This is a paper I wrote in response to some Temple of Set Materials, including “Black Magic,” “The Diabolicon,” and “The Book of Coming Forth by Night,” all by Michael Aquino.
It was a good opportunity for me to define my Satanic philosophy in contrast to some other forms of Satanism.
And yes, it is long.
Enjoy.
The Current of the Morningstar
In co-founding Church of the Morningstar, I had no desire to reinvent the wheel. I was aware that various Satanisms were already extant. Upon investigating as many of them as I could find, I concluded that none satisfied me. No existing Satanic organization adequately reflected the radical leftist current that was spreading among unaffiliated Luciferians and Satanists; a current of which I was part, and which I believed (and still believe) to be the genuine current of the Devil’s party. I created Church of the Morningstar to be a haven for those to whom left-hand meant left-wing and Lucifer meant liberty for all, not a few. This current is not new. It flowed through the so-called Romantic Satanists (Blake, Byron, Shelley et al) [1] and early anarchists like Proudhon and Bakunin,[2] through the decadents,[3] and from thence through Crowley. This liberatory Luciferian current became corrupted by LaVey, who lacked both the passion and inclination to understand it. Aquino’s interpretation was more intelligent and benefitted from a turn back towards Crowley, but still fell short. We at Morningstar do owe Aquino a debt for continuing the left-handed development of Thelema—and for making a reality of theistic Satanism. Unfortunately, the Setian strain remains steeped in neoliberal ideology which guarantees that it shall never blaze with true revolutionary hellfire. It has nevertheless proven useful for me to engage dialectically with Aquino’s ideas in order to refine my own.
Church of the Morningstar 