Sympathy for the Devil in Witchcraft?

I wanted to hold back and really think about the controversy linking Satan and the Horned God of the Witches as being somehow intrinsically related. I have listened to what others have said, and I have also had some interesting conversations with some of my peers. After digesting these various opinions and ideas, I feel that I now have pulled together my own thoughts about this controversy. What follows is how I perceive this issue.

Recently, there was an article in Patheos, written by Pat Mosely, that proposed Wiccans should reconsider incorporating the Devil into its Duo-theological framework, or at the very least, consider the tropes of the Devil in history and how it could relate to modern Witchcraft. You can find that article here. While the article attempts to justify this theme, I found myself unconvinced for a number of reasons. First of all, if the author had said that Modern Witchcraft in at least some of its forms should consider the relationship between the Devil and the Horned God, I would reply that such a thing is already well underway. It's just not occurring in the manner that the author has suggested. Secondly, I think that it is problematic for anyone to suggest that Wicca, or any other Pagan religion, reconsider the Devil as a deity if that particular entity itself doesn’t function as a deity in any other religious system, with exception to Classical Satanism. I find this whole argument to be counter-intuitive, and that is a form of argument that has been overly-used lately, in my opinion.

However, the word “Wicca” was used in the article, and it is a fact that the only individuals who use that word to identify themselves are engaged in the British Traditions of Witchcraft (BTW), as established by G.B. Gardner and continued through myriad offshoots. The problem with this kind of “devil’s advocate” writing is that it just over simplifies what is actually a very complex issue overall. Therefore, to tell the adherents of an existing religion that they should revise their beliefs to suit the whims of a small group of individuals in their semantic whimsy is probably hubris in the extreme. If Modern Wicca has not embraced the Devil by this time in its development then it probably would be silly to suggest it now. 

First of all, there is a distinction between Witchcraft and Wicca. One is a magical practice and the other one is a modern Pagan religion. A magical practice is much more flexible and mutable than a religion for obvious reasons, so it has the advantage of being able to examine and engage with various cultural tropes to which a religion couldn’t and wouldn’t engage. (I will address this later in this article.) The other problem is that the concept of the Devil, or Satan as a cultural trope, is far too multifaceted and layered to be able to be resolved into a single deity-like entity. As my brilliant and insightful friend Steve Posch has related to me when I asked him for his opinion about this controversy: “Does the tree equal the particle board that is made from it?”

What Steve meant by this terse statement is that the cultural persona of Satan (in the West) consists of many different elements. Some of them were part of something else originally, and others were invented over time, and all of it is hopelessly fused together into something totally unlike the original sources. We won’t talk about the fact that Satan means one thing in Christianity, another in Judaism, and still another in Islam. However, the mythic image of Satan has changed over time, accumulating many different elements (in many different cultures). It is also something that can’t be extracted from the context where it has its archetypal existence, namely in the Abrahamic religions, to be used in an already established religion. To do this is to create something that has no real link to a polytheistic pagan past or relevancy to Modern Paganism. Also, Satan was never considered a pagan deity, even by those who promoted the idea of this fallen angel as the preeminent adversary in Christian theology. All of this is obvious to many despite certain modern apologists (and Christian fundamentalists) who seem to think that one became the model for the other. This is why the founders of the craft rejected the notion that the principle male deity of their newly established religion had any relationship to Satan. (They were right, as we shall see.)

If you still want to examine all of the myths and underlying sources, as well as the evolving concepts associated with Satan, then I would recommend that you get a copy of Elaine Pagels’ book “The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics.” I think that you will find it an interesting read, just as I did some years ago when it first came out.

A quick examination of the attributes of the God of the Witches in Modern Witchcraft can readily show that the Horned God has little in common with Satan, other than they are both entities depicted with horns and hooves. The Horned God of Witchcraft is a deity that cyclically dies and is reborn. As an icon of the various wild fauna that represents part of the divinized food stock for human beings, he, of course, dies and is consumed by humans and then is reborn to contribute to the furtherance of life in all its forms. He is the semi-divine-mortal representation of life and death. That which dies is always reborn and what is born must therefore always die. Life gives itself to life so that life can continue. This represents a seamless continuity in which all living things participate, so that humans themselves become food for various plants and animals thereby serving the eternal cycle of life and death.

The God of the Witches is therefore a dying God, and according to a recent article, this Deity is a very recent creation based on very ancient and primordial themes. However, unlike the Devil, the Horned God is a more perfect vehicle for the ancient European concept of the Divine Hunt, and that the Hunter must also be the one hunted at some point in the ever changing cycle of life and death. Does this mythic image in any way relate to the monotheistic concept of the Devil? I think that the more we examine and compare the mythologies of the Horned God and Satan, we will see that they are two completely separate and distinct entities. While there are some similarities, such as the image of Satan being that of a hybridized human and goat, with horns, goat legs and hooves, and a tail, these similarities are probably overly superficial and do not constitute any kind of intrinsic relationship.

Additionally, the mythic concept of the Horned God, although based on ancient elements is a rather new development, a product of modern Pagan revisionism. An article recently written by Jason Mankey for Patheos clearly makes the case that the Horned God of the Witches is a recent invention. He states: “The ancients didn’t have a universal Horned God, what they had were various horned (and antlered) gods who served a variety of needs.” After reading through his article, I find that I agree with his premise. There might be various ancient elements in the Horned God mythos, but it is a new concept fashioned for a specific purpose and function, which is to be the God of the Modern Witches.

This is not to say that the Horned God is the only representation of the Modern God of the Witches. There is also the Sun God, represented as the logical consort of the Moon Goddess, who has the names of Dianus, Apollo, Helios or Lugh (to Diana, Selene, Artemis or Arianrhod). In the 1960's and 70's the Wiccan Sun God was also called Lucifer, but here the Latin “Light Bearer” was used to denote this deity as opposed to equating him with Satan. Other, more obscure comparisons to the Horned God were the Celtic deity Cernunnos and also Herne, the Hunter. The former was chosen because it was an antlered Celtic deity with a limited purview and an unknown character and worship, and the latter because it fit with the mythic theme of the hunter and the hunted in the dance of death and life. All of these comparisons and additions attempted to somehow lend an antique character and pedigree to the Horned God, but it would seem that such attempts must ultimately fail. In the end, what is important and relevant is how this Deity is perceived and worshiped today among those professing an adherence to Modern Witchcraft.

Regarding the practice of Witchcraft as a form of magic, in contradistinction to or included with the Wiccan religion, it is my opinion that individuals and groups will encounter the chthonic roots and aspects of the various Pagan Deities as one engages with and plumbs the depths of the iconic Spirit World. They will also fully experience the impact and affects of the various activated and functioning cultural myths and beliefs. A belief has power in our world as long as people believe in it, and it doesn’t matter if it is valid, authentic or even legitimate. Whatever people believe is going to be found in some manner or form within the cultural and spiritual underworld that we are the inheritors thereof.

While the adherents of the Wiccan religion can ignore the affects and impacts of Satanism, demonolatry or diabolism within our cultural continuum, those who practice magic will have to deal with these various archetypes, themes and cultural tropes at some point in their development. This is already occurring to some degree, and it is relevant because it is an experiential reality in the Spirit World. For those who practice this kind of magic, the issues and considerations that Pat Mosely brought up in his controversial article are relevant, but not in the way that he brought them up. Wiccans, on the other hand, don’t have to sing “Kumbaya” with avowed Satanists of whatever stripe and allow them free access to their mysteries.

However, being cordial, respectful and sensitive to other people’s beliefs should be a hallmark for all Wiccans, since we are all too aware of active prejudice and malice in our present world from those who would brand our faith as immoral, unlawful and heretical. In time, I suspect that Wicca will evolve as a religion and become more differentiated, and this means that there might be traditions or offshoots that espouse and embrace demonolatry and chthonic based practices. However, it can only effectively occur when our religious culture has become less polarized than it is now.

It is, after all, the Joy of Sects, that we are talking about here. (And I enjoy talking dirty about them.)

Frater Barrabbas 

Dark Side of Madison Avenue - Perspectives on E. A. Koetting

One of the most vilified magicians on the internet today is found in the personage of Eric Koetting, who goes by the moniker E. A. Koetting. He is ridiculed, called names, vilified by the hosts of Western based occultists and magicians. He is also called a complete fraud, hoaxer and all-around poster child for what is supposedly wrong with the nefarious Left Hand Path. I haven’t seen a week pass without someone ridiculing his marketing hype or launching personal attacks on him. There is even a Face Book page devoted to ridiculing Koetting and disparaging his various claims. 

If it weren’t for the fact that I have had some conversations with this man and can claim to know him a little I would have to agree with those who decry his excessive marketing hype and his diabolic teachings. I happen to know that Eric isn’t really a fraud, that he does know how to successfully work his form of magick, and he can also teach others to use it, too. Eric isn’t a genius and some of his ideas and pronouncements have been shown by others to be quite false, particularly when he talks about subjects outside of his purview. Whether you hate what he is saying and promoting through his internet marketing persona or disagree with this methods, I am certain that to some people, particularly disaffected millennials, Eric is a valuable resource for learning and mastering a form of LHP magick.

Eric claims that he can teach anyone who is willing to apply himself to become a “living God” with all of the powers and perquisites that such a vaunted state entails. In promoting this kind of quick path to total fulfillment, one must assume that Eric is selling a system that he has used himself to become a living God. Since we live in a fundamental Christian religious based culture, making such a claim is strikingly inflammatory and goes deeply against the grain of the basic values of our Christian heritage. Making such claims can only be couched in forms of Satanism, since to claim to be a living God is to abrogate that status from the supposedly true God of Christianity. The rule of thumb is that if you oppose God and set yourself up as his replacement, then you are modeling the behavior associated with Satan himself. You are, in a word, emulating the Devil. Of course, from my perspective, replacing one autonomous absolute monotheistic Deity with another one, even if it is yourself, is merely perpetuating what I think is inherently wrong with monotheism itself.

Still, I am certain that this outrageous claim gives some particularly young and disaffected men quite a thrill to contemplate becoming a living God (and thereby overthrowing the religious status quo), but it also very likely to be misunderstood. If all you know about religion is what you rejected as Christianity then any contrary religious claim can only be perceived as a form of Satanism. So, it is easy to label what Eric is selling as over-the-top Satanism to rebellious, puerile and immature youths who are often enough disparaged and labeled as archetypal “losers.” Can Eric help these young men out of their cultural rut? That, of course, remains to be seen. He is reaching a group of people that other occultists aren’t as successfully acquiring.

In contrast to Eric’s marketing is the rest of the magical community who either finds some amusement in these media broadsides, or who are astonished, outraged and quite put-off by anyone making such ridiculous claims. It is apparent to me that the self-satisfied and smirkingly arrogant cast of the occult and magical opposition to Eric’s claims were never the intended audience for his advertising hype. Even so, they none-the-less engage in ridicule and ad-hominem attacks instead of soberly examining what Eric is really selling, and how his message is both a boon and a problem to the occult world as a whole. I am also quite certain that Eric couldn’t care less what these members of the various competing occult schools think of his marketing tactics and messaging, since he appears to be quite successful at acquiring a fair number of adherents to buy his classes and engage in his teachings. If these marketing ploys weren’t working then I suspect that Eric would have changed them so that they would be successful. What I or any other number of magicians and occultists think is really completely irrelevant. Eric has his market pretty well defined and amongst a certain set of individuals, he is a “rock star” and someone to emulate.

Unlike some of his most virulent detractors, I have actually read some of Eric Koetting’s books. While I have found them to be pretty much rudimentary and based on LHP themes and tropes, it is also apparent that he has acquired his knowledge the old-fashioned way - he has experimented and worked magic for many years. Even so, Eric’s knowledge of the occult and magic is evolving, and there are a number of things that he has stated which I know are erroneous,  incomplete or superficial. Perhaps that is the nature of writing things down or the fact that Eric is learning as he progresses through his spiritual and magical process. I know that I have made mistakes and have written things that I later found out were wrong, so I can’t condemn someone for making analogous mistakes or writing something erroneous.

So the question is whether or not Eric is completely off-the-wall and a total fraud, selling his lore to low information millennial magicians, or that perhaps his ideas have some foundation in modern occultism. Since I already know that Eric Koetting is not a fraud and that his knowledge has been earned by a long period of experimentation and practice, I will not join the bandwagon to condemn what he is doing or ridicule him. I won’t do this because what he is presenting to his defined public arena comes awfully close to my own perspectives and practices. There are many differences between what Eric and I do as functioning magicians, but essentially there are more points in agreement between us than differences. I found this out when I talked with him a while back, and I happen to know where we are in agreement and where we are divergent. So, rather than ridicule or vilify Eric, I will, instead, explain in my own terms why he is proclaiming the things that he does in his internet persona and how that impacts the rest of us who also work magick. I think that this is more productive because there is a bit of Eric Koetting in all of us, and that is why he provokes outrage from so many established practitioners.

What Eric has done is to simply conflate four topical areas that are typically kept distinct and separate from each other. It is the nature of that conflation and the associated marketing excesses that has produced the internet persona of Eric Koetting and his training regimen. Eric is the exemplar of a kind of dark-side or night-side Madison Avenue promotion. If P. T. Barnum were alive today he would have highly approved of Eric Koetting’s marketing style.

The four topical domains that are being conflated by Koetting are:

• Tales of Power - these are the out of context stories that magicians tell each other about their paranormal experiences and exploits with strange powers, spirits and Godheads.

• Self as Godhead - it is the objective for all magicians to ultimately assume Godhead, and both the right hand and left hand paths have their own methods of obtaining this sublime state.

• Advertising Marketing - anyone who is in the business of selling their teachings will use some kind of marketing and advertising to reach potential customers.

• Left Hand Path Perspectives - these are the ideas, practices and overall theology of the left hand path. Often, the rhetoric displays a high degree of antinomianism, inversion of basic cultural values and anti-establishment sentiments.

Most magicians engage in some or even all of these topical areas, since they represent the cultural domain of ritual or ceremonial magick. Most of the magicians I have met engage in telling tales of power. All magicians are seeking some kind of union with the Godhead, however they might define that entity.

Any magician who is selling their teachings will engage in marketing, and at the very least will promote their path and methodologies over those of other magicians. A good salesman will promote themselves without denigrating others, but as we all know from watching media based advertising, this is hardly the typical form of promotion. I suppose it’s all too easy to add a bit of hype to one’s marketing message so that instead of an honest (and boring) promotion for a product or service it becomes the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Additionally, left hand path magicians often engage in talk that sounds quite strange to those who are not part of their antinomian perspective. This is where demons are good, angels are bad, performing nefarious forms of supposed black magic is good, successfully summoning and constraining demonic spirits is an important challenge, and amplifying the self as Godhead over any other creed or deity is a basic predilection. For those who are not so disposed to the left hand path rhetoric, such claims and beliefs must seem quite foreign or even diabolic.

As you can see when these topical areas get conflated with each other then the message also gets quite distorted and mixed up. This is particularly true if the need to aggressively market one’s methodology and public persona pushes the envelope for maintaining a certain degree of factual balance and realistic representation. When you take the Left Hand Path’s left-over perspectives on elevating the self to the status of Godhead and you add a considerable layer of marketing blitz cheese to sell your ideas and yourself, and sprinkle over it a fair amount of tales of power and season it with a distinct peppery flavoring of left hand path diabolism, then you will get a marketing recipe identical to what Eric Koetting is currently doing.

None of what Eric is saying when he is selling himself and his teachings is inherently wrong or fabricated; but taken as a whole, it is quite misleading, distorted and even harmful. In elevating himself in such a manner, Eric has unwittingly become one of the magical gurus that he has talked about needing to kill in order to achieve one’s goal. The irony here is that in telling his erstwhile disciples that they need to kill their gurus, he is setting himself up as a target for his own students. In order to truly grow and achieve their potential, Eric’s students will have to overcome his amplified persona and overly hyped methodology and find their own path at some point in their magical careers.

One would assume that Eric expects this to happen, that is, if he doesn’t believe his own PR and remains down-to-earth. However, the problem with creating such a powerful public image is that it becomes all too intoxicating and seductive. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes, and many a public figure has succumbed into believing that they are indeed the exalted personality that they are promoting. I hope that Eric doesn’t succumb to this fatal flaw, but the odds and human nature are against him. Still, the overly inflated claims that Eric is making and his various You-Tube discussions about black magick, supposedly killing people, invoking a demon that gets out of control and possesses his wife, and other such tales of power could be construed as proof that he is losing control of his marketing hype and overly identifying with his media persona. Only time will tell what will happen to Eric and his overly ambitious program, but from my perspective, the future doesn’t look particularly good.

I think that one of things that Jake Stratton-Kent said about Eric Koetting and his media blitz is that the only thing a person needs to do in order to begin to master Goetic Magick is to select one or a few of the more reputable copies of the traditional grimoires and then begin to practice and experiment with the rituals and mechanisms found in those books. Over time, a periodic and steadfast practice will teach the erstwhile student magician more than joining or engaging with any of the much vaunted traditions, organizations or reputed teachers.

While I am also a proponent of the self-made magician, I do believe that exploring other groups or individual teachers is not inherently a bad thing. As long as students understand that their path and process belongs solely to them, and that organizations, teachers and even books are a temporary aid that they can engage with (or not) to help them accomplish their end, then they will be able to maintain their freedom and continue to achieve their ultimate goal. Getting seduced or side-tracked by some overly inflated magical master is one of the major pitfalls that all magician students face as they follow their path. 

A good teacher will tell his or her students that their special relationship is temporary and subject to limitations, and additionally, leaders of a good organization will tell their members that when they are no longer learning or growing within that group then it is time to leave and move on to other possible paths. A bad teacher or leader will insist that their way is the only way and that meek obedience is the only acceptable behavior.

So, as a final note, we should ask the following question. Is Eric Koetting a bad teacher? I can’t really answer that question because I haven’t been one of his students. When I have talked with him he seems to be quite down-to-earth and never talks about how great he is or how powerful his magical system is compared to others. That may be because he is talking with another experienced magician and not a beginner, or it might be the way Eric really thinks and behaves outside of his persona.

However, I believe that everyone sees Eric’s marketing blitz and media persona as problematic, particularly if such a ploy backfires and makes Eric an adherent in his own cult of personality. He has sensationalized Left Hand Path magic which doesn’t need any more hype than what the misinformed public has already given it, and this will cause many of us who are magicians and who follow our paths discretely to look like fools. We will probably be painted with the same brush in the eyes of the public, even though we are practicing and promoting ourselves in a very different manner.

Runaway marketing knows no boundaries nor limitations, so it is only a matter of time before Eric becomes noticed by more mainstream media and thereby manages to make us all look bad. Think of the impact if or when Eric Koetting is interviewed by FOX news, or when they do a program about him and his teachings. Of course once that happens, Eric will be quite the example of evil black magicians to the Fundamentalist Christians. No matter how it is spun it won’t look good at all, and for those of us who are public figures we will have to answer a lot of stupid questions that we would rather not answer since the truth is actually more complicated than the general public would be able to understand. I, for one, don’t look forward to this likely future event, and I hope and pray it never really happens.

Frater Barrabbas

Some Variations on Evoking Demons

“Evoking demons, let me count the ways.”

After much research and study I have found that there are at least several ways in which one may approach the evocation or conjuring of Goetic demons - the famous 72 spirits that are part of the Goetia of the Lemegeton (Lesser Key of Solomon). The basis of this variation has to do with one’s personal spiritual perspective and practices. Obviously, a Thelemic magician is going to perform this operation differently than a Christian magician, or a pagan witch, or even a demonolator. Each different type of magician will have a different methodology and belief system as to how this operation should be accomplished. I suspect that there are probably other variations as well, since the moment something is stated about ritual or ceremonial magick, someone comes along to propose either exceptions or additions. Nevertheless, here is my opinion on this topic. I have chosen seven different categories that I believe represent the majority but not all of the variations.

The list represents a gradation from the morally and ethically aligned Christian white-magician magus to other forms of spiritual alignment, such as that adopted by neopagans, down to the demonolator and Christian diabolist, who are powerfully aligned to the demonic hosts. The list is a study of a progression from what could be called white light to forms of dark magic. 

1. Christian magus who practices only lawful forms of magic. Commands and evokes demonic spirits as hostile entities, forcing and coercing them into performing marginally ethical deeds, through the power and authority of the Christian God, Jesus, saints and archangels. The magus spends a great deal of time in pious religious activities and must maintain a high degree of spiritual and moral rectitude. The ambiguity of even trafficking with demons makes the magus susceptible to potential infernal corruption and charges of heresy by the religious status quo. 

2. Christian who practices Afro-Brazilian/Cuban/Haitian religious and magical traditions. He has a double allegiance to both the Christian pantheon and the Loas or Orishas, and must maintain a balance between them. Normally, specialists perform evocations of demons for either themselves or clients, using the virtues of the Christian pantheon and African demigods to balance demonic workings. Demons are usually treated as emissaries of chthonic deities, and as such, require a more respectful handling and dealings. Use of demons represents an ethical ambiguity, and some practitioners consider it black magic or an illicit European practice, others have no problem with their use.

3. Neopagan who practices a form of either Thelema, Wicca, Hermeticism, Egyptian/Greek/Celtic reconstructionism or some other variation where the pantheon is not chthonic. Practitioner performs a godhead assumption and through that guise, performs the evocation of demons. Summoning demons is considered to be an unusual activity, therefore, of a variable risk; where some are deemed good and some are dangerous. They are typically treated with respect and carefully applied to for very specific kinds of workings.

4. Neopagan who practices a form of Chthonic paganism, establishing a specific cult of dark magical practices. Such an individual may be a follower of traditional witchcraft (non Gardnerian), Afro-Brazilian/Cuban/Haitian paganism or one of the reclaimed pagan traditions from antiquity. Demons are considered to be servitors of the chthonic godhead and are summoned/evoked through their power and authority.

5. Spiritually neutral - the practitioner can be of any spiritual tradition, but performs the evocation of demons through a matrix and hierarchy of angelic spirits. Demons are defined as part of a spiritual hierarchy that includes angels, with the corresponding belief that demons and angels are just two halves (light and dark, yin and yang) of one common spiritual source (unity of being). Demons are treated with respect because they represent possible stochastic forces, but are dealt with as individuals, just like the angels. This hierarchal system is based on astrology, since the demons are thought to be inverse powers/intelligences associated with the zodiacal decan and quinarian.

6. Demonolatry - the practitioner has completely reclaimed the entire system of demonic and infernal spirits and elevated it to the level of godhead and spiritual emissaries. The godhead may be occupied with chthonic pagan deities or variations on obvious satanic deities. All such spirits are treated with reverence and given offerings, oblations and orisons. This system can actually be more religious than magical. Demons are never evoked or ever coerced - they are bribed to do the bidding of the operator.

7. Christian diabolist who practices forms of black magic and may either worship Satan or has a binding pact (lawful agreement) with him. Commands and evokes demons through the infernal hierarchy, treats demons as servitors, who must do the will of magician because of the pact. The pact can be an elaborate agreement or it can be as simple as a blood bond. There is little need to maintain any degree of ethical conduct or sanctity, since the diabolist is free (and even encouraged) to indulge in all of his darker urges.

So these are the seven categories of demonic evocation that I have come across either talking to individuals or reading alternative materials. Like I said, there are probably other variations as well. For myself, I would fit into categories 3, 4 and 5, being a practitioner of Wicca, chthonic paganism and working through a neutral spiritual hierarchy.

Frater Barrabbas