To the outside observer, or even to those who were in the Church of Satan
(CoS) or who still are, peripherally, certain behaviors are seen as confusing,
as in the censorship of a chat-room or various ass-kissing tendencies.
Many dis-functional families behave in a way that is extremely controlling
and disturbing - too much pressure on doing things the family way and incredible
criticism for taking too much of a non-family attitude towards things.
Does anyone expect Amway to tolerate people who aren't enthused enough
about the Amway system, or who are critical of all the meetings and time
expected away from non-Amway activities? What about Born-Again Christians?
Do you expect them to treat a non-born-again as a human being? Don't you
expect pressure from these people? Well the CoS is very much like these
examples, they just have very different beliefs and a different system.
All of the groups I just mentioned have aspects to them which are designed
to counteract certain 'problems' that cults are perceived to have. Dysfunctional
families can be brutal to a member who considers joining a cult, even if
they are in a cult themselves. Amway tries not to get into the problems
of pyramid schemes, which are illegal, and the personality-cult mind-control
aspects of Amway are tailored so as to disguise, limit, or distort this
so that it is a particularly Amway phenomenon instead of an something that
sounds like a cult-problem. Born-Agains maintain that a charismatic leader
is NOT Jesus, and cannot be the final spokesman for the Bible itself, and
that individual conscience in their individual hearts should determine
what Jesus/The Bible means in their life, so long as they are true to the
Bible. In the CoS, a creed of rampant individualism and atheistic tendencies
are institutionalized, and you can see how this might protect such a group
from total sheep-like fanaticism or belief and action based on "the revelation
of Satan to Blanche."
All of these groups, despite their efforts, are not immune to becoming
cultic, or becoming cults, and in fact for every 'protection' they maintain,
there is a tendency that reinforces cultlike behavior. If I knew more about
the Temple of Set, I could comment on what I feel they do or what they
have failed to do to prevent these scathing criticisms, but for the moment
I will just say certain practices about paranormal phenomenon could blur
the reality or individual judgement of someone ready to become a cultist.
Some things about Amway are disturbing and cultlike -- some people consider
Amway a cult, in fact, and certain Born-Again Christian groups and parts
of the most fanatic Christian Fundamentalist movement are definitely cults.
The Church of Satan has stepped over the line and joined the list of groups
that have cultic tendencies. That is what this article is about. Many dysfunctional
families function as small cults, protecting family members from being
revealed as abusers or criminals, and they exert thought reform pressures,
not just typical cultural programming and dogmatic upbringing, and this
is not a joking matter. The Church of Satan is indeed a cult in the pejorative
sense of that word. Not just any group becomes a cult, and not all radical,
fringe, or weird and hierarchical groups have such negative cultic tendencies.
Not all dysfunctional families are small cults, and not all anti-Christian
groups need be cultic, either.
As an example of questionable group situations in other groups, people
have had divorces because a spouse spent so much time with Amway social
activities that the marriage was a shambles. They spend more money and
time and limit their lives to Amway, if they are not careful. Amway is
not the same as some other money-making pyramid schemes that have a large
social component -- Amway isn't equivalent to Jim Jones or Heaven's Gate,
either -- but if you look at someone who spends years with them, and compare
their personality, their social abilities, their life and psychological
health before and after, the things they TOLERATED in their life or as
expectations from others, before and after, you might see the effects of
severe group pressures being used manipulatively upon them, or at least
they might reveal what happened to someone they knew in the group that
sounds sick. Someone might leave Amway jaded, but relatively unharmed,
but another person might be twisted by them, for no apparent reason other
than the dynamics of the group.
This is Russian-roulette upon the psyche, and healthy groups aren't as
dangerous to their own members as Amway. This is why Amway is either a
border-line situation or considered by some to be a cult. Yet they are
legal, and others consider them harmless. It depends upon the personality
of the particular member, or upon other chance factors, like who in particular
a member meets, and what they do, which particular seminars they go to,
and how they are treated there, how they react, personally. Many leave
rather than be harmed, and some stay but have built-in safeguards on some
level, or have not been exposed to the wrong people. Others hook up with
someone who is high-pressure and persuasive, and meets others like that
in seminars, and loose perspective of their own life.
Certain Born-Again Christians and the Church of Satan are more deeply cultic,
by some standards, by some people, than Amway, but prosperity cults do
exist and thrive on the basis of multi-level marketing scams combined with
controlling social settings and pressure tactics. No one expects these
groups (at least, not reasonable people who I have met who have any real
knowledge of them) to kill defectors, unless you try to make these larger,
more identifiable movements responsible for some off-shoot in the woods
(you know, some Kentucky Amway cult with a dictatorial sales-representative
or some other similar analogy.)
No one who is in-the-know expects every member of these cults to loose
all their money or wind up psychologically regressed/damaged to one of
those damaged cultists that get to Geraldo specials, or out-and-out sadistically
verbally abused, humiliated, beaten or raped. The fact remains, however,
that joining ANY of these movements could result in psychological regression
or retardation of psychological development, lack of autonomy, artificial
stresses you would not expect to find manufactured in healthy groups, and
there is a possibility that you could meet up with some truly controlling
and sadistic people ready to manipulate you without you being aware until
some damage is done (and who knows how deep it could get) and the leadership
of the group would ignore, poopoo, sidetrack, or blame YOU for seeing this
potential or feeling damaged in some way. This is incredibly sick, psychologically,
and in each of these groups, you can be so sucked into arguments, reforms,
defending the hierarchy, or being manipulated that leaving will be far
more difficult, emotionally and otherwise, than it should be.
The typical member or person who is associated for only a short time may
not say much about this, and people who leave quickly might not ever notice
a hint of the problem -- they might not even be aware that an intuition
of this controlling potential lead them to leave. It is the cases of the
people who leave and explain this, that explain exactly what the problem
is. Again, it is a matter of chance who you meet in the org (any of the
above) or group, and if you meet them in person or at a seminar (the more
prolonged and devoted and the more effort, time, or money you spend, the
more the tendrils are likely to come out.) Who knows what each level of
involvement brings? Both me and Jill decided it wasn't worth the risk,
as both of us felt certain explanations, expectations, and behaviors were
designed to increase the potential for manipulation, and the institution
of the CoS was deaf to this, or actively enjoyed awareness of this fact.
If you look at Anton LaVey's writings, you will notice that over time his
tune gradually changed. The Devil's Notebook is interesting mainly for
the Lycanthropy ritual, and the things on trapezoids and construction of
humanoids. Otherwise, the book is all about power-games and bullshit. Satan
Speaks' article on panty-pissing control games blatantly admits the whole
sick dynamic of the Church of Satan. Mind-games are enjoyed and expected
by far too many who are higher up, and they don't care if members are hurt
by them. As games, who knows what the odds are, it is freeform up to a
point, and contacts with the Church and members are kept to a minimum often
through a phone call or a letter or through the Internet. But there are
problems even with this LIMITED involvement, and now the grottoes are back
up, so the potential increases again.
I can imagine that it all started off as an informal talk on occult subjects,
but the grottoes were unpredictable -- it just depended on who was in control
of a particular grotto. A lot of 'loose cannons' and 'internecine strife'
from what some higher ups have said. "Shit-disturbing." Wonder what that
means. Once you suspect that mind-games are tolerated, practiced, or endorsed,
in any group, remember the full meaning of the term 'mind-games' and 'psychological
damage' and you will leave if it gets too sick.
I can imagine Aquino being one of those loose cannons with batty control
fetishes and hallucinations, but there were other grottos just as bad or
worse, probably. Very recently, Anton was engaging in panty-pissing control
games, 'voluntarily' with people who wanted to be controlled and manipulated
(like Blanche?) -- and we are to take these people as good leaders with
sound judgement in matters concerning our own involvement with their organization?
I think not. Zeena's picture, though probably not entirely accurate, probably
wasn't too far off the mark.
In any event, the behavior of Magistra Tani Jantsang, Rev. Brent (Satannet's
Baalack, Lestat Ventrue), and their favorite defenders, is incredibly cultish
and the dynamics of the groups that cluster around them are extremely sick.
Magisters like Peggy Nadramia and Peter Gilmore have an attitude that after
paying $100 to be insulted by the likes of those mind-fucking creeps, you
should 'know your place' and give the organization more of your energy,
time, and trust, to reap real rewards~! Tani Jantsang's followers WANT
to be cultists, and Tani herself is 'reluctantly'shepherding them, while
fueling their sick dynamics. This is 'no problem'!! Balaack expects people
to bow down and respect him just because he met Anton (did he have to piss
his panties?) And has a controlling reputation if you ask certain ex-girlfriends
or people on his chat room.
And you wonder why Man In Black has an attitude that non-CoSers are not
wanted on their chat room? Man In Black is fully enjoying his life and
stays away from those who would control him, it seems, but he is oblivious
or uncaring as to the dynamics of Baalack and Tani. Actually, I respect
Man In Black the most of all of the ones mentioned, since he is honest
with his feelings and is too up-front to pull too many games. You always
know where you stand with him, or so it seems -- and he has a point --
do something positive for your own group and claim IT is superior, and
then it will just be you and him shouting how your own respective people
are hailed as elite. He makes it look like a fun game, and that is all
it can be AT BEST anyway, so he is more honest. What bothers me, and what
is a truly dangerous tendency that is what helps make it a cult, is the
lack of humor and honesty exhibited by others. But humor alone is not protection.
The fact is that though atheism can protect you from manipulators with
mystic visions, and individualism can protect you from large amounts of
sheep-herding behavior, and selfish materialism can protect you from losing
total sight on material goals and demands to sacrifice with no benefit,
all of these protections can be eroded by other cult dynamics, and the
result can be anything from a Russian roulette with game-players, to a
deliberate and very effective system of brainwashing, depending upon who
you come in contact with, and whether you see the problem and get away.
The above 'protections' might have worked for a time against the problems
with grottos with charismatic grotto masters who dabbled in mind-control
games or out-and-out plans to manipulate.
Lacking a clear agenda to rally behind and demand sacrifice (which would
have eroded the selfishness and individualism controls), the Church of
Satan has still been able to attract enough psychologically disturbed people
ready to manipulate on their whims, and also enough people ready to give
some of their mind, emotions, will, or behavior-decisions over to the right
type of controller. I suspect many groups could do this, but ultimately
protect themselves from possible damages. To ACTUALLY be protected from
such damage, however, a group or an individual considering joining such
a group must REALLY and truly be disgusted by the most damaging and sick
manipulation tactics, and disgusted also by the manipulators and game-playing
assholes. AND that cannot be eroded by any gain the group or individual
perceives from those tactics or those assholes. Many groups open up these
possibilities, but the Church of Satan seems to enjoy the prospective danger
in the future brought by all of this. That is why they are a cult that
has the potential to do some serious damage to individuals, over time,
given enough exposure to Central, to certain members or people in the hierarchy,
to certain grottos. And this doesn't bother them. They seem to WANT it.
I have to ask myself, if they can't handle being asked about Zeena's claims
about Anton, then they are mentally ill, and a cult. On our own e-list,
we were verbally threatened in more or less pressure-tactic levels, for
ASKING (not even judging!) about this.
For the Church of Satan, the hierarchical attitude and structure also reinforces
the sick attitudes which encourage such manipulations of members. We found
our standards towards manipulations (our inner code of honor) erode and
change within their group, and this disturbed us, that is another reason
why we left. I am curious as to what other former members have to say about
this, and what their perspective is on this, whether it is a more recent
tendency in the CoS, or whether it was present from the beginning, and
whether he felt its effects himself, at all. Most groups suck people in
through group meetings in person, but damage can be done without that.
The internet culture of the CoS is damaging in itself, and so are contacts
with Central, if you ever consider yourself allied with them and a member.
It is a matter of time, chance, and depth of involvement. And it isn't
worth associating with a group like that, because groups don't HAVE to
be that way, especially to their own members. If you really like the ideas
of the groups you hang around you won't want this to happen to YOU.
