(by Massimo Montinari) Satanism too has its own currents that respect each other, in fact we recognize a "personal" and "impersonal" current. However, there are many others that are part of the spirituality of different sects and secret societies, founded on the cult of satan and lucifer in a Gnostic key.
It is important to describe the thought and personality of one of the founders of Neo Satanism to such an extent Aleister Crowley, highly discussed character, pseudonym of Edward alexander crowley (Leamington Spa, 12 October 1875 - Hastings, 1 December 1947), who was a British esotericist and writer. His figure is controversial, he called himself "the Beast666", and is considered the founder of modern occultism and a source of inspiration for Satanism, although many scholars believe that Crowley was not involved with these practices (he claimed that Satan did not exist and therefore he should not be adored as a counterpart of the Jewish-Christian God, non-existent according to Crowley), but only the protagonist of a "black legend".
Crowley has traveled around the world, the United States of America, China, India, Algeria, Mexico and France. In 1920 he settled in Cefalù, Sicily, where he established the municipality of the Abbey of Thelema, a place where he lived with some followers before being expelled from the Kingdom of Italy, officially on suspicion of anti-fascism. In Sicily Crowley called himself "the worst man who ever existed ", gained much of its reputation as "perverse man". Here his stay was anomalous and scandalous for the inhabitants of the place and insistent and worrying rumors began to spread about him and the community with which he lived.
Crowley and his followers were also accused of practicing magical ceremonies that saw the sacrifice of children. There is no official evidence on this, as is the case for many satanist sects, but it is certain that he used the reference to very similar rites as a "literary device" to cover references to the sexual magic in Magick, Its magnum opus of instruction to magic. At that time, in fact, it was illegal to write about sexual rites and the use of sexual fluids for magical purposes. With the advent of fascism, he was expelled from Italy by Benito Mussolini in April 1923, officially for suspected anti-fascist activities, actually because of what was said to happen inside his temple.
He is considered a pivotal figure in the history of the new magical movements, in fact he is attributed with the greatest attempt to create a "magical religion", founded mainly on the "Sexual magic"And the"way of the left hand" (or via brevis, also known by the acronym VMS, or to English LHP from Left Hand Path, as opposed to that of the right hand). This constituted the so-called path "corrosive waters”, That is a set of practices, even of a violent nature, to induce a rapid evolution of consciousness. This "path" exposes those who follow it to many dangers, even lethal, for their physical and mental health, or for the risk of being overwhelmed by forces too large to manage, including methods capable of arousing sudden states of self-awareness which, without a long and adequate preparation, the organism is unable to sustain. The left-hand path has been associated with Satanism and black magic, although this is only partially justifiable.
As I have already described in the previous articles, the purpose is that of the "manipulation of the mind", In fact some examples of left hand paths are listed below: intake of psychotropic substances; use of particular mantras and exceptionally powerful breathing techniques; resorting to forms of sexual magic, such as tantrism; meditation practices with a strong energetic charge; accelerated acquisition of the ability to open the third eye or to travel in the astral; follow rituals and paths of knowledge belonging to forms of the lunar tradition such as witchcraft or wicca.
Followers of the left hand path in the west usually use the symbol of goat or Bafomettobut attributing different meanings to it from the traditional alchemical one and from the symbols that Eliphas Lévi attributed to its beak.
Crowley therefore had a strange personality, an egocentric, aseptic profile towards mournful events. In fact, he never attended any funeral, except that of his father, in which he did not care to attend, since he felt himself to be the real core of the interest. During his brief stay in Mexico in 1900 he was initiated to Freemasonry and, in France, he entered on 8 October 1904 in Anglo Saxon Lodge No. 343 of the Grand Lodge of France becoming master on December 17th of the same year. He reached the 33rd degree of the ancient Scottish rite and accepted and continued his studies isolated from the rest of the esoteric community.
Certainly Crowley, as occurs very often among the "leaders" of many sects or "castes", aimed his action of esoteric involvement in the illicit achievement of financial advantages so much that in 1934 he was subject to a bankruptcy declaration, losing the cause with which he had quoted the artist Nina Hamnett. He died aged 72 on December 1, 1947 in England.
Crowley is believed in the world of "contemporary ceremonial magic”An authority, as one of the main coders and popularizers of the occult sciences in the twentieth century. Many therefore considered him the father of the "personal" current of Satanism.
However, this definition is not accepted unanimously by other researchers, who do not admit that it is classified as a "Satanist" and not even a founder of this type of cult; they refer to the careful reading of his main works to deduce that he has never been a Satanist and that with Satanism he never had anything to share, so much so that he declared himself contrary to similar practices diverted towards the "dark side", as is for example reported in the twenty-first chapter of his best-known work, Magick.
Crowley defined magic as "Science and Art to cause changes in accordance with the Will"And, throughout his life, he progressively divulged all the rituals and teachings of the Golden Dawn, of which he was aware, publishing them in his newspaper The Equinox.
With the publication in his newspaper the teachings of an hermetic society were divulged, and not just simple ceremonial texts or translations in an esoteric symbolic language, often not understandable to the "layman". He meant magic as an initiatory path to higher states of consciousness. Considered an atheist, the occult forces he intended to mobilize were therefore not identified in the figure of the devil described in the Bible. He affirmed that "the devil does not exist", Which for him"there is no god but man"And that satan is simply a name invented by religions for their ends. However, this approach would come closer to the type of Satanism "impersonal"Than to that"staff”Of which the founder is considered. Crowley's life and thought represent the scaffolding on which most of the "modern sects" and "caste" that we find in everyday life have been built.
Atheism, the absence of any faith, becomes an all too childish justification to justify the dedication to the doctrine of satan, a mimetic cover of the "sect" or "caste".