Excerpts from Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness: Intro and First Key

The one-year anniversary of the publication of Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness falls in September. So this struck me as a good time for something I’ve meant to do for awhile: post a few excerpts.

Here are two .pdfs for those curious to check out the book prior to purchasing it:

Introduction to Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness
The First Key: The Just Preference of Earth Over Heaven

Read the rest of this post for some related reflections of mine.

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Commentary on the Tenebrous Creed

For awhile now, I’ve noticed a number of Satanic creeds in list format being posted on social media. These sorts of posts do strike me as an effective way of introducing unfamiliar people to various forms of Satanism. I therefore thought, why not do one for Tenebrous Satanism? The material this post covers can naturally be found in a number of places on my website already. With Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness having now gone to print, though, the time seems right for a condensed introduction to the creed my book puts forward.

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Satanic karma: law of the acausal jungle

When a magickal current believes that baneful magick works, but you shouldn’t do it, karma is a commonly-given reason. The Threefold Law is a widely-known concept, even among those who reject it as simplistic or simply false. I think it is safe to assert that most Satanists have little use for moralizing metaphysics of this kind. At the same time, though, the notion of an entirely consequence-free universe seems foreign to esoteric worldviews generally. So is any kind of karmic belief plausible for esoteric Satanists? I would argue yes… but this Satanic karma will deviate significantly from how other esotericists typically imagine the “law of karma” working…

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How does magick “work” – and why might Satanic denominations clash over it?

How does magick “work”? I have enough background in Chaos Magick to consider this a non-urgent question – that it works is more the point. It occurs to me, though, that misunderstandings about magickal mechanisms may aggravate misconceptions Satanic denominations have about one another. Toward the end of addressing such issues, the current entry discusses the extent to which magick is “one’s own” power – i.e. how much of magick is the magician themselves “doing something,” vs. how much comes from an external entity/force/ etc.?

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“The great sower descends…”: the malign divinity of Mgla

As stated in my bio, I am a passionate fan of black metal and similar genres of dark music. Therefore, from time to time, I like to share songs that I think especially capture the spirit of Tenebrous Satanism. “With Hearts Toward None II,” by Mgla, is one such song. What I find striking about this song is how vividly it conjures up a vision of a totally malign divinity. If such a being truly exists, how can one nonetheless live in affirmation of life? I find the sheer bleakness of this song compelling to meditate upon, because of the confrontation it forces with this question.

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Honor in Tenebrous Satanism

Recently, I witnessed some fellow walkers of the Sinister Path lamenting the decline of honor in today’s society. Seeing this got me thinking, perhaps it would be of interest for me to share my own take on honor. A large portion of this post accordingly consists of excerpts from my forthcoming book, Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness. But I have also added some additional commentary, in connection with further reading I’ve since done, and thoughts thus stirred.

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Satanism without the Satan: just politics, or something more?

In a few recent conversations I’ve had on social media, some interesting issues have come up re: “What is Satanism?”  In particular, if atheistic Satanists “don’t believe in” Satan, what do they believe that justifies associating themselves with the name? To outsiders, it may well seem that the theistic Satanist “really believes in something,” whilst the atheistic one is “just” trolling – either for one political side, or the other. So is atheistic Satanism “just” slapping Satan’s name on your preferred form of progressive, reactionary or libertarian politics randomly? Such a question leaves me feeling it might be beneficial to walk folks through the logic of “a Satanic ethos”…

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Do occultists “need” meditation?

This blog post is something of a note to myself as I continue editing Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness. It pertains to the place of meditation in occult praxis. Do occultists “need” meditation? What are the benefits versus the drawbacks of putting too much or too little emphasis on meditation? Though close to finishing the book, I’m still refining nuances and emphases in a few places. What I’ll put down here are thus some things on my mind as I move toward editing the final version of the Fifth Key in particular.

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Is empathy Satanic? Part 3 of 3: Darkness and the Nekalah

The fourth tenet of the Tenebrous Creed identifies zeal, wisdom, honor, empathy and perseverance as foremost values for Satanists. But in what sense is empathy “Satanic”? Part 3 of 3 discusses beliefs specific to Tenebrous Satanism re: The Abyssal Void of Darkness and the Nekalah, and what implications for empathy as a Satanic virtue may be (perhaps surprisingly) derived from these. Read the introduction to this series here.

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Is empathy Satanic? Part 2 of 3: the Book of Job

The fourth tenet of the Tenebrous Creed identifies zeal, wisdom, honor, empathy and perseverance as foremost values for Satanists. But in what sense is empathy “Satanic”? Part 2 of 3 discusses the Book of Job and its (perhaps counterintuitive) significance for framing empathy as a Satanic virtue. Read the introduction to this series here.

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