Occulture

by Carl Abrahamsson

  Higher/lower is in itself a concept imbued with value, and that value stems from control systems stressing that the ideal can essentially not be reached within the span of one human lifetime. LaVey, on the other hand, stressed that the uncertainty of karmic relations possibly transcending this lifetime is too strong, and that gratification of desires in the here and now is more of a natural given, and certainly more worth striving for.

  One also has to take into consideration that will is always expressed through ego, and that even demigod characters projected with selfless, altruistic, and spiritual existence (the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, other Eastern figures, gurus, the pope, et al.) all make choices through their egos.

  The LaVeyan perspective disrobes a great deal of hypocrisy in our zeitgeist, whether the proponents be political, religious, “magical,” or just generally altruistic. There is always ego involved in decision making, and if this is not recognized and exposed, obstructing illusions will dominate the analytical faculties of those taking part. This illusion would only be deemed Satanically sanctioned if the person in question allows him- or herself to be duped in order to gratify his or her own masochistic need of servitude.

  The LaVeyan magical system favors the eloquent will of the ego—as well as its underlying libidinal and compensatory forces—as the most relevant ideal to strive for. Whichever clothing this ideal is individually dressed in, it rids itself of the illusions stemming from other people’s projections, as well as from their individual ego-based wills.

  Although LaVey and later LaVeyans have expressed a critical stance in regard to a concept like “spiritual,” the concept itself would be better off in a dichotomy called inner and outer (thereby leveling out or at least decimating any inherent value-based interpretations). We all work with processes of thinking, willing, feeling, and so forth, and they could all be seen as being inner and/or related to the workings of the mind. These processes are then expressed in the outer, filtered through the ego.

  If the inner is inspired somehow by what is traditionally stamped as spiritual or higher (adherence to a certain technical language or certain techniques like yoga, meditation, or even specific religious thought or iconography) and this is expressed through a conscious ego, the ball game is moved from an externally controlled or imposed field of values to the highly magical and ego-gratifying field of well-being in resonance.

  All altruism stems from decisions made by the ego, as does all non- or anti-altruism. This integration of a considerably more stripped attitude when it comes to the human psyche and its motivations is probably LaVey’s most important contribution to magical thought.

  THE VALIDATION AND INTEGRATION OF EMOTION

  Where previous Western magical systems had been based on an intellectual and systematized/structured approach, Anton LaVey brought in the emotional as a key agent. No greater magical working can, according to LaVey, be successful without an evocation of relevant human emotions. Although this sounds simple enough, it becomes a dilemma when the individual is armed to his or her teeth with fancy elemental weapons and a perfect intellectual understanding of how to perform a traditional ritual. But what about “Why”? Why is this ritual performed? Usually, it’s to “cause change to occur in conformity with will,” to paraphrase Crowley. That’s fair and fine enough, but if the magician in question works only within a strictly intellectual sphere with a rational approach, he or she might just as well focus on “lesser” magic, that is, a Machiavellian manipulation of the surroundings.

  Any working dealing with “greater” aspects needs emotional investment in the ritual moment. LaVey’s term for the temple space—the intellectual decompression chamber—pretty much sums it up. It is a challenge for most people to honestly know themselves and to have the courage, even in solitary settings, to display weaknesses and emotions not in line with the desired self-image. But how else can you develop, overcome, or banish these weaknesses?

  A SENSE OF HUMOR

  Of course, this was not invented by Anton LaVey. But few magicians have stressed it as an important quality and also a tool. “A Satanist without a sense of humor would be unbearable,” he says in the documentary Speak of the Devil. The use of tricks, jokes, and pranks can be integrated in complex and highly serious magical workings, especially if it entails ridiculing a pretentious person or force or strategically demeaning or belittling oneself to gain a better perspective or position. The clown or the joker is indeed a powerful figure or type.

  The Devil’s Notebook is suitably dedicated to “the men, whoever they are, who invented the Whoopee Cushion, the Joy Buzzer, and the Sneeze-O-Bubble.”

  Invariably, those with the most finely honed sense of humor find serious meaning in what everyone else ridicules. The very nature of the joke is its foundation of misfortune. The joke maker can spot the sham in acceptably serious situations. Then, having called attention to the deception, he may stand forth as a Satanic tribune. Not so easy is the reverse. The same rebel who defends the unpopular and the ridiculed, plays to an audience whose only illusion of strength lies in its ability to ridicule. It’s interesting to observe how lower man, while realizing the sadness of clowns, seldom pays attention to them when they have serious thoughts to offer.2

  Incidentally, the Satanically important character of the villain by his very antithetical stance also makes fun of the existing order and morals and hence functions as a liberating character—if intelligent and conscious about it. Scapegoating is an important and apparently necessary function in the human psyche, at least for egos that are not healthily gratified. To take on the persona of the villified or the mocking catalyst requires an inner strength not often found among the “herd,” according to LaVey.

  ARTIFICIAL HUMAN COMPANIONS

  Inspired by his own misanthropy, nostalgia, and will to be in charge, LaVey early on started creating humanoid dolls, often as memories from his own youth. In the basement of his Black House in San Francisco (the house allegedly immortalized by the Eagles in their chartbusting song “Hotel California”), LaVey had a bar called the Den of Iniquity, complete with several artificial human companions. This environment and its denizens acted as an intellectual decompression chamber as much as the classic black temple space upstairs or the kitchen where he kept his vast collection of synthesizers and other musical instruments. To be able to make small talk with the drunks, the bartender and the old lady on the floor who was a drunken victim of LaVey’s own sexual fetish—watching women piss their panties—became a sanctuary and a zone free of rational processes and expectations. Anything could happen. And often did.

  The emergence of commercially available human companions (for instance those made by the company Real Doll) not solely intended for sexual use is a clear current example of a LaVeyan concept manifesting outside of the strictly Satanic environment. (For more on this, please see chapter 11, “The Imaginative Libido.”)

  I have great respect for those who pioneer their own artificial human companion, crude as they might initially be. They will have come a small step closer to playing God and creating man or woman according to their desired image. With a creative outlet as cloaked in age-old taboo as this, innovation may now run rampant—more so than any artform man has yet known. The bizarre twilight world of the ventriloquist, the puppet-master and the dollmaker can perhaps be understood through other than the minds of psychologists. The acceptable schizoid element in all of us—the one that selects our mates—has a fresh, new, open portal to pass through. Through surrogates the race will survive.

  Other comments from The Devil’s Notebook: “the prime appeal of the humanoid lies in its approximation of the purchaser’s ‘other half.’. . . Artificial companions that are pleasingly heard, smelled and felt also constitute positive selling points. But that an artificial companion looks right is of primary importance.”3

  THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT

  One of the most important ideas or concepts along with that of artificial human companions is the total environment. Consistent in
his exclusion of the herd that provokes deep misanthropy and his inclusion of personal esthetics and fetishism, LaVey’s development of total environments are a key to understanding the subtleties of his magic.

  In a world that becomes louder and louder and more and more fragmented, the existence of a sacred space filled with perfection and maximum personal resonance almost becomes a heretical act. It actually is. Not only does it affect you in beneficial ways like relaxation, excitement, and inspiration, but there’s also the possibility of using these spaces (and times, if they are time- or era-specific) for creative magical rituals in many different ways and directions.

  In The Satanic Rituals, LaVey stated that “Man’s ugly habit of elevating himself by defaming others is an unfortunate phenomenon, yet apparently necessary to his emotional well-being.”4 With the development of total environments and many of his other concepts, there was no longer a need for LaVey to be a frustrated outsider in conflict with the herd. The Satanist’s creative isolation in a space/time-warp-possible mind frame is one of silence and subtlety, and one of the greatest tools in the Satanic trade.

  This, combined with honest self-knowledge and a proud appreciation of one’s own kinks and complications makes for a good, solid Satanist. There’s always a strong focus of real-life material success too. But only based on the balance factor and what is actually possible for an individual in that position. Self-deceit is not a popular quality in LaVey’s cosmos. “The most successful individuals throughout history have been the people who learn a few good tricks and apply them well, rather than those with a whole bag full who don’t know which trick to pull out at the right time—or how to use it once they get it out!”5

  The total environment encompasses many of the central LaVeyan concepts in one confined yet endless space. Personal preferences, aesthetics, the intellectual decompression chamber, fetishism, misanthropy, and possibly artificial human companions to share the magic with—it’s a sphere of clear-sighted yet romantic proto-creativity previously unheard of in “classical” magical lore.

  INTEGRATION OF MUSIC

  LaVey was a skilled musician and loved music. No wonder then that he had explored magical aspects of tone, vibrations, rhythms, the human voice, and all of these things put together. His own rituals often included his own playing suitable instruments. Sometimes the ritual itself was the actual playing of one selected piece of music with heavy emotional gusto.

  Music is the most effective tool for evocation, as the entire body rhythm is helplessly taken up by the pattern of life associated with the musical selection. A meaningful idea never dies, nor does the emotional response generated by certain compositions. If enough people are inspired or moved by these compositions, the selections become sonic repository for the accumulated emotions of all those affected by them. Becoming an all-encompassing sensing element to the collective feedback of a particular composition can yield a total evocation.6

  Again, the integration of emotion is fundamentally important. There is probably no art form more emotional than music. To get into the mood of a specific working, the inclusion of a musical piece chosen for its evocative qualities is essential. If performed live, the emotional amplification will be even greater.

  In discussing these things, LaVey also mentions “emotional chording.” There seems, according to him, to exist one chord for each emotion. Animals respond to very few: basically pleasure and pain. “Humans have added certain chords to their internal lyre, such as sentiment, which sometimes appears as nostalgia—a combination of pleasure and pain. Humans’ internal chording is more complex because humans experience a wider range of stimuli than do other animals (though, alas, the reverse is often true).”7

  THE VILLAIN

  Satan was defined by LaVey as a symbol with the powerful potential of accusing and revealing hypocrisy and double standards. Satire, irony, and scathing intelligence here become magical qualities, as personified in LaVeyan inspirations like Mark Twain, Ben Hecht, and H. L. Mencken. Wherever there is dogmatic hypocrisy and attempts at control through intimidation, there will be counterforces. When direct causal balancing is not possible, then a sardonic strike can do just as well.

  In all cultures, the antihero, rebel, or villain is usually more popular than the (self-) righteous hero running the errands of the corrupt. Even worse than the hero him- or herself is the person cheering on the righteousness imposed by others. LaVey describes these people as those bearing a “good-guy badge.” Gather two or more of these together, and an intolerant lynch mob is never far away.

  The balancing force is the lone ranger—often a truly good and just person, but with methods and an intelligence in direct opposition to the status-quo behavior of the herd. “The more grandiose the villain, the more beneficient he is to society.” And “The greater one’s natural degree of nonconformity, the greater are one’s magical powers.”8 This is no way automatically implies that nonconformers or outsiders are villainous or vice versa, but there’s something in the isolation from the herd or the collective that is absolutely central in the LaVeyan Weltanschauung.

  Besides the integrated sense of dark humor, there’s also the concept of “noir” justice in both Satanic and criminal environments. The antihero of hard-boiled crime stories of the 1940s and’50s and his stern cinematic counterpart in films noirs often represents justice but very seldom the legal system. And the criminal world is truly one of Machiavellian strategies and the protonatural lex talionis that LaVey was such an avid advocate of.

  THE THIRD SIDE

  Oppositional transcendence is a fairly new construct in Western magical thought. Where Chinese Taoism has always favored the both/and rather than the either/or stance, Western occult philosophy has up until the twentieth century been bogged down by religious dualisms and simplified divisions.

  Aleister Crowley was instrumental in this transcendental process with his famous definition “The Magick of Horus requires the passionate union of opposites.” It is not only a “magical” way of solving problems or looking at things but also acknowledges modern scientific thought. Where opposites either clash or unite, there is a great amount of energy set free. For the magician aware of the mechanisms involved, the energy can easily be directed to do his or her bidding.

  What’s interesting here is what LaVey called the third side of any issue at hand. This side he described and defined as Satanic because it challenges dim-witted dualism. Reality is always more multifaceted than a yes or a no, and especially if one is on a pragmatic prowl for success and pleasure for oneself. Aligning oneself with either the “either” or the “or” is usually to take the safe way out. The third side may be controversial, but that’s never a problem for a Satanist. “The third side can be the crackpot stuff of conspiracy theories, or it can be the most logical and simple, yet deliberately neglected conclusion.”9 In Satan Speaks, LaVey gives an example of how this dynamic could work as a pragmatic magical formula mixing two iconic almost mythic energies of twentieth-century life and culture: National Socialism and Judaism. LaVey himself was Jewish by birth and at times even expressed Zionist leanings, but at the same time he admired fascist aesthetics from both Italy and Nazi Germany.

  It will become easier and more convincing for any Satanist to combine a Jewish lineage with a Nazi aesthetic, and with pride rather than with guilt and misgiving. The die is cast with the vast numbers of children of mixed Jewish/Gentile origins. They need a place to go. They need a tough identity. They won’t find it in the Christian church, nor will they find it in the synagogue. They certainly won’t find acceptance among identity anti-Christian anti-Semites who use noble, rich, and inspirational Norse mythology as an excuse and vehicle to rant about the “ZOG.” The only place a rational amalgam of proud, admitted Zionist Odinist Bolshevik Nazi Imperialist Socialist Fascism will be found—and championed—will be in the Church of Satan.10

  Criticism of Anton LaVey and his genuinely creative concepts most often stem from blunt prejudice within the critic. When th
e individual feels safe and comfortable within a system, even systems of otherwise radical and provocative concepts, the critical faculties toward that system become void, and scapegoating toward others begin. While often being brushed off as a con man or a charlatan by these kinds of critics, Anton LaVey still lingers on as an important player in contemporary magical philosophy. He was decidedly a heretic but perhaps not so much against the Christian Church and other monotheistic control systems (these being already increasingly redundant and far too easy to mock), but more so in relation to the magical moralists all too happy to do some unconscious scapegoating and all too happy to flaunt their degree-studded good-guy badges.

  There are many other concepts that deserve a closer study: LaVey’s thoughts on masochism in relation to beneficial slavery, the “law of the trapezoid,” and “lycanthropic metamorphosis,” to mention but a few. I hope this lecture has at least laid a solid base as an overview for future interest and attention. In closing, here are some final thoughts from LaVey:

  When I think of all those who would rejoice at my discomfort, I am energized and strengthened to the extent that I might overcome any malaise. It is not my love for mankind that sustains me, but rather mankind’s resentment of me. My disdain and contempt for the mediocre masses in general and those who calumniate me in particular angers me to regeneration.11

  10

  Carl Jung, Mythmaker

  Originally a lecture delivered at Aniara in Gothenburg, Sweden, 2016.

  ON THE WHOLE, Carl Jung is already so well documented and well-known that it’s almost not worth talking about him. Jung is a superstar of a different kind than Freud, despite the fact that they have both been important pioneers within psychology as we know it. The word pioneer isn’t even enough to describe them. They are both rather founders of modern psychology, which has now, in its rebellious-teen independent phase, tossed them both out. Jung packed a stronger punch, but not because he was less esoteric and less incomprehensible than Freud—in many ways he was more so—but because he was taken in and integrated in the surrounding culture much faster.