Review: “The Synagogue of Satan” by Stanislaw Przybyszewski

This book was a frustrating experience. 

It started out full of promise, with passages of breathtaking beauty that seemed to capture the essence of Lucifer in a way that few texts can. 

Then a bit of confusing Nietzsche fanboyism crept in. Then came boatloads of soft polytheism. 

Then it moved into a retelling of the history of the Church that was flawed, biased and inaccurate on a Margaret Murray level. 

Finally, it ended on a note of sour nihilism. 

The portrayal of a beautiful, brilliant Satan in the beginning was degraded and twisted by the end. The one who had promised infinite gnosis and liberation was ultimately shown as offering only idiotic escapism and joyless intoxication. 

It was weird. It felt like the author started out with one idea of Satan and ended with another. It felt like a book that didn’t know what it wanted to be, devoid of consistent opinions, values or theology. The Promethean Lightbringer turns bitter and becomes the cruel, petty enemy of God and Christianity, even tormenting his own devotees to alleviate his frustration. In that sense, this ended up being a very Christian book– the character arc of Satan mirrored that in Paradise Lost. 

I have never read something that started out so moving and promising and ended so mediocre and empty. It reads exactly like what Christians think the experience of Satanism is– promises and dreams that crumble away to nothingness and pain. 

Can’t recommend, although I’ve posted some of the better passages from early on as quotes on this blog. 

That said, it’s interesting to read such a blatantly Satanic and little-known book from the 19th century. (And despite the problematic-sounding title, it contains very little antisemitism.)

“Jesus, Artisan of Hoaxes, Bandit of Homage, Robber of Affection, hear! Since the day when thou didst issue from the complaisant bowels of a Virgin, thou hast failed all thine engagements, belied all thy promises. Centuries have wept, awaiting thee, fugitive God, mute God! Thou wast to redeem man and thou hast not, thou wast to appear in thy glory, and thou sleepest. Go, lie, say to the wretch who appeals to thee, ‘Hope, be patient, suffer; the hospital of souls will receive thee; the angels will assist thee; Heaven opens to thee.’ Impostor! thou knowest well that the angels, disgusted at thine inertness, abandon thee! Thou wast to be the Interpreter of our plaints, the Chamberlain of our tears; thou wast to convey them to the Father and thou hast not done so, for this intercession would disturb thine eternal sleep of happy satiety.”

Là-bas, Joris-Karl Huysmans

Image

last-twist-of-the-knife:

Faust: So still I seek the force, the reason governing life’s flow; and not just its external show.
Devil: The governing force? The reason? Some things cannot be known; they are beyond your reach even when shown.
Faust: Why should that be so?
Devil: They lie outside the boundaries that words can address; & man can only know those thoughts which language can express.
Faust: What? Do you mean that words are greater yet than man?
Devil: Indeed they are.
Faust: Then what of longing, affection, pain or grief. I can’t describe these, yet I know they are in my breast. What are they?
Devil: Without substance, as mist is.
Faust: In that case man is only air as well.  [reads] What has made me thirst then to be instructed in those things that are more than thirst allows?
Devil: Your thirst is artificial, fostered by the arrogance in you. So look no further than all your human brothers do: sleep, eat, drink, and let that be sufficient.
Faust: Liar and foul traitor, where are the pulse and core of nature you promised to reveal? Where?
Devil: Faustus, you lack the wit to see them in every blade of grass.

Jan Švankmajer – Faust (1994)

“I promise you everything. You shall see and receive everything if you go my way. But my way is difficult because perfection is difficult.”

So spoke the “evil” god, so spoke the light bringer and Satan—as Paraclete.

The Synagogue of Satan, Stanislaw Przybyszewski

“The “bad” god is lawlessness, contrariness and visionary leaps into the future. He is the curiosity that seeks after the most hidden mysteries and the boundless titanic defiance that overthrows all laws and rules. He is the highest wisdom and the deepest depravity. He is the wildest pride and speechless humility; that is the only way for man to thwart the rules. He sanctifies the high and daring, the zealous and calls it heroism. He teaches man that there is no crime except that of going against one’s own nature. He sanctifies curiosity and calls it science; He lets man investigate into his own origins and calls it philosophy. He allows and teaches everything in the streambed of sexuality without bounds and calls it art.”

The Synagogue of Satan, Stanislaw Przybyszewski