What Exactly is Satan?

Is the Prince of Darkness an actual evil force, a primitive world view rife with projection, or an orphaned part of our own psyche?

Photo by author, from a wayside shrine on a path in Dervio, Italy

Raised in the Church, Indoctrinated by Fire
Growing up in a fundamentalist Christian church, the possibility of going to hell was a very real source of terror. When I was in grade school I had recurring nightmares about eternal damnation. One dream in particular filled me with anxiety. I would find myself lost and alone in the midst of a desolate, rocky landscape. In front of me there was long chasm filled with glowing embers and fire. It was emitting a low rumble and some unseen force was pulling me in. Frozen with fear, I would scream to try to jar myself awake.

Making matters exponentially worse, my father was the minister. Everything in our lives revolved around the church, and the anthems of sin and redemption were branded onto our souls. We lived in a self-reinforcing echo chamber, an island unto ourselves. There was an “us” and a “them”, and if 99% of the world was wrong, well, the path is narrow and the chosen are few.

Satan was a ubiquitous scapegoat who was blamed for all the evil in the world, and he (or it) also prowled the corridors of our minds. There was nowhere safe from the treacherous lure of…