Conversations We Need To Be Having: An Ongoing Discussion with Galina Krasskova (Pt. 3)

Erin had an interesting question in the comments: what are some ways we can address ancestral debt? I agree that we are here to (among other things) work on cleaning up the messes our ancestors left behind. And I think that has to involve more than lighting candles and saying "I'm sorry." There has to be real work done in the real world to address some of the many real injustices out there. But where do we start?

GK: i think that it starts with significantly and consistently honoring your own dead. That's the starting point, because that relationship needs to be healed, healthy, and strong before we can move on to any effective work. Once that relationship is established, it starts to seriously change the way one views the world, the lens through which we engage. That's an important turning point. It's at the point that the ancestor worker will start to see ways in which they can engage in this healing process, in shouldering their part of the debt. It's impossible to say: at that point you will always do X because we don't all have the same ancestors. it's going to be different. we don't all have the same skills and abilities either. For me, when I hit that point, i started educating people not just about ancestor work but about fighting the filter. that was my "come to jesus moment' if you'll excuse the expression. When that personal ancestral relationship is healthy, it will point you toward where you can focus and act in the world. One thing flows out of another. I don't think ongoing elevations are amiss though.

With all the "Islamophobe" slurs flying around I wanted to state clearly that it is possible to be both a devout Muslim and a good citizen. The late Capt. Humayan Khan is a good example, as is his family: they are fine Americans and our country is better for having them as citizens. This isn't a question of Open Borders vs. Big Walls. We're talking about limited immigration and about immigrants being expected to conform to their new society's expectations instead of the converse. The fallacy of the excluded middle is not dead...

GK: Of course it's possible to be a good and devout Muslim and a good citizen! I've never contested that. My issue solely is with unregulated immigration into Europe. I think the wolf is at the door of Europe (just as it is with our polytheistic traditions thanks to the Marxist cabal chipping away at their integrity) and people are determined not to see that until it's too late. Just like all Christians aren't terrorists, all muslims aren't terrorists but the unregulated immigration does nothing to root out those that are radicalized and moreover, with people injured, scared, and hurting and feeling that their governments aren't listening to them, it's setting up a situation in which the seriously radical right is slowly gaining power. Do we want to see another WWII? Because that is very easily where this could lead. Moreover, I think European culture is something to be tended and protected. I don't think we should be expecting Europe to move millions of Muslims into an area the size of say Belgium. It's not their problem and they shouldn't be expected to sacrifice their future to solve it. A moderate amount of immigration is fine with the caveat that the new immigrants do not isolate themselves but learn the language and culture of their new countries and become active citizens. What is the benefit to each European nation of taking in as many immigrants as it is doing? and does that benefit outweigh the damage, not just now but twenty years from now?

I also note as a polytheist that Trump crossed a very real line when he started attacking Capt. Khan. There are very few universal rules in Polytheism, but "Do Not Defile the Dead" is one of them. Khan died a hero in the service of his country and deserves the respect due a hero: Donald Trump and Roger Stone aren't fit to shine his boots or weed the space around his headstone. When they spread lies implying he was a traitor and a terrorist, they defiled the dead. And even in our polluted and broken society people recoil from that behavior like it was vomit or rotten meat. (I hope America is not so polluted and so broken that a majority of us can overlook it).

I find defiling the dead in any way disgusting, revolting, and polluted behavior especially when it's done for political gain. If you defile the dead what the hell are you going to do to the living?

Conversations We Need To Be Having: An Ongoing Discussion with Galina Krasskova (Pt. II)

As White Americans become a plurality rather than a majority, we're going to have to redefine ourselves. Right now I see two equally wrong-headed efforts toward that end. The first is the "mighty Whitey" approach. This defines White as inherently superior to non-White and features lots of complaining about blacks, Jews, "mud races" &c. It's rooted in a Manichean binary that's pure Monotheism filter: Civilized/Savage, Good/Evil, White/Mud. And it's as dangerous and as prone to misuse as any other Monotheistic creed.

GK: I think it's the stupidest most ill thought out, idiotic thing possible to focus on race or to think that one is superior because of one's race. Just completely idiotic. moreover, as a Classicist, i can tell you that race as we view it today is a child of modernity. you don't really see it becoming a divisive issue like this, or a category of any relevance until the 18th and 19th centuries. And of course it's rooted in monotheism (and the Doctrine of Discovery). Any time you have people preaching 'unity' they're preaching monotheism. This need to be all "one" is incredibly dangerous. The corollary that no one ever wants to acknowledge or explore is that if we are all 'one,' than anything different is dangerous at best and bad at worst. Think about the dynamic that is setting up not just with respect to race, but intellectually, spiritually? It's cultural insanity is what it is.

The second is this ritualized White self-abasement. I'm not talking about acknowledging crimes committed by our White ancestors: if we're going to practice an ancestral tradition we need to acknowledge ancestral sins as well as ancestral achievements. I'm talking this incessant bleating about "privilege" as an original sin. Saying "your privilege is causing you to miss this injustice" and then doing something about said injustice is great. But when you have Ivy League students telling unemployed workers to "lose their privilege" then accusing them of feeling "entitled" to a working wage or "racist" toward the illegal immigrants driving down those wages -- well, that's not really appealing either. While the "cuck" slur has been used in some really disgusting ways, the alternative.right was on to something when they came up with it. There is this almost sexualized ritual humiliation: I'm a bad White person, but I will confess my privilege, condemn my racist White ancestors and become a Good Person. Correct me, mistress: tell me how awful I am, make me grovel in my entitlement and I will be healed. And all that may be useful for dealing with liberal White guilt but it does less than nothing to address the conditions spurring said guilt.

GK: i think in many cases the 'bleating about privilege" is used to shut down useful discussion. Someone is always privileged, always. So what? Use your privilege to make useful change. Instead of attacking each other for it, why not look how you can use it to do good in your world, because you can. I think we have people getting tied up in knots over their privilege -- which isn't going away because they're tied up in knots over it -- when instead they could be out doing useful things. I think also as an ancestor worker, all this ritual self abasement is a fucking excuse to not have to deal with that ancestral debt. It's a distraction, a way of entrenching the system as it stands even more fully in its inequities. Stop bitching and whining and deal with the underlying ancestral debt -- trust me, that's going to be vicious, and nasty and ugly enough to serve anyone's masochism. but that's something that would actually pick apart this systemic structure of injustice and horror from its foundations. It might actually make essential changes, changes that are not going to happen while we're whining and reinforcing hostilities on both sides. That self abasement just mires a person in inaction. It serves no useful purpose. ...which is perhaps it's point: i can feel good about myself. I have confessed, mea culpa, mea culpa...and now I can move on with other things. and nothing has changed.

Can folkish religions -- honoring the Gods of our ancestors, while acknowledging and respecting other Gods -- help us create a White identity rooted neither in hatred nor self-hatred?

I could give a rat's ass about creating a white identity. I don't think that's the way it ever worked for our ancestors. There was a tribal identity that had to do with shared kinship by birth, adoption, marriage, etc. but it was never ever based on the color of one's skin. That's an artificial construct of modernity. If we're really going back to a tribal awareness, that's the first thing that needs to go. 

For me, it comes down to this: honor your ancestors whoever they were, whatever color they were, wherever they came from. Celebrate their accomplishments. Celebrate their culture. work hard to preserve the good things in their culture while at the same time acknowledging their faults, their narrowness, their prejudices, their crimes. They were people trying to make their way in the world just as we are and they were no brighter or more enlightened than we. Death may have taught them, elevated them, but they were still just faulty human beings. There are beauties and horrors in all of our lines and that is for us to own and go forward, learning from these things how to be better fucking human beings today. 

My impression of folkish religions is that it is far, far less about the color of one's skin than about the cultures from which one's ancestors hailed. that always, always gets lost in these folkish vs non-folkish debates. It's not about being white so much as about being of German descent, or Swiss, or French, or Russian, or X, Y, Z. Everyone should be proud of their ancestors. They're why we're here. I think that folkish religions are tapping into firstly that pride and secondly the connection of a specific community to a specific place and its history. It's a tribal mindset and that's not a bad thing at all. 

I don't know that we can ever develop a 'white' identity per se because both sides of that equation have muddied those waters with rhetoric and pain and anger -- some justified i might add--that perhaps like certain symbols that were once very sacred-the term can never be reclaimed. I don't know. I don't have an answer for that. I don't know that we should want a 'white' identity. In fact, I very much think it's pointless: it erases the uniqueness and diversity of those different tribal cultures that make up our conception of 'whiteness' today. you should be Irish, French, Swedish etc. and take pride in that, not the fucking level of melanin in your skin.  

The problem I see is that the "White" identity has already been created. We're White whether we like it or not: the question now is "what does it mean to be a White American?" I suspect many of the divides we see today in American culture -- Black, White, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American, Desi (South Asian), etc. -- will harden into cultural/ethnic identities in the future the way i.e "Serbian" and "Croatian" or "Swede" and "Norwegian" came into being. And as those cultures form, the disparate elements therein are going to blend together the way African and Caribbean elements have found their way into the "Black American" identity. Black Americans were able to reclaim Blackness as something other than a tool of insult and degradation. Can we reclaim Whiteness as something other than a tool of oppression? I don't know how we can -- but I know we have no choice.

Unfortunately, the Nordic Gods were co-opted in the mid-20th century and beyond by people who used Them for political ends. As a result they have unjustly been connected to the worst sorts of bigotry. I'm hoping that Heathens will lead by example and Heathen communities will provide a working model for White Americans redefining Whiteness for a new era. Among cultural Marxists "White" has literally become a swear word and a club you beat opponents with, especially when combined with "poor" or "rural." We need an alternative that looks back to European culture and acknowledges both its strengths and its weaknesses. We don't need White Pride but neither do we need White Self-Abasement. And I hope we can find cultural myths that will let White Americans take their place with the other participants in the Great American Experiment. Because I shudder at the consequences should we fail.

I think it important to be clear that the Nazis were NOT heathens. In fact, those who venerated the Norse Gods were sent to concentration camps. the only God Hitler was interested in was Hitler himself. They did co opt certain symbols, but not the Gods. Beyond that, i stand by what i said. I think even trying to create a 'white' identity is barking up the wrong ideological tree.

Conversations We Need To Be Having: An Ongoing Discussion with Galina Krasskova

An earlier post in this series can be found here.

What obligations and responsibilities do we have to our country and our people as Polytheists? "Separation between Church and State" means the government cannot favor one religion over another. It doesn't mean "you must forget your religion entirely when engaging in political activity."  (That's the way a lot of people would like to see it defined: they may or may not be blissfully unaware they are favoring Secular Humanism over all other religions... ).  Any religion worthy of the name is going to shape and color every aspect of your life, including (especially!) the way you interact with your community.   

As a Classics scholar and longtime Heathen, you have a unique perspective on this. A Roman citizen/subject definitely saw his relationship with Rome in spiritual terms: in Northern Europe living honorably and fulfilling one's social responsibilities was a religious obligation.  How can we look to those and other examples and find the way we should be engaging with the vaettir of America, Canada, etc.?

GK: I don't think we can ever have freedom without having that separation of church and state in our world because specifically of monotheism. If we were all polytheists, then it wouldn't matter if we had a state cultus. there would be no expectation of exclusivity. we'd participate in state cultus and then get on about honoring our other Gods. That's not the way monotheism works, and it's not a system that embraces liberty at all (quite the opposite really) so that separation of church and state is our only protection politically. Yes, it does favor secular humanism, which is most unfortunate but in America, i don't see a workable alternative. My ideal government and social structure (which would include a polytheistic society) isn't going to happen here any time soon.

 Still, we live on this land. We have generations in many cases rooted here and I think our obligations are two fold: firstly, we must uphold the integrity of the place in which we live. that means respecting the land, but also participating in our community. That wasn't a religious thing to the Romans, it was a matter of being a conscious adult. An adult has a voice in the social, communal, and political process. It was one of the markers in both Greece and Rome of an adult. Yes, polytheism will be the lens through which all of that engagement occurs, but regardless of tradition,  if you live in a functioning society then I think that there is an obligation to contribute.

For the Romans, Roma was a Goddess. I think we can incorporate this polytheistic awareness by honoring the city spirits and land spirits of place here. Each city has its governing spirit after all, and then America, Turtle Island, is also holy. which brings me to my second point: those of us living here carry a blood debt. This is something no one wants to hear but I lay the chaos of our nation directly at the feet of this debt. Firstly, our ancestors were attacked by monotheism. they were forced (or some became polluted and willingly did this) to abandon their indigenous traditions and to accept the yoke of monotheism. They drank that poison and came across the waters and became the monster in the night, the destroyer of nations. We committed genocide on the Natives here, we engaged in the slave trade and the horrors of the middle passage and that does not just go away.

As any spirit worker worth his or her salt will tell you: there is no magical land 'away.' that is an ancestral debt and it must be dealt with whether we want to acknowledge it or not. I don't put any moral weight to that one way or another. I don't think your ancestors were necessarily bad people. I think they were products of their time and place. Still, there is debt and with debt comes imbalance and with imbalance comes potential devastation. We are getting the nation we deserve.

As a polytheist, and moreover as an ancestor worker i look at what's happening in the world now as a sequence of interlocking causes and effects riddled with powerful and unresolved ancestral debt. For me, the way that I engage is marked by that. What can you do to make your community better and at the same time to shoulder your part of this debt? Find that out and do it and keep doing it. That's where my polytheism leads me there. Community was always part of ancient polytheistic experience, they just didn't have to talk about it so much or reify it so much or self-consciously hammer it out because the world was polytheist. that was a given, so I think the focus naturally could be put on what was different: various tribes and clans and national experience of the Gods. The state was what enabled the safety of the community, was the fulcrum around which community honor and glory and abundance and security revolved. part of the pax deorum was that the Gods would nourish the state which in turn protected and gave pride to its people so long as we maintained right relationship with the Gods. As a polytheist as much as I am against mixing politics and religion (religion always loses), I do think that we can allow our religion to motivate us to get out and get involved and we should be making our voices heard because the ultimate goal should be a new pax deorum -- one that works for us in our world and that pleases the Gods and we're not going to know what we're dealing with or how far we have to go if we're unwilling to educate ourselves with respect to our government large and small and become involved. for many ancient polytheists this was just part of adulthood.

Of course, my community.... i would consider my people to be other pious polytheists. first and foremost. That's the community i want to see strengthened. Everything else comes second.

* * * * *

I've noticed a distressing tendency among many Leftists to pick and choose between whose voices deserve to be heard. We must listen to People of Color, unless they have bad politics: then we can no-platform them as Reactionaries, Right Wing Radicals or, worst of all, Racists. 

For example, I've seen reams of material mocking Ben Carson for his ahistorical views on the Pyramids, evolution, etc. Or references to Clarence Thomas as "Uncle Thomas," pictures of him wearing an Aunt Jemima headwrap, etc.  The implication is that they are shuffling, servile darkies who don't know any better.  (How many commentators claimed Carson and Thomas only got where they were because the Republicans needed black faces -- and how is that different from "the only reason Obama got into Harvard was Affirmative Action?") 

I disagree with Carson and Thomas on just about every political issue.  But Dr. Ben Carson is one of the world's leading pediatric neurosurgeons and the first to separate conjoined Siamese twins at the head.  Judge Clarence Thomas was a highly regarded Constitutional scholar before being appointed to the Supreme Court. And the disrespect aimed at them by people who brag about being Allies in the Struggle is appalling and, yes, rooted in racism.  As are so many of the American Left's "white knight" ideals: they don't know how to relate to minorities as anything but victims.  

(As an aside, I'd note the Left's distaste for "white trash" and "rednecks"mirrors the civilized Christian distaste for those superstitious, uneducated backwoods Paganii).  

GK:  Ah, the illiberal left. I think that there is a desperate need there to prove to themselves that they aren't racist and damn anyone who thinks otherwise and this is at war with their own ingrained sense of superiority (morally, intellectually...they're riddled with it). I think they have a very blind, un-nuanced (and certainly in the case of Marxists a-historical) view of the world, where every different opinion is a violent attack on progress. The level of intellectual close mindedness is appalling.

Ironically in so many things, the only people making many of these issues about race ...are the leftists. Why? Because in some cases it's a useful political tool. In others, i think there's an incredible lack of ability to cope with differing viewpoints. Racist is the worst thing in the world to them, so if you disagree then you are Bad(tm) and of course must be racist. Doesn't matter if you happen to be a person of color. I also think that while there may be a deep empathy with the anguish of the world in many of them, there's also a deeply ingrained desire to be the white knight riding in to fix all of the minorities' problems. You nailed it: they don't know how to relate to minorities as anything other than victims.

I see the same thing with third wave feminists: they don't know how to relate to women as anything but victims and they don't know how to relate to men as anything but victimizers and that is fucked up in the extreme. meanwhile, women are losing their right to physical sovereignty more and more every day and I don't see those who would call themselves feminists doing much more than posting petitions. In all of it there's a remarkable unwillingness to take personal responsibility for oneself.

Giving The Devil His Due: of Suave Satanists and Pagan Paupers

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Church of Satan's 50th Anniversary celebration: I mingled with old friends, made new ones, and received much invaluable input on the LaVey biography.  But while I plugged my project I also spent time admiring the work of other Satanists.  Famous attendees included  model and "real doll" creator Marilyn Mansfield; Blood Axis co-founder Michael Moynihan; BoySetsFire lead Nathan Gray (with Jimmy Psycho as his opening act); wrestling legend James Mitchell; and sexologist and Old Nick publisher Dr. Robert Johnson.  And for each big (or medium-sized) name there were many soon-to-be-famous performers and skilled artisans.  I was particularly impressed by Hydra Morningstar's woodburning art, Aden Ardennes'  militant eroticism and John H. Shaw's metalwork but many attendees make a living doing what they love.

With its ties to Heavy Metal, Satanism attracts a fair number of blue-collar types: Neopaganism has always skewed more college-educated and professional-class. Yet as I was surrounded by Satanic success I could not help but contemplate Neopaganism's downward mobility. Every day my Facebook feed is graced with Gofundme solicitations to pay Lord Breakswind's rent, cover HP Sparklefart's medical expenses, or feed Lady Twitchbottom's cats.  Unemployment, garnishment, eviction ... your average Neopagan blog has more financial misfortune than a country music CD.

There are other factors at work here.  Satanism holds a dim view of whining: Anton LaVey cautioned Satanists "Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them" and "Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself."  There are certainly business-savvy Pagans and financially incompetent Satanists (Anton LaVey being the most famous example of the latter).  But in the end it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Satanism is a financially salutary philosophy whilst Neopaganism is financially corrosive.

Both Satanism and Neopaganism are atheistic religions.  They speak of archetypes and symbols rather than Gods; they ground the Divine in the human experience rather than grounding the human experience in the Divine; they see ritual as psychodrama rather than worship.  Both have a keen interest in magic and the paranormal, and both draw symbolism from Freemasonry and the works of Eliphas Levi.  But once we get past these surface similarities we will see some important philosophical differences -- differences which may play out in their adherents' personal and professional lives.

One of American Neopaganism's central creation myths involves the "Burning Times" -- Church persecution against followers of Ye Olde Religione.  This myth slaps together images from various religious persecutions -- the Roman Catholic Inquisition, the Puritan Court of Oyer and Terminer, contemporary "witch killings" in Africa and India -- and throws them atop a narrative based on their (mis)understanding of the Civil Rights movement.  According to that version of history, Black Americans were eternal victims who were shot, lynched, whipped, abused and kept in the direst poverty until White Americans took pity on them. By establishing themselves as victims in the public eye and displaying their various injuries like a beggar showing his sores, Neopagans hope to be recognized as equals and take their place alongside the Huxtables in Respectable American Society. 

This conception is unfathomably condescending and patronizing: it is also incorrect. Hence, any game plan built upon it is doomed to failure from the start. Pity may get you spare change, but it won't get you respect.  To make matters worse, Neopaganism has retained its 60s countercultural distaste for wealth.  Poverty and persecution become emblems of virtue, not misfortunes to be avoided: financial success is a sign of moral turpitude.  If you think money a thing to be avoided, you can hardly be surprised when money avoids you. If you fear power's corrupting influence you need never fear being tainted by its presence. 

By contrast, Satanism sees the finer things in life as Indulgences -- and the Satanic Word of the Aeon is "Indulgence." Power and wealth aren't dangerous snares which distract you from what's really important in life: they are tools you can use to make your lives happier, healthier and more productive.  (Satanists also realize "money can't buy happiness" is another way of saying "those grapes were sour anyway").  LaVey saw Satanists as an "Alien Elite" surviving and thriving amidst an indifferent and sometimes hostile world. Some -- OK, many -- used this as an excuse to puff themselves up in spectacularly silly fashion. Those with greater discernment found a powerful model for deportment and a role toward which they could strive. 

American Neopaganism is doggedly egalitarian and the Neopagan community is rife with geek social fallacies. Satanists are far more comfortable with stratification: they see no shame in being successful, or in expecting friends and acquaintances to be successful. This means less charity wasted on ingrates and less time spent cleaning up other peoples' messes.  When you surround yourself with strivers and achievers, you invariably find yourself following their lead: the converse holds true as well.  Satanists are encouraged to give walking papers to "psychic vampires" -- a metaphor which LaVey used for those who take more than they give and who use your feelings of guilt and obligation to their advantage. And of course nobody can play at top form when they are hosting parasites. 

Both Satanism and Neopaganism are magical religions. They are open to the possibility that one can see positive benefit from magical rituals and work, and many of their adherents use magical rituals.  But Neopagans generally have multiple taboos connected to their use of magic. They are not to use their magic to do harm or control the will of another, lest their attacks be returned to them threefold. Using magic in your own self-interest is looked upon with suspicion, as is taking money for magic.  No such taboos exist for Satanists: they can cast Lust and Destruction spells with nary a moment's worry about losing favor with their coreligionists.

But that surface similarity masks a profound and very important difference.  Neopaganism still accepts the distinction between body and spirit: Satanism is a carnal religion which believes there is nothing spiritual.  Neopagan magicians spend a great deal of time engaging in "astral travel," "creative visualization" and other practices which look to Muggles very much like daydreaming.  Their visions of magic are often drawn from fantasy fiction and movies: their "magical clothes" evoke a Renfaire never-was.  Satanism roots magic in a "dark force in nature" and is concerned with it only insofar as it can better the magician's standing in the here-and-now.  As CoS High Priest Peter H. Gilmore says in his essay "The Magic of Mastery:"

There is true magic in the mastering of skills. Most members of the herd will look with awe upon a talented and accomplished practitioner.  To them, the producing of quality results with the effortless-seaming ease of mastery will appear to be pure wizardry... 

So, to be a master of magic , toss out those musty grimoires, unless they're printed by Chilton. Pick some field and become an advanced practitioner. Be a writer, pastry chef, seamstress, flower arranger, plumber, sculptor, carpenter, photographer, upholsterer, elecctrician, pilot, beautician, steelworker, medic, whatever you have an affinity for. You'll amaze those around you, gain their respect and envy, achieve material success and you won't even have to say "Shemhamforash" in public.

SET WARS: Cantus in Memoriam Andre Schlessinger

"This must be a joke!" St. Kevin-Wan Kenobi tells his faithful robot and smoking device C-420. "Maninblacka would rip Kylo Necchi limb from limb!" 

"Necchi swung his lightsaber at Cliff So-Low in an attempted parricide," C-420 explains as St. Kevin-Wan partakes of his Volcano attachment.  "But at the moment his blade would have struck So-Low turned to his browser and closed 37 tabs.  The strike missed him by mere micrometers.  Our Wookie friend, I'm afraid, was not so fortunate."

St. Kevin-Wan Kenobi shakes his greying head sadly and blows out vapor.  "I still don't believe it."

"Believe it." Yoda LaVey's cheap CGI image flickers on the wall. "Throw up on Yoda LaVey's shoes last night, Maninblacka did.  'Drink with Lemmy you should not' Yoda tells him. But ignore Yoda he does."

Meanwhile, from a darkened table behind them a battered old man in a motheaten SS uniform rants at his Denobian companion.

"Mit der Reichsmarshall's soapmaking skill it couldn't fail.  Und so ve leased ein factory und bought ein option on Egan der Hutt's corpse.  Vhen his overtaxed heart finally exploded ve vere going to be keeping der galaxy in suds for decades.  Und vhat does he die from? CANCER!!!"

Der Reichsmarshall raises his liver-spotted fist to the water-stained ceiling.  "Zere vusn't enough fat left on his worthless carcass to scrub a Paraguayan prostitute's poonany! Not zat ve can go back to Paraguay now thanks to zat troublemaker Weisenthal."

Der Reichsmarshall's Denobian companion chortles sympathetically as the camera shifts back to our crew.  

"In all the universe, amongst all the darkest and foulest of all the Sith Lords, there's only one person who can tolerate that whiny little prick Kylo Necchi.  And he's dead."

Yoda LaVey slaps St. Kevin-Wan on the head with a pixellated hand. "Stupid you are.  Remember you must what the forbidden volume says."

"You mean Hustler's Almost Legal?"

"Not that one!" Another slap.  "Remember, 'That is not  dead which can eternal lie.' And who can lie eternally like Egan the Hutt?"

* * * * *

"ROOOOOOGGGGHHHH!!!! YOU FUCK'N MORON!!!!!"

Meinkmfpa, Senior Sewage Control Official and Rebellion Leader (Retired) bellows out Maninblacka's final words, then places the beshrouded corpse in the Porcelain Gateway.  The gathered wookies howl along in rejoinder: their cries rise to a crescendo as Meinkmpfa pulls the handle and sends Maninblacka  to the Eternal Waters with a royal flush. 

Cliff So-Low frowns.  "Emo boys.  Why did it have to be Emo boys?"

"It's worse," St. Kevin-Wan says.  "There are dark forces moving behind Kylo Necchi.   And not just when he's cruising pay toilets."  St. Kevin-Wan looks up to the heavens.  "Where is the old crew now?"

"Princess Curio was last seen running for elected office on Bedlam VII." So-Low peers at 694U's screen. "Lupo Skywalker is a quant geek and Bay Area neofascist. Les Les Masters is the Missouri lieutenant governor.  St. Kevin-Wan Kenobi is married with children and working at a shoe store."

St. Kevin-Wan rolls his eyes.  "Don't remind me."

"And Maninblacka, well... "

St. Kevin-Wan shakes his grizzled head again as 694U bleeps out an 8-bit rendition of Chopin's Funeral March.  "And the opposition?"

694U pulls up another list.  So-Low examines it then frowns.  

"All vanished without a trace.  Nobody has seen them, heard them or thought of them for over a decade."

"They may be forgotten, but they aren't gone." St. Kevin-Wan reaches into his pocket.  "This is the calling card Kylo Necchi left on Maninblacka's corpse."

Sith Brotherhood of Darkness

unseen but not unknown

So-Low wrinkles his nose.  "Who released the SBD?" 

"An excellent question! Fire up the Necronomicon Falcon, Mr. So-Low. It is time for us to pay a visit to the Dumbshit Nebula."

What Makes a Woman? or Birth of a TERF

Testosterone-driven human systems – otherwise known as male bodies – are larger and heavier-boned than those running on estrogen. An average male will quickly defeat an average female in hand-to-hand combat. The same testosterone which gives male-bodied people this advantage also makes them more aggressive: not only are they more likely to win the fight, they are more likely to initiate it. 

Because of this discrepancy the shadow of violence looms constantly over male-female interactions. "Every man is a potential rapist" is more than just an inflammatory feminist slogan: it is female reality. A woman has no way of knowing if or when that uncomfortable date may become something much worse, that third drink may lead to a gang rape, the man she considers a friend will violate her trust and her body. Should she be attacked, there is no guarantee her attackers will face justice or even that her report will be believed.

Life in a war zone is exhausting. Many women have sought comfort and healing by withdrawing from the patriarchy. Amongst their fellow women they have created communities ranging from women's music festivals to domestic violence shelters and lesbian communes. These disparate groups and gatherings had in common their shared femininity, and are now faced with a common question -- what makes a woman?

* * * * * 

In 2011 lesbian pornographer Lily Cade canceled a shoot with Drew DeVereaux after discovering Drew was a post-operative MtF transsexual.  This led to lengthy discussions throughout the blogosphere and Twitterverse, all of which culminated in a workshop entitled "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women." As the organizers explained:

The term cotton ceiling is a reference to the “glass ceiling” that second wave feminist identified in the workforce, wherein women could only advance so high in the workforce but could not break through into positions of power and authority. The cotton represents underwear, signifying sex. 

The theory of the cotton ceiling is useful in identifying the dynamic trans women are experiencing, and is meant to open up conversation around desirability’s intersections with transmisogyny and transphobia.

Like the fear of violence, desirability casts a long shadow on the female experience. Women are judged largely, often exclusively, on how well they conform to social standards of beauty. Black feminists have talked about how kinky hair, dark skin and non-European facial features impact their lives; fat feminists have called into relief our culture's unrealistic worship of "Barbie Doll" bodies.  Alas, any nuanced discussion was soon drowned out by shouting on all sides.

Rebuffing trans lesbians = Hitler

Cade would later find herself under fire again when she refused to hire nonoperative male-to-female transsexual Chelsea Poe.  Ultimately Poe and several other trans activists called for a boycott against Cade's "anti-trans" hiring practices and against the Feminist Video Awards until such time as they quit discriminating against the female penis.

 Cade remained remarkably even-tempered throughout these exchanges: many of the lesbians watching were less patient.  For them the whole brouhaha was yet another case of males wanting access to female bodies. Like sensitive New Age guys inviting nubile young ladies to cast off their inhibitions, these trans activists were framing sex as a revolutionary act -- and where the women uninterested in SNAG penis were just frigid and uptight, lesbians who withheld sex from transwomen were reactionary bigoted transphobes.

She broke my heart
so I busted her transphobe jaw

Trans activists generally dismissed these objections out of hand: their opponents' "cisgender privilege" neutralized any merit their complaints they might have.  Besides that, as "TERFs" (Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists, a term coined by radical feminist and noted transgender critic Cathy Brennan) they were a hate group aimed at destroying a marginalized class.  As such, they were worthy only of contempt: paying attention to their claims, even to rebut them, would grant them a legitimacy they didn't deserve.

* * * * *

I can't wait until Annamaria is six
and we can buy her a bondage collar

In 2009 Stefonknee (formerly Paul) Wolscht was found guilty of 14 counts of criminal harassment, assault, criminal mischief and uttering threats against her former wife and seven children: she was served with a two-year restraining order forbidding her from any contact with them.  After this Stefonknee moved to Toronto where she stayed at a shelter alongside women escaping domestic violence and abuse.  Stefonknee is non-operative: she is also 6'2" and weighs some 270 pounds.  

While there Stefonknee discovered Fetlife, and met the couple of her dreams.  She told two Canadian journalists about her first encounter with the "Daddy" who accepted her not only as a woman but as a six year-old girl.

He ... took my virginity, and it didn't hurt, it felt beautiful.  I felt like a woman.  And like I'm surprised I didn't think I was going to be pregnant from it, I was so much a girl.  I actually have an erection right now from it *giggles* so I’m just going to pull my dress down a little bit

We are left to wonder how Stefonknee's shelter mates felt about her voyage of self-discovery or how many times she had to hide her erections in front of them.  (At least they were more fortunate than those women forced to share living space with Christopher Hambrook, a sexual predator who gained access to a woman's shelter by posing as a transgender woman named "Jessica").  And though she has been the subject of several heartwarming profiles in courage -- and even more stories treating her as the freakshow du jour -- we have also heard very little about any damage done to Stefonknee Wolscht's family.  If they are mentioned at all, it is only as intolerant villains who cruelly refuse to recognize their erstwhile husband and father as a sexually active prepubescent girl.

* * * * *

This posting's subtitle was typed with tongue firmly in cheek.   I have no doubt that my trepidations will mark me a traitor to the cause, and at this point "TERF" is primarily a snarl word like "fascist," "feminazi" and "libtard".   That aside,  I differ with the self-described TERFs on several important points.  One problem is that radical feminism neither needs nor wants input from male-bodied people.  More importantly, I do not believe transwomen are just men in skirts.  I have many trans friends and acquaintances and lived as a transperson for several years.  (I no longer "present female," whatever that means, because I find that living as a full-time parent does more to assuage my gender discomfort.  I hasten to add this is my personal journey and what works for me may not work for you).  I believe that there is more to gender dysphoria than entitlement or delusion.

But I also believe the life experience of a child assigned male at birth is categorically and qualitatively different than that of a child assigned female. This is true whether that child follows those pre-set paths enthusiastically or with enormous discomfort.  Because of this I believe there are reasons why people assigned female at birth might need space away from those assigned male -- even those who believe that assignment was erroneous and who are currently living as female.  And in any event, I believe that women-born-women have the right to create women-born-women spaces.

A few years ago I was one of the louder voices protesting a proposed Z Budapest ritual for "women born women" at Pantheon.   I believed then, and believe now, that such an exclusionary ritual was inappropriate for a public convention.  But I also believed, and still believe, that Budapest had the right to hold such a ritual in a private suite; to accept or reject members for her Susan B. Anthony Coven by any standard she sees fit; to allow or disallow transwomen at her private ceremonies.  The second wave feminists have made their position clear: further efforts to press your way into their spaces only prove you incapable of understanding that No means No.

What is the difference between a drag queen and a transsexual?  RuPaul caught enormous heat when he answered "About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon." But I'm not hearing any better answers from the legions of offended trans activists.  Many of those same trans activists are claiming Stefonknee Wolscht is an outlier, despite the fact that she is an active and very public member of the Toronto trans community.  And if her interviews are any indication she's also a textbook example of what Ray Blanchard and later J. Michael Bailey called "autogynephilia" -- a man's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman.  (In Wolscht's case this appears to be comorbid with autopedophilia).

The online translesbian community is comprised largely of white transwomen working in academia or the tech industry.  Much as the New Age movement and American Neopaganism re-envisioned religion as a self-help movement, this brand of Social Justice Warfare aims not so much at changing the world as at assuaging white liberal guilt.  Their gender identity disorder allows them to co-opt the sufferings of black and Latina trans sex workers living and dying in neighborhoods they will never visit: they need never worry about the sin of privilege because, as they will happily tell you and tell you and tell you, transwomen are the MOST OPPRESSED PEOPLE EVER.

(It's interesting to note how many trans activists are also active in the BDSM community, and how closely many of their complaints map onto "sissification" and humiliation fantasies. But that is, I am certain, merely a coincidence... ).

This oppression isn't just great fap fodder -- it's also a convenient Get out of Jail Free card.  That transwoman threatened to kick a TERF's teeth in? You have to understand how angry she is and how horribly they treated her.  (They presumably dragged her to their blogs and forced her eyelids open ala Clockwork Orange). Besides, the TERFs are always making up rape threats -- and if you note that Gamergate says the Exact Same Thing every time a woman files a police report, that's just further proof you're a transphobic TERF bigot and I hope you get cancer and die in a fire in for claiming we're violent....

And so once again we come to the same question we faced in the first paragraph: what makes a woman?  I still don't have an answer.  But that doesn't make the question any less pressing: neither does it make the "gender is all in your head" claim any more convincing. I'm happy to support equal employment opportunities for trans people; to use preferred pronouns; to fight for stronger laws against hate crimes and gender-based violence.  I'm not at all interested in guilt-tripping lesbians to widen the translesbian dating pool. Neither do I think it acceptable to offload the risks of our social experiment onto our most abused and disempowered. And if that makes me a bigot so be it: I can only express my sympathies if the facts turn out to have a transphobic bias.

To Reign In Hell: Introduction -- Hell is Murky

In a 1991 Rolling Stone article entitled "Sympathy for the Devil: It's not easy being evil in a world that's gone to hell," Lawrence Wright found several of Anton LaVey's autobiographical claims to be wholly or partially untrue. Since that time Wright's findings have been reproduced by many people wishing to "debunk" LaVey: estranged daughter Zeena's "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality" is probably the most famous example. This has resulted in a widespread belief that Anton LaVey was an inveterate bullshit artist whose every word was a lie including "a," "and" and "the." A man who died in poverty yet refused to monetize Black Masses is scorned as a con artist who was only in it for the money. And Satanism, a philosophy that shows remarkable integrity and coherence throughout LaVey's career, is dismissed summarily as fraud from a fraudster.

As with William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol, Anton LaVey's persona is one of the most important parts of his oeuvre. Any study of LaVey and his philosophy must touch upon the facts of his life and any serious biographer must ascertain where truth ends and fiction begins – and when that question matters.

* * * * *

Several weeks ago Adam Lanza slaughtered twenty children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Every bedtime since Annamaria has insisted we read Sesame Street's Imagination Song. Every bedtime since I have choked up as Ernie sails off into the sunset.

"And the nicest place is the middle of imagination," I sing, my voice cracking as my daughter nestles heavy-eyed against me, "when I'm there."

Many of my fellow Americans think I have been duped. They have decided those murdered children and grieving families are all part of a plot to take away our guns. James Tracy, a media studies professor at Florida Atlantic University, is claiming that the emergency personnel on the scene were really "crisis actors" hired by the Obama administration and states "one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place — at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation's news media have described." On Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's website, The Daily Paul, staffer vinceableworld writes in a since-deleted post:

So far I've seen dozens of conflicting stories. I've seen some very convincing theories of actors playing roles. I've seen some fairly conclusive evidence of look-alikes... I've watched a police trooper threaten to PROSECUTE people putting out "disinformation." 

I have not seen ONE SHRED of evidence that any kids are dead or that the Sandy Hook massacre even happened. All we have is hearsay - in a court of law that doesn't mean a darn thing. 

So tell me what evidence have you seen that these kids died and haven't been shipped off to... god knows where?

They are just crazies, I tell myself as I wipe my eyes and Annamaria smiles softly and nuzzles her pillow. And of course they are: nobody sane could possibly believe this was a false flag operation. Yet as the debate over gun regulation has continued it has becomes increasingly clear the Powers That Be are taking seriously the loons we've come to call without a scrap of irony "Sandy Hook Truthers." The NRA and its paid politicians have circled the wagons, more concerned they might lose their gun market than that more children might lose their lives. It is convenient for them to act as if those grieving parents are just using it to promote their liberal New England agenda, as if those dead children washed off the blood and went home, as if the whole thing never happened and we can safely ignore anyone who says otherwise.   

I no longer weep for what we have lost.  Now I weep for what we have become.

* * * * *

When I started this book I used noted American genealogist William Adams Reitweisner's LaVey family tree to trace Anton LaVey's paternal line back to Nebraska and a liquor salesman named Leon Levy. Levy rose to some prominence in Omaha only to run afoul of gangster "Irish Tom" Dennison. As part of Dennison's efforts to gain control of Omaha's saloons and drinking establishments Leon Levi was arrested numerous times on trumped-up licensing charges. Later his wife divorced him, yelling in court "I would rather go to the pen for twenty years than stay with my husband for one day!" and charging him with cruelty and "overindulgence on his part of the cup that cheers."

It was a magnificent beginning. It had family drama and a powerful crime boss who used the law as a club to get what he wanted. LaVey claimed his father had been a liquor salesman: it would make perfect sense for Michael Levy  to continue in Leon's trade. I patted myself on the back, secure I had just figured out a great deal of what made Anton LaVey tick and certain that it would only get easier going forward.

Then I discovered that the "Michael Levy" in question was 15 years' older than Anton LaVey's father.  And that he died in 1931 rather than 1992.

And that I had just wasted several weeks following one of America's leading genealogists down a rabbit hole. 

* * * * *

"I’d rather have my background shrouded in mystery," Anton LaVey told Lawrence Wright. As was often the case, he got what he wanted. I have presented the available primary evidence and attempted to place it in the context of its time and place. When lucky, I have been able to find a newspaper clipping, a census record, a city directory listing or some other scraps of data which confirm or refute LaVey's claims. More often I have been forced to rely on conjecture and speculation, or to admit that it is anybody's guess as to what happened. There is very little certainty to be had when looking at Anton LaVey's life story, only a Rorschach blot to be interpreted as the viewer will. And as with a Rorschach blot those interpretations often tell us more about the biographer than the subject.

In The Satanic Bible LaVey promised "Here you will find bedrock."  There's very little bedrock here, just some guideposts pointing out interesting anomalies in the swamp. Those determined to think Anton LaVey a fraud will not be dissuaded by evidence of his integrity; those convinced he is a liar will not be persuaded by examples of his honesty; those who imagine him a devil-worshipping reptilian Illuminatus will not be silenced by inconvenient facts. Satan has always been misunderstood and those who will take up his cause can expect no better.

But enough from me. Who cares about the porter when you're standing at the Gates of Hell?  Hopefully my words have whetted your desire: enjoy the performance!

Kenaz Filan
Newark, New Jersey, 2015