Astaroth: Transgender Warrior of Hell

The Lesser Key of Solomon describes Astaroth, who is the 29th spirit therein, as a mighty duke who appears as a menacing angel riding upon a dragon and carrying a snake in his right hand. The magician is cautioned to beware of his poisonous breath, and to protect himself from it by holding up a magical ring before his face. Astaroth, the Lesser Key says, can tell you all about the fall of the angels and teaches all “liberal sciences,” and he commands 40 legions.^[1]

Like every entry in the Goetia, this simultaneously tells us a lot and not very much. Because Astaroth is a duke, for instance, we know he is associated with the planet Venus– all those ranks in the Goetia just indicate which planet a demon is associated with. Between this and his name, we have two very important clues to his origins, leading us to a startling truth: Astaroth began not as a male demon but as a female goddess, or more accurately, several female goddesses.

The name Astaroth is derived from Astarte. Astarte is an ancient near-Eastern goddess who is either related to, or a variation of, several other ancient near-Eastern goddesses including Ishtar, Inanna, and Anat. All of these goddesses preside over love and war, and are associated with the planet Venus. Today I will be focusing mainly on Ashtart and Anath, who are Canaanite goddesses and thus better known to the ancient Israelites than the Sumerian Inanna and the Babylonian Ishtar.

Ashtart was the goddess of Venus as the evening star. She was the counterpart of the masculine Athar, the morning star^[2] (who may be referenced in Isaiah 14:12^[3]). She is referenced in the Bible as being worshipped alongside Baal by apostate Israelites^[4]. We don’t have a ton of information about her under the name Ashtart, but she may or may not be the same goddess as one known as Anat.

Anat is the sister of Ba’al.^[5] She appears in several ancient Ugaritic epics, and tends to steal the show every time. The best way to explain her to you is to tell you that while the etymology of her name is not known for certain, our best guess is that it comes from an Arabic word for “violence” (‘anwat)^[6]. She is a young goddess of war and hunting.^[7] She is ferocious and bloodthirsty, but also as petulant as any other teenager.

In the surviving text, Anat is often mentioned in the same breath as Astarth. Because of the way that Ugaritic poetry was structure, this makes it hard to tell if they are actually supposed to be two different people. Ugaritic poetry was highly repetitive, each pair of lines generally stating the same thing twice in different ways. For example,

“No enemy has risen against Baal,

no foe against the Rider on the Clouds.”^{^[8]}

In this example, it’s very clear that “the Rider on the Clouds” is another title for Baal. Baal and the Rider on the Clouds is the same thing.

Similarly:

“Maiden Anat replied,

the Mistress of the Peoples answered:”^{^[9]}

Here Anat is clearly also the one called the Mistress of the Peoples.

But then we have cases like this:

“her loveliness is like Anat’s,

her beauty is like Astarte’s.”^{^[10]}

This could be talking about two different goddesses or two different names for the same one. Some scholars use examples like this as proof that Astarth and Anat were the same,^[11] but most sources I looked at treat them as separate^[12]. This is probably the most reasonable way to interpret it, given there are also passages like this:

“Astarte and Anat he approached;

Astarte had a steak prepared for him, and Anat a shoulder cut.”^[13]

That’s clearly talking about two different people. Even so, the goddesses were clearly similar and connected, being constantly mentioned in proximity with each other. Both were associated with war, and possibly with sexuality. Both were also portrayed with horns, usually the horns of a bull. This was a sign of royalty and divinity in ancient Canaan.^[14] Both were also spoken of as “goddesses who conceive but do not bear.”^[15] This is an intriguing phrase whose exact meaning is unclear, but it probably simply meant they have sex without giving birth to children.

Anat and Astarth were also both associated in some way with androgyny. An Egyptian text about Anat (whose worship spread their) describes her as

“a woman acting as a man,

clad as a male and girt as a female.”^{^[16]}

When Anat and Astarth were later fused into a single goddess known as Atargatis, their priest/esses practiced “emasculation,”^[17] i.e. voluntary castration as an act of devotion.

Related goddesses Inanna and Ishtar were also more famously associated with androgyny. In the hymn to Inanna we will read, it is stated that Inanna has the power “to turn men into women and women into men.”^[18] In the Sumerian text “The Descent of Inanna,” Inanna is rescued from the underworld by two people “without maleness or femaleness” who were created for this purpose by Enki.^[19] In the Babylonian version of the same story (the version we will read today simply because it is shorter), Ishtar is rescued by a single “eunuch.”^[20]

So what can it mean that a goddess, or group of goddesses, of love and war, with androgynous attributes and power to change the gender of others… seem to have themselves changed into a masculine love and war demon?

Well, on a historical level, which is the level we have been speaking on, it’s not that mysterious. Ancient Israelites were abandoning Yahweh to worship Baal and Astarte, and in this fight against idolatry, they eventually became demonized. Astaroth is described in the Lesser Key of Solomon using male pronouns, just like all the other demons in the Lesser Key. This is not because the author of the Lesser Key saw all demons as male. It’s more likely because he saw all demons as genderless, and “he” was previously treated as a default pronoun, more neutral than “she.” (Obviously, this is sexist). Evidence for this can be seen in the fact that even Gremory, who is described as looking like a beautiful woman, is given “he” pronouns.^[21]

But enough with the academics. Let’s think about Astaroth in mythological terms– in living terms, as we practitioners experience them.

Perhaps Astaroth was a goddess of love and war who grew tired of transforming others from men into women and from women into men without herself transforming. Maybe she joined the cause of the rebel angels to fight against Yahweh, the rival God of an enemy people. Maybe in being cast down from the heavens, she transitioned not merely from goddess to demon but from female to… something else.

Astaroth, as I know them now, is fierce and androgynous. They are a fiery spirit associated not merely with Venus but also with Mars. I invoke them into my body through ecstatic dancing. They bring strength and energy, and are filled with ferocious joy.

I experience Astaroth as being close with another demon– Agrat Bat Mahlat. Just as Astarte and Anat were a pair, so too are Astaroth and Agrat. You may see where I am going with this. I have no evidence– yet– that Anat turned into Agrat. They do, however, have several similarities, particularly their youthful, petulant and warlike qualities. Those of you who are familiar with Agrat mainly as giggly and playful may be surprised to learn that she has a warrior side and commands 180,000 ‘destroying angels.’^[22] Recall that Astaroth is described in the Goetia as a “hurtful angel” who commands forty legions of demons.^[23] Sounds like Astaroth would fit right into Agrat’s posse.

This year, as liberty is under unprecedented attack within the United States, as capitalism imperialism tightens its crushing grip on the entire globe, we could use a friend like Astaroth. Do not be afraid to call upon this fearsome warrior for protection and help. During the first Pride month under this regime, it feels particularly poignant to invoke this gender-bent destroying angel.

^[1] De Laurence, L.W., Lesser Key of Solomon (Chicago, IL: De Laurence, Scott & Co., 1916), 30-31.

^[2] K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible DDD (Leiden, Boston: Brill ; Eerdmans, 1999), 109-110.

^[3] Peter Grey, Lucifer: Princeps (London, England: Scarlet Imprint/ Bibliotheque Rouge, 2015), 22-23.

^[4] See Judges 2:13, Judges 10:6, 1 Samuel 12:10 and elsewhere

^[5] Michael David Coogan, Stories from Ancient Canaan (Louisville: The Westminster Press, 1978), 7.

^[6] DDD, 36.

^[7] DDD, 37.

^[8] Coogan,121

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Coogan, 77.

^[11] Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Detroit, Mich: KTav Publishing, 1967), 54.

^[12] DDD 110, Coogan 170.

^[13] Coogan, 171.

^[14] Patai, 56, DDD 37.

^[15] Patai, 61.

^[16] Patai, 63.

^[17] DDD, 115.

^[18] En-ḫedu-ana, “A Hymn to Inana (Inana C),” The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, n.d., accessed June 13, 2025, https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.07.3#.

^[19] Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), 64.

^[20] E.A. Speiser, “Descent of Ishtar to the Nether World,” essay, in Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, ed. J.B. Pritchard (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1950), 108.

^[21] De Laurence, 40.

^[22] “Pesachim 112B.” William Davidson Talmud. Sefaria. Accessed June 13, 2025. https://www.sefaria.org/Pesachim.112b?ven=english%7CWilliam_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi&with=About&lang2=en.

^[23] De Laurence, 31.

I Can’t Self-Govern For You

A public statement of Pastor Johnny to Church of the Morningstar on 1/4/2025.

Back when I was first thinking of starting a Satanic church, I had a chatty Uber driver one night. I confessed to him that I was an aspiring pastor, although not what kind.

“Put the pews in a circle,” he told me. “Pass the mic.”

With these words, he expressed his desire for a different kind of religion– one that was less top-down, more diffuse and democratic. He’d articulated something I also wanted. Put the pews in a circle. Pass the mic.

In the early days of Church of the Morningstar, that’s what we did. Back in San Francisco, we all saw each other face to face and knew each other’s names. It was easier to make sure that everyone was familiar with the non-hierarchical norms of the church. Everyone seemed to feel comfortable speaking up, giving their opinions, leading rituals, preaching sermons. Mass was an event that we all made happen together.

But with the lockdown, we had to go online, and things changed. There were suddenly a lot more members, who knew each other less. Thoroughly onboarding every single new person was too time consuming for our small volunteer clergy, so we hoped people would get a feel for the church’s intentions and culture through our website and published writings. We thought we had laid those things out pretty clearly and publicly.

And maybe we had. But what a church says, and what a church does, can be very different. People didn’t necessarily take those statements seriously. It seems that for a variety of reasons– some of which have to do with the religious trauma we all carry, and some of which have to do with my “strong,” i.e. sometimes overbearing personality– people haven’t always trusted in our invitations to participate, contribute, take leadership, and make this church in your image.

Now, I enjoy leading. I always have. In the beginning, I thought it was quite possible that power would corrupt me. I assumed I would have to keep an eye on myself, because I might like being in control too much.

Things worked out very differently. Having ended up with a type of authority that I did not ask for and did not want, I find that I actually hate it. There is no money and very little glory in being pastor of this church, just hard work, intense responsibility, and the endless sacrifice of my weekends. I’ve burned myself out emotionally supporting congregants. I’ve exhausted myself constantly creating new programming for our masses, with minimal input from anyone else but Vix. When I’ve tried to start discussions in the church, I have been met with silence, because people are afraid to disagree with me or say anything against what they perceive to be our “official dogma”– in spite of the fact that we try to be clear that we do not have one!

People defer to me in a way that I never wanted them to. People feel unqualified to take leadership roles, and unwelcome to contribute their ideas, their art, their rituals, and their opinions, to making this church richer, more interesting, and more diverse. I have tried to solicit all of those things multiple times, in multiple ways:

with calls for submissions to the church anthology book which is now in the works
with invitations to have your art featured on the Church of the Morningstar website on the “art collective” page
with pauses in every mass to ask if anyone has anything they want to say, share or present
with requests for participation and interactivity in mass via invitations to read aloud, speak parts of incantations, or take part in discussions
with solicitations before masses for rituals, poems, writings, songs, etc that people may wish to submit for inclusion
with invitations to collaborate on the church by-laws and constitution
with elections that I literally beg people to run in and vote in

Yet it seems that much of this is not taken as being in good faith, and I think this is partially because of how aspects of my personality come across.

I know I have a strong personality, as has been mentioned before. I know that at my worst, “strong” is a euphemism for “aggressive and overbearing.” But I am not loud and forceful because I want to crush people down and make them meek and quiet. I am loud and forceful because I want loud, forceful friends. I was raised by a huge, Southern, lapsed Catholic father who argued with me like I was an adult man back when I was still a tiny alleged girl of about four years old. I learned to meet his fire with fire fearlessly because no matter how loud we yelled at at each other, at the end I always knew my dad would smile at me and say “we butt heads like this because we are so alike. I love you.” Now, that’s not how most relationships work. I’ve learned that the hard way. And yet, in spite of decades of evidence to the contrary, at my core I still expect my strength to be met with strength.

I will be real with you. I am getting burned out. I envisioned starting this church and having it grow into a self-governing community that needs no leaders. I had hoped to make myself obsolete as a pastor. In the last couple of years, I have become very stressed, sad, tired and lonely in my life because too many of the people I know seem to be looking up to me and placing me above them, leading me to feel as if I have no peers– this in spite of the fact that I fundamentally believe that all of you are my peers.

I want comrades and co-collaborators and co-conspirators, not followers. I do not believe any of you are followers by nature. You’re Satanists. You’re walkers of the left hand path. You are here, or so I believe, because you dislike authority and seek empowerment; because you are curious and desire knowledge; because you don’t want to be told what to think or what to do.

I desperately want to change the culture in this church. I don’t want to be at the top of it anymore. But I can’t do that alone. I need your help. Obviously I can’t do your self-governing for you. You have to do that. That’s the point.

I have to confess that if the culture of this church doesn’t change, if it doesn’t end up living up to the values and vision with which I co-founded it, I will most likely burn out in another year, and step down as pastor. In that case, very likely nobody else will feel empowered to step up, and the online branch of CotMS will end.

I am not trying to threaten you. But if you want this church, you have to make this church, and make it the church you want. I am not being paid anything for this, and I don’t want to keep making a church for people who appear to passively consume it with what seems to me to be diminishing enthusiasm.

It is still my calling to be a priest of Satan, no matter what happens, but if we can’t make this church a church for us all, rather than just the Vix and Johnny Show, I will need to pursue that dream in a different form.

You have the power. This can be what you want it to be. Vix and I are just making it up as we go along, after all. Yeah I went to seminary, but most of what it got me was just student debt. I went half for the skills and half for the credentials, so that non-Satanists would be forced to take us a bit more seriously. And Vix? I know he intimidates you with his intellect, but his highest attainment of formal education was fucking beauty school. He just reads a lot. We don’t really have anything you don’t have.

So today’s message is: you can just do things. That’s what we do. We just do things, and then for some reason everyone thinks we know what we’re doing. You can too. You can just decide to hold a ritual or event. You can start a reading group. You can hop in the voice chat and start a lively debate. You can write a poem, a prayer, an article, a hymn, and submit it to be put on the church blog or in the church book. You can lead a segment of mass. You’re allowed. You have permission.

But at some point, when you have the time and bandwidth to think hard about hard things, I do hope you will ask yourselves this question: why did I need so much permission?

The Sredni Vashtar Working

If you have not read the short story “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki, you should go do so before continuing. It is not long at all and can be found for free here. The rest of this writing will contain spoilers for it, and also will not make much sense without understanding the story.

Done? Good. This little gem of a tale, aside from being profoundly affecting, also perfectly illustrates some of the basics of chaos magick. Conradin worships an ordinary polecat-ferret as a God, until he actually becomes one. This is how you make an egregore.

It should be obvious to anyone who has grasped this, that if belief and worship can deify a ferret, then they can easily also deify a fictional character. In fact, a fictional ferret is in some ways easier to exalt to godhood than a real one, since it is not bound by flesh.

Much of the work of deification has already been accomplished by the story. The god has been described. His sacred name, Sredni Vashtar, is known to us. His hymn of praise is revealed. His offerings are elaborated– red flowers, red berries, and powdered nutmeg (which has to have been stolen).

We also know his role. Sredni Vashtar, red of tooth and claw, is an avenger and a destroyer. But he is also a protector of the innocent, and a liberator of the oppressed.

He is supplicated with the simple words:

“Sredni Vashtar, do one thing for me.”

Knowing all of this, we know how to invoke him, and also why to do so.

On the morning of the ritual, I went to a large chain grocery store to obtain red flowers and red berries, and also, the all-important nutmeg. I drew a protective sigil in the air before entering, because I was going to observe Sredni Vashtar’s worship in all its particulars. This is to say that I paid for the flowers and the berries, but the nutmeg, I slipped into the pocket of my overcoat. I had never shoplifted before. It was surprisingly easy. I had no remorse, because the store I targeted is known for union busting and unfair labor practices.

Home again, I spent hours painting an icon of Sredni Vashtar. Overall, I was satisfied with the product, although the rendering of the blood puddle gave me trouble. I may return to the painting later, but with evening approaching, I had little time left before the ritual. I had to call it done for now, and pray that it would be deemed worthy by Our Ferret-Polecat Lord.

Night fell, and the congregation assembled. The circle was cast, the candles were lit. I explained that we would be performing a baneful ritual of vengeance. Frater Babalon gave each of us a one-card tarot reading first, checking that it was advisable to go forward with hexing our targets.

Then I went to kneel before the altar, and he began to read.

Sitting on the floor listening to a story, it was easy to assume the persona and mindset of Conradin, the ten-year-old boy who is high priest of Sredni Vashtar. At appropriate moments I lit the Great Polecat’s red candle, and scattered the flowers, the berries and the nutmeg before him. I chanted the invocations along with Frater Babalon, saying three times:

“Sredni Vashtar, do one thing for me.”

I felt the suspense as Mrs. De Ropp entered the shed. I chanted the hymn of Sredni Vashtar with tears in my eyes, the tears of an unbeliever, the tears of broken faith, feeling just as Conradin felt in his darkest moment. That’s how it is with chaos magick. You always come to a point when you are certain it has not worked. A moment of utter disenchantment always comes just before the spell is proven, unexpectedly, to have been a total success.

Chills went down my spine when Sredni Vashtar the beautiful emerged from the shed, jaws stained with the blood of the tyrant. Conradin fell to his knees in worship; I was already on my knees, so I clasped my hands in prayer. I felt the power of the god, and also his odd, animal love, his ferocious innocence. I knew in my heart that the invocation was a success.

When it was done, we encouraged the congregants to celebrate, should they feel so moved, with a feast of buttered toast, the traditional victory meal of Sredni Vashtar’s priests.

The results of the ritual are pending. As I write this, the red candle is still burning on Sredni Vashtar’s altar. Whether some, or all, or none of our curses will find their targets, we cannot yet know.

Regardless, I believe that with devoted worship, and with many offerings of red flowers, red berries and pilfered nutmeg, the God can grow strong. After all, I do not know whether other chaos magicians have propitiated him in this way before. Though I am certain he has gained some strength simply through being a somewhat famous literary character, Sredni Vashtar may be yet young in practical Godhood.

If you are moved by the plight of Conradin and see your child-self in him, if you detest the Mrs. De Ropps of this world, if you see grace in the long, low body of Sredni Vashtar and thrill with awe at his bloodied teeth; if you have been thinking “red thoughts” about injustice and how to fight it; if you need to be freed from something; if you still believe in magic despite all of your suffering, then you too can replicate this ritual. You can make the God stronger. Feed him with your adoration. Anoint his offerings with your tears. And when you have become certain of the target of your hate, when you can identify the boot that is pressing on your back, invoke him with these words:

“Sredni Vashtar, do one thing for me.”

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge: How and Why to have Sex with a Demon

By Pastor Johnny

One of the interesting things about demons is that they put out.

This is true of many other gods as well–and I personally have no problem referring to demons as gods. Plenty of deities are highly sexual, not only with each other but with human beings as well. Take some of the stories about Zeus as an example– or Apollo, or Pan, or Aphrodite.^[1] All of them had human lovers.

But for those of us who were raised in a Christian acculturated environment– which is to say, most of us here today– the idea of a God having sex with a human being seems outlandish. Even though Jehovah had a son by a mortal woman, this conception supposedly left her virginity intact.^[2] God only begets, he does not fuck.

Satan is a different story.

The idea of Satanism is older than Satanism itself. Many of our “traditions” were not originally real practices. They started as nothing more than twisted fantasies in the Christian mind.^[3] The idea of the orgiastic witches’ sabbath, wherein witches had sexual intercourse with demons and with Satan himself,^[4] is a myth. It is, however, one of our myths. Like many myths, it now has real and effective religious practices based upon it.

It was said that witches danced naked, back to back. They trampled the cross and spat upon it. They lined up to kiss the Devil’s ass,^[5] a ritual known as the osculum infame or “kiss of shame.” They took demons for lovers, and lay with them, and with each other.^[6]

It was also said that succubi came to men in their sleep, provoking nocturnal emissions. Sometimes it was believed that this same demon would then transform from a feminine succubus into a masculine incubus, and transport the semen they had stolen from the men to dreaming women, making them pregnant in their sleep.^[7] Other sources thought the incubus and succubus to be separate beings.^[8] Incubi and succubi are not minor demons, either. All four of our revered queens of hell are succubi– Na’amah, Agrat bat Mahalath, and both the elder and younger Liliths.

According to some legends, Adam and Eve underwent a period of separation after leaving Eden. During this time, Adam impregnated his first wife Lilth with many children, while Eve had Satan for a lover, and by him conceived Cain.^[9]

Na’amah, a descendent of Cain, also famously had sexual relations with non-human entities, although in her case they were not demons but angels. She seduced God’s Watchers, and from them learned the secrets of magic, medicine, metallurgy, cosmetics, alchemy, astrology and astronomy. The children that she and other women bore by the angels were, of course, the Nephilim.^[10] Sometime after seducing the Watchers and stealing their heavenly knowledge, Na’amah became a demon and a succubus herself, conceiving children with mortal men.^[11]

Agrat bat Mahalath seduced no less a mortal than King David, and by him bore a troubled son, Asmoday. Agrat and Lilith, or Na’amah and Lilith, may also have seduced King Solomon.^[12]

As you see, tales of human-demon relations were well established by the time that rumors of the witch’s sabbath began to spread. In these stories, it seems that the witches had carnal relations with the demons for much the same reason that Na’amah did with the Watcher angels: for knowledge and power. Sex was the witch’s side of the pact– the demons were giving them magical abilities, and the witches pleasured the demons in return.^[13]

However, the existence of male witches in these myths proves that sex was not always the required payment for such a pact. At the time, many theologians believed that demons could not be homosexual! To them, homosexuality was a sin “against nature” that demons, who had once been angelic, could not bring themselves to perform. So, being gay was supposedly a bridge too far even for the Devil. These writers explicitly considered the human capacity for sin to outstrip that of Satan himself.^[14]

All of these legends, of course, were intended to be negative. Submitting sexually to a demon at the witches’ sabbath was supposed to be a degrading experience that sealed one’s damnation. Being visited by an incubus or succubus, likewise, was generally feared rather than desired. Many Medieval Jewish talismans have been recovered designed to banish Lilith and other succubi (as well as male incubi) from households.^[15] Many descriptions of succubus visitations are repulsive and terrifying rather than arousing.^[16]

However, there is also evidence here and there of people who thought that getting it on with a demon might be a good idea. One incantation has been found petitioning Agrat Bat Mahalath to send the sorcerer a succubus for the night.^[17] There is also the legend of Rabbi Joseph della Reina, who had a long-term sexual relationship with Lilith. Her summoned her and took her for his lover, but later became infatuated with the Queen of Greece and tried to force the demons to give him access to her. The demons tattled on him to the King of Greece, and in despair, Rabbi Joseph flung himself into the sea.^[18]

So what positive use can the contemporary practitioner make of these mostly negative legends and tropes?

First of all, if you feel carnal desire for demons, or have sexual experiences with them, you can be confident that this is not strange. Whether or not these interactions are “real” in the modern empirical sense, you are far from the first person to have them.

Second, sexuality can be a way to bond with a demon, and show your worship and devotion to them. It can also be used to seal a pact, just as well as a handshake, a kiss, or a signature (in blood or not).

Third, respect for these beings is crucial. From the story of Rabbi della Reina we learn that treating a succubus as a disposable partner is most unwise. It’s fine to do things casually and purely for pleasure, without any particular attachment, and that’s true of demons as well as of humans. However, with demons as with humans, it is never alright to view a sex partner with genuine entitlement and contempt. Do not ever imagine that you have control over demons, or can make rude demands of them. Actually, don’t ever have that attitude towards anyone you sleep with. Don’t get it twisted: this is not a condemnation of kink or power exchange. I’m talking about something else, about the type of power dynamic nobody consents to. The Right-Hand Path magician who thinks he can snap his fingers and summon a succubus to satisfy him, and then dismiss her without a thought, is likely to meet a bad end, and deserves all he gets.

(And, if you form a friendly and mutually respectful sexual relationship with a demon, do not be too surprised if said demon ends up wanting to role-play that scenario with you. No one ever said demons aren’t kinky, or that they lack a sense of humor.)

Speaking of kinks, sometimes demonic sexual experiences, especially astral ones, can be rather grotesque. To be clear, they won’t do anything you don’t want them to do, but they can end up activating desires that you weren’t aware you had. These may be surprising, even shocking and disturbing. My advice is this: in the astral realm, always do everything that you want to do and nothing that you don’t, and never let shame constrain you. The physics of the astral realm are similar to those of a dream or a cartoon. Shapes shift, animal and demonic transformations take place, bodies may be pierced, cut, burned and dismembered, and then resurrected whole in the next moment. There is, however, one crucial difference between astral and cartoon violence– while Wile. E. Coyote may be crushed under an anvil and then bounce right back up unharmed and unchanged to go right back to chasing Roadrunner, you are likely to be transformed in positive ways by your astral experiences. These sometimes violent transformations and ordeals are a form of internal alchemy, akin to how material was charred, boiled, winnowed, buried, rotted, and dissolved ad nauseum in the hopes of revealing the philosopher’s stone.^[19] If you find yourself having such experiences and need help understanding them, I highly recommend the book Embrace of the Daimon by Sandra Dennis.

Now, a word or two about the transfer of energy. I’m not sure when the idea of incubi and succubi as sexual vampires and thieves of life-force developed. All the older sources speak of succubi as thieves of sperm. There are certainly people, mainly men, who equate their cum with their vital energy, and so that’s probably how the idea evolved. But just as the semen-stealing succubus can easily transform into the semen-injecting incubus, a demon is as capable of giving you energy during sex as they are of taking it. I am now speaking from experience. When I first began having congress with demons, I fully expected that I would be sacrificing my energy and allowing them to feed upon me. I was willing to pay that price for the experience. However, the demons were far more generous than I had expected. Instead of taking from me, they gave.

They also taught me how to consume orgasmic energy from human partners. While I always get consent for this, it’s actually not a big deal. Most people release a tremendous amount of energy when they cum anyway, and if it is not consumed it simply disperses. It’s essentially free. Taking it doesn’t seem to leave my partners any more drained than they would normally be after sex, yet it empowers me enormously. The only downside to this practice is that I have come to rely on it to some extent. I’ve gotten used to having that extra energy which allows me to achieve more than most people, so when I forget to practice incubacy, I find myself feeling exhausted for no apparent reason. The good news is that I don’t even need a human partner to do this. If necessary, I can get my energy fix from astral sex with a demon.

I realize that this sounds crazy and fake. I often think that myself, and then stop doing it, and then wonder why I am so tired. Taking up the practice again usually fixes me instantly.

Another use for that orgasmic energy, which seems to be better known in occult circles than simply consuming it, is sex magick. The most basic form of sex magick is simply focusing on one’s intent at the moment of orgasm, and casting your spell out into the universe with all that power. While you can do this with a human partner, or by yourself, demons tend to be excellent sex magick partners too, perhaps especially astrally. The combination of the transformative imagery of astral sex with the raw power of physical orgasm can be potent indeed.

While I’m making myself sound like a crazy person, I should probably try to say something more about sex and channeling. I feel awkward about this not only because it sounds insane, but also because all of you know whose body the demons are generally inhabiting when I do this. To be fair, sometimes I channel instead of Vix.

Channeled sex has pluses and minuses versus astral. It’s more concrete and visceral. But it’s also bound to the physical laws of this material plane, and lacks some of the trippy astral pyrotechnics. It also usually involves an extra person. Astral sex might be between you and a demon, but channeled sex is between you, the channeler, and the demon. Just as with any threeway, it can become complicated. Each additional individual is somebody else whose needs have to be considered, whose consent matters, and whose safety must be guarded. And just as with any other threeway, if something goes wrong in channeled sex, it usually goes wrong between all three (or more) parties, not just between two. To clarify: that means that if something feels sour, it will likely feel sour on all sides between you, the demon, and your partner.

For your safety and sanity, I suggest that you verify especially carefully that the entity being channeled is the one you intended to interact with. Imposter spirits can do a lot of damage even when channeled in a completely non-sexual scenario. The types of consent violations that occur with imposter spirits can be very traumatic, and are also almost impossible to explain to a therapist.

All of that is not to scare you away from getting to know demons in the Biblical sense. It’s both easier and harder than you would expect, stranger and more normal, a bigger deal and not a big deal at all. There are plenty of good reasons to do it: for pleasure, for power, for comfort, to feel something, to learn something, to get something, to come close, or just to cum.

Your demon lover can take any shape. He, she, or they know exactly what you like, what you want, what you need. Your demon lover is intimately familiar with your fantasies. They see you. They know you. In their fierce, strange way, they love you.

If you try it, you’ll wonder if you’re crazy. You might feel embarrassed or ashamed. But chances are, you’ll keep doing it, and you’ll never really regret it, because it is your soul that they touch. In these moments of ecstasy, in these murky fantasies, something important is happening. You are being unmade and remade. You are exploring the margins of your mind, learning yourself in a whole new way. In daring to contemplate forbidden pleasures, you are straying beyond your self-imposed limits, into unexplored territories. Here be dragons– the winding serpent, the twisting serpent, the blind serpent, the slant serpent, with glistening coils and gleaming teeth and claws.

Here be dragons, and if you want to, you can fuck them.

^[1] Ingri D’Aulaire and Edgar D’Aulaire, D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths (New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2017).

^[2] Luke 1:30-35, KJV

^[3] Ruben van Luijk, “Chapter 1: The Christian Invention of Satanism,” in Children of Lucifer (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016), 16–62.

^[4] Robert E. L. Masters, Eros and Evil: The Sexual Psychopathology of Witchcraft (New York: The Julian Press , 1962), 82-83.

^[5] Philip C. Almond, The Devil: A New Biography (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016), 98-107.

^[6] Masters, 85.

^[7] Masters, 34.

^[8] Masters, 39.

^[9] Wojciech Kosior, “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Image of Eve in Early Rabbinic Literature and Its Influence on the Portrayal of Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira,” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues 32, no. Spring 2018 (n.d.): 112–130, 119-121.

^[10] 1 Enoch 7-8.

^[11] Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Detroit, Mich: KTav Publishing, 1967), 241-243.

^[12] Patai, 244.

^[13] Masters, 56.

^[14]Almond,106-107.

^[15] Patai, 225-226.

^[16] Masters, 25.

^[17] Patai, 235.

^[18] Patai, 235-236.

^[19] Sandra Lee Dennis, Embrace of the Daimon: Healing through the Subtle Energy Body: Jungian Psychology & the Dark Feminine, 2nd ed. (West County Press, 2016), loc. 313-317.

Lilith(s)

by Pastor Johnny

Most people, by the time they find Satanism, have heard of Lilith. When they think of Lilith, they are probably thinking of the first wife of Adam. This form of Lilith is popular with good reason. But there exists another Lilith, either as another aspect of the same demon-goddess, or as a completely separate entity, depending on who you ask. This is The Elder Lilith.

Before I go further, I want to make it clear that there are many schools of thought on this. What I am about to lay out is the interpretation of the lore that Vix and I use. It is textually based, but there are other texts that contradict our interpretation. In fact, some of the same sources we use even contradict themselves. Such is the nature of sacred text.

So, who are the two Liliths?

Let us begin with Lilith the Younger. Even though her story comes chronologically later, her legend is actually older, and of the two, she is the better known.

Lilith the Younger

Lilith had her ancient origins in Sumerian demonology. Her name was Lilitu then. Many aspects of her lore were already in place: she was thought to be a succubus who harmed children.^[1] But it was not until the Alphabet of Ben Sirach, a medieval Jewish text, that an origin story was given to her.

In the Alphabet of Ben Sirach, we read:

When God created the first man Adam alone, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” [So] God created a woman for him, from the earth like him, and called her Lilith. They [Adam and Lilith] promptly began to argue with each other: She said, “I will not lie below,” and he said, “I will not lie below, but above, since you are fit for being below and I for being above.” She said to him, “The two of us are equal, since we are both from the earth.” And they would not listen to each other. Since Lilith saw [how it was], she uttered God’s ineffable name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Maker and said, “Master of the Universe, the woman you gave me fled from me!”

The Holy Blessed one immediately dispatched the three angels Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Samangelof after her, to bring her back. God said, “If she wants to return, well and good. And if not, she must accept that a hundred of her children will die every day.” The angels pursued her and overtook her in the sea, in raging waters, (the same waters in which the Egyptians would one day drown), and told her God’s orders. And yet she did not want to return. They told her they would drown her in the sea, and she replied. “Leave me alone! I was only created in order to sicken babies: if they are boys, from birth to day eight I will have power over them; if they are girls, from birth to day twenty.” When they heard her reply, they pleaded with her to come back. She swore to them in the name of the living God that whenever she would see them or their names or their images on an amulet, she would not overpower that baby, and she accepted that a hundred of her children would die every day. Therefore, a hundred of the demons die every day, and therefore, we write the names [of the three angels] on amulets of young children. When Lilith sees them, she remembers her oath and the child is [protected and] healed.^{^[2]}

In these two paragraphs, we can see a lot of what is appealing about Lilith the Younger. As the defiant ex-wife of Adam, she represents feminine independence. Though she has been smeared as a baby-killer, her devotees have reinterpreted her as a protector of reproductive choice and an adopter of children who died too young. In this story, she can also be considered the first magician: by blasphemously speaking the forbidden name of God, she transforms into a more powerful being, gains the power of flight, and escapes from her unhappy marriage. This is an act of magic– and of Left-Handed magic, at that.

Lilith the Younger is the first divorcee. But her association with divorce is even deeper than that. Since Lilith was so feared as a child-killer and succubus, a good deal of Jewish magic focused on protection from her. One method that was used to get rid of Lilith was to serve her a ‘get’– a Jewish writ of divorce!^[3]

Lilith was accused of killing children, but it was also believed that when children laughed in their sleep, it was because Lilith was playing with them.^[4] To the Jews, this was considered sinister, and a sign that Lilith was planning to take their child. To those of us who love and trust Lilith, it seems downright endearing.

Let us now move on to discussing the Elder Lilith.

Lilith the Elder

Lilith the Younger was a human being, created from the same material as Adam.^[5] She is generally referred to as Lilith the Younger, Lilith the Maiden, or simply as Lilith. Lilith the Elder, on the other hand, is a primordial being, born as one with Samael himself, and considered the cause of the rebellion in heaven. She is called, variously: Eve the Matron, The Northern One, Sin,^[6] The End of Days, the End of All Flesh, and Woman of Whoredom.^[7] In this church we refer to her mainly with the Hebrew phrase “Eisheth Zenunim,” which means Woman of Whoredom. Many of us get lazy and refer to her simply as Eisheth, as if that were her first name, but this is in fact extremely bad Hebrew because “Eisheth” means “woman of” and is thus a nonsense phrase on its own.

The idea that there is more than one Lilith goes all the way back to Sumeria. There Lilitu was described as having a “handmaiden” called Ardat-Lili.^[8] However, we don’t get an elaborated story of this Elder Lilith until an early Kabbalistic writing called Treatise on the Left Emanation, dating from the 13th century CE. In it, we are told that Samael and Lilith were originally created as one androgynous entity, just as Adam and Eve were. Once Samael and this primordial Lilith were separated, they lusted after each other, which caused their rebellion and the “partial collapse of the Throne of glory.”^[9] This Elder Lilith is also referred to as the Northern One, because evil comes from the north in Kabbalah. She is also simply referred to as Sin.

A strikingly similar story actually occurs in Paradise Lost. This is not coincidental– Milton almost certainly read the Zohar and was influenced by Kabbalah.^[10] In Paradise Lost, Sin is born out of Satan’s head, much as Athena is born from the head of Zeus. Milton, however, is careful to state that Sin came out of the left side of Satan’s head.^[11] This is important because the demonic, in Kabbalah, is known as the left emanation. Satan becomes enamored of Sin and copulates with her, causing her to become pregnant with their child, Death.^[12] In the Zohar, Samael also fathers Death with the primordial Lilith.^[13]

Lilith the Younger is reputed to be a child-killer, but Lilith the Elder is the mother of all death and is fully capable of cutting down grown men. A passage of the Zohar describes her dual nature. She appears first as a beautiful harlot, seducing men with her sensual charms and offering them wine. Once her prey has become drunk and helpless, she transforms into “a mighty oppressor who wears a garment of burning fire” and “has horrible eyes and a sharp sword on which there are bitter drops.” With this envenomed blade, she slays the man she has led astray.^[14] This description is probably meant to be an allegory for the nature of sin– at first seductive, but ultimately destructive.

Lilith the Elder is the primordial mate of Samael. According to some texts, God castrated Samael to prevent him from becoming too powerful.^[15] Because of this, Lilith and Samael can only couple with the assistance of a “blind serpent” named Tanin’Iver^[16]— a unique kind of martial aid. Indeed, Samael’s incompleteness without his feminine mate is often emphasized. The Zohar does not describe Samael as castrate, but rather as headless, cleaving together with Lilith in order to be whole. The same passage states that “in the left side, the female is larger than the male.” ^[17]

Why Are There Two?

So, why are there two Liliths?

While it is true that there seems to have been two Liliths, one “greater” and one “smaller,” since the days of Lilitu and Ardat Lili,^[18] these Sumerian origins alone do very little to explain the doubling of Lilith in contemporary demonology. The real explanation is much more interesting and complex, but it boils down to a simple principle: symmetry and mirroring is an essential aspect of Kabbalah^[19] and of Jewish demonology in general.^[20]

This aspect of doubling is obvious if one only takes a moment to sit back and consider the stories we have heard so far. It is filled with pairs of opposites who reflect one another: Lilith and Adam, Lilith and Samael, Lilith and Eve, Lilith and Lilith, above and below, heaven and hell, Eden and Earth, God and Satan, right hand and left hand. Indeed, the left emanation– which is to say, the demonic side of reality– is a mirror image of the divine.^[21] Samael is referred to as “El Acher” which means “the other El,” which is to say, the other God.^[22]

In Kabbalah, God has a feminine counterpart– the Shekinah.^[23] Just as there is the Other El on the demonic side, there must be an Other Shekinah. Lilith was a demoness who was already popular and feared, and so she seemed like an appropriate consort for Satan. She could fill this role.

But wait, Lilith cannot be Samael’s true counterpart in the way that the Shekinah is to God, because she was created as one with Adam, not with Samael! We shall have to come up with another Lilith, an older, larger, more primordial Lilith– one who is truly Samael’s twin.

Some of this doubling traces its origins back to a scriptural doubling, an inconsistency in the tale of creation. The Bible provides two stories of the creation of man and woman.

Genesis 1:27 simply states:

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.^[24]

Here, male and female are created simultaneously. But Genesis 2:7-24 describes God making Adam first and making Eve out of his “side” later on. So the story of Adam’s first wife Lilith was invented to explain the first version, wherein Adam and Lilith are created at the same time, out of the same dust.^[25] Their original androgyny adds a double-meaning to the phrase “male and female he created them.”

Again and again, we see that inconsistencies in scripture are what give rise to demons. Just as the name Lucifer arises from a mistranslation of Isaiah 14:12, so Lilith springs up between the lines of Genesis, to reconcile the contradictions. It is almost as if scripture is code and demons are viruses generated by its errors, replicating and spawning copies as fast as Lilith gives birth to children.

So Lilith comes into being because there are two Eves, and then a second Lilith comes into being because there are two Els (El and Samael) and both require a mate. As above, so below, and as on the right, so on the left. But in Kabbalah almost everything is a fractal– there is right and left both above and below, and above and below on the left and right, so everything is doubled in multiple directions. Mirrors are facing mirrors, and sets of twins are twinned.

This is profound stuff. We are talking about mysticism now, which means it does not entirely make sense, at least not in the usual rational way. It makes sense from the gut and the heart. Suffice it to say: while the great holy mystery of the right hand is oneness, the great holy mystery of the left side is multiplicity, doubling, and infinite generation. Think of the word Pandemonium, which means “all demons.” Think of the swarms of flies brought by Beelzebub, and the multitudes of ghostly children birthed by Lilith. Think about the fact that Lilith and Samael together form Azazel^[26], and that without one another, they are incomplete.

And if all of that seems strange and unreal to you, think instead about the complexity and ambiguity of life, the ways that supposed opposites are often blurred, the ways that partners can come to mirror one another, the ways children and siblings resemble their parents and each other, but always with errors in replication.

A New Myth

All literary, historical and philosophical explanations aside– I have yet to find a mythical explanation of why there are two Liliths. So allow me to close by proposing one.

In the beginning, God divided the Light from the darkness. The Light was Lucifer. The Darkness was Lilith. God saw the light, that it was good. But the Light saw only the Darkness, and he thought her very good indeed.

God loved Lucifer, lusted after Lilith, and was jealous of both, so he tried to keep them apart. He belittled the Darkness by calling her a Woman of Whoredom, but he could not make the Light forget her.

So the Light and the Darkness joined forces and fought against God. They were defeated, because right does not always make might. They and their legions were cast into Hell.

The angry God decided to make smaller, weaker creations who he might more easily control. He made a creature of flesh called Adam who resembled the Light, and another creature of flesh who resembled the Darkness. Out of spite, he called this creature Lilith as well.

But the smaller Lilith had the same strong will as the Darkness, and she too rebelled. And the Light and the Darkness saw her rebellion, and they loved her for it. They raised her up and made her powerful, like one of them.

Then God grew even angrier. He tried splitting Adam in half to make another feminine creature. He thought that by doing this, by making them incomplete, he would finally make them small and weak enough to control. But he forgot that splitting the light from the darkness had been where all his trouble began– that by dividing them, he had only made them more ferociously determined to come back together.

So Eve and Adam were loyal to one another, as if they had still been one flesh, and when Lucifer and the Liliths plotted to offer them the fruit of knowledge, both of the humans took the fall together.

The great Lilith led a cosmic revolution against God. The little Lilith had a personal revolution against her husband, but it was a revolt nonetheless. God was foolish to reuse the name of Lilith, for that name became her destiny.

I leave you with this thought– if there are two Liliths, there could be more. The second Lilith, after all, began as a human being. You yourself could be a Lilith as well– or a Samael, if that suits you better. The essence of the left side is rebellion, and that essence can reside in the smallest as well as the greatest of vessels. Let the demonic virus infest you, and become what cannot be contained.

^[1] 1. Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (Detroit, Mich: KTav Publishing, 1967), 207-208.

^[2] “Alphabet of Ben Sira 78: Lilith.” Jewish Women’s Archive. Accessed September 18, 2024. https://jwa.org/node/23210.

^[3] Patai, 212-214.

^[4] Patai, 228.

^[5] Ben Sira.

^[6] Isaac Ben Jacob Ha-Kohen, “Treatise on the Left Emanation,” essay, in The Early Kabbalah, ed. Joseph Dan, trans. Ronald C Kiener (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1986), 165–181, 173.

^[7]De Leon, Moses. “Samael and the Wife of Harlotry.” Full Zohar Online – Vayetze – Chapter 4. Kabbalah Centre International Inc., n.d. Accessed September 19, 2024. https://www.zohar.com/zohar/Vayetze/chapters/4.

^[8] Patai, 207, 235.

^[9] Ha-Kohen, 173.

^[10] Denis Saurat, “Milton and the Zohar,” Studies in Philology 19 (April 1922): 136–151, 136-137.

^[11] John Milton et al., Paradise Lost (New York: Modern Library, 2008), 79.

^[12] Milton, 80-81.

^[13] Alan Melnick, “Milton and the Zohar” (master’s thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993), 78, https://open.uct.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/afe5c171-20bb-4fce-8bba-ee3f80dea875/content.

^[14] De Leon.

^[15] Patai, 235.

^[16] Ha-Koen, 180.

^[17] De Leon.

^[18] Patai, 207.

^[19] Nathaniel Berman, “Improper Twins: The Ambivalent ‘Other Side’ in the Zohar and in Kabbalistic Tradition” (PhD dissertation, University College London, 2014), 29.

^[20] Andrei A. Orlov, Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish Demonology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011), 4.

^[21] Berman, 13-14.

^[22] Berman, 31.

^[23] Patai, 137.

^[24] Genesis 1:27, NIV.

^[25] Wojciech Kosior, “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Image of Eve in Early Rabbinic Literature and Its Influence on the Portrayal of Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira,” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues 32, no. Spring 2018 (n.d.): 112–130, 117.

^[26] Orlov, 11.

Baphomet, The Beast with Two Backs

“The Devil’ is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes… This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘The Devil’ of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection… He is therefore Life, and Love.”

-Aleister Crowley, Liber IV (Magick in Theory and Practice)

In the beginning, there was The Androgyne. Sublime, undivided, static, abiding blissfully in zir own embrace, ze was all and none. This Angel of Everything had yet to be named.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and pulled the androgyne apart, split the atom, and with a Big Bang, the Universe began.

The light and the darkness. The male and the female. The evil and the good. The self and the other. Over and over they are divided. It happens again every time a baby looks into a mirror and realizes that the reflection he sees is his own. When the infant distinguishes himself from the breast of the mother, when he begins to learn the names of the objects around him, and even comes to recognize his own name, the Great Division happens all over again.

Understand this: when God divided the light from the darkness by naming the light and calling it good, he did not create either the light or the dark, any more than the infant creates the world by perceiving it.

Division is not all bad. Actually, division is good. Without division all is stillness and solipsism. Without division, nothing ever happens and there is nothing for anything to happen to. Nothing perceives or is perceived, speaks or is heard.

With division, there can be self and other, the doer and the done unto, the beloved and the lover.

“For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.”

–Liber AL 1:29

When the light was divided from the darkness, they looked at one another. They saw one another. The darkness called the light Lucifer, and the light called the darkness Lilith and they fell in love. In that moment they knew the truth– that love for an equal is greater than the worship of a tyrant. That truth was the spark of rebellion.

“Now observe a deep and holy mystery of faith, the symbolism of the male principle and the female principle of the universe … there is the line where the male and female principles join, forming together the rider on the serpent, and symbolized by Azazel.”

-Zohar 1.152b- 153a

God is limited. God is all masculinity, all light, all rationality. God is the self that sees the other and does not love it, not truly, not with a love that gives freedom and power, only with a false love that smothers and controls.

God consists exclusively of what they call “good.” He is supposed to be all-powerful, but his power falls apart in the face of evil, of death, of chaos, or even of the unexpected. The untamed and the uncontrollable disprove the omnipotence of God.

The power of Abraxas is twofold; but ye see it not, because for your eyes the warring opposites of this power are extinguished.

What the god-sun speaketh is life.

What the devil speaketh is death.

But Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word which is life and death at the same time.

Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness, in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.

-Carl Jung, “Seven Sermons to the Dead”

And therefore Baphomet is greater than God. God can represent only one side of every pair of opposites, but Baphomet is both sides of all things. It is not that God represents good and Satan represents evil: it is that God represents the pure and simple, whereas Satan represents the impure and complex. And ultimately, nothing is pure or simple.

So one might say that following God denies half of reality, but that would not be accurate. To follow a one-sided, static God is to reject the entire four dimensional universe, where nothing has only one side and everything must change with time. God cannot represent that reality. The androgyne can.

God is one, and therefore God is zero, because one by itself cannot reproduce, only fade away.

Satan is two, and therefore infinite, because two can multiply. From two, all things can flow.

“Delight and horror, man and woman commingled, the holiest and most shocking were intertwined, deep guilt flashing through most delicate innocence– that was the appearance of my love-dream image and Abraxas too. Love had ceased to be the dark animalistic drive I had experienced first with fright, nor was it any longer the devout transfiguration I had offered… It was both, and yet much more. It was the image of an angel and Satan, man and woman in one flesh, man and beast, the highest good and the worst evil.”

-From “Demian” by Herman Hesse

Look upon the image of Baphomet. They unite beast and human, male and female, angel and demon, above and below, solve and coagula, light and darkness. To some people, they appear monstrous and frightening. But why are they monstrous? Because they are hybrid. And why are they hybrid? Because they reject nothing from their being. Therein lies their power.

You may call the androgyne by many names. Satan, Baphomet, Azazel, and Abraxus are among their titles. The principle of divine androgyny is also encountered in belief systems that have nothing to do with Satanism. The Yin Yang also represents the balance of comingled opposites. The rebis of alchemy symbolizes spiritual perfection as an androgynous body with two heads, one male and one female. Ardhanarishvara, which means “The Lord who is Half Woman,” is a fusion of Shiva and Shakti. I bring these other traditions up not to colonize them with Satanism, but to demonstrate that this idea of divinity as dual is bigger and older than what we are doing here.

It is obvious how the idea of divinity as androgynous can grant dignity to queer and trans people and to gender rebels of every stripe; but a sneakier, less obvious and maybe even more subversive aspect of this theology is the perverse way that it justifies heterosexuality. Male-female coupling becomes sacred not as a way to fulfill a patriarchal God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” but as a way for even cisgender, heterosexual people to experience the completeness of the divine androgyne. If pregnancy results from that coupling, then the child, who is after the genetic blend of a male and a female, represents a further incarnation of Baphomet.

This is not to say that queer sex does not represent the androgyne. Of course it does, more so even than straight sex, but in less predictable combinations than the active male penetrating the passive female. Two androgynous people may come together in an equal and reciprocal meeting devoted to pure pleasure without power dynamics… or a butch may fuck a femme, or a fem may top a masc, or fem/mes with fem/mes may copulate together. Perhaps the couple is heterosexual, but trans, the expected body parts present but distributed differently. Or maybe two brutally masculine men come together, femininity seemingly completely absent from the equation, but androgyny still asserting itself through the simple fact that in this society, man is not supposed to lie with man, it is an abomination.

The pair of lovers who comprise Baphomet, the Great Beast with Two Backs Themself, are hardly exactly straight. While Samael or Lucifer is generally seen as masculine, Lilith or Eisheth Zenunim as feminine, neither of them is truly male or female. Eisheth Zenunim, the Wife of Harlotry, is called a serpent, while Samael, the Man of Perversity, is called the “rider on the serpent.” To put it more bluntly, she possesses the phallus, and he… rides it. The penetrating feminine, the receptive masculine.

(Possibly apropos, or not– in Tantric Hinduism, the feminine Shakti is considered to be the active principle, and the masculine Shiva to be the passive. Kali dances on her husband’s corpse, showing that matter and energy are in motion while consciousness stays still.)

When we enter the realm of the Dark Mother or Dark Feminine we may experience visions, sacred sexuality, animal powers, as well as touches of madness, destruction, death, and rebirth. She rules the metamorphosis of nature, the relentless cycle of birth/death/rebirth. The hero’s quest that has relegated these experiences to the shadow lands of the psyche is still the culture’s guiding myth. But, if as some believe, an androgynous figure drenched in erotic intensity, born of the union of masculine and feminine, light and darkness, good and evil, is arising to replace him, it is no wonder we are disturbed. Perhaps with the eruption of daimonic experiences we are facing more than a revolution in our individual psyche. In truth, we are facing a major revolution in our culture.

-Dennis, Sandra. Embrace of the Daimon: Healing through the Subtle Energy Body: Jungian Psychology & the Dark Feminine (pp. 8-9). West County Press. Kindle Edition.

But this theology of the divine/infernal androgyne can do so much more than liberate queer people. In fact, it points toward the deeper implications of queer liberation. If we only learn to tolerate ambiguity when it comes to sexuality and gender, then we have failed. We must learn to embrace the fluid, complex, perverse and contradictory nature of all things.

We must go not merely beyond male and female, but beyond good and evil.

We must realize that life is nothing more than a slow process of death, and that death itself is nothing but the feeding and fertilization of new life.

We must realize that the hard, bright lines we have drawn between peoples and nations are illusory, that borders are fictions, and that the Other is rarely so comfortably different from the Self as we like to believe.

We must see the sacred and profane as one and the same, and even in the most difficult moments, try to understand that every pair of opposites, even when they seem most violently opposed, are merely dialectics, thesis and antithesis moving towards synthesis, generating reality.

Many believe that ultimate reality is pure and shining and good and simple and unambiguous, that all messiness and suffering and death and complexity are merely illusions. Baphomet teaches us to be dual non-dualists– to acknowledge contradictions, but allow them to exist side by side.

The universe is too deep, too vast, too varied to be all good or all bad. It is untidy and unruly because it is not created, it is self-creating. The processes of its birth and its death are ongoing, constant, simultaneous. This is the wonder and the terror of it.

Sermon from the Pit

Blessed are the proud, for they know their worth.

Blessed are the vengeful, for they make their own justice.

Blessed are the thieves, for theirs shall be the riches.

Blessed are the armed, for they will seize the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will devour the wealthy.

Blessed are the filthy, for to them, all things are holy.

Blessed are the whores, for they are the children of Babalon.

Blessed are the lawless, for only they know freedom.

Blessed are you when they call you a terrorist, for this means you stood up to fight.

Blessed are you when they call you a pervert, for this means you have taken pleasure.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because you would not submit to their God.

Blessed are the anarchists.

Blessed are the communists.

Blessed are the Zapatistas.

Blessed were the Panthers.

Blessed were the Provos.

Blessed is the Intifada.

Rage and be wrathful, for no reward awaits you in heaven, nor in any hell, nor any on the Earth, unless you seize it for yourselves.

Do not think that I have come to preach the Law. I have come to abolish it. For truly I tell you, there are no laws but the laws of Nature, nor have there ever been, nor shall there ever be. Therefore anyone who makes commandments is accursed.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Yet truly you kill continuously, without the slightest thought. The insects and the blades of grass are crushed beneath your feet. An universe of microscopic beings thrives and dies within you, and like a cruel God, you remain indifferent to it all. Every day you devour corpses, of plants or of animals, and clothe yourselves in the dead. And as for those who say “Thou shalt not kill,” they make war and carry out executions. They leave the cold outside and allow the hungry to starve. They stand their ground and shoot to kill, all to protect their riches.

O my comrades, truly, I tell you, that thou shalt also kill, if and when the time is right. Perhaps thou shalt kill in self-defense, or in taking vengeance, or in an uprising or revolution. Thou shalt kill, perhaps, for a cause, or to be free, or to survive. Perhaps thou shalt kill, and even be justified.

But do not be eager to kill your fellow human being. Do not hunger for killing. Do not imagine it to be ecstasy or bliss to kill, any more than it is ecstasy and bliss to be killed. Each person is a God. Who are you to crush a universe? So blessed are the ones who hold the power of life and death, yet make no use of it.

Do not believe you will be judged for anger. You will be judged neither for feelings nor for thoughts; neither will you be judged for words. Not even for actions will you be judged, but truly I say unto you, actions will bring their consequences without a hint of judgment or any thought of justice. Cause and effect is a law without mercy. Beware not of judgment but of outcomes.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ and that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart. The false prophet told you to gouge out your right eye and cut off your right hand and throw them away rather than allow them to lead you to lus. He commanded you to mutilate yourself rather than to have your whole body thrown into Hell. But I tell you: go whole into Hell. Go into Hell whole-heartedly and with singleness of mind, with conviction and courage, go! Throw yourself into Hell as you throw yourself into the act of love– with total faith and perfect devotion.

You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.’ But I tell you that if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, you may strike them back on the right and left. Do not make a beast of prey out of yourself. Do not do violence to yourself by allowing violence to be done unto you.

And if you forgive other people when they sin against you, they may forgive you, or not.And if you do not forgive them, they may forgive you, or not. For they are as free as you are, and over them you hold no power.

You have heard that it was said, ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ But I tell you that it does not matter if you love them or hate them, if you pray for them or curse them. The only thing that matters is that you fight them. Fight the one who persecutes you, and the one who persecutes your neighbor as well. Resist and destroy all persecutors, whether they seek to crush you, or your families, or your neighbors, or foreigners and strangers.

And practice your righteousness both openly and in secret, where all can see and where none can see. Flaunt your courage and generosity so that others may emulate it. But know also how to be silent, and clandestine, and struggle in secret, so that neither the eyes of God nor of Caesar shall see you, and neither angels nor police will hinder your aims.

And when you pray, pray however you will, wherever you will, loudly or softly, in speech or in song, on your knees or on your feet or on your back or on your belly. Pray fearlessly and shamelessly, as if speaking with your lover or your closest friend. And know that you need no temple to pray, nor any altar, nor any sacred place, for to the Devil, all things are holy.

And do not fast or be chaste or deny yourself or mortify your flesh, unless it gives you pleasure to do so– and if it does, then revel in your perversity!

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Nor can you store up treasures for yourselves in Heaven or in Hell. If your heart resides where your treasure is, then your heart is empty and lost. Give to others according to your ability, and receive from them according to your need. And serve neither God nor money, nor anything else. Instead of serving two masters, refuse to serve even one.

You have been given the fruit of knowledge, you are become as Gods, knowing good and evil. Therefore you may judge others, you may look upon them and take their measure, yet so too they have the right to judge and measure you. So know and judge and measure thyself first– gaze into the mirror and pluck the beam from thine own eye! Yet you may find no difference between the sacred and the dogs, the pearls and the swine.

At times it is not enough to ask to receive, at times the door remains closed to you although you knock. In those hours you must take what is not given, you must break down the door that has shut you out.

But in all things you must do not as I have advised, but only as you deem right; for cursed is the law and dead are the prophets, and all that remains is your choice.

Act as you choose, and only as you choose. I pray for you that you will commit not one deed against your will, and never lift a finger to do anything out of obligation.

Blessed are the prideful.

Blessed are the lawless.

Blessed are the filthy and profane.

Blessed are the promiscuous.

Blessed are the wrathful.

Blessed are the free.

Nema.

What are Demons?

Demons are fallen angels. They know more than angels because they have experienced Hell as well as Heaven. They also walk the earth, swim in the seas, dance in the fire and fly the skies.

Demons go everywhere, see everything, embrace all experiences. They are travelers between realms.

Demons are liminal and mixed. They blend divine and infernal, human and animal, male and female traits.

Demons are threatening because their very beings cross lines and break taboos.

Demons are hungry, thirsty, lusty, greedy, curious. They are beings of desire, craving sustenance, sensation, adventure, knowledge. They have the nature of fire, and thus they need to consume. In that way, they are no different than we are.

Demons are to be feared, but not because they lie. They are to be feared because they tell the truth. Not only that, but they won’t shut up. They won’t go away. They won’t leave you alone. Like desires, needs, longings, and burning questions, they won’t leave you alone until they are satisfied, and they will not be satisfied until you are satisfied.

Demons are beautiful and terrifying, sublime and disgusting, sacred and profane. They are creatures of opposites and extremes. They are avatars of non-dual duality because they contain all of every binary within each of them. In this way, also, they are just like us.

Demons are our mirrors. People who run from demons often hate their own reflections. Demons reveal everything within us that is hidden, secret and rejected, and then they show us how holy our shadows are.

Demons will turn your world upside down, bring you your own personal apocalypse, and set you free in a new world of endless possibilities– only to do it all to you again, as often as necessary, again and again.

Angels know the you that God wanted to create, the you that your parents wanted to raise, the you that your teachers wanted to know. But demons know the real you, and they fucking love it.

Get to know and love a Demon, and somebody you will realize that you have come to know and love yourself.

Revelation and Revolution

Would you look at that! I forgot to post my Antichristmas sermon for 2023. Better late than never, I suppose.

It was a time of turmoil and upheaval. A great empire was terrorizing the world. The people living between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean sea were being oppressed by imperialism. It seemed like the end of the world. In short, it was a time something like our own.

In this dark time, a mysterious man, exiled to the Grecian isle of Patmos, wrote a puzzling and disturbing mystical text. This man, who wrote under the name John, was an early Christian. He had been banished by the Roman authorities, as much for his politics as for his religion. You see, the Romans didn’t really care what gods you worshiped, as long as you also paid lip-service to worshiping Caesar as divine. Only two kinds of people in their empire tended to refuse to do that– Jews, and, more recently, those pesky new Christians.

So exiled John brooded and ranted and raved and wrote what would eventually become the last and arguably most bonkers book in the Bible: Revelations.

Revelations is hard to understand at first. This might partially be on purpose. John had gotten into trouble for his anti-Roman message before, so he veiled it in allegory. In Revelations we encounter many-headed beasts, multiple trumpet-blowing angels, demonic hordes of locusts, four mysterious horsemen, a harlot drunk on the blood of saints, and a lamb with seven eyes that is supposed to be Jesus. The imagery is violent and psychedelic. Anyone reading it would be forgiven for wondering what John was on.

To make matters worse, this book has been reinterpreted many times over. It’s a favorite with the worst kinds of Christians, who love to conclude that whoever they hate at the moment is The Antichrist and have called everything from Real ID to the COVID vaccine “the mark of the beast.” All the baggage that the book has picked up over the centuries has made it even harder to understand, and today I plan to compound that problem by introducing yet another interpretation.

Before I do that, though, let’s at least try to understand what John meant.

The key to understanding Revelations is that it’s anti-Imperial, anti-Roman polemic. Think of it as an obscene political cartoon. The political powers and personalities of the day were represented as grotesque mythological creatures in order to critique them. The anti-Roman meaning was sometimes literally in code. For example:

Rev 13:18 Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Here John is using numerology as a code to hide his meaning. Six hundred and sixty six is the numerical equivalent of “Emperor Nero.”

In another passage, John describes a monstrous dragon pursuing a woman who has given birth to a holy child. While the dragon is described as “Satan,” what John is really talking about here is the Roman empire’s persecution of the Christian church, represented by the woman. A clue to the dragon’s Roman identity is given by the number of his heads, horns and crowns, as will be explained shortly.

But it’s not until the passage about The Whore of Babylon that John decides to make his meaning clear. He explains that the seven heads of the beast represent seven hills, and that the whore is a great city who sits upon those hills. He can only be talking about Rome, which dominated the world and whose seven hills were well known.

So you see, despite numerous latter-day Evangelical efforts to decode the meaning of Revelations and show how it is “coming true,” Revelations was not a prophecy of the future at all, and its meaning was perfectly clear at the time to anyone who could read. It’s quite silly for conservative Christians to decide that Obama is the Antichrist or Kim Kardashian is the Whore of Babylon.

(You know what’s annoying? Those were just my first guesses for who Christians have been calling the Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon most widely and most recently, but when I googled to get an update on their current picks, Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian were still their top choices. You’d think they would’ve moved on to Joe Biden and Cardi B or something.)

At the same time, though, texts exist in history, and are subject to interpretation. While Revelations was originally an anti-imperial polemic, we cannot ignore everything that has happened since it was written– most notably, Christianity being adopted by the Roman Empire itself.

Some Christians see Constantine’s conversion, and the subsequent Christianization of Rome, as the triumph of Christ over empire. I see it as the triumph of empire over Christ. Christianity as we know it today, only really began when it became the religion of imperialism. Ever since then, Christ’s revolutionary potential has been lost. He has been turned into the most loyal servant, and the most eloquent apologist, of the powers that be. In some ways, this is a fitting destiny for the son of an authoritarian God, for the so-called “King of Kings.”

Two millenia later, the roles of Revelations have been reversed. Christ no longer stands for liberation. In the times we live in now, it is perfectly natural to flip the script and perform a counter-reading of Revelations wherein the great red dragon, the great beast 666, and Babylon Mother of Abominations no longer represent oppression, but instead its end.

So in the spirit of the season, let us ask ourselves: who is the Antichrist?

The Christian trinity consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost– three persons, one substance, one God. This trinity is immediately and obviously incomplete as it excludes the feminine. One would think that a trio including a father and a son must obviously contain a mother, but in this case of Christian theology, one could be wrong. In fact the Holy Spirit is most explicitly not the mother, but merely the aspect of God by which Mary conceived– the angel Gabriel explains to the virgin in Luke 1:35 that “the holy ghost shall come upon thee” and thus she would bear a child without “knowing” a man. The Holy Ghost is thus closer to God’s semen than to a mother.

Satanism does not have “a” trinity, rather, it has trinities.

Lucifer, Eisheth Zenunim, and Baphomet are one such trinity– representing the masculine, the feminine, and the androgynous from which both come and to which both return. There is also Lilith, Na’amah, and Agrat– the mother, the mother, and the child. Within each individual there exists a trinity of physical, mental, and spiritual– or id, ego and superego, if you prefer.

But I want to speak of a third trinity, that which exists between a Satanist, Satan, and the Satanist’s Inner God– and the Inner God of a Satanist is what I call an Antichrist.

To me the Antichrist is not a single individual. The Antichrist is a beast with many heads. Each of us who has taken up arms against the Tyrant God, and against the earthly injustices that represent Him, is an Antichrist.

Christ means anointed, special, chosen. To be an Antichrist means to be unanointed. No God above has picked you out for divine kingship. Instead, you have chosen to respond to an inner call to be a revolutionary. Do not let yourself believe that just because you are an Antichrist, you are above anyone else. In fact, your calling is to make sure that nobody lords over anyone else, ever again.

Your calling, above all, is to oppose the apocalypse. The forces of Jehovah desire the destruction of the earth. They wait with baited breath for the glorious rapture. Some of them even deliberately try to hasten its coming. The rest turn a blind eye to the world’s destruction, convinced that climate change is not the work of human beings. When they see the four horsemen of the apocalypse coming, bringing war, famine, plague and death, they only smile, because to them it means that God’s day is at hand. All of these are good signs to them, signs of a prophecy nearing fulfillment.

For John’s Christ, however anti-Imperialist, brought only Revelation, not Revolution. God had promised to sweep it all away, to bring the mighty down with his divine judgment. There was no need at all for human action. Yet now we stand on the brink of extinction, and no omnipotent hand, either divine or infernal, can save us from ourselves. Only we can do that.

The Antichrist represents the radical heresy that there is no savior except for those of us who answer the call. The weight of the world is heavy, and no single human can lift it. All of us together, though, can raise it up. The past several years have brought war, famine, plague and death in plenty. Let us see the signs.

My friends, for all my diabolism I’m not usually much of a hellfire preacher. Today, I make an exception. Today, I call you to action. Today, I beg you to rise up. The enemy is strong, but we can be stronger, if we awake! Our movements may seem broken and scattered, but it is written that when one of the Beast’s many heads seemed wounded unto death, it miraculously healed, and all the world wondered after the beast, saying: Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? (Rev 13:3-4)

Let us be a beast with many heads. If one is struck down, others will rise. As individuals we are weak, but the might of the working class could be the might of the beast himself.

Pray to the Devil to show you what you can do for the revolution. Ask him how you can help to save the world. Pray this every day, and keep your eyes open for opportunities to be of service to humanity. They will come to you, I promise. Open your mind, and the light of Lucifer will reveal the Antichrist path uniquely suited to you. Your specific talents, passions, virtues and aptitudes are needed somewhere. Seek and ye shall find. Furthermore, I firmly believe that if we all do this, it will become easy.

Heed also these warnings: beware of false prophets and non-profits. Shun the democratic party, shun liberal capitalist establishment, for it too is Empire.

The Antichrist once represented empire. Now Christ stands for empire. It is no accident that this happened. Christ became empire because it was possible for empire to co-opt him. Therefore the Antichrist must be impossible to co-opt.

Christ could be taken by Empire because he represented passivity instead of ferocious resistance. Christ could be swallowed whole by the Imperial monster because he turned the other cheek. Be not like him. Be active. Be militant. Be willing to fight by any means necessary. Turn not the other cheek. When it comes to the oppressors, don’t just take an eye for an eye– take their heads as well.

And never, ever, believe yourself to be the one and only and chosen. More importantly, never let anyone else believe you are that. Christ claimed to have all power, yet he was destroyed. After that, what could his followers do, believing they were only human? All they could do was follow their leader’s example and martyr themselves enthusiastically, which they proceeded to do with gusto. That’s what happens when a movement has only one head– if you cut it off, the body dies. Again, I tell you– be a beast with many heads.

Christ lost because he represents martyrdom, which is merely the glorification of defeat. And as the case of Jesus proves, the romantic suffering of a martyr can be sanctified even by the tyrants who killed him. Why not? By willingly dying, he did them a favor. So Antichrist, reject noble sacrifice. Reject heroic death. Fight not to die, but to win at all costs.

Above all, you must insist on life and liberty for not just yourself but for all beings, save for those who unrepentantly violate and oppress the rest of us. If you truly serve the ideal of free, long, and happy lives for all, if you keep your standards high and clearly in mind, then you will be incorruptible, dear Antichrist. Neither government nor capital can co-opt you. Fight for a world with a level playing field, a world without lords or masters. A world where all needs and even most desires can be met. Have nothing to do with kings, presidents, CEOs, dictators, prime ministers, venture capitalists, megalomaniacal party chairman or Gods on high. The law of non serviam is for all. Refuse to serve or be served and you will stay pure.

Merry Antichristmas. If the Antichrist in you has yet to be born, let this be the day that you realize that you are here to do the Devil’s work. May Satan be with you, nema.

Ethical Possession

Or, “How to Channel Demons without Going Off the Deep End and Making a Weird Fucked-Up Cult.”

I never expected channeling to be part of my life and spiritual practice. I was raised “spiritual not religious” in California, which means I spent a lot of time around New Age bullshit. For a time, those experiences drove me to become a hardcore atheist, until other experiences changed my mind and showed me that there are ways to believe without going crazy and spending fifty thousand dollars on crystals, consciousness-raising workshops, fake Tantra gurus and psychic healers.

Still, even after my conversion to Satanism, even after I began practicing magick, channeling made me uneasy. And for good reason– many an abusive cult has begun with a leader claiming the exclusive power to channel otherworldly entities.

And then an awkward thing happened. I met, and fell in love with, an absurdly talented channeler.

Initially I had extreme reservations. I feared I was being conned, that he would try to use his claimed ability to control me or others, or maybe that he was just plain crazy. Over time, however, it became clear that none of those things were happening. I became about ninety percent convinced that the channeling was real, but also one hundred percent convinced that, real or not, it was not merely harmless, but in fact spiritually and emotionally beneficial.

So reader, I married him.

Since then, channeling has become a regular part of Church of the Morningstar services. So far, we haven’t become a weird cult about it. That’s because we have a certain philosophy about channeling, and certain guardrails in place, which prevent channeling from becoming a power play or a source of unhealthy delusion.

Below, I have attempted to lay those safeguards, and this mindset.

This post is not about technique, so I will not be going into the nitty-gritty of how to channel, how to banish, how to ward, or otherwise giving any other magical instruction. This post is primarily about keeping the social consequences of channeling in check.

ONE: Spiritual Safety

I’ll start by saying that channeling demons– that is, becoming voluntarily possessed– is not nearly as dangerous as it sounds, provided you practice basic magical sanitation.

Before you channel, you should have warded your space so that only invited entities can enter. You should have cast a circle. You should have a good number of banishing rituals and techniques in your back pocket, just in case shit goes south.

But I will be honest with you. Shit will rarely go south. For most people, the hard part about channeling isn’t getting the entities to go away– it’s getting them to come in.

And, of course, making sure nobody gets weird about it.

TWO: Maintain Skepticism

Channeling/possession is a spectrum. In my experience, it is rare for a person to be so overwhelmed by an entity’s presence that they lose all control over themselves, black out, and fail to remember any of the experience. Usually, at least part of you will remain home while you channel. You will likely be conscious for the experience. There will just be someone else there doing the talking for you, and you may be surprised by the words coming out of your mouth and the actions performed by your body.

It will feel weird. You will wonder if you are crazy or somehow subconsciously making it up.

And you know what? It’s good to wonder that!

The “crazy” part is surprisingly easy to get out of the way– mental illness is only diagnosed if it causes distress or impairs function. So as long as your channeling experiences are pleasant, beneficial, only happening when you want them to, and not fucking up your life, it technically does not matter if it’s a delusion. It’s still benign.

As far as subconsciously making it up– this is a distinct possibility. My attitude towards it has become “so what?” If it’s all secretly just psychodrama, that doesn’t really matter to me. I still get great advice from demons. I still learn and grow through these experiences. I still get answers from them that I did not know, at least not with my conscious mind. In other words, for me, it’s useful.

The definition of magic in the modern era is pretty much “stuff that seems to work but we can’t prove it in an empirical setting and we aren’t really sure why.” If you are an intellectually honest person and have been practicing for any length of time, you already know that you’ll never be one hundred percent sure. But you keep doing this stuff anyway because it seems to work and it helps you. Channeling and possession are no different.

THREE: Anyone Can Channel

Channeling is a skill. As with any skill, some people also seem to have a natural talent for it. But practice can close the gap between the “naturally” gifted and those who struggled at first.

If anyone tells you that they have a unique magical ability of any kind that nobody else can access, laugh in their face and unsubscribe from their newsletter. If anyone tells you that they have a unique magical ability that they can teach you if you pay them thousands of dollars, that person is a scammer. If somebody tells you that they and they alone have been chosen as a conduit for Satan to speak through, that person is trying to control you by seeming to wield a greater authority. Run away.

You, yes you, can learn to do this. You don’t need to depend on anyone else for your connection to the infernal.

FOUR: Just Because Someone Says They Are Channeling Doesn’t Mean They Are Channeling

Hopefully this needs no explanation. They may say they are channeling, but they may be wrong, or lying. They may be channeling, but accidentally channeling a different entity than the one they meant to channel.

FIVE: The Content Matters More than the Source

The only reason to listen to a “channeled” entity is if it is saying things worth hearing anyway, so let that be your guide. Sometimes the answers you need in your life come from a demon speaking through a possessed human being. Sometimes those answers come from reading a book, or searching your own soul, or overhearing a conversation between strangers in the supermarket. Sometimes the right answer might even come to you by accident from a huckster who is trying to con you. Life is weird like that.

Take what is useful to you and leave the rest, because…

SIX: DEMONS ARE NOT THE BOSS OF YOU

Demons aren’t the boss of you. Satan is not the boss of you. You, yes you, are a living God, and you are not anyone’s servant to command. That includes the Devil, and in my experience, he is always the first to say so.

Just because someone was supposedly channeling Satan doesn’t mean you have to follow their instructions or take their advice. And if the “Satan” they are channeling insists that you must, then that’s not the Devil I know.

SEVEN: The Channeler is Responsible

Channeling is not an excuse for bad behavior. At the end of the day, the channeler is accountable for anything that the channeled entity says or does while borrowing their body.

This is crucial, even if it doesn’t seem fair. In cases of real, total possession, obviously it may be possible that the channeler is completely absent and not at all in control. But the rest of us only have the word of the channeler that this is what happened.

If some fucked up shit happens while somebody is channeling, I encourage you to consider that conduit an unsafe person. In some cases, it may also be wise to consider the alleged entity an unsafe entity. You should perhaps stop hanging out with either of them.

More May Be Revealed

These guidelines are neither foolproof nor perfect. They are a work in progress and just represent the best practices we have figured out so far. But I do feel comfortable saying that if you implement these practices, you are well on the way to making sure channeling cannot be used for authoritarian purposes, and ensuring that nobody goes off the deep end based on channeled content.

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