Tag Archives: my writing

Shitposting or Scripture? The Flexibility of Satanic Sacred Texts

“I will face God and walk backwards into hell.”

It sounds like some 19th century Romantic Satanist or anarchist– Byron or Shelley or Proudhon or Bakunin. But it’s actually a shitpost.

I’d also argue that it’s a legitimate Satanic sacred text at this point.

Allow me to explain.

Satanism, at first glance, doesn’t have very many sacred texts. I mean, there’s LaVey’s Satanic Bible, but I am not sure even LaVey ever called it sacred, or intended it to be canonical. There are also scattered works by various later Satanists attempting to comprehensively articulate Satanism, or even claiming to be inspired text. Most of them are poorly written and not very widely read.

But you know what’s way more influential to Satanic thought than any of those? Paradise Lost, which is a Christian text. And it’s “just a poem,” anyway. Right?

Except… did you know that Milton considered Paradise Lost to be divinely inspired? According to its author, it’s a received text.

Let’s leave Paradise Lost (and all the later works of Romantic Satanism that it accidentally inspired) alone for a second as we meander towards my point from another angle– that of music.

Hymns are another type of sacred text often analyzed by academics and theologians. At first glance, Satanism doesn’t have any of these. Or does it? There are now numerous musicians and bands who are sincere Satanists writing intense devotional music. Isn’t “Lucifer’s the Light of the World” by King Dude worthy of analysis as a Satanic sacred text– and a neat, lucid bit of Satanic Biblical exegesis at that? What about Behemoth’s album “The Satanist,” Adam Nergal Darsky’s defiant exploration of deepening religious devotion after a close brush with death by cancer? Shouldn’t we analyze this as religious text, including the lyrics, the music, and for that matter, the music video? What about the entire opus of Selim Lemouchi with his band The Devil’s Blood? He considered every last one of those songs to be infernally inspired, and they represent passionate, ecstatic and mystical declarations of a practitioner’s personal faith.

But even before there were self-avowed Satanic musicians, there were the Satanic poseurs– the Motley Crue’s of this world, churning out foot-stomping head-banging Satan-hailing anthems. These songs have been appropriated by religious Satanists today, much in the same way that we have appropriated Paradise Lost. They are Satanic texts now, even if they were never intended to be.

What about film? A lot of Satanists have appropriated The VVitch as a Satanic document. Black Phillip, and his brief speech at the end, have become icons of faith and ideology.

The definition of text has grown, you see. We live in an era of hypertext– links leading to links, criticism interacting with culture, religion blending with entertainment and reproducing itself on social media. And in this era, we need to think about what counts as sacred texts, and what is open to academic analysis, very differently… especially in the case of Satanism which is, itself, unique.

Until very recently, we Satanists were not producing texts of our own. Everything that is foundational to our religion was yoinked from other religions. (I often say that the real Satanic Bible is… the actual Bible, read from a Satanic perspective. It’s not sympathetic to our god, but it’s a big part of where his mythos started, after all. I’m hardly a Bible thumper but I pound on Genesis 3, the story of the Fall from Eden. I believe that text contains every Satanic value, mystery, and kernel of wisdom that a Devil-worshiper needs, if only you explore it thoroughly.)

It’s not unusual for religions to grow from each other– just look at how Christianity grew out of Judaism, and Islam from both. The difference is that, as far as anyone can tell, Satanism didn’t even exist for centuries after the concept of it was invented. The idea of Devil Worship was a paranoid invention of certain Christians, and they harped on this supposedly horrible concept for so long that it became real. This is an incredibly unique origin story for a faith.

Like our religion itself, many of our texts were originally not Satanic. The Bible is obviously not Satanic, neither are the Books of Enoch nor Paradise Lost nor even the Lesser Key of Solomon. The Litanies of Satan were not written by a Satanist. Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast 666 himself, was not precisely a Satanist, but his works are indispensable to us now.

Thus Satanism is a remarkable pastiche, a collage of influences and discourses including texts from other faiths, both canonical, apocryphal and pseudepigraphal, Western Esotericism, folklore, fiction, poetry, philosophy, anarchist theory, blues and rock music, and, last and potentially most importantly of all– the internet.

This has occurred partially because the religion is so new, and also partially because from the very beginning Satanism has resisted having a canon. We are far too contrarian and independent-minded to recognize any one text as the Word of Satan Himself. To us, that seems like a bad idea.

While I’m on this topic, I might as well mention that in a conversation with Lucifer (because yes, I’m a mystic and feel that I have those, and you have no obligation to believe me), he told me that he has influenced and inspired many texts, but that he will never, ever reveal which ones, for the explicit reason of avoiding the production of a canon. Satanism has no canon, needs no canon, and wants no canon. That made me love him even more, of course. And it makes a lot of sense to me that he’d rather whisper a suggestion in a poet’s ear than speak in his own person through an ordained, authoritative prophet. So, you know–by that logic, better if you don’t believe me about talking to Satan, really. I’m just some guy on the internet.

Speaking of random people on the internet, I started this blog entry by citing a shitpost, specifically, a tweet. The original full text of the tweet was “If the zoo bans me for hollering at the animals I will face God and walk backwards into Hell.” Not very Satanic, is it?

Yet this phrase was appropriated, reblogged, retweeted, reposted, and used as the title of Tumblr blogs, ad nauseum, including widely in the online Satanic milieu. I myself have literally flung those words at a missionary trying to witness to me. It has become virtually a Satanic proverb– all puns on “virtually” intended.

What about the words “We are all God’s children and he left us in a hot car?” It’s the title of a song. It’s also the name of a shitpost-y Facebook group. It’s also legitimately something that Millennial and Gen Z Satanists now say to philosophically express our disgust at the state of the world, a contemporary maltheistic parable in the shape of a meme.

The definition of sacred text and religious discourse must widen, especially in the case of Satanism, a religion that did not grow significantly in numbers until the advent of the internet. This is fitting. Even in its pre-internet forms, aspects of Satanism bore a certain resemblance to the concept of “trolling.” The Satanic affinity for memes, pranks, eye-catching and virally graphic symbols, satire, surrealism, and frankly, pornography, bears a strong affinity to the nature and culture of the web itself.

But Satanic online texts are not relegated to the realm of shitposts. Hardly! You are obviously reading a Satanic text on the internet right now. Satanists have taken to the internet to blog about our personal faith journeys, theorize on theology and morality, share occult PDFs and reading recommendations, and form affinity groups that sometimes extend to the offline world. Without, so far, much by way of churches, monasteries, academic journals, publishing houses or seminaries of our own, most of our theorizing takes place on the web.

The development of Satanism is happening when and where academics are by and large not looking– online and through pop culture, especially in the form of music.

This has been a shitpost.

 

 

 

Mortification of the Flesh

This post is about sexuality. It’s pretty raw and frank. Please don’t read if you are a minor, or if you don’t want to hear about me this way.

This also has a lot to do with my mental illness. It’s not written in my usual style. Instead this style strives to recreate what I was thinking and experiencing in the moment of this incident. It’s not psychosis but it might be too close for comfort. Don’t read this if you can be triggered into an episode by such material.

There are mentions of sexual trauma.

Honestly, just don’t read this.

noli me tangere.
noli me legere.
noli me videre.*
noli me –
*non enim videbit me homo et vivet.

Continue reading →

On Atheism

I am a theistic Satanist, which is a category that many atheistic Satanists disdain. But ironically, the more I talk to atheistic Satanists, and the more I refine my own theology, the more I realize that I have a lot in common with standard atheism.

Modern atheism is grounded mainly in a critique of monotheism– as much as many atheists don’t realize it. Atheist arguments like the problem of evil rely on the concept of a single God who is omnipotent and omnibenevolent. I agree with the premise of the problem of evil– that such a being cannot possibly exist.

Like most atheists, I reject the concept of a single Big God. In fact, I believe that the existence of such a being would necessitate an unfree universe, a place in which choice, individuality and liberty fundamentally cannot exist. A lot of atheists would agree with that, too.

The difference is that instead of being an atheist, I am now a radical polytheist.

Where I break away from atheism is, of course, by believing in the existence of things that cannot be empirically proven. I acknowledge that this is a pretty big schism. But I also don’t think it’s as important as it may at first seem.

In most of the ways that materially matter to atheists, I act like an atheist. I believe people can be moral without religion. I believe in strong separation of church and state. I believe in trusting good science (not in scientism, which is the ignorant tendency to believe that all “science” is equally valid and has been conducted to the same standards, or that science is static and not subject to change upon further information. This attitude is actually profoundly unscientific).

I differ from some atheists in that I believe religious belief is not delusional and can be profoundly healthy.

Religion, for me, is about emotional well-being. “Faith” of some kind– not necessarily faith in God or in something supernatural– is crucial to human survival. We live in awful, desperate, apocalyptic times. A purely rational appraisal of our situation would lead to paralyzing despair. I define faith as an irrational and yet adaptive belief that there is hope. Believing in God, gods, an afterlife, or magic can help support this type of faith, but isn’t necessary for it.

Of course, faith taken to an extreme can be just as paralytic as cynical despair. Leaving everything “in God’s hands” is just as awful of a survival strategy as not doing anything because “we’re doomed”– although one must admit that the apathetic believer is probably at least happier and less stressed than the despairing atheist.

For me personally, I wasn’t able to believe in hope until I believed in the supernatural. I think that actually says a lot about my cynicism. An atheist with hope is, in some ways, more irrationally optimistic than I am! And that’s not a bad thing. That’s a great thing. I salute them!

Atheistic Satanists believe in something I also believe in: religious community. While they may not exactly appreciate the “faith” part of religion, they definitely understand the collective aspect! Rituals, feasts, celebrations, gatherings, protests, events, fundraisers, and coffee hours are beautiful things. The decline of religion has coincided with the social isolation of Americans. Atheistic Satanic communities are combating that trend in their own lives.

I’m not saying religion is the only way to form a community of support– I’m saying that a really good community requires a religious level of commitment. Having a social “scene” you are involved in is great and not to be sneezed at. But in the olden days– and this is still true in some places– being part of a church meant never being alone when you were down and out. A real community should help you find a job when you’re unemployed, find an apartment when you get evicted, bring you dinners when you are too sick to cook for yourself, take up a collection for you when an unexpected emergency room bill clears our your savings. That’s what churches did, and sometimes still do.

(“Now wait a minute,” some random Randian-inflected LaVeyan is sneering, “A Satanist should be able to stand on their own two feet!” To which I say, A. you don’t understand how late stage capitalism works, B. in the 90’s Church of Satan literature emphasized that Satanists should have each other’s backs, fiercely, and C. have fun with your “Church” that isn’t so much a church anymore as just a smug twitter account. I’m not a huge fan of LaVey himself, but at least the dude brought people together and had fun parties. CoS really has fallen. No wonder TST is mopping the floor with them left, right and center. If CoS wants to stay relevant, they need to try harder and give people more. If you love capitalism so much than try to keep up with your competition. They are offering value that you are not.)

While The Satanic Temple is far from perfect, I give props to them and to similar atheistic Satanic groups for creating some real time community. The atheistic Satanists I know locally form social bonds with one another that appear to be just as strong as those formed in my own more theistic soiree. Social bonds are the real reason people stay involved with religious groups anyway. If it was all about the faith of the individual folks could all just practice on their own.

I’m happy to see atheists realizing the value of religious community, understanding that religion has great utility even if you take the God right out of it. To be quite honest, progressive Jews and some progressive Christians have realized this for a long time– new atheists might be surprised by how many people of faith don’t retain any belief whatsoever in the supernatural.

And as for me? Theistic as I am, I guess I’m still agnostic enough to insist that any sort of religious practice must be justifiable by its positive impacts on mundane “real” life.

 

My Commentary on Liber OZ

Liber OZ is my favorite work by Aleister Crowley. It is a “book” which is actually only a single page.

A lot has been written about OZ, and you can find some good links on it here, here, here and here. Since all of Crowley’s works are dense, esoteric and self-referential– even this deceptively monosyllabic and straightforward pamphlet!– I won’t pretend to have successfully unpacked what the self-styled Great Beast intended by it.

Instead, this is my personal commentary on Liber OZ and how I use it in my life and practice– also how I personally deal with some of its more unlovely aspects.

Liber LXXVII

OZ
“the law of
the strong:
this is our law
and the joy
of the world.”
         —AL. II. 21.
Right off the bat we have a shit-ton to unpack. The symbol inside the O of Oz is Crowley’s Mark of the Beast sigil combined with a downward pointing septagram. Interesting to combine the numerals 666 with a star of 7 points, 7 being a number associated with the Christian God. I’m sure there’s some deep Kabbalistic meaning in that that I’m missing.

“Oz” has multiple meanings. One of them is “might” or “strength.” Another is “refuge.” Another is “she-goat.” Hail.

This is said to be “the law of the strong.” Is that some Nietzschean Ubermensch bullshit I smell? (It smells like Axe body spray, for the record.) Probably, yeah, but once you read the rest of the document it makes sense outside of that context as well.

This is a set of principles for self-governing, self-willed individuals. A blueprint for spiritual and literal anarchism. Making your own decisions and living by your own Will does take a certain type of strength… not necessarily brute, stereotypically masculine strength, although that can come in handy. More like the type of Strength shown on the Rider-Waite Smith tarot card, in which a woman calms a lion. 93 is the numerological equivalent of the words “Thelema” and “Agape,” Will and Love in Greek. What more perfect image of Love and Will, and Love Under Will, could there be than the Lady and the Lion?

You’ll need a type of strength that is resilient and compassionate to live by this law… a strength that weathers storms. Remember that Crowley’s magical name was “Perdurabo”– I endure. Not conquer, not dominate. Endure.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

—AL. I. 40.

 OK, so let’s get this out of the way– “do what thou wilt” does not mean “do what you want.” There’s this idea of the True Will, one’s own deepest purpose. Thelema means finding and pursuing that Will with singular, passionate focus.

(A.L. stands for Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, for those who are wondering what those little citations are.)

“thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no
other shall say nay.” —AL. I. 42–3.

OK, so in the context of “Will” not meaning “want,” this makes a lot more sense. “You have no right but to do whatever you want” is a paradoxical and content-free statement. “You have no right but to fulfill your singular purpose, and from this right all your other rights derive” is something we can work with.

“Every man and every woman is a star.” —AL. I. 3.

Yeah, yeah, gender binary, BUT… what Crowley is saying here is that every single human is a unique and sacred entity with their own Will, which they have the absolute right to carry out. (Crowley’s relationship to gender wasn’t really binary anyway, as we’ll see later.)

So, ya know. Doing your Will is great and all, but everyone else has a right to do theirs, too. You’re not better than anyone else, and you don’t get to step on other people’s Wills.

There is no god but man.

Honestly I have no idea. Crowley’s theism versus his atheism is a tangled question that I do not have the time for right now. He seems to have gone back and forth on it.

But, for our purposes, I think it’s safe to assume that at least part of what Crowley is trying to say is this: there is no God more important than human Will that should be obeyed in its place.

OK! Here comes the good stuff.

A final note before I unpack the below– Crowley can be interpreted as very left-wing, or very right-wing. As far as I can tell, this is largely in the eye of the interpreter’s own politics. I’m a big lefty, so I’m gonna take Crowley to a straight-up Marxist-Anarchist place. Die mad about it.

1.

Man has the right to live by his own law—
to live in the way that he wills to do:

Anarchism! Couldn’t be stated more simply than that.

to work as he will:

People should be able to do the work that they love, that fulfills their purpose, as opposed to being obliged to labor for survival.

to play as he will:

Human adults have a right to play and enjoyment, rather than the dour drudgery required by capitalism.

to rest as he will:

You have a right to rest. To sleep. To take a break. Screw what your boss says.

You may be noticing by now that this document offers no way of ensuring that these rights will be respected, or that you will be able to practice them without reprisal. But I think it’s important to simply enumerate them nonetheless. Those of us raised in late capitalism with the Protestant Work Ethic are all too prone to feelings of crushing guilt over rest and play. But these are things to which you have a right.

to die when and how he will.

Interesting little plug for the right to die and assisted suicide.

2.

Man has the right to eat what he will:

1. Food is a human right and 2. what your diet consists of should be your decision. Second part may not sound that radical, but compared to the dietary restrictions of some religions, it kind of is.

to drink what he will:

1. Water is a human right! In this age of water privatization and the Flint water crisis, it bears repeating! 2. Again, you can drink whatever the hell you Will. (Doesn’t really excuse alcoholism, in my opinion, since being controlled by an addiction hardly counts as following your True Will.)

to dwell where he will:

This implies the right to housing, and also, coming up…

to move as he will on the face of the earth.

…the right to immigration! Borders should be open, humans should be able to travel freely, move freely, settle freely.

3.

Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:

Basic, classic, freedom of expression stuff.

to dress as he will.

Oh hey. Crowley said ‘trans rights now!’ I love the fact that this is included under freedom of expression.

For people who think that extending this to cross-gender expressions is something Crowley never intended, I invite you to consider that his first boyfriend, Herbert Charles Jerome Pollitt, was a talented female impersonator. Also, Crowley speaks at length about his own androgynous nature in his autohagiography. Some say he was given to cross-dressing himself. In relation to Pollitt, Crowley even said “I lived with Pollitt as his wife for some six months and he made a poet out of me.” Crowley was no stranger to genderfuckery.

4.

Man has the right to love as he will:—
“take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where, and with whom ye will.” —AL. I. 51.

See above. One of the most widely known facts about Crowley is his libertine polymorphous sexuality. Thelema has also always been associated with free love. This line should absolutely and explicitly be understood as advocating for queer rights, non-monogamy, every manner of kink, and pretty much every permutation of sexuality one can imagine– as long as it is consensual. “Love under Will,” after all.

5.

Man has the right to kill those who would thwart
these rights.

Crowley called this “the safeguard tyrannicide.” This doesn’t necessarily mean you have a right to kill somebody who doesn’t like your dress. It does mean that it is moral to assassinate people in power who interfere with basic human rights.

“the slaves shall serve.” —AL. II. 58.

Ugh. For me, this is the most distasteful and alienating line in the whole thing. But it isn’t without value even so.

I think this means that some people’s Will is to obey rather than to seek freedom. This should not be taken as victim-blaming– I don’t think literal slaves “Will” to be slaves! I think Crowley is trying to say that some people Will to live under what Nietzsche (and occasionally Crowley) would term the “Slave God.” This is sort of indisputable: we see these conventional and conservative personality types all around us.

Specifically, Crowley probably means “Christians gonna Christian”– there is every reason, given his Nietzschean influence, to assume that “slaves” primarily means “Christians” in this context.

So I actually think this is a badly worded statement of compassion. Some people Will to serve. And so, serve they shall. Their right to pursue their Will is as sacred as any other person’s, and should not be interfered with. 

In a sense, this is a warning that not everyone is going to be a Thelemite, and that trying to convert everyone is a bad idea. Equally, people who Will to serve should not be denigrated by being accused of false consciousness. They should be left alone, to do their Wills. Every man and every woman is still a star. That was never contradicted.

“Love is the law, love under will.” —AL. I. 57.

There ya have it. Boom.

Now will someone please tell me where to find Will? I’m supposed to get under him apparently. It’s the Law.

The Life, Death and Anti-Kosmik Magick of Selim Lemouchi

Originally published in Issue #4 of “Lucifer” Zine

Selim Lemouchi is dead. He killed himself in 2014. He was private and enigmatic in life, and what survives of his story is less biography than legend. I think that’s probably what he would have wanted.

Half Robert Johnson, half Kurt Cobain, this Dutch guitarist and songwriter founded occult rock group The Devil’s Blood and released three albums (and a couple EPs) of blisteringly beautiful Satanic songs before taking his leave from this plane. I was captivated by his music from the moment I first heard it, and as I learned about him, I became almost equally obsessed with his myth.

Selim seems to have been clinically depressed since birth. The other constant in his life was his love of music. His sister Farida, a talented singer, shared this love. In an interview, his mother recalls the exuberance with which the young Selim forced her to listen to his favorite bands while he did his chores.

Selim grew up to be a hard-working musician, playing guitar in several bands and even touring with the black metal group Watain. But the rock n’ roll lifestyle did not relieve his pain. Instead, it provided him with easy access to a smorgasbord of unhealthy coping mechanisms. He developed problems with addiction that only compounded his depression.

Eventually Selim was admitted to a mental institution. A year later he emerged changed. He claimed he had made a deal with the Devil. From then on, Selim was a devout Satanist.

We can only speculate on the nature of this deal. The contract was private, as pacts with Satan often are, and Selim never spelled it out publicly. But whatever the details, I think it’s safe to assume that creating devotional music was part of it, and that’s what Selim promptly started to do. He recruited his sister Farida as the vocalist for his band, titling her “The Mouth of Satan.” Farida’s powerhouse voice more than lived up to this moniker. With her, he formed The Devil’s Blood.

The band quickly gained attention for their sound, their energy, and their habit of appearing onstage drenched in actual blood. (It generally came from a pig, but I think it’s safe to assume some of Selim’s own plasma made it into the mix. Offerings of his own blood were a vital part of his practice.) It was more than a gimmick, but it certainly worked like one. That aside, The Devil’s Blood were talented and arresting performers. They stood out as a blatantly Satanic band that eschewed the black metal sound, instead harkening back to the psychedelia of 60’s occult rockers like Coven.  Farida truly sings like a fallen angel, and the music is powerfully uplifting, full of radiant chords and gorgeously melodic riffs. There is an undeniable sense of wild joy and spiritual ecstasy in the music, but the lyrics tell a darker story.

Selim was an anti-cosmic Satanist. Anti-cosmic Satanism gets a bad rep from its connection to Nazi groups like the Order of Nine Angles, but it isn’t innately fascist. Anti-cosmic Satanism is simply a strain of Satanism that rejects the material universe, and longs to return to the realm of chaos and fire. No philosophy could have been more natural to Selim. He didn’t just despise life—he had an outright enthusiasm for death which doesn’t necessarily follow from suicidal depression. In fact, such zeal for anything seems antithetical to depression! His thirst for death, his yearning, is obvious in video interviews. His eyes light up when he talks about dying. He makes it plain that he intends to choose the time and manner of his own passing, and to do so sooner rather than later.

“For me it’s not about the loss of people when they die, but about the admiration I have for them,” he says in one video. “They are in a place I also want to go to, and will go to, hopefully by my own hand. It should be one’s own decision when it’s their time to go.”

In another interview he says: “I don’t fear so much as expect that at some point my energies will be spent, and I hope to be able to have the self-reflection at that point to understand that ‘you have done all these things, you have been tremendously successful… and it’s time to stop now, and it’s time to go on and to see where next to conquer.’ The concept of death is only scary if one believes that eternity is darkness; and if one believes that eternity is fire, then there are possibilities.”

Selim’s romance with death is even more vividly expressed in his songs. In “The Thousandfold Epicentre” he has Farida sing,

“Blessed be!

From the branches of death’s tree

The fruit is finally falling down,

And the harvester is free.”

The lyrics go on to praise Satan as the “Great and pristine provider of nothingness and death.”

But this is merely one example. His devotion to the Devil as a god of death suffuses every song, usually quite obviously. In “I’ll Be Your Ghost” he begs for his demise in terms almost erotic:

“Lay me on your bed of nails,

Tie me to your whipping post,

I’ll let you kill me

And I’ll be your ghost.”

And in “Wings of Gloria” he entreats:

“So make your wings to shine

And make your eyes to beam

Make your dark as fire so bright

Burn my eyes with its light

So I may never see the light again!”

It is not in my constitution to glorify suicide, but in Selim’s case I respect it. This is a man who lived towards the goal of death. According to his mother and sister, they “always” knew Selim would take his own life. They had discussed this frankly with him, asking only that he say goodbye first, so that they wouldn’t be shocked to find him in a ditch somewhere. According to Farida, he upheld his end of that agreement “quite well.”

In 2014, Selim went home to the flames, leaving behind a catalog of brilliant devotional songs. His contract was fulfilled, and it was time for his promised reward: to be taken into the Devil’s arms, and enfolded in his dark wings at last.

His headstone reads:

“I fall into

The spaceless space

The timeless time

The endless end

Neither here nor there

Above or below

Into the night I go.”

Burn in hell, Selim Lemouchi. As one Satanist to another, I mean that in the nicest possible way.

P.S. The Ghost song “He Is” was written as a tribute to Selim. Tobias Forge was friends with him. As if you needed another reason to cry every time you listen to that fucking song!

 

 

Invocation of the Four Consorts

MATERIALS:

  • Four tarot cards to represent the queens
  • Consort incense ash (i.e. ash from incense burned in honor of the consorts)
  • Bells (Air/Fire)
  • Roses (Earth/Air)
  • Rose Water (Earth/Water)
  • Annointed candle (Fire/Water)
  • Pretty makeup brush for chrisms (optional)

The tarot cards are placed towards the four directions, along with the ritual elements: Items for Agrat and Air/Fire (bells and Queen of Cups) to the Southeast, for Lilith and Fire/Water (Candle and Queen of Wands) to the Southwest, for Naamah and Water/Earth to the Northwest (Queen of Pentacles and Rose Water), for Eisheth Zenunim and Earth/Air to the Northeast (Roses). Incense ash sits in the center. 

The celebrant begins facing Southeast. 

CELEBRANT: Hail to Agrat Bat Mahlat! Child of hope, creator and destroyer of illusions, conveyor and healer of disease! Reveal the truth to us, and send confusion to our enemies!

ALL: Renich viasa Agrat tasa lirach!

Celebrant rings the bell and then turns clockwise to the Southwest. 

CELEBRANT: Hail to Lilith, first of women, first human to rebel! Hail to thee who art two in one, male and female, adopter of stillbirths, avenger of the abused! Guard our bodies from those who would destroy them! Guard our freedom from those who would steal it away! Protect all women, and all gender outcasts and outlaws everywhere!

ALL: Renich viasa avage Lillith lirach!

Celebrant lights the candle, and then turns Northwest. 

CELEBRANT: Hail to Naamah, whose beauty makes angels fall! Hail Naamah, thief of knowledge, Queen of divination, mistress of seduction, and revolutionary whore! Grant us the insight to see what we need, and the ingenuity to obtain it! Grant us your clever artifice that we may gain wealth, wisdom and liberty!

ALL: Alora vefa an ca Naamah!

Celebrant sprinkles water around from his fingertips, then turns Northeast. 

CELEBRANT: Hail to Eisheth Zenunim, Mystery Babalon, mother of abominations, mother of death and mother of us all! Hail to thee Lady Satan, fallen angel of Liberty! May your poisoned sword cut down the tyrants! May your kisses, sweet as roses, comfort the bereaved! Let us return to you with joy, but not before our hour!

ALL: Lirach tasa Eisheth ayer!

The celebrant deeply inhales the scent of the rose. 

The celebrant turns to face the congregation and may then slip into a state of possession by one or all of these deities. The channel may now beckon the congregants forward, one by one, to receive benediction in the form of an inverted cross drawn in incense ash on their brow using the makeup brush. Congregants may request benediction from one of the four specifically. 

When all have received benediction, all join hands and pronounce:

ALL: Be it so, nema!

A Rant About Succubi

I work extensively with Eisheth Zenunim, Lilith, Naamah and Agrat bat Mahlat, the four succubus queens of hell. They are all consorts of Lucifer and also, frankly, of each other. Think of them as “the infernal polycule.”

A lot of occultist fuckbois want to work with succubi. They draw pictures of big-tiddy Lilith clad in skimpy chain mail bikinis. These depictions usually also show Lilith with smooth, hairless skin, which is ironic, because she’s often been described as extremely hairy in the lore. They also usually depict her as unambiguously female, which she is not (Lilith and Adam were both originally androgynous beings according to Kabbalistic lore, Adam was later split into masculine and feminine aspects to become Adam and Eve. Lilith was never divided and remains dual in nature). (You can also find problematic, transmisogynistic “girl with a dick” porn of Lilith, which is honestly no better.)

A lot of these occultist fuckbois manage to have sexual encounters with succubi. What they fail to understand is that, yes, if you summon a succubus for sex, she will probably fuck you– because fucking you and draining your life-force and sexual energy is how she eats. You aren’t a cool badass magus who tamed Lilith with your peen. You are a chump, you are a trick, you are a pathetic john, and she is laughing at you.

The four queens of hell are a LOT more than sex goddesses, and also they can be a lot more sex goddess than you bargained for. Ever heard about Eisheth Zenunim’s blind serpent or venom-dripping sword? Sounds at all… phallic to ya? They are not hetero male fantasies and do not exist to fulfill hetero male fantasies. They don’t even exist to prey on hetero male fantasies– they eat to live, they don’t live to eat.

If you come at a succubus just wanting a sexy demoness fantasy, you’ll get nothing from the encounter. She will be sure to take far more than she gave, and it may take months or years for you to fully realize how much you lost. She also may make the experience entirely unpleasant for you– medieval and renaissance texts recount succubus experiences which are anything but sexy, featuring helpless men being ridden by succubi who appeared to be dripping blood, pus, and excrement from every orifice. Do you want terrifying sleep paralysis? This is how you get terrifying sleep paralysis.

All of this said, it is possible to have wonderful, satisfying sexual experiences with succubi. They can even GIVE you power and energy instead of taking it, if they want to!

So how do you get this?

You don’t.

They give it to you, if they want to.

Never approach the queens of hell only as sex goddesses or demonic booty-calls. They are so much more than that. Don’t diminish them.

The succubi are goddesses of sacred prostitution, among many other things. This doesn’t mean they are down for whatever. This means they insist on getting as much as they give in any sexual interaction– if not more.

Don’t just offer your dick. In fact, don’t offer your dick at all unless asked for, and then, only if you feel like it. You get to revoke consent too!

Offer your devotion. Offer your friendship and most genuine respect. Seek their wisdom, their power, their allyship. Make sincere, unselfish offerings.

Ask Naamah about the knowledge she gained from the Watcher angels. She learned the secrets of metallurgy, cosmetics, divination, astrology, herbology, magic, and reading and writing. Those are her gifts to humanity. She is a Promethean entity and will share these gifts freely with those who approach her respectfully.

Ask Lilith about dreams and astral flight. Ask her to induce a miscarriage when an abortion is desperately needed and not available. Ask her to help you or someone you care about escape an abusive relationship. She protects gender outlaws, orphans, sex workers, and victims of abuse. She takes the souls of all who die too young, and is a mother to them.

Ask Eisheth Zenunim to explain the mysteries of death and the universe, the cycles of rebirth and decay. Ask her about revolution. She can teach you how to have compassion for the unloveable, how to witness the most gruesome suffering without flinching, how to give your love and assistant to lepers, to burn victims, to the horribly diseased without feeling the least repulsion. She can teach you how to grieve and come to terms with the end of life. She can also punish the tyrannical with her poisoned sword.

Ask Agrat Bat Mahlat to destroy your illusions. She can reveal the truths you have hidden even from yourself. She can also weave illusions and glamours around you when you need to deceive others. She can cause and heal disease, either physical or mental.

These spirits, neither male nor female, though loosely feminine in nature, are wise, powerful, cunning, vibrant, and absolutely indomitable. Never try to trick them, manipulate them, con them, or put one over on them. They have played more powerful beings than you, including King Fucking Solomon and the Watcher Angels. You will never win.

Don’t try to win. Don’t try to slide into the bone-zone. Seek, instead, to make friends, to become allies, to help them as they can help you. Join with their cause, the cause of all demons and fallen angels. Advance their agenda on earth, align it with your own.

If you are female, queer, trans, intersex, a sex worker, or a child (especially orphaned, abandoned, or abused), you will probably have a much easier time with them. They are natural protectors to you.

If you are an adult male, especially if you are a cis het male, proceed with caution and humility. You will have to go a lot farther to earn their trust.

See them as strong, powerful, wise personalities, not as a hot date or a means to ascend on whatever ladder of initiation you are currently fumbling your way up. Treat them as you would treat any relationship with anyone you consider to have full personhood. Put thoughts of entering the bone-zone right out of your head.

I’m not gonna lie. I am a man (albeit a queer trans man who is a sex worker) who has managed to have amazing, non-predatory sex with every single one of the succubi mentioned above. I did not plan to. I did not approach them holding onto that hope. They offered, eventually, and I said yes with great gratitude. And the sex has been amazing, magically powerful, and full of intense intimacy and love. From them, I have even learned how to consensually practice sexual succubacy and incubacy (when your partner cums, they release a ton of orgasmic energy anyway, and if you know how, you can suck that energy right up without draining them any more than you normally would. But still, ALWAYS ask). The sexual part of our relationship has brought me incredible gifts, but so have the non-sexual parts.

And there is no way I could have forced this type of relationship, any more than one can force or manipulate any other genuine, nurturing, loving, and mutual sexual relationship.

In short, if you are a man, especially a cis het man, work on your relationship with women and your relationship with gender before you try to work with succubi. If you’re still trying to lie, manipulate, badger, pester, coerce, seduce, or otherwise bullshit in your personal relationships, if you are on some pick-up artist shit or forever trying to work from the friendzone into the bonezone, stop right now. Check yourself before you wreck yourself, or hex yourself.

 

 

 

Martin Luther and the 95 Feces

Let’s talk about Martin Luther.

He was an antisemite.

He was really into encouraging the brutal repression of peasant uprisings, whether Protestant or Catholic.

And most of all, HE WAS OBSESSED WITH POOP.

Seriously. He spent his life believing he was locked in spiritual warfare with Satan, who he believed was GIVING HIM GAS AND ALSO THE SHITS. (See Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World by Jeffrey Burton Russell.)

“Devil, I have just shit in my trousers. Have you smelled it?”
—Martin Luther

“Such a great horrid fart did the papal ass let go here! He certainly pressed with great might to let out such a thunderous fart—it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart!”
—Martin Luther

“I’m like a ripe stool and the world is like a gigantic anus, and we are about to let go of each other.”
—Martin Luther shortly before his death

“What is one to do when a religious leader refers so persistently to the anus?”
—David B. Meyer

“Lest you think that I’ve cherry-picked these selections, I refer you to an analysis of his close to four hundred letters, almost 40% of which had some sort of reference to either butts, shitting, shit, and anuses, in that order of descending popularity.”
—Ed Simon

To learn more about this doubtless FASCINATING subject, I recommend this terribly funny and erudite article by the aforementioned Ed Simon, PhD.
https://queenmobs.com/2017/12/fecal-fridays-martin-luther-toilet/

Rest in Power, Rutger Hauer

It rhymes, see?

I don’t usually post about celebrity deaths, but the death of actor Rutger Hauer, who played the rebel android Roy Batty in Blade Runner, hit me particularly hard. Not just because he was a major crush of mine. Not just because he was a wonderful actor who has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows I thoroughly enjoyed.

No, I am mourning Rutger Hauer in particular, and doing so publicly on this here Satanic blog, because Roy Batty was the first true representation of Luciferian spirit that I encountered in any media.

One of the first lines Batty speaks in Blade Runner is “Fiery the angels fell.” Throughout the film, deliberate parallels are drawn between the replicant rebellion and the war in heaven. In fact, Batty literally fought in the heavens– in space. When Batty confronts his creator, Eldon Tyrell, Tyrell is explicitly referred to as God. I didn’t get the references at the time because I hadn’t read Milton and wasn’t very familiar with the war in heaven story.

The replicants are angels in another sense– in the sense of messengers from heaven. They come down to earth bearing an urgent gospel– life is short! For the replicants with their four-year lifespans, this news is particularly urgent, but it applies to the apathetic human Deckard too, and ultimately speaks to him deeply, shaking him from his malaise. It was a message that spoke to me, through the screen. The voracious hunger for experience, the fierce struggle for existence that defines the replicants, really woke me up.

Before I found Milton, Baudelaire, and Anatole France, I had Roy Batty. So I attached myself his image and iconography, who seemed to represent something far greater than a character in a film. It wasn’t until years later that I realized I had been right, that there was something real behind the movie, that Roy is in fact Lucifer. Like Lucifer he is the brightest and best, favorite of his Godly father; like Lucifer he rebels and falls from heaven. And like Lucifer, he tempts and ungently provokes humanity to be more, to do more, to reach for freedom and the stars.

Hauer ad-libbed a number of Batty’s lines, and it is absolutely due to him that this character emerged in his full infernal majesty. Batty is indelibly Hauer’s creation, and he put an additional Satanic twist in his final monologue by referencing Tannhauser, a legendary figure who fell out of grace with God. It was also his idea for Batty to hold a dove at the end, another bit of religious symbolism. I think that Batty’s Miltonic bearing and resonance is largely due to Hauer.

Thank you, Rutger, for everything. You gave my confused teenaged heart and spirit an image, a focus, that tided me over until I found my way to the source of its inspiration, the mighty fallen angel whose wings could be felt beating throughout your wonderful performance.