The title of this post might make it sound a bit grand and authoritative, but it is just some associations that I can trace for the being we call “Satan” – The Devil.

A clear reflection can be seen in the astrological Saturn: dweller on the threshold, Lord of this world, tester and opposition that all consciousness must push against in order to actualise work, and thus power. In tradition he is regarded as the “greater malefic”, because, well life is hard (resistant at the material level) and Saturn is all about the bottom line. But Saturn is also the initiator, the gate keeper, the demand of maturity and growth. Saturn by placement shows that part of experience where we feel denied, deficient, unable, failed. But this is only so until we find how to fulfil that area of experience as ourselves, in the way that is truly authentic for us as individuals. This often takes time, another attribute of Saturn.  Liz Greene called him “an old devil”, and she was correct in that.

Another principle we can see in Satan is the astrological Pluto. Lord of the underworld, of death, transformation and phoenix-like revivification. Pluto is the crux of the evolutionary drive of consciousness. This is the “dark” (because initially unconscious) secret of why we come here. It is not the course of “union with God”, the absolute, the all-oneness. Pluto is quite aware of where all comes from, and that the oneness is the ground of things. But Pluto is not about coming into apparent separation and material experience, only to return to what it was in blissful dissolution. Pluto understands that the ground of everything is union already. In this way Pluto can appear “evil” to people, for it is just not about the oneness, and so it can appear opposed to the God that doesn’t actually exist, for oneness can be only exactly oneness. That “evil” is of course in our heads, for that is where our “God” is, an artefact of limited vision. But Pluto doesn’t actually oppose, because nothing can finally oppose it. It is irresistible, and its gift is the shadow and darkness that makes our existence, our life, our experience possible. Just as Saturn ensures balance and growth, boundaries and individual integrity, and repudiates individual chaos and inertia, Pluto holds us to life and the presence of the True Will deep within us. You co-operate with it or get crushed, until you realise it is the beat of your own blood.

A third classical planet that we can see in Satan is Mars. Formerly known as the “lesser malefic”, it is known as the planet of drive, desire, energy, aggression and sex. Mars is your “little Pluto” in a sense, stepped down but very vital. It is the “second hand” of the evolutionary clock of consciousness, and intimately connected to the transformation of energy for human beings.

A fourth principle which can be mentioned is Uranus, though this should be subsumed under Saturn in some ways. Uranus is the planet of innovation, rebellion, deviation and sudden enlightenment. It can be shattering and traumatic, liberating and alienating. It is the outsider’s planet, and the planet of genius, mad or otherwise. It’s the Addams in “The Addams Family”. It is deeply occult.

And lest we forget, The Sun is a Satanic planet, symbolising as it does the sovereignty of consciousness, but the Sun shows the quest in abstract, not the method. Yet as a star it does trace out that individualization of light, thanks to the night and space that surrounds it, and gives it its unique definition in relation to other stars. Yet also the Sun’s centrality for us is due to our being incarnate on Earth, so the Sun is like the finger pointing at out inner Sun, a door that can be opened or left shut, according to whether or not we take the journey implicit in our incarnation (literally “fleshing”, from the same root as carnal, carnivore etc).

The signs associated with these planets are Aries, Leo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Aquarius.

While it is possible to explore other avenues (basically all the other planets, directly or indirectly, plus the Moon’s Nodes), I feel it is better to focus and go deeper.

I hope this is of interest.

[15th April 2019: 6th paragraph edited].