Hymn to Satan (heavily annotated)

To thee of all being
The first cause immense
Of matter and spirit,
Of reason and sense

Whilst in the full goblet
Shall sparkle the wine,
So bright the pupil
The souls of men shine,

Whilst earth still is smiling,
And the sun smiles above,
And men are exchanging
Their sweet words of love,

All-being = "ASAT/SAT"
First CAUSE = "SAT"
Spirit means not matter or energy, but something else.
i.e. Cause of ALL THINGS THAT ARE

The Chalice, cup "red-ray"
Wine of Gnosis = 72ø
Pupil of the eye
i.e., the flame of life

Thrills mystic of Hymen
Through high mountains course,
And broad plains are heaving
With life's fertile force,

On thee in verse daring,
From tight rein released,
On thee I call, Satan,
The king of the feast.

Hymen = God of marriage whose symbols are bridal torch & veil, like an overgrown Cupid

Fertile force = Dermiurge, Root of Kundalini-flame of life

Let go, not held back.

The feast is life itself.

Away aspersorium,
With priest who would bind!
Priest, not at thy bidding
Gets Satan behind.

Behold, rust is eating
The edge of the blade
In the hand of great Michael
The faithful displayed.

The displumed Archangel
Descends to the void,
The thunderbolt's frozen
Jehovah employed.

Faint pallid meteors,
Wan stars void of light,
Like rain down from heaven
Fall angels in flight.

Place where xian-priests sprinkle people
i.e., Get away priests who would hold this back
Priests are powerless against this force
A force the priest tries to hold back, behind.

Michael is Xian prince of celestial army that they believe drives away Satan.

Michael goes to oblivion.
Michael & the xian Jehovah idea, humbled by Satan.

Weak and dead stars

I.e., their "angels" fall, worthless, lifeless.

In matter aye sleepless
Of forces the spring,
King of phenomena,
Of forms lord and king.

Here only lives Satan,
His power supreme
In a dark eye flashes
With tremendous gleam,

Whether it languidly
Retreats and rebels,
Or bright and audacious
Provokes and compels

In the Demiurge
Spring = water. The water force in matter.
Shapes all things in the visible world
Causes all forms, IA IA. Is, the FIRST cause.

The force it is concealed in, as such, is
the strongest force in the universe.

Like chaos crawling, liquidly,
in & out, destructive.
Like the Flame, bright,
in & out, creates, causes things to come into being, change.

In gay blood it sparkles
That's pressed from the vine,
Whose gift of swift pleasure
Shall never decline,

Which can to our fleeting
Life new strength impart,
Which puts off our sorrows,
To love gives a heart.

'Tis thou that inspirest
The song that doth rise
In my bosom, O Satan,
When that god it defies,

These 2 verses are a tribute to Dionysus, or WINE.




Carducci was part of a movement, new at the time to utterly smash the xian power which was known to be the root of all sorrow and woe. They celebrated in Dionysian fashion, the old rituals.

And gives them the courage to DEFY the xian "god" powers.

Small "g" on the word god, is as he wrote it.

On whom guilty pontiffs
And cruel kings call;
Men's minds thou so shakest
As when lightenings fall.

Ahriman and Adonis,
Astarte, to thee,
Canvas, marble and paper
All lived and were free

When Venus new risen
From billowing seas
Serenely made happy
Ionia's breeze.

3 alphas, the 3 "A's"

Art, objects of art, all were free, people were free.

The Goddess not the planet, and Adonis's beloved.
She rose from Paphos, near Cypress.
Not near the Ionian Sea.
The Ionian Artificers, or pre-pythagorean cults, spread to the west, to Ionia.

On Lebanon quivered
The trees at thy name,
When to gentle Cypria
Her risen love came.

Thee chorus and dances
In joy celebrate,
Love pure and virginal
To thee dedicate

Mid the palm-trees fragrant
Of Araby's land,
Where whitens the sea-foam
On Cyprian strand.

Has no relation to the xian meaning of
"virgin" but means love in the HEART,
more akin to Innocence.

What matter if fury
Of fierce Nazarene
From ritual barbaric
Of love-feast obscene.

Hath set with blest torches
The temples on fire,
And Argolis' idols
Hath hurled in the mire.

Two verses refer to the Nazarene cult which destroys love and engages in barbarity. Death = love to them.
The Nazarene is Jesus. His "love-feast" was his last supper before he was killed.

They burned our temples.
The Xians won, they took over.
Argolian Plateau, a place, one of many places.
They threw our idols of joy, into the dirt.

In cottages lowly
A refuge dost find,
Amid household Lares
Folk keep thee in mind.

Satan dwells among the humble now, and the outcasts, Satan is a spirit, protector of households.
A Lare is a household God, the God is Satan.
These is the only place Satan was known from then on.

The God and the lover
A woman's warm breast
With his ardent spirit
Once having possessed,

Thou turnest the witch
Whom long searching makes pale
To lend succor to nature
O'er disease to prevail.

Thou to the motionless
Eye of the alchemist,
In sight of the magus
Who dares to resist,

Satan became all this, to us. The verses are moving thru time, telling a story.

Witches cure and heal, with Satan.
They could not live in the open, they turned pale.



Thru sciences now, they will no longer be able to shut the doors and keep Satan out.

They will not be able to resist.

Beyond the dull cloister
Its gates set ajar,
Revealest in brightness
New heavens afar.

In lonely Thebaid
The wretched monks hide
From thee and things worldly
In safety to bide.

The priests are forced to open their gates to the onslaught of knowledge

Region of monks in Egypt, Thebais region.

The worldly proofs of sciences.

Ah, doubtful soul standing, choose!
Where life's roads divide,
See, Satan is kindly,
Heloise at thy side!

In vain with rough sackcloth
Thy flesh dost maltreat,
From Maro and Flaccus
He verse will repeat

Standing now, between truth and lies

Peter Abelard was a teacher, Heloise was his lover, the story is - a tragedy.

The xians did this, wore this cloth,
wallowed in filth.
Maro is Virgil, Flaccus is Horace, 2 Roman poets

Betwixt psalms of David;
'Twixt weeping and dirge
He causes beside thee
Delphic forms to emerge.

Amongst those companions
Though garbed in black weeds
With rosy Lycoris
Glycera he leads.

David, a King of Hebrews, successor of Saul.
How the xians read it is not how Jews read it.
Satan always shows "here is life."

Lycoris: a woman celebrated in a love elegy by Gallus. Glycera: a sacred notorious Greek courtesan, the mistress of Memander and Horace.

But other the phantoms
When finer the age,
At times he awakens
From Livy's full page,

When tribunes and consuls
And vast crowds that thrill
With ardor and passion
That sleepless cell fill,

He to the Capitol
Thy land to set free
Of Italic pride dreaming,
Oh monk, urges thee.

And you, Huss and Wycliffe
No fury of flames Reformation,
Could stifle your voices'
Prophetic acclaims.

Hus, student of Wycliffe, forerunners of Protestant
Hus was burned at the stake.
They were the freethinkers of that time period.

Send forth on the breezes
Your watch-cry sublime
"A new age is dawning,
Fulfilled is the time!"

Already are trembling
Both miter and crown,
And cloistered seclusion
Rebellion breaks down.

The end to Vatican iron hand control.

The end to Papal way of life.

Then fighting and preaching
Under the stola
Comes Fra Girolamo
Savonarola.

The cowl Luther cast off,
And freedom he brought:
So cast off thy fetters,
Be free, human thought!

And shine forth resplendent,
Encircled with flames,
Arise Matter, Satan
The victory claims.

Stola: ecclesiastical vestment.

Savonarola was hanged for heresy.

Martin Luther.
Luther set back the Roman Church tyranny at the time, but also opened the door for the ignorant and fanatical as we can see today. But not back then.

Matter, the world and flesh, and devil - Satan.

A beautiful monster,
A terrible birth,
Runs over the ocean,
Runs over the earth.

Volcano like flashes
Through dim smoke it lowers,
It scales lofty mountains
Broad plains it devours.

It spans the abysses,
In caverns it hides
And through the deep cleft ways
Invisible glides;

Caverns, the 5 points of our star,
secrets.

Unseen, yet acting on Nature.

Then comes forth undaunted,
From coast to coast hies,
As from some fierce whirlwind
It sends forth its cries.

As breath of the whirlwind
Spreads out on the vast
Expanse, O ye nations
Great Satan goes past.

From place to place passes
Beneficient he
Oh his chariot of fire
Untrammeled and free.

hies: means hastens.





Empires mean nothing, eventually, they
fall.

All hail to thee, Satan!
Rebellion, all hail!
Hail, power of reason,
Avenge and prevail!

To thee arise incense
And holy vows paid,
Thou, Satan, hast vanquished
The god by priests made.

small "g" as he wrote it.