discontinuing degree color-coding for medallions.
Detailed information concerning the Church’s
original initiatory-degree system is contained in my
The Church of Satan documentary history.
Post-May 1975, accordingly, a sincere Satanist
may wear a Baphomet of any color personally
preferred.
131 In this case it is not the “signature” of the ominous Khabit,
but the deeply personal one of the Ab (Chapter #13.C.4, page
#197).
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E. Oath
Just one more thing:
Before you decide to undertake Satanic Ritual -
to perform Black Magic in his name, it is well to be
quite certain of your sincerity and to so state it by
oath in your very first working.
The most defining characteristic of the Satanist
is the complete, ecstatic glorification of the Black
Flame and its transcognitive power.
Your Oath can and should be your own, as most
personal and meaningful to you. Here are two
examples:
Among the ceremonies of the Church of Satan
was an “adult baptism” but not an induction or oath-
taking per se. Therefore I composed the oath, first
administered at the chartering of the Nineveh
Grotto in 1970 and subsequently incorporated into
the Baptism contained in the Satanic Rituals. If you
feel so moved, here is the original:
I, [name], having forsworn the divine
mindlessness, do proclaim the majesty of my own
being among the marvels of the Universe. I reject
oblivion of Self, and I accept the pleasure and pain
of unique existence. I am returned from death to
life, and I declare my friendship with Lucifer, the
Lord of Light who is exalted as Satan. I receive the
Sigil of Baphomet [here the Baphomet medallion
is touched to the Initiate’s brow], and I embrace
the Black Flame of the Order of the Trapezoid.
[Here the medallion is passed through the Flame
and then placed around the Initiate’s neck.]132
132 Aquino, Michael A., Priest of Mendes III°, Nineveh Grotto,
Brandenburg, Kentucky, October 31, 1970.
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The Church of Satan was not the first to so
formalize Satanist allegiance. In The Devil’s Disciple
George Bernard Shaw’s title character affirmed:
I was brought up in the other service; but I
knew from the first that the Devil was my natural
master and captain and friend.
I saw that he was in the right, and that the
world cringed to his conqueror only through fear.
I prayed secretly to him, and he comforted
me and saved me from having my spirit broken in
this house of children’s tears.
I promised him my soul, and swore an oath
that I would stand up for him in this world and
stand by him in the next.
That promise and that oath made a man of
me. From this day this house is his home, and no
child shall cry in it; this hearth is his altar, and no
soul shall ever cower over it in the dark evenings
and be afraid. 133
133 Shaw, George Bernard, “Richard Dudgeon” (Kirk Douglas)
in The Devil’s Disciple, 1959.
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IV
Leviathan
Gloria Aqua
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Backstory:
The Enochian Keys
A. Enoch
1.
Long-Lived Sex Maniac
Who’s Enoch?
You already know who he is, but you may not
know that you know it.
This is because Enoch, the seventh master of
the world after Adam in the “Old Testament”, is
considered to be the Hebrew equivalent of the
Phœnician Cadmus, the Greek Hermes, and the
Egyptian Thoth. As such he is the reputed author of
the Tarot, the Cabala, and the apocryphal Book of
Enoch.
He receives only a brief mention in “Genesis”,
where the fifth chapter recounts:
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and
begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God
after he begat Methuselah three hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of
Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for
God took him.
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365 years is quite a lifespan, but to find out what
he did during them, we have to turn, not
unreasonably, to his own memoir.
2. Book of Enoch
a. Apocalypticism
The Book of Enoch comprises a part of what is
called “Apocalyptic” literature. The Apocalyptists
were a school of pre-Rabbinical Jews who believed
that the world was in such a hopeless mess as to be
incurable by any of man’s efforts. Thus it was only a
question of time, they said, before El would schedule
another Great Flood, clean house, and have a third
go at it.
Their name - Apocalyptists - meant “revealers”,
and they spent most of their time revealing this
rather pessimistic prediction to any & all who would
listen.
Apocalyptists were the first “predestinarians”,
inasmuch as they believed that the progress of man
was mapped by El from start to finish.
They also believed in the spirit of El’s law, not
the letter. In this they differed from the other major
branch of the Jewish faith, Pharisaism.
b. Origins & Authors
The Apocalyptic literature is generally fixed to
the period 200-150 BCE, which makes it
comparatively recent. Thus its value lies not so
much in its own existence as in the possible
significance of the old legends which were
incorporated into it.
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Most scholars agree that the Book of Enoch is the
oldest of the Apocalyptic works. It seems to have
been written by a number of various authors, the
earliest being a Jew from the Land of Dan in
northern Palestine.
The original text was probably written in either
the Enochian dialect134 or Aramaic. Later it was
translated into Greek and Latin, both of which
translations didn’t survive the eclipse of the Holy
Roman Empire.
The Greek version was translated into Ethiopian,
however. It was this document which was brought to
light in our own time, when an explorer named
Bruce brought back a copy from Abyssinia in the
year 1773 CE.
This curious odyssey of the Book of Enoch has
been remarked upon by more than one student of
ancient literature. It was to become a model, for
instance, for H.P. Lovecraft’s fabled Necronomicon,
paralleling much of its content as well as its
obscurity.
In non-fiction it bears a strong resemblance to
the Diabolicon and to what is perhaps the single
most powerful text to have come down to us from
ancient Egypt - the XVII Chapter o
f the Egyptian
Book of the Dead.
The most complete version of the Book of the
Dead is included in the Turin Papyrus, XXVI
Dynasty, in the Egyptian Museum at Turin, Italy. Its
full title is “The Praises and Glorifyings of Coming
Forth by Day”, and it is the only known Khemite
134 An ancient Hebrew dialect - not related to the text of the
“Enochian Keys”.
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work which proposes to explain the actual creation
of the cosmos. 135
c.
Contents
The Book of Enoch is sometimes referred to as “I
Enoch” to distinguish it from “II Enoch”, or The
Secrets of Enoch, a later work executed in Slavonic.
The Book of Enoch contains six chapters:
1. The Book of Enoch
2. The Parables
3. The Book of the Courses of the
Heavenly Luminaries
4. The Dream-Visions
5. The Conclusion
6. The Noah Fragments
Following is a synopsis of the more important
parts of the entire work:
(1) The Book of Enoch
In a dream Enoch is asked to intercede for the
so-called Watchers, a group of fallen Angels who
departed from Heaven to mate with human females.
The chief of the Watchers is Semjaza, identified with
Satan.
The results of such unions were monstrous
giants who destroyed the Earth and practiced both
cannibalism and vampirism.
Enoch writes out the petition and receives his
answer in the form of visions. The request is refused,
135 See The Book of the Dead by E.A. Wallis Budge for an
excellent translation.
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and Enoch is instructed to tell the Watchers, “You
have no peace.”
An account is then given of Enoch’s subsequent
journeys through certain areas of Earth and Hell
( Sheol). Worthy of note are his impressions of the
Heavenly Palace of pre-Fall Satan:
And I went in til I drew nigh to a wall which
is built of crystals and surrounded by tongues of
fire, and it began to affright me.
And I went into the tongues of fire and drew
nigh to a large house which was built of crystals.
The walls of the house were like a tessellated floor
of crystals, and its groundwork was of crystal. Its
ceiling was like the path of the stars and the
lightnings, and between them were fiery Cherubim
amidst a background of water.
A blazing fire surrounded the walls, and its
portals were covered with fire.
And I entered into that house, and it was as
hot as fire yet as cold as ice.
There were no delights of life therein. Fear
covered me, and trembling gat hold of me.
And I quaked and trembled and fell down
upon my face.
Shortly thereafter Enoch beholds the Black Flame:
From thence I went to another place to the
west of the ends of the Earth.
And I saw a burning fire which ran without
resting, and paused not from its course day or
night but blazed without respite.
And I asked, saying, “What is this flame
which burns unceasingly?”
Then Raguel, one of the holy Angels who
was with me, said, “This is the darkish Fire in the
West which persecutes all the luminaries of
Heaven.”
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(2) The Parables
There are three of these, each having as its theme
the destruction of injustice. For the first time in
Hebraic literature, vengeance is promised on Earth -
in this life - rather than in an afterlife.
In the First Parable El - herein called the “Lord
of Spirits” - and the Elect One or “Son of Man” are
identified. The four principal ArchAngels are also
named.
The Second Parable speaks of the joy to be
found in vengeance by the righteous against their
persecutors. This also is a somewhat peculiar theme
for the Hebraic religion.
The Third Parable is generally a continuation
of the Second, being a commentary upon the Day of
Judgment. It is incomplete in the transcript which
has come down to us, however, since the theme has
been haphazardly intermixed with references to the
Noah legend.
(3) The Book of the Courses of
the Heavenly Luminaries
And the Sun and the stars bring in all the
years exactly, so that they do not advance or delay
their position by a single day unto eternity, but
complete the years with perfect justice in 364 days.
This is the keynote of this chapter - that the
passage of time is to be calculated by the Sun, not
the Moon.
Quaintly enough, it is fairly obvious from the
observations set forth in the rest of the chapter that
the author was familiar with the actual solar year of
365-1/4 days! The erroneous statement seems to
stem from his reluctance to honor the “heathen”
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mathematics of the Egyptians, Sumerians, and
Greeks. In any case he is definitely opposed to the
Pharisaic system of reckoning time by the Moon.
notation: that man’s natural sinfulness will cause
the Sun and Moon to mislead him. 136
(4) The Dream-Visions
Here is recounted a contemporary history of the
ancient nation of Israel. It is followed by
(5) The Conclusion
This predicts the coming of a new kingdom - but
on Earth, not in an afterlife.
The destruction of the existing Earth and Heaven
is foretold, followed by the institution of a “new
Heaven”.
The final section of the book is
(6) The Noah Fragments
A narrative of the deluge, with nothing out of the
ordinary to distinguish it from more familiar
versions of the story.
d. Significance
(1) The “First Commandment”
Why did the Judæo/Christian El-cult survive and
eventually capture the entire Roman Empire? The
136 Presumably by those sneaky eclipses.
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answer is not at all elusive: stupidity and
intolerance.
All of the major rival, preexisting religions of
Mediterranean antiquity by the time of the cross-
culturism of Alexander’s empire - Greek, Roman,
Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Babylonian, Odinic - had
highly-elaborate metaphysical elements, utterly
bewildering to the unsophisticated, illiterate masses.
Exclusive, exhaustively initiated priesthoods were
necessary to interpret them.
While this sufficed intellectually, it did not
satisfy emotionally; ordinary people wanted divine
attention, even if it were oppressive: Better to be
punished than ignored.
Secondly the alternative religions had long since
become accustomed to existence in a multicultural
world. They were confident enough in their
respective substance as not to feel threatened by
competition. Pagan Rome had temples of Isis next to
ones for Jupiter and Mithra without friction. Indeed
many Romans “mixed and matched” between deities
- resulting, among other things, in the crazyquilt of
day- & month-names, along with variable-theme &
overlapping holidays and festivals, which have
survived to modernity.
El, on the other hand, was a jealous, murderous,
and totalitarian god - an absolute intolerance
enforced by his prophets, priests, and of course
proclaimed son.
So this Hebrew cult was not only easily
understandable by even the most stupid and
ignorant; but everywhere it advanced, it denounced,
suppressed, and finally exterminated all other
beliefs - indeed reviling other gods as “devils” and
“dæmons”.
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(2) And the First Heretic
Enoch not only petitioned El on behalf of Satan
and his followers; he visited his palace and, like
Ayesha of Kôr, dared to approach the Black Flame
itself. He anticipated further changes in the race of
Man from its intermarriage with Angels, and the
complete recreation of not only Earth but Heaven as
well.
These blasphemies were clearly enough to ban
his Book from the “Old Testament” or other
sanctioned Hebraic texts.
(3) And That “Missing Link”
Running throughout LHP cosmology is the
tantalizing, indeed inescapable premise that
humanity is not just another OU-animal born of NL-
happenstance: that the phenomenon of isolate self-
consciousness is fundamentally alien to NL - and
nowhere-else echoed by EL or DL.
As discussed in “Lucifer”, we also know the
approximate date of this event: ca. 100,000 BCE.
[No] thanks to the most determined efforts of
profane religions to obliterate anything & everything
threatening their totalitarianisms, we can trace
recorded history back only 5,000 years.
It is beyond rational question that one, indeed
probably several advanced civilizations rose and fell
during those missing 95,000 years. Questing minds
have collectivized this under the heading of Plato’s