Pop culture paganism is a hot topic in the pagan community. It's a practce largely frowned upon - taking fictional characters and worshipping them as deities or otherwise including them in your practices. Detractors believe it isn't real paganism or that it's making a mockery of their religion to worship what they feel are fake gods. I personally am all for pop culture paganism. As a Satanist, there is no shortage of media depicting the devil or Hell for me to enjoy. It would be hypocritical to deny pop culture pagans when Satan is as much a literary figure as He is a biblical one.

“ W. Scott Poole, author of Satan in America: The Devil We Know, has opined that "In the United States over the last forty to fifty years, a composite image of Satan has emerged that borrows from both popular culture and theological sources" and that most American Christians do not "separate what they know [about Satan] from the movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions." “

⇧ I pulled this snippet from Wikipedia because Poole summarizes my point excellently. Most people have an idea of Satan that draws from media portrayals and this is the Satan that I worship. Satan has touched every work that depicts Him, even negative portrayals, and I draw inspiration from them, taking the pieces that work and leaving behind what doesn't.

My own interpretation of Satan is informed by works such as Paradise Lost and Lord Byron's Cain. The Satan of Paradise Lost is a complex literary figure, one that seeks autonomy and freedom. The argument can be made that He is not the antagonist of the epic but instead an anti-hero and a champion for independent thought. "Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven," this Lucifer says, refusing to submit Himself to Jehovah's rule. The Lucifer in Lord Byron's Cain brings knowledge to Cain. "And Truth in its own essence cannot be but good," he says,

But a lot of pop culture paganism-haters would argue that classic works have some kind of intrinsic value that a more modern piece doesn't have. I disagree there as well and personally take influence from modern media in my Satanism. One such piece of media is Supernatural and its portrayal of Lucifer. While it isn't a sympathetic portrayal, it is one I am fond of. Supernatural's Lucifer tells his origin story well - God asked him to love humanity more than God and when Lucifer rebelled, God cast him out of Heaven and into Hell where he was imprisoned for his crimes. I may not be directly worshipping the Lucifer in the show but there are snippets to be taken even from a portrayal of Satan as the villain.

[ GO BACK ... ]