For that matter, n the older myths, the Redeemer and the Trickster are one and the same. In the original Babylonian account of the great flood, the gods in callow and petty quarrel amongst themselves simply went nuclear, so to speak. And it was the Trickster Redeemer by guile and stealth, who managed to save any remnant of human kind. By contrast, the Biblical account of a moral God passing judgment upon the masses of the iniquitous and dispensing mercy only to the most worthy, indeed sounds the hollow ring of typical propaganda pandering by kneejerk Moralistic authoritarians evading responsibility for calamity while also stealing credit for progress. once institutionalized. I

 

Indeed, veneration of any Devil has often signified Luciferian Gnostic Mysticism and even resistance to pious oppression.

 

Ah, but what of any true devotion to evil?

I am sure that if the devil existed, he would want us to feel very sorry for him.”  — Martha Stout, 'The Sociopath Next Door'

 

Obfuscation and apologetics aside, could there ever even truly be such a thing as genuine open Devil Worship? After all, should not a true malignant devotee of utter evil, actually treasure and prize hypocrisy above all things? Indeed, is that not precisely what it really means to be possessed by gloating evil? Indeed, the free and open practice of Satanism so notoriously propagandized by the likes of Anton LaVey, remain no less than Manacheanism, a distinctly a Christian heresy, in Satanism's top priority above all of shunning hypocrisy, even by the extol of such extremes of radical honesty as the flaunting of basest selfish and outright hostile motivations, even no less than the Seven Deadly Sins, as to be attested and celebrated in open Devil Worship! -Even thereby making cynical Nihilistic implication that to do otherwise at all, is indeed the most foolish hypocrisy of the uninitiated. Aviad Kleinberg denounced self-righteousness as the eighth deadly sin. And self-righteousness is precisely what hypocritical Satanism ever so vigorously both denounces and indulgently panders to.

 

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

— Oscar Wilde

Satanism is influenced by the Zen moral Nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand, likewise paradoxically altruistic in striving to influence and help others to better realign their priorities, shed the snares of altruism so often stifling to individual human potential, look after themselves and grow.

But there is worse, because, as the saying goes, the Devil will tell the truth when it serves his malevolent purpose, indeed perhaps even more often than not, all simply to build credibility and conceal the one key lie undetected why which to ensnare and forever damn the unwary. Indeed the eclectic dilettante grab-bag of Satanism is nevertheless hypocritical and dark in concept, even accepting the aforesaid premi. First and foremost, Satanism partakes in the ongoing distortion of Nietzschian Individualism, by befouling Hedonism into the very debauched corruption all along inputted thereto by Moralistic Christian precepts wherein: Debauchery, wanton self-indulgence self unrestrained by conventional inhibition or even by compassion and sound judgment at all, can denote even orgiastic seduction or can further indicate the erosion and debasement of morality or purity, as if all the aforesaid where one and the same unworthy of the trouble in distinction: To debauch meaning not only to corrupt morally but most specifically by agency of intemperance or sensuality, in order thereby to lead away from virtue or excellence. Whereas Hedonism in its own right need not intrinsically extol cruelty, even in pursuit of pleasure. After all, shared pleasure may even be entirely companionable, actually inspirational of gratitude, charity and hope.

One might hope that amorality at least may embody the saving grace that it cannot be Moralisticand judgmental. And yet, whereas Nietzsche, for the sake of Individualist values amorally extolled, beyond good and evil, the equal rejection both persecution and altruism as worldly snares to be rejected and avoided by the critically minded and rational superman, the true Individualist and latter day Zen Master, by contrast, Anton LaVey's Satanism that he apparently first cooked up together with his publicist, preaches spiteful judgment upon the intrinsic merit and worth of others, unmediated by any thirst for justice and equality. LaVey'hereby even well exceeding the bile of LaVeys sociopathic rôle model Ayn Rand who so venomously castigated the helpless and needy as parasites in society.

It's not just fictional Bond villains: There have always been those amoral or even immoral sociopathic visionaries. But in order to ever be anything more than prominent cranks the likes of Rynd and LeVay, such all the more must heed the admonitions of Nietzsche (if not of Gautama hither to) and nevertheless ever shun all cult of personality.

• The Fountainhead of Satanism  (Presumably because Objectivism of Ayn Rand wasn't deemed already cultish enough!)

In deconstructing BullySpeak, it is striking how bullies often Nihilistically reject concepts of objective reality and truth or honesty thereto, let alone justice and fairness, all hence of guilt or innocence from right or wrong action or conduct and responsibility thereto, in favor of propagandistic and arbitrary judgment of personal worth, effectively justifying such discrimination as an article of faith as actually codified in the notorious 'Satanic Bible' of that pretentious snob Anton Le Vay, wherein: Wrath is extolled hedonistically on the same footing as any harmless pleasure, Sophistry apologetics are advanced extolling judgmental attitude regarding the putative worthiness of others, and revenge is valued. In other words, Le Vay commands his cult followers to relish judging and taking (such utterly unearned!) revenge upon those one deems unworthy, generally because of their social standing. 

Indeed, the debauchery that is Satanism in extoling revenge as merely another Hedonistic heady sensual indulgence, predictably endorses Sadomasochism. Indeed, Anton LaVey's puerile and facile Satanist Sophistry and Apologetics for Sadomasochism, bald facedly equates predation and baiting with courtship between informed and desiring individuals. Of course, even as distinct from ever popular kinky erotic rôle-play of bondage and dominance fantasy, likewise even the most dangerous and demeaning hardcore edge-play is supposed to rely upon explicit permissions of Faustian contract replete with the panic-button of safe-words in order to remain at all within bounds. But then, increasingly there are those who complain and demand greater spontaneity, as indeed may be sought for in the escapism from responsibility of frenzied Panic magic ritual. And of course, all manner of darkest occult abomination is ancient, even replete with organized crime cults for deeply religious criminals.

It all begs Mulder's salient admonition: "How can you invite the Devil and expect him to behave?"" The X-Files: 'Die Hand Die Verletzt'

In summation, whereas ever proselytizing religion and Zen Mysticism alike, antirationally urge self abnegation as key to salvation, LaVey's Satanism in the eager embrace of damnation, has done them all one better in perhaps the very ultimate in hypocrisy, the demeaning extol of exhalation via the most bestial reciprocal degradation.

Furthermore LaVey's Satanism, in apparent contradiction with espoused Individualism and instead somewhat wishful aspiration to conspiracy, therefore also elevates worldly prestige and authority in their own church membership heiarchy.

Nevertheless, let's all be thankful how, by in large, the Satanists seem to be all such a bunch of New Age posers taking delight in scandalizing Christian Fundamentalists. For whereas the Nazis where the only villains to actually dress the part, all said, the greater portion of Satanism seemingly remains more often merely silly and trendy, if at all fanatically religious, than actually otherwise all that evil, except as ever taken up in self validation by only the most singularly twisted souls, evil doers to begin with and adolescent sociopaths at that. The persecution of perceived and accused Satanists by deluded fanatical Christian Fundamentalists abusing secular powers of the state and law enforcement, the hysteria over mythical Pedophile daycare centers and global Satanic conspiracy, was a deplorable destructive hysteria of lunatic Fundamentalist witch-hunting, a joyless and chaste debauchery, even while actual Pedophile priests continue to be sheltered by the church even after so many thousands of years.

The Devil would be well pleased.

Therefore sink not into evil simply from despair with worldliness in the human heart. Innocence is so often and vastly overrated. Mourn not the loss of innocence, the mythic fall from Eden. Little as we do actually know, can it truly be the Higher Ways of Truth Ever Unfolding, that humanity is simply better off kept in the dark? Or is innocence indeed but the seedbed for growth in at all better sagacity? Indeed, by contrast, to the Fall from Eden, the legend of Prometheus finds humanity not in any Garden Paradise, but miserable, grubby, dank and cold. By the theft from the gods and gift to humanity, of fire, Prometheus symbolically liberates humanity from helpless ignorance, delivering redemption from heteronymously overrated innocence. The fire is a more positive symbol than the apple, for the dawning of the Transactional rational adult ego state from which rational interpretation and perception of reality, consciousness of past and future and hence scenario planning with purposeful strategy, even meaning and questioning, all ensue, opening the way to uncertainty, freedom and responsible autonomy, without sainthood in specific any more than infallible impossible and unnecessary complete certainty in general. Faliblism offers hope that is not utterly unreasonable, pride that need not be vainglory, and perhaps even perspective at all of humility, or more precisely, merely of moderation and proportion, but without call to demeaning mortification. The loss of innocence does not inflict impossible and unnecessary demands for purity and perfection, but only the need of fair and even minimal responsibility in light of reasonably foreseeable consequences. That is how faliblism vastly reduces Existential anxieties. It is from faliblism that there is everything real to gain. Otherwise, many people become so tough on themselves as then to lose hope completely as imperfect human beings.

In short, embrace always and never scorn the striving of integrity as merely human and fallible.

For the hubris of perfectionism only ends in the darkness of despair. 

 

 

 

 

Hope you Guessed my Name: Lucifer and Prometheus

The title, of course, makes reference to the lyrics from the enduring hit song by the Rolling Stones, 'Sympathy for the Devil'

 

 

Can religion of any kind ever be redeemable from inherent heteronomy? Can there be worship howsoever amenable to autonomy??Is the very question even predictive and thereby amenable to science? And how if at all so? Or is the very enterprise only in and of itself entirely mythical? Never mind how, first of all: why? Of what need, except because of ambivalence?The salvation of religious worship from inherent heteronomy and into autonomy remains a conundrum and perhaps worse, a classic solution in search of a problem, the cart well before the horse. To begin with, why would autonomy benefit from any religious doctrine or practice in worship? This remains unclear. But myth provides parable, the figure of Prometheus stands for Humanism, and Humanism embracers autonomy. A Savior must see anything worth saving in Humanity. Christ comes to perfect human imperfection by guiding us like unto a flock of sheep back into the fold, whereas Prometheus, just the opposite, strives to liberate the downtrodden in life into self-agency. Indeed in history and in culture, one ancient and enduring effort at Humanist counter-religion, comes in the veneration of Prometheus.

 

Prometheus is a figure of dramatic ambivalence, on the one hand of autonomy, exaltation in in the pursuit of ideals, cherished values and Human progress, but on he other, of heteronomy and caution before the ever looming specter of temptation into hubris overreach, calamity and the wrathful judgment of the gods. And indeed the singular figure of Prometheus later undergoes the fateful fission into two separate figures: Rebellious Prometheus is vilified as the wicked and self glorifying fallen Angel and then identified with Satan, the enemy of Humankind, the Devil, whist Prometheus the Savior is realigned with Divine authority, as Christ the Son of God or Buddha declared Avatar of Vishnu. How absurd: It's somewhat like claiming that Martin Luther King was secretly working for a benevolent George Wallace all along, in their grand plan for Negro salvation! Preposterous. Insulting. A whitewash, one even might say... Little wonder then, as shall be seen, how the authentic figure of Prometheus struggles to emerge once again into Human consciousness, in Gnostic heresy echoing to this day.

 

TheVictorian fictional character of Dr. Frankenstein is hailed by author Mary Shelly, as the new Prometheus, somewhat ironically perhaps. I have even heard tell of a NASA deity, a modern liberator and redeemer from the prison of Earthly gravity and into interplanetary Manifest Destiny. Indeed, most anciently, Gnostic Luciferianism seems actually Promethean rather than at all actually Satanic. Gnosticism posits that interfaith strife, in fratricidal rivalry for the attention of the same Deity, is actually the work of a false God, the true Devil. And this fable remains both plausible and sympathetic. Similarly, the Devil's Disciple in the play by Bernard Shaw, does not celebrate malice and evil, but only scorns what he sees as cowardice and false piety. Be all that as it may, lacking the expertise or confidence, I will not vouch for any latter-day Luciferians. Beware: Apologists and cult proselytizers of every stripe remain ever wily and obscure. All manner of cults superficially advocate independence and sweet reason, while actually promulgating much the same cult isolation, Behavior Modification and brainwash. And cult mentality ever threatens simultaneously to smash and brutalize in taboo, and to devour in wishful thinking, any possible good idea. To wit:

 

Standing apart from all respectable latter-day Frankenscience of organ and tissue transplant, not to mention the banal and ubiquitous vampirism of blood transfusion, Cryonics presents such tantalizing engineering feasibility, but in practice however so fraught with nightmare logistics ever more wishfully neglected. And affiliated research proceeds apace, in quest of the eradication, no differently than with smallpox and Polio, of pandemic natural death from the pervasive degenerative condition known only as aging. These are Promethean undertakings of fringe science, remaining blasphemous to outraged conservative religion. Typically, those who believe that God wants us to prosper encourage the hard work that might entail, God helping those who help themselves. Why then do those who believe that God offers resurrection into Eternal Life, then actually discourage taking any active hand in the matter? Deathiist taboo from without, whether in any form of active hostility and scorn from whatever lunatic fringe, or ubiquitously in the form of sheer passive aggression and prevailing condescension, together with such helpless unrealistic and perhaps ever even somewhat cult-like delusional willful positivity from within, remain the twin vultures ever devouring the Promethean vitals of Emortalism.

 

In the original version of the mythic flood story, the Gilgamesh Epic long predating Monotheistic revision into Genesis, the rebellious trickster god saves humanity from extinction as the gods, ever volatile and capricious, warred amongst themselves, destroying the world. And this version, ever more current in the Nuclear Age, must strike the reader as more plausible than a vengeful God wiping out Humanity save for a virtuous handful tasked with starting over again. Not as badly as with only the one breeding pair in the Garden of Eden, nevertheless either version would still leave humanity dangerously inbred! And indeed, as it turns out, we are. Because our hominid forbears indeed came close to extinction. Not to digress.

 

In misplaced nostalgia of pious heteronomy to the Lord, Genesis mourns lost innocence of Adam and Eve cast out from the Garden of Eden. In truth, however, innocence may be vastly overrated and at any rate, irrecoverable. And so much confusion and mischief has plagued humanity from the effort at recovery or nearest approximation of lost innocence and fre4edom from doubt, being: heteronomy and infaliblism of one kind or another. By contrast, the story of Prometheus celebrates human enlightenment, hailing Prometheus as the Fire Bringer. For the redeemer Prometheus is the trickster who stole fire from the gods in order to share that secret with fallible humanity. And we can be doubly grateful, not just for the literal fire of hearth and forge, a monumental game changing core technological breakthrough launching forward Human progress, but the symbolic fire in the mind, intellect, consciousness, science, freedoms and self-determination. In a word: autonomy. Because hitherto, not only plausibly nut in historical truth, Human existence before the taming of fire and expansion of Human consciousness, was mind dulling grubby, cold and dank, no bed of roses in any bountiful garden of eternal delight.

 

As Lucifer Morningstar, protagonist of the popular TV show, might emphatically agree, the fall of the hated self-glorifying rebel Angel from Heaven, does indeed bear the stench of mythic history rewritten by the Monotheistic victor. For in the original version, Prometheus is brutally punished by the gods for his succorance of humanity, we mortals whom the jealous king of the gods, ever hungry for power, devotion and propaganda justification, had resolved to oppress Humanity with dulling ignorance and travail. And that certainly makes far more sense than the more familiar later version wherein the God who abominates Moloch and human sacrifice goes about making of Himself a human sacrifice, all in order to appease Himself on our behalf! The Titan Prometheus, after having been tasked by Zeus with the creation of Humanity, Prometheus, no deadbeat dad he, only did out of love what he deemed to be good and just for Humankind. By contrast, the ways of Yahweh, especially since He began wearing so many hats even at seeming cross-purpose, remain indeed ever more Mysterious! And the blockheaded insensitive Evangelical Christians wonder still, why staunch Jewish Monotheism, in worship of the One Indivisible God, remains as horrified as ever, at any essentially Pagan notion of Trinity! Otherwise, the Rabi Yehoshua Bar-Yosef might remain no more objectionable a candidate for Mashiach than anyone else! Judaism and Christianity radically and irreconcilably differ upon the very meaning and concept of Messiah, for all that such convolutions of Theistic Metaphysics can actually ever be deemed worth all of the strife and suffering, from any standpoint of rational atheism. Incidentally it would appear that except for any handful of Jewish converts, the notorious Jews for Jesus are actually all Gentile. Not surprisingly, the Jews for Jesus are, perhaps an at all less than transparent pointless subterfuge of Christian outreach. Still, all in all, a major advance in tolerance since the Inquisition, so that within modern Israel secure in her borders, the craven and cynical authorities can safely look the other way from Muslin honor killing. All such thus, in rising moral indignation, does the appeal of Gnostic irony and disgust endure,
 

Copyright 2011-2022  by Aaron Aga

ssi