Satanic Witchcraft Inspiration

So, I’ve stumbled across some interesting ideas about Satanic witchcraft in Compendium Maleficarum, the theory behind which was expanded upon in, of all places, Là-bas.

Là-bas is a novel but it’s a rather well-researched novel, particularly for the 19th century, and I will not be surprised if I later stumble across the ideas I am about to describe in primary sources.

Compendium describes a number of spell-casting methods that involve blasphemy. There’s a certain amount of using the image of Christ as a poppet—doing things to a crucifix that reflect the magical effect you want, for instance throwing a crucifix into the sea as a storm-raising spell. Other beliefs described include the idea that desecrating crucifixes, communion hosts, images of saints etc. infuses the blasphemer with increased power.

Là-bas describes a rudimentary “theory” of this kind of magic—the idea that incorporating an act of blasphemy is a “seal” upon a spell that gives it a shot of extra power and makes it particularly hard to break.

My personal theory about why this works is that incorporating blasphemy a. acts as an offering to Satan and calls his attention to the spell so that he can help, and b. if you fuck with apotheosis it’s an affirmation of your own inner divinity by placing oneself above “God” and thus calls one’s own divine power into the working.

Obviously I need to do more reading on this but it’s really got me thinking.

Day Twenty-Two: What do you disagree with Luciferians/Satanists most?

dark-apheresis:

That “there’s no such thing as altruism” or selflessness.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where this concept comes from. If you’re helping somebody else because you feel good about helping somebody else, aren’t you technically doing it to feel good? The answer is yes. It’s also not selfish. Feeling good about helping somebody else, something you don’t really gain anything from aside from maybe affirming your worldview, is selfless. If you can’t help but feel good helping other people, then you’re a good person at your core.

It’s a game of semantics, and I would ordinarily say it’s pointless, but people take this concept out of context to justify being a jerk and tear down good people all the time. It’s a shame. Randian Objectivism is a philosophy with many flaws despite its widespread influence in Satanism and Luciferianism, and this is from an ironically objective standpoint. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have decent elements and that I disagree with all of it, it’s influential in the scene for a reason, but holding it to the high standard it has is self-destructive. There are Satanic altruists. It’s no more or less Satanic than sadistic misanthropy. This pointless attempt to write off altruism as existing at all reeks more of sociopaths trying to justify their actions to wiggle out of trouble than any rational philosophy. When they succeed, they think less of you for falling for it and use it as “proof” to themselves that they are superior. Don’t beat yourself down like that. Certainly don’t try to beat others down like that, either.