Is Satan a conscious being or a metaphor?

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Currently I am seeing satan as something more akin to ego, where 'I' place myself as equal or above God. Satan wouldn't listen, he would make his own decisions, but the only way forward is to discern what the God voice says, not make up my own rules.

When Jesus says "Get thee behind me satan" to Peter, it is because Peter was saying to Jesus 'you don't have to go through the torment that is coming for you, it needn't happen, it's not right.' But to not follow God's plan in favour of personal ease or comfort is the satanic act. To suggest Jesus didn't have to follow God's plan to the bitter end was to speak with the voice of satan.

Matt 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”