Pity

By Mistress Babylon Consort, Sect of the Horned God

Pity

‘.. It preserves what is right for destruction;  it defends those who have been condemned and disinherited by life; and by the abundance of  the failures of all kinds which keeps it alive, it gives life itself a gloomy and questionable aspect.’ Nietzsche –The Anti-Christ

An important and all encompassing part of the Sect philosophy revolves around self-responsibility, independence, and living life to the fullest. They all go hand in hand. The destructive nature of pity, (not to be confused with empathy or sympathy) whether given or taken, opposes this.   In its entirety, Nietzsche’s essay on it has always resonated on a primal or instinctive level as it is brings to light its contrary nature against ‘wanting to live’, as well as its aversion to accepting the laws of nature when our time is done. While he quite correctly states ‘Christianity is called the religion of pity’, compatible with this, and in line with any faith based theology, it can also be viewed as a slave/master relationship. The master of pity insists on supplication, lives for it and from it. Each breath depends on its continued existence through the guilt of the slave by holding them hostage through emotional and physical submission. Christianity, among many, can indeed be paralleled to the very physiology of Pity as both demand the same irrational expectations of those it holds in its clutches.  Like any faith, it demands full submission.

Many of know someone who makes a vocation out of reaping pity: the hypochondriac, the professional victim or complainer, the perpetual ‘down and outer’, and those, of course, on their eternal ‘death-bed’.  I once knew a woman who I quit asking ‘how she was doing’.  The result was a hang dog-look mixed with anger and impatient posturing with my refusal to contribute to that which gave her life. But if I refuse to feed faith in any of its insidious guises, why would I contribute to the selfish life-line of any self-defined master willingly.

The very essence of the Sect is to foster the ‘black flame’, to encourage responsible independence. It is also to encourage critical thinking in recognizing that though the essence and mask of faith comes in many forms, its stratification always remains the same: Master and slave.

Pity is contrary in its distinction of ‘will to live’. Those who choose to live it as ‘way of life’, have already died.