and Ann Radcliffe, then prominently into the Romantic

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texts of such as Blake, Byron, Schiller, Goethe, straight into the perverse demonism of Baudelaire ("Fleurs du Mal"), the Symbolists and certainly Lautréamont ("Maldoror"). It requires no great insight to see 'satanic juices' still pumping madly in such 'underground' classics as Burroughs' Naked Lunch, Hugh Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn, Alexander Trocchi's Cain's Book, not to mention some more above-the-surface ones like Meyer Levin's Compulsion, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song (as well as through his acolyte's, the mournful Jack Abbott's In the Belly of the Beast, which turned out to be as legitimate a metaphor for the society at large as any section of it behind bars).

In consideration of the provocative and limitless iconoclasm of Christian Doctrine, from which I think a reasonable case can be made that Milton meant what Satan said, it might even be legitimate to 'transvalue' Paradise Lost so as to conceive of God as the Royal Villain (Charles I), his son, Jesus, as heir to the mantle of oppressor (Charles II), with Satan as the arch-rebel and resistor, combined type of the Puritan Revolutionary (Milton himself for the eloquence; Cromwell for the action), and the lesser devils as varieties of Levelers, Ranters, Fifth Monarchists and other 'heretic' fellow travelers on the road beyond Apocalypse to New Jerusalem, where they might even meet up with Sabbatians. As to where, finally, this Nietzschean-gnostic fantasy of a reading would place Adam and Eve, their eventual progeny, as well as other intermediate beings like Angels and suchlike, that would be, consistent with Milton's antinomian 'doctrine', up to each of us to decide, in terms of where we'd (like to) see ourselves.

What seems almost as appalling to me is that, considering the great volume of the commentary on Milton, this Satanic 'excess' of the poet has never really been frankly recognized and confronted, maybe because it was too blatant to believe! Even in his most extravagant demonism, Christopher Marlowe, whose specialty was the condignly evil protagonist, could never have gone so far. Marlowe, as well as his students and followers in this 'demonic' style, Shakespeare and Kyd,

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and later, Webster, Shirley and Turner, were limited by the regime of the dramatic genre of tragedy, whereby order is disturbed only temporarily. This astounding innovation and escalation in the matter of evil in comparison to the manifold avatars and subtleties of the Machiavellian or Senecan protagonist of English Renaissance Theater should be measured against the daring of the poet in choosing the massive, permanent and respected epic form as opposed to (what was regarded) as the more incidental and transitory dramatic one. Finally shocking is Milton's choice of subject matter, none other than the most essential episode, Genesis, of our culture's most honored text, the Bible. Furthermore here he focused on the invasion of this 'paradise' by the very principle and personage of evil, allowing that evil every conceivable opportunity, eloquence, argument and quality, and this near the pristine center of creation's awesome beginning and purpose, indissolubly intermixed, through earth, apple and tree with the components of human composition.

Even if we try to allow for some space, modest as it might turn out to be, for the 'good' or at least non-or-not-yet totally satanic, in this epic, I think we can easily run into difficulty. Most glaring of all might be the question of Adam's choice: If indeed, theoretically he follows Eve in committing the sin of disobedience, and assuming, as Milton obviously wants us to, that She succumbed voluntarily, then what option really remained for Adam? Was his sin that of an incipient feminism, being unwilling to assert male authority in granting Eve's wish to be apart from him just before that fateful noon, especially since he initially didn't think it was such a good idea and had to be persuaded into it? Was man's fall, and that of the whole human race, as trivial as letting a woman decide to go out for a walk by herself? Or, later, was he to refuse to 'bite', thereby condemning her to isolation and perdition, insuring for himself a virtuous, if complacent immortality? Since he couldn't be expected to do without companionship, sexual-and-otherwise,






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especially through no fault of his own, God would be obliged to fashion, from another rib, a suitable replacement, whom presumably he would supervise more closely. An important motivation for Milton's Eve, and one that doesn't exist in scripture, was jealousy of Adam's future mate:

I shall be no more,

And Adam, wedded to another Eve

Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct

A death to think. (IX, 827-30)

For Saurat this constituted proof of a direct influence of Cabala on Milton, since Eve's jealousy is mentioned in The Zohar (as is Satan's sexual desire for Eve, another 'passionate' element intimated by Milton that does not exist in scripture). Of Saurat's 'wild' surmises this one has weathered rather well; H. Fletcher, our major specialist in Milton's Hebraism thinks the Zohar-Milton connection possible, if not likely, but found another Hebrew, ostensibly non-Cabala, source for this motif,[21] a position which Werblowsky seconds.[22] The main drift, however, of Saurat's powerful argument, that of an occult, mystical, heterodox and 'inadmissible' provenance for Milton's inspirations, waters he 'drank from', in common with some other major English poets, like Blake, Shelley and Wordsworth, survives, I think, such fine distinctions as Fletcher, Werblowsky and many others so ably introduce. That the motifs of Eve's cunningly jealous sexuality, Satan's compelling lubricity, and Divine Incest might not all derive from the Zohar, as de Pauly's 'forgeries'[23] had inclined Saurat to think, but from an older, even non-cabalistic, midrashim or other texts and traditions would in no way abstract Milton from the 'occult tradition' in which Saurat situates him.

Additionally, apocryphal, gnostic, talmudic and cabalistic versions of the 'creation of woman',

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which Milton certainly know about, however seriously he took them, suggest that a Lilith, made like Adam of earth, was his first mate put away, as a matter of fact for insubordination. [24] Sedition, clearly, is a feminine characteristic, rendering any substitution of one woman for another nugatory. Clearly he had only the choice, as in the world, between two evils and he tried, as we like to think we would, to choose the lesser.



Bibliography

Adamson, J. F. "Milton's Version of the War in Heaven." JEGP LVII (October, 1958): 690-703.

Beitchman, Philip. Alchemy of the Word, Cabala of the Renaissance. (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998).

Certeau, Michel de. The Mystic Fable. Trans. Michael B. Smith. Vol. 1. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

Fixler, Michael. Milton and the Kingdoms of God. (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1964).

Fletcher, Harris Francis. The Intellectual Development of John Milton. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956. 2 vol.

Milton's Rabbinical Readings. (N.Y.: Gordian, 1967). Orig. published in 1930

Milton's Semitic Studies. (N.Y.: Gordian, 1966). Orig. published in 1926.

Frye, Roland Mushat. God, Man and Satan: Patterns of Christian Thought and Life in Paradise Lost, Pilgrim's Progress, and the Great Theologians. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960).

Hunter, William B. Jr. "The Heresies of Satan." The Upright Heart and Pure. Ed. A.P. Fiore. (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1967).

____,Visitation Unimplor'd: Milton and the Authorship of 'De Doctrina Christiana'. (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998).

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Kelley, Maurice. This Great Argument: A Study of Milton's 'De Doctrina Christiana' as a Gloss upon 'Paradise Lost'. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941).

Lawrence, D.H. Apocalypse. (New York: Penguin, 1966). Orig. published in 1931.

Martz, Louis L. The Paradise Within. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964).

Milton, John. Areopagitica, and Other Prose Works.(London: Dent-Everyman, 1927).

Christian Doctrine. Vol. VI, Complete Prose Works of John Milton. Ed. Maurice Kelley, trans. John Carey. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973).

The Poetical Works of John Milton. Ed. Helen Darbshire. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958).

Patrides, Constantinos. Milton and the Christian Tradition. (N.Y and London.: Oxford University Press, 1969).

Pauly, Jean de, trans. Zohar, le livre de la splendour. (Paris: E. Leroux, 1906-11). 6 vol.

Praz, Mario The Romantic Agony. Trans. Angus Davidson. (London: Oxford, 1987).

Reuchlin, Johannes. On the Art of the Kabbalah. Trans. Martin and Sarah Goodman. Intr. (1983, Abaris Books) Lloyd Jones. Intr. Moshe Idel. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1993). Originally published as De Arte cabalistica, 1517.

Saurat, Denis. Literature and the Occult Tradition. Trans. Dorothy Bolton. Fort Washington, N.Y.: Kennicut Press, 1966. Originally published, 1930.

Milton, Man and Thinker.( London: Archon, 1964). First published 1925

Werblowsky, R. Zvi. "Milton and the Conjectura Cabbalistica." Journal of the Warburg Institute XVIII (1955): 90-113.

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The Zohar. Ed. Joshua Abelson. Trans. Maurice Simon and Harry Sperling. 5 vols. (London and N.Y.: Soncino Press, 1933). Rpt. 1984.

1 Patrides, p. 15, citing Maurice Kelley's This Great Argument: A Study of Milton's 'De Doctrina Christiana' as a Gloss upon 'Paradise Lost'. See also R.M. Frye [God, Man and Satan, 75-76] who militantly opposes this interpretation, simply because, in his own judgment, it just could not be! A recent book by William Hunter, Visitation Unimplored attempts to 'distance' Milton more from the 'authorship' of Christian Doctrine than he had ever been before, calling it, for instance a 'composite ms.' [146] My position, however, I believe would come well within the parameters of Hunter's conclusions, which were that Christian Doctrine should no longer be taken as a totally reliable statement of Milton's ideas, so that notions about his 'heresy' need to be supported also by other elements in the poet's work. Hunter's ideas, announced much earlier in articles and conferences, were challenged very vigorously also, for instance in Studies in English Literature (Vol. 32, Winter 1992) in articles by Barbara Lewalski, Christopher Hill and the eminent editor of Christian Doctrine, Maurice Kelley.

2 Kelley, "Introduction" to Christian Doctrine, 44.

3 Christian Doctrine, 455.

4 Christian Doctrine, 336n. 26, cited by Kelley.

5 "The Heresies of Satan," 32-33; see n. 1 above, since Hunter has reversed himself on the question of Christian Doctrine.

6 Patrides, 22-23.

7 Cf. The Mystic Fable.

8 Maurice Kelley, as a matter of fact, disparages Patrides' competence as a theologian in his "Reply to Hunter", SEL, 160. See n. 1 above.

9 Areopagitica, 30.

10 Through Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, who

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had written to Spinoza about the Sabbatian episode, who visited Milton while he was composing Paradise Regained. See Alchemy of the Word, 282-83, and also Michael Fixler's Milton and the Kingdoms of God.

11 This Tertullian mood, according to which a good portion of heavenly bliss is constituted by the joy seeing the torments of the damned below has been captured by one of our modern writers who had been the most persecuted by the 'moral majorities' of his time: "Brilliant glorious eternal heaven above: and brilliant torture-lake away below...They could not be happy in heaven unless they knew their enemies were unhappy in hell." [D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse, 76.]

12 Louis L. Martz, for instance, citing a tradition of critical disillusionment, will consider that Books XI and XII of Paradise Lost, where the 'divine word' is at its most unilateral, represent a drastic decline in the humanity, interest and inspiration of the epic. Significant for Martz is the fact that the epic was published originally in ten books, the last two having been added later by Milton. [The Paradise Within, 141-48.]

13 See, for instance, my Alchemy of the Word, 15, for citation from The Zohar, where Job's punishment is regarded as a result of the insufficient attention he gave to the powers of evil.

14 The Pope, or Antichrist, as the English Puritans called him, already would represent a yielding to this temptation; as, a fortiori, anyone who sought the office, glory and status of the messiah (a position, if it is one, which would be rather designated, than looked-for anyway!).

15 Milton, Man and Thinker (1925) and Literature and the Occult Tradition (1930); Saurat's 'theses' have been almost unanimously disapproved of.

16 The Fifth Monarchists, who were especially influential in the Puritan Army, were looking forward to, in fact, the imminent realization of God's kingdom-on-earth, supposedly the fifth-and-

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final-one after the four 'fallen' ones of history.

17 Eve seems to me rather to glory in the miraculous efficacy of her sin, productive, indeed, of all human life on earth, rather than, in a more soberly repentant felix culpa mode, to have reluctantly admitted its ineluctability, accepting its consequences; instead she exults: "That I, who first brought Death on all, am graced/ The source of life..." [XI, 168-9]

18 Apocalypse, 85-86.

19 "The War in Heaven: Milton's Version of the Merkabah."

20 "The Metamorphoses of Satan," in The Romantic Agony: 53-91.

21 Milton's Semitic Studies, 132-38.

22 "Milton and the Conjectura Cabbalistica," 99.

23 De Pauly made the first comprehensive translation of The Zohar into any vernacular (French), but not very reliably, for he was not above a little invention ('forgeries' is Werblowsky's angry word for it, in article cited in n. 22).

24 See Alchemy of the Word, 260ff. where I remark the casual introduction by John Lightfoot, one of the great names in semitic scholarship of the seventeenth century, of the Lilith legend, unlikely I think to have escaped the attention of so comprehensive a student of the arcane as Milton, one also so interested in gender and marital issues. The Lilith story was a subject that would have come up anyway in texts that touch on Cabala, if only to deny one or another annoying (feminism, demonism) aspect of it. One version, for instance, has Adam cohabiting with Lilith, for an extended period after the expulsion, during which time he was separated from Eve. Adam's progeny, a result of his intercourse with Lilith would have been a race of demons, still among us. One can see limned here, of course, more than the rudiments for a gnostic explication of the problem posed by the evident ineluctability of evil, a prospect that Reuchlin, for instance, is too much of a Christian to let the cabalist in him entertain for more than a moment: "...not that the other children were not in human form, they were men too, but except

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Imagination
Life


The bringer of light; the opening of minds and the route to enlightenment. You are the light of your life; without your light the world descends into black anarchy; there are forces that wish to extinguish your light by imprisoning or brainwashing you into accepting societies mediocrity. No imagination, no doubt and no light: no life.

Lucifer is enlightenment here and now on Earth, in Man. Christ, salvation and redemption; the self-love that enables a creative and emotional life are all within Lucifer. Lucifer has stolen 'God's' power and reveals it to us as a new truth: That your consciousness is the light of your life.

If you bring forth what is within you,
what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

Jesus Christ
Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

(healthy doses of blasphemy include me using the holy word's of others for my own ends)

Paths of Lucifer:

* Vexen Presents Satanism as the Worship of Truth

* Satan is Doubt, the Highest Intellectual Value

The Book Of Lucifer
The Enlightenment
From The Satanic Bible
"The Roman god, Lucifer, was the bearer of light, the spirit of the air, the personification of enlightenment. In Christian mythology he became synonymous with evil, which was only to have been expected from a religion whose very existence is perpetuated by clouded definitions and bogus values! It is time to set the record straight. False moralisms and occult inaccuracies must be corrected. Entertaining though they might be, most stories and plays about Devil worship must be recognized as the obsolete absurdities they are.

It has been said that 'the truth will make men free'. The truth alone has never set anyone free. It is only doubt which will bring mental emancipation. Without the wonderful element of doubt, the doorway through which truth passes would be tightly shut.
...
For those who doubt supposed truths, this book is revelation. Then Lucifer will have risen. Now is the time for doubt! The bubble of falsehood is bursting and its sound is the roar of the world! "

Buddhism

"We are told that on the night of the full moon of Wesak (the month of May in the Western calendar), the Buddha fixed his mind on the morning star as it was rising, and the moment of full enlightenment occurred."

"Buddhism" by Clive Erricker p26


Sources

Young, Andrew John (1885-1971)
Scottish poet and minister of the Free Church. Complete Poems.
For still I looked on that same star,
The fitful, fiery Lucifer,
Watching with mind as quiet as moss,
Its light nailed to a burning cross

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Lucifer \Lu"ci*fer\, n.
[L., bringing light, n., the morning star, fr. lux, lucis, light + ferre to bring.]
1. The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; -- applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.

WordNet
Lucifer n 1: (Judeo-Christian religion) chief spirit of evil and adversary of God; tempter of mankind; master of Hell

Bible Facts Jenny Roberts 1997 edition pp107:
"The idea of the Devil as Lucifer, the fallen angel cast from heaven because of his pride, derives from Isaiah 14:12-15. Although Isaiah was not actually referring to the Devil, but to the King of Babylon, the name Lucifer has become associated with Satan because of the similarity of passages such as Luke 10:18 and Revelation 9:1 to the Isaiah scripture.

When the word 'devils' is used, it usually refers to alien deities (e.g. Lev. 17:7, Ps. 106:37)."

Bible Versions
Notes from the Amplified Bible on Isaiah 14:12: "The Hebrew for this expression--"light-bringer" or "shining one"--is translated "Lucifer" in The Latin Vulgate, and is thus translated in the King James Version. But because of the association of that name with Satan, it is not now used in this and other translations. Some students feel that the application of the name Lucifer to Satan, in spite of the long and confident teaching to that effect, is erroneous. The application of the name to Satan has existed since the third century A.D., and is based on the supposition that Luke 10:18 is an explanation of Isaiah 14:12, which many authorities believe is not true. "Lucifer," the light-bringer, is the Latin equivalent of the Greek word "Phosphoros," which is used as a title of Christ in II Pet. 1:19 and corresponds to the name "radiant and brilliant Morning Star" in Rev. 22:16, a name Jesus called Himself. This passage here in Isaiah 14:13 clearly applies to the king of Babylon"

The following Bible versions translate Isaiah 14:12 text as "light bringer" or "morning star":
New International Version, New American Standard Bible, Amplified Bible, New Living Translation, English Standard Version, Contemporary English Version, American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation

The following Bible versions translate it directly as "Lucifer":
King James Version, New King James Version, 21st Century King James Version, Darby Translation

Dictionary of Demons, Fred Gettings 1988
In early Christian writings Lucifer was regarded as the equivalent of Satan and therefore leader of the demonic hosts. However, the name Lucifer appears only once in Holy Scripture, as a translation of the Hebrew heilel (Isaiah 14,12) which means 'spreading brightness'. The Latin lucifer means 'carrier of fire' and the Greek equivalent phosphoros has much the same meaning.

St Jerome followed earlier Christians in applying the name Lucifer to Satan, and this had been explained as a poetic fiction on the grounds that Satan was called Lucifer before he fell from Heaven.

The link which the early Christians established between Satan and Lucifer probably originated with Origen, based on a misreading of the passage in Isaiah which is a metaphorical identification of the Morning Star or Lucifer (Venus) with the newly dead king of Babylon: 'How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"'.

However, the misreading meant that some of the associations of the former were eventually linked with the latter. Thus for example, the fact that in Revelation 12:9, the Devil, Satan, the Dragon and the Serpent are visualized as being one and the same being meant that Lucifer also was associated with them.

These historical notes help us to see why the name Lucifer is often taken to be the equivalent of Satan, and why in some texts it is regarded as the name applied to Satan before his fall, and why Milton, in Paradise Lost, Book X 1.424, could write:

Of Pandaemonium, Citie and proud seat
Of Lucifer, so by allusion calld,
Of that bright Starr to Satan paragond

The association which has arisen between a demon Lucifer and the quite undemonic planet Venus (called Lucifer), as well as the overtones of 'light-bearer' which are hinted at within the name, has led many commentators to question the demonic intent (if not indeed the demonic nature) of Lucifer. How could a being of light become a being of darkness? The answer to such a question is implicit within many of the esoteric texts which deal with the nature of demons. To simplify a very complex issue, we could say that Lucifer remains still a creature of light, but has chosen to descend into the Human realm in order to bring his light into Humanity.

Whether this light in abundance is a desirable thing or not is a question which occultists deal with in different ways. A glimpse at the writings of one or two modern occultists will explain this aspect of Lucifer a little more completely.

Blavatsky, when discussing the Chaldean Book of Numbers and Zohar in The Secret Doctrine, points out that the 'contraries' of the angels in the third world of the Sephiroth (the world of Asiah) are called 'Shells' or 'Demons'.

These inhabit the 'seven inhabitations called "Sheba Hechaloth", which are simply the seven zones of our globe.'

The prince of these shells is called Samael, 'who is also the seducing serpent Satan; buit that Satan is also Lucifer, the bright angel of Light, the Light and Life-Bringer, the "Soul" alienated from the Holy Ones.'

Blavatsky claims that the allegory of the fire of Prometheus is 'another version of the rebellion of proud Lucifer'

Eliphas Levi (Constant), in his Histoire de la Magie p197, seeks to unite the 'light element' of Lucifer with the fires of Hell when he claims that Lucifer is the 'Astral Light',

an intermediate force existing in all creation, it serves to destroy, and the Fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which has rendered his generation a slave to this fatal light ... every sexual passion that overpowers our senses is a whirlwind of that light which seeks to drag us toward the abyss of death, Folly... This light, therefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful, and fatal, would thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the tormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing of teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life that escapes them, and seems to mock and insult in their agony, all this would be the devil or Satan indeed.

In such a poetical infusion we may see something of the creativity which is associated with Lucifer in the esoteric tradition.

While excessive light will destroy, light is the source of Human creativity. Rudolf Steiner is one modern esotericist who has developed this view of Lucifer as a being of light, as a spirit which may light man towards Christ, who is the true light. Steiner views Lucifer as the modern antagonist of dark Ahriman within a dualism which is deeply entrenched in Gnostic and even earlier demonological speculation.

While Ahriman seeks to pull man ever deeper into an enmeshment with nature (which is not man's proper home) and even with the subnatural forces that belong to the demonic world, Lucifer seeks to lift man upwards into the realms of light where spirit has true freedom. It is through the arts that man manifests most intimately and proudly this urge to remain unfettered to the Earth and to aspire to the godlike; it is in the arts that the temptations of pride, with its attendant fall in miniature, may easily overpower man.

If Steiner's view of Lucifer can be simplified at all, then it may be said that Lucifer, in this guise as spiritual supporter of Man, must be seen in his correct context. Lucifer breathes into man the wonderful ability to aspire towards the spiritual realm, to become an artist, a god in miniature, and in so doing he enables man to wrest free from the earth-embedding clutch of Ahriman.

Yet Lucifer tends also to excess, and it is in this that danger lies. Man is not entirely an Earth being, as Ahriman would wish him to be. No more is he an angel, free of the Earth. Yet it is this which Lucifer (as bearer of the spiritual light) would wish man to receive. In the demonology of Steiner, therefore, we note that there are situations in which the luciferic temptations which lead to irresponsible free fall through the spiritual world (as, for example, might be offered by certain drugs) are to be resisted as firmly as the blandishments of Ahriman.

It is as though Ahriman would turn man into lifeless Earth that man might become forgetful of this spiritual ancestry and destiny, while Lucifer would give spiritual life so abundantly that man might forget that his destiny is concerned with the responsible and loving regeneration of the Earth, upon which he must remain sure-footed. The image of Michael spearing Satan therefore takes on a new meaning within the framework of esoteric lore, for it is possible to see such an image as representing the dualistic conflict between Lucifer as a being of light and Ahriman as an earth Demon, figuring a conflict which rages in every Human soul. However, the Demonic dualism expressed within the occult view of Lucifer has not found a satisfactory account within theology.

In the personal symbolism which infuses the poetry of Blake, Lucifer is the first of the 'Eyes of God' with Molech as the second. The 'Eyes' are the symbolic stages which lead from the utterly self-centered condition of Lucifer to the free spirituality of Christ. Paradoxically, the urge to sacrifice others, expressed in the nature of Molech, is a liberation from the awful rigidity of Lucifer, for at least it permits an awareness of other Humans, however badly they be treated as a result of that awareness.

In this vision of Lucifer by the modern Jewish painter Fay Pomerance, Lucifer's Creation of the Right Hand, Lucifer is visualized as a rebellious angel determined to gain from Heaven the spirit-free which he sees will enable man to become greater than the angels.

However, his wingtip is not adapted for grasping and he cannot take the flames. He therefore plunges his right wing into the spirit-fire and at the same time draws the mental images by which the hand is conceived.

When the right hand has been born, his first act is one of violence, for he uses it to pluck from his side the useless right wing. Now, he can neither command flight in the heavens nor use his hand in that ethereal realm. Accordingly, he descends to Earth, taking with him the seed of Redemption, which is shielded beneath the skin of the palm of his right hand.

In his grimoire of Honorius Lucifer is said to be conjured on a Monday.
Front Page
References: (What's this?)

Erricker, Clive
"Buddhism". 1995. TeachYourself Books.

Gettings, Fred
"Dictionary of Demons". 1988. Quotes from 1989 hardback reprint. Published by Guild Publishing.

LaVey, Anton [Who Is?]
"The Satanic Bible". 1969, Avon Books Inc, New York, USA.

Roberts, Jenny
"Bible Facts", 1990. Quotes taken from 1997 hardback edition. Published by Grange Books, London.

Journal Article Excerpt

Blake, Bataille, and the accidental processes of material history in 'Milton.

by Will McConnell

In his essay "Dangerous Blake," W. J. T. Mitchell gestures toward a reading of radical dissonance in Blake's texts when he calls for a "defamifiarization" and "recognition of his [Blake's] involvement in contingencies which may erode the truth (by whatever standard) of his art."(1) Mitchell's evocation of such "contingencies" also suggests an implicit critique of Hegel's "dialectic," since, in Mitchell's view, Blake scholarship has all but occluded the recovery or re-discovery of the "dangerous Blake" through the critical practice of assuming that "`every word and every letter' (and every graphic mark) `is in its fit place,'" (410); that is, much of recent Blake scholarship--what Mitchell calls "the third phase" of Blake criticism inaugurated by Northrop Frye (410)--produces its insights based on the assumption that Blake maintains a rigorous control over the meaning(s) his texts provide--that no meaning effects or affects escape the author's inherent powers of control over the protentive and retentive narrative teleology his texts may take. Despite this critique, Mitchell closes his essay with an unproblematized recapitulation of Blake's mastery over meaning in both his own texts and those which, in the future, would be used to read, to contextualize--and thus, to form--Blake: "wherever critical theory goes, Blake will be out there waiting for it to catch up with his imagination" (416). Mitchell dispels the tension between an indecipherable, "strange" Blake and a Blake that, in his ability to preconstitute meaning, precludes the anxiety surrounding the reader's production of meaning--which Mitchell evokes explicitly as a ...


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Paradise Lost
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For other uses, see Paradise Lost (disambiguation).
Paradise Lost

Title page of the first edition (1668)
Author John Milton
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Epic poem
Publisher Samuel Simmons (original)
Publication date 1667
Media type Print
Followed by Paradise Regained

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. The poem concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men"[1] and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will.

Milton incorporates Paganism, classical Greek references and Christianity within the poem. It deals with diverse topics from marriage, politics (Milton was politically active during the time of the English Civil War) and monarchy, and grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination, the Trinity, and the introduction of sin and death into the world, theology and the Trinity, as well as angels, fallen angels, Satan, and the war in heaven. Milton draws on his knowledge of languages, and diverse sources—primarily Genesis, much of the New Testament, the deuterocanonical Book of Enoch, and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Old Testament.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Synopsis
* 2 Characters
* 3 Composition
* 4 Context
* 5 Themes
o 5.1 Marriage
o 5.2 Idolatry
* 6 Response and criticism
* 7 Iconography
* 8 Cultural significance
o 8.1 Literature
o 8.2 Film
o 8.3 Music
o 8.4 Art
* 9 Publication history
o 9.1 Print
* 10 See also
* 11 Footnotes
* 12 References
* 13 External links
o 13.1 Online text
o 13.2 Other information

[edit] Synopsis
Gustave Doré, Depiction of Satan, the protagonist of John Milton's Paradise Lost c.1866.

The story was revised into twelve books after initial publication, following the model of the Aeneid of Virgil. The book lengths vary—the longest being Book IX, with 1189 lines and the shortest, Book VII, having 640. In the second edition, each book was preceded by a summary titled "The Argument". The poem follows the epic tradition of starting in medias res (Latin for in the midst of things), the background story being told in Books V-VI.

Milton's story contains two arcs: one of Satan (Lucifer) and another of Adam and Eve. The story of Satan follows the epic convention of large-scale warfare. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and cast by God into Hell, or as it is also called in the poem, Tartarus. In Pandæmonium, Satan employs his rhetorical skill to organize his followers; he is aided by his lieutenants Mammon and Beelzebub. Belial and Moloch are also present. At the end of the debate, Satan nominates himself to poison the newly-created Earth. He braves the dangers of the Abyss alone in a manner reminiscent of Odysseus or Aeneas.

The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a fundamentally different, new kind of epic: a domestic one. Adam and Eve are presented for the first time in Christian literature as having a functional relationship while still without sin. They have passions and distinct personalities. Satan successfully tempts Eve by preying on her vanity and tricking her with rhetoric, and Adam, seeing Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another so that if she dies, he must also die. In this manner Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure but also as a deeper sinner than Eve since he is smarter than Eve and knows that what he's doing is wrong.

After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex, and at first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep, having terrible nightmares, and after they awake, they experience guilt and shame for the first time. Realizing that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination.

However, Eve's pleas to Adam reconcile them somewhat. Her encouragement enables Adam and Eve both to approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee," and to receive grace from God. Adam goes on a vision journey with an angel where he witnesses the errors of man and the Great Flood, and is saddened by the sin that they have released through consumption of the fruit. However, he is also shown hope—the possibility of redemption—through a vision of Jesus Christ. They are then cast out of Eden and the archangel Michael says that Adam may find "A paradise within thee, happier far." They now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent but invisible (unlike the previous, tangible, Father in the Garden of Eden).

The contents of the 12 books are:
Book I: In a long, twisting opening sentence mirroring the epic poetry of the Ancient Greeks, the poet invokes the "Heavenly Muse" (the Holy Spirit) and states his theme, the Fall of Man, and his aim, to "justify the ways of God to men."[1] Satan, Beelzebub, and the other rebel angels are described as lying on a lake of fire, from which Satan rises up to claim hell as his own domain and delivers a rousing speech to his followers ("Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n"). The logic of Satan (Satanic Logic) is introduced by: "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
Book II: Satan and the rebel angels debate whether to wage another war on Heaven, and Beelzebub tells them of a new world being built which is to be the home of Man. Satan decides to visit this new world, passes through the Gates of Hell, past the sentries Sin and Death, and journeys through the realm of Chaos. Here, Satan is described as having given birth to Sin with a burst of flame from his forehead, before he began open warfare with God—as Athena was born from the head of Zeus.
Book III: God observes Satan's journey and foretells how Satan will bring about Man's Fall. God emphasises, that the Fall will come about as a result of Man's own free will, and excuses Himself of responsibility. The Son of God offers himself as a ransom for Man's disobedience, an offer which God accepts, ordaining the Son's future incarnation and punishment. Satan arrives at the rim of the universe, disguises himself as an angel, and is directed to Earth by Uriel, Guardian of the Sun.
William Blake, Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve, 1808, (Illustration of Paradise Lost)

Book IV: Satan journeys to the Garden of Eden, where he observes Adam and Eve discussing the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan, observing their innocence and beauty hesitates in his task, but concludes that "reason just,/ Honour and empire"[2] compel him to do this deed which he "should abhor." Satan tries to tempt Eve while she sleeps, but is discovered by the angels. The angel Gabriel expels Satan from the Garden.
Book V: Eve awakes and relates her dream to Adam. God sends Raphael to warn and encourage Adam: they talk of free will and predestination; Raphael tells Adam the story of how Satan inspired his angels to revolt against God.
Book VI: Raphael goes on to describe further the war in Heaven and explains how the Son of God drove Satan and his minions down to Hell.
Book VII: Raphael explains to Adam that God then decided to create another world (the Earth); he again warns Adam not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, for "in the day thou eat'st, thou diest;/ Death is the penalty imposed, beware,/ And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin/ Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death".
Book VIII: Adam tells the story of his creation from his own perspective, providing a counterpoint to Raphael's instruction in Book VI. Adam asks Raphael for knowledge concerning the stars and the angelic nature; Raphael warns "heaven is for thee too high/ To know what passes there; be lowly wise", and advises modesty and patience.
Book IX: Satan returns to Eden and enters into the body of a sleeping serpent. The serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. She eats and takes some fruit for Adam. Adam, realising Eve has been tricked, decides he would rather die with Eve than live without her; he eats of the fruit. At first the two become intoxicated by the fruit; they become lustful, engaging in sexual intercourse; afterwards, in their loss of innocence Adam and Eve cover their nakedness and fall into despair: "They sat them down to weep, nor only tears/ Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within/ Began to rise, high passions, anger, hate,/ Mistrust, suspicion, discord, and shook greatly/ Their inward state of mind."
Book X: God sends his Son to Eden to deliver judgment on Adam and Eve. Satan returns in triumph to Hell.
Book XI: The Son of God pleads with his Father on behalf of Adam and Eve. God decrees the couple must be expelled from the Garden, and the angel Michael descends to deliver God's judgment. Michael begins to unfold the future history of the world to Adam.
Book XII: Michael tells Adam of the eventual coming of the Messiah, before leading Adam and Eve from the Garden. They have lost the physical Paradise, but now have the opportunity to enjoy a "Paradise within ... happier farr." The poem ends: "The World was all before them/ where to choose Their place of rest/ and Providence Their guide: They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow/ Through Eden took, Their solitaire way."[3] Milton has connected the condition of Adam and Eve with the condition of the reader of the epic.

[edit] Characters

Satan: Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. He is introduced to Hell after a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God. Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to accept the fact he is a created being, and that he is not self-sufficient, which is rooted in his extreme Pride. One of the ways he tries to justify his rebellion against God is by claiming that he and the angels are self-created, declaring the angels "self-begot, self-raised",[4] thereby eliminating God’s authority over them as their creator.

Satan is narcissistic, self-pitying, and persuasive although his logic is almost always flawed, disingenuous, misguiding, or all three. Satan's persuasive powers are first evident when he makes arguments to his angel-followers as to why they should try to overthrow God. He argues that they ought to have equal rights to God and that Heaven is an unfair monarchy, stating, "Who can in reason then or right assume/ Monarchy over such as live by right/ His equals, if in power and splendour less / in freedom equal? or can introduce/ Law and edict on us, who without law/ Err not, much less for this to be our Lord,/ And look for adoration to th' abuse/ Of those imperial titles which assert/ Our being ordained to govern, not to serve?."[5]

Satan's persuasive powers are also evident during the scene in which he takes over the body of a snake in order to convince Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. First, he wins Eve's trust by giving her endless compliments. And when she is perplexed (and impressed) by a "serpent" that is able to talk, Satan tells her that he gained the ability to talk by eating from the Tree of Knowledge and argues that if she were to also eat from the Tree, she would become god-like. He convinces her that the fruit will not kill her and that God will not be upset with her if she eats from the tree. Like his argument to his followers, Satan also argues against God's omnipotence, stating "Why then was [eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil] forbid? Why but to awe,/ Why but to keep ye low and ignorant, / [God's] worshippers; he knows that in the day/ Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,/ Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then/ Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods./ So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off/ Human, to put on gods."[6]

An interesting departure from the Biblical Satan is that Milton's Satan has feelings of guilt and doubt before he tricks Eve, knowing the results of his actions will curse innocents. Similarly, Satan has feelings of guilt when he first enter Paradise. But his feelings always turn to hate once he reflects on his own exile from Heaven.

The role of Satan as a driving force in the poem has been the subject of much scholarly debate. Positions range from views of William Blake who stated Milton "wrote in fetters when wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, [because] he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it"[7] to critic William H. Marshall's interpretation of the poem as a Christian morality tale.[8]

Adam: Adam is the first human in Eden created by God. He is more intelligent than Eve and is also stronger, not only physically but morally. From the questions he asks the angel Raphael, it is clear that Adam has a deep, intellectual curiosity about his existence, God, Heaven, and the nature of the world. This is a kind of curiosity that Eve does not have.

As in the Bible, Eve is subservient to Adam, but in Milton's version of the story, Adam is rather easily manipulated by Eve's charms and good looks. Adam, in Milton's version of the character, is worshipful of Eve, partially because of her great beauty, and at times, is subservient to her wishes. Hence, the power dynamic between Adam and Eve is more complicated than the one that is established in the Bible.

Adam also feels a noble sense of responsibility towards Eve (since she was, after all, created from his rib) and he fears for her safety, especially after hearing from the angel Raphael of Satan's infiltration of Paradise.

As opposed to the Biblical Adam, this version of Adam is given a glimpse of the future of mankind (this includes a synopsis of stories from The Old and New Testaments), by the angel Michael, before he has to leave Paradise.
William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 (llustration of Milton's Paradise Lost).

Eve: Eve is the second human created, taken from one of Adam's ribs and shaped into a female form of Adam. In a positive sense (depending on your point of view), she is the model of a good subject and wife. She consents to Adam leading her away from her reflection when they first meet, trusting Adam’s authority in their relationship until she is influenced by Satan.

She is extremely beautiful, and her beauty not only obsesses Adam but also herself. After she is born, she gazes at her reflection in a pool of water, transfixed by her image. Even after Adam calls out to her, she returns to her image. It is not until God tells her to go to Adam that she consents to being led from the pool.

Eve first comes into contact with satanic influence in her dreams. After this incident she starts to develop the independent streak that perplexes Adam, particularly when she insists on going off by herself to work in the garden, even though Adam warns her against it.

Once she is alone, Satan tempts her to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He approaches her in the body of a snake and manipulates her by appealing to her pride and vanity.

Likewise, she soon gets Adam to eat from the tree as well, though he does this because he doesn't want to lose Eve. This creates a complexity that is not in the Biblical version of the story. In this version, Adam reasons that Eve will probably die soon from eating the fruit, so he eats the fruit because he would rather die with her than live alone.

Later, when they don't die and Adam realizes that their actions in the garden have cursed all of mankind, he is harsh on Eve, blaming her for their transgression. At this point, Eve gets on her knees and begs Adam for forgiveness. And since Adam still loves Eve, he forgives her, sharing some of the blame with her.

The Son of God: The Son of God in Paradise Lost is Jesus Christ, though he is never named explicitly, since He has not yet entered human form. The Son is very heroic and powerful, singlehandedly defeating Satan and his followers when they violently rebel against God and driving them into Hell. Also, after the Father explains to him how Adam and Eve shall fall, and how the rest of humanity will be doomed to follow them in their cursed footsteps, the Son selflessly and heroically proclaims that he will take the punishment for humanity. The Son endows hope to the poem, because although Satan conquers humanity by successfully tempting Adam and Eve, the victory is temporary because the Son will save the human race.[9] Strikingly, the Son shows a major break with orthodox religious thought on Milton’s part; the contemporaneous accepted belief was that the Trinity were all part of the one Godhead, and thus all created at the same time, and yet Milton portrays the Son as being created after the Father.

God the Father: God the Father is the creator of Eden, Heaven, Hell, and of each of the main characters. He is an all-powerful and all-knowing being who cannot be overthrown by even the one-third of the angels Satan incites against Him. The poem portrays God’s process of creation in the way that Milton believed it was done, that God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of himself, not out of nothing.[10] Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God derives from His being the "author" of creation. Satan tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-creation, but he admits to himself this is not the case, and that God "deserved no such return from me, whom he created what I was."[11][12]

Raphael: Raphael is an angel who is sent by God to warn Adam about Satan's infiltration of Eden and to warn him that Satan is going to try to curse Adam and Eve. Raphael initially meets with both Adam and Eve but has a private discussion about Satan with Adam only. During this discussion, Raphael tells Adam the story of Satan's rebellion and subsequent exile into Hell. After this, because of Adam's curiosity, Raphael also explains to Adam how God created the Earth and the universe.

Michael: After Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, God sends the angel Michael to visit Adam and Eve. His duty is to escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise. But before this happens, Michael shows Adam visions of the future which cover an outline of the Bible, from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, up through the story of Jesus in the New Testament. This vision is meant to show Adam what happens to mankind and to show Adam how Jesus will redeem humanity and eventually drive out Satan, Sin, and Death from the Earth.

[edit] Composition
Gustave Doré, The Heavenly Hosts, c. 1866, illustration to Paradise Lost

Milton began writing the epic in 1658 at the age of fifty, during the last years of the English Republic. Infighting among different military and political factions that doomed the Republic may show up in the Council of Hell scenes in Book II. Although he probably finished the work by 1664, Milton did not publish until 1667, on account of the Great Plague and the Great Fire.

Milton composed the entire work while completely blind. It is presumed he had glaucoma, necessitating the use of paid amanuenses and his daughters. The poet claimed that a divine spirit inspired him during the night, leaving him with verses that he would recite in the morning.

[edit] Context

The work is influenced by the Bible, Milton's own Puritan upbringing and religious perspective (including elements of Arminianism, Phineas Fletcher, Edmund Spenser, the Greek poets Virgil, Ovid and Theocritus), Homer, Dante Alighieri, and the traditions of epic poetry.

Later in life, Milton wrote the much shorter sequel to Paradise Lost entitled Paradise Regained, charting the temptation of Christ by Satan, and the return of the possibility of paradise. The reputation of the sequel never equaled its antecedent.

[edit] Themes

[edit] Marriage

Milton first presents Adam and Eve in Book IV with impartiality. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one of "mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy." While the author does place Adam above Eve in regard to his intellectual knowledge, and in turn his relation to God, he also grants Eve the benefit of knowledge through experience. Hermine Van Nuis clarifies that although there is a sense of stringency associated with the specified roles of the male and the female, each unreservedly accepts the designated role because it is viewed as an asset.[13] Instead of believing that these roles are forced upon them, each uses the obligatory requirement as a strength in their relationship with each other. These minor discrepancies reveal the author’s view on the importance of mutuality between a husband and a wife.

When examining the relationship between Adam and Eve, critics tend to accept an either Adam-or Eve—centred view in terms of hierarchy and importance to God. David Mikics argues, by contrast, these positions "overstate the independence of the characters' stances, and therefore miss the way in which Adam and Eve are entwined with each other".[14] Milton's true vision reflects one where the husband and wife (in this instance, Adam and Eve) depend on each other and only through each other’s differences are able to thrive.[14] While most readers believe that Adam and Eve fail because of their fall from paradise, Milton would argue that the resulting strengthening of their love for one another is true victory.

Although Milton does not directly mention divorce, critics posit theories on Milton's view of divorce based on inferences found within the poem. Other works by Milton suggest he viewed marriage as an entity separate from the church. Discussing Paradise Lost, Biberman entertains the idea that "marriage is a contract made by both the man and the woman".[15] Based on this inference, Milton would believe that both man and woman would have equal access to divorce, as they do to marriage.

[edit] Idolatry

Owing to his Protestant views on politics and religion in 17th century England, contemporaries usually criticised Milton’s ideas and considered him as a radical. One of Milton's greatest and most controversial arguments centres on his concept of what is idolatrous; this topic is deeply embedded in Paradise Lost.

Milton's first criticism of idolatry focuses on the practice of constructing temples and other buildings to serve as places of worship. In Book XI of Paradise Lost, Adam tries to atone for his sins by offering to build altars to worship God. In response, the angel Michael explains Adam does not need to build physical objects to experience the presence of God.[16] Joseph Lyle points to this example, explaining "When Milton objects to architecture, it is not a quality inherent in buildings themselves he finds offensive, but rather their tendency to act as convenient loci to which idolatry, over time, will inevitably adhere."[17] Even if the idea is pure in nature, Milton still believes that it will unavoidably lead to idolatry simply because of the nature of humans. Instead of placing their thoughts and beliefs into God, as they should, humans tend to turn to erected objects and falsely invest their faith. While Adam attempts to build an altar to God, critics note Eve is similarly guilty of idolatry, but in a different manner. Harding believes Eve's narcissism and obsession with herself constitutes idolatry.[18] Specifically, Harding claims that "... under the serpent’s influence, Eve’s idolatry and self-deification foreshadow the errors into which her 'Sons' will stray."[18] Much like Adam, Eve falsely places her faith into herself, the Tree of Knowledge, and to some extent, the Serpent, all of which do not compare to the ideal nature of God.

Furthermore, Milton makes his views on idolatry more explicit with the creation of Pandemonium and the exemplary allusion to Solomon’s temple. In the beginning of Paradise Lost, as well as throughout the poem, there are several references to the rise and eventual fall of Solomon's temple. Critics elucidate that "Solomon’s temple provides an explicit demonstration of how an artifact moves from its genesis in devotional practice to an idolatrous end."[19] This example, out of the many presented, conveys Milton’s views on the dangers of idolatry distinctly. Even if one builds a structure in the name of God, even the best of intentions can become immoral. In addition, critics have drawn parallels between both Pandemonium and Saint Peter's Basilica,[citation needed] and the Pantheon. The majority of these similarities revolve around a structural likeness, but as Lyle explains, they play a greater role. By linking Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon to Pandemonium—an ideally false structure, the two famous buildings take on a false meaning.[20] This comparison best represents Milton's Protestant views, as it rejects both the purely Catholic perspective and the Pagan perspective.

In addition to rejecting Catholicism, Milton revolted against the idea of a monarch ruling by divine right. He saw the practice as idolatrous. Barbara Lewalski concludes that the theme of idolatry in Paradise Lost ". . . is an exaggerated version of the idolatry Milton had long associated with the Stuart ideology of divine kingship".[21] In the opinion of Milton, any object, human or non-human, that receives special attention befitting of God, is considered idolatrous.

[edit] Response and criticism
The Creation of Man, engraving from the 1688 edition, by John Baptist Medina.

This epic is generally considered one of the greatest works in the English language. In the verses below the portrait in the fourth edition, John Dryden linked Milton with Homer and Virgil, suggesting Milton encompassed and surpassed both:

"Three Poets, in three distant Ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The First in loftiness of thought surpass'd;
The Next in Majesty; in both the Last.
The force of Nature cou'd no farther goe:
To make a third she joynd the former two."

Since Paradise Lost is based upon scripture, its significance in the Western canon has been thought by some to have lessened due to increasing secularism. This is not the general consensus, and even academics labelled as secular realize the merits of the work. In William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the "voice of the devil" argues:

The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.

This statement summarizes what would become the most common interpretation of the work in the twentieth century. Some critics, including C. S. Lewis, and later Stanley Fish, reject this interpretation. Rather, such critics hold that the theology of Paradise Lost conforms to the passages of Scripture on which it is based.

The latter half of the twentieth century saw critical understanding of Milton's epic shift to a more political and philosophical focus. Rather than the Romantic conception of the Devil as hero, it is generally accepted that Satan is presented in terms that begin classically heroic, then diminish him until he is finally reduced to a dust-eating serpent unable even to control his own body. The political angle enters into consideration in the underlying friction between Satan's conservative, hierarchical view of the universe, and the contrasting "new way" of God and the Son of God as illustrated in Book III.[citation needed] In other words, in contemporary criticism the main thrust of the work becomes not the perfidy or heroism of Satan, but rather the tension between classical conservative "Old Testament" hierarchs (evidenced in Satan's worldview and even in that of the archangels Raphael and Gabriel), and "New Testament" revolutionaries (embodied in the Son of God, Adam, and Eve) who represent a new system of universal organization.[citation needed] This new order is based not in tradition, precedence, and unthinking habit, but on sincere and conscious acceptance of faith and on station chosen by ability and responsibility.[citation needed] Naturally, this interpretation makes much use of Milton's other works and his biography, grounding itself in his personal history as an English revolutionary and social critic.[citation needed]

Samuel Johnson praised the poem lavishly, but conceded that "None ever wished it longer than it is."[22]

In Paul Stevens of University of Toronto's Milton's Satan, he claimed the Satan figure was one of the earliest examples of an anti-hero who doesn’t submit to authority, but the actions are greatly based on his own arrogance and delusion. Stevens also claimed Paradise Lost was a story about Milton himself, who wrote in support of events that eventually led to English Civil War.[23] That analysis was debuted in 2009 season of TVO's Best Lecturer series.[24]

[edit] Iconography

The first illustrations were to the fourth edition of 1688, with one engraving prefacing each book, of which up to eight of the twelve were by Sir John Baptist Medina, one by Bernard Lens, and perhaps up to four (including Books I and XII, perhaps the most memorable) by another hand.[25] The most notable illustrators of Paradise Lost are William Blake, Gustave Doré and Henry Fuseli (1799); however, the epic's illustrators also include, among others, John Martin, Edward Burney, Richard Westall, Francis Hayman. Salvador Dalí executed a set of ten colour engravings in 1974. As of June 2009, examples from this series can be viewed at the William Bennett Gallery in Manhattan.[26] Strikingly, two capriccios by Gian Battista Tiepolo were used to illustrate an Italian 18th century edition.[27] Surreal-visionary artist Terrance Lindall's rendition was published in 1982.[28]

[edit] Cultural significance
In Sin, Death, and the Devil (1792), James Gillray caricatured the political battle between Pitt and Thurlow as a scene from Paradise Lost. Pitt is Death and Thurlow Satan, with Queen Charlotte as Sin in the middle.

"Paradise Lost" has been the source of inspiration in several aspects of art and modern culture.

[edit] Literature
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* In response to Paradise Lost William Blake composed an epic of his own, one of his "illuminated books" entitled Milton: a Poem, between 1804 and 1810. It is Blake's longest poetic work, and features Milton himself as its hero; the poet returns from heaven and unites with Blake to explore the relationship between living writers and their predecessors, and undergoes a mystical journey to correct Milton's own spiritual errors, as perceived by Blake.
* Lord Byron's "dramatic poem" Manfred contains several allusions to Satan's speeches.
* The poem is the basis for the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The title of the trilogy is a direct quote from Paradise Lost (2.916). Pullman even introduced a new edition of the poem.[29]

[edit] Film

* The film Se7en includes a number of quotations from the poem.
* The film The Devil's Advocate contains several allusions to the poem. For example, in this film, Satan (played by Al Pacino) takes on the disguise of a man named John Milton.
* The film The Crow alludes to the poem in several ways, including direct quotation.

[edit] Music
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* The poem influenced the musical composition The Creation by Joseph Haydn.
* In 1760, the German-British composer and assistant of Handel John Christopher Smith wrote an oratorio "Paradise Lost" after Milton on a libretto by Benjamin Stillingfleet. There was a revised version in 1774. The oratorio has newly been recorded by the Bayerischer Rundfunk, Germany.
* Polish classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki has composed an opera, Paradise Lost, based upon the poem.
* Metal bands Cradle of Filth and Symphony X have created musical works based upon the poem.
* Peter Dizozza has written several pieces of music and also a play directly for Milton's Paradise Lost, most recently performed at a major Milton festival.[30] He also wrote the 30 minute "Incidental Music for Milton's Paradise Lost."
* Nick Cave makes reference to Paradise Lost in several songs, including, on Let Love In, "Red Right Hand" (whose title comes from PL 2.174) and most notably "Song of Joy," which cites 1.249-50, 2.174, and Samson Agonistes 86-87.
* Matt Duke titled his 2008 album Kingdom Underground as a reference to the poem. The disc's hidden track is also titled "Kingdom Underground" and is a shortened retelling of the epic poem.

[edit] Art

* Eugene Delacroix painted a famous illustration of "Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughters".[31]
* In 1930, Henry Lee Willet of Willet Stained Glass Studios created an eighteen-panel stained glass depiction of Paradise Lost for a bay window in McCartney Library at Geneva College.

[edit] Publication history

[edit] Print
Penguin Books edition of Paradise Lost

* Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition Regent College Publishing (Translated by Dennis Danielson, ISBN 978-1-57383-426-1) – includes Milton's original text on the left page and a modern translation on the right
* Paradise Lost Norton Critical Edition (2nd edition edited by Scott Elledge ISBN 0-393-96293-8; 3rd edition edited by Gordon Teskey ISBN 0-393-92428-9) – includes biographical, historical, and literary backgrounds, and criticism
* Paradise Lost Penguin Classics, with introduction by John Leonard. Suffolk, England. 2003. ISBN 0-14-042439-3
* Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Signet Classic, edited by Christopher Ricks; introduction by Susanne Woods. New York, 2001. ISBN 0-451-52792-5
* Hughes, Merrit Y. ed. John Milton. The Complete Poems and Major Prose. New York, 1957. ISBN 0-87220-678-5
* Fowler, Alastair, ed. Paradise Lost 2nd Edition, Longman, London, 1998. ISBN 0-582-21518-8.
* The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems, edited by Burton Raffel, Bantam Classic (Random House), 1999. ISBN 0-553-58110-4
* Paradise Lost and Other Poems, Signet Classic (Penguin Group), with introduction by Edward M. Cifelli, Ph.D; annotations by Edward Le Comte. New York, 2003. ISBN 0-451-52918-9
* Paradise Lost, with introduction by Philip Pullman (illustrations taken from first illustrated ed

You can't be an INTJ, you make too little sense.

Well you see thatz a matter of whether its that INTJs can't be senseless if they want to or not because I can make perfectly cutting sense if I'm trying but sometimes like now I can completely be senseless. Is it hard for INTJs to be senseless?


EDIT: for example, I find it highly amusing to create fantastically confused paragraphs and then throw several ''therefores'' in. It amuses me so when people try to deconstruct my ''arguments''

Nonsensical, I mean. For example, I am able to construct airtight logical arguments and win national school debates while advocating radical positions which would, to other mortals, be impossible to defend (no, really, I have). And scoring 100 perzint in logic and analysis exams and things of that button. However, I often find it more fun to use intuitive leaps cloaked in pseudoreason (such as in ALL ENFPs REPORT IN thread). HMMM HMM? What's your answer to that, noble INTJ?

SO I SUPPPISE THE ESSENCE OF MY EQUESTION IS: do you mean I am too chaotic and disordered or do you mean that I am not linear enough or do you mean that I am what? ELABORATE YOU EXCESSIVELY CONCISE CONCISOR

Besides which I'm an ENFP. I'm actually the only true ENFP in existence at time of posting. Anybody else wishing to be verified as a true ENFP must post here:

http://www.enfpforum.com/Forum/tabid/55/aff/10/aft/253/afv/topic/Default.aspx

I have recently been accused of demonic possession on this forum (no, seriously, people still believe these things...). Therefore, I am starting the official ENFPforum.com Lucifer-worship thread.

You are accused of it, are offended. So therefore you move to make more offense.


Silver, please use these forums for positive ends, less you prove them right.

I want to see the dancing stars that you can create

Remember: Creativity starts with "no".

Oh sorry-- I totally had no idea I was even stepping over a boundary. As in... I actually didn't realise anybody would mind this at all. Ahhhh . Oh I've thought about such alien ideas that this seems tame. What has I done to my sense of perspective ?

The forum here is to help people. It is selfish to use it just as a form of self expression. But we have addressed this.

Perhaps you should've read that text before posting it?
I own and have read the Satanic bible. It's an interesting view, but I can't bring myself to committing to a religion.
-receeds into a corner and contemplates-

I started reading the first post and got bored. I may have some interest in what Silver personally thinks. I have no interest in general Satanism.

As much as I'm a great believer in pride. I'd say Satan is more an example of pride taken to the point of stupidity.