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“As men’s prayers are a disease of the will,
so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
Chapter 4
Straight from the Witch’s Mouth:
Personal Interviews with Witches
Dr. David Tronscoso, Charles J. Redmund, Adrian Kirch,
Madame Yoland Savarini, Vern Overlee, Bishop West,
Rita Norling, Reform Tract Society,
Sabaean Pontifex Maximus Frederick de Arechaga,
and Lilith St. John
Witch-hunting these days is a snap. In fact, new inquisitors have it easy because witches advertise. Where advertisement is lacking, ask the managers of the local avant-garde or retro-garde bookstore. If they are not themselves witches, they’ll know who is. Check out the backwater boutiques with gemstones and crystal balls as well as the slightly off-campus shops with window signs reading “Occult Records.” Catch up on occult symbolism and casually approach anyone wearing mystic insignia during a rock concert. The median age of witches has lowered drastically. Crones are out. Read the classifieds of the local college newspaper or the advertising in the local TV guides, free for the taking at supermarkets. Clip addresses from the “Wanton Ads” of the Underground Press, or from mainstream tabloids like The National Enquirer.
Let your fingers do the walking through the Bell System’s Yellow Pages, pop culture’s surest and handiest index. Check listings for astrologers, astrology schools, palmists, botanicas, metaphysical bookstores, and old curiosity shops. In every instance, ask the persons listed what they think about witchcraft and phrenology. Like massage studios, what people advertise is often not what they’re selling. Witches often advertise themselves as “palmists” or “hypnotic psychotherapists” because of discrimination against witches. After all, in the popular mind, where stereotype always trumps archetype, what does a witch do? Witch is too indiscreet a come-on. Palmist, astrologer, numerologist are titles specific of what the consumer expects and will get. In any group of seven or more people, interrupt the conversation to ask, “Has anyone here any American-Indian blood?” Always there will be someone. Try the same with: “Does anyone here know a witch?” Once a witch is found, ask for a referral to his or her friends in the craft.
If all else fails, join a psychic encounter group, or, better yet, something like the Psychic Club of Dayton, Ohio. For ten dollars this club, which advertises itself as the place “where witches and warlocks abound,” will give you–besides what you deserve–an astro-twin pen pal, a Free Location Service for correspondence with others with the same interests, and a one-year subscription to the Psychic Club Bulletin. The more outrageous can join the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who are men in comic drag dedicated to charitable acts and dodging attacks from the Catholic Church which, having appropriated so much, objects to the Sisters’ appropriating the image of Catholic nuns.
In the last analysis, witches, like beauty and smut, are in the eye of the beholder. What they say about themselves, though at times the cant of craft, is always more revealing than what popular folklore projects on them. Listen to the leading practitioners in Wicca and witchcraft responding to the author who has subtracted himself from the questions and answers, to edit the interviews into comprehensible shape. The practitioners nevertheless speak for themselves.
Dr. David Tronscoso, BA, DD, ESP Reader, Love Counselor, Psychoanalysis. Hollywood:
“The occult is popular because people are tired of the same old drags. Sex is necessary to the occult, but, like narcotics, sex can be taken to extremes. Witchcraft, in general, is an important cathartic agent, relieving our society’s pressures. The hands-off attitude of the courts these days is beautiful as it leaves the field wide open and lush. The more commercialization of the occult, the better. I make no distinction between white and black witches; my choice is witches with a clean appearance as opposed to dirty, filthy witches.”
Charles J. Redmund, Consultant. Los Angeles:
“To my mind, white witchery is the only kind to practice. The black arts, however, represent a very powerful force. This force is the same used by the church and the white witches. The power is the same; the use is different. I believe that the role of the contemporary witch or warlock should be that of self-sacrifice for self-enlightenment, fulfillment, and positive aid to one’s fellows. Thousands are today going mad under emotional stress and strain. Our psychiatrists and psychologists may not be able to handle this great load alone. The contemporary witch can help to ease this load through dedicated patience and research. This will bring witchcraft to greater acceptance and it will become more closely aligned with popular metaphysical practices as men, dissatisfied with the present way of things, go back to the old philosophies. Christians, I think, will find in witchcraft certain elements that are not readily available in Christianity, such as the essential part that sexuality plays in occult practice.”
Adrian Kirch, Mail-Order Occult. Shelton, Connecticut:
“I run a small business called The House of Kirch. We sell through mail-order: white magic rituals, spells, charm bags, herbs, and whatever you can imagine. Our items are merchandised as curios. Quite frankly, I commercialize by selling white magic. I don’t see why not. Isn’t commercial TV’s Bewitched an enjoyable program that shows a witch as an everyday person? Elizabeth Montgomery is no hag. She’s a charming young housewife. She makes white witchcraft more acceptable. Because of television and movies like Rosemary’s Baby, I think Americans by the end of this century will accept white witchcraft. The majority, however, will never accept black magic. After all, white witchcraft cannot be bad because it helps others. Helping others is a form of love. Most white witches and warlocks endeavor to help rid man of problems like the facing of death and illness. Many old white-witch remedies, in fact, have helped modern medicine.
“Because I believe in freedom of religion and the right of any individual to explore the mysteries of this universe, I oppose any repression of the religion of witchcraft. Laws should govern black, not white, magic to save churches and cemeteries from desecration. We white witches and warlocks believe in a law of retribution whereby if you harm, you will be harmed. I do not harm others, and do not worship Satan in any way. Sexuality is overrated in both white and black magic, although many believe a homosexual is granted special powers.”
Madame Yoland Savarini, Resident Astrologer, Numerologist, Columnist for the tabloid Midnight:
“The coming of the Aquarian Age has greatly appealed to the young who are dissatisfied both with old established religions and the new establishment religion of technology. In general, my feelings about witchcraft are divided because I am an astrologer and numerologist. I fear most of all the damage done by amateur adventurers into the occult. These people often do not have the best interests of their fellow men at heart. Responsible study of witchcraft could beneficially add to man’s store of knowledge about himself and his work. Consideration of witchcraft could greatly aid scientists studying the human mind.
“The witch or warlock in tapping the powers of the occult becomes something more than the average human being. He must learn to use his powers for good. I think the black arts are best left alone by those who wish to begin a career of practicing witchcraft. I would suggest a study of black magic merely to be protected against its evil influence.
“There are dangers involved in Demonic witchcraft, but one should know enough of the enemy’s methods to fight him. Something like the Manson-Tate affair, for instance, is detrimental to the cause of witchcraft. As I said, tapping the occult can bring forth strange power that gets loose in a room, a house, a body.
“I believe the commercialization of witchcraft to be inevitable. As a phenomenon, witchcraft contains all the necessary elements for popular appeal. However, the crassly commercialized media often give an erroneous impression of the art. Why create new misleading ideas just when the old historical fears of witchcraft are dying out? Witches are now tolerated, and with no more fear of persecution, they can finally help mankind. It’s true that certain occult sects have attached great importance to sexuality, but in white witchery its role has never been particularly important. In my area of the occult–astrology, numerology, palmistry–sex has little significance. Bizarre sexual rites generally accompany the black arts.
“It’s a truism that–barring any regrettable incidents–witchcraft will become more popular. For some people, it will replace currently established religion.”
Vern Overlee, Editor of Power Publications:
“Witchcraft is as misunderstood as ever. It is not glamorous. It is not what authors of commercialized versions think will sell. Witchcraft is not meant to be what it has become today: men attempting to control others. What is witchcraft? I’ll tell you: it’s man being controlled by unseen forces. It is man being controlled to serve or harm mankind. It is not the laws, you see, which do harm in the world of witchcraft; it is the holding back of truths, allowing distorted truths and imagined tales to be publicized. To associate people like Charles Manson with witchcraft is to make witchcraft appeal to the wrong kind of people. White witchcraft is for healing and peace of mind.”
Bishop West, Spiritual Advisor. Seattle, Washington:
“Witchcraft is very real. I am not a warlock or a spiritualist, but I am a born spiritual person who has God-given power to remove any spell or curse put on a person. I believe in the occult, because I have Bible proof, chapter and verse, and for 21 years I have been removing spells, curses, and snakes out of people. Mr. Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States, sent me a letter on January 14, 1969, thanking me for my spiritual advice on his political life and the future of politics.
“Some television commercials of witchcraft are very good imitations of the real thing. The black arts? They consist of some candles, not all, some soils, not all, some roots of various kinds–not all roots–and of many spirits, but not all spirits. Witchcraft is a lot of voodoo. What white witchery is, is witchery practiced by some white persons who began learning the art of witchcraft years ago from some black people who they had watched practice it; and the white people have practiced white witchery ever since. As for sex in the occult, according to very much study, that all took place about 1484 in Rome, Italy.”
Rita Norling, White Witch. Los Angeles:
“You must well know that not all things are permitted to be revealed and consequently I will not break the Ancient Tradition. The shortest and best observation I can make on our Craft is that we witches have suddenly become acceptable to the media of America. I am constantly in the news because of reporters who seek me out. I appear on TV and radio through the Associated Press. I give lectures. I am an Old Religionist whom the President of the Foundation of Junior Blind has asked to speak to sightless children. I don’t believe in Satanism or evil spells, and I have been interviewed by Reader’s Digest.”
Reform Tract Society. Millville, California:
“Look magazine calls California ‘A Window into the Future.’ It is indeed that. In all reality the End has come here. The cycle is full. This State can truly be called The “UPPER ROOM” of BABYLON. Here thinking is one mass mind. ONE No. 6 [worst possible] MAN MIND.... [This is] the WITCHCRAFT OF MODERN MAN.... I know I sound pessimistic, and I am. But I’m here to tell these modern coneys I CAN BEAT THE DEVIL. I can beat him at his own game....God’s Anointed will not give these damnable bastard coney Gentile dog black devil Purple People Eaters Fathers a free branch to hang from. That’s for sure.... The people in the U.S. are sick beyond thinking in GOD’S BOOK.”
Frederick de Arechaga, Sabaean Pontifex Maximus, Astrology Lecturer. Chicago:
“In the 6th century before Christ, a Persian king in the area of Babylonia refused to attack Harran because it was a bastion of the Old Faith. Justinian, Caracalla, Alexander the Great–many historical personages–always went to the Oracles at Harran. I use Harran because Harran is responsible for the cloven-hoofed God which sensationalistic Christians think of as the goat-footed Devil. The word warlock is terribly profaned because it means liar. Look it up in the dictionary. The word witch is a degeneracy from the Anglo-Saxon wicca, meaning ‘wise one.’ The essential value of a witch or wise one is they never have to admit that they are. They are simply acknowledged by the fact that in listening to them talk you know they’re wise. What they were originally were bab-ilu’s or pontifexes, that is, bridges. Both are the same word, the ‘gateway to the Gods.’ Bab means gate and ilu means God. In Chaldean Hebrew, ilu becomes el giving you Bab-el, the gate to the Gods and thus the ‘Tower of Babel.’
“The gateway to the Gods was architecturally a pyramidal structure which Sumerians, Egyptians, and Central Americans built to meet their Gods who were to return in fiery chariots. Whether this leads to the ambiguity of UFO’s, it’s not my business to say. The point is that our august ancestors came from the heavens in fiery chariots, taught the hairy barbarians the way of the Gods, taught them how to build structures, taught them to look at the heavens and calculate them, and then split after ruling several thousand years. This is true whether you’re looking at the Vedas, Torah, Sacred Egyptian or Babylonian or Central American texts. The point is that Harran–mentioned in Genesis when Abraham decided to split from Ur–is where Abraham continually went. He went to Harran. Why? When he needed a wife for Isaac he went to Harran. Why? What’s so precious in Harran? Ezekiel called it a great place of barter and exchange. I thought Babylon was supposed to be the great center. No matter. The fact still is that Harran is highly honored by everybody except for the Moslems who eventually took it over.
“But what was the mystery of Harran? Study Harran and you’ll find its religion was Sabaeanism, the Old Religion, the religion of earth. It is not a religion of hero worship and so it does not glorify any one God or any one people. It is not the monotheistic paranoia of Christians and Jews. It doesn’t convert. It finds no need to display itself since the values in Sabaeanism are sufficient in themselves.
“But what has happened? All the so-called crap of black magic is stuff stolen from the annals of the Sabaean temples: all the perfumes to the Gods, the planetary deities, all come down through Harran. You can find in an old German book, the only book on Sabaeanism, that the perfumes, colors, shapes and all the things that eventually became occult lore were the things practiced long ago by the Pontifex of Saba.
“In Harran, the most famous, but not the only, center of Sabaeanism, one God was favored. This early national God, predating Mardoch, was the God Sin, who is God of the moon. Sin, according to the ancients, was an old man whose symbol was the crescent moon. When you have a God, you put on his head the symbol of the planet he relates to. And if you put a crescent on top of somebody’s head, it’s going to very much look like horns. It was an ancient Sumerian and Babylonian practice to have antennae-looking things which eventually gave way to the placement of bull’s horns which you can see on the genii in ancient Babylonian temples. These are the symbols of Godhead, which only Michelangelo respected and understood enough to put on the head of Moses.
“The fact is that Sin was the great God of the moon. Later, the moon became identified with the female matriarch through the Greeks who were hung up on matriarchy. Sabaeanism, I might add, is likewise a matriarchy. My mother related very much to the moon. As astronauts approached the moon, she sickened. When astronauts landed on the moon, she died. My hereditary position came through her. There’s another lady, an ancient Egyptian frog Goddess which very few people know about, Heka. The Greeks called her Hecate. The word heka in ancient Egyptian added to a word meant something magical. She was the Goddess of magic. The roots of all this lie in remote antiquity.
“Unfortunately reading books is not sufficient because most are secondary texts written by dusty Victorian archeologists who write in a profane, self-centered style as if the ancients were likewise Victorians. The philosophy of antiquity was much different from today; it was not hypocritical, nor materialistic, nor obsessed with rationalistic facts. We accept people and things as they are. We do not believe in converting people from or to anything. Because the main God–the embodiment of all Godhead–is Truth which exists independent and absolute, no one book is the authority. Sabaeans have no one book, and therefore we extend truth through word-of-mouth. To categorize truth is impossible. It must be personal and therefore word-of-mouth at the moment. So to say you have a Book of Shadows or a book of anything is bullshit. It’s just down, around, unmitigated crap.
“I have been very much called down for opening my mouth to the profane. There are no temple-side philosophers today. Since I have a store here in Chicago, I have to face a lot of jerks who don’t know their ass from an occult hole in the ground. The true pontifex does not have any need as do most of these children–like Aleister Crowley–to outdo each other. All the covens are fighting with each other. This shows their very lack of power. When you deal with the real thing, the infighting ceases because it is against your own philosophy.
“One important thing that I don’t think has been written in the occult or appreciated anywhere for that matter is that ‘value is sufficient unto itself.’ So if you as a novice create your very first thunderstorm in the middle of a sunny day, and then don’t tell anybody! Now...That’s an accomplishment! It is an established tradition that when you put a spell on somebody and you go up and tell them, you break the spell. So in itself it works for its own value; this is the old, old school of values. This destroys any chance of self-glorification and all that Crowley nonsense about competing magicians.
“It’s very difficult, but then a pontifex is not just an ordinary human being. He has to be above and beyond. This is the true Zarathusthra who has to metamorph-ize to a point of Godlike qualities. Otherwise he is just a profane slob who enjoys an ego-trip. The greatest ego-trippers these days are the Satanists.
“To begin with, to be a Satanist you must be a Catholic.
“Satanic rituals are all degenerate Christian rituals. I’ve heard LaVey’s record and the Coven’s record of the black mass and Louise Huebner or whatever her name is. They go off and they start rapping all this magical shit and they really don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. The Satanists–with all due respect to the Satanists–worship the God of the Sun. Baal, Moloch. I can appreciate this. The Sun God is the God of power. I can understand them relating to Saturn or Pluto. But then they turn around with all this crap on Satan who is just the old Persian God Saathan, and start talking of him in terms of negation and hate and murder and carnage and crap. When they call him the ‘Prince of Darkness’ and the ‘Prince of Hell,’ they’re talking Christian dogma. The Satanist was really created by the degenerate mind of witch-finders, who were fascinated by the occult–but could not admit to it.
“The fact is the Satanist symbols are a degeneration of the symbols of ancient Harran. They grossly misinterpret the Mass into triteness. Satanists are sensationalizers who have read one, two, or three books–or even a library–and then throw together an eclectic conglomeration of shit like Aleister Crowley. Take one of his books and you have so many errors of names, herbs, and perfumes of ancient Egypt that he is a great mixture of nothing. But then, Crowley was a warped Christian’s son.
“The fact is that in the Old Religion which mothered the palmist’s hands, the idea of the seven planets, the idea of the ten powers, the idea of the five sacred numbers, the pentacle, the pentagram, the six-pointed star, the snake, the symbols of the heavens–all this stuff these people degenerate and proselytize–all of it is an adulteration of the Old Religion.
“I don’t say this because I am an hereditary Pontifex of the Old Religion, but simply because I have studied where these degenerations have come from.
“It’s annoying. If people would just say this is what this symbol means and let it go at that, I would have nothing to say. But what pisses me is that these people have the nerve, the unmitigated gall to say that it’s their idea. How dare they!
“The fact is that the cross is an ancient, ancient symbol of the sun–the God of the sun which the Christians still worship on the sun’s day. They use the sacred metal which is gold; they put haloes on their statues which is typical of Gods like Apollo. They still worship in the same manner as the temple of Amun-Ra, the God of the sun, because the whole idea of the tabernacle and the priest genuflecting and throwing himself on the floor is found in the ritual of the divine sun cult.
“Most people neglect their study of the literature almost as much as their getting involved with the real thing. Everybody’s hung up on being hung up. Everybody’s in love with love, but not with the reality of somebody else. And that’s because we belong to a degenerate society, brought up on false ideals and false Gods who declare themselves the ultimate authority. These kids, young and old, who let their hair grow out just to resist authoritarianism are doing a superficial ego-trip. My hair is longish and I have facial hair, but that doesn’t make me a revolutionary. I’m not just reliving the values of our hypocritical society, but doing it under a thatch of egocentric hair. If you really want to become a revolutionary, you just simply have to stop being so gullible.
“The true philosopher’s stone is found within yourself.
“Believe your reality. The stone is not in some crummy piece of metal which you must alchemize. True are the words from Harran identity to Delphic identity: know thyself. The whole idea of destiny and divination is based on knowing yourself so you can do something about it. All this nonsense of heaven and hell is propaganda, because basically monotheistic cultists whether they’re Islamic, Buddhistic, or Christian can be no more than self-centered authoritarians, who are very class-conscious, and only interested in making outsiders into bloody peasants. They ignore objective truth, knowledge, and wisdom. They become themselves subservient to their own authoritarianism. They program people into being an audience, peasants fit only to work like animals, cretins who do what is expected of them as it is so said by outside authority.
“We Old Religionists don’t care about your sectarian squabbles, because truth exists independently and in facets.
“If you want to worship the Sun, you go to a Catholic church
“If you want to worship Saturn, you go to a Synagogue.
“If you want to worship Venus, you go to a Mosque.
“If you want to worship the Moon, you go to a Hare Krishna temple.
“If you want to worship Mercury, go to a Buddhist temple.
“We Old Religionists don’t have to build temples. There are enough people doing that sort of thing. But if you go there–to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple–and you find their specific bag is something you really dig, then you deserve to be a Catholic, or one of the others. It’s no skin off our back. The whole principle is based on the art of change.
“Talking of the art of change brings us to the hairy-assed question of black and white magic. First of all, black magic comes from a play on words which the Ancients had the decorum to understand. Modern man is too damn stupid to allow himself the luxury of intelligent understanding of the play on words. Ancient Egypt called itself Khem, which means black, the black land. Probably because the ground was at that time made very black by the Nile waters. Khem, because of its advances, had attracted a great deal of respect. Through the Greeks, Romans and Arabs, we have come to use their terms. The art of the Greeks is Khem-istry, chemistry; alKehmy, alchemy. But translate it [Kehm] with the Romans to necro which means black and you have the art of the black land: necromancy.
“Because in magic you deal with unseen powers, necromancy implies dealing with spirits. And today–despite the fact that I could be crucified, stoned, and hanged for saying it–every spiritualist, every little old lady who plays in the seance parlor and tries to call the dead is a necromancer–and thus, a black magician. Necromancy means ‘divination through the dark, the black, the black land, meaning Egypt.’ Necropolis was the place of the dead, the netherworld. Finally the goody-goodies with Jesus-Christ complexes identified the Satanists as black artists. Christians created the distinction between white and black magic. The truth of the matter is that the Satanist is not the self-indulgent libertine he thinks he is, because in doing what he’s doing the way he’s doing it he shows great uptightness in slavish reaction to specifics of Christianity. A libertine acts freely on his own. He is not compelled by reaction. Consequently, Satanists’ initiations and orgies are very disappointing. They do not know the art. They’re too hung up reacting to get into it.
“There is a whole period of occult enlightenment brought about by Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. She meant well. What Besant did with Theosophy stinks, because it’s nothing more nowadays than Christianized ideas. [Free-thinking feminist Annie Besant, 1847-1933, met Madame Blavatsky in 1887 and converted from Christianity to Blavatsky’s Theosophy; when Blavatsky died in 1891, the Theosophical Society split in two with Besant as head of one branch.] The goodie-goodies who are afraid to be real: they are the people who are afraid to be wrong. They are afraid of distinctions like heaven and hell. And so they make distinctions between white and black magic. They distinguish ad nauseam. There is obviously no such thing as black magic or white magic; for I ask you, how many people have done evil while trying to do good? The art itself–and I’m sure that the notorious Merlin or any of the other Magi would stand behind me to admit–that white and black are both reciprocal part of one art, the most sublime art of all: the art which identifies itself with the real and the unreal, the art of metamorphosis.
“That art of metamorphosis, of change, starts in yourself, so you can later apply it outside yourself. This way you achieve a Godly thaumaturgic practice as the antique elders or prophets of biblical lore. But that takes one thing that most people haven’t got the guts to do and that is involve yourself in it actively. You can’t stand off and be a shadow and an audience. You’ve got to be it. There is no magical formula. It is an experience. Most people are afraid of experience, because you can be wrong, and most don’t want to be proven wrong. The rub lies in Judaeo-Christian ethics which judge a man ridiculous to show his emotions. You don’t feel. You just work. How can a person subsist on that?
“Hallucinogenics were never really used by the pontifex who wanted reality as it is. Drugs when they were used, were used for very specific purposes and not by everybody for everything. The idea of sabbaths being a wild orgiastic thing where people came flying in on brooms wearing conical hats and all that nonsense with weird unguents on their backsides and going up chimneys and all that is sheer imagination, degeneration of ideas of truth in the universe to ridiculously low terms.
“You must realize most of that lore grew up in an age of persecution where if you opened your mouth with an opinion about anything, such as “Hey, look the Earth goes around the Sun,” you were hanged or tortured. So why say anything? And if you say something, why say the truth? This is what made the persecutors furious. They couldn’t do anything about what tortured people in agony–and therefore in spite–made up just to confuse the inquisitors, and suddenly the ‘Great Book’ became a playing deck. How could they come out and destroy the evil thing? Today we have only a fraction of the truths and glories of antiquity because of all those fundamentalist assholes who did nothing but burn down libraries and ruin all the books they could get their nasty hands on.
“The witches’ sabbaths, their main festivals, were gatherings in which people ran around trees and rocks. These specific dances–which some of the Shakers and more fervent Christian cultists still do–gave rise to the great superstition of the ‘Fairy Folk’ in England. Superstition is not part of the ancient religion, because we know why we do things. Superstition can only come from a society that does not know why it does what it does. They call what they do a superstition. Like the American soldiers wearing the Ace of Spades on their helmets in Vietnam. There is no superstition in our Old Religion because there is nothing you cannot explain. We do not believe in faith; we believe in reason. We do not believe in rationalization; we believe in trust. We have no fear. We can control man, beast, or spiritual entity when we want to. We can avoid confrontation when we feel that we’re not physically or spiritually strong enough to deal with what is lurking there. We have an awareness. That’s different than a gullible stupidity.
“The fact is that we’re not concerned with the Garden of Eden prior to the forbidden fruit but rather afterwards. If more people read the Bible, they’d find it says in the third chapter of Genesis that God did not throw man out because man had disobeyed, but rather because man had become in knowledge like one of Them, the Gods. He was put out of the Garden lest he eat of the other tree. Very few people realize there was a second. This tree would make man immortal like Them. Therefore–and I might add that’s an old pagan story stolen by the Hebrews–knowledge is the main purpose of our religion. You must get above and beyond yourself. Love rests in the harmony of things, but to be a Sabaean you must accept the understanding of all values of Truth.
“In the sexual occult, you’ll find that sado-masochistic practices are a degeneracy like the Satanists are a degeneration of Christianity, and Christianity is a degeneracy of the Hebrew, and the Hebrew is a degeneracy of the Sumerian-Chaldean. Sado-masochistic practices are psychological trips where the individual suffers or lacks a certain thing. I mean the best of people have these needs, generally because when a child is babied–Freud, and Jung, and psychiatrists who are not occultists will go along with me–there often remains a need for authority, parenthood, a disciplinarian-protector. I don’t care what the Satanists do. Sado-masochism has no direct place in the Old Religion. But it can play an indirect role.
“As far as homosexuality and heterosexuality are concerned, they’re both queer, because to be a homosexual is one end of being heterosexual which is the other end. They both lack each other. They are both equally degenerated and unpardonable. I have had animals of all kinds in my Temple. Right now I have two doves–both male. Nobody told them they’re not to be doing that sort of thing. I’ve had cats, dogs. The fact is–despite the heterosexual’s arguments against it–that animals are by nature bisexual. As are also human beings who I might remind you are animals as well.
“Bisexuality is no shame.
“The truth is it is actually a better state of mind. It is a natural state of being.
Also observe that you will not find the peacocks with the peahens; you will not find lions with lionesses. Where the male has a family, he owns it like property. And it is the female who works. Woman is made for a great deal of work physiologically. She is consequently stronger than a man in every sense. But then I’m not going to get involved in that!
“From an ethical standpoint, bisexuality relates to the true value of things. When you love someone you do not love them because of their sex–which is the sadness of many a relationship today. This is why there are so many divorces and disagreements, murders of little children, because the individual has certain physical needs. Sex is not a horrible thing, nor is it necessarily a ritualistic thing either, though it can be used ritualistically. The fact is sex is important to humans and to deny it as a celibate is as degrading to a Divine Form as anything can be. The esthete who lives totally for the spirit is as bad as a spirit which lives totally for the physical world. Anyone who knows Spiritualism will tell you that. To be so enamored with that which you are not is the unhealthy mistake.
“As Buddha said–which most Buddhists don’t even follow–to become an ascetic esthete on one side or a self-indulgent libertine on the other, neither is good. Only by doing both simultaneously do you negate the extremes and bring balance; that is, achieve Nirvana. This Nirvana is an ancient knowledge brought by the Great Illustrator Buddha who was merely an incarnation of the ancient God Vishnu. You learn to know yourself in the equilibrium of things. Balanced, you–as Zarathusthra, also speak. This is a superhuman accomplishment. The purpose is one of intelligence.
“God is perfect. He is all that was, is, and shall be. God must, therefore, be human and not human. We are the human aspect of God. We are God. The ultimate achievement is to become one in unity with that Great Intelligence of the Divine Order. We must remember that while we are God, God is not us. We do not have the right to become righteous or assume God’s responsibilities. Like your hand is part of you, but you are not your hand. This is ancient cult.
“To know your place, consider how big you are in comparison to this house, and this house in comparison to this block, to this city, to this country, to this continent. You can pretty much see you can’t see yourself already. Compare yourself to the world. You are nothing. A couple miles up you can’t even look down and see the houses, let alone the people. Compare this solar system to the galaxies. How dare anyone presume to judge other men?
“Drugs are the difference between searching for God truly and synthetically. In the cult of the Old Religion its ethical value lies, as I said earlier, in the value itself, in the reality of value. Since one of the by-products of value-reality is power which with sense of intelligence is the main objective, I will ask a question of your reason. Which is the stronger power? That achieved through an hallucinogenic of any sort which is momentary and non-existent once you come down from it? Or that which you achieve through your own power from which you don’t come down unless you wish to? This last stage you can always reach again and move to higher consciousness.
“Sabaeanism is the only religion that can afford to have an atheist. Because you do not need God per se. First of all, God does not need you. And second, since you are God, you don’t really need any further specification of God. And what is God? God is perfection. To use an ancient saying recorded by Plato from the words of Solon of Egypt: “I am all that is, was, and ever shall be. No mortal man has me unveiled. I am that I am and whatever-so you wish to call me I am. For the fruit I brought forth is the Sun.”
“The 64th is considered to be the oldest chapter of the Book of the Dead as well as the epitome of the Book’s meaning. Originally called The Book of the Coming Forth by Day, the Book of the Dead in its first line of the 64th chapter says: ‘I am yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I have the power to be born a second time.’ I have the power is the important thing. People needn’t get hung up with God. People are God. They should mind their own business and metamorphose themselves. That would be the end of war and arguments. Concerning yourself with your own deficiencies you achieve an awareness of yourself that is so deep you can’t help but be cognizant of other people. You can’t help but care and understand and when you have understanding and care, then you become like the Ancient Mariner: more sagacious, a little wiser but sadder. Sadder because you’ll know.
“Saba means all. It’s not to be confused with pantheism. This is a religion. It is not theology. It is not ritual or ceremony. Religion is not a church or a temple or a ground or a sky. Religion is nothing more than what you believe, namely, it is a philosophy of life. It is the way you become cognizant and aware of the world around you. Saba, meaning all, is not monotheism, polytheism, or atheism. It is henotheism in which God becomes a personal thing even if it means a denial of the existence of God. This doesn’t necessarily make you an agnostic or an atheist. Henotheism means belief in one God and worship of that one God while acknowledging other Gods exist for other people. Henotheism is not about the exclusion of other Gods. A pantheon is possible. In himself the atheist is as much a religious person as the agnostic, the monotheist. Though you may be temporarily a monotheist, you cannot remain so. A monotheist is an ass simply because he insists on making everybody else believe in his God. This shows his ignorance. My shop is called El Sabarum which means Of Many Gods. Our Illinois charter incorporates us as El Saba. We have incorporated, even legally, everything!
“We can worship someone. We have occasions to burn incense for you as a guest, and make obeisance to you as a God. You can do this for a loved friend. To do something is sufficient. To have done it is enough. You do not glorify it. If you achieve any title–the only reason I’ve given you a title for me is because you ask a specific identity. But there are other times when I will not tell. I have worked in places where people have achieved titles, where they use their titles wrongly. I personally saw senators trying to make Jesus Christ a national savior. Now come on! Completely contrary to the Bill of Rights. Believe me. I know Reactionary from Revolutionary! I have served in this American government. I personally went out and joined the service. I worked with journalism and I was in the propaganda machine of this country. It’s no different than any other country. But, hell, I also made myself an American citizen. I’m no chauvinistic patriot, but I am not stupid either.
“I can see something valuable in America, but it’s going to go out the window because you have a bunch of bigoted slobs who can see nothing more than their own personal gain.
“America’s ability to change should be neither so readily dismissed nor should it be so readily advertised. Media advertisement makes things grow so terribly wild. There is a difference between informing people of something and sensationalizing it. There is a difference between printing facts and the competitive idea of selling newspapers.
“In my store I cease to sell certain things when another shop begins to handle the item. I do this out of respect to the other person. I thank the Gods that other people have done this in turn for me. Some, however, purposely imitate what I do because they’ve got to get in on the bandwagon. They have no respect. They usually don’t know what they’re doing and they usually close up quite suddenly and quite mysteriously–ha!–if you know what I mean. Did I say anything just now?
“People’s ethics are all screwed up. What is so shameful about a girl having a baby out of wedlock? In ancient times such girls were called virgins. That’s what a virgin was: a woman who gave birth without a husband. Even Jesus Christ was a bastard in that respect. Because whether it was the Holy Ghost or some other holy person, the fact was he did not have a father. St. Joseph doesn’t relieve the fact he was a bastard. A monkey with a different collar is still a monkey. Christianity has programmed people into narrow-mindedness.
“I mean look at 6th-century Christianity. It was then that Christianity became solidified. It had very little to do with ancient Christianity. Original Christianity. The Old Religion of Christianity. These 6th-century types said the people are not smart enough to understand reincarnation so we will not have that doctrine. These self-opinionated men decided that this was the people’s capacity. They wanted to foster a group of peasants. Christianity was founded by peasants for peasants. Christianity has always been against patricians. The rich were told not only that they worshiped the wrong God, but no God at all. Christianity stole and adapted everything. That Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love” And so on. Come on. I found it in an army chaplain’s office. It’s the same thing as found in the prayer by Amenoteph IV of the 18th dynasty. I almost dropped dead.
“I’ll tell you modern witch-hunters something. When you go out looking for witches or warlocks or whatever you want to call them, ask them a couple of questions. Most witches are full of crap. Make them put it on the line.
“Ask them if they’re bisexual. If they’re not, it’s a giveaway.
“And then ask them if they really know astrology.
“A true pontifex must know his astronomy and astrology. They’re both the same; astronomy is astrology without occult delineation. You’ll find that most people today are profane astrologers. Sacred astrology, however, continues with a procession of the equinoxes which the profane do not observe. Consequently profane charts are off about 28 degrees. This coupled with the fact that there are thirteen, and not just twelve, zodiac signs–check it out in any planetarium!–makes most people drop back one sign from what they think they are. You’ve always thought you’re a Gemini. You’re really a Taurus. This is not to say one can’t find some consolation in profane astrology. Its principles are basically sound.
“You just lay those two questions on anybody who claims to be a witch and see what happens.
“Don’t be too ready to accept anyone.
“Remember the Mayans who were abandoned by the Old People who established the culture and then went back up into space. The Mayans waited and looked for those Old Gods to come back. They waited thousands of years, and not being discriminating, they accepted the first strangers who showed up: priests wearing symbols of the Sun and soldiers whose crescent helmets were symbols of the Moon.
“Good old gullible America ought to learn from what happened to the uncritical Mayans!”
Lilith St. John, Sorcerer, Alchemist, Lecturer. Burlingame, California:
“There are many witchcraft groups popping up. A lot of them read a few ‘occult’ books and think all they have to do is draw a circle of salt around themselves and they’re witches. Consequently, the 1970s occult explosion has both encouraged and disappointed me. I’m encouraged because the great interest in witchcraft would seem to indicate a growing awareness–however confused–of the very real power of magic. I’m disappointed because of all the confusion and misconceptions propagated by so-called white witches.
“Distinctions between white and black magic are euphemistic. All real magic is black–that is, selfish, sensual, and materialistic. Black magicians must become organized into the religion which they are and be respected as such. After all, one hopes that a knowledge of black magic would make an individual self-reliant, confident, and honest. White witchcraft does none of these things for its adherents who are typically weak, confused, and self-deceivers. These ‘white witches’ play at the Devil’s game, don’t they? They use the Devil’s tools in their quest for crumbs of power. These white heretics must be called to task for using in vain the names of all those who suffered and died as agents of the Devils in ages past.
“My personal satisfaction in the occult is great. The competent witch must do much study in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. I find that my practice of real magic–black magic–has contributed enormously to my self-realization. I have come to know the power that is within me, learned to revel in the indulgence of my ego, and known greater fulfillment of my desires than at any previous time in my life. My only complaint is that we witches are barely tolerated. My sixteen-year-old son was denied entrance into a social club because I am a witch. They’ve made a hard time for him in school. I finally had to throw a few curses on certain teachers to get him some peace.
“All the voguish nonsense of witchcraft disturbs me. However, the existence of such growing groups as Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan with its vigorous and honest approach tend to balance the picture and encourage some optimism. Now that we are above ground, we will grow and become a world power. Anton LaVey is our leader. White witchcraft will die out.
“I use my powers to help people for my own monetary gain. Most people consult me on love, sexual, and money problems. My private clientele includes laborers, businessmen, a few tycoons, and some of the ‘creep’ element. I make talismans and charms, so people can carry something with them.
“In short, I’m a black witch.
“What white witches do is something else. I can’t keep track of their foibles.”
