16: The Images of the Devil & the Tree of Death

This week, I'm not saying that 'evil' as a concept is completely nonexistent, but I'll be taking the time to demonstrate how the arch-devil of Christianity is entirely a "straw-man argument" that not even the source texts backed up until a certain point in history. Like it is with so many other things, this multi-thousand year telephone game brought us all a mix of many different characters like Set, Pan, Lucifer, Lilith, Prometheus and more. And while some of these characters have archetypal similarities to each other, some of these are just entirely different mythological personas that were amalgamated to make a character seemingly worth demonizing.  I also take the time to talk a bit about the Qabalistic Trees of Life and Death and how they relate to Dante's Divine Comedy and its levels of heaven and hell. This in turn brings us further into a conversation about dynamic forces of nature that we attempt to humanize as gods or devils with our spiritual traditions.  This isn't moral relativism and this isn't devil worship either, but it would be safe to say that orthodox Christians are going to want to sit this episode out unless they're fairly open-minded about ancient history and their cultures! I hope you dig it. This week's featured music! Better off Dead - Silent of Fifth Street The Karma - Babylon Warchild The Towers of Babylon - Babylon Warchild Additional reading material: Trees of Life and Death Lilith, sleep paralysis, and symbolism Dive Manual Hunt Manual