Date: 1998/03/22 10.53
From: "Anonymous" <Use-Author-Address-Header@telemaco.telemaco.it>
To:
[this from last year, I'm clearing out files and welcome comment and/or discussion on the concepts presented herein - LFvF]
I am only just beginning to understand Satan in any real depth, having set about a study of Satanism several years ago, discovered Hir relation to wild nature through involvement in my Church, and to my HGA/Kali in reflection. I have recently begun more thorough research on Satan as an historical concept and am reading the monumental work of Jeffrey Burton Russell, whose scholarship and philosophic acumen are awe- inspiring. subsequent to the completion of his works I intend to begin a review of Henry Ansgar Kelly and Richard Woods, eventually compiling a thorough bibliography on "the Devil", Satan, and Satanism, having already completed a great deal of an online database concerning the last.
given this as a precursor, with familiarity to these works you might see that I have a fondness for Jungian analysis of the mythological in the context of self and society, dreams and myths forming an imperative source of self-transformation. as Russell quotes Richard Woods:
Myth is the symbolic nature of the truth of human existence... Thus, although myths are not literally or scientifically true at face value, they express a more profound truth at a deeper level of human consciousness. Such is the case, I believe, with the myth of the Devil. [NOTE: Woods, pp. 80-1.] ---------------------------------------------- quoted in _The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity_, by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Cornell University Press, 1977; pp. 52. _________________________________
I've interpreted Crowley's Satan/Aiwass (HGA) as a deeper level of his consciousness brought to the waking levels by virtue of trance-state and psychological configuration (he was ready for the experience and his wife Rose, combined with their co-location in Cairo and the appearance of the Stele 666, served as trigger).
I make no metaphysical claims here. I do not distinguish between the personal and cosmic unconscious, considering them to be at least associated if not in a relation of coincidence/containment. where my confusion begins is in the differentiation between the unconscious and the *Shadow* of the awakening mage, the latter of which is ostensibly at first contacted (K&CotHGA) and later integrated (Magus).
that Crowley made few absolute claims about his HGA (sometimes suggesting him to be a member of what he called 'the Secret Chiefs' -- those Cosmic Directors of Worldly Affairs, sometimes treating him more personally) is, in my mind, an indication that I ought take him more seriously about his expressions concerning his experience. there seems a great deal of truth in what is said concerning the Abyss and Her relationship to certainty (that lying below Her being differentiated, above not so).
to me Satan is that part of me and of my world which is under assault by human organization, Puritanism -- the restrictive elements generally of both myself and human society. all of these components are valuable, though the present condition speaks to me of over-repression and a danger of psychosis (esp. in the West as expressed through fundamentalist religion and some large portions of secular society, evidenced by the recent spate of 'Satanic Panic' associated with 'ritual abuse' and the 'Fabricated Memory Syndrome').
unlike Crowley, I do not hear Satan, so either Satan is different for me than Crowley (which seems supported by our mutual expressions thereon, the Master appearing to have a fondness for the angelic whereas I am in blatant service to the demonic while worshipping their holistic resolution in Kali), or perhaps we have a different understanding and/or relationship with the same entity.
I *do* hear Kali, from whom I have learned the interesting notion that She is Satan's sakti, Hir power (Satan is to me ambisexual/androgynous/ hermaphroditic -- very closely symbolized by the Levi Baphomet, which I am setting about to rectify with the assistance of an elicited artist), and that Satan is Kali's wild nature, Her most destructive and malevolent aspects (She being a composite and at some point utterly transcending these two poles -- perhaps at Her intersection with me).
Hail the Citizens of the Infernal Empire!
Hail Satan!
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|LorDfaLk X Von faLkenstaIn | Church Of Satan |
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|L D L X V L I = 6 6 6 |
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|666x3=1998 The Year of Lord Satan is here |
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