You have heard it said, where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy and every evil work. But I say to you, envy is the genitalia of the soul—its arousal is a compass pointing the direction you wish to go.“SERMON OF THE NIGHT QUEEN” THE BOOK OF INFERNAL PRAYER

When we speak of envy, it is best to first distinguish envy from resentment. To be envious is to see what someone else has accomplished and to want that same thing, or something comparable, for yourself. The object of envy isn’t another person, but what they have achieved or possess. In this sense, who you are envious of is largely arbitrary and irrelevant. They just happened to display a trait or possessed an object that triggered a desire in you.

Resentment, on the other hand, is about other people and your jealous hatred of them. In resentment, it isn’t what they have achieved that you desire to acquire for yourself. Rather, what you truly want is to see the downfall of someone who triggers your own insecurities. Resentment arises from a kind of poisoned and unwanted admiration that one mistakenly concludes can only be alleviated by tearing down whatever triggered that undesired feeling. If you should destroy that person, however, the relief will be fleeting. As Nietzsche says, “Resentment, born of weakness, harms no one more than the weak person himself.”

By this comparison we see that the root of envy is the desire to make one’s self better than what you currently are. Envy is inspiration. It is seeing the skill of a competitor or colleague and wanting to achieve that same level of skill yourself. This is true whether we are speaking of sports, business, the arts, parenting, communication, or any other field of day-to-day life. Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo” describes this revolutionary experience poignantly.

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

What this poem says to me is that envy is sleeping potential awakened. It is becoming conscious of a desire we have heretofore been ignorant of, suppressed, or forgotten. We see someone enjoying something we want, and now we move to make that thing our own.

Contrary to what pop psychology might suggest, the experience of envy does not make us less happy but in fact happier. In a UCLA study ran by Lisa Aspinwall and Shelley Taylor, it was shown that when students were required to spend time around colleagues with qualities they wished to emulate (academic success, being well-adjusted to college life) they often came away from the experience happier. When students were required to spend time around colleagues who were less successful however (poor academic performance, poor experience of college life), they generally came away feeling worse. The researchers dug deeper into these results found that a common theme among the people who walked away happier was that being around someone enviable gave them a sense of hope. What previously might have seemed impossible had suddenly became obtainable because they met living proof it could be done [0].

It turns out, surrounding yourself with people who better reflect who you would like to be is healthier for your attitude and mental state than surrounding yourself with people you are more likely to pity or despise. Similarly, other studies have shown that envy, besides boosting mood, also increases creativity [1] and performance [2]. From my own experience with strength training and exercise, I always performed better and more consistently when I worked out with people who were either as or slightly more committed to fitness as I was. Envy and competitiveness often go hand in hand. As was stated in the beginning of this essay, the root of this competitiveness should never be resentment, which is generally more about insecurity and hatred of self than it actually is about hatred of another. If we are to replace Blake’s misuse of the word “envy” in an important line of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, we see that rather than debasing us like resentment, envy can lift us into a state of holiness [3].

Once I saw a Devil in a flame of fire, who arose before an Angel that sat on a cloud, and the Devil utter'd these words:
'The worship of God is: Honouring his gifts in other men, each according to his genius, and loving the greatest men best: those who [resent] or calumniate great men hate God; for there is no other God.'

Envy, like magic, must be realistic in its aims to be beneficial, however. What one envies is of no little importance. To wish to acquire skills or goods you are actually capable of obtaining is to always be preferred to desiring those which you are incapable of. For example, admiring and lusting after the lifestyle of a Hollywood celebrity is, for the vast majority of Diabolists, a waste of time at best and a spiritual poison at worst.

Consider this, most of us who serve Satan and Lilith are neither talented enough, beautiful enough, socially connected enough, or lucky enough to become an international star. Perhaps it is not impossible in the strictest sense, but it is unlikely to the point of being ridiculous to spend much time thinking otherwise. Given this fact, it makes little sense to truly envy celebrities as what you desire is something you have no hope of possessing. To chase after the unobtainable is a good way to leave yourself bitter and stunted, or to waste precious time and energy that could be used on projects that might actually bear fruit. Perhaps most dangerously of all, desiring the unobtainable can create the incentive to fool yourself into thinking you possess what in reality you do not. You will become like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, living in a world of delusion. The simulacrum of success will become preferred to the harshness of reality.

Rather than utilizing envy to encourage aiming for specific ends (I want to what this particular award, I want to be loved by this particular person, I want this particular job), it is better to aim in a specific direction. For example, a stage actress sees an awe-inspiring portrayal of Lady Macbeth. She would be better off thinking, “That was incredible—I have to become a better actor,” rather than thinking, “I must give an equal or better performance of Lady Macbeth myself.” Our envious actress may not have it in her to play Lady Macbeth well. Or, perhaps circumstance will make it so that she is unable to ever land that particular part. Regardless of the variables of her life and her current level of skill, however, it is almost certain that she could become a better actress. By channeling her desire in a specific but nonetheless flexible direction will allow her to adapt her efforts in conjunction with her fate, which is, by definition, outside of her hands.

In fact, the less dependent on outside cooperation the Diabolist can make their envy inspired goals the better. I have no almost no hope of becoming the Joel Osteen of the Satanic world (not that I would want to be), nor do I have any control over whether other people gain some benefit from my writing. What I do have a large amount of control over, however, is becoming a more disciplined, devoted, and thoroughgoing writer. I could ask others for criticism and advice. I could learn the skills to be a better all-around communicator. I could learn what it takes to be a competent mentor. And I can make myself available for other Diabolists to make use of as a resource. The success of all these actions might be somewhat out of my control, but the effort is certainly not.

The Diabolist’s reading this maybe thinking, “That’s all well and good, but envy is like love—the heart wants what the heart wants.” That’s true. We feel all sorts of things on a daily basis and the stirrings of envy we feel will not always be constructive. But just because we don’t choose what we initially feel envious about it doesn’t follow we have to submit to whatever feelings come our way. The Diabolist should approach envy as an alchemist. The initial feeling is their raw material. It is up to them to explore it and determine what greater use or deeper truth is locked within that feeling. Once you’ve got a handle on that, then whatever envy arises can be channeled in a more appropriate direction, or accepted and ignored if no appropriate outlet can be identified at that moment. We do not choose what we feel, but we do choose what we do. Furthermore, we can choose to create the conditions where resentment and destructive envy are less likely to be acted upon or even felt at all. We can turn down the heat, so to speak, making the undesired alchemical reactions we’re noticing within ourselves less volatile. That means learning to identify and not dwell on self-destructive thoughts, and to avoid the triggers that consistently bring them up.

Learn to differentiate the good from the bad. That is the key of the knowledge offered by the Serpent in the Garden, after all. Discern the envious urges that are in alignment with your Law, acting upon those that do, and sacrificing those which don’t.

[0] “Effects of Social Comparison Direction, Threat, and Self-Esteem on Affect, Self-Evaluation, and Success,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  

[1] Camille Johnson and Diederik Stapel, “No Pain, No Gain: The Conditions Under Which Upward Comparisons Lead to Better Performance,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[2] Hart Blanton et al., “When Better-Than-Others Compare Upward: Choice of Comparison and Comparative Evaluation as Independent Predictors of Academic Performance,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[3] It is a juvenile oversimplification to suppose that just because followers of the Abrahamic god seek that which is “holy,” then Diabolists must needs be concerned with pursuing the “un-holy.” To call something holy is to merely label it as being sacred. That certain things are sacred and should be held in high esteem is not a matter of disagreement between Abrahamists and Devil worshippers—the disagreement is on precisely what is sacred and what is vulgar.