Left Hand Path, Part One
After coming across this article on the Reuters wire earlier today, I figured it was about time to get down to my little book review of Gavin Baddeley’s Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship, & Rock n’ Roll.
First, some background. My father was a Nazarene minister for the first fifteen years of my life. I went to a strict Protestant church three times a week and was forbidden to go to movies or school dances. I was a Bible quizzing master at age eight, facing off against eleven year-olds and smokin’ ‘em. At some point, my dad had a bit of a midlife crisis and quit the ministry. I don’t know much about his reasons for making such a monumental decision, as he passed away before I had much of a chance to pick his brain, but I’ve since built up quite a mythology in my head around the whole ordeal. From what I can understand, it was all about the hypocrisies of the church, coupled with a lifetime of pent-up feelings and existential dilemmas. But as I seem to be straying from my subject, and you, dear reader, are not my psychiatrist after all, I must move on.
A Battle of Tomes
After accepting the Christian paradigm as unimpeachable truth for my first fifteen years, I have spent most of my time since then questioning that paradigm and wondering just what exactly it is that I believe in. I have found some amount of solace in the tenets of Buddhism and Taoism, but it wasn’t until I read Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger eight years ago that I really found a belief system that I could take to heart, namely: I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING.
Oh yeah, the book. Well this introduction is getting long, and the hour is getting late, so I’ll have to save that for tomorrow.
In the meantime, quench your thirst for the dark side with these anthems:
Entombed – Left Hand Path
Rotting Christ – Lex Talionis
Venom – Welcome to Hell
*Btw, if I could recommend one and only one book to you, it would be Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger. Pick yerself up a copy. Changed my life.
N/P Kylesa - "No Ending" 7"
BUSTO ARSIZIO, Italy - The leader of Italian heavy metal rock band Beasts of Satan was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday for killing the group’s singer and two women in Satanic ritual murders.I mentioned the book briefly in last week’s Skye Klad post, vis-à-vis the title of that band’s latest record and its probable origins from within the Bobby Beausoleil/Kenneth Anger/Charles Manson triangle of Satanic hippie black magic:
This story, unsurprisingly, played a significant role in Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship, & Rock n’ Roll, an equally fascinating book that I received as a surprise Christmas gift from the noiseboy. His accompanying note said that when he saw it, he thought of me, and just had to pick it up. I don’t know exactly how well that reflects upon me, but I was glad he did. I finally completed the book a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to blog a little on it for awhile now. If all goes according to plan, there will be more to come.Interestingly enough, only weeks earlier my wife's grandfather loaned me a copy of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, thinking (correctly) that its logical and philosophical approach might make me consider its subject a bit more thoughtfully. Me, I got a real kick out of reading books on Satanism and Christianity at the same time. I tried to enter both with as open a mind as I could muster—a pretty difficult task, as I have fairly strong feelings on the material—but I did my best. In short order, I will take on C.S. Lewis, but right now, it’s all Lucifer, baby.
First, some background. My father was a Nazarene minister for the first fifteen years of my life. I went to a strict Protestant church three times a week and was forbidden to go to movies or school dances. I was a Bible quizzing master at age eight, facing off against eleven year-olds and smokin’ ‘em. At some point, my dad had a bit of a midlife crisis and quit the ministry. I don’t know much about his reasons for making such a monumental decision, as he passed away before I had much of a chance to pick his brain, but I’ve since built up quite a mythology in my head around the whole ordeal. From what I can understand, it was all about the hypocrisies of the church, coupled with a lifetime of pent-up feelings and existential dilemmas. But as I seem to be straying from my subject, and you, dear reader, are not my psychiatrist after all, I must move on.
A Battle of Tomes
After accepting the Christian paradigm as unimpeachable truth for my first fifteen years, I have spent most of my time since then questioning that paradigm and wondering just what exactly it is that I believe in. I have found some amount of solace in the tenets of Buddhism and Taoism, but it wasn’t until I read Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger eight years ago that I really found a belief system that I could take to heart, namely: I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING.
“My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered clinically dead under current medical standards, where the absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended.”Basically, I discovered agnosticism.
ag·nos·ti·cism n.Given Wilson's brilliant quote above, I must take exception to definition #1, as I do not see agnosticism as a doctrine of any sort. I suppose this speaks to the certain amount of pride I take in reading about different systems of thought, however contradictory or opposed to one another they may seem. Thus, my appreciation for the irony of my reading material.
1. The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
2. The belief that there can be no proof either that God exists or that God does not exist.
Oh yeah, the book. Well this introduction is getting long, and the hour is getting late, so I’ll have to save that for tomorrow.
In the meantime, quench your thirst for the dark side with these anthems:
*Btw, if I could recommend one and only one book to you, it would be Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger. Pick yerself up a copy. Changed my life.
N/P Kylesa - "No Ending" 7"
posted by Jonathan Wright at 12:53 AM EMAIL POST
