Dark Matter
Satanic Readings : Theistic or Traditional Satanism
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Desert places.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

- Desert Places by Robert Frost. From A Further Range (1936).

According to Levictus 16:8-10, Azazel, chief of the se'irim, lives in "the wilderness". Isaiah 34:14 talks of the fall of Babylon, and foresees that once it has become an "uninhabited" place, the "desert creatures" (the se'irim) and the "night monster" Lilith will settle there and find themselves a resting place. According to 1 Enoch 10:3-6, Azazel was cast into an opening in the desert, then covered with "rough and jagged rocks". In the The Apocalypse of Abraham we read, "Go, Azazel, into the inaccessible parts of the earth" (14).

Satan belongs, these sources agree, in the wilderness; he stays in desert places.

We, civilization, have covered the globe. There are not that many uninhabited places left. These days no part of the world is "inaccessible"; we climb mountains and go deep sea diving, we cross the deserts, and explore the jungles. We have even been to the Moon. We plan to go to Mars next.

And yet, a desert place is not hard to find. When I was a teenager I used to fancy visiting a local, Jewish graveyard. Apart from the caretaker I was the only one who ever came there; and sitting on a bench, just looking, or reading a book, I felt distinctly isolated. I just needed to take a few steps, though, and I'd be transported right back to society. In fact, just a few months ago I was attending a conference, and I stayed in a hotel. In the middle of the night, when I couldn't get to sleep, I went to the window and looked outside. There was an abandoned gas station, and yellow lights coming from the street. "This," I thought, "is the very end of the world. There is nothing here except for this gas station, and me standing naked, looking at it." It was like the worms at heaven's gate (Wallace Stevens).

The notion of desert places, it seems to me, is vital to Satanism, as is the notion of wilderness. To approach Satan we need to seek out desert places; and we need to dare to venture into the wilderness. By this I obviously do not mean to suggest that we need to pack our bag and go walking in the desert. Seeking out a desert place is to go to a place, or to make a space for yourself where you - in a manner of speaking - can be alone with the universe; where there is no-one telling you what to do next, no-one forcing you into constantly having an opinion, no groceries to be picked up before closing time, no kids yelling, no next episode of Will & Grace, no emails waiting to be answered; there is just you, and Azazel waiting for you. Atheist Satanists will talk of "psychic chambers", and spiritually inclined people will prefer to refer to this as meditation. What's important is that you find (or make) yourself such a desert place, and that you - rather than just consider it a place of rest - come to regard it as your holy work place; the place where you go in order to work on yourself for yourself, and for Azazel.

As suggested in the poem by Robert Frost, the scariest desert places are the ones we carry with us. It's not graveyards at night; it's the wilderness of the soul. Quite a lot of Satanists, you will find, have previously suffered from sorts of depressions, periods of emotional unrest, sadness, etc. Of course, you do not need to have suffered from a depression in order to become a Satanist, but it is hardly surprising that so many Satanists have had to go through such an ordeal. What you do need in order to become a Satanist is to dare to venture into the darker regions of your soul, and to dare seriously deal with some of the things that are usually kept well locked up. You need to take a good look at yourself, and no doubt your usual perception of self will be shattered. In the process you will come to feel that by taking this path you have removed yourself from the rest of humanity, and you will suffer; you will turn doubtful, you will have regrets, you will feel lonely, etc. It is not an easy road to travel, and there are consequences. Turning back can be quite difficult. As they say on porn sites, "If in doubt, do not ... "

Satanism is not about removing oneself from society, or from other people, on the contrary. It's about real human beings allowing themselves to be humans, and interacting as humans. However, in order to become such a real human being - and not just a product of society, a replica of someone else, or an idea or an ideology personified - you need to travel the path. This is what Satanists believe. You need to go to the place where Babylon (the powers that be, and the emperor of the Tarot) has fallen, and which has now become "uninhabited". This is where Azazel and Lilith will be waiting.