With Frater Mantvs
With the help of frater Mantvs, we have compiled a small Q&A of important questions regarding the Star of Azazel. If anyone else has any questions, please feel free to send them to us at either nefastos@azazel.fi or polyhymnia@azazel.fi along with your permission to post them.
Mantvs: Is the Star of Azazel a theistic Satanic order?
Nefastos: Yes. But it is important to understand that for the Star of Azazel, “theistic” does not mean worshipping of anthropomorphic, personal deities. According to our philosophy, gods are almost immeasurable beings that human conceptions can deal with only in a partly symbolical manner, in the reverence of the whole esoteric pantheon. For us, Satan is a multifaceted being, much higher in state, being and understanding than any formal theologies have ever presented. We are speaking about totalities of the laws of spiritual nature inside and outside of us, not of more or less human-like personalities.
Mantvs: Do members work with entities / demons?
Nefastos: I personally believe that every human being works with entities and demons, usually unknowingly. But every member of the brotherhood is allowed to see this in a way one chooses. For us it is more important to discuss the problems that result from too hastily chosen ideas about spiritual entities – be that haste either the sceptical or belief-choosing kind. After such a process, members are able to ponder their own attitude to the spirit world accordingly. Personally, I consider myself working with very many different kinds of spiritual entities, but it is often unwise to speak of such things, which others would not be able to prove either true or false. For me, there is nothing in the world whatsoever that is not filled with spirits. My body is upheld by spirits, my work is helped with spirits, and spirits form the auric union of myself and my fellow human beings, and myself and the nature around me – and so on, ad infinitum. But I remain extremely sceptical of the way people usually consider these spirits, seeing them as ready cast personalities. People should demand more critical clarity and less spontaneous belief from themselves and from their teachers. That is why such a question should be more like opening a door to a very long and deep conversation, rather than just statements.
Mantvs: What traditions and authors mainly influence the Star of Azazel?
Nefastos: Original theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky, even though I oppose her misogyny and anti-sexual attitude. Rosicrucianism and Gnosticism, even though I oppose their often heavy emphasis on the Right Hand Path and dualism. Shaiva tantricism, even though I oppose how “tantra” is nowadays presented – an apt depiction of the original ideas can be found from the books by Abhinavagupta, Dyczkowski, and Woodroffe. And the magical thinking of the Golden Dawn before its Crowley incident, that is, a coherent approach to Western, qabbalistic magic without its newer emphasis on egotistic empowerment, least of all the social kind.
Mantvs: What will members learn from the Star of Azazel?
Nefastos: That depends on the member in question, but most likely, and hopefully, ethics and how our spiritual striving is to be made all-encompassive instead of being kept in some isolated part of one’s personal world view. From that usually comes an also widening understanding in things cosmological, philosophical, archetypical, magical and psychological. We should learn to see what we are as human beings, how our minds and relations work, and how that puzzle of humanity – both its personality and higher Ego – should be approached in case we would truly like to ascend, rather than become easy prey for our own petty reactions.
Mantvs: What is the point being a member of the Star of Azazel?
Nefastos: To help oneself to become a better, more holistically sound, strong but kind personality, and to act out one’s universal dharma of helping the world with one’s best spiritual ability. Working with our tools is to work upon oneself and for the world at the same time. In our ideology of Luciferianism, it is the Bodhisattvic work for the betterment of the whole which also brings about one’s individual and initiatory ascension.
Salome 