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True to His Ways: Purity & Safety in Christian Spiritual Practice

Chapter Eleven: For the Love of Satan

I am of the snake that giveth Knowledge and Delight, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness…I give unimaginable joys on Earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy…
—Alistair Crowley, on the gifts of Satan

I used to think Satanism was all about hate. I was wrong.

About Satanism

Satanism is no more capable of simple definition than is Kali worship. Some Satanists deny the existence of the spirit world: they are atheists who worship at the altar of self-love and self indulgence. Some acknowledge the existence of a devil, or many devils, but this belief is not central to their faith. Others openly worship the Satan that Holy Scripture warns about; these we could call the mystics of Satanism. They believe Satan is the bearer of true spiritual light. And not only do they love him, they receive raptures of love from him, apparently delightful infillings of phos light.

At the risk of oversimplifying, I would say that there appear to be three essential differences between Satanism and other religions. One is that Satanists are openly and seriously dedicated to satisfying their own desires above all else, and they make no bones about it. They say this is only natural, and anyone who denies it is either a liar or a fool. It must be admitted, there is an element of intellectual honesty and self-awareness in this; however, it can lead to terrible cruelty, perversion and debauchery. Secondly, Satanists usually (not always) hold the teachings of Jesus in great contempt. Unlike Hindus, they do not attempt to integrate His teachings with their own. They do not honor Jesus as a great teacher, but believe him a fool who taught the ridiculous: for example, they insist that the poor and weak of this world are to be despised and that forgiveness is an idiotic goal. Thirdly, most Satanists claim to reject all moral codes, although this leads to contradictions in their teaching (and no doubt in their personal lives).

I claim—and desire—no expertise about Satanism. But from what I have learned, those Satanic worshipers I call mystic are for the most part “Crowleyites”: they follow the teachings of an Englishman named Aleister (he changed his name from Edward Alexander) Crowley. Mr. Crowley was the son of professing Christians, and knew the Bible well. Lucifer was his horned god; indeed, Crowley believed Satan was God. And without condoning such blasphemy, it must be observed that this was neither an illogical nor an unnatural conclusion because Mr. Crowley apparently received both godlike powers and godlike love from the serpent.

Mr. Crowley wrote poetry, devised occult rituals, studied numerology, channeled angels and penned numerous books including the Satanic Book of the Law, an increasingly influential religious treatise. He designed his own deck of Tarot cards and was an early member of the free masons. Some have called him a Buddhist missionary, and credit him with awakening Western interest in yoga. He called himself “The Great Beast,” “666,” and “the most wicked man in the world.” He believed he was Eliphas Levi (the magician, see chapter 8) reincarnated. It was Crowley who introduced the term “Magick” for the black arts he taught and practiced, the Victorian spelling intended to distinguish illusory magic from the real thing. When he died in 1947 at the age of 72, The Great Beast was reportedly addicted to heroin and alcohol, and generally believed to be mad. Posthumously he has become a significant influence in the world of the occult. Many rock stars, models, astrologers, fortune-tellers, cult leaders and New Agers devour his teachings; his influence extends far beyond what we might call simple Satanism.
Crowley became a prolific prophet of Satan, a high priest of darkness and magic. He was unabashedly antagonistic to Christianity because he agreed with the Bible that Jesus Christ is Satan’s great foe.

Another well-known satanic priest was Anton LaVey who founded the church of Satan in 1966. His daughter assumed a leadership role in it after his death in 1997. Mr. LaVey wrote the Satanic Bible, a book which purportedly outsells the Bible on some university campuses. Frothing with contempt for the “folly” of Christian values such as meekness, forgiveness and self-discipline, Mr. LaVey founded his church on so-called “principles of common sense”: self-indulgence, revolt and hating your enemies. In his view Satan is a “dark, hidden force in nature responsible for the workings of earthly affairs, a force for which neither science nor religion had any explanation.”^[1]

In this chapter I will focus, for the most part, on the practices and experiences of Crowleyites, those mystic Satanists who practice and worship in the fashion of Aleister Crowley. I’ll compare Magick practices and experiences with those of other mystics and charismatics, and contrast it all with orthodox Christianity.

Magick practice and experience

During Magick rituals Crowleyites ask for, and call down, spiritual power. Their actual rituals vary, at times resembling those of medieval magicians although often more perverse. They are clearly occult. Further, many experiences of Satanists are similar to those claimed by other mystics and by charismatics. For example, earlier (chapter 3) we saw that with practice both yogis and charismatics find it becomes easier to attain mystic states. Mr. Crowley taught, in The Book of the Law:

III,21: Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this.^[2]

What really surprised me, however, was the discovery that mystic Satanists have powerful phos love encounters. Judging by their poetry and prayers, their enchantments are supremely delightful and their intimacy with the serpent very advanced. They also develop clairvoyance and clairaudience and strive to master the more advanced siddhis (or “develop magick power,” as they would say) such as control over matter to work miracles. They see visions of angels and other spirit beings. And they prophesy. The parallels with Hinduism and “charismagic” are obvious, and so is the contrast with orthodox Christianity which, as always, stands alone.

Satanic love experiences

Popular singer and musician Tori Amos worships Satan. She said about her love and desire for the serpent god:

“I wanted to marry Lucifer.”

“We can all tap into his energy.”

And:

“I cry and feel his presence with his music. I feel like he comes and sits on my piano.”^[3]

Tapping into an energy available for all, supernatural feelings of love, weeping and visions of his presence with her: is this not more appropriate for yogis and charismatics? But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, since this is promised by Satan himself. Here he tempts through the pen of The Great Beast:

I give unimaginable joys on Earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice. ^[4]

And again:

to love me is better than all things: if under the night stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all…^[5]

Here we have again talk about the need for a pure heart, and promises of joy and love. Note the reference to “lying in the bosom” through invocation; we heard something similar from Holy Trinity Brompton in London, England (see chapter 10), where a TB practitioner experienced “lying in the arms of love” after occult spirit was invoked: “It was like being held in the arms of an adoring father,” he said. “I was overwhelmed with a sensation of love.”

In the following quotations from The Book of the Law, we find revealed the love song of the serpent as he lures seekers ever more deeply into the occult:

I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendor within you: come unto me!

At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say—and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple—To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.

I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.^[6]

So here we have it. Satan promises love and joy in return for ritual. And now we know that he delivers on these promises. Clearly The Great Beast experienced raptures of love and joy, or he could not write like this.

Note, too, the description of “drunkenness of the innermost senses.” Where have we heard that before? Not in orthodox Christianity, I assure you. But we have heard it from the charismatic church. Again (from chapter 3):

Drunkenness in the Holy Spirit is actually an extreme form of joy!!…One does not experience true joy unless one is truly in God!!…Therefore one must expect the more extreme forms of drunkenness when actually filled with the Holy Spirit of God!!

Wicked Lucifer, horned angel. By what promises he tempts:

I am the snake that giveth Knowledge and Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness…^[7]

Our Goddess is a Lady of Joy, the winds are Her servants. ^[8]

Our Goddess is a Goddess of Love. At Her blessings and desire the sun brings forth life anew.^[9]

Lord Satan saith: In rioting and drunkenness I rise again. You shall fulfil the lusts of the flesh. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are…witchcraft, drunkenness and reveling.^[10]

Note, the Satanist says his “Lord” rises in drunkenness and reveling. Let’s see again clips from the “intoxicated” charismatics (chapter 3) and ask ourselves which god would, in fact, be the “lord” of such experiences: Jesus who is lowly, humble and meek, or the lord of drunkenness and revelry himself? Consider, from the rock ‘n’ rollers:

I don’t know whats happening but I’m really kinda drunk in the spirit… Cuz I be taking about the Great I am, My Savior The one who gets me drunk constantly…. Got me throwing up by the curb… (errors in original)

And:

And I have met many New Winers there…but can’t remember most of them because I was so intoxicated!!!! (so please don’t be offended!!!! HHHOOO!!!!!!!!!! hehe ahahhahaha)…… When not being dragged around, I’d spend up to five hours total on the very nice carpet!!!!!!!!!…. HOOO!!!!…. AHHH!!!! ZAP!!!!!!!!……”

If we were ever confused about spiritual drunkenness, surely the question has now been settled beyond any doubt. The Great Beast would chuckle, were he still alive to read these “Christian” testimonies.

Who cares what they think

I hate to do this, but I am also going to make a point of observing that there are similarities between charismatics and Satanists with respect to loss of self-control, throwing off normal social restraints, chaos and disorderliness.

Songwriter Diamanda Galas, who recorded “Litanies of Satan,” said in an interview that her experience with Satanism “…was like making a connection to some source of power so that I could do what was not socially accepted.”^[11] In other words, her “source of power” awakened in her a disregard for orderliness and propriety—what some might call a spirit of rebellion. Satanist Anton LaVey expressed the same thing when he described the Satanic force as “the spirit of revolt that leads to freedom, the embodiment of all heresies that liberate.”^[12]

The sad fact is that I have often heard charismatics claim that the Holy Spirit comes upon them to encourage the casting off of normal social restraints, or to set them free to enjoy “whatever the Spirit has for them.” Disorderliness and impropriety are sometimes justified as being a fool for Christ, or “letting the wind blow where it listeth.” John White holds that disorder is a way for uptight people to experience a release of tension.^[13] He wrote, “For my part I am glad that God ignores our petty notions of propriety as he deals with men and women,”^[14] and, “They [charismatics] show little concern about what anyone will think of their [drunken] condition…”^[15]

Does Scripture agree with Mr. White that propriety is a petty notion? That drunkenness is of no concern? That we should not care about what others think? Not at all.

Scripture is clear that we are to conduct ourselves in a manner that will bring credit to our Lord; in other words, propriety and what other people think are important (1 Timothy 6:1). We are not to behave in such a way as to offend others, or cause them to stumble (Romans 14:19-21). We are exhorted to let gentleness be evident to all (Philippians 4:5) and in our teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned (Titus 2:7-8). The apostle Paul stressed to the Corinthians that orderliness will always characterize genuine Christian meetings, for “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Disregard for orderliness and propriety, confusion and revelry are the fruits of Satanic influence. Satan’s ways, and the ways of his followers, are diametrically opposed to the humble and lowly ways of the Lord Jesus and those who delight to follow Him.

Chaos and Pandemonium

Mr. White urges believers not to worry about noise, disturbances, excess, commotion or confusion.^[16] He quotes TB founder John Wimber to endorse chaos—even messy, uncontrollable chaos:

When warm and cold fronts collide, violence ensues: thunder and lightening, rain or snow—even tornadoes or hurricanes. There is conflict, and a resulting release of power. It is disorderly, messy—difficult to control.^[17]

Remember the Microwave Preacher in chapter 3? He described the intrusion of embarrassing, socially inappropriate for instance, one man broke out in a dance—it embarrassed his wife. But Tom started to laugh, because these people had no model for their behavior.

In the Brownsville Assembly in Pensacola, Florida—a church almost as well-known as the Toronto church for TB manifestations—the pastor gleefully reported that God had sent pandemonium to his congregation. He boasted:

God sent pandemonium in the church…I think it’s time that we have grand pandemonium in the Baptists, in the Lutheran, the Episcopal, the Assembly of God [churches]. God send pandemonium!^[18]

It is interesting to note that the word pandemonium literally means “capital of hell.” It is derived from the root words pan plus daemonium (a late Latin word meaning “evil spirit”) and was coined by John Milton in 1667. In Milton’s epic Paradise Lost, Pandemonium was the name of the city which served as a centre for satanic operations.^[19] It has come to mean a place of wild disorder, noise and confusion.

To take pleasure in pandemonium is not godly. No one could torture such a conclusion from Scriptures, which teach that evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit are gentleness and self- control (Galatians 5:23), peace (1 Corinthians 14:33), wisdom in dealing with others (1 Corinthians 9:19-23), and submission to government and authority (Romans 13). On the other hand, those who rebel against biblical ways are showing that they hate knowledge and have chosen not to fear God; and they will get what they want, or even more:

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel
And despised all my reproof.
Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies (Proverbs 1:28-31).

If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then party time with the Lord must be the culmination of folly.

All mystic ways converge

I found a telling quotation on the Web site of a Crowleyite: a worshiper published a prayer to Satan, asking the horned god to prepare hearts by “inflaming them with love” as he “renews the face of the earth.”^[20] Yet this should not surprise us, since we now know that Satan is expert at inflaming hearts with love. But then the worshiper prayed, “May our hearts be cleansed by the inpouring of our Lord Satan.”^[21]  Here now, even in Satanism, we find a desire for spiritual cleansing—the occult way.

The truth is, Satanists have much in common with other mystics. They, like others, at times demonstrate confidence in their good intentions, believing themselves to be unfairly attacked by critics. For example, they believe magick serves divine purposes. Crowley thought the consciousness of man could develop to loftier heights: Magick was the path and he was a leading guru (so to speak). Believe it or not, he often stressed the need for pure motives. He once wrote that in his spiritual quest he:

yearned passionately for illumination. I could imagine nothing more exquisite than to enter into communion with [holy men] and to acquire the power of communicating with the angelic and divine intelligence of the universe. I longed for perfect purity of life, for mastery of the secret forces of nature, and for a career of devoted labor on behalf of “the Creation which groaneth and travaileth.”^[22]

It troubles me greatly, but must we not agree that the god of the occult leads everyone down the same broad highway? Perhaps Satanists are hurtling down the fast lane, leaving others in the dust. But they are all headed in the same direction. Having missed the sign Jehovah posted in His Word which says “Danger, Soul Pollution,” they think they are heading for “Love, Wisdom and Light.” Popular lanes on the occult highway are spiritual intoxication, visions and talking to angels. Favorite rest stops? Soaking and Samadhi.

There are only two ways

The Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley, would agree that all mystic paths converge. He taught his disciples that the Satanic “Priesthood of the Magus” was equivalent to the Yogic “Master of Samadhi.” He taught a spiritual rebirth through occult awakening that he called “crossing the abyss.” Among spiritual leaders who attained the grade of “Magus” in Crowley’s view were leading figures in many religions, including Siddaartha (Gautama Buddha), Krishna, Mohammed and the Beast himself.^[23] Crowley realized that his experiences transcended occult denomination, and were common in all other mystic faiths—all except Christianity, of course. And the Bible agrees with the Beast on this point. Scriptures also teach that there are really only two religions in the world: the narrow way of orthodox Christianity, and the broad way of the occult. Jesus urged us to take the narrow way, for:

wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. [But] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).

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Endnotes:

All endnotes have been removed to avoid linking to occult and charismatic Websites. Full references, current when taken, are in the book True to His Ways.