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.
The Orders of The Sect of the Horned God
