Miss Edith etc

[indri]

While my fellow Australians are glued to the telly watching local (anti-)hero Leyton Hewitt in the finals of the Australian Open, I have been researching doll manufacture. So, are there any antique doll enthusiasts reading this? If so, please leave an email address as I have a slightly spoilery question to ask. If no-one responds, I'll presume no-one is likely to complain about doll details in my fic either.

Last night I was massively distracted by a site featuring short informative essays on religious topics. Having found their articles and Goths and D&D to be quite reasonable, I turned to their entry on the Church of Satan, which rather reminded me of Ethan.

The nine Satanic statements: These form the core of the Church of Satan beliefs. They were written by Anton LaVey. In abridged form, they state that Satan represents:

Indulgence, not abstinence.

Vital existence, not spiritual pipe dreams.

Undefiled wisdom, not hypocritical self-deceit.

Kindness to those deserving of it, not love wasted on ingrates.

Vengeance, not turning the other cheek.

Responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires.

Man as just another animal - the most vicious of all.

Gratification of all ones desires.

The best friend that the Christian Church has had as he has kept it in business for centuries.

The nine Satanic sins are: 

Stupidity, pretentiousness, solipsism, self-deceit, herd conformity, lack of perspective, forgetfulness of past orthodoxies, counterproductive pride, and lack of aesthetics.

They practice ritual magic and despise white witches for their insistence on not doing harm to others.

Also, I can still make neither head nor tail of the Calvinist doctrine of Election, despite attending Church of Scotland services in my youth.

(The SO has been reading a book of Sufi stories. Every so often he comes into the room to tell me another humorous tale of Nasrudin. The mullah appears to have been an utter smart alec. This has no BtVS connection at all.)

missmurchison has swelled the ranks of Sparmony stories with her Two-Part Harmony, "a bittersweet romance shagfest with a chorus of intermittent whining". I also enjoyed Liz Marcs's Cuckoo in the Nest which is written from the point of view of Tony Harris.

See? I still read fic sometimes.

Comments

[rahirah]

Have you ever tried reading the Satanic Bible? I skimmed the first chapter once and finally had to give up due to a rabid urge to red-pencil every other sentence. They should add turgid prose to their list of sins.

As far as I can tell, the doctrine of Election boils down to "You're screwed."

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

Yes, I tried once too, and "turgid" was exactly the word that occurred to me. What's the point of being evil if you can't also be fun? These people used to show up on talk shows in the 80s and they were so earnest. (Maybe they still do, but I'm not stuck in a house with pre-verbal kids any more, so I don't watch talk shows.)

[indri]

These people used to show up on talk shows in the 80s and they were so earnest.

I was clearly watching the wrong sort of shows in the 80s then.

[indri]

Have you ever tried reading the Satanic Bible?

Can't say I have. The last time I tried to read the unreadble, it was some Theosophy book by Blavatsky. Not so much turgid as opaque.

As far as I can tell, the doctrine of Election boils down to "You're screwed."

See, I expect these things to encourage some approved code of behaviour. Election doesn't do that at all.