The Satanic Bible

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The Satanic Bible Page 20

by Michael A Aquino


  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).

  - 225 -

  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.

  - 226 -

  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.

  - 227 -

  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.

  - 228 -

  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
/>   most bloodfreezing blasphemy:

  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

  - 229 -

  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.

  - 230 -

  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.

  - 231 -

  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.

  - 232 -

  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.r />
  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

  - 233 -

  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.

  - 234 -

  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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