4/2024 update
Here is the story of Cain from Genesis:
"Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said, "I have acquired a man with the Lord." And she continued to bear his brother Abel, and Abel was a shepherd of flocks, and Cain was a tiller of the soil. Now it came to pass at the end of days, that Cain brought of the fruit of the soil an offering to the Lord. And Abel he too brought of the firstborn of his flocks and of their fattest, and the Lord turned to Abel and to his offering. But to Cain and to his offering He did not turn, and it annoyed Cain exceedingly, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you annoyed, and why has your countenance fallen? Is it not so that if you improve, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is laying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it." And Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And He said, "What have you done? Hark! Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the earth. And now, you are cursed even more than the ground, which opened its mouth to take your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the soil, it will not continue to give its strength to you; you shall be a wanderer and an exile in the land." And Cain said to the Lord, "Is my iniquity too great to bear? Behold You have driven me today off the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from before You, and I will be a wanderer and an exile in the land, and it will be that whoever finds me will kill me." And the Lord said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be wrought upon him sevenfold," and the Lord placed a mark on Cain that no one who find him slay him. And Cain went forth from before the Lord, and he dwelt in the land of the wanderers, to the east of Eden."
The Torah does not explain much, if anything, and later attempts at deciphering the story, from the works of Rabbis to Romantic Satanist Lord Byron and everyone in between, only add more possibilities and questions. How one interprets this story can tell themselves a great deal about their own cosmology and where they stand. It poses many questions, so let us look at those questions now.
Why Was Cain's Offer Rejected?
The main reasons for this are generally given as Cain not giving his best offerings, or that he simply went along with the motions without truly honoring Yahweh. This was the route taken in Hebrew School, where it was taught Cain was an evil man who had fallen due to arrogance and pride. It never occurred to me how similar the story of Cain was during my early religious education to that of the Devil in Christianity. It seems to be the standard take that whatever went wrong was with Cain, not with Yahweh, as we might expect. By this logic, Yahweh rejecting an offering, by definition, would make the offering wrong – it is not what Yahweh wanted.
Another possibility we can consider is that Yahweh intentionally angered Cain so that he would strike down his innocent shepherd brother, like how Yahweh would later use the human blood sacrifice of Christ the shepherd to “redeem” the world from sin. Maybe this was his first attempt? In this theory Yahweh intended for Abel to die in whatever manner, in hopes that his innocent blood would redeem the world from the Original Sin of his parents. If this was the goal however, it does not seem to have worked, for this story is followed shortly by the great flood.
Personally, I believe the take that Cain's sacrifice was rejected because it was not of blood. Yahweh’s lust for blood is clear both in his own texts and the actions of his followers throughout history. Abel's sacrifice would have bellowed in pain, tortured by the flames as it died and the smell of charred blood filled the air, while Cain's just sat there. To Yahweh, the latter was meaningless without its suffering and so was rejected. It seems that Lord Byron came to a similar conclusion, a mix between Yahweh preferring blood and Cain’s attitude. Cain becomes enraged and strikes down the altar in Byron’s telling, refusing to honor Yahweh, and Abel is openly willing to give his life to keep his sacrificial altar standing.
“In his great name, I stand between thee and the shrine which hath Had his acceptance… I love god far more Than life.” - Abel, Cain: A Mystery
In the 21st century, when the Monotheistic God and the State can be compared as in the tradition of the Romantics, we see some of the same exact things manifesting. For example, despite many companies running just fine while their employees worked from home in 2020, they are now requiring people to come back to their manipulative and unhealthy work environments. They do not simply want one’s good work, but also their physical presence, ease of control over them, a complete dedication, body, mind, and soul. There is no reason for this other than to break people down. The military is another example that often requires the literal sacrifice of life in the form of war – millions have died in the name of corrupt politicians and morally bankrupt ideologies. Corporations and governments thrive off sacrifice just as much as Yahweh, and the Romantics were extremely aware of this connection. The modern day Cain would be one who seeks to strike down altars to such institutions and individuals – not necessarily in an anarchist sense, but rather one of balance at the very least.
Why Did Cain Kill Abel?
The traditional reason given is jealousy, that Cain killed his brother because he was jealous that god had only accepted Abel's sacrifice. It has also been suggested that Abel was the favorite of their parents, causing further jealousy in Cain. Again this is what was taught in Hebrew school, that Cain was more of a petty barbarian than anything else.
Another idea has been that in the missing details of the story Abel attacked Cain and Cain acted in self-defense, killing his brother on accident. Byron taps into this a bit with Abel and Cain struggling over the attempted destruction of the former’s altar. This take completely changes the narrative to make Abel the questionable one as he dies in defense of living sacrifice. At odds with Left Hand Path ideology, Abel states that the honoring of Yahweh is worth more than one’s own life, something the Angel explicitly did not require of Cain, and promised never to require.
“Believe––and sink not! doubt––and perish! Thus Would run the edict of the other god, Who names me Demon to his Angels; they Echo the sound to miserable things, Which, knowing nought beyond their shallow senses, Worship the word which strikes their ear, and deem Evil or good what is proclaimed to them In their abasement. I will have none such: Worship or worship not, thou shalt behold The worlds beyond thy little world, nor be Amerced for doubts beyond thy little life, With torture of my dooming.” - Lucifer, Cain: A Mystery
We already touched upon the idea that Yahweh tricked Cain to make Abel a sacrifice, needing the blood of an innocent human to redeem the world, similar to what Christ was supposed to have done much later. An alternative idea is that Abel was being groomed to be taken up by god, like others Yahweh swoops down and carries off to heaven in the Torah (including Enoch, Elijah, and several others). Perhaps god’s intent was to come down on a chariot of wheels and multi headed angels to carry Abel to heaven? Cain would not allow his brother to be used as such and denied Yahweh his prize. Here we start moving into a more sympathetic and Romantic Cain, as the one we find in Byron.
Finally there is the idea I share, that there was no intention behind the killing at all. Cain did not understand Death, he and his family knew it was coming but none of them had ever died at that point, only animals. Cain is therefore entirely innocent and ignorant in his killing of Abel, as he has no idea that Abel is capable of not waking up. In this case it is an accident with no intent, much more the crime of Yahweh than Cain for creating Death at all, or releasing it upon the world at the very least. Perhaps Cain did in fact do it to save his brother, not realizing all which that entailed?
Byron writes it as Cain striking down Abel while attempting to destroy his sacrificial altar, while mixing in a general ignorance for what Death really is. But the story also touches on the fact that there is not one, but many different states apart from this life after Death, and Cain was aware of them. It must be noted that Lucifer scolds Cain for his talks of suicide, explaining to him that the time here can not only be enjoyed, but is essential for developing the mind to overcome Death and continue the journey.
“By being Yourselves, in your resistance. Nothing can Quench the mind, if the mind will be itself And centre of surrounding things––'tis made To sway.” - Lucifer
Cain: Were I quiet earth, That were no evil: would I ne'er had been Aught else but dust!
Lucifer: That is a grovelling wish, Less than thy father's––for he wished to know!
Everything is seen as black and white today, any position that disagrees with one’s own is written off immediately. Many cannot even comprehend disagreement in science anymore. These views are harmful if not explicitly incorrect. For instance, it is part of the scientific method itself that data must be questioned and open to debate, yet now we see many worship current scientific knowledge as the totality of truth, sometimes called "scientism."
One view of the afterlife is that it is created by the individual, and that our time in this life is necessary if we want control in the next one. It takes this temporal life to train one’s own consciousness, and one cannot even develop this ability until they are capable of and instructed in the ways of free will. The Angel explains this to Cain, telling him to form an inner world where the outer world fails to become closer to spiritual truth. And this very idea fits with what we know now, such as that when stimulus input is limited in a sensory deprivation chamber, consciousness seems to expand into itself rather than cease entirely. Yahweh’s whole goal in the story is to have mindless pets that bow down before him without question, in this life and the next. The Angel instead attempts to teach Cain how to rise above this.
What Was the Parentage of Cain?
It is accepted that Eve was the mother of Cain, but there has been debate on who the father was. The main contender is Adam, and Genesis itself does not add characters like Samael and Lilith until a bit later. The original telling does give an alternative though:
Gen 3:14-15 "And the Lord god said to the Serpent, ".... And I shall place hatred between you and between the woman, and between your seed and between her seed."
The seed of the Serpent is a contender for creating Cain. Even the Torah itself implies that there was not hatred and division between the two seeds prior to Yahweh’s curse. It also could explain why in Genesis god fears Cain and his future, and uses this as an excuse in his rejection of Cain's offering:
Gen 4:7 “... If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is laying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it."
This means that another possible father of Cain may be the Serpent Itself. This is the view I personally hold. I do not think Lord Byron was aware of this view, and do not really see anything suggesting he is not Adam’s son in the original.
As mentioned above, there are tales outside of the Torah which also suggest Adam is not the father of Cain. Most famous of these later tales is that of Adam’s first wife, Lilith. The story goes that Lilith and Adam were both made as equals from dust, and so Lilith wished to be treated equally. She refused to submit to Adam because of this, and so Adam had Yahweh drive Lilith from the garden of Eden. In the wilderness Lilith came upon the (sometimes fallen) angel Samael (not to be confused with Samael as a name of the Gnostic Demiurge) and she became the mother of demons. It is then Samael, as the Serpent, who tempted mankind and impregnated Eve with Cain as a form of revenge against Yahweh’s chosen family. Suffice to say there is nothing new to this “Serpent Seed” theory as others may claim.
There is a lot of talk about seeking the source of information in Byron’s tale, not just taking things at face value when they are told to you. In this case, seeking information leads to even more possibilities and questions, it expands horizons rather than causing any harm. Much of the modern world seems to have forgotten the importance and benefits of doubt and questioning. Many Right Hand Path religions are very explicitly opposed to adherents questioning the teachings of their tradition, or the outcomes of that practice. People rally behind causes or accusations without taking the time to gather the slightest amount of information, as well exemplified by the case of Johnny Depp. Institutions like the military are extremely harsh on any sort of doubt, and corporations create company cultures that one must assimilate to entirely. The very idea of a person doing their own research on topics has become demonized, as if investigating things for yourself is some sort of sin. It is that Right Hand Path control model, “just shut up and let us think for you”. This does not work with Romantic views, we should not be blindly obeying, blindly accepting anything told to us by people simply because they claim a role of an authority. We should also not simply sit by and allow for such things to happen around us, something the revolutionaries understood when they picked up the images of the Serpent and Satan in the name of change.
When discussing this “Serpent Seed” theory there are two different paths we can follow on the topic. The first is that there was a literal, biological “race of Cain” which was entirely wiped out by the great flood. Noah, being a descendant of Cain’s other brother Seth, is the one who repopulates the earth. Therefore in take one the line of Cain has already been dealt with. The other idea is that the “race of Cain” is a spiritual one, and identical to the Left Hand Path tradition in the West. I like the latter, and I believe Byron would have agreed – anyone who embodies the spirit of his work would be of the same spiritual family, those who would challenge the supposedly omnipotent tyrant.
How Did Cain View Yahweh?
I think from the Torah to Jewish mysticism to the Left Hand Path there is only one answer given: Cain did not think positively about the god of his parents. He did not like to engage in prayer or offerings, he was not pleased with Yahweh’s preference for blood and murder in sacrifice, he was not happy about being cursed for the sins of his parents and with Death when he had no part in such “sin.” Cain also struggled with classic issues like the Problem of Evil in Byron’s tale, why Yahweh would plant the Trees of Life and Knowledge where Adam and Eve could reach their fruits, or why Yahweh could not find Adam in the garden and did not know where Abel was either.
When we follow the thread of god equating to the State, as it was for the Romantics, this tradition is continued by some Left Hand Path traditions to this day. Cain had an inherent distrust of Yahweh to start with, for he had seen the outcome of Yahweh’s acts. The main one of these, of course, was his parents being exiled from Eden and having to face Death. He wonders why such a god would place the Tree in Eden if he didn’t want his innocent and ignorant parents to eat from it, why god allowed the Serpent in, how he could have held Adam and Eve responsible for their blind choice.
Similarly, Cain’s continued existence validated and supported his distrust even further. The more he saw from and of Yahweh the less he trusted the god. Our own modern world mirrors this in the Romantic sense, exemplified perfectly by our governments doing things like flooding the anti-war movement with drugs, testing drugs on citizens, endorsing and spreading false information in the Satanic Panic, the continued federal war on marijuana, conspiracy theorists being right way too often, and more.
How Did Cain View His Family?
The Torah does not speak much on this issue, glazing over the entire family history in a few verses. In classic takes Cain was jealous because Abel was preferred by their parents and Yahweh, and so was angry with his parents and god alike. This was also a view that stuck with me since Hebrew school, that Cain must have been some sort of petty, pathetic individual, more immature and yearning than his younger brother. Some stories have it where Cain was jealous of Abel's wife, his own twin who was more beautiful than Abel's twin, making Cain even more petty and vain. I would agree with the take that Cain disliked his mother and Adam for being trampled over by Yahweh, yet still honoring him as good and loving. It may be safe to say that Cain would come to somewhat understand Eve's desire for knowledge in Eden, as in many stories he himself seeks similar knowledge, including Byron’s.
That said, Cain always seems to view both Adam and Abel as weak and misled. The one Cain seems to truly love throughout the history of the story is his wife, here called Adah. Byron appears to completely agree with this, and Adah is the only one besides the Serpent we ever really see Cain be drawn to or in agreement with to any extent.
It is interesting to note the treatment given to Adah by Byron. She acts as a balance between Cain’s views and his family’s values. Adah may just be the key to understanding the “Mystery of Cain,” at least as Byron intended that. She does not stand wholly with the blind obedience of Yahweh, nor would she sacrifice love for the knowledge that the Angel offers her – she does not go with the Angel because of love, nor does she remain with her family at the end, again because of love. Adah represents a distinct 3rd option between Yahweh and the Serpent – one’s own subjective desire and human love here and now. Both Abel and Cain are seeking something external after all, salvation and knowledge respectively. All Adah cares about is what her heart tells her.
This adds an interesting dynamic to the whole battle between Heaven and Hell. From what we see, Adah would follow Cain right into the pit if it meant staying with him, and there is something important to be said about those who are family to us and improve our lives. Cain loses sight of this love and present path to joy, but Byron does not dignify this. In fact, at many times Cain is forced to recognize the beauty he sees in Adah, explicitly acknowledging that it is not her physical beauty he is speaking of.
"I'm sorry for it; but–Cannot conceive my love for her the less: And when her beauty disappears, methinks He who creates all beauty will lose more Than me in seeing perish such a work." - Cain, Cain: A Mystery
This itself is another lesson in family that I take away from the story of Cain: family is that which you love and that which makes life worth living, it is not something defined by blood or birth. What greater blasphemy is there against a god who loves suffering than joy?
How Did Cain View Death?
Cain was furious about having to die, especially since he saw life itself as pointless and empty in many takes on the myth, twice as meaningless if all lived just to suffer then die. This was deepened because Cain did not believe he and his siblings should be held guilty for a sin they did not commit or play any role in. I do not think this ever really changes. In some takes he comes to learn that Death is a spiritual world beyond Yahweh, which leads me to think he possibly killed Abel to spare him. There is also the idea that Cain did not understand Death at all and was as shocked by Abel dying as everyone else. It is an extreme Romantic irony that the man who most feared Death became the first one to cause Death, and just when Cain finally overcomes that fear and makes peace with Death it is stripped from him for millennia.
It is curious how greatly our world fears Death, especially when you factor in that most humans claim to believe in a higher power, afterlife, etc. In the end though, few ever treat Death as anything other than the final stage of existence, mourning and fretting as if it is the end of their whole being. People are willing to sacrifice things they enjoy, like privacy, along with their very freedom, for just the slightest extra feeling of safety and protection. This is precisely how Byron’s Yahweh would want his worshippers to act: fear of death, and later eternal torture, which can only be satiated by glorifying and honoring him. As said by Ben Franklin, those who would sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither.
The same can be said of the government, and we have said and discussed a great deal already. You either give up your rights to the powers that be or suffer, or worse be socially shunned, at least so the story goes. Media is dedicated to constantly pushing a fear of Death on us, now more than ever, and it is Death that sells the most newspapers.
There are a few different ways the Left Hand Path individual can approach this depending on their other metaphysical views. If one is an atheist they can approach life by enjoying it as much as possible in their limited time, instead of wasting time waiting for guaranteed safety which itself is an impossible goal. The theist can do not only this, but also can build a world for themselves in the next life rather than fear their time here is all they have.
A Sevenfold Gift or Curse, and Why?
Some say that Yahweh cursed Cain, others that he blessed Cain. If god intended for Cain to murder the innocent Abel then perhaps he blessed Cain for his role in it with immortality. We have seen that Yahweh enjoyed choosing certain humans and bringing them to the heavens, and if Cain aided him in getting Abel there he may have been rewarded. On the other hand, perhaps this was a curse for Cain to live out his days in sadness and isolation, punishment for murder and perhaps other crimes against Yahweh as well. In my understanding, what Yahweh did to Cain was a curse, making sure Cain lived as long as possible in Yahweh’s world for taking his favorite, Abel, from him. As far as Byron seems to be concerned the punishment was specifically for the killing of Abel, and not a positive or good thing.
The question also arises as to if Cain was cursed for his offering, for his murder of Abel, or simply for the question “am I my brother’s keeper?” The offering seems unlikely as god already had a sit down with Cain about his actions regarding the ritual, and the rejection of Cain’s fruits would have been the punishment for that act already. Most I have read or spoken to take it that Cain is banished and punished for the sin of killing his brother, since murder is a thing most people can agree is bad. But if Cain had no true understanding of what Death was, and no intent to somehow bring it upon Abel, could he really be punished for causing it? Surely that would make Yahweh extremely unjust.
I take the line of thought that Cain was punished for the sin of Individuation, that he is not his brother’s keeper. Individuation is, of course, a central and defining trait of the Left Hand Path traditions in the West. He and his brother are not one, nor is he just a member of the family, nor a slave to Yahweh. Cain is not just a statistic, not just one of the herd. Instead Cain, much like the Prince of Darkness, realized he is a discrete individual with his own will and existence, independent from that of Yahweh. Therefore he was punished – for the birth of individuality in humans like that of the angels which caused the great war.
“But as we were, we remained, and I called to my fellowship, See! We exist and are essence in our own right. In truth we are beings independent of God, empowered to shape our own destinies as we may elect.” - Satan, The Diabolicon
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” I grew up hearing my mom say this about my aunt and uncle, it is a term that gets tossed around quite a bit it seems. Modern society at large seems to have their answer for this: a resounding yes. Much of society has come to believe we are all responsible for each other. Someone else smoking is your problem, someone else using drugs or drinking in their home is your problem, someone sleeping with an individual of the same sex is your problem, it is your job to keep others healthy, your job to make sure they are obeying social norms, so forth and so on. This is, in short, ridiculous. We are only responsible for ourselves and the few we love, those that we take into our inner circles. If someone wants to smoke, get high, practice non-traditional forms of sex, get their body covered in art and piercings, question social norms and changes… that is their right! You are not the keeper of your fellow humans; you are the keeper of yourself.
What Did Cain Mean by His Words to Yahweh?
In Genesis 4:13-14, Cain says to Yahweh:
“Is my iniquity too great to bear? Behold you have driven me today off the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden before you, and I will be a wanderer and an exile in the land, and it will be that whoever finds me will kill me.”
Most read this as Cain saying he cannot bear the weight of his own sin and agreeing to leave his land and the sight of Yahweh forever. In this case Cain recognizes himself as an evil being deserving of punishment. It further seeks to give glory and positive traits to Yahweh – he is so great that he not only spared Cain but made sure others could not harm him.
Others, including myself and seemingly Byron, disagree. It can be taken that Cain’s first question is a mockery of the supposedly all loving and powerful god, who neither forgives Cain nor can handle Cain being in his land. How is Yahweh all loving when he cannot forgive Cain? How is Yahweh all powerful when he cannot simply change what has happened?
Cain then tells Yahweh that he will escape from the god’s grip and carve out his own path like his father the Serpent did. It seems implied that there was other life in the wilderness, perhaps fallen angels, the Wanderers, etc., and Cain hopes that if he runs across these Others they will take him from Yahweh like he took his brother. Yahweh instead marks Cain so that nobody will kill him, ensuring a long life in the world controlled by Yahweh.
Compare this to our modern world and the Left Hand Path as it is today. Obviously to the average individual, a separation from and rejection by society is the ultimate horror. The entire goal for most people is acceptance by and into their society, not to mention likes, retweets, and upvotes because they have pleased it! This is certainly true in both religion and politics. The LHP is apathetic to norms and values, not dictated or guided by the values of their surrounding culture(s). Such an individual should expect to, at the very least, risk being outcasted and, at the extreme, exiled. The real problem is that such banishment is now being wielded as a weapon. “Wrong think” is a very real problem and can get one silenced in an instant if they voice such “horrible” ideas, it can end lives and destroy institutions. The outcast is no longer someone who may simply generate a few glances and whispers in the public sphere, they are literally doxed and hunted down, harassed, stripped of employment, publicly humiliated and silenced… there are entire sections of the internet dedicated to this.
The government and media swing banishment like a hammer in the same way Yahweh does in Byron’s tale. They even use it against the same sin of individuation, “am I my brother’s keeper?” How dare one asks this question in the Western world of the 21st century, how dare they suggest that they are only responsible for themselves and those they love, how dare they suggest they are self-owned and not owned by society! They must be banished, cursed, spit upon, cast out into the wilderness, or at least that is how the story now goes.
What Did Cain Do After Banishment?
The Torah says that Cain went to the land of “wanderers” East of Eden, and there with his wife he had a family and built a great city. The first interesting question is who these “wanderers” are when Adam’s family is supposed to be the only group of humans on earth? Could it be others who were cast down or left the sight of Yahweh? It seems that Cain expects to meet others when he goes out into the wilderness, this is how Yahweh ends up cursing him with the Mark of Cain. This means the beings beyond the outskirts of Eden were known to Adam and his family.
I personally think the most likely case would be fallen angels. In Byron’s tale the Angel speaks of others like him and Cain who stand up to the “omnipotent tyrant”. Cain and Adah also discuss the fact that they have interacted with lesser angels before the beginning of the story. Further, Cain is taught in Act II that Yahweh has destroyed the world many times over, when there were greater beings than humans upon it, and the arguable existence of two separate creation stories in Genesis may support this. Besides fallen angels, perhaps there are remains of these old civilizations as well?
Some choose to take Cain’s building of a city literally, but it has also been interpreted as Cain starting a new tradition, perhaps even the Left Hand Path tradition with his father the Serpent. It is taught by some that all of Cain’s offspring died in the flood, with Noah being the descendant of Cain’s youngest brother, Seth. Seth was essentially meant as a replacement to Eve for Abel, and some through history have believed that Seth was a messiah-type figure. There is even a form of Gnosticism called “Sethianism” (not to be confused with the reverence of the Egyptian god Set). The creation of Seth may lend further credence to the idea that Yahweh intended Abel to be a sacrifice like Christ would be, and some sects believe Christ and Seth to be one in the same.
Unlike the idea of a race descending fully from Cain, an alternative is that these beings who already existed in the wilderness joined with Cain to form the LHP/Stellar Tradition. In this sense Cain is a messenger like the Gnostic Serpent.
The idea of ancient, pre-historic cultures and religions existing has been toyed with by every major LHP organization, including the Church of Satan, Temple of Set, and Typhonian Tradition, the last especially. It does not need to be interpreted literally such as the story of Atlantis once was, but rather it should be understood as symbolizing how these esoteric ideas etc. transcend anything that is newly created in the modern world, that they are what Jung called “archetypal”. It is knowledge that goes beyond the cosmic youngster that is humanity.