At the Threshold of the Inverted Womb
Anti-Cosmic Satanism and Radical Freedom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v4i2.231Keywords:
Satanism, Gnosticism, Heavy Metal, Latin American Folk Religion, Contemporary Legends, OccultismAbstract
During the 1980s and 1990s anti-cosmic Satanism emerged in the UK and Scandinavia as an attempt to merge ancient forms of Gnostic thought, highly performative, blasphemous manifestations of heavy metal subculture, and certain death-oriented, magical traditions from the Caribbean and Latin America. While culturally wide-ranging and syncretic in its theological outlook, anti-cosmic Satanism consistently emphasizes the abandonment of the physical body and a violent apocalyptic merger with an infinite satanic power. Anti-cosmic Satanism has risen in tandem with the popularity of Nordic black metal music, to which it is indelibly connected, making it one of the most controversial left-hand path traditions that has arisen since the 1980s. Paradoxically, anti-cosmic Satanism also borrows much from the folklore and narrative structures of Conservative Christianity regarding the existence of sincerely evil satanic cults. The hyper-transgressive attitudes and anti-Christian rhetoric of both black metal and anti-cosmic Satanism assert a fetishised morbidity, associating death with ultimate liberation.
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Evans, Dave. 2007 The History of British Magic After Crowley. London: Hidden Publishing.
Frankfurter, David. 2006 Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Gardell, Mattias. 2003 Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822384502
Gilhus, Ingvild Sælid. 1985 The Nature of the Archons: A Study in the Soteriology of a Gnostic Treatise from Nag Hammadi. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Granholm, Kennet. 2013 “Ritual Black Metal. Popular Music as Occult Mediation and Practice.” Correspondences 1(1): 5–33 (online).
Graziano, Frank. 2007 Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hagen, Ross. 2011 “Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal.” In Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World, edited by Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, and Paul D. Greene, 180–199. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822392835-008
Harris, John Glyndwr. 1999 Gnosticism: Beliefs and Practices. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press
Kahn-Harris, Keith. 2007 Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. Oxford and NewYork: Berg.
Klypchak, Brad. 2013 “‘How You Gonna See Me Now:’ Recontextualizing Metal Artists and Moral Panics.” In Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures, edited by Titus Hjelm, Keith Kahn-Harris, and Mark LeVine, 37–48. Sheffield: Equinox.
Kristiansen, Jon. 2011 Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries. New York: Bazillion Points Books.
Meyer, Marvin. 2006 The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library. New York: HarperCollins.
Métraux, Alfred. 1959 Voodoo in Haiti. New York: Schocken Books.
Masciandaro, Nicola, ed. 2010 Hideous Gnosis: Black Metal Theory Symposium 1. New York: CreateSpace.
Myatt, David. 2010 “The Approach of the Dark Gods.” In Infernal Texts & Liber Koth, edited by Stephen Stennitt, 27–31. Tempe, AZ: The Original Falcon Press.
N.A-A.218. 2008 Liber Falxifer: The Book of the Left-Handed Reaper. Tampere: Ixaxaar Occult Literature.
----- 2011a Liber Falxifer II: The Book of the Anamalqayin. Tampere: Ixaxaar Occult Literature.
----- 2011b http://www.ixaxaar.com/218-interview.html (last accessed 6-13-2012)
Nemidial, Frater. 2001 Liber Azerate: The Book of the Raging Chaos. Tampere: Ixaxaar Occult Literature.
Petersen, Jesper Aagaard, ed. 2009 Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology. Surrey: Ashgate.
Phillipov, Michelle. 2013 “Extreme Music For Extreme People? Norwegian Black Metal and Transcendent Violence.” In Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures, edited by Titus Hjelm, Keith Kahn-Harris and Mark LeVine, 152–165. London: Equinox.
Pike, Sarah M. 2001 Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Paganism and the Search for Community. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ratliff, Ben. 2009 December 14th. Thank You, Professor, That Was Putrid. New York Times.
Robertson, Campbell. 2011 August 19th. Deal Frees “West Memphis Three” in Arkansas. New York Times.
Senholt, Jacob. 2013 “Secret Identities in the Sinister Tradition: Political Esotericism and the Convergence of Radical Islam, Satanism, and National Socialism in the Order of the Nine Angels.” In The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity, edited by Per Faxneld and Jesper Aa. Petersen, 250–274. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Victor, Jeffrey S. 1993 Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court.
Weinstein, Deena. 2000 Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Boston, MA: De Capo Press.
Walser, Robert. 1993 Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Published
2014-01-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Olson, B. (2014). At the Threshold of the Inverted Womb: Anti-Cosmic Satanism and Radical Freedom. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 4(2), 231-249. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v4i2.231
