Suggested Alternative Praxes for Dissatisfied Satan-Worshippers:

Hail Santa: in which you do obeisance to the original Jolly Old Elf, kowtowing at his coal-black boots while a chorus of malignant elves keep up a steady sotto voce rumble of "Ho ho ho".

Hail Seitan: a malevolently smiling, lightly dreadlocked lady with a nose ring lets you in to a modest vegetarian restaurant, the ones that have those glossy, black, easily stacked chairs. After a perfidy-whetting glass of water, you prepare to pay honor to the most evil of meat-substitutes, sitting on your innocent-looking ceramic dish.

Hail Satin: walk into your local craft store, past the microscopic beads sold in packs of 60 and the variously segmented constituent parts of dolls, until you reach the flat folded bolts of cloth. Keep an eye out for the distinctive frayed ends of true satin, which should clue you in to the verisimilitude of the fabric-- from there, it is a simple step to fall to your knees in what ideally should come across as a combination of reverent awe and grotesque, infernal glee. In such cases it is considered polite to shout "Pepe Satin, Pepe Satin Aleppe!"

Sometimes I think, "Maybe human beings have exhausted all the strangeness there is. Maybe nobody is really far out anymore." And then I find links like this:

If you lived here, you'd be homeless now

NWS for pictures of a naked person-- specifically, a naked female human who lived alone in the woods, in a technologically-constituted and quite civilized cave of space, and who didn't wear clothes for three years. She also, at one point, experimented with slathering herself with testosterone gel in order to experience a greatly heightened libido, during which she maintained a truly exhausting masturbation-schedule. Trust me, that's just one of the interesting things about her.

Words just fail. I am completely awed, impressed, and humbled by her-- she's lost most of the parts of her mind that make people mundane.

P.S. Because it deserves one-- I wish to reiterate that this site is 1) run by an autistic person, who therefore doesn't really tone things down, as it were, and that 2) she is really, really into BDSM. So heads up.

Internalization

"Internalization" is the process by which a person codifies, consolidates, and adopts a set of beliefs, attitudes, or values. Role models can help with this. If an admired other displays a set of traits that we want to adopt, we are more likely to adopt those traits. Prearranged dogma or behavioral sets or schema or variously other-arranged sets of orthopraxy/-doxy. These are imposed from without but can be adopted freely and swallowed whole. "Introjection" is where the subject incorporates into his- or herself fragments of the surrounding world. So like for instance tonight and the night before when I took great big breaths of night air because it had become sweet and filling and nourishing again after long periods of thin inert air, I was in fact desperately trying to incorporate this healthy tinge into my own self. For example. No word so far on if there is a process for trying desperately to keep oppressive noxious fragments from permeating and corrupting one's sense of self/spiritual progress. In extremis I guess you would call that "denial". The permeability of spaces. (The safety of objects). "Individuals with weak ego boundaries are more likely to use introjection as a defense mechanism." More air I need more air I need more air.

In Which I Overly Simplify Things, Like a Lot

Having tuned in on the last quarter-and-a-half or so of the Super Bowl this year, I realized that the ads were on the whole pretty impressively strident, lavish, devoid of good humor, and effectively brain-dead. Like this one!

"I will remain hopelessly out-of-date with the current state of cultural mores."

So there was a certain part of me that wooted softly but sincerely when I saw the response:

"...Will you now."

But what I would really like-- and maybe this is too gigantically starry-eyed to even consider seriously-- is for this not to have even been culturally necessary in the first place. They call it the "Battle of the Sexes", but what I'm wondering is: what fucking idiot fired the first shot? Don't we have enough to contend with, striding out into a blandly apathetic or hostile world, without taking up arms against the people we could be loving instead? If you have to keep someone down to stay in a position of power, you're not in a position of power. (...I think I'm being too idealistic).

TL;DR I laughed at a parody video, but felt bad that it had to be made.

New Year's Revolutions

According to Wikipedia, the following are characteristics of stable, high-functioning adults:

1. Altruism (constructive service for other people that brings pleasure and satisfaction);
2. Anticipation (realistic planning for future discomfort);
3. Humor (an interesting inclusion. Apparently, the ability to point out absurdity or unpleasantness while causing amusement or pleasure is a mature skill. A good way to deal with situations that would otherwise be too difficult or distressing);
4. Identification (the unconscious modeling of oneself after a role model);
5. Introjection (identifying with some object or idea so strongly that it becomes a part of oneself);
6. Sublimation (we all know this one-- transforming a negative impulse into positive behavior. Turning darkness into light. Alchemy);
7. Thought suppression (not to be confused with repression. The ability to push conscious thoughts or emotions into the pre-conscious in order to better deal with present reality. Delaying dealing with an emotion or need until later, and then processing and accepting it).

Something for me to think heavily about. (These traits are the fourth level of psychic "defense mechanisms", the level being called Mature. The first three levels of d.m.'s-- Pathological, Immature, and Neurotic--are even more interesting, but I'll address those in further blog posts).

Also, if you'd like, you can watch my cover version of Queen's "You Take My Breath Away" which I whipped together after thinking that C minor was such a pretty-sounding chord:

Click Here!

If you think that sucked and need a palette-cleanser, I recommend Morrissey's "Ouija Board, Ouija Board":

The Table is Rumbling

HAIL SANTA

This Seems Somehow Important

In Buddhist cosmology, there is a deity known as Ragaraja, or Aizen Myouou in the Japanese. He is depicted as a red-skinned, scowling man. He represents the point at which sexual agitation becomes enlightenment, and romantic love becomes love for all living creatures.

The first time Pattie Boyd first met George Harrison, she thought he was one of the most beautiful men she'd ever seen. One of the first things he said to her was "Will you marry me?" She laughed, and so he said, "Well, if you won't marry me, how about dinner tonight?" From there, of course, they famously wound up together. (Look at this incredibly beautiful picture):

In one of the most well-known pieces of rock and roll lore, Harrison's friend Eric Clapton fell hard for Boyd not long after. After she rebuffed his advances, Clapton retreated into heroin and isolation. He found an important artistic parallel in a Persian story from the 12th century, called Layla and Majnun. The story was about a moon-princess, Layla, who was carried off by her father to be with someone other than the man who loved her, which resulted in his eventual madness. This struck an obvious chord with Clapton, who went on to write a pretty good song about it.

Eventually, Harrison's interest in spiritual matters and his changing personality alienated Boyd, who divorced him in 1977. She would marry Clapton two years later.

The relationship was stormy. Clapton carried on several affairs and developed an alcohol problem, although there were apparently several wonderful nights, about which Clapton wrote a rather less good song. Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1988.

Strange overtones

In the music you are playing

I'll harmonize

It is strong and you are tough

But a heart is not enough