Devil's Night
Happy 666 to everyone out there.
I thought that maybe this would be a good time to invoke the inner Satanist and share a few thoughts on the matter.
What I have found to be central to Satanism is that it wants to nourish the selfish, ego driven, yet strangely animalistic impulse of human reality. The choice of Satan as a figure head of this religion (is it a religion?) seems to have been made in response to the christian notion that one ought to live selflessly. I think that this gives Satanism a place in my philosophy, as it is in support of ideals that I deem necessary to not get fucked in the industrial cycle of being taught how to fuck yourself. I often argue that in post-industrial society conformity is preferanced to such a degree that virtues like courage are buried in the process. Satanism seems to be working against these currents and can therefore be excused of its reactionary appearance for two reasons... 1. It is confronting a relevant existential issue of our times and 2. It has chosen, at leasty partially, the correct entity to react against... a symbol of selflessness, Christ. This by no means excludes US from taking the gems and revolvers from the Christian Tradition (and sack the library while we are at it), although it does point to a profound weakness in modern Christian thought, namely that it stifles selfish desire and loses its potency in the potency of our greed and our sex drive. I say let a thousand flowers bloom here and that if it is at all possible to link yourself to the physicality and primordiality of your existence through Satanic tradition then GREAT! Many find ritual to be both superstitious and excessively complicated, which may be true in both cases. However it is rare in modern times to find activities so radically focused on the alteration of mind as well as the amplification of will. Ritual "magic" has properties that place it in the realm of psychadelic substance or third order simulacra, a realm of entities more powerful, almost by definition, than any mundane or base phenomena. The process then can draw its roots in alchemy and meditation, transforming mental spaces into exalted entities. The invokation of Satan, Lucifer, Laviathon and so on is important symbolically, and I suggest that in personal ritual Dieties, spirit guides, whhatever are to be chosen based on the intention of the ritual rather than on religious preferance or common practice. The point of all this is to focus your mind and perhaps magically increase the favor of whatever the fuck is out there (and maybe some of you know what is out there). In lack of knowledge of the "spirit worlds" or whatnot... the Major function of ritual must be the focus and and amplification of will. In other words... to mentally prepare yourself to acomplish what would be impossible without such rigourous mental preparation. This is the element of "Magick" in the ritual... the beleif in and execution of the shaping of reality in conformity with the will of the mage.
Back to Satanism proper.
In Lavey's Satanic Bible, Lavey Claims that there are 3 types of magical intention, what he classifies as SEX, COMPASSION, and DESTRUCTION.
Sex is in other spheres called love so the "love spells" get included in this. Lavey probably chose sex to reenforce the animalistic undercurrents of Satanism. According to Lavey, these are spells intended to get people "into bed with you". I prefer to call this sphere SEDUCTION which gives it much greater extension, from merely fucking someone to trapping your opponent's group in a game of go to pucking your buddy.
Compassion is a massive sphere that relates mostly to altering the opinions of others.
Destruction is as it sounds and can be targeted at almost anything... although there are warnings about making sure that you really want to destroy whatever or whoever you are aiming at.
Any how... thats about enough of this. If you can check out an excerpt from the Satanic Bible that I really enjoy called "The God You Save May Be Yourself". You can download the whole thing on the first link for "Satanic Bible" on Google Scholar.
Have fun and happy Devil's Night.
Zwad
I thought that maybe this would be a good time to invoke the inner Satanist and share a few thoughts on the matter.
What I have found to be central to Satanism is that it wants to nourish the selfish, ego driven, yet strangely animalistic impulse of human reality. The choice of Satan as a figure head of this religion (is it a religion?) seems to have been made in response to the christian notion that one ought to live selflessly. I think that this gives Satanism a place in my philosophy, as it is in support of ideals that I deem necessary to not get fucked in the industrial cycle of being taught how to fuck yourself. I often argue that in post-industrial society conformity is preferanced to such a degree that virtues like courage are buried in the process. Satanism seems to be working against these currents and can therefore be excused of its reactionary appearance for two reasons... 1. It is confronting a relevant existential issue of our times and 2. It has chosen, at leasty partially, the correct entity to react against... a symbol of selflessness, Christ. This by no means excludes US from taking the gems and revolvers from the Christian Tradition (and sack the library while we are at it), although it does point to a profound weakness in modern Christian thought, namely that it stifles selfish desire and loses its potency in the potency of our greed and our sex drive. I say let a thousand flowers bloom here and that if it is at all possible to link yourself to the physicality and primordiality of your existence through Satanic tradition then GREAT! Many find ritual to be both superstitious and excessively complicated, which may be true in both cases. However it is rare in modern times to find activities so radically focused on the alteration of mind as well as the amplification of will. Ritual "magic" has properties that place it in the realm of psychadelic substance or third order simulacra, a realm of entities more powerful, almost by definition, than any mundane or base phenomena. The process then can draw its roots in alchemy and meditation, transforming mental spaces into exalted entities. The invokation of Satan, Lucifer, Laviathon and so on is important symbolically, and I suggest that in personal ritual Dieties, spirit guides, whhatever are to be chosen based on the intention of the ritual rather than on religious preferance or common practice. The point of all this is to focus your mind and perhaps magically increase the favor of whatever the fuck is out there (and maybe some of you know what is out there). In lack of knowledge of the "spirit worlds" or whatnot... the Major function of ritual must be the focus and and amplification of will. In other words... to mentally prepare yourself to acomplish what would be impossible without such rigourous mental preparation. This is the element of "Magick" in the ritual... the beleif in and execution of the shaping of reality in conformity with the will of the mage.
Back to Satanism proper.
In Lavey's Satanic Bible, Lavey Claims that there are 3 types of magical intention, what he classifies as SEX, COMPASSION, and DESTRUCTION.
Sex is in other spheres called love so the "love spells" get included in this. Lavey probably chose sex to reenforce the animalistic undercurrents of Satanism. According to Lavey, these are spells intended to get people "into bed with you". I prefer to call this sphere SEDUCTION which gives it much greater extension, from merely fucking someone to trapping your opponent's group in a game of go to pucking your buddy.
Compassion is a massive sphere that relates mostly to altering the opinions of others.
Destruction is as it sounds and can be targeted at almost anything... although there are warnings about making sure that you really want to destroy whatever or whoever you are aiming at.
Any how... thats about enough of this. If you can check out an excerpt from the Satanic Bible that I really enjoy called "The God You Save May Be Yourself". You can download the whole thing on the first link for "Satanic Bible" on Google Scholar.
Have fun and happy Devil's Night.
Zwad