Where/when did satan and demonic idealogy originate?

[Coil]

On 8/9/2024 at 2:33 PM, Abramelin said:

I'm a 100% sure that the Gnostic belief was the true origin of your post I responded to.

Click the links.

You gave a link to Ildabaoth above, but he is only one of the first four demiurges. Gnosis does not say much about the classes of demons; they are mentioned in detail only in yoga.

Excerpt from the book:

I found that the gods are described as children of Light, sons of Aditi, Infinity; and all of them, without exception, appear as benefactors of man, as those who nurture him, give him light, pour upon him the fulness of the waters and the abundance of the heavens, increase truth in him, build up the divine worlds, lead him in spite of all dangers to the great goal, to all-embracing happiness, to perfect bliss. The various functions of the gods were made clear by their actions, their epithets, by the psychological meaning of the legends connected with them, by the indications contained in the Upanishads and Puranas, and sometimes by reflections of Greek myths. On the other hand, the demons opposed to them are the forces of fragmentation and limitation, the Concealers, the Rippers, the Devourers, the Imprisoners, the Dividers, the Obstructors, as their names indicate, these are the forces that act against the free and unitary integrity of being. All these Vritras, Panis, Atris, Rakshasas, Sambara, Vala, Namuchi are not Dravidian kings and gods, as the modern mind with its exaggerated sense of history would like to see, they embody a much more ancient idea, more in keeping with the religious and ethical preferences of our ancestors. They reflected the struggle between the forces of high Good and base passion, and this idea in the Rigveda and the same opposition of good and evil, expressed differently, with less psychological subtlety, but with greater ethical directness in the Scriptures of the Zoroastrians, our ancient neighbors and relatives, probably originate from a single original discipline in the Aryan culture.

You can read about the first four demiurges here:

Spoiler

 

"One day, 'God' decided to put himself forth, to objectify himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail. So, at first he emanated his Con­sciousness, instructing it to bring into being a universe. This Consciousness began by emanating four Beings, four individualities who really were wholly superior beings, of the highest Reality. These were: the Being of Consciousness, the Being of Love (or rather of Ananda), the Being of Life, and the Being of Light and Knowl­edge. But consciousness and light are the same thing. We have: Consciousness, Love and Ananda, Life, and Truth — that's the right word, Truth. And, of course, they were supremely powerful Beings — you can well imagine! In this lore they are called the First Emana­tions, in other words the first formations. But each one became very much aware of its quality, its power, its capacity and its possibility, and at once forgot in its own way that it was only an emanation and an incarnation of the Supreme."

 "So, this is what happened.

"When Light or Consciousness separated itself from the Divine Consciousness — that is, when it began to think itself as the divine consciousness and that there was nothing else than itself — suddenly it became darkness and unconsciousness.

"And when Life thought that the whole life was in itself and that there was no other life than its own, and that it was not at all dependent on the Supreme, than Life became death.

"And when Truth thought it contained the whole truth and that there was no other truth than itself, this Truth became falsehood.

"And when Love or Ananda was convinced that it itself was the supreme Ananda and that there was nothing else than itself and its bliss, it became suffering.

"That is how the world that ought to have been so beautiful became so ugly."
"Then, when the Supreme Consciousness — you may call her the Divine Mother, if you like — saw that, she was very much bothered, you see. She told herself, 'Really, it is not a success!' Then turning to the Divine, to God, the Supreme, she asked Him to come to her succour.

"She said, 'Look at what has happened. Now, what is to be done?'

"He said, 'Begin again. But contrive not to make such independent Beings! They must remain in contact with you, and, through you, with me."'

"Thus she created the gods who were quite docile, were not so conceited, and who began the creation of the world. But as the others had come before them, the gods encountered them at each step. Thus it is that the world changed into a ground of battle, of war, of strife, of suffering, of darkness and all the rest of the caboodle. And to make each new creation the gods had to fight with the others who had set out before them. The others had preceded them and had rushed into matter; they made all this disorder, and the gods had to repair all the disorder.

"There, that's where the gods came from. They are the Second Emanations."

Actually speaking, those original four rushing into matter had lost no time in peopling the world exponentially with their progenies. All of them thrive on conflict and have occupied every layer of the mate­rial consciousness. "Those four personalities," said Mother, "made innumerable emanations, they in turn made innumerable emanations, which made forma­tions. Thus there are millions upon millions upon millions of them. And between them they got into a certain habit and have the logic of persevering in it; and they keep on not wanting any other rule than their own to govern. In India, they are called 'Asuras,' the beings of darkness. It is logic that makes them so. They began by going wrong, they continue."

However, she added happily, "Now, I must say that there are some that are changing their minds."

"Mother," another young fellow asked, "the first four who changed, was it by chance or wilfully?"

"No. What is chance?" Mother retorted.

"It is also narrated — so the story goes on, or rather begins — that the Divine wanted his creation to be a free creation. He wanted that whatever came out of him should be absolutely independent and free in order to be able to join him again in freedom and not under constraint. He didn't want them compelled to be faithful, compelled to be conscious, compelled to be obedient. It was imperative that they do it spontane­ously, through knowledge and through conviction that it was much the better way. So, this world was created as a world of total freedom, of freedom of choice. Thus, at every moment, each one has the freedom of choice — but along with all the consequences. If you choose well, good; but if you choose badly, well, what happens will happen — that's what happened!"

We gulped.

"The Divine emanated himself, as though he were looking at himself — instead of being in a static state of inward concentration where everything is unmanifest, he projected it out of himself 'to see,' as though he wanted to see everything that was in him — in other words, infinite possibilities. So everything was possible. It happened like this, it could have happened differently. Besides, there's nothing to show that alongside our universe as it is, there do not exist other universes so different that they bear no relation with one another." Isn't there a hint of science fiction there? "It can very well be that our universe is not the sole exteriorization of the Divine. Ours is as we know it; there may be others in a much less deplorable state than this one!"

"And once the world has become like that, become the vital world in all its darkness, and they from this vital world have created Matter, the supreme Mother sees," sparks of merriment danced in those great eyes, "the result of her first four emanations and she turns to the Supreme in a great entreaty :

" 'Now that this world is in such a dreadful state, it has to be saved! We cannot just leave it, can we? It has to be saved, the divine consciousness must be given back to it. What to do?'

"And the Supreme says, 'Thrust yourself into a new emanation of the ESSENCE of Love, down into the most material Matter.'

"That meant plunging into the earth — the earth had become a symbol and a representation of the whole drama. 'Plunge into Matter.' She plunged into Matter. And that became the primordial source of the Divine within material substance. And from there — as is so well described in Savttrt — she begins to act as a leaven in Matter, raising it up from within."

"And at the same time that she plunged into the earth, there was a second series of emanations, the gods, to inhabit the intermediary zones between Sachchidananda and the earth. But these gods," her suppressed merriment came rippling out, "well, great care was taken to make them perfect, so they wouldn't give any trouble! Only they are a little," she crinkled her nose, "a little too perfect, aren't they? Yes, a bit too perfect — they never make mistakes, they always do exactly as they are told. In short, rather lacking in initiative." She half corrected herself, "They do have some, but... I don't know how to put it. These gods have always seemed to me — not those described in the Puranas here, they are different... well, not so very different! But the way Theon presented them, they were much like a bunch of marshmallows! It's not that they had no power — they had a lot of power — but they lacked that psychic flame."

The Indian scriptures say that even the gods, if they want to progress, must take human birth. Other­wise they remain unchanged in their typal worlds.

Incidentally, the Puranic gods, though not as meek as a nun's hen, do tend to be ninnies. The slightest setback at the hands of the Asuras, and they run to Grandfather Brahma to be pulled out of their predicament.

https://integral-yoga.narod.ru/devotees/Sujata/Sujata.Mothers_Chronicles.Book_3.Mirra_The_Occultist.htm