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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The dark Sufism of “The Black Path”

I mentioned previously that I was considering doing “I read this book, so that you don’t have to” -type posts. The current post is of this nature. Its focus is a book entitled The Black Path, which describes a supposed left-hand-path variant of Sufism. I’m under the impression there are controversies both with the group described therein, and the work itself. Regardless, I found many ideas in this book spoke to my own spirituality. Hence my desire to mention a few of them here.

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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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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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Is empathy Satanic? Part 1 of 3: Genesis and Enoch

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 1 of 3 discusses the Serpent in Genesis and the fallen Watchers in Enoch. Read the introduction to this series here.

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