Gluttony Day

 On this day, the United States of America embraces the gastronomic excess it otherwise condemns, however glibly, as a sin.

As acknowledged by Magus Peter H. Gilmore on the Church of Satan website, this holiday is rooted in harvest traditions, and is therefore in "harmony with the cycling of Nature."

Though our agrarian awareness tends to be more limited these days, when everything but the Mallomar is perpetually in season, we continue to celebrate this feast for its culinary and social pleasures.

Halloween has its obvious appeal to the dark side of the collective imagination, making much of the world a bit more devil-friendly for a while. Friday the 13th amuses us with its superstitious overtones, which we mock through our own celebrations.

Thanksgiving, however, isn't as often recognized for its Satanic qualities. Perhaps that is because, thanks to increasing secularism, the ridiculous concept of "sin" is no competition for a joyous banquet!

Enjoy an indulgent Gluttony Day!

In Celebration of 999

"Despite others' attempts to identify a certain number with Satan, it will be known than Nine is His number. Nine is the number of the Ego, for it always returns to itself."

- Anton Szandor LaVey

Three years ago, the world acknowledged the date 6/6/06, either fearing, celebrating, or dismissing the date for its allegedly diabolical implications. The most significant of these acknowledgments was the Satanic High Mass conducted by Church of Satan High Priest Peter H. Gilmore with a hundred-strong gathering of other Satanists from around the world. That was a celebration tied to some degree to mockery of superstitions around the number 666, though it served more sinister purposes as well. (I mean that in a good way, of course.)

Today, 9/9/09, we have a number relatively free of superstitious associations: 999. Marketers will take advantage of any unusual date, but this number can be used as more than a mere gimmick. Forgive my ranting, but this is essentially a Satanic trinity, the Ego thrice-glorified through informal numerology. It has no significance beyond the emotional charge it can give to one conscious of this potential interpretation. That's exactly how I'm enjoying this once-in-a-millenium date. If I happen to make it another 90 years, I'll get to see 9/9/99. I'll mark my calendar.

For now, I'll enjoy a Motörhead concert. Their earthy, catchy rock 'n' roll is just the carnal celebration I need to top off my own little Satanic holiday.

Happy 999!

Biomimicry: It's About Time

I've just heard another BBC segment, this one containing much more Satanic insight than anyone in the report seems to recognize. Researchers are picking up a "new" trend: biomimicry. Through biomimicry, analysts apply formulae discovered in "natural" settings and apply them to human technologies, business models, etc. I put "natural" in quotes because humans are part of Nature, no matter how humanity attempts to distinguish itself from other fauna.

It's folly to use the word "nature" as though it excludes humans. Yet that is exactly what these analysts and reporters often do. While I think it's excellent that humans are returning to the cyclical balance of the systems they've rejected for imbalanced, man-made constructs, we all know it's nothing new.

It's a bit embarrassing that people are hailing this as innovation, when we're really just playing catch-up to bring harmony to systems that should have been based on harmonious systems to begin with. Our human ancestors did this. Their evolutionary predecessors did this. How did modern man not get that memo?

To label biomimicry as innovation is to commit Satanic Sin #7 – Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies. Not only is it stupid (Satanic Sin #1) to ignore the laws of natural balance, but it is just as beneficial to work in harmony with them. These geniuses are finally coming around to the eternal principles that were not only under their noses, but all around them all along. Bravo.

The least cynical point I can take from this trend is that our current technologies allow us to learn more than ever from Nature's arrangements. I only hope that mankind can take that knowledge and apply it with wisdom.

That's my rant. Here's a link to the Biomimicry Institute. Let's see what it took so long for Homo "sapiens" to figure out.

Devil Dancers: Satan in West Africa

Journalist Humphrey Hawksley recently visited regions of West Africa that were explored by Graham Greene, author of the travelogue Journey Without Maps, about seventy years ago. During his own journey, Hawksley recorded some comments that, although muddied by supernatural faith, extol the Devil as a source of carnal joy.

Anton LaVey occasionally pointed toward primitive examples of fairly Satanic perspectives; the following passage, published by BBC News, gives us yet another. Unlike the Yezidis, whom academics try to distance from their reputation as quite Satanic, there is no question that West Africa's "devil dancers" are consciously aligning themselves with a concept of Satan not altogether alien to Satanists. That's not to say that this is actually Satanism – these rituals involve spiritualism and sacrifice, which go against the atheistic and egocentric principles of Satanism's religious philosophy.

This is ritual engagement with a force associated with earthly happiness. It proves the survival of carnal thinking within a "Christianized" culture, which naturally attributes worldly blessings not to Jehovah, but to that unabashed champion of the flesh, Satan.

"My name is Jacob Kermon," he said in a booming voice that carried above the sound of singing and drums heralding the arrival of the devil. "And Jesus Christ is my personal saviour."

"Then, why are we here worshipping the devil?" I asked, slightly confused.

"When the devil comes out people feel good," he said. "He brings happiness and reconciliation within the community."

As the sun dropped and villagers lit fires, a stilted dancer walked in from the forest.

He stood six metres high. His face was covered with a black mask, his head rimmed with shells. He was dressed in orange pyjamas, his hands sealed within the cotton.

One by one the devil plucked us from the crowd.

I had to stretch up my hands to hold his, staring through wood smoke at the mask and on to a star-filled sky, as he twirled me round and round.

"In the Christian world," wrote Greene, "we have grown accustomed to the idea of a spiritual war, of God and Satan."

But, he added, in this supernatural world there was "neither good nor evil", simply power, a concept that was beyond our "sympathetic comprehension."

But it was not beyond that of Mickey, my driver.

...Mickey gave me a knowing look. "As the chief told us," he said, "if you dance with the devil, the devil will be nice to you."

This passage is from the BBC News website, where you can also hear it in a podcast. The portion relevant to this posting starts around 25:05.