Let's
talk honestly about the modern notion of God that most liberal Christians have.
Their idea of God is one of a nominally good Father, who loves his Children,
and wants to see them succeed and do well. One would ask, given this loving
creator and how nice he appears, why so many young people would turn their
backs on God and start to praise 'The Other Guy.'
One
could talk about Jehovah, the wrathful angry and self-admitted jealous god of
the Old Testament. Many Satanists do, pointing out all his faults and follies.
While this may prove some level of justification, I take the opposite approach
in my 'devil worship.'
The
Gods of the Pagan world are almost universally capricious, cruel, uncaring and
petty. Zeus, the High Lord King Shit of the Greek Pantheon, was a sex-addicted
monster. Diana would rip apart people who saw her skinny-dipping, Poseidon was
the god of earthquakes and tidal waves. Throughout all pagan cultures,
including the monolatrious and later monotheistic Jehovah cultists, the gods
are like nature - uncaring at best and actively cruel at worse.
To
me, taking a demonic queen as my Goddess is an acknowledgement of life being a
mixed bag. While many times life is full of joy and rapture, it's also
sometimes full of pain and sorrow. Careers, relationships, even people, all end
at the worst times. As I write this, the woman my father loves most in the
entire world is on her deathbed. At a time like this, I find no comforting
answers in a good god that is sitting there hoping that perhaps things will get
better. Neither did the Greeks, or scores of other peoples. When we acknowledge
that disease, decay, and death are part of all life, then we can come to grips
when health fails, entire career fields become obsolete, or we find our sons
drafted into a war in some third-world hellhole.
The
Christians I see on TV, moderate and conservative, tell me that Satan hates me
and God loves me. Christians who interact with me in my life ask me sometimes,
'isn't the world evil enough without worshiping it?' I don't see Satan as evil.
That
is the biggest difference between the Satan of the Christian tradition and the
Satan of the Lylythian path. Like Prospero in 'Masque of the Red Death,' we see
Satan not as a god of hate, but of reality. The unfortunate fact is that
in reality things like the Red Death happen. Plagues, wars and holocausts
affect nations. Disease, break-ups, layoffs, car crashes and the cancellation
of beloved television shows effect individuals. Not one day goes by where
something bad doesn't happen.
This
is why many people think of clowns as scary, perhaps actively evil. Clowns are
exaggerations of our selves. Their tragedies include the pie in the face, the
squirting flower, the over packed car and the undersized bicycle. Yet, their
tragedy makes us laugh. The Threefold Muse finds shape in the antics of Larry,
Curly and Mo.
Sidhartha
understood much about suffering, because his experience of it was that of an
outsider. According to legend, he was raised in a world controlled by his
father, where there would be no suffering. 'Nirvana', in the Lylythian
tradition, is when one can laugh at one's suffering and laugh at one's folly.
The image of Satan that has made the deepest impression on me is from the Black
Sabbath song 'War Pigs,' where "Satan Laughing spreads His
wings." Satan laughs at the misery
that others have brought upon themselves, knowing that they could have avoided
it.
From
a lesser-magic point of view, there are three forms of 'information disease.'
The most serious one is, coincidentally, being too serious. Here is some advice
that I paid about $100 for:
Every
day, for at least a few minutes (but spend an hour if you can), listen to The
Jerky Boys. While I suppose any comedy CD will do, there is something about the
way the Jerky Boys juxtapose themselves against the seriousness of the people
who call them. The other advice I got was to find and read the book 'The Rape
of the APE.' This book is out of print, and not in the Milwaukee Federated
Library System. It may be difficult to track down. APE stands for American
Protestant Ethic, by the way. I've also gotten some free advice on how to cure
information disease from Walter Alter:
Try this, in
the morning, before you get ready to face the planet, do something stupid on
purpose with the aim of eliciting laughter even fake laughter, something silly
like when you brush your teeth get toothpaste all over your mouth and lips and
cheeks. Don't get all compulsive and cruel, just do it cuz it's silly and
childish. If you have cold cereal for breakfast, pour milk in the bowl till it
overflows a little and make a silly face drawing on the countertop with your
finger in the milk. Stuff like that. Rent a three Stooges movie tonight. Work
on entertaining yourself and try not to let shit that goes wrong or seems
unusual get in deep. You have too much "meaning" in your life right
now and it's not helping one bit.
First thing when you get home from work, turn the stereo on and put on a hot
dance number and dance yer ass off. Just one number. Then forget it, go about
your evening as though it never happened. Be superficial on the outside, it
doesn't make you less truthful, it makes you a more effective human so you can
apply truth where it counts, when it is needed and appropriate. Existence is a
carnival sideshow; it's showbusiness. People who are deadly real all the time
are a bore and generally don't help make the world a better place. Entertain
yourself & then entertain others a bit.
The basic means of overcoming depression is to be "at cause", even if
you are causing silly shit once in a while, it goes a long way to overcoming
the sense of existential overwhelm that comes with the territory. A lotta times
we have to fake it & that's not a bad thing as long as we know we're faking
it. The act of faking it can inject endorphins into the endocrine mix and make
life more enjoyable, the way it is supposed to be. Start having some fun. If
you need my permission, you have it up one side and down the other, man.