Joseph Campbell: "There are a number of ways of thinking about Satan, but this is based on the question, Why was Satan thrown into hell?
The standard story is that, when God created the angels, he told them to bow to none but himself.
Then he created man, whom he regarded as a higher form than the angels, and he asked the angels to serve man. And Satan would not bow to man.
Now this is interpreted in the Christian tradition, as I recall from my boyhood instruction, as being the egotism of Satan.
He would not bow to man.
But in the Persian story, he could not bow to man because of his love for God ... he could bow only to God.
God had changed his signals, do you see?
But Satan had so committed himself to the first set of signals that he could not violate those, and in his ... I don't know if Satan has a heart or not ... but in his mind, he could not bow to anyone but God, whom he loved.
And then God says, " Get out of my sight."
Now, the worst of the pains of hell, insofar as hell has been described, is the absence of the Beloved, which is God.
So how does Satan sustain the situation in hell?
By the memory of the echo of God's voice, when God said, "Go to hell."
That is a great sign of love.
Bill Moyers: Well, it's certainly true in life that the greatest hell one can know is to be separated from the one you love.
That's why I've liked the Persian myth. Satan is God's lover ...
Joseph Campbell: ...and he is separated from God, and that's the real pain of Satan."
~~~conversation between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers~~~
