Gotta Serve Somebody

 

Yeah, that's a Bob Dylan song.  

This blog post isn't about vintage music, but something personal to me... and might give you a hitherto unglimpsed insight into my psyche, my being.

If our current year culture has proven anything, it's shown us that creating a vacuum and just leaving it open indefinitely doesn't work.  If there's an opening, a void for any length of time, it will eventually be filled by something.

For the radical-left, that void has been replaced by their new religion - secular progressivism.  When I was much younger, I probably would have thought that would be an improvement to something like Christianity.  But now I look fondly on the days when the Christian church, God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit were a vital part of American culture.

As we'll see, Satanism is not the antithesis of Christianity but the other side of that same coin; it's shadow.  

What we see before us today is as shallow, vacuous, and silly as what we replaced the time capsule with under the statue of General Robert E. Lee.  Here are some of the contents: a rainbow pride flag, empty vial of the covid-19 vaccine, BLM sticker, photograph of a left-leaning political activist, and face mask.

WTF?!?  Is that our legacy?  Is that going to influence and inspire the youth to become good, responsible people in a functioning society?

I've always been anti-authoritarian, skeptical, questioning, independent, an outsider... determined to make up my own damn mind about what I think.  I was born to walk the Left Hand Path.

While in Junior High, I discovered the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and Anton Szandor LaVey.  As some of you may know, LaVey founded the Church of Satan and wrote about his life, experiences, and philosophy in such books as The Satanic Bible, The Secret Life of a Satanist, The Devil's Notebook, and others.

LaVey respected and loved life, children, and animals.  The pseudo-Satanists in Texas who view abortion as their sacrament aren't practicing real Satanism.  Hell, they don't even believe in Satan!  To them, Satan is a grift, a cultural-Marxist agenda to take down "the patriarchy" and American family, not unlike BLM.

There's room for all types of belief in the Church of Satan, or there was when LaVey was still alive.  They used to call him and his supporters "right-wing" and "fascists" just like the left calls moderate conservatives (such as myself) today.  All because we recognize the value of tradition, faith, personal responsibility, and meritocracy... albeit, with a dark side.  

To everyday people, Satan might be cartoonishly represented as a red guy with horns, tail, goatee, and trident.  But Satan also represents that dark force in nature, as primitive as it is powerful.  

Satan symbolizes that alien (eldritch?) spark of divinity that sets us apart from other animals.  Our consciousness has more purpose than merely an acute realization of our own suffering - or hedonistic desire for pleasure.  By correctly harnessing consciousness, I believe we can become our own God.  That doesn't mean we replace God, Satan, or the pantheon of your choice.  Rather, we're attempting to create a soul or spiritual vessel that can outlast the death of our material form.

I've read both the Old and New Testament in the bible, and I believe there's plenty of room for interpretation.  If you've never studied Esoteric Christianity, the Fourth Way, Gurdjieff, or Ouspensky, then I suggest you look into it.  I discovered those subjects during my brief, college-age stint in the Temple of Set, an offshoot of the Church of Satan, and years of research expanded my understanding of both Satanism and Christianity.

What I'm trying to say is there's a fair amount of Venn diagram overlap between LaVeyan Satanism and Christianity.  More so, I would say, than Satanism and the far-left's secular progressivism.  

Obviously, this is merely an overview.  Perhaps I've created more questions than I've given answers.  Feel free to ask me here or in an email, if you're curious.

Hail Satan!

VS

p.s. I have such sights to show you, hoss!  Where do I begin?  I have a new satire blog called Your Dungeon Is Racist.  The Kickstarter for Crimson Escalation is winding down.  I'm also organizing an old-school RPG convention in July of 2022 called VENGER CON. 

Black Lotus Kult interviews VS

As some of you may already know, I didn't just awaken from a cryo-stasis chamber a year ago and immediately start scribbling weird sci-fantasy roleplaying stuff all over the internet.  Venger has a past.

This right here is an interview I did with the Black Lotus Kult to help promote The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence kickstarter.  Ariock, the guy who interviewed me, wanted me to discuss the Cthulhu Cult (an actual religion I founded back in 2004) and my recent OSR projects.

So, if you're interested in delving a little bit deeper into who I am and what I'm about, then delve away!  If not, that's ok, too.


VS

Lords of Salem: a bad trip

Lords of Salem?  More like the lords of lame, man.

Yeah, I saw this last night with my wife.  It was to be our monthly "date night".  Even though she didn't hate it (she still claims that Wallstreet 2: Money Never Sleeps wasn't that bad)

Rob Zombie's new film kind of snuck up on me.  I knew of it beforehand from perusing Fangoria or Rue Morgue months ago, but there was no advertising.  I wasn't expecting the media blitz that Evil Dead got, but there seemed to be nothing behind LoS.  Just a review in The Onion (which rarely lets me down) Beyond that, I tried to see if there was a more convenient location... only to realize that LoS was playing in one theater only in the city of Madison, WI.  And now I know why there was no advertising and but a single cinema took enough pity on the film to screen it:  Lords of Salem mostly sucked.

Just as House of 1,000 Corpses and the Devil's Rejects were influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre, LoS is heavily influenced by Rosemary's Baby.  And while Rob Zombie can approximate the down and dirty grindhouse terror of Tobe Hoober, the audience unfortunately learns that he can't hold a candle to Roman Polanski.  Most of the raw elements are there, but the crafsmanship of meshing everything together seamlessly is lost on the undead director.

Edited down, it would have made a fantastic 5 minute video for one of Rob Zombie's songs.  As an hour and 40 minute movie?  It's way too long, too meandering, too pointless, and too alienating.  The plot is there, but there's not much emotional force behind it.  Most movies know the rules, and only try breaking them when they have superior material or an ingenius plan.  This movie wasn't so lucky.  LoS just kind of shows us the broad outline of what's happening with vague impressions of why without making anyone care what happens to Rob Zombie's wife... I mean Heidi LaROK, no I mean Adelaide Elizabeth Hawthorne, or is it Heidi Hawthorne?  Whatever she's called, her striking beauty is one of the few redeeming features of Zombie's Halloween remake and LoS, too - only she's made to look like a dread-locked, 70's fashion trash, junkie, crackhead!  So, her hotness is all but obscured!  Epic fail, Sheri Moon Zombie's husband!

Top that off with all the 60 - 80 year old naked women.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There was more aged, out of shape, unattractive flesh on display than a nursing home on wash day.  Yikes!  And the camera doesn't just glance at that saggy and/or wrinkled eyesore - it wallows in it!

What else?  Remember how cool House of 1,000 Corpses was, except for just a couple glaring issues - principally, in my mind, the overuse of the name Doctor Satan?  Well, expect to hear Satan invoked just as many times in LoS.  Why do that?  Doesn't Rob know that every time he is named, it lessens his power, it lessens the overall effect, and just makes it seem hokey and dumb?  Three times should be the max for a full-length film.  More than that and you've turned it into a drinking game.

I'm going to just end this review short.  There are other things that alienated me and the rest of the 10 people audience on opening night - like the oppressive and repetitive music/sounds throughout the film, the spitting (more than once!) on a newborn baby, the lack of understanding about Satanism, witchcraft, and effective filmmaking, and all the other shit I mentioned above.  Done in the right way, I can enjoy the kind of transcendent alienation of David Lynch.  But imagine a Lynch movie attempted by an amateur?  That's the kind of disjointed mess we have in LoS.

If this had been a 5 minute video - or even a half hour short film before his next cinematic masterpiece, I might have been dancing in the aisle.  Alas, this full-length bad trip might ensure that every Rob Zombie movie after LoS goes straight to video.  For me personally, I'll need to read a couple reviews before giving my precious time and money to see another of his films.

VS