Vinculación de la facultad con los diversos sectores de la sociedad

Another, less controversial, aspect of Satanic occultism is the popularity of the Cthulhu Mythos, product of the tormented mind of revered horror writer (and serial abuser of adjectives) H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). The Cthulhu Mythos, created by Lovecraft with the assistance of a circle of science fiction / horror writers, is a loose collection of fictional works, a pseudomythology, about a pantheon of ancient gods. Key works are Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” and his fabled grimoire, the Necronomicon. With the help of nu- merous subsequent writers, the mythos eventually developed far beyond its status as narrative background detail. The Necronomicon has become particu- larly influential, despite the fact it never existed beyond the imagination of the Lovecraft Circle, who frequently referenced each other’s forbidden (i.e., apocryphal) texts in order to create an air of legitimacy. Since Lovecraft’s death a number of versions have been authored, and it has come be recog- nized as a genuine medieval grimoire.

One of the stranger and less predictable outcomes of the Cthulhu Mythos has been its adoption by occultists and the development of Lovecraftian magic. Lovecraft’s fiction is popular to occultists because it provides a pow- erful articulation of forbidden knowledge, the fragility of civilization, and hints of a deeper, darker reality hiding behind a world—our world—of il- lusion. It is, effectively, Platonism for ghouls. British Thelemite Kenneth Grant’s The Magical Revival (1972) boosted this appropriation by setting out a number of purported correspondences between the New England horror master’s fictions and the ideas of Crowley’s magical system.33 _{LaVey played}

a part in engendering the shift from Lovecraft-the-writer to Lovecraft-the- occultist by identifying Lovecraft’s Goat of One Thousand Young (Shub Niggurath) as one of the readings of the Baphomet in The Satanic Bible, and including the Aquino-penned “Ceremony of the Nine Angles” and “Call to Cthulhu” in The Satanic Rituals. Many occultists claim that Lovecraft, an atheist and self-defined mechanistic materialist, was either unconsciously in- fluenced by the deeper truths of cosmic reality despite himself, or a visionary who disguised his genuine occult insights as fiction. As such, Lovecraft’s so- called magick realism has been adopted by Satanists, followers of Crowley’s Thelema, Grant’s Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, and practitioners of chaos magick, with considerable overlapping of interests between these groups.34

The rise of chaos magick has occurred alongside, and complementary to, the Lovecraft tangent of occultism. This flexible and nondiscriminatory non- system draws from all occult traditions, with special regard for the theories of Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956). A talented painter and one-time Crow- ley disciple, the Englishman was influential for his free-form, psychically

oriented magic focused on the individual subconscious. Chaos magick has developed from its roots in Spare’s thought into a highly eclectic and indi- vidualistic form of magical practice. It is popular amongst Satanists because of its extreme subjectivity and nondoctrinaire nature. Its loose central credo is the Nietzsche-derived “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”35 _Impor-

tantly, it allows fictional characters to be employed in magical rites, greatly broadening its conceptual possibilities. One of its primary nonformulators, Ray Sherwin, describes it as “beyond dogma and rules, relying on intuition and information uprooted from the depths of self.” With these loosely pre- scribed parameters, chaos magick reflects “the randomness of the universe and the individual’s relationship with it,”36 _{allows the practitioner to define}

his own magical method, ethics, and goals, and confines his powers only to the limits of his imagination. Basically, anything goes.

Satanism’s loose incorporation of the Cthulhu Mythos into its occult canon is an indication of both its doctrinal promiscuity and the continual blurring of lines between fact and fiction, legend and history. Another example is the incorporation of the Al-Jilwah ( The Revelation) in The Satanic Rituals as the Statement of Shaitan. The Al-Jilwah is a work of medieval mysticism from the syncretistic Middle Eastern Yedizi faith (in what is now Iraq ). The Yed- izis worship a God that is assisted by seven archangels, of whom the pri- mary is Melek Taus, represented by a peacock. Confusion arises from Melek Taus’s second name, Shaytan, as it is similar to the Islamic name for Satan, Shaitan. Combined with suspicion of the secretive ethnic minority ( Kurdish) sect and the poor regard of Muslims for Yedizism, the false charge of devil- worship was frequently repeated throughout history. Like the Cathars and Knights Templar, the Yedizis were victims of their opponent’s slander, with even Lovecraft referring to them as devil-worshippers in the short story “The Horror at Red Hook.”

LaVey, predictably, joined the chorus. Both The Satanic Bible and The

Satanic Rituals stated that the Yedizis were undoubtedly devil-worshippers.

Equally predictably, he corrupted the text in the latter. Though the origi- nal text states explicitly “Do not mention my name or my attributes,” LaVey added a footnote, “No longer mandatory,” before inserting “So saith Shaitan” at its culmination. These interpolations are crucial, as the passage is ambigu- ous in regard to the identity of the deity being discussed, and contains no hint of being in any way Satanic (or Shaitanic). LaVey also excised passages that conflict with his Satanic interpretation, including the introductory state- ment “Peace Be Unto Him” and the final few lines:

And the garden on high is for those who do my pleasure I sought the truth and became a confirming truth

The mythology of Satan may be rich and varied, but the great deceiver has seldom been said to represent the truth, reside in a “garden on high,” or “pos- sess the highest place.”