My Left-Hand Path
By Mistress-Babylon Consort
If you have ever thought the Left-Hand Path would be easy, think again. The ever changing winds of acquired knowledge require a life time of nurturing new found ideas as well as continuing introspection. Why? Because once the slave mentality of ‘faith and worship’ is cast aside, so is the disabling doubt in your ability to seek the answers for yourself. Curiosity becomes insatiable. It’s an honest approach to living that smashes unmercifully the delusions of grandeur that lay under the guise of piety. It requires responsible and moral behavior first to the self. There is no God. There is no Dark Lord. The Goddess is a lovely myth.
But what is the Left-Hand Path? The answer depends on who you ask and is secular to none. Among them are Atheists, Agnostics, Satanists, Deists, Setians, Luciferians, and Pagans to name but a few. I personally define it as reclaiming the mind of your birth, a mind that has been obscured by faith. It’s a brutal self-honesty, and an ‘eyes wide open’ view of the world and your place in it. It’s a world without worship, but one that can encompass spirituality. It holds tight the hand of lust and carnality, acknowledging and reveling in pleasures of the flesh. It is a path we walk alone in the company of fellow-travelers, and is a comfort in the dark-side of human nature which is driven by the light of life that resides in all of us.
But how did we end up on this ‘god forsaken’ path? Whether by chance, blunder or upbringing, something fostered the dark flame and trying to deny it is like trying to change your skin color. The strength of our skeptical and questioning nature leaves little room for self-deceit. Many people I have spoken with, when asked about their first cognizant memory of walking a LHP, generally recall the moment from childhood. I believe what they mean is that through their eyes now as adults, there is recognition of the feelings, differences and attitude that separated them from the rest.
Childhood is often the idyllic days in the innocence of curiosity, but natural maturation within the Left-Hand Path has its own version of teenage angst, like anything else. The seed and germination of the LHP can inspire a frenzy of high-spirited lust that is initially motivated by passion rather than rational thought: anger at ‘god’, a sense of elevated entitlement, dark ‘posturing’ and soap-box pontificating. As general as this may sound, it’s a common introductory war cry, so to speak, and certainly necessary as much as it is annoying, in the propelling of new and fresh ideas forward. We’ve all been there, but most move on. What’s most unfortunate, though, are those who chose to stay in the age of angst, rehashing and reiterating the same rhetoric, standing old among a new crowd, forever a follower. To stay is a death sentence.
I find the most significant and singular motivating fact that defines life on the LHP, is the engaging aspect of self-responsibility. In many ways it comes as a relief. As droll as it may sound, it is the prized pinnacle of self-awareness and is all encompassing into even the minutest detail of life and decision making. Cause and effect. It is the motivation behind learning, the brick and mortar of critical thinking. It separates pity from empathy, and spares the innocent. There are simply no more excuses consisting of ‘what if’ or ‘if only’. It allows my own decision making, which at one time were carelessly left for the ‘gods to handle’. The long past days of watching, waiting and grasping at thin air for answers that were little more than the ebb and flow of life, with or without me, are over.
I like that.
Mother Teresa Not So Saintly?
Submitted by Mistress-Babylon,Sect of the Horned God
I’m astounded it took a ‘study’ to find Mother Teresa’s spin on the fairy tale of altruism was little more than a then trade-in on a pair of angel wings. ~MB
(Yahoo News)
A new study claims the beloved nun might not have been as helpful to the poor as she could have been.
It’s highly likely that one day, the Catholic Church will officially recognize Mother Teresa as a saint, a position she’s held in the popular imagination for years. A new study in the religious studies journal Religieuses, however, says that the late Mother Teresa’s reputation is mostly hype — a result of a church declining in popularity trying to boost its image.
Mother Teresa’s biggest supposed sin? According to the Times of India, it was “her dubious way of caring for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it.”
How did researchers reach this controversial conclusion? The team of Canadian researchers studied nearly 300 documents, and discovered reports of poor hygiene standards and a shortage of medicine, supplies, and care in Mother Teresa’s 517 “homes for the dying” — although not for lack of cash. According to the report, her organization, the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.
Of course, this isn’t news to fans of Christopher Hitchens, the erudite atheist who made it his mission to battle religious dogma before he died in 2011. He even wrote a book on the topic called, crudely enough, The Missionary Position:
“Bear in mind that Mother Teresa’s global income is more than enough to outfit several first-class clinics in Bengal. The decision not to do so, and indeed to run instead a haphazard and cranky institution which would expose itself to litigation and protest were it run by any branch of the medical profession, is a deliberate one. The point is not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjugation.” [Salon]
The contentious report also says the Vatican rushed Teresa’s sainthood push for publicity’s sake, noting that Catholic officials fast-tracked her beatification and ignored evidence that refuted her “miracles.”
Despite the study’s inflammatory findings, researchers claim they aren’t out to smear Mother Teresa, writing that it is “likely that she has inspired many humanitarian workers whose actions have truly relieved the suffering of the destitute and addressed the causes of poverty and isolation.” They did say, however, that “the media coverage of Mother Teresa could have been a little more rigorous.”
In the end, this study will probably do very little to hurt Mother Teresa’s legacy. She was so popular that nearly 250,000 people flocked to Rome in 2003 to attend her beatification. For her biographer Navin Chawla and countless others, her belief that “each individual was a divine manifestation, each to be comforted, held, rescued, fed and not allowed to die alone” was enough to make up for any other faults.
A Woman With a Real Free Will
By Lilith Immaculate, Sect of the Horned God
A Woman With a Real Free Will.
“Free Will”, it’s always been the subject of controversy and discussion. It started a very long time ago with the Bible and the contradictory idea that “god” could give “his” creations a “free will” to do what they wanted when they wanted, but then saddled humankind with a long list of rules to control this “free will”.
In the last centuries, women have been used to exemplify humiliation, inhibited behavior, submissiveness and weakness. But now, thanks to our intelligence and the struggles that we as women have gone through, we are finally in a position to have our true “free will”.
Not a “free will” that was bestowed upon us by some unseen creator, but a “free will” that we have earned through sweat, blood, hard work and tears; we have fought for it, and cried out in righteous fury when it was denied us. Now is when we can, and must say “Hail to myself, no lord shall stand above me!”.
It is thanks to ourselves that we are now in a position to show that we are NOT weak, we will NO longer be trampled upon; we have raised ourselves out of the mud that xtian beliefs have so long trampled us into, and we will no longer allow those beliefs to oppress us or humiliate us!
Even though we’re surrounded by the media, government and the law oppress us most of the time, Who can go against what we feel?, Who can control our thoughts?… No one! We are the ones who design our own path! not with the “help” of some called “holy spirit” We are our own god! Hail Thyself!
Sect of the Horned God: New Forum!
The Sect of the Horned God has a new forum! Head over to: http://www.sectofthehornedgod.wall.fm
This site is an open forum. Start a topic, blog, chat and network.
We want to hear what you have to say!
The Petty Satanist
Thomas LeRoy, founder of the Sect of the Horned God, speaks on Petty Satanism
Religious Faith May Be Genetic
Submitted by Dimitri, Sect of the Horned God
By Chris Coughlan-Smith
Published on July 15, 2005
In the nature-versus-nurture debate, whether our genes or our environment dominate in making us who we are,research out of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research at the University of Minnesota has played a central role for more than 25 years. Starting with landmark studies of twins reared apart, Minnesota researchers have discovered remarkable levels of genetic influence on psychological traits and social attitudes. The newest University study on twins finds that degree of religious faith appears to be tied to genetics. Further, it concludes that the genetic influence grows in adulthood. Behavioral psychology Ph.D. student Laura Koenig (M.A. ’04) reviewed lengthy surveys from the early 1990s in the center’s database. Though the surveys dealt with parenting behavior of twins, Koenig discovered that some included nine questions that dealt directly with religious faith, including about church attendance, prayer, religious reading, and more open-ended questions. Respondents who were asked the religiousness questions (more than 250 sets of male twins born from 1961 to 1964) were also asked to answer the same questions for when they were children.
Koenig has a natural interest in the topic: Her identical twin, Anne, is in graduate school for social psychology at Northwestern, and the girls were raised in a strongly religious family.
At her computer in a cramped, windowless lab she shares with other Ph.D. students in Elliot Hall, Koenig sifted through the responses and saw patterns begin to emerge: Upbringing played a large part in determining respondents’ degree of faith early in life. But as respondents became adults, genetics became a dominant factor, either strengthening or reducing the role of religion in their lives. Koenig drew her conclusions based on the fact that identical twins, who share all their inherited genes, have similar degrees of faith in adulthood, while fraternal twins, who share half their inherited genes, tend to deviate in religiousness as they become adults. Koenig’s analysis was published in the April issue of the Journal of Personality. Understanding which traits and attitudes are influenced by genetics can help psychologists, parents, teachers, and individuals learn how to work with genetic predispositions, Koenig asserts. Plus, she says, simply understanding why people do certain things is an important step in understanding human interaction as more than “a mass of confusing and chaotic behaviors.” Koenig has a natural interest in the topic: Her identical twin, Anne, is in graduate school for social psychology at Northwestern, and the girls were raised in a strongly religious family. “The findings didn’t cause me to question my faith at all,” Laura Koenig says. “It makes sense that parental influence would decrease as you move through adolescence and start finding your own way.”
From Minnesota magazine, July-August 2005.
The Moral Bomb
By Mistress-Babylon Consort, Co-founder of the Sect of the Horned God
Rarely a day goes by that I am not, on some level, questioned or ‘accused’ of having no ‘moral standards’ because I am an Satanic Atheist . There is also not a day that goes by that I don’t question/challenge/debate it within myself. Of course in the most general sense, I have a long list of self –imposed standards or morals that are as innate as primal instinct, ones that are based on physical and emotional survival, ones that are ‘best’ for me and my own. That in itself promotes a ‘pebble in the pond’ chain of events as it filters through extended family and community. But that’s the brainless and glossy end of self-defined morality. It would be easy enough to stand and beat my chest, like so many do, roaring Left-Hand Path/Atheistic-Satanic modes of well worn kindergarten philosophy.
But how long does one need to sit at the starting gate after the whistle has shrilled?
The day will and does come, for all of us, when life will throw a bomb into that carefully built hill of moral agenda. Mine certainly has. I’ve seen it coming for many years but chose to put it aside in hopes that the challenge and upheaval of self reflection would dissipate into a solution provided by the natural course of universal law. Foolish me.
I have a sister who was recently locked away in a mental health facility where she will remain for the rest of her life. Finally. It’s been years in coming. Diagnosed at the age of 26 with schizophrenia, the pre and post diagnosis years saw our family life in ruins with her never-ending manic and irrational violence. She was a mean bitch right from birth. The level of violence she is capable of started early when she killed the family pets with nary a blink of an eye. The list is long and horrifying. It would be wrong of me to ever assume that she has never murdered another human. Eventually, of course, the voices, hallucinations, and paranoia she experienced further led her delusional decision making. Fear and anger were my best friend when she was around. I recall an instance several years ago that stands out in my mind, where in Canada, just outside the city I am from and was living in at the time, a young college student was murdered and cannibalized on a GreyHound bus by Vince Lee, the gentleman who sat in the seat next to him. Lee was an undiagnosed schizophrenic , and when the ‘demon voices’ instructed him to kill and eat this young man, he did. Upon hearing the initial sketchy news reports of this on television, my heart stopped. Was it her? Fear washed over me like a sickening sewer. I knew she was capable of it simply by the fires she had set to occupied homes and buidings. Regardless, and knowing this, the dozens of times I had petitioned the Canadian courts, pleaded with dozens of judges, and filled out reams of paper to have her committed fell on deaf ears for too many years.
Of course she had been arrested and/or hospitalized many many times before. Those were the nights I slept well. She was safe and the world was safe from her. Nobody would die tonight. But then again, she was always released. Those with the most severe of mental health issues have rights, despite the fact that they are a known danger to society and/or themselves. Vince Lee, himself, is currently preparing for his re-entry back in mainstream society, after what I consider a short hospital stay.
Her last stand in ‘normal’ society ended when she was quietly picked up in a coffee shop by the police on a special order from the courts, as by now her descent into madness was fully complete. She has no conscious. She is rabid and feral. And I hate her. Or at least I tell myself that. She is self-will run riot, with nary a capable thought in her head of cause and effect, yet I resent that the sweet lull of her madness will cradle her. Whatever she did or has done, she got away with, and I say ‘got away with’ as in her world there are no repercussions. They do not exist, and never really have.
I betray myself with the cold and sincere desire of having to admit wanting her dead for so many years. Is this my ‘easy way out’ or a desperate emotional attempt to just stop the pain and horror? Am I unfeeling for wanting that and have for so very long? But there is no relief, as paradoxically it holds the hand of crushing guilt. It’s hard to decipher as I pick up the pieces from years of her destruction and try to piece together a faded crumbling puzzle. Right now, unbidden, every moral of my being, every last frayed nerve and thought is colliding and called into question with my own behavior and thought processes. Don’t tell me to understand her illness. I do. Clinically and without emotion. Do I pity her? I can’t as the words of Nietzsche remind me “( Pity) preserves what is right for destruction; it defends those who have been disinherited and condemned by life; and by the abundance of the failures that keep it alive..” Pity would be an insult.
And still, emotions and self-introspection unceasingly collide. I am angry and enraged, but it is coupled by a grief so deep it seems unmanagable. It’s like she ‘has’ died and my wish fulfilled. I am horrified at the thought of ever being capable of thinking such a thing. Around and around I go.
She is alive, but gone. The birth and hope of the innocent girl-child shattered by a disease that would take her mind early and turn her into a monster It’s not fair, but life isn’t. Resolve seems fleeting.
A Brief Description of Dionysianism
By The Darkf00l
Dionysianism is a philosophy based on the dichotomy presented within the literary concept of the “Apollonian and Dionysian.” Mythically, the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus were brothers. Apollo was the god of the sun and of reason, while Dionysus was the god of wine, intoxication, and madness. Unlike some myths where brothers of opposite qualities became enemies, Apollo and Dionysus never became rivals. It is this very relationship that lies at the core of the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy: the appearance of a contradictory nature which is actually a harmonious blend of opposite qualities.
Amongst the many philosophers who invoked the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, it was Friedrich Nietzsche who contributed the most within his book “The Birth of Tragedy.” Within his book, Nietzsche attributes the dichotomy to the “Kunsttrieben” or “artistic impulses”. The Apollonian portion of the dichotomy represented characteristics such as the visual-plastic arts, the detached observer (or objective artist), rational/logical reason, and individuation. It’s opposite qualities, the Dionysian, represented the musical-intuitive arts, the frenzied participant (such as a dancer), the irrational/non-logical, and the dissolution of the self through the frenzied acts (in other words, wholeness).
Within my book, “Way of the Dionysian,” I take the Apollonian and Dionysian’s harmonious relationship a step further by correlating it with various concepts and with various spiritual paths and systems; particularly branding Dionysianism a Middle Path philosophy as it is comprised of both Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand path philosophies. My book will delve into the fluctuations between individuation and wholeness and how the transversal of both can benefit the individual and whichever group he or she happens to associate with. Other themes that correlate to the juxtaposition of opposite qualities as one include the life/death instinct (Freudian and Jungian), and, greatest of all, the “Zero Current” which is the universe’s own interplay of both order and chaos; causing evolution to occur on both a microcosmic and macrocosmic scale.
Piper of the Moon
By Thomas LeRoy, founder of the Sect of the Horned God
His pipes lament,
Under the frost-white moon.
A melancholy air echoes in the stillness of the field,
A sombre, untamed ode to Life,
Made manifest by breath.
He calls her.
The scent of the raw, moist earth,
The scent of the flora,
The scent of her;
Drifts upon the ecstasy of Being,
Carved out of the longing of the Flesh,
To know her.
Then, a fleeting glimpse!
A wraith?
A soft, white figure veiled in the mist,
Flowing black hair, a cowl of silk,
As she melts into the night with a laugh.
The nymph evades his song.
His lust.
Him.
The Art Of Kris Kuksi
By Mistress-Babylon Consort
Few artists have sparked a passion and appreciation so quickly, but Kris Kuksi is one of them. His intricate detail speaks volumes of myth, culture and imagination. Enjoy!
“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”
~ Robert Francis Kennedy
Born March 2, 1973, in Springfield Missouri and growing up in neighboring Kansas, Kris spent his youth in rural seclusion and isolation along with a blue-collar, working mother, two significantly older brothers, and an absent father. Open country, sparse trees, and alcoholic stepfather, all paving the way for an individual saturated in imagination and introversion. His propensity for the unusual has been a constant since childhood, a lifelong fascination that lent itself to his macabre art later in life. The grotesque to him, as it seemed, was beautiful.
Kris Kuksi garners recognition and acclaim for the intricate sculptures that result from his unique and meticulous technique. A process that requires countless hours to assemble, collect, manipulate, cut, and re-shape thousands of individual parts, finally uniting them into an orchestral-like seamless cohesion that defines the historical rise and fall of civilization and envisions the possible future(s) of humanity.
Each sculpture embodies the trademarks of his philosophy and practice, while serving as a testament to the multifaceted nature of perception – From timeless iconic references of Gods and Goddess, to challenging ideas of organized religion and morality, to the struggle to understand, and bend, the limits of mortality. None is complete without a final and brilliant touch of satire and rebuke all conceived in the aesthetic essence of the Baroque fused with the modern day industrial world.
In personal reflection, Kris feels that in the world today much of mankind is oftentimes frivolous and fragile, being driven primarily by greed and materialism. He hopes that his art exposes the fallacies of Man, unveiling a new level of awareness to the viewer.
His work has received several awards and prizes and has been featured in over 100 exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide including the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Kris’ art can also be seen in a number of international art magazines, book covers and theatrical posters. Kris’ art is featured in both public and private collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia
The Orders of The Sect of the Horned God
