THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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To: alt.satanism,alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer)
Subject: (Z) Re: Satanism (fwd)
Date: 22 Mar 1998 05:56:24 -0500

49980321 aa2 Hail Satan!  Happy Mid-Spring!

re the 'point' of scaring people and how it might be beneficial to 
   Satanists:
depends on how it is done.  if it is done through delving deeply
into oneself and manifesting the shadow unto oneself and one's
culture, it can be an explosively important activity.  when I go
around in my black robes, wearing my point-down pentacle and
reading my _Magick in Theory and Practice_, _Satan: The Early
Christian Tradition_, or even _Small is Beautiful_, I am doing
what I *want* to do.  it just happens to confuse, distract, and
frighten the Christians.  dunno how much of the attraction is to
the negative reactions I may inspire.  generally what it causes
is people to avoid having anything to do with me.  I see it as
a kind of monastic path (tantric), and firmly a part of my
Satanism (just so happens it stems from Wiccan and Thelemic
cultures too, hehehehe).

actions which scare others of themselves, when done simply for
the shock value, have a rather surface half-life of intensity
and repercussion.  they are more likely to be visited with
violence in return, I presume, and proceed from a shallow place
in the person who engages them.

the thing is that MANY people engage them from this shallow
place and so those who may do it from a deep place are boxed
with the assholes and teen rebels.  so it goes.

the benefits I can think of offhand are:

	*	it clears away idiots from my space (damn few
		left, I guess that says something about my
		previous choices in companions :>)

	*	it expresses my real hatred for conventionality

	*	it expresses some deep spirituality which I
		think is too often closeted or hidden and I
		want it right out in the open (I'd like to
		see people fucking in the streets too but
		that one will have to wait a while, I've
		done my share to contribute! ;>)

	*	I'm comfortable doing what I do, and those
		who are spooked by it will just have to live
		with it (I live in a big urban center with
		a small-town mentality, so it isn't always the
		SF or Berkeley 'oh they're just crazy'
		mentality I receive).
 

re 'just being in it for the attention it gets':
uh, what the fuck is the problem with this?  I am not necessarily
of this mentality and approach (often I DON'T like the sometimes
hostile and/or antisocial responses or the fact that so many
seem to be turned away from it), but I don't see why there is such
a problem amongst even the "Left-hand Path" or "Darkpath" people,
condemning the teens who manifest this in excellent wrath.

I'm inclined to think it is a kind of ageism.  kids express a very
real desire to be seen and heard.  humans have this.  too often I
hear such desires made light of and accompanied by a presumption
that those who engage it are somehow 'poseurs' or 'false Satanists',
and those who are quickest to point to false ANYTHINGS are usually
uncertain of their own path or out to restrict things to their own
standards (which I think is just as juvenile, and I've got used
to it as one of the facets of nuveaureligion, perhaps an important
element of the entire Great Martyrdom Cult -- see the alt.satanism
FAQ for more on that).


re self-worship, self-understanding and whether Satanism fosters
   such a self-understanding:
depends on the Satanism of course.  modern Satanism seems to have
got off on a bad footing with LaVey's ridiculing of 'mysticism',
but he put some energy into promoting what he called "black
magick", (Lesser, Greater), so it salvaged what would otherwise
have been a major setback.  he was using 'mysticism' as a
category for things which obscured the simple psychospiritual
technologies he seemed to want to integrate into this Greater
magick rite, and this latter seems to me an obvious activity to
center into a self-understanding.  'know thyself' appears to be
a very important principle for most Satanists, as their greater
Hermetic envelope.

 
re what makes Satanism fun:
doing the forbidden, of course, especially when it doesn't
really conflict with my own ethics.  that is, when I've
been told it is a 'bad thing' and I still want to, and I even
have compassion and don't believe in the bogeys and curses
that the supposedly knowledgeable magico-folx talk about, 
then I get the most out of going against the grain.  I always
learn something new, even if that is a hidden reason why not
to do what I was warned about. ;>

and of course there is the MASTURBATION.  doing what feels
good is just excellent fun.  perfecting it within my life
regardless of all the Do-Gooders (whether they call themselves
'LHP' or 'RHP' I don't give a shit), is perfect Satanism.

knowing I am right.  this is SUPREME fun.  :>


re being 'weird', or philosophy that provides the basis for not being
   responsible:
I think those who ask questions like these are usually not Satanists
or are focussed on the other-people syndrome: as if all I do is in
order to get a reaction or excuse myself from the condemnation of
some conventional religion.  no way.  it ain't like that for the
Satanists I know.  we revel in the shit of Satanism because it is
very TASTY.  now it might not look tasty to YOU, but that is just
damn FINE.  you don't have to do it or be around when I do. 

in other words, 

     WEIRDNESS IS MAGICAL, and WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BADGES!


re versions of Satan (Christian the only one?):
'Satan' is just the name of the Adversary ('Devil' if you like)
within Christian tradition.  'evil' gods have had worshippers
for aeons.  antagonists within religious cultures have been
around forever.  if we're JUST talking about the history of
ideas surrounding the name 'Satan' we're not talking about any
consistent or integrous whole, but a constellation of ideas
that it has taken academics years to piece together (so far
I like Russell's compilation but I haven't seen many others)
and have been expanded upon by poets like the Romantics or
writers of prose like Michelet or Shaw.
 
blessed beast!
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