Speaker 1: Yah Welcome to the Hidden Gin, A production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Long
Speaker 1: before man inhabited the earth, it was the exclusive domain
Speaker 1: of the Gin. They lived in societies and communities, had hierarchies,
Speaker 1: kingdoms with kings and queens, tribes with chiefs and ministers,
Speaker 1: and of course ordinary Gin citizenst century Persian polymath Zakaria
Speaker 1: al Kaswini wrote about that time in his Marvelous Home.
Speaker 1: When Cosmology called the Wonders of Creation, it is related
Speaker 1: in that his Trees that a race of Gin in
Speaker 1: ancient times, before the creation of Adam, inhabited the earth
Speaker 1: and covered it the land and the sea, and the
Speaker 1: plains and the mountains, and the favors of God were
Speaker 1: multiplied upon them, and they had government and prophecy, and
Speaker 1: religion and law. But they transgressed and offended, and opposed
Speaker 1: their profits and wickedness to abound in the earth. Whereupon God,
Speaker 1: whose name be exalted, sent against them an army of angels,
Speaker 1: who took possession of the earth and drove away the
Speaker 1: jinns to the regions of the islands, and made many
Speaker 1: of them prisoners. And of those prisoners was as a
Speaker 1: zeal and a slaughter was made among them at that time.
Speaker 1: As a Zeala was young. He grew up among the
Speaker 1: angels and became learned in their knowledge and assumed the
Speaker 1: government of them, and his days were prolonged until he
Speaker 1: became their chief. And thus it continued for a long time.
Speaker 1: This Jin as a zeal not only raised his ranks
Speaker 1: above the gin, ruling over them for a thousand years,
Speaker 1: but he also raised his ranks above the angels themselves.
Speaker 1: It said that he had more knowledge of both the
Speaker 1: seen and unseen realms, was more pious and righteous than
Speaker 1: the angels, and even rose into heaven with them. So
Speaker 1: intense was his devotion to God. There wasn't a place
Speaker 1: on heaven or earth that he had prostrated himself in worship,
Speaker 1: such was his love for the Almighty. But one day
Speaker 1: it all came crashing down. He lost everything, and he
Speaker 1: went from being Azazel, a jin among angels, praised in
Speaker 1: the heavens and earth, to how we know him today,
Speaker 1: despised and feared, condemned to the depths of hell. We
Speaker 1: know him by many names, dozens, Ablis, Mastama, Belzebub, Abadon, Diabolos, Bafa,
Speaker 1: met shadon Sama eel Satan himself, the accuser, the hated,
Speaker 1: the adversary, the great deceiver. That's right, the one that
Speaker 1: rules over the most evil jin the demons, is none
Speaker 1: other than Satan, and all of his deception and treachery
Speaker 1: is reserved for us, mere mortals. My name is Rob
Speaker 1: and I'll be your guide into the world of the
Speaker 1: hidden gin. Welcome. Yeah. Yeah. Every tradition that entertains the
Speaker 1: idea of Satan has for centuries and longer debated whether
Speaker 1: or not Satan is an actual entity. Even in those
Speaker 1: traditions that believe very much in God and angels and prophets,
Speaker 1: there are groups that way how my suh of scripture
Speaker 1: is literal and how much is figurative. For many Sufis,
Speaker 1: those mystics of the Islamic world, Satan personifies evil, but
Speaker 1: may not actually exist as an evil being. Roumi, one
Speaker 1: of the very few Sufi saints and poets known in
Speaker 1: the Western world, viewed Satan as a manifestation of the
Speaker 1: sins of arrogance and envy. To him, Satan, the one
Speaker 1: I devil, represented a half blind intellect that could see
Speaker 1: no further than the surface, unable to see the essence
Speaker 1: within others. Others connected the characteristics of Satan to the
Speaker 1: mechanics of the human psyche, with the angels representing the
Speaker 1: light in us and Satan representing the darkness. But then
Speaker 1: there is no dearth of literature and text, and sincere
Speaker 1: belief that Satan is much more than just an idea
Speaker 1: or a representation of our inner condition, too many. Satan
Speaker 1: was and is very much in existence, just as we are.
Speaker 1: He was born, he lives, and he will die. Satan
Speaker 1: appears in all three of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity,
Speaker 1: and Islam as a fairly similar figure, someone who took
Speaker 1: a position among angels brilliant and beloved, called Lucifer in
Speaker 1: the Bible, meaning star of the morning. He didn't stay exalted.
Speaker 1: The story of Satan's fall from grace and from heaven itself,
Speaker 1: why he was thrown out of favor with God, why
Speaker 1: he became an eternal enemy to mankind, That part has
Speaker 1: some similarities, but also some interesting differences. According to the
Speaker 1: Jewish Encyclopedia, Semma, l the head of all demons, was
Speaker 1: once a mighty prince of the angels in heaven. He
Speaker 1: was born and will eventually die. He's a celestial being
Speaker 1: that can fly through the air and can assume any
Speaker 1: animal or human form. He's only mentioned by name as
Speaker 1: Hassathan the Satan twice in the entire Hebrew Bible, and
Speaker 1: both times in the Book of Job and the Book
Speaker 1: of Zachariah. He's present as a part a divine counsel
Speaker 1: of sorts a heavenly court, where his role is kind
Speaker 1: of like a public prosecutor. Hence he's the accuser. He
Speaker 1: not only levels charges against those being tried, he urges
Speaker 1: God to meet out the toughest punishments. Beyond these mentions,
Speaker 1: there's not much to be said in the Talmut about Satan,
Speaker 1: and his role is as a figure subservient to God.
Speaker 1: It's a different story altogether with the New Testament, though,
Speaker 1: where Satan really comes into his own, appearing by name
Speaker 1: thirty six times, having grown fully into the evil part
Speaker 1: of the good versus evil dichotomy. Now we have all
Speaker 1: heard of the various temptations of Christ by Satan, but
Speaker 1: it's Satan's early interactions with mankind that really deserve examining,
Speaker 1: because that's where we unearthed the root of his enmity.
Speaker 1: Towards mankind. And in the New Testament that happens when Satan,
Speaker 1: in the guise of a serpent, tempts Adam and Eve
Speaker 1: to eat the forbidden fruit. But that again begs the
Speaker 1: question of why why would he do that? Well? To
Speaker 1: answer it, we have to backtrack just a bit between
Speaker 1: the Old and the New Testament to writings that fell
Speaker 1: in between, and there we find one ancient Jewish apocryphal
Speaker 1: group of writings known as Apocalypse of Moses, in which
Speaker 1: Satan minces no words with Adam and tells him exactly
Speaker 1: what his beef is. What asks Adam of Satan? Have
Speaker 1: I done to you? Oh Adam, all my enmity, jealousy,
Speaker 1: and resentment is towards you, Since on account of you,
Speaker 1: I was expelled and alienated from my glory which I
Speaker 1: had in heaven in the midst of the angels. On
Speaker 1: account of you, I was cast out upon the earth.
Speaker 1: On account of you, I was cast out from heaven.
Speaker 1: When you were formed, I was cast out from the
Speaker 1: face of God and was sent forth from the company
Speaker 1: of angels. The Lord God then said, behold, Adam, I
Speaker 1: made you in our image and likeness, And the Archangel
Speaker 1: Michael called all the angels, saying, worship the image of
Speaker 1: the Lord God, just as the Lord God has commanded.
Speaker 1: Michael himself worshiped. Then he called me and said, worship
Speaker 1: the image of God Jehovah. And I answered, I do
Speaker 1: not have it within me to worship Adam. I will
Speaker 1: not worship him who is lower and posterior to me.
Speaker 1: I am prior to that creature, before he was made.
Speaker 1: I had already been made. He ought to worship me.
Speaker 1: This is the same story that appears nearly a millennia later,
Speaker 1: but this time in the Muslim Holy Scripture the Koran.
Speaker 1: Satan is called by the name Eblis in the Koran,
Speaker 1: and of the eleven times he's mentioned by name, nine
Speaker 1: of them are connected to this incident. When Satan refused
Speaker 1: to bow down to Adam, God says in the Koran,
Speaker 1: we said to the angels, prostrate to Adam. And they
Speaker 1: prostrated except for Ablist. He said, should I austraight to
Speaker 1: one you created from clay? Do you see this one
Speaker 1: whom you have honored above me? If you delay me
Speaker 1: until the day of resurrection, I will surely destroy his
Speaker 1: descendants except for a few. Another story not from the Koran,
Speaker 1: but from the Stages draws this saga out further. It
Speaker 1: says that when God created the form of Adam out
Speaker 1: of clay, but had not yet blown a soul into him,
Speaker 1: a Blize was mystified. He began to observe this lifeless thing,
Speaker 1: just slowly drying out, sitting propped up outside the gates
Speaker 1: of the Garden of Eden, and he started to suspect
Speaker 1: that it was just a hollow form. So it Belize
Speaker 1: started throwing pebbles at Adam, and he heard a hollow clink.
Speaker 1: What the heck? What was this creature? He had never
Speaker 1: seen anything like it. He wanted to get a closer
Speaker 1: look at the first human who lay there, quiet and
Speaker 1: still lifeless. Yet, so it Blize entered the drawing clay form,
Speaker 1: swimming through the body of this new creation, and low
Speaker 1: and behold there was nothing on the inside. It was
Speaker 1: completely empty. That for sure didn't impress Satan no way,
Speaker 1: Nohow was the Belize going to bow down to this muddy, hollow, dumb,
Speaker 1: powerless thing when he himself was powerful, made out a fire,
Speaker 1: could travel through the heavens and the earth, knew everything
Speaker 1: there was to know in all of the realms. And
Speaker 1: it was this arrogance, this clear disobedience to God, that
Speaker 1: was his downfall. But he wasn't going to go down alone.
Speaker 1: If he would lose Paradise, so would Adam, and so
Speaker 1: would the children of Adam now and forever. How are
Speaker 1: you fallen from heaven, o, Lucifer, son of the Morning
Speaker 1: How are you cut down to the ground, you who
Speaker 1: weakened the nation's For you have said in your heart,
Speaker 1: I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
Speaker 1: above the stars of God. I will also sit on
Speaker 1: the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of
Speaker 1: the north. I will ascend above the heights of the cloud.
Speaker 1: I will be like the most high. Yet you shall
Speaker 1: be brought down to shield, to the lowest depths of
Speaker 1: the pit. God was not having Lucifer's arrogance, as we
Speaker 1: can see in this passage from Isaiah, and a new
Speaker 1: chapter was about to begin for him. He would be
Speaker 1: reborn from Lucifer the Morning Star to Satan the Despised.
Speaker 1: In Islamic theology, he went from being ablist he who
Speaker 1: has despaired, to Satan the adversary Shathon or Satan now
Speaker 1: fully humiliated, was ready to leave heaven, but first he
Speaker 1: had one rather important request. Satan asked God to be
Speaker 1: given until the end of time to show God that, hey,
Speaker 1: this claymation thing you think is so great, it isn't.
Speaker 1: It's weak, it's limited, it's stupid. It won't be good
Speaker 1: and right and pure the way you want it to be.
Speaker 1: It will be corrupt and greedy and jealous and violent
Speaker 1: and bloodthirsty. And I will prove it to you by
Speaker 1: spending the rest of my days pulling it away from
Speaker 1: everything good towards everything wrong. I'll prove to you that
Speaker 1: you were wrong. So Satan raises the challenge to God,
Speaker 1: because thou hast thrown me out of the way low,
Speaker 1: I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way.
Speaker 1: Then I will assault them from before them and behind them,
Speaker 1: from their right and their left. And God responded, get
Speaker 1: out from here, be gone with you, disgraced and expelled.
Speaker 1: If any of them follow thee, I will fill hell
Speaker 1: with you all tempt with your call, all whom you wish,
Speaker 1: muster against them, all your forces, your cavalry, and your
Speaker 1: foot soldiers, share with them riches and offspring, and seduce
Speaker 1: them with rosy promises. Satan's promise is nothing but a deception. Still,
Speaker 1: God granted Staton a stay of execution if you will.
Speaker 1: He gave him all the time in the world to
Speaker 1: see what kind of havoc he could wreak, and ever
Speaker 1: since then it's been on. Satan began his assault on
Speaker 1: mankind early in the game by deceiving Adam and Eve
Speaker 1: in the Garden of Eden. While the Christian tradition relates
Speaker 1: that Satan entered the garden in the form of a snake,
Speaker 1: the Muslim tradition differs a bit slightly. According to it,
Speaker 1: Satan approached a number of animals that lived in the garden,
Speaker 1: trying to get any of them on board to work
Speaker 1: with him, and all of them refused except for one,
Speaker 1: a serpent. So he told the serpent, I'll protect you
Speaker 1: from the children of Adam. If you can get me
Speaker 1: into the garden, you'll be protected forever from them, and
Speaker 1: so she agreed. She smuggled Satan into the garden tucked
Speaker 1: between her two front fangs, and as they casually idled
Speaker 1: by the original power couple, Satan heard Adam tell Eve
Speaker 1: that man he wished they could live forever and not
Speaker 1: have to die. That was Satan's in Now he knew
Speaker 1: what Adam's weakness was, and he knew exactly what to
Speaker 1: promise him in order to get both of these humans
Speaker 1: to disobey God. If you remember, they basically had the
Speaker 1: entire garden at the disposal except for a single tree.
Speaker 1: And so it was that tree hissed Satan to Adam
Speaker 1: and Eve that bore the fruit that would give them immortality.
Speaker 1: We all know how that story ends. Satan succeeded, gaining
Speaker 1: an early lead on mankind right out of the gate.
Speaker 1: After all, if Satan couldn't have the garden, no one would.
Speaker 1: Now when Satan was cast out, he had enough foresight
Speaker 1: to know if he was going to wage and never
Speaker 1: ending war against mankind, he needed some backup. In the
Speaker 1: Book of Jubilees, another ancient Jewish text, Satan says to
Speaker 1: God referring to angels, he was used to hanging out
Speaker 1: with Lord Creator. Let some of them remain before me,
Speaker 1: and let them park into my voice and do all
Speaker 1: that I shall say into them. For some of them
Speaker 1: are not left to me. I shall not be able
Speaker 1: to execute the power of my will on the sons
Speaker 1: of men. For these are for corruption and leading astray,
Speaker 1: for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.
Speaker 1: According to the Book of Revelation, Satan took one third
Speaker 1: of the angels with him in his fall. He gathered
Speaker 1: together those angels and armies of Gin together to become
Speaker 1: his legion of demons, whose sole purpose is to do
Speaker 1: his bidding. Along with their master, these jinn were also
Speaker 1: given an extra lease on life. They would live until
Speaker 1: Judgment Day, when everything on this earth perishes, and they
Speaker 1: would only die when their leader did. Now Irish Lord, however,
Speaker 1: says that not all those who were cast out of
Speaker 1: heaven with Lucifer became demons. Instead, they believe some of
Speaker 1: the fallen angels became fairies. The book The Vengeful Jin
Speaker 1: recounts the story documented by Celtic folklorist Alexander Carmichael and
Speaker 1: October of eighteen seventy one, Carmichael found himself stuck on
Speaker 1: the Scottish isle of Barra, where he met a ninety
Speaker 1: two year old storyteller named Roderick McNeil. McNeil was a
Speaker 1: legend himself, known to never have worn shoes in his life,
Speaker 1: he had never fallen ill, and he had the climbing
Speaker 1: skills of a goat. Even in his advanced age, McNeil
Speaker 1: regaled the stranded Carmichael with local fairy tales. But here,
Speaker 1: he said, is how it all began. The proud Angel
Speaker 1: fomented a rebellion among the angels of Heaven, where he
Speaker 1: had been a leading light. He declared that he would
Speaker 1: go out and found a kingdom of his own. When
Speaker 1: going out at the door of Heaven, the proud Angel
Speaker 1: brought prickly and biting lightning out the doorstep with his heels.
Speaker 1: Many angels followed him, so many that at last a
Speaker 1: son called out, Father, Father, the city is being emptied,
Speaker 1: whereupon the Father ordered the gates of Heaven and Hell
Speaker 1: to be closed. This was instantly done, and those who
Speaker 1: were in were in, and those who were out were out.
Speaker 1: While the hosts who had left Heaven and had not
Speaker 1: reached Hell, they flew into the holes of the earth.
Speaker 1: These are the fairy folk, ever since, doomed to live
Speaker 1: under the ground, and only permitted to emerge when and
Speaker 1: where the King of Heaven permits. The parallels between this lord,
Speaker 1: Christian belief and muslutricition is pretty strong, and perhaps one
Speaker 1: main point of difference is this was a belief or
Speaker 1: Lucifer as he was known, an angel himself, or was
Speaker 1: he a gin that elevated himself to the level of angels.
Speaker 1: Christian belief is strongly in the angel camp, but Muslim
Speaker 1: scholars are conflicted about it. There are strong scriptural arguments
Speaker 1: to be made that he was an angel, but just
Speaker 1: as strong are the arguments that he was and is
Speaker 1: a gin on some level, though it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: What matters is his role after the fall from grace
Speaker 1: that Satan became master over the demons, the most evil Jin,
Speaker 1: and to this day he remains oh. Some traditions say
Speaker 1: after his victory over Adam and Eve he married the
Speaker 1: snake that had assisted him, and they went on to
Speaker 1: have many demon children, and the names of the most
Speaker 1: powerful of his sons, including the seven Jin Kings, are
Speaker 1: well known. There's Alower, the one eyed demon, whose wheelhouse
Speaker 1: is tempting humans to lud and vulgar behavior. Then their suit,
Speaker 1: the father of lies, and closely related in purpose is
Speaker 1: his brother is a lumber whose domain is dishonesty and
Speaker 1: corruption in business. There's Dust him, whose only purpose is
Speaker 1: to ruin marriages by turning a couple against each other.
Speaker 1: There's Tear, who is in charge of striking people with
Speaker 1: disaster and injury. And finally there's Danish, the most powerful
Speaker 1: of all of Satan's sons, who lives in every dark void,
Speaker 1: attacks his victims with blindness, and even lurks inside the
Speaker 1: dark wombs of women ready to cosmos carriages. Along with
Speaker 1: these powerful demon sons, carrying forth his royal line as
Speaker 1: the Prince of Darkness, are hundreds of thousands of less
Speaker 1: significant offspring. It said that Satan laid thirty eggs after
Speaker 1: being expelled from heaven, ten in the west, ten in
Speaker 1: the east, and ten in the middle of the earth.
Speaker 1: From every egg, a new race of demons and gin emerged,
Speaker 1: like the ghouls, poisonous scorpions, terrifying nightbirds, venomous snakes, and
Speaker 1: other creatures, each of them an enemy to mankind. Satan's seed,
Speaker 1: if you will, is spread far and wide, and while
Speaker 1: he has, like other jin, the ability to move between
Speaker 1: the mortal and unseen world, he primarily lords over them
Speaker 1: all from his very own kingdom. It said that he
Speaker 1: presides in a huge palace that sits over a body
Speaker 1: of water, guarded by tens of thousands of gin where
Speaker 1: he holds court and presumably where he lives with his big,
Speaker 1: terrifying evil family, And that palace is exactly where you
Speaker 1: think it would be in the lowest depths of Hell.
Speaker 1: Theologians have argued for millennia about Hell, just like they
Speaker 1: have about Heaven, especially about whether it's a literal or
Speaker 1: figurative place. Maybe we're already in Hell, having been kicked
Speaker 1: at of paradise. Maybe Hell is all in our minds.
Speaker 1: It's our fear and terror and despair, and maybe, just
Speaker 1: maybe it's as real a place as the planet Earth.
Speaker 1: Regardless of the majority of the major world religions entertained
Speaker 1: the concept of Hell or very much believe in it
Speaker 1: as an actual place, and in nearly all versions, Hell
Speaker 1: is a place of fire. Fire, no doubt, strikes terror
Speaker 1: in all humans, whether a punishment or a purification. Fire,
Speaker 1: when we aren't able to control it, inspires fear, causes pain,
Speaker 1: and in the end leaves us as nothing but ashes.
Speaker 1: But also fire can be a means to an end,
Speaker 1: a trial that we are willing to face, a sacrificial
Speaker 1: device to get what we want. And thousands of years ago,
Speaker 1: the cult of an ancient God understood that the Ammonite
Speaker 1: deity Moloch meaning King, was a terrifying god worshiped by
Speaker 1: the Canaanites, terrifying because the only sacrifice that appeased him
Speaker 1: were children. Molok is sometimes depicted as having the body
Speaker 1: of a man in the head of a bull, although
Speaker 1: no such descriptions actually exist from that time, but rabbinic
Speaker 1: texts do describe the deity as being made of bronze
Speaker 1: and hollow, with seven compartments. Some have said that Molok
Speaker 1: was a demon that humans made into a pagan god,
Speaker 1: but not just any demon, one of the princes of
Speaker 1: the underworld. In fact, Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost describes
Speaker 1: Molok as one of the chiefs of Satan's Jin's, a
Speaker 1: great demon warrior that even delivered a speech in the
Speaker 1: parliament of Hell, who was then transformed into a deity
Speaker 1: by mankind. The pagan priests made their offerings to Moloch,
Speaker 1: and each of these compartments. In the first they put flower,
Speaker 1: in the second, turtle doves, and the third, a you.
Speaker 1: In the fourth, a ram in the fifth, a calf
Speaker 1: in the sixth and ox, and in the seventh a child.
Speaker 1: Molok was an insatiable god, devouring everything that was offered
Speaker 1: to him. It said that the massive bronze Idol was
Speaker 1: built with arms that pointed into the sky, palms upward,
Speaker 1: and that whatever was placed into the palms rolled down
Speaker 1: into his open mouth and into the hollow belly, where
Speaker 1: a fire burned day and night. The worshippers offered children
Speaker 1: and babies into Molok's flames to ward off destruction or
Speaker 1: ensure prosperity. In a ritual. The twelfth century Rabbi Rashi
Speaker 1: described this way, and they heeded him from his lower parts,
Speaker 1: and his hands being stretched out and made hot. They
Speaker 1: put the child between his hands, and it was burnt
Speaker 1: when it vehemently cried out. But the priests beat a
Speaker 1: drum that the father might not hear the voice of
Speaker 1: his own son, and that his heart might not be moved. Oftentimes,
Speaker 1: the children had been bought from poor families, and if
Speaker 1: the parents shed a single tear during the sacrifice, the
Speaker 1: entire ritual would be null and void. The sacrifice wouldn't
Speaker 1: be accepted, and they would have to return the money,
Speaker 1: and their child would still be dead. Now, the God
Speaker 1: of the Israelites was having none of it, which is
Speaker 1: why he thunders in Leviticus, and thou shalt not let
Speaker 1: any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molick.
Speaker 1: Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I
Speaker 1: am the Lord. The Hebrew Bible also names the place
Speaker 1: where these sacrifices were made in the Book of Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: And they built up the high places of ball, which
Speaker 1: are in the valley of the sons of Hainom, to
Speaker 1: cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire
Speaker 1: onto Moloch, which I commanded them. Not that valley where
Speaker 1: thousands of children were burned in sacrifice is found in Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and it's known by the name of Gehenna or Gehennum.
Speaker 1: But Gehennum is not just that physical place, that valley
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. In Judaism, the word Gahnum is also used
Speaker 1: to describe the place of torment reserved for the wicked
Speaker 1: after death, and the New Testament used the Greek form Gehenna,
Speaker 1: mentioned twelve times in the same sense, and in the
Speaker 1: Islamic religion, the name of the place of eternal damnation
Speaker 1: is mentioned dozens and dozens of times in scripture and
Speaker 1: prophetic traditions, is called Jehannum. No horrifying detail is spared
Speaker 1: throughout these traditions and describing this place of everlasting punishment.
Speaker 1: The second century Apocalypse of Peter tell us that in
Speaker 1: Hell those who blaspheme the name of the Lord are
Speaker 1: suspended by their tongues over flaming lake. Murder victims get
Speaker 1: to witness the endless torment and torture of their murderers,
Speaker 1: and those who slander others have their eyes burned out
Speaker 1: by hot irons. The New Testament describes Hell as a
Speaker 1: place of no escape, a second, unending death for those
Speaker 1: trapped in it, where the worm does not die, and
Speaker 1: the fire is not quenched, and the smoke of the
Speaker 1: tormented goes up forever and ever, and they have no
Speaker 1: rest day and night. And the Islamic sources go even
Speaker 1: further in details, describing a place where the suffering is
Speaker 1: both physical and spiritual, where sufferers are covered in blazing
Speaker 1: pitch and tar, their burned skins exchanged constantly for new
Speaker 1: ones so they continue to feel pain. Where when they
Speaker 1: cry for food and drink, they're given boiling, putrid water
Speaker 1: and thorny, dry vegetation that provides no respite from thirst
Speaker 1: or hunger. Hell itself is said to be huge, split
Speaker 1: into levels, with seven gates of entry, sinners sorted according
Speaker 1: to their sins, in a pit that is so deep
Speaker 1: that if a stone is thrown into it it would
Speaker 1: take seventy years to reach the bottom. Its walls so
Speaker 1: thick that it would take forty years just to walk therewith.
Speaker 1: It's said that on the day of Judgment, Hell will
Speaker 1: be dragged before all of mankind with seventy thousand rains,
Speaker 1: and every single reign will be held by seventy thousand angels.
Speaker 1: Hell will breathe inhaling and exhaling like a sentient being,
Speaker 1: roaring and fury. And God will ask Hell whether it
Speaker 1: is full and satisfied yet, and Hell will answer, are
Speaker 1: there any more to come? And in this hell, according
Speaker 1: to sources from each of the Abrahamic religions, you will
Speaker 1: find Satan, both captive but also commanding, trapped himself in
Speaker 1: the hell fire, but with the power to order his
Speaker 1: legions of demon gin to wreak havoc on mankind. At least,
Speaker 1: according to revelations, he was locked up there for an
Speaker 1: appointed time. Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven,
Speaker 1: holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit
Speaker 1: and a great chain. He sees the dragon, the ancient serpent,
Speaker 1: who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for
Speaker 1: a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and
Speaker 1: locked and sealed it over, so that he would deceive
Speaker 1: the nation's no more until the thousand years were ended.
Speaker 1: After that he must be let out. For most believers,
Speaker 1: though Satan isn't confined to anyone place, He can be
Speaker 1: found anywhere except for where the name of God is invoked.
Speaker 1: One prophetic tradition even says that Satan can be found
Speaker 1: flowing through human veins right there in our own blood.
Speaker 1: Whether Satan is still stuck in hell itself, or he
Speaker 1: roams the earth, or flows through our bodies, or only
Speaker 1: occupies our minds, well, the truth is we might never
Speaker 1: know until it's too late, But we do know this.
Speaker 1: The hell on earth that was created at Gehenna, where
Speaker 1: children were burned alive for the pleasure of Molok, is
Speaker 1: long gone. The valley itself, of course, still remains, and
Speaker 1: today if the cries of those children still echo through
Speaker 1: the sand and the dust, reaching across the millennia, you
Speaker 1: may not be able to hear it because today, Gehenna
Speaker 1: is a popular venue in Jerusalem for music concerts. When
Speaker 1: Lucifer went from being the morning star in heaven to
Speaker 1: the accursed Satan in hell, everything about him was transformed.
Speaker 1: He was described before the fall not only to be
Speaker 1: brilliant of mind and good of spirit, but also absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful to behold, Lucifer outshone the angels that surrounded him
Speaker 1: with his stunning good looks. He was so handsome, in fact,
Speaker 1: that in Ezekiel, God says of him, you were the
Speaker 1: seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Speaker 1: You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious
Speaker 1: stone adorned you. Your heart was lifted up because of
Speaker 1: your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of
Speaker 1: your splendor. The sin of arrogance not only lost Lucifer
Speaker 1: his rank in heaven and his favor with God, but
Speaker 1: also his perfect good looks. He isn't described in much
Speaker 1: detail in any of the sacred texts in terms of
Speaker 1: what he looked like when he was transformed into Satan,
Speaker 1: but the Book of Revelation in the New Testament describes
Speaker 1: the devil as an ancient serpent that looks like a
Speaker 1: red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. Some texts
Speaker 1: say that he's blind in one eye and has exactly
Speaker 1: seven hairs on his chin. The story goes that Satan
Speaker 1: once showed the prophet Enoch an egg and told him
Speaker 1: that God had shaped the world like that egg, which
Speaker 1: really Piste knock off because he knew it wasn't true,
Speaker 1: so he told Satan no, No, God shaped the earth
Speaker 1: like the eye of a needle, and he held out
Speaker 1: a needle so Satan could get a closer look. That
Speaker 1: didn't end well for Satan, because Enoch took the opportunity
Speaker 1: to jab him in the right eye, blinding him in
Speaker 1: that eye for good. But the horned, grotesque, forked tongue
Speaker 1: tailed monster that we tend to imagine as Satan, well,
Speaker 1: that image didn't emerge until the Middle Ages. According to
Speaker 1: religious scholar Jeffrey Russell, in medieval times, the Church began
Speaker 1: emphasizing the evil power of Satan more and more to
Speaker 1: scare believers and the compliance, and along with that emerged
Speaker 1: artists who didn't have much to go on from the Bible,
Speaker 1: so they drew from various pagan deities to create images
Speaker 1: of a fearsome prince of darkness, cloven hooves, horns, wings,
Speaker 1: a tail, and other beastly features were cobbled together from
Speaker 1: various myths and traditions to give us the goat headed
Speaker 1: Satan were familiar with. The fifty century painting called Inferno
Speaker 1: by Italian painter Giovanni do Modina depicts a nightmare Satan
Speaker 1: ten times the size of humans that suffer around him,
Speaker 1: with wings and claws and two heads, one of which
Speaker 1: is between his legs, both of them devouring some poor sinner.
Speaker 1: In the Muslim world, Satan was similarly visualized, appearing and
Speaker 1: painted manuscripts as a massive, dark, beast like figure. Writers
Speaker 1: like Dante added to the visual with fantastic details, like
Speaker 1: giving him three heads each munching on three great traitors
Speaker 1: in history Judas, Ascaria, Brutus, and Cassius. His Satan has
Speaker 1: the body of a human, six massive wings, furry lower legs,
Speaker 1: and the claws of beast, and he's half frozen in
Speaker 1: a lake of ice, an image made real by the
Speaker 1: sixteenth century painter Cornelius gall. By the eighteenth century, depictions
Speaker 1: of Satan had morphed from beastly to a human like form,
Speaker 1: a deceptive sly we s lee figure one that we've
Speaker 1: seen fairly frequently in pop culture. This Satan was less
Speaker 1: of a threat because he would tear you limb from limb,
Speaker 1: and more so a threat because he would trick, seduce,
Speaker 1: and persuade you into sin. Think Angel Heart or Devil's
Speaker 1: Advocate films in which Satan is personified as a manipulative
Speaker 1: con man, luring people deep into the darkest parts of themselves. Now,
Speaker 1: in many of these tales, the hapless protagonist has no
Speaker 1: idea that they're dealing with Satan until it's too late,
Speaker 1: until the weakness and their own soul has been thoroughly exposed.
Speaker 1: But then there are those who willingly seek out the
Speaker 1: devil in hopes of making a deal. But as we
Speaker 1: all know, these deals are generally a losing prospect. Just
Speaker 1: ask Dorian Gray or Daniel Webster. After all, the House,
Speaker 1: or in this case, Satan always wins, even in court.
Speaker 1: By the way, allow me to direct your attention to
Speaker 1: the nineteen federal case Gerald Mayo versus Satan and his staff. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not making this up. Mayo alleged in his claim
Speaker 1: that quote Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery
Speaker 1: and unwarranted threats against the will of plaintiff, and that
Speaker 1: Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has
Speaker 1: caused Plaintiff's downfall, and had therefore deprived him of his
Speaker 1: constitutional rights. The court didn't just dismiss the claim outright.
Speaker 1: They actually first considered whether or not they had jurisdiction
Speaker 1: over the devil. He was a foreign prince, mused the judge,
Speaker 1: so maybe he could claim sovereign immunity. Ultimately, though, the
Speaker 1: court had to dismiss the suit, not because the claims
Speaker 1: were outlandish, but because the plaintiff had failed to indicate
Speaker 1: how exactly U S. Marshals were supposed to serve the
Speaker 1: complaint on the devil address unknown if you will. The
Speaker 1: Muslim scripture that Kuran minces no words when it comes
Speaker 1: to warning mankind about Satan. Verily, Satan is an enemy
Speaker 1: to you, so treat him as an enemy. He only
Speaker 1: invites his adherence so that they may become companions of
Speaker 1: the blazing Fire. But while Satan might seem like an
Speaker 1: undefeatable adversary, the truth is the power balance between Satan
Speaker 1: and humankind actually tips in our favor. He might be
Speaker 1: an avowed enemy to us. But even then, Satan has
Speaker 1: no power over anyone. He can't make anyone do anything.
Speaker 1: It's because we have free will, that most dangerous power.
Speaker 1: We can choose right from wrong. We have the emotional
Speaker 1: and intellectual capacity to know when we're hurting others, and
Speaker 1: whether we care or not about that is also up
Speaker 1: to us. There's a fascinating passage in the Garan that
Speaker 1: lays this dynamic out clearly, in which the sinner condemned
Speaker 1: to hell is pointing a finger at Satan, who isn't
Speaker 1: having it, and Satan will say, when the matter is decided,
Speaker 1: it was God who gave you a prom miss of truth.
Speaker 1: I too promised, but I betrayed you. I had no
Speaker 1: authority over you except to call you, but you responded
Speaker 1: to me. Then blame me, not but blame your own souls.
Speaker 1: I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I
Speaker 1: reject you associating me with God, for there must be
Speaker 1: a grievous penalty for those who do wrong and worship
Speaker 1: false gods. And this passage takes us all the way
Speaker 1: back to the beginning of Satan's story, when he fell
Speaker 1: from heaven, disgraced, for his arrogance and disobedience to God,
Speaker 1: we are told, But there are those who say that
Speaker 1: we are completely misunderstanding the story and misunderstanding Satan. Some Sufis,
Speaker 1: those esoteric mystical Muslims, believe that Satan preferred to be
Speaker 1: damned to hell for eternity than betray his devotion to God. Satan,
Speaker 1: they believe, didn't refuse to bow down to Adam out
Speaker 1: of arrogance for thinking he was greater than this dingy
Speaker 1: clay creature. Rather, he refused to bow down because he
Speaker 1: was a strict monotheist, and Monotheists only worship and bow
Speaker 1: down to one God. As a devout believer and the
Speaker 1: devoted lover of God's Satan would only ever bow down
Speaker 1: to the Almighty and never to anyone or anything else.
Speaker 1: He knew that God was God. He had been in
Speaker 1: God's company, in the company of God's angels. He had
Speaker 1: witnessed both God's heaven and his Hell. How then, could
Speaker 1: Satan prostrate himself to anyone other than the One True God?
Speaker 1: Even he wasn't that lowly. In fact, there's a well
Speaker 1: known story told by numerous classical Muslim scholars about an
Speaker 1: encounter that Moses has with Satan. Moses asks the devil,
Speaker 1: why did you refuse God's order to bow to Adam?
Speaker 1: And Satan responds that it wasn't an order, It was
Speaker 1: a test, a test of his singular devotion to God
Speaker 1: and God alone in that case, said Moses, why would
Speaker 1: God turn you out from heaven, turn you from Lucifer
Speaker 1: into Satan? The accursed? This form, responded, Satan is just temporary.
Speaker 1: It too shall pass, and as far as Satan was concerned,
Speaker 1: his love for God remained the same. Now, I know
Speaker 1: the reasoning here seems a bit convoluted, but it does
Speaker 1: pose an important question about the nature of Satan versus
Speaker 1: the nature of mankind. If Satan is able to say, hey,
Speaker 1: I never did any of the evil stuff that was
Speaker 1: all you. I never killed or hurt anyone. I never
Speaker 1: worshiped false gods. I never pillaged entire nations, enslaved and
Speaker 1: wiped out whole communities. I just suggested these things to you,
Speaker 1: and your own pride and envy, greed lust led you
Speaker 1: to commit heinous acts. Well, then who is actually the
Speaker 1: evil one here? If it's us, then it doesn't even
Speaker 1: seem like we need Satan, because we can do terrible
Speaker 1: all by ourselves. Thanks for joining us this week. Next
Speaker 1: week we'll be back to take you another step into
Speaker 1: the world of the Hidden Gin. Until then, remember we
Speaker 1: are not alone. If you loved today's episode, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you a big favor. Please stop my iTunes and
Speaker 1: leave me a rating and a review, even if it's
Speaker 1: just one short sentence. Not only is that how other
Speaker 1: listeners discover the podcast, but it's also what keeps the
Speaker 1: podcast going. And for every thousand reviews that I get
Speaker 1: on iTunes, I'll release another Patreon episode absolutely free. That's right,
Speaker 1: We're on Patreon, so if you're a Jin enthusiast, check
Speaker 1: out the Companion Patreon series at patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: Hidden Jin. Again, that's patreon dot com slash Hidden Gin
Speaker 1: and remember Jin is spelled d j I n N.
Speaker 1: That's where you're gonna find an amazing series of interviews
Speaker 1: between me, scholars, experts, aretas, historians, and every day la
Speaker 1: people who have had extraordinary experiences with Jin and everybody
Speaker 1: can check out the first episode absolutely free. It's me
Speaker 1: and my husband sharing our Jen stories and it was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And if you have any Gin stories,
Speaker 1: well I'd love to hear from you. Email me at
Speaker 1: the Hidden Gin at gmail dot com. Once again, it's
Speaker 1: the Hidden Gin Gin with a D at gmail dot
Speaker 1: com and you might just hear back from me, or
Speaker 1: you might hear your story on this show. And finally,
Speaker 1: don't forget to follow us on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter,
Speaker 1: and Instagram with the handle the Hidden Gin. There you
Speaker 1: can tweet, post, insta dm me. I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from all of you, and believe me, I read every
Speaker 1: single message. The Hidden Gin is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The
Speaker 1: podcast is written and hosted by Robbia Chaudry and produced
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and At Frederick. Music for the show was
Speaker 1: provided by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Our theme song was created
Speaker 1: by Patrick Cortez. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.