Nobody would buy a small car because it was unsafe, embarrassing and unheard-of. Only youths and eccentrics rode bicycles. Youths because they weren't old enough to drive, and eccentrics because it was healthy — but anyone who was a health faddist had to be a nut. Are we to assume that man is the only living organism that cannot adjust to its environment? If bugs actually thrive on the pesticides that once fell them, will man's body not accept pollutants, chemical preservatives, etc.
Why are the most sickly -looking people the ones usually seen emerging from health food stores? Could it be that their stringent dietary habits fail to immunize them from "poisonous" foods they are on occasion likely to ingest? If ecology Goodguys want to practice what they preach, let them establish colonies undeveloped areas and maintain them with as little contact as possible with the outside world.
A few actually have done so, and they are to be admired. They are creating a society from an undeveloped environment, however. It is the most important ingredient of all in the life of the Goodguy, the lack of which makes his badge meaningless. That missing ingredient is an audience. I will tell you a story. There was a hermit who lived in a deep wood near a small town.
Once each year, on the first day of May, he would stand at the edge for a little while. Then he would go back in the woods, not to be seen again for exactly one year. He had done this for 20 years, and the only reason he was ever seen was because the children held a maypole dance in the clearing at the edge of the wood. After the fifth year of regular appearances, he became an institution among the townspeople. In fact, it became a feature of the festivities to gather in wait for the hermit to make his appearance. Soo the hermit became the town's best-known celebrity, solely on the strength of his yearly appearance.
On the 21st year he did not appear. A search party was formed and the woods scoured. The hermit was nowhere to be found. The townspeople sadly returned to their homes and stores. The next day, the hermit came walking down the main street of town. Everyone ran up to him and told him of their concern and how glad they were to see him. They insisted that he stay in town and not return to the woods ever again. They not only took care of him, but elected him mayor. He was not really a hermit, though, nor had he ever been one. A hermit lives alone, without human contact.
That man simply had infinite patience and a responsive audience. He was a good showman who became a politician. Like some "hermits," all wearers of Goodguy badges need an audience. Just as an evangelist needs an environment of sinners in which to operate, the ecology Goodguy requires a polluted urban area. Despite the obvious abundance of sunshine, fresh air and healthful living, blind men seldom join nudist camps. The closent thing to unabashed slickerism many rustics can witness is in the evangelist's tent.
A "man of God" can fleece unconsciously willing victims even easier than a hustler peddling non-Godly wares. The Goodguy Badge that the evangelist supplies in exchange for his thievery ensures his success. Those with a minimum of guilts will become their own victims, and their few inner demons will become the engine for various excesses and vices.
Those guilts are greater are more guarded in their actions. They are always looking for someone who will take advantage of them. I have heard many men and women confess, "I know he or she is conning me, but I find it so entertaining I really don't mind. The sin -killing preacher is the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing: Despite the luxury cars, dapper clothes prompted by these accountrements rarely discourage the faithful. The more grandiose the crusade, the more satisfied are their customers. The guilty are relieved of their guilts and inhibitions — especially in the more violent forms of religious ecstasy.
What, it will be asked, is so terrible about such an arrangement? God and Jesus maketh the evil man good, the vicious man kind, the smitten man grateful, the victim happy. What would happen if those divine names were no longer potent enough to placate the weak and inadequate? What of the future, when deceit and treachery will be as easily read as one's name and address? When victims, however willing, will be seen as they are — victims. When self-deceit can no longer go unrecognized by others, no one will wish to show himself as a fool.
Vehicles for sef- deceit will either be employed within one's private chamber or publicly presented as amusements -- nothing more. Ominous prophesies of an elite "thought police" will prove to be unfounded. New findings in character analysis will render everyone a potential thougth policeman. It will become as easy to assess another's motivations as it is to tell the color of his eyes.
The badge of the Goodguy will be visible in every mannerism, and no amount of affectation or protective plumage will disguise character flaws. And the truly good guy will be seen for his inherent goodness no matter how "evil" his superficial trappings may be. How refreshing it owuld be to hear a political candidate say: I plan on placing my friends in executive positions. I will pocket what funds I can get away with, but see that the rest is spent on necessary social improvements.
You will have no voice in my decisions any more than you ever had. You will have to accept my judgment, which you will, so long as you are reasonably comfortable, have freedom of movement and opportunity for advancement. If I succeed in fooling the public, the public will have themselves to blame.
For I warn you that I am as crooked as any politician can be. Despite my unsavory profession, I will try to keep all of you as happy as possible. Dennis Wheatley was a blighty hack who shuddered pudding- faced Englishwomen to sleep in their flats. A renegade named Seabrook wrote about strange doings among werewolves and lady vampires and, incidentally, whose Asylum was the original Cuckoo's Nest , and two guys named Symonds and Mannix chronicled, respectively, the exploits of "the wickedest man in the world" and the Hell Fire Club.
One could obtain the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses and the Albertus Magnus in paper before they were called paperbacks. An old man named Roy Heist made good copy selling "mummy's dust" to witchdoctors. Sure, there was an occult movement before the Year One — a movement like a slumbering wino shifting position in a doorway.
No detailed chronology is required to illustrate the events of the past ten years. Concurrent with the increasingly liberal social climate of the 60s, many former taboos became relaxed. The Dark Side displayed itself in polite society, where beatnik poets and bongo drummers had flourished, where witches and tarot readers held court, to most theologians only a single entity was responsible for everything from prophesy to meditation.
No matter how innocuous an esoteric act or voluble its practitioner's disclaimer, the Devil was to blame. TV- movie adaptations of classic Gothic ghost stories were pushed as "Satanic. Despite curanderas' murmurings of "God given powers," fundamentalists still denounce them as part of the occult movement and minions of Satan. The lack of imagination and staying power of the occult movement is showing through the veneer of the incompetents who fill its ranks. As the varnish peels away, the occultist's image has become almost as ridiculous as the bible -thumping evangelist's.
The Church of Satan could easily become a psychical Ellis Island of refugees and emigrees from the occult scene. Displaced persons who have lost their covens, day magi wear of pondering the Enochian Keys and Crowleyanity, chasuble queens who couldn't make it in the Catholic Church, woebegone wiccans who find that the Goddess's bosom has run dry, Egyptoids who'd be better off as Shriners or in Laurel and Hardy's Sons of the Desert, pyramid sitters who've gained nothing but claustrophobia, Atlanteans who get seasick, UFO-ites who've redefined gravitational law but can't chin themselves, witless wizards, sex-starved witches, despite diviners, pshort-psyted psychics — all the growing residue of a phenomenon that, because of its very popularity, HAD to lose the magic it purported.
Satan translates to mean "opposite," lest the Satanic Bible be forgotten. The essence of Satanism is what tips the balance and starts the pendulum swinging in the other direction. That is why the facts of Satanism are so often harsher than the most Gothic melodrama or speculative science-horror fiction.
This actual harness is registered in the dismay of some new applicants who had been enmeshed in the waning occult scene. Nonetheless, I realize that with the decline in the occult movement as a credible identity factor, we have been blessed with an influx of salvageable human potential from the aforementioned categories, as well as "non-joiners" who had been waiting until the dust settled.
Thus, the elitism I envisioned in the beginning has materialized fourfold. In ten years of existence, the Church of Satan has fueled a philosophical counterculture which could have, if unchecked, thrown the baby out with the bath water. It invoked imaginative permissiveness, rational self-interest, and forced a dying theology into ludicrous last ditch behavior witchmobiles, papal pronouncements, etc. It also pumped hordes of creeps up till their newly -discovered godheads developed leaks or just plain busted. The ad sections of Fate magazine contain as prolific a source of gifted psychics, institutes of cosmic consciousness, and pushers of awareness as can be found in the contact columns of swingers' tabloids or underground newspapers.
Add the parasitic fringe: Yes, the occult movement has provided countless persons with delusions of adequacy. Why has Satanism succeeded? Because from our earliest literature, through the Satanic Bible, we have made no grandiose promises of infallible enlightenment and emphasized that each must be his or her own redeemer. That the extent of one's superiority if any is governed by one's human potential. That "Satan" is a representational concept, accepted by each according to his or her needs.
That is the way it was in the beginning, that is the way it is now. We have rejected that which becomes faddish while championing the unfashionable. When the "monkey see, monkey do" syndrome appears, even on the Left Hand Path, then we don't. We have utilized the best from the worst and discerned the worst in the best and gained through each. We have defied categorization, confounding labelers, knowing that the one label we bear — Satan — is controversy in itself.
In looking back over a decade, it is easy to isolate each phase of our development. It has been not only rewarding as a lesson in behavioral psychology, but has inadvertently served as what sociologists refer to as an "unfunded research project. The Second Phase, Development, saw an organizational and institutional expansion as a result of carefully stimulated exploitation attracting a variety of human types from which to distill a Satanic "ideal.
The Satanic Bible, Satanic Rituals, and Satanic Witch might have been conveniently overlooked, but were readily obtainable to any who chose to gain knowledge of our doctrine and methodology. An aura of respectability prevailed — often to a point of overcompensation — to counterbalance inaccurate presumptions by the outside world. De-institutionalism separated the builders from the dwellers, thus filtering and stratifying what began as an initiatory organization — or persuasion — into a definite social structure.
The Fifth Phase, Application, establishes tangible fruition, the beginning of a harvest, so to speak. Techniques, having been developed, can be employed. The Myths of the Twentieth Century are recognizable and exploitable as essential stimuli.
758,18 RUB
Human foibles may be viewed with an understanding towards radical embellishment. The Ides of March had spent its madness and the equinox produced its climatic. At dusk on the eve of the new Satanic Age, I immersed my razor in the waters of Zamzam and embarked upon a new role. I sometimes wonder, would things have been any different without ceremony? Did a ritualistic catalyst help to convince this Pyrrhonic devil that his destiny was being properly exercised?
Symbolism, ritual, ceremony, totem and taboo will always exist and develop or wane as conditions dictate. As Satanists you must perceive such things and having perceived, select or reject in accordance with you needs. Countercultures invariably wind up as dominant cultures. When the occult hidden becomes fashionable, it is no longer occult. Yet there will always be a Dark Side. It is the natural Satanist who will be drawn to the abyss of difference, whether it be abstract or concrete. Those who have tarried these part short years in fixe d abstractions can feel the warmth provided by their temporal identities cooling.
Frightened, they know not what icons to take up, and are befuddled with devaluated doctrines and constrained by programmed hypotheses. Many will become "Satanists," who would once have shunned the name. Others will continue to eschew the name, yet survive on the byproducts of Satanism, as they have unwittingly or unadmittedly done in the past.
For those who are the lost, the disenfranchised, the bored, the ambivalent, we have prepared a place. The past decade has been the years and given me the feedback any symbolic leader requires. To those of you who were with me in the beginning when the show got on the road, and to you who have since become a part of us in mind, body, or out of just plain orneriness, I am grateful for you support.
Living well is still the best revenge against all adversity. Love, laugh, fancy, create, innovate, reap and revel — as Satanists — in the best of all worlds, World without end. Remember, the first 99 years are always the toughest. By Any Other Name Many are those who study the art of the children of darkness, who call themselves by the names of witch and warlock, who gaze at crystals, read the tarot, divine by divers means, and seek success through paths of magic. All these play at the Devil's game and take the Devil's tools in their quest for crumbs of power.
In the name of all who suffered and died as the agents of the Devil in ages past, the present band of heretics — those who would deny the Devi, yet play His game — must be called to task. Greater is their folly than the strictest Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Buddhist. More cowardly are they than the whining informer who plucked at the sleeve of the inquisitor.
More flagrant is their hypocrisy than he who reads pornography "in order to warn others. So now we see them as they swarm about us, purchasing the journals of deceit, the source-books of diabolical supplies, the catalogues of the magical art. They read, and read, and contemplate, and read some more. They study the rites of Lucifer, and the mysteries of creation and the spell and charms, and they call themselves by innocuous names.
The Devil's Notebook by Anton Szandor LaVey (2000, Paperback)
And they play at the games which caused our forebears to be tortured as agents of Satan. And what do they do, now that it is safe and clear to use His Great Infernal Name? They have the opportunity to take up the very creed of defamation which killed their brothers and sisters of the past and cast that creed before the world in triumphal mockery of its age of unreason. But no — they do not thrust the bifid barb of Satan aloft and shout: Denied by those who cry up His art and ply His work.
In the safety of their flimsy dens they say the calls. In the warmth of their parlors they push their planchettes and read the cards and cast the runes and call forth the dead and even wear the horns. Seldom in these places is Satan found. For these are the frightened mystics of the new Christianity, and the trembling cowards scurry 'round the openings to the Grottoes of Hell.
And like vermin, they furtively nibble upon the newly -emerged Devil-wisdom. Little do they realize the folly of their cowardice. Ages come and ages go, and cycles reverse themselves with the wondrous periodicity that only nature can sustain, and now we walk upon the upper world. Those who play the game of self-denial in its traditionally simplistic forms, and showed themselves consistent in their Christ-mongering can find absolution fromtheir sins within our fold.
Knew they not, the tortured, that one day men would ply the Devil's handiwork; the work that was grounds for rack and candle. Knew they not, the Knights of the Temple, that one day men would fashion spells in the clear moonlight, free form the snare of the heretic -hook; yet deny and denounce the benediction of Satan!
The tongs have gathered rust, and the racks snarl as they turn from lack of oiling. The morningstars have dust between their spikes and the iron maiden is cold and yearning for a lover to embrace. The ghosts of the Devil-bought will take up the instruments of their destruction and march forth. And their prey will be those scavengers of the arts which once meant Devil-wisdom, and to this day remain as such. Let it be known that every man who delves into the arts of darkness must give the Devil and His children the due their years of infamy deserve. Satan's Name will not be denied!
Let no man shun or mock His Name who plays His winning game or despair, depletion, and destruction await! The Combination Lock Principle Magic is like a combination lock.
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If each tumbler falls into place, the lock will open. Seldom are any two locks the same. Their physical appearance might be identical, but the combination of numbers necessary to open each is different. So it is with both individual magical working and those who attempt them. Goals may appear identical in nature, and magicians similar in training and outward characteristics, but there similarity stops. No one can teach another a combination that is his own, for it would not work.
Each person possesses his own inclinations, his own Gestalt, and so he must ascertain what works best for him. There is nothing intrinsically esoteric about any combination which will lead to an ultimately successful working unless one considers the keeping of the secret combination esoteric, for it is literally that. If the truth is to be known, Greater ceremonial magic is simply a means of formalizing acts which in and of themselves would elicit no attention were they to be carried out without ritualistic trappings.
Hence a ritual chamber is necessary to make the practitioner feel like a magician, intensifying awareness of his own potential if any exists. Once one understands his potential, reinforcement supplied by the trappings of a ritual chamber can be superfluous. It's only then when one can get down to brass tacks: Spatial concepts contribute three dimensions to the Combination. The fourth dimension exists in time. If the other three dimensions are placed in correct combination, then the fourth dimension, hence in each instance the spatial or physical boundaries of three dimensions must be present in suitable combination to effect said phenomena.
Every occurrence happens somewhere. It is that "somewhere," in combination with the magician serving as a catalyst, which makes the untoward occur. Just as a rainbow is composed of harmonics of light, it is "somewhere" relative to our vantage point; though were we to enter into its apparent field, it would no longer visibly exist. The only way to see a rainbow is from afar — yet it still exists. The fable of the rainbow, with its pot of gold waiting at it's base, is the story of man's delusion and disappointment.
The magician must realize that his search does not end at the base of the rainbow — he must bypass it for the "somewhere" over the rainbow. There are no curricula for such a search. The combination needed for a controlled working might place the magician not only in diverse places, but in diverse positions and acts. He might need to read a certain book at a certain time in a certain place. Each acts to drop a tumbler in the combination lock. How does one go about discovering these combinations? The discover him if he is responsive to their appearance. The harder one looks, the less he will find.
The "truth" can be screamed from a thousand rooftops, and unless it is convenient to hear it will fall on deaf ears. The most profound acts of magic just seem to "happen. Recognition is the key. How can one recognize such combinations when blind to even the most obvious motivations and actions? Or threatened by the accomplishments of another, when one's ego must be strong and secure to become a mage? Choosing not to recognize is good practice for letting important things pass you by. Peace of mind might be attained, but accomplishment will be missing. If one's ultimate peace of mind rests upon the fulfillment of certain goals, the peace of mind accrued by desensitivity to the obvious is tragically fleeting.
The ultimate letdown, which is bound to occur, will make one even more prone to ignorance. Then, contradictory though it may seem, ignorance will become one's sole intellectual and emotional salvation. Parallels in the foregoing statement, as related to organized religion, should be amply evident.
Ravings From Tartarus Probably the most oft-asked question I receive from practitioners of Satanic magic is, "Why doesn't my ritual seem to have any effect? Having "gotten it out of you system should free you from further concern. This can be likened to an ambivalent feeling towards sex immediately following an exhausting and rewarding sexual experience. The surest way of succeeding in cursing an enemy is to find a new and equally questionable enemy immediately following the curse you have thrown at your first enemy.
If you are inclined towards making enemies, this should present no problem. If not, there are hordes of reprehensible people walking the streets in any community. As potential enemies go, the supply far exceeds the demand. Status is always a deterrent to magical success insofar as dwelling on the object of your working is concerned. Never dwell on your desire in dragged-out bits and pieces. Ritualize it out of your system, even if it means isolating yourself in obsessive and painful seclusion.
Burn every bit of desire out of your system, and then, when you no longer care, it will come to you. How can one avoid caring? There are many tricks which can be employed. When you are in the process of creating something your brain must function on a creative level, not on a rote or repetitive one. Your mind cannot be possessed by one thing and yet be in the likeness of your obsession.
Here we find an ideal combination, for if the hands can create a facsimile of the desired objective with such dexterity as to be convincing then it is as good as done. If this method is employed, it follows that the original need is no longer of serious consequence, for your creation has sated your desire. Thus you no longer require what your ritual was originally intended to produce.
To oversimplify though I do not advocate such action: If you want money and cannot get it and you create an approximation of money — sometimes called counterfeiting — the material rewards received could well equal those you would get had you acquired real money. You need for the real thing no longer matters. Epicurean masturbation is a perfect example of this theory. Once one's ego flaws have been overcome, it may be realized that an artificial fantasy is infinitely superior to a lousy lay.
Yet how often we observe the eternal sexual chase temporarily cease with an "any, old port in a storm" partner. Them that has gets. Until one has he'll never get. And you don't get it by taking someone else's either. You create your own. If you can't figure that one out, you're not much of a magician. We all know the reason white witches' curses bounce back. If these crones are consumed with enough guilt to call themselves "white witches" their dastardly act of cursing is indeed threefold guilt -producing — thereby ensuring the backfire of their curses.
Here again we observe a static situation engendered by constant re -internalization of the problem for which the rite was performed. Have you noticed how white witches — whether "Traditional," "Guardnerian", etc. The fact that we have not gone out of our way to stress a difference between witchcraft and Satanism — seemingly their favorite topic — indicates our emancipation from the need for what Thomas Szasz terms "the Other.
Magically speaking however, we must take Groucho Marx's stand in the film Horse Feathers, where as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, he sings his nihilistic credo, "Whatever it is, I'm against it! Thus we realize that "issues" -- human ideals that they are — are not only transitory but easily predictable. When you divulge a secret, you barter the potential power of your hidden knowledge for the fleeting ego boost that comes with its revelation. It is a natural urge to want to impress others by disclosing something thought to be of value, especially when self-esteem is weak or waning.
The disclosure is made to one up someone else. There are four kinds of secrets. The first kind assures the teller of its continued application without giving the game away. A renowned concert pianist can reveal, with relative security, secrets of his keyboard technique to a man who has never touched a piano.
If the same pianist confides an escapade in the bushes with a nine year-old boy, however, the most unaccomplished acquaintance suddenly has power over him. The latter revelation is the second type of secret, the "skeleton in the closet" secret which often enables one to wield power over another, regardless of social, mental, or economic differences. Employed for financial gain, it constitutes extortion. Wielded as a means of control, it is merely vampiric ego-sustenance. Unfortunately, a guarded principle is often usable by persons of scant accomplishment, hence the stringent security maintained by innovators and inventors.
This is the third type of secret. Unlike the second variety, the revelation of which can undermine the stature of the teller, the third will allow any novice to duplicate that which was formerly limited to the savant. The guy who finds he can double his car's mileage by dropping an inexpensive capsule in his gas tank is a classic example.
Such procedures are invariably discovered rather than imparted. A simple formula is far less likely to be revealed than a complex one. But the simplest formulas are usually the most elusive. The fourth variety of secret is that employed in interrogation and espionage techniques; the "revealing" of a useless piece of information in order to elicit a valid disclosure.
In other words, an exchange of a worthless item for a genuine one. To sum up the foregoing: The first type of secret is safe to reveal, but better to conceal. The second type is certain to undermine its subject by its telling. The third variety will allow the receiver to duplicate what the teller has done. The fourth is a trick of lesser or manipulative magic preying upon a prurient or larcenous nature. The holder of a valid secret possesses a tangible and viable commodity and therefore wields the upper hand over those who lack his knowledge.
Awareness of this treasure gives him confidence and strength that will project to others. Even if he does not employ the secret, its ready accessibility contributes to his security. Children soon find that they can elicit attention and candy from other children by announcing, "I've got a secret. The threat of dire consequences, should the secret be revealed is the most common means.
A fine method, except for many people laws are made to be broken and secrets meant to be divulged. A self-destructive person will find a fertile playground for his masochistic tendencies by revealing secrets, for he places himself in a precarious position for retribution from others. He induces both hostility and rejection while receiving the ego gratification that accompanies a grand expose. He positions himself as a hero, thus qualifying his potential punishment as martyrdom.
I have observed this type of behavior in nuns who run away from a convent only to look forward to penance imposed upon them once they return. Hysterics have joined the Church of Satan, defected, revealed what they supposed to be secrets, and tremblingly waited for a closed limousine to abduct them and bring them to a secret lair where they might be made to endure fierce and delicious punishments. Fear of retribution alone is probably the least effective deterrent. The oaths taken at fraternal and occult initiations implying that the candidate will be torn asunder should he divulge secrets are virtually worthless since it is assumed such mayhem will not actually occur.
The more upstanding and respectable an organization, the less validity such oaths present. Fraternal orders usually depend upon the next category, despite their bloodthirsty oaths. Ostracism is a very real threat. To work, the keeper of a secret must place no small amount of dependency upon the fellowship his comrades provide.
Fraternal groups employ this deterrent, especially in communities where ostracism can mean business loss in addition to social rejection. Some secret orders impose a sort of "statute of limitation" as a result of indiscretions. This means that if the candidate's trustworthiness is found lacking, he will find himself limited to a lower peer group where classified material is not known. Once it has become general knowledge that such a separation process exists, anyone with an eye towards advancement will exercise discretion.
The obvious disadvantage of ostracism is that its effectiveness is limited to a social environment. A member might be a paragon of discretion while residing where he is dependent on his brothers for emotional and economic security. Should he move away, with no thought of returning, however, he will often spill the beans to acquire fresh recognition.
If a secret is far-fetched or padded with asinine antics, many will think twice about revealing it, lest their listeners look down on them for their lunacy. Hence many valid secrets have been surrounded by the trappings of an apparently laughable nature. Many lodge brothers, especially those of a highly businesslike and respectable demeanor, would hesitate to describe rituals wherein they were made to dress up as women, ride a goat, urinate on the floor, lie in coffins, etc.
Such antics, within context, have symbolic meaning, but a casual explanation somehow guarantees that they will still be taken out of context. The most effective way to ensure secrecy is to not divulge a secret in the first place. The greatest magical secrets are those that, if told, would alienate the listener from the teller.
If a magician would respect a student enough to divulge such secrets, he would not wish to alienate him. Consequently, such secrets are never told. They are only discovered. The fact that discovery is a desirable human occurrence ensures its contrived use as a means of exploitation and control.
The Devil's Notebook by Anton Szandor LaVey (, Paperback) | eBay
The Discovery Game If you want people to wholeheartedly accept what you have to offer, let them "discover" it a la the Easter Egg method. Now, you all remember how the Easter Egg Hunt worked. Somebody got up early — earlier than anyone else — and went out with the eggs that were later to be discovered by the kids. He or she hid them in places where they could be found, but not without a bit of a search.
All the kids could hardly wait to get started. Of course they all arrived at the same location. None of them went to another site, unless they were awfully stupid or misdirected by a scurrilous chum. As each kid discovered an egg, he would holler with joy. Occasionally a parent upon seeing their offspring's discovery from the sidelines, would holler too. The child who amassed the greatest number of eggs usually received some sort of recognition, often a hollow chocolate bunny.
You know as well as I that those kids couldn't care less about the eggs once they got them home. Pop invariably got them in his lunch box for the next week. The point is that a false demand can be created where there is absolutely no need for a product, simply by creating an opportunity for discovery. John Doe finds the opportunity to discover something so attractive because he has not, will not, and could not discover anything on his own in a lifetime. What's worse, a tiny voice inside lets him know it. So when someone comes along who provides an opportunity to ameliorate an inherent lack of perception, the opportunity is seized.
If you doubt what you have just read, consider how the Hidden Persuaders employ the magic word "discover. Occultism for the M illions I have always harbored a natural repugnance towards fads. When the most rewarding and exhilarating interest becomes a fad, its evocative qualities enjoyed by the few are diminished by mass acceptance.
This must not be confused with being jaded. To be jaded does not imply that many others are doing the same thing, but that one no longer finds stimulation in it. Often one can become jaded with something, only to later return to it after a passage of time creates the reawakening known as nostalgia. Occasionally my eyes will light up at hearing or reading about discovery or innovation on the part of someone engaged in the exploration of the unknown.
This trait is analogous to true Satanism. For every such Promethean individual, there are a hundred others "proving" their prowess in magic by sitting in pyramids, building orgone cabinets, photographing leaves and tracing Dracula's past. If I hear of a person looking for fairies in his garden, at least I am amused at his singular pursuit, for few seek fairies in their own gardens any longer. There is nothing wrong with sitting in pyramids or constructing orgone accumulators, any more than eating banana splits or skydiving.
But if you fancy yourself a magician, don't flatter yourself on the merits of you investigations. You are neither innovative nor farsighted. Just going along with a fad.
A prime example of occult faddists' chicken-with-a-beak-on-the-line methodology is their tendency to grab up anything that has been set forth as arcane. When Wilhelm Reich was "discovered" by the occult movement, they failed to recognize that, as I stated on the dedication page of The Satanic Bible, he knew more than cabinet-making. How many have pursued theories advanced in The Cancer Biopathy? Who has attempted to duplicate Reich's "cloudbusting" and to relate it to the rainmaking principles of Charlie Hatfield or aboriginal shamans?
Who knows a good case of "character armor" when he sees it? Or has expanded upon The Function of the Orgasm? Because enclosures are all the rage and occult journals expound their ramifications so long as they are pyramidal , Reich's following is largely limited to cabinetmakers. It's a cinch that if you read it in an occult periodical or paperback, everyone's doing it.
That should be you cue to avoid such stuff, lest you be relegated to the same readership level. As time proceeds, the table -tipping of Annie Besant becomes the Kirlian photography of today. The Ouija board becomes the mind machine unit, complete with flashing red LEDs and "subliminal" sound. And turbaned East Indian swamis move aside for "psychic rescue squads. It still takes fare more practice and skill to type well than to read auras.
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Or to change a transmission than to make predictions like, "A famous singer will have marital difficulties this year. Occult hidden knowledge will seldom be found in obvious sources. The very phrase, "popular occult movement," is a contradiction in terms. Satanism cannot rightly qualify as an occult phenomenon, and I have never claimed it as such. One's personal delvings can be considered occult in the true sense of the term only if they remain outside the pale of supernormal faddism. The would-be innovator asks, "If I cannot find food for thought in source material akin to my interests, where then?
One creates one's self. Magical power is accrued by reading unlikely books, employing unlikely situations, and extracting unlikely ingredients, then utilizing these elements for what would be considered "occult" ends. After one has observed the results of such creative unions, what was originally considered "unlikely" will be seen as the most easily understandable methodology. For creating intrigue, an ambiguous statement is infinitely preferable to the straightforward one.
The more intrigue created, the more frantic others become to partake of what you have to offer. For example, as a Satanist, I am sometimes asked about sex orgies by the deeply frustrated. A knowing wink will do more to get them slobbering than any amount of lurid description. It would be senseless to improve upon the explicit vistas provided by modern pornographers. I'll never forget a man I worked with on a carnival's back lot who ran what was known as a "sex show. Behind roped-off sections were exhibits: A "doctor" would get the rubes into the tent by appearing on the bally platform with a rather sleazy blonde wench dressed in a nurse's uniform two sizes too small and in need of laundering.
With a dented reflector fitted to his forehead and a stethoscope around his neck, the surgical-smocked doctor would blame the microcephalic condition of a pinhead, borrowed here from the sideshow, as a result of improper genetics. The pinhead, standing at the doctor's side, would simper innocently, nodding its little cranium in unknowing agreement. The doctor didn't sell medicine, as one might have expected him to, and proceeded with a far more sophisticated game. After the customers filed into the tent to view the secrets of mankind and the miracle of life, the magic would really begin.
When the ten minute guided tour ended at the last exhibit the pickled punk, presented with a brief discourse on improper sex education , a dim glow could be seen through a ten flap hung at the extreme rear of the museum, next to where Doc was holding court. Presumably, the light came from his living quarters, where the yokels were inclined to peek through. While the marks were furtively looking through the lit -up flap, the doctor was beginning his big pitch.
Since the audience consisted only of males which was usually the case , maybe they would like to see first-hand "the modern method of sexual hygiene. Those who "chanced" to glance through the tent flap during the Doc's build-up saw the aforementioned dirty nurse reclining on a shabby cot reading a movie magazine, her ample thighs revealed above the tops of her stockings. A small nightstand next to her carried an immense jar of Vaseline. On the wall, directly above the nurse's cot, was pinned a slightly whiter piece of bedsheet, suggesting a motion picture screen. The remaining area was occupied by about twenty folding chairs.
A folding card table stood against the tent wall opposite the cot, supporting a scuffed movie projector. From what was glimpsed, this was a show that should not be missed. He then lifted his outstretched middle finger for all to see, and closed his other hand into a sheath which he slid over the projected finger three or four times, slyly winking as he did so. No further enticement was required.
The doctor couldn't rip the tickets off the roll fast enough. And when the audience finally found themselves seated, the overripe nurse was nowhere to be seen; she was outside on the bally platform with Doc warming up a new crowd while an assistant materialized within the "auditorium. The fifteen-minute epic ends with five glorious minutes of tight close-ups of oozing chancres, eaten-away palates and running sores.
By the end all unconsumed popcorn, sno-cones and orange drinks had been abandoned under the seats, and at least one rustic lad had fallen ill.
None manifested disappointment that the show was over. The doctor shall remain anonymous, for he now may be practicing in some large hospital. One thing is certain, however: In addition to pie -in -the -face attacks, they render such services as seltzer-water barrages and squirt -gun contracts. Which brings me to an important factor — one which practicing Satanists should consider in their world view: The twin masks of tragedy and comedy exist as irrevocably as any other duality. Yet it is the mask of tragedy that is worn most often for magical means.
Desire for that which is unfulfilled is always a little bit tragic, and those who frequent the ritual chamber most, often lead the most tragic lives. In order to generate an emotional response conducive to a successful working, one cannot easily extract humor. Nor, in most circumstances, should one try. Frequently humor can serve to alleviate or attain a situation before solemn ritualization becomes relevant or required.
Unfortunately for a multitude of occultists, humor is a rare ingredient in their lives. In fact it is their very lack of humor that has impelled them into the arcane and esoteric. Someone once commented to me that a sorcerer without a sense of humor would be intolerable. I agree and will add that, in addition to being intolerable, he would be incompetent. Candidates for pies-in-the-face are more plentiful than ever.
Less messy but equally inhumane indignities are easily implemented. I have places and spanning a year period, — the golden era of practical trickery. After , people started getting crazy notions about human dignity, and the practical joke was neglected for the serious protest. The change was needed, but something was lost in the process, as is usually the case.
Now fun is poked at institutions rather than at individuals. A sort of collective humor has replaced what was once a personalized pratfall. Mad and the National Lampoon, entertaining as they are, have provided a like-minded readership with universal victims. The butts of jokes are no longer selected with careful deliberation, but are ridiculed en masse. A time approaches, though, when seers like Jeanne Dixon will sit upon a When the victim unsuspectingly sits upon the cushion, it gives forth noises that can be better imagined than described.
Too long have curses and anger been wasted on deserving victims whose most devastating insecurities could be brought forth by a harmless practical joke -- one which a more secure person would accept with mild annoyance at worst and amusement at best. Those who deserve ridicule have been living in a climate that provides relative immunity while their pomposity has gone unchallenged and even encouraged.
Satanists are anathema to the pious, the sanctimonious, and the hypocritical. They should also be the nemeses of the pompous. Right shoulder Whoopie Cushions! To the rear — harch! The Threat of Peace "Eustress" is a term that describes an emotional state of fun-fear or pleasurable discomfort Although they are antonyms, we shall see how what begins as distress can lead to eustress. Since most people live their lives in a programmed series of distress and fears, a social environment wherein security and comfort are only present if a certain amount of crisis prevails.
The human mind abhors a vacuum. Wild animals have no such problem. Every cell of their brains functions. Only when domesticated or conditioned is a necessary survival engram replaced by another. Man is the only animal who must be continually reminded of existence. Any sensation will do.
In other words, something must happen lest life become not only meaningless but genuinely painful. How many times is the expression heard, "What's happening? Not because of the pressures of peace but by the inability of most minds to independently devise enough thoughts to maintain mental stimulation. Stress has become such a normative — and therefore comfortable — way of life, that it has become necessary to people's existence. A paradox has evolved wherein humans are constantly bombarded by stress situations which they crave and then cautioned to reduce their craving.
This remarkable sequence can be likened to the weekday sinner who goes to church each Sunday. A conscious attempt at reducing emotional stress amidst a society which fosters habitual stress can only compound frustration. I have written at length on the hypocrisy of the human race. History and empirical evidence more than bear out any rantings I may add. Part of that great hypocrisy is man's -- especially contemporary man's — lip service to "freedom" and human dignity, when in reality his self-awareness is sustained by a series of masochistic maneuverings.
This is where distress becomes so commonplace that it represents comfort, security and fun. Such is the evolution of eustress from an otherwise distressful situation. Blatant examples of this transition are most common in an erotic context. What invariably begins as an unpleasant experiences evolves into eagerly -anticipated gratification. Here we have a basis for eustress phenomena. If a child receives little attention except though punishment, that child begins to court punishment. If punishment is received at the hands of someone who is stimulating, the attention is well worth it.
Substitute that microcosmic situation with a macrocosmic one in an adult world and without any overt sexual connotation. A man feels insignificant. There is overpopulation and under-recognition. He is made to feel like a big shot because of his consumer power or a token title which his firm has bestowed upon him. He still feels insignificant. He is married and has a family which he might be able to feel pride in, if less demands were placed upon him which he is either loath or unable to meet. This makes him feel like a jackass. But he sees a guy on a TV show with whom he can identify.
He feels a little better while watching the guy on TV or thinking of him. Still, he feels insignificant. He has a few heroes whom he sees on other TV shows: He lives vicariously through all of them. Unbeknownst to himself, he experiences his viciousness vicariously through his "anger" indignation and unrecognized identification with the friends and killers he sees on the news. But good or evil, benign or malignant, none of these people are him. Well, if he feels insignificant, maybe, just maybe, it's because he is. It's not that he's dumber than some of those getting all the attention.
Chances are good some of them are, in their own way, just as programmed as himself. But there's only room for so many to stand in a spotlight, and he's left out. What does he do? What alternatives are open to him to be able to pinch himself and know he is still there? He can get into some kind of trouble, great or small, and receive attention. The only drawback to that is that he'll have to answer to a lot of questions and encounter situations which may be less cope-able than his ennui. The other way is to "get involved" in something — anything -- that will grab his emotions enough to qualify his existence.
His very own problems are apparently not good enough for full time mind occupancy. They're not serious on a world -shaking level. And nobody he talks to about them gives a shit. But if he burdens himself with common-denominator crises of a local, state, national or international nature, he can find plenty of company, share grips, make friends and enemies and generally feel as though he is All Right.
He has chosen a life of eustress and the safety which accompanies it, in preference to the solitary distress of living a dangerously unprogrammed life. Why is this man's unprogrammed life dangerous? Either because he has problems which are not universal enough to share, or because his mind is such a vacuum that its own resources cannot pull him out of his feeling of insignificance.
Now, somewhere out there exist pretty sharp cookies who know about man's need for eustress, and are more than willing to supply it. Aside from being rather profitable, it masks, through the gifted art of misdirection, what's really happening. Everything is a softening-up process for something else. You have been set up. You are being set up. Someone, somewhere, who is on the take is not missing a trick in the book. You have been conditioned to look in the wrong direction at the wrong things, find great fun in that which you should soberly evaluate, and take very seriously that which should be ridiculed and laughed out of sight and sound.
Getting back to planned problems for entertainment and enjoyment: The soap opera is a masterpiece. Its evolution is concurrent with eustress needs. When women had enough personal headaches in an epoch where "women's work is never done," childbirth deaths and suicides over being "compromised" — there were no soap operas. Not that it was right. Simply that no matter how devoid of imagination or how bored a woman may have been able to be, there was no chance of it usurping daily "shit work" requirements.
Only the wealthy or spoiled could afford to be bored. When radio inaugurated the soap opera, the medium became the message ah, misdirection! The troubles they heard were more interesting and romantic than their own, but they were troubles just the same. Hence, another woman's problems became a vicariously glamorous substitution for what could, with luck, be the listener's. The genesis of the soaper is pretty well defined. Now, most who view them neither toil nor spin while doing so, but simply absorb the blissful turmoil and sexy anguish, wide open for the inculcation of the real substance of the show: And the supreme irony is that the viewers prefer to believe that they are more independent and emancipated like the women on the screen than ever before.
In the Satanic Witch's considerable exploration into the world of eustress, the thrill rides of amusement parks are cited. In the late s, Sociologist Marcello Truzzi participated in a documentary on roller coasters which was narrated by Vincent Price. Truzzi's perceptive comments notwithstanding, it was interesting for me to see certain persons on the most "dangerous" rides let go of the safety rail despite repeated warnings.
When I worked carnivals and parks, there were always the nuts who let go at the wrong places. Sometimes they would fly out and even get themselves killed. My point is, even though coasters were safety -tested, and eustress the motivating factor in riding, and lawsuits weren't honored if the "ride at your own risk" sign was displayed, the stupid, careless, irresponsible member of society has helped to foster irresponsibility and devalue life and property. If I were to build a roller coaster, it would be shot through with visual and audible warnings to hang on and not stand up while the car is in motion.
Anyone failing to comply with the very real warnings would hurl to the ground. Eustress would then turn to distress — the distress of the unexpected. Curses by the Dozen You have been cursed. Every day you are the recipient of very real and magically formidable curses. One who is versed in the psychology of hexes generally evaluates them in terms of highly personal attacks, based on real or imagined injustices or slights.
In short, you curse another to get revenge, or someone attempts to curse you for the same reason. In the sending of a curse, it is presumed that a strong degree of emotion must be the motivating factor. If one simply goes about throwing random hexes, supposedly nothing will happen. Alot of LaVey's philosiphies ring very true. I am never unsatisfied when reading his work. I am actually a Minister now but I recognize that all truth is God's truth and his words are written on the hearts of even the worst heretic.
The term latent typically refers to something that is dormant, not observable, or not yet realized. Demand is the notion of an economic quantity that a target population Wisdom, humor, and dark observations by the founder of the Church of Satan. LaVey ponders such topics as nonconformity, occult faddism, erotic politics, the "Goodguy badge," demoralization and the construction of artificial human companions. Everything say say it was and more it is awesome Very enlightening and sparked my quest for knowledge of the subject.
The Devil's Notebook by Anton S. Although I am no longer a Satanist Truth is truth. Becoming by Michelle Obama Hardcover Book 2. Becoming by Michelle Obama , Paperback 1. Burroughs Books in English.