From NovaSolo@aol.com Fri Sep 19 07:21:53 1997 Received: from veracruz-gw.customer.itw.net (veracruz-gw.customer.ITW.NET [208.211.5.42]) by bay2.bjt.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA25338 for ; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 07:21:53 -0700 From: NovaSolo@aol.com Received: from emin18.mail.aol.com ([198.81.11.16]) by veracruz-gw.customer.itw.net (Netscape Mail Server v2.02) with ESMTP id AAA264 for ; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:26:44 -0400 Received: (from root@localhost) by emin18.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id KAA22372; Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:26:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:26:44 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <970919102442_-263661204@emout16.mail.aol.com> To: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com, zazas-l@hollyfeld.org Subject: Re: (Z) Pacts and Power, Satanism and Magick MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by bay2.bjt.net id HAA25338 Status: RO In a message dated 97-09-18 16:34:47 EDT, tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com writes: > what psychological, materialistic and atheistic analyses might be made of > this 'pact phenomenon' beyond a charlatanry designed to entertain horror- > fiction readers and kids at halloween and scare the fundamentalists? do > Satanists tend to disbelieve in it, as a means of initiation into Satanism > and/or their power? what are the problems with presuming there may be > something of value to blood pacts even if they are misunderstood? There’s the beauty of myths… they’re adaptable. The central theme of the myths is surrendering self for demonic gain. A re-interpretation of these myths is necessary, since I neither believe in Satan as a separate entity, nor do I believe a soul can be transferred. It’s not a money order, y’know. But there’s no denying that something was sacrificed when I began what hindsight sees as a burgeoning Satanic path. I sacrificed who I was to become who I am. The I-who-was believed that reality is objective, that "Satanists" were out to "get me", that magick was a bunch of people getting together and faking it. The I-who-is bears no resemblance to the I-who-was. I sacrificed my self to gain knowledge, power, strength. I play all roles in the myth; the role of the sacrificed soul, the demonic acceptor of the sacrifice and grantor of powers, and the one who gains the powers. So, it’s possible to see the self-being-sold as an old self with its attendant beliefs and prejudices. The selling of this old self, the sacrifice of those childhood beliefs and brainwash prejudices, is necessary to proceed into the new self marked by a higher level of awareness. Nova