Satan and the Virgin Mary: Long Lost Lovers
by Thomas LeRoy
From the first glimmers of the primordial dawn, the Mother Goddess has had numerous interpretations and faces. Many early societies had a “mother-like godform” that honored the sacred feminine. A mother goddess is a personification of the Earth, the mother of all living things, of fertility and the birth of humanity as a whole. Besides the natural representations, Jungian interpretation equates the archetypal Mother Goddess with the feminine aspect within us all, and also with the greater unconscious, that “deepest ground of the psyche”.
The list of names of the Goddess are endless, and the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, is but one of them. Now, it goes without saying that the Christian mind may find this truth difficult to grasp, but the evidence for this is indisputable. For example, an obscure Early Christian heretical movement, Collyridianism, worshipped the Virgin Mary as a goddess. She was looked upon and worshipped as the supreme being, the Great Mother Goddess. And, as it turns out, “The Virgin” is a mythical character based on older goddesses who were themselves astrotheological personifications of celestial and earthly bodies and principles, the “Queen of Heaven”, prevalent in the ancient world. The old Teutonic goddess Hertha (the Earth) was a Virgin, but was impregnated by the heavenly Spirit (the Sky); and her image with a child in her arms was to be seen in the sacred groves of Germany. The Scandinavian Frigga, in much the same way, being caught in the embraces of Odin, the All-father, conceived and bore a son, the blessed Balder, healer and savior of mankind. Quetzalcoatl, the (crucified) savior of the Aztecs, was the son of Chimalman, the Virgin Queen of Heaven. Even the Chinese had a mother-goddess and virgin with child in her arms; and the ancient Etruscans also. There is the image of Isis nursing her Divine Son, Horus. And like the Christian Mary and Egyptian Isis, the Canaanite goddess Astarte was the “Virgin”. Thus this symbolism of the Goddess and her child has done a good job of expressing the relationship between consciousness and its divine matrix (the collective unconscious) as one of organic unity.
As most might be aware, it was common from the beginnings of Christiandom to adopt older heathen gods and turn them into saints . . . or devils. Castor and Pollux became St. Cosmo and St. Damien; Dionysus still holds his place as St. Denis of Paris. And the Horned God? It’s no stretch to guess who he became. But the relationship between the Neo-Pagan Horned God and the Christian Devil, or Satan, is a bit more complex than one might think. The modern Horned God is a composite of many pre-Christian deities, mostly the Greek Pan and the Celtic Cernunnos. But it was also influenced by Margaret Murray’s interpretation of medieval Christian devil imagery. In this sense, the Horned God is a modern “paganization” of the Devil, with his various animal characteristics representing the beastly nature of humankind; essentially a sacralization of our sexual nature. Thus, because of this exaltation of the beast within, the modern Christian equates the Pagan Horned God with Satan.
And who was, or is, the Horned God’s love-interest? The Goddess.
The Horned God and the Goddess, the “Divine Lovers”, represent the ontological polarity between the opposites of male and female common to many mythological traditions: Shiva and Shakti, Pan and Diana, Cernunnos and Brigit, etc. They are metaphorical representations of the Jungian Anima and Animus (the anima, the archetypal feminine symbolism within a man’s unconscious, while the animus is the personification of masculine psychological tendencies within a woman). This symbolism, though, is not found in the Abrahamic traditions. In most cases within this mythological structure the female aspect is vilified while the masculine is exalted. But this is not so in the case of the Goddess and the Horned God. The Goddess has been reinterpreted in a syncretic form into the Virgin, the most revered of all women, while the Horned God has become Satan. And why did they give the Horned God the name of the supreme bad guy in their mythos? Because they hate what He represents. He represents power, lust, carnality, death and knowledge. He is the free-thinking individualist ready to live life on His own terms. As stated before, He is our animal side, that aspect that keeps us tied down to the natural world. He is the antithesis of all that the Christians see as holy. And for their dogma to survive and for there to be calm within the flock, those traits of the human character have to be subdued. But the old time Christians weren’t stupid. They knew that the Horned God was a large part of what a human being is. So by telling the populace that who they are at their core is evil, and you need to kiss the ass of Jesus to be freed of that evil, they created an outstanding system of control. Thus in Christian society came a separation of these long lost lovers (Horned God/Goddess) within the psyche. But no good Christian would ever dream of a union between Satan and the Virgin. This being so, this stark division of archetypes has led to a psychological separation from the anima within the Christian man, and the animus within the Christian women. And by not bringing Satan and the Virgin Mary together, the Christian is an incomplete being.
A symbolic union of Gods and Goddess in the subconscious is important for the health of the psyche. This union of opposites is even evident in the image of that androgynous beast called Baphomet. But don’t worry, connecting with one’s inner male or female element has nothing to do with sexuality. It has everything, though, to do with creating a balance on the scales of passive (female) and aggressive (male) energies within us, which is essential for the development of self-awareness and personal understanding. These are important components of involution (as opposed to evolution) towards reaching the “Higher-Self”.
Rituals
Contributed by Chris
Sect of the Horned God Member
Many people have rituals. Some are getting up and having coffee before they drive to work. When they miss that ritual it seems that the whole day is nothing but chaos. A lot of Satanists have grown up in homes with religious ceremonies occurring every week. What is the phenomenon of ritual that many Satanists engage in, considering many Satanists identify as Atheistic? What are they using ritual for if they are skeptical of external agencies? Well not all ritual alludes to the notion that external agencies exist. There still remains an essence of mystery to the existence of a Principle or Force in Nature. While this force may not be supernatural it could exist between dimensions of time and space, or be a very natural phenomenon that is at this time trans-rational. It’s a possibility, but not a certainty. Arthur C. Clarke, the author of Childhood’s End, declared that: “Magic is just a science we don’t understand yet.”
Ritual is a systematic methodology to working out a willed intent and working, both inside and (or) outside the ritual chamber, to ensure it’s coming into being. From a pragmatic standpoint magic is a way for a determined Satanist, or Chaos Magician, to focus on the quality aspirations of their life and develop an active blueprint by which these goals are achieved. This tends to run concurrent to a social realm where when goals become too hard or too challenging we give up on the greatness and settle for second best. For the Satanist this attitude is unacceptable. Ambition and a strong sense of self confidence are the recipe for what would be termed a successful working.
A Satanist may have faith in him or herself that a ritual will work out for their best interest. This is different from a Christian ritual where the faith is removed from the self and externalized into a god form who will find a solution to the problem for them. For some Satanists, like the author, the bottom line is that the magic worked, their respective symbol systems are on a whole different, intellectual level. The magic worked across the board, however, the dogmatic Christian will have trouble explaining why the magic worked when only his religion is correct in principle. Thus the need for demons and devils as this is the buffer system for explaining to the dogmatic why the magic works despite the difference in the symbol systems.
For some Satanists magic may take an even more practical step in that ceremony and ritual are no longer necessary for them to effect a change in their environment. In their day to day life their willed intentions are embedded in their motives. They have a talent for shaping their plans from moment to moment. They are vigilantly studying the patterns in life and shaping them to bring the outcomes that will yield them immense benefit. This is a step toward magical mastery. Ritual becomes a nomenclature for the simple causes of bringing about beneficial change for the individual Satanist.
Abyzou
Abyzou is a female, child-killing demon of Hebrew mythology whose name means “abyss”. In the Testament of Solomon, Abyzou is described as having a “greenish gleaming face with wild, serpent-like hair”and with darkness sometimes hiding her lower body. Claimed to be responsible for miscarriages and infant mortality, Abyzou does not sleep and so wanders the world hunting for women about to give birth. Upon finding them, she then strangles the newly born child. It is told that Azybou is infertile herself, and as such performs these killings out of jealousy and envy of those able to bare offspring.
Abyzou can be controlled via the magic of Solomon, though. Using charms, St. Sisinnious, St. Michael, and the archangel Raphael (her main adversary) are petitioned for protection from the demon. If a pregnant woman were to write the name of Abyzou upon a scrap of papyrus prior to giving birth, Abyzou will flee from their sight, leaving the child unharmed.
Like many demons of her type, Abyzou also likely causes infertility. In the Testament of Solomon, Abyzou takes credit for causing all manners of problematic conditions such as eye, ear and throat problems, as well as causing insanity.
The Dark Aspects of Existence
by Thomas LeRoy
We know, in the deeper recesses of our minds, that each morning when we awaken we are one day closer to death, a death that will be, more likely than not, painful. But before that final curtain drops, we will endure heartache, loss, pain and suffering; a suffering that will sometimes seem insurmountable. And for many of us, if we are so lucky, the last thing we hear over the beep of a heart-monitor will be the lamentations of our loved ones.
Life is a bitch and then you die!
But what can we learn from this stark realization? Of facing our fears? Of facing death? What riches can we extract from these very dark aspects of existence?
“To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities — I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not — that one endures.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche
No matter how hard it may seem, the dark aspects of existence should not be seen as problematic. Instead, what’s really problematic is one’s attitude toward them. We must have optimism in the face of fear and suffering, for true psychological health involves affirming Life’s darker side.
“Aghora is not indulgence, it is the forcible transformation of Darkness into Light, of the opacity of the limited individual personality into the luminescence of the Absolute. Renunciation disappears once you arrive at the Absolute because then nothing remains to renounce. An Aghori goes so deeply into Darkness, into all things undreamable to ordinary mortals, that he comes out into Light.”
–Dr. Robert Svoboda
Aghora (which literally means “the Non-Fearful”), is a 1000-year old heterodox Hindu philosophy that follows an unconventional, radical path to spiritual fulfillment. Shiva the Destroyer, the embodiment of death, is their god and spiritual teacher, while the cremation grounds is their home. They believe that Shiva induced the best and worst of the world and nothing is profane, everything is sacred. They eliminate thoughts of duality between pure and impure, good and bad; denying perfection of anything would be like disrespecting the sacredness of life in its full manifestation. Hence, what other Hindu sects regard as unacceptable or taboo, these practitioners of the left-hand path embrace; they embrace the darker aspects of existence to help lead them to a higher level of consciousness. In the darkness they find gems of tranquil beauty. But how can we, too, find these jewels if we can see nothing in the inky depths of the dark?
By utilizing the Black Flame!
We, on the left-hand path, have a tool. It is a rare thing, this pilot-light of the soul/psyche. Not everyone has it, and only a few who do, know how to use it. It must be used to ignite a greater light, your personal fire! But for those on the right-hand path, they have received their light from another source, not from the personal. They have dipped their torches in a communal fire and use that flame to hurry through the darkness instead of studying it, learning from it.
The truth is the darker aspects of existence should be welcomed by those seeking spiritual fulfillment, for it is then, and only then, that true self-overcoming can be reached. So much more can be learned from pain than comfort. The most fulfilling human projects are inseparable from at least some degree of torment. In the end, we must stare into the abyss and find peace in its depths before we can truly laugh in the face of Death.
Origin Myths
by The Sect of the Horned God
The Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008 allows educators to teach the ancient Hebrew creation myth in tax-payer funded public schools. The Sect of the Horned God, a left-hand path educational foundation, would like to aid the state of Louisiana in furthering the teaching of mythology. If the Hebrew myth can be taught, then why not some of the many others from around the world?
We have done our research and have found some of these creation myths and present them here, thus aiding in the educational development of the children of Louisiana.
Here are just a few.
AZTEC
In the beginning was the Void. Here the dual god, Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl, created itself. This god was good and bad, chaos and order, male and female. Being male and female, it was able to have children. It had four, which came to represent the four directions of north, south, east and west. These four gods began to create. They created water, and other gods, and the sea monster Cipactli.
Cipactli was to become the source of the Cosmos.
BABYLONIAN
Apsu was the god of fresh water and thus male fertility. Tiamat, wife of Apsu, was the goddess of the sea and thus chaos and threat. The union of these two entities gave birth to the younger gods.Ea, Enki, and the younger gods, killed Apsu and fought against Tiamat futilely until from among them emerged the champion Marduk, who killed Tiamat.
Marduk consulted with the god Ea (the God of Wisdom) and decided to create human beings from the remains of the gods that instigated the war against Tiamat.
CELTIC
In this myth, in the beginning there was no time, no gods and no people but where the sea met the land a white mare made of sea-foam was born called Eiocha.
Eventually she gave birth to the god Cernunnos, and together they then created more gods.But when the gods and goddesses were grown up, Eiocha left the land to return to her life as a sea-mare and became known as Tethra, Goddess of the Deep.
The gods and goddesses then created a man, a woman and the animals from bark from the oak tree that grew on the land.
CHINESE
Before the world came into being there existed only the Cosmic Egg. From the Egg was born P’an Ku, the primordial man.He then began to fashion the material of Chaos.Each day P’an Ku grew ten feet, using his own body as a pillar to force Heaven and Earth apart.When the separation was complete and they had settled in their places, P’an Ku died.
His breath became the wind and clouds, his eyes became the sun and moon.
GREEK
In the beginning there was only chaos. Then Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared. Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaea’s mate covering her on all sides.
And from their line came the Titans, the Gods and eventually humanity.
HINDU
The Hindu creation myth says that before this time began, there was no heaven, no earth and no space between. But asleep within its endless coils of a giant cobra lay the Lord Vishnu. From Vishnu’s navel grew a magnificent lotus flower.
In the middle of the blossom sat Vishnu’s servant, Brahma. He awaited the Lord’s command.Vishnu spoke to his servant: “It is time to begin.”
Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched one part into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third part of the flower he created the skies.
The earth was bare. Brahma set to work. The world was soon bristling with life and the air was filled with the sound of Brahma’s creation.
NORSE
Odin and his brothers, Vili and Vé, create Middle-Earth (the world of humans) from the body of a giant named Ymir. They create the world from his body, using the different body parts to make different things:From his flesh and some of his bones, they make the land and rocky mountains.They use his blood to make the sea and other bodies of water.From the maggots growing in the dead body of Ymir, Odin and his brothers create the race of the dwarves.
Odin and his brothers create other races: the light-elves, who live far above the earth in Alfheim; sprites and spirits, who populate the forest groves and streams; and the animals of both land and sea.
ZULU
In classical, pre-colonial Zulu myth, Unkulunkulu brought human beings and cattle from an area of reeds. He created everything, from land and water to man and the animals. He is considered the first man as well as the parent of all people.
He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire, and how to grow food.
And these are only a few.
To Pan by HP Lovecraft
Hoofs it had instead of toes
And a beard adorn’d its throat.
On a set of rustic reeds
Sweetly play’d this hybrid man
Naught car’d I for earthly needs,
For I knew that this was Pan.
Nymphs and Satyrs gather’d round
To enjoy the lively sound.
All to soon I woke in pain
And return’d to haunts of men
But in rural vales I’d fain
Live and hear Pan’s pipes again.
The Will to Power and the Left-Hand Path
by Thomas LeRoy
“This world is the Will to Power—and nothing else! And you yourselves too are this Will to Power—and nothing else!” — Friedrich Nietzsche
No one is born on the left-hand path. None of you, you good Satanists, nor your lovely offspring. Not even the children of Anton LaVey. No one has self-determination (the essence of the left-hand path) as a small child. All are subject to “other-determination”, thus all are born on the right-hand path. It is on the RHP that one learns one’s cultural collective ways to deal with others and society in general. But even if you self-identify as a Satanist, you still must choose to take the left-hand path. And what is the fundamental reason for this choice?
Personal empowerment.
You choose to step on the LHP because you have a drive to further your power — to become more than you are. You are not one who is simply searching for spiritual enlightenment; it is much more than that. If it were only about reaching calm in your soul you’d join a church, or a Wiccan coven, or sit around with some hippies in the lotus position chanting some gibberish you think is Sanskrit, but has more in common with Pig-Latin. No, it’s more. You have a drive, a will, that compels you to do that which most fear. This “will” pushes you to gaze down into the abyss and not divert your eyes. You are not one who shrinks from the horrors of reality, nor do you struggle blindly, but live deliberately with a fervor for existence. Friedrich Nietzsche called this sense of joy and vitality accompanying the imposition of values on a otherwise meaningless world “tragic optimism”. It belies the “reality” that your world is not Will to Existence, but Will to Power.
The will to power is a natural force, one that propels all life. It is not the need to conquer one’s neighbors in a bloody raid, but to conquer one’s fears, phobias or short-comings. It is about the experience of joy felt when one “over-comes”. And the left-hand path is the individual’s path to “self-overcoming”. It is a truly life-affirming philosophy that brings forth a healthier you through individual development based upon personal needs and efforts.
On a deeper level, the will to power, though, explains the fundamental changing aspects of reality. Everything is in flux. Matter is always moving and changing, as are ideas, knowledge, and even truth. The will to power is the fundamental engine of this change. And on the left-hand path, one does not fear change, for it is change the individual seeks.
Change in one’s self
The Hyperborean: Going Beyond Christian Morality
From the beginning, Christianity and many other right-hand path philosophies have portrayed life as punishment and as a transitory state of being. The body is looked upon as a prison and is a danger to the soul; as such the individual has to live life according to specific rules of conduct to attain the recompense of the “Afterlife“. The here and now is all but ignored, reality little more than an introduction to a greater story to come.
The Hyperborean, the highest degree in the Sect (a name used by Nietzsche to describe those that live his philosophy), denies this notion as that of the weak in mind and spirit. It is the mentality of the slave. These slaves lack will and creativity and blindly follow authority, basing their lives on the notion of that perfect world to come. They are crippled by their own beliefs and do little to advance as people or a species since they value meekness and restraint. They are filled with the constant fear of going astray from what they see as the path of religious truth. Trapped in a moral system that will not allow them to truly exert their will, they internalize their rage. Guilt sets in, leading to self-contempt and depression.
What is most insidious is this “morality of the slave” has not only permeated the hearts and minds of the religious, but also those who claim no religious faith. Many take it as axiomatic that meekness, civility, communal cooperation are universal truths, and that the strong individualist, the Hyperborean, having created their own morality, is a selfish being. Since they dare to break the chains of an ancient moral code, they become social pariahs. But the status of outcast is a mark of honor to the Hyperborean, for a wild boar finds no joy in a pig-pen.
The Hyperborean is a person of action and a philosophical warrior. They dare to take chances, doing what most people only dream of. The Hyperborean is their own God, giving themselves morality and value as they see fit according to their will. They strive for personal structures to moral standards, thus calling for new ways of evaluating the world. These strong individualists have re-thought morality in their day to day lives, but by doing so they question what it means to be human, since humanity has always been based on a concept of morality which regulates social practices and norms. The Hyperboreans, though, test themselves and their vision against such regulations.
They unabashedly test their strengths against the world.
Mythological Guides on the Left-Hand Path
by Thomas LeRoy
Within the Sect, the use of mythological archetypes may vary from person to person. Most Satanic groups use Satan, and only Satan. We also utilize Pan, Cernunnos, Prometheus, Dionysus, the choice is yours; hence the name “The Sect of the Horned God” and not “The Sect of Satan”. These gods are guides to lead the individual through the deeper aspects of the Self, through the subconscious, past your demons and to the door of the collective unconscious, where aspects of these archetypes are recognized.
The collective unconscious consists of primordial images, the most ancient and universal “thought forms” of humanity. Carl Jung pieced together the theory of the collective unconscious when he noticed that some of his less educated patients created delusional images that he found to be analogous to symbolic representations from many religions and mythologies. The link between the dreams, fantasies and drawings of these patients and the symbolic structure of mythologies prompted Jung to speculate about a collective, or shared, origin of symbolic images. The horns and antlers of the Greco/Celtic gods, and the fire of Prometheus would be examples of recognizable universal symbols. The horns representing power, the fire knowledge. Together they become what a true Satanist is: a synthesis of strength through personal knowledge and knowledge through personal strength.
Time has brought us a myriad of gods from every culture. Most of these metaphorical representations tend to be guides upon the “right-hand path”. But some have a darker aspect. These archetypes lead you in a different direction, delving into that deeper sphere of the subconscious.
Here are but a few:
Set is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religions. In Egyptian mythology, Set is portrayed as the usurper who killed and mutilated his own brother Osiris. Set was never a completely evil figure though. He protected the sun barge of Re, his benefactor, during its nightly journey through the Underworld.
Ahriman is the evil spirit in the dualistic doctrine of Zoroastrianism. His essential nature is expressed in his principal epithet—Druj, “the Lie.” The Lie expresses itself as greed, wrath, and envy. To aid him in attacking the light, the good creation of Ahura Mazdā, the Wise Lord, Ahriman created a horde of demons embodying envy and similar qualities.
Lucifer is another name for “the morning star, the planet Venus”. He is also known as the “Light-Bringer”, “Bringer of Dawn”. According to Ezekiel 28:13, a probable reference to Lucifer, we learn that he is an amazing being to behold: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.”
Shiva is the destroyer of the world, after which Brahma again creates the world anew and so on. Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the false identification of the Self.
Kali is the fearful and ferocious aspect of the mother goddess. She assumed the form of a powerful goddess and became popular with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya, a text of the 5th – 6th century AD. Here She is depicted as having been born from the brow of Goddess Durga during one of her battles with the evil forces. As the legend goes, in the battle, Kali got so carried away in the killing spree she began destroying everything in sight.
These gods of the left-hand path should not be ignored. If they come knocking on the door of your psyche welcome them in, for it is important to recognize the archetype that best represents you. Most will go with Satan, but some may find comfort in Nature and all things Celtic and thus are drawn to Cernunnos. Others to the carnality of Pan, or the revelry of Dionysus. And still others to the enlightenment of Prometheus; or the female aspects of Lilith, or Kali.
What’s important is that they should be a mirror of the Self.
“Gods suppressed become devils, and often it is these devils whom we first encounter when we turn inward.” –Joseph Campbell
Who Runs the Asylum? by Thomas LeRoy
Who runs the asylum?
Bent upon the edge,
Who scatters the dreams?
Left upon the ledge.
Who tastes the evil?
Ripe upon the tongue,
Who warns the weary,
Upon the broken rung.
Who sings the song?
As madness tempts the fools,
A step into the dark,
As phantoms break the rules.
Who’s voice is stifled?
As they scream in fear,
Who bleeds the most?
As you remove the spear.
Who scars the night?
A streak across the sky,
Who laughs the loudest,
On that day you die?
The Orders of The Sect of the Horned God
