Diabolus Rex leaving Church of Satan

[I AM the Way]

www.cultofcthulhu.net/2011/02/nyarlathotep-diabolus-rex/


Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex was kind enough to let me post his open letter to the Satanic/LHP community as a special announcement in the "news" section of our website.


Awake!

Venger As'Nas Satanis
Ipsissimus
Cult of Cthulhu

[boksmutant]

Sounds like they're losing a good man. Maybe he'll join us down the line. But I think he'll like some time off.

Awake!

[Narlool L'Pah]

Never heard of the guy, but good for him.

I have never been in agreement with outside Satanic perceptions of material reductionism

This is a perspective I share. it's something that has always turned me off of LaVey Satanism.

[Timotheus Prophet of Darkness]

Feb 7, 2011 10:36:56 GMT -6 I AM the Way said:

www.cultofcthulhu.net/2011/02/nyarlathotep-diabolus-rex/


Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex was kind enough to let me post his open letter to the Satanic/LHP community as a special announcement in the "news" section of our website.


Awake!

Venger As'Nas Satanis
Ipsissimus
Cult of Cthulhu

I nearly fell out of my seat when i read this ,he's leaving the as I call it The Catholic Church of Satan (I call it that because they act like they are the Universal Church and voice of Satan and Satanism,just like the Catholic's believe their Church is the sole voice of their God),but it's nice to see someone forging ahead while the blind stagnate

[iandiabhal]

A very well written and bold essay from Diabolus Rex, whom I hold in high regard.
I think his departure, and Boyd Rice's recent essay could be briefly summed up as..

"Peter Gilmore is full of crap, and is unfit to be the High Priest of the Church of Satan".

A distinct no-confidence vote.
I think part of what has occurred here over the years is that Gilmore, getting too soft and comfortable, took LaVey's desire to move somewhat away from esoterism too far, and misunderstood the subtler meaning of what Anton was getting at. You cannot take the sinister fun, mystery and even esotericism and sorcery out of Satanism - or it ceases to be fit to be called "Satanism".
What some term "LaVeyan Satanism" I think is utter shite as a desciptive term, and Anton would have agreed - that is nothing but pseudo "Pop Satanism", and taken to where it has been going is an empty, hollow parody of the real substance that used to be there - and still is there within the mind of the individual Satanist.
It is also just as ludicrous to assume Anton, wanted to be "worshipped" as some dark saint or icon. I respect the man and his contributions, I do not worship the man however.

I have read many oft-repeat the hoary old comment, and say the following:
"How can a Satanist not worship Satan as a real entity and call it a religion?"
There are more than a few distinct answers to this - the first is the most obvious.
Think of the demon Belial - literally "He who is without a master".
The minute - the very minute - that someone takes it upon themselves to start dogmatically defining to you specifically "how to worship Satan" - then that person, and whatever organization they are running, has ceased to be Satanic in every sense of the word.

What man, shall define, or divine for or to me the will of Shaitan?
Who dares and by what authority?
How shall we prove this divine or esoteric authority?

If I allow a man to define or divine the will of Satan or his purpose in a dogmatic sense, then I have ceased to be thinking Satanically utterly.
I am no longer a lusty- sickle, sharp horned ram of the mountain, but a timid bleating, sheep in the herd, being led by a strong shepherd, waiting my turn to be shorn.

It is not Satan divining his own will through intermediaries, it is the man attempting to control me who is defining his own human will in esoteric terms.
If I allow a man acting as a priest or High Priest to relate to me, as an intermediary, the will of Satan or his purpose - then - what is the difference between me, and the average Christian, who wants God neatly tied up in a box, with lots of snappy jingoistic bumper-sticker cliches and softsoap patter, all defined and explained to him so he doesn't have to trouble his mind with bothersome questions and critical analysis of his actions or lack of action?

Lets consider Satan as a real entity.
Look at the mythologies of Shaitan, Iblis, ha-shaitan, Azaz'el and what the point there is. Why, I ask you, would a being - given the analogy - who refused to submit to God, and bend the worshipful, genuflecting knee and bow his head - expect me, to worship him?
Follow?
I would certainly follow the example of the rebel angels and would rebel against God - but - NOT to worship Satan, and trade one master for another.
The idea of "worshipping" Satan, seems almost diametrically opposed to the whole notion of what Satan, historically, religiously, and societally represents.

Again, why would a being or entity who refused to "worship", demand or expect me to worship him in turn?
If such a being did demand such worship or command me to bend my knee in deference, then as a true Satanist, and in the spirit of Satan, my response would -must - be to utterly and inequivocably refuse so to do - and to be as Belial - He who is without a master.
Hence - why Satanism is about learning - not worship.
There are so many who misunderstand this, and are misled through following old paradigms and established ways of thinking.

It is about learning about the dark and the light within you - the Satan that resides in your own mind and body, and relating that through direct personal experience to any externalized entity through the process of growth through knowledge and learning, as well as ritualized interaction and the use of Satanic magic - which is practiced, controlled, focused application of one's will - thought into matter.

Hail Satan!

Attachments:

[boksmutant]

I'd like to be clued in on what has happened in the last few years with the Church of Satan that is causing all the break a way's? I hear it is a mixture of failing leadership & a ton of bureaucracy.

Awake!

[Timotheus Prophet of Darkness]

Mar 12, 2011 16:17:08 GMT -6 @boksmutant said:

I'd like to be clued in on what has happened in the last few years with the Church of Satan that is causing all the break a way's? I hear it is a mixture of failing leadership & a ton of bureaucracy.

Awake!

I think it's inpart because people are wanting to embrace the spiritual and esoteric as well as materialistic sides of satanism,and are sick of the beauracratic/atheistic-humanistic anti-spiritual mode of thinking and being that has infected the Church of Satan.I know thats why I excommunicated them from the Left hand Path in an email.

[iandiabhal]

Some good observations. In my own opinion when the Church of Satan embraced "atheism" in an institutional sense and began to remove the esoteric elements of Satanic thought was where they began to move away from what Anton LaVey said in the Satanic Bible. Read this excerpt - this is not materialistic, atheism.

"IT is a popular misconception that the Satanist does not believe in God. The concept of "God", as interpreted by man, has been so varied throughout the ages, that the Satanist simply accepts the definition which suits him best. Man has always created his gods, rather than his gods creating him. God is, to some, benign - to others, terrifying. To the Satanist "God" - by whatever name he is called, or by no name at all - is seen as the balancing factor in nature, and not as being concerned with suffering."
Excerpt from the Satanic Bible

That - is not atheism, by definition.

[iandiabhal]

As another way of looking at this consider this passage from the Satanic Bible

"If there has been so much violent discrepancy as to the proper way in which to
worship God, how many different interpretations of God can there be - and who is
right?"

Now, lets change the names for contrast-

"If there has been so much violent discrepancy as to the proper way in which to
worship Satan, how many different interpretations of Satan can there be - and who is right?"

Now given that, what would be the "proper" stance, interpretation or view of Satan for the Church of Satan to definitatively call an "official" deity? For it to state there was one particular view of Satan, and one way for him to be worshipped in - given that statement would be sheer and utter hypocrisy. Think about that for a minute.

In my own opinion it is this precise element, from my own personal and close up observations over the years that has been the bane, failure and downfall of many theistic and spiritual Satanic groups and organizations that have sprung up - mainly in the age of the Internet. They simply cannot agree on one view or interpretation of Satan, and the inevitable rifts, differences of opinion and infighting began breaking up group cohesiveness, and leading to sects - just as it did with the split in Christianity between Catholicism and Protestantism.

I actually think Anton was very clever indeed to have framed it in this fashion because he recognized the reasoning behind the splitting off of religious sects over elements of dogma and belief and set out with the Church of Satan to avoid this, and as the years have gone by and the leadership has changed and weakened as well as softened, people re-interpreted this, or in the case of the Church of Satan, they went or swung too far away from the spiritual and esoteric elements of Satanism and Satanic sorcery.

[boksmutant]

Thank you for that as it is hard to understand how the whole thing came about. So its the Theistic part of the COS that was put aside? Is this what would describe the fall out of these members?

Awake!

[iandiabhal]

Well I would like to give you a concise answer, but it isn't just as simple as the theistic side of Satanism being moved aside.
It has a lot of twists and turns, going over the decades.
I could write a thesis on it.
Basically, the Church of Satan began to decay after the death of Anton LaVey, and his handing the leadership to Peter Gilmore.
Boyd Rice was LaVey's first choice - and more is the pity that he decided to not take the job, but such is life. I believe Boyd would have been a better High Priest - hells bells, I believe I would be a better High Priest of the Church of Satan than Peter Gilmore. Gilmore might have "personally known" Anton - but that doesn't mean he is fit for the job.
I could get the organization back on track guaranteed, because I understand I think, what LaVey's point was. Boyd Rice gets it as well. It is there, in his essay.

If you haven't seen it, I suggest watching the movie "Satanis" with Anton LaVey and the early Church of Satan in San Francisco.
I think moving the Church from the original Black House and from its base in San Francisco, to New York was a critical mistake, and some of the source of the problems that exist with it now. The Black House should have been saved, and kept. It is gone now and that is a shame. That is not to say however - that it could not be reformed.

I don't want to name names, but when there are so called "elite" Satanic priests, living in tenement houses on government subsidies, and disability welfare - well someone ain't practicing what they are preaching. LaVey's original idea and Church was much more egalitarian, and there was less of the silly "alien elite" bullshit.

If it were up to me - I would shitcan most of the weeds, toadies, and jaded sycophants that make up the CoS "non-leadership" now, and reform the whole organization right from the ground up putting the Iron Heel on the "hangers on" and shitheels. I would put together a new priesthood - with the best and brightest, and would listen and be responsive to what they had to say.
A Stalin-esque purge in the finest Satanic traditions.
I would reform it in returning it to the idea of being about free-thought - not necessarily a strict theistic approach though, with the complications that can entail as Anton wisely noted.
Rituals, magic and sorcery - certainly - but not transmission of dogma nor "preaching" or pulpit-pounding exhorting weaklings, cling-ons or peabrains how to "worship Satan" or hold their little hands through life's crisis points.
It would be quite easy enough. We have the Satanic Bible as some guidance - it is a matter of getting someone serious and hard as fu#king nails at the damn tiller of the ship.
Perhaps Gilmore is "serious", but he has lost his way, and perspective as well as sound judgement.

Hail Satan!

[Timotheus Prophet of Darkness]

Mar 13, 2011 0:40:59 GMT -6 iandiabhal said:

Well I would like to give you a concise answer, but it isn't just as simple as the theistic side of Satanism being moved aside.
It has a lot of twists and turns, going over the decades.
I could write a thesis on it.
Basically, the Church of Satan began to decay after the death of Anton LaVey, and his handing the leadership to Peter Gilmore.
Boyd Rice was LaVey's first choice - and more is the pity that he decided to not take the job, but such is life. I believe Boyd would have been a better High Priest - hells bells, I believe I would be a better High Priest of the Church of Satan than Peter Gilmore. Gilmore might have "personally known" Anton - but that doesn't mean he is fit for the job.
I could get the organization back on track guaranteed, because I understand I think, what LaVey's point was. Boyd Rice gets it as well. It is there, in his essay.

If you haven't seen it, I suggest watching the movie "Satanis" with Anton LaVey and the early Church of Satan in San Francisco.
I think moving the Church from the original Black House and from its base in San Francisco, to New York was a critical mistake, and some of the source of the problems that exist with it now. The Black House should have been saved, and kept. It is gone now and that is a shame. That is not to say however - that it could not be reformed.

I don't want to name names, but when there are so called "elite" Satanic priests, living in tenement houses on government subsidies, and disability welfare - well someone ain't practicing what they are preaching. LaVey's original idea and Church was much more egalitarian, and there was less of the silly "alien elite" bullshit.

If it were up to me - I would shitcan most of the weeds, toadies, and jaded sycophants that make up the CoS "non-leadership" now, and reform the whole organization right from the ground up putting the Iron Heel on the "hangers on" and shitheels. I would put together a new priesthood - with the best and brightest, and would listen and be responsive to what they had to say.
A Stalin-esque purge in the finest Satanic traditions.
I would reform it in returning it to the idea of being about free-thought - not necessarily a strict theistic approach though, with the complications that can entail as Anton wisely noted.
Rituals, magic and sorcery - certainly - but not transmission of dogma nor "preaching" or pulpit-pounding exhorting weaklings, cling-ons or peabrains how to "worship Satan" or hold their little hands through life's crisis points.
It would be quite easy enough. We have the Satanic Bible as some guidance - it is a matter of getting someone serious and hard as fu#king nails at the damn tiller of the ship.
Perhaps Gilmore is "serious", but he has lost his way, and perspective as well as sound judgement.

Hail Satan!

I agree with ya.
Hmm I wonder if it would be possible to take LaVey's books and found a new Satanic Order that would get back to the heart of what he was writing about and not get sued to hell and back by the CoS?