The result of this can be a “blind” expansion of
the powers of the mind, without becoming aware of
or mastering some of the most extreme, especially in
the 95% of thinking that occurs subconsciously. 118 A
remarkable, perhaps ominously prescient
illustration of this danger was given in the 1956
science-notsofiction movie Forbidden Planet, in
which a human scientist used an alien machine to
expand his own mental power while unaware that it
was simultaneously doing the same to the raw
emotions of his subconscious (oversimplified as the
Freudian id). The result was an energy-monster over
which he had no conscious control, and which
ultimately killed him as similar ones had the alien
inventors of he machine.
The discipline which Plato prescribed to attain
the highest level of conscious thought, nœsis,
necessary to recognize and comprehend the
MindStar emanations was the process of dialectic,
illustrated by the conversations in his famous
Dialogues. These carefully-structured discussions
examined a topic - such as one of the OU Forms
(= neteru) such as Justice (= Maat) by progressively
eliminating vaguer, more superficial images from
eikasia to pistis and dianoia to unencumbered, pure
nœsis, a “purified intuition” that could then be used,
118 Cf. Leonard Mlodinow, Ph.D., Subliminal: How Your
Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (New York: Pantheon,
2012).
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as in the Meno, to activate the “recollective
apprehension of the Form, anamnesis.
Use of the Platonic dialectic to attain the
precision of nœsis, followed by the activation of
anamnesis will enable the Black Magician to Xeper
from manimal to MindStar without the risk of being
overwhelmed by his “id-monster” along the way. 119
e. Anamnesis
The key of anamnesis came down to Plato from
Egypt through Pythagoras. As Dr. Raghavan Iyer
summarizes:
Thus the soul, since it is immortal and
has been born many times, and has seen
all things both here and in the other
world, has learned everything that is. So
we need not be surprised if it can recall
the knowledge of virtue or anything else
which, as we see, it once possessed. All
nature is akin, and the soul has learned
everything, so that when a man has
recalled a single piece of knowledge--
learned it, in ordinary language--there is
no reason why he should not find out all
the rest, if he keeps a stout heart and does
not grow weary of the search, for seeking
and learning are in fact nothing but
recollection.
- Plato, Meno
119 Aleister Crowley undertook just such an anamnesis as
recorded in his Liber 418: The Vision and The Voice. He
employed the imperfect Golden Dawn text of John Dee’s XIX
Enochian Key, possibly precipitating his terrifying encounter
with the “id-monster” Choronzon in the Tenth Æthyr. Crowley
was so badly shaken that he tore his manuscript of that æthyr
out of Liber 418; it is a separate document in the Special
Collections of the University of Texas.
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Anamnesis is the true soul-memory,
intermittent access to the divine wisdom within
every human being as an immortal spectator. All
self-conscious monads have known over
immemorial time a vast host of subjects and
objects, modes and forms, an ever-changing
universe. Assuming a complex series of roles as
an essential part of the endless process of
learning, the soul becomes captive recurrently to
myriad forms of maya and moha, illusion and
delusion. At the same time the soul has the innate
and inward capacity to cognize that is is more
than any and all of these masks. As every
incarnated being manifests a poor, pale caricature
of himself - a small, self-limiting, and inverted
reflection of one’s nœtic and creative potential -
the ancient doctrine of anamnesis is vital to
comprehend human nature and its hidden
possibilities. Given the fundamental truth that all
human beings have played many parts, initiating
diverse actions in intertwined chains of causation,
it necessarily follows that everyone has the moral
and material environment from birth to death
which is needed for self-correction and self-
education. But who is it that has this need?
Not the shadowy self or false egoity which
merely reacts to external stimuli. Rather there is
that Eye of Wisdom in every person which in deep
sleep is fully awake and which has a translucent
awareness of self-consciousness as pure,
primordial light. 120
120 Iyer, Raghavan, The Society of the Future. London: Concord
Grove Press, 1984, pages #13-14.
Raghavan (D.Phil. Oxford) was Professor of Political
Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara [and
revered mentor and friend during my M.A. & Ph.D. studies
there]. He was a member of the legendary Club of Rome and
founder of the Institute of World Culture, Santa Barbara.
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15: Ritual
A. Overview
1.
Concept
Whether White or Black, a magical ritual is a
condensation. It transforms implicit ideas, motives,
intentions, objectives into explicit ones.
The result is both a crystallization and an
activation. It is the creation of life, as in Metropolis
the Black Magician Rotwang did for the robotrix
Parody, or as Baron Frankenstein did for his science
project. Everything that proceeds from a ritual is
kinetic in that ritual.
So the first thing to understand about a Satanic
Black Magical ritual is that it is never a rote exercise
or recitation. If you don’t know what you’re doing or
why, then you’re wasting both your own time and
Satan’s.
The same holds true for sincerity. For a ritual
to be effective, you must believe in its authority and
intend that what it articulates shall manifest in the
universe towards which it is directed. The same
standard holds for other participants or witnesses.
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2. “Ta-Ra-Ra-HAM-Forash!”
There are few things more pathetic and
ridiculous than “Satanatheists” who insist they
certainly don’t believe in Satan while standing
medallionrobed before a Baphomet wall-plaque they
don’t understand, sonorously mouthing incantations
of meaningless gibberish - the only purpose of which
dresscapade being to impress idiots who assume
that its utter incomprehensibility endows it with
esoteric dignity.
In Edgar Ulmer’s 1934 Art Decorative The
Black Cat, Satanic Priest Hjalmar Poelzig
commences a Black Mass with an incantation of the
Cum grano salis. Fortis cadere cedere non potest. Humanum
est errare. Lupis pilum mutat, non mentem. Magna est veritas
et praevalebit. Acta exteriora indicant interiora secreta.
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem. Amissum
quod nescitur non amittitur. Brutum fulmen. Cum grano salis.
Fortis cadere cedere non potest. Fructu, non foliis arborem
aestima. Insanus omnes furere credit ceteros. Quem paenitet
peccasse paene est innocens.
Theater audiences, whom Ulmer and Universal
assumed were likely to be no more fluent in Latin
than Catholic Church congregations, were suitably
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scandalized, doubtless hastening to cover their
children’s ears against such a diabolical diatribe. 121
Mystobabble has long been a staple of religion,
and in the original Satanic Bible Anton LaVey
naughtily pranked the public with suitable
sanctimoanings: The thunderous exclamation
“Shemhamforash! ”, more accurately Shem
HaMephorash (Hebrew: שרופמה םש) is just
Cabalistic122 gobbledegook for the name of El, so
hardly the thing for hailing Satan. But like the
similarly-scrambled Bessy Baphomet, it was the
effect, not the elucidation, which counted. 123
Anton was similarly mischievous concerning
his Enochian Keys in “Leviathan”, as is discussed in
Chapter #16; but once again it was the effect, not the
essence, that he sought.
If you’ve been screaming “Shemhamforash!” or
hurling 10th-Key Kurses for the last 50 years, don’t
be too pissed at Boris, Anton, or St. Peter; this time-
dishonored device is what Aleister Crowley
elegantized as “barbarous words of evocation”:
A singular and world-famous example of
this is of sufficiently recent date to be fresh in the
memory of many people now living.
121 [English translation:] With a grain of salt. A brave man may
fall, but he cannot yield. To err is human. The wolf may change
his skin, but not his nature. Truth is mighty, and will prevail.
External actions show internal secrets. Remember when life's
path is steep to keep your mind even. The loss that is not
known is no loss at all. Heavy thunder. With a grain of salt. A
brave man may fall, but he cannot yield. By fruit, not by leaves,
judge a tree. Every madman thinks everybody mad. Who
repents from sinning is almost innocent.
122 Cf. Chapter #11.A.2.e “CabalEmption”, page #154.
123 The Baphomet is discussed in Appendix #4.
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At a revivalist camp meeting in the “United”
States of America, devotees were worked up to
such a pitch of excitement that the whole assembly
developed a furious form of hysteria.
The comparatively intelligible cries of
“Glory!” and “Hallelujah!” no longer expressed the
situation. Somebody screamed out “Ta-ra-ra-
boom-de-ay!”, and this was taken up by the whole
meeting and yelled continuously until reaction set
in.
The affair got into the papers, and some
particularly bright disciple of John Stuart Mill,
logician and economist, thought that these words,
having set one set of fools crazy, might do the
same to all the other fools in the world. He
accordingly wrote a song, and produced the
desired result.
This is the most notorious example in recent
times of the power exerted by a barbarous name of
evocation.124
In short: A BNoE, if spoken [or whispered or
shrieked] with purpose and sincerity will have
exactly the result the magician intends; it is the will,
not the diction, that is crucial.
Correspondingly the most perfectly-recited
text, if insincere, is merely a waste of oxygen.
3. Classification
There are two general types of rituals:
ceremonies and workings.
a. Ceremonies
A ceremony is a pageant for the participants
and audience if any. It is designed as a story,
illustration, commemoration, celebration, or lesson.
124 Crowley, Aleister, “Magick in Theory & Practice” in Magick.
New York: Samuel Weiser, 1994.
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All of the rituals in Anton LaVey’s Satanic
Rituals are ceremonies, including my two
Lovecraftian ones. The sole exception is the Black
Mass ( Missa Solemnis), about which more below.
As in the SR & COS examples, a ceremony may
be wholly or partially scripted; it is an artistic &
philosophical illustration, which does not seek to
communicate with Satan or other Powers of
Darkness [beyond inviting therm to enjoy the show].
If you are considering inviting nonSatanist
guests to observe a ritual, make it a ceremony, not a
working. Let them know beforehand the ceremony’s
theme. In principle they should not attend unless
they think they will be comfortable with it, but if
they find out that they are not, advise them that they
are free to leave unobtrusively.
Sometimes “unobtrusively” can add flavor to
the ceremony. In 1972 our Nineveh Grotto in
Kentucky decided to recreate one of John Dee’s
necromancies (raising of the dead), using his
original spells. A professor from the Louisville
Theological Seminary learned about it and asked if
he could attend with some students. We were always
happy to do our part for interfaith cordiality.
For the ceremony one of the Grotto’s most
petite ladies was professionally corpse-madeup and
clad in a white coffin-dress straight out of Hammer
Films.
When professor & students entered the
darkened chamber, the flickering candlelight
outlined this still, ghastly shape atop the altar [in
decidedly less-pleasant place of the usual “living
altar”].
Dr. Dee’s eerie incantations commenced.
Nothing happened for an excruciatingly long time.
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Then in an interval of tense silence, she gave
the tiniest of twitches, and one of her breast-crossed
arms fell limply to her side.
That was all - but it was quite enough for our
guests, who all bolted for the front door in raw
panic. William Castle couldn’t have done it better!
b. Workings
Workings are rituals intended to initiate or
accomplish something. If in the OU, LBM. If in one
or more SUs, GBM.
The “target” of a working may be [or include]
one or more of the participants/others present. Or a
working may be wholly directed towards persons or
situations who are not present.
The three basic examples in the original
Satanic Bible - curse, compassion, & lust - are
workings, but are obviously intended as concept
outlines. To be seriously effective, considerably
more research, preparation, and tailoring would
need to be applied.
Both LBM & GBM workings may, but not
always involve contact with and activation of the
Powers of Darkness: principles (Dæmons or
“Elementals”) aligned with the Prince of Darkness.
If you’re not fully prepared for this, don’t do it.
One of the considerations in any working is
obvious its impact on other people. Until the last
couple of centuries, Western society fully
appreciated the efficacy of Black Magic, so if a local
magician became too threatening to a community’s
tranquillity, a burning-party was held. Today Black
Magic officially doesn’t exist, so you can’t be
prosecuted for it. But it’s prudent to keep workings
strictly secret nevertheless. This is one success
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which absolutely does not come with “bragging
rights”.
4. Incantations
The difference between an invocation and an
evocation is that the former simply acknowledges
the power of the Power to enhance the working,
while the latter specifically solicits its activity.
The “Invocation to Satan” in the original
Satanic Bible is an articulation to formalize the
intentions of the magician and his/participants’
deserving of dæmonic attention/augmentation as
sincere Satanists. What that Invocation is not is
communication with those entities.
The reason for this is that they exist, function
ing, and communicate through their respective SUs,
and the Prince of Darkness’ CSU. Thus they are
metaphysical, not physical beings; and the
magician’s working-contact with them is through his
own metaphysical MindStar, specifically the Khabit
in cases of “common” working objectives. So voiced
speech is irrelevant except insofar as it services to
focus vague attitudes and sentiments into explicit,
specific intentions and goals.
5. Ethics
A working affecting other humans may de facto
passing judgment on them. This is conventionally a
prerogative of society, the state of which you are a
citizen, at the basic level of what Thomas Aquinas
called Human Law (HL). This is the profane legal
system of popular acquaintance: the legacy of the
“social contract” era of government.
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While profane society is perfectly content to
judge and condemn individuals and groups on
nothing more than the excuse of HL, this is
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