Different wordlviews, metaphysics and ethics
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 2:35 am
This is something I wanted to address for a long time. It has been the single most off-putting thing that led me to refuse joining any specific group or religion I've come across. Before anyone gets offended, this post is not targeted to any one person here and it's something that I see in every path or attempt to reconstruct a dead tradition or religion in the west. It's not demon-specific and it's not forum-specific either.
Not every culture, tradition and religion on earth shares the same worldview, metaphysics and ethics that are prevalent in the western world. I know this is a very difficult concept to grasp if you've grown up in the western world because we've all been steeped in the same monotheistic paradigm for thousands of years so we don't really have a chance to consider that a different worldview could be possible, but there's also a huge part of the planet where people have a very different view of the world compared to the western paradigm.
Now why this is important to understand? It is important because I see people going through all this trouble to leave one of the dominant monotheistic religions (usually some form of Christianity) behind, only to transfer the worldview, metaphysics and ethics of their old religion into the new one. This is extremely common in modern paganism (to a devastating point) but I also see it among demonolators too.
Allow me to provide some examples so that you can understand what I mean:
People who believe that they will be thrown out of Hell for making a mistake or offending one of the Dark Lords.
People who believe that they are to leave every choice and decision in the hands of their deity/DL of choice and trust them to lead them where they are meant to go, instead of making their own choices and decisions in their lives and learning from them.
People who say they are witches/sorcerers etc but will not cast any magic that may violate free will in any way. This is so prevalent a mindset in certain pagan cycles nowadays that I come across people claiming there can be such a thing as a magical tradition without any magic or ritual in it at all (save for devotional rites to their main deity).
People who are themselves witches/magicians/sorcerers/whatever in one of the western systems of magic who view other living traditions that stem from different parts of the world (Vodou and Santeria for example) as dark, because these traditions or religions incorporate things or worldviews than in the mind of someone who thinks the western paradigm with its worldview and ethics is the only one, therefore everything that is considered wrong in it is dark and evil. So if something would be considered wrong or a sin in a christian-based tradition for example is labelled as wrong and the path to destruction, and the tradition it comes from suddenly gets painted as a dark and dangerous path.
Now this is not so much a problem when someone joins a living tradition properly, because they will have someone teach them and help them understand the worldview, ethics and metaphysics of their new religion. It is a colossal problem though in religions that are attempting to reconstruct dead religions (the worship of the Olympian or Roman gods for example) or newer religions and traditions.
What basically happens with many people is that they will leave their old religion (again, mostly some form of Christianity), they will keep talking about how free and empowered they now feel, they will go through all the trouble of de-programming themselves from one or two main points of their old religion (eg. demons are evil and want your soul). And then they'll go and transfer the worldview and ethics of their old religion into the new one, so they'll basically keep most of their old beliefs and just change the entities and gods associated with them. "If I'm not good and don't do what I am told I'll be thrown out of Heaven" becomes "If I am not good and don't do what I am told I will be thrown out of Hell". "I will place my trust in Jesus because he leads me and he knows better than I do what is good or bad for me therefore I will always do what he tells me to do" becomes "I will place my trust in Satan because he leads me and he knows better than I do what is good or bad for me therefore I will always do what he tells me to do".
This happens automatically, because as I said above, the western world has been dominated by religions based on pretty much the same beings and the same concept of Soteriology. The basic premise is: you are like a baby, ignorant and unable to decide what is good or bad for you. You aren't trying to reach spiritual adulthood though because someone else will come and save you, as long as you follow this specific set of commandments.
Now if this is the worldview you choose for yourself then there's nothing wrong with that and you'd do well in one of the religions that have this worldview. But not every religion is a religion of salvation. Ancient greek religion for example wasn't a soteriological religion. It had its own set of ethics and things the gods expected from humans, but it was based mostly on cause and effect. Don't jump off a building because you'll either die or end up crippled and live a very unhappy life because of that. But there's no judgement from the gods if you do. It's your call. Don't cheat on your husband because if he finds out, what'll happen won't be pretty. But it's your call. Unless you lived an exceedingly good and noble life (hero) or an exceedingly filthy and evil life (tyrant who killed millions, desecrated holy places and cooked and ate his own kids for example), you knew you'd end up in the same part of the Underworld as everyone else you knew.
And this is just one example of a religion with a different worldview compared to what is now prominent in the West. The Celts had a different worldview and ethics. The Saxons had a different worldview and ethics. Buddhists have a different worldview. So do the Aboriginals. So do different african tribes.
And no matter which one of those religions or traditions you choose for yourself, you're doing it and yourself a great disservice by taking the worldview and ethics of your old religion with you and plugging it all into the new one. Demonolatry and Demonosophy suddenly become Christianity, just with different beings on top and more sex and nudity.
And this is not what it is. Every religion's worldview and ethics are shaped to a great degree by the gods and beings around which it revolves. I've spent the last couple of years working heavily with angels, and I can see why some things are the way they are in the religions that have those same angels in them (some of those things; a lot of the crazy ass shit is all human). You can't expect the ancient greek religion to have the same worldview and ethics, considering it revolves around different beings. You can't expect any religion that revolves around demons to have the same worldview and ethics that a religion that is greatly influenced by angels has.
Taking the ethics and worldview of one religion (especially when it was one that you didn't fit and and felt oppressed in) and just plugging it into the new one is like carrying the chains you were bound with with you as you break out of prison and just finding a new prison and a new guard.
Not every culture, tradition and religion on earth shares the same worldview, metaphysics and ethics that are prevalent in the western world. I know this is a very difficult concept to grasp if you've grown up in the western world because we've all been steeped in the same monotheistic paradigm for thousands of years so we don't really have a chance to consider that a different worldview could be possible, but there's also a huge part of the planet where people have a very different view of the world compared to the western paradigm.
Now why this is important to understand? It is important because I see people going through all this trouble to leave one of the dominant monotheistic religions (usually some form of Christianity) behind, only to transfer the worldview, metaphysics and ethics of their old religion into the new one. This is extremely common in modern paganism (to a devastating point) but I also see it among demonolators too.
Allow me to provide some examples so that you can understand what I mean:
People who believe that they will be thrown out of Hell for making a mistake or offending one of the Dark Lords.
People who believe that they are to leave every choice and decision in the hands of their deity/DL of choice and trust them to lead them where they are meant to go, instead of making their own choices and decisions in their lives and learning from them.
People who say they are witches/sorcerers etc but will not cast any magic that may violate free will in any way. This is so prevalent a mindset in certain pagan cycles nowadays that I come across people claiming there can be such a thing as a magical tradition without any magic or ritual in it at all (save for devotional rites to their main deity).
People who are themselves witches/magicians/sorcerers/whatever in one of the western systems of magic who view other living traditions that stem from different parts of the world (Vodou and Santeria for example) as dark, because these traditions or religions incorporate things or worldviews than in the mind of someone who thinks the western paradigm with its worldview and ethics is the only one, therefore everything that is considered wrong in it is dark and evil. So if something would be considered wrong or a sin in a christian-based tradition for example is labelled as wrong and the path to destruction, and the tradition it comes from suddenly gets painted as a dark and dangerous path.
Now this is not so much a problem when someone joins a living tradition properly, because they will have someone teach them and help them understand the worldview, ethics and metaphysics of their new religion. It is a colossal problem though in religions that are attempting to reconstruct dead religions (the worship of the Olympian or Roman gods for example) or newer religions and traditions.
What basically happens with many people is that they will leave their old religion (again, mostly some form of Christianity), they will keep talking about how free and empowered they now feel, they will go through all the trouble of de-programming themselves from one or two main points of their old religion (eg. demons are evil and want your soul). And then they'll go and transfer the worldview and ethics of their old religion into the new one, so they'll basically keep most of their old beliefs and just change the entities and gods associated with them. "If I'm not good and don't do what I am told I'll be thrown out of Heaven" becomes "If I am not good and don't do what I am told I will be thrown out of Hell". "I will place my trust in Jesus because he leads me and he knows better than I do what is good or bad for me therefore I will always do what he tells me to do" becomes "I will place my trust in Satan because he leads me and he knows better than I do what is good or bad for me therefore I will always do what he tells me to do".
This happens automatically, because as I said above, the western world has been dominated by religions based on pretty much the same beings and the same concept of Soteriology. The basic premise is: you are like a baby, ignorant and unable to decide what is good or bad for you. You aren't trying to reach spiritual adulthood though because someone else will come and save you, as long as you follow this specific set of commandments.
Now if this is the worldview you choose for yourself then there's nothing wrong with that and you'd do well in one of the religions that have this worldview. But not every religion is a religion of salvation. Ancient greek religion for example wasn't a soteriological religion. It had its own set of ethics and things the gods expected from humans, but it was based mostly on cause and effect. Don't jump off a building because you'll either die or end up crippled and live a very unhappy life because of that. But there's no judgement from the gods if you do. It's your call. Don't cheat on your husband because if he finds out, what'll happen won't be pretty. But it's your call. Unless you lived an exceedingly good and noble life (hero) or an exceedingly filthy and evil life (tyrant who killed millions, desecrated holy places and cooked and ate his own kids for example), you knew you'd end up in the same part of the Underworld as everyone else you knew.
And this is just one example of a religion with a different worldview compared to what is now prominent in the West. The Celts had a different worldview and ethics. The Saxons had a different worldview and ethics. Buddhists have a different worldview. So do the Aboriginals. So do different african tribes.
And no matter which one of those religions or traditions you choose for yourself, you're doing it and yourself a great disservice by taking the worldview and ethics of your old religion with you and plugging it all into the new one. Demonolatry and Demonosophy suddenly become Christianity, just with different beings on top and more sex and nudity.
And this is not what it is. Every religion's worldview and ethics are shaped to a great degree by the gods and beings around which it revolves. I've spent the last couple of years working heavily with angels, and I can see why some things are the way they are in the religions that have those same angels in them (some of those things; a lot of the crazy ass shit is all human). You can't expect the ancient greek religion to have the same worldview and ethics, considering it revolves around different beings. You can't expect any religion that revolves around demons to have the same worldview and ethics that a religion that is greatly influenced by angels has.
Taking the ethics and worldview of one religion (especially when it was one that you didn't fit and and felt oppressed in) and just plugging it into the new one is like carrying the chains you were bound with with you as you break out of prison and just finding a new prison and a new guard.