The Magickal Super-Consciousness of Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex

Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex,

In light of your most recent announcement, http://www.cultofcthulhu.net/2011/02/nyarlathotep-diabolus-rex/

…I think a lot of people are quietly asking themselves what you’ve been up to lately and what your plans for the future are. I’m interested in interviewing you.

Greetings Venger Satanis;

Thank you for the opportunity to give voice to my perceptions on this subject, I would be open to an interview at your convenience. It would appear that there is a certain amount of confusion interspersed with smug hubris from those who believe they have all the answers. I look forward to parrying that perspective.

My gratitude for the proper use of my sobriquet. I only use Nyarlathotep in official documentation with other Magicians, in art presentations, and most importantly, in the ritual chamber/black lodge/temple etc.

You may address me by my first name. I have no ego impoverishment demanding constant use of titles. The reason I bring this to your attention is because of the long standing confusion/conspiratorial belief in cyber space that “Diabolus Rex Church” is somehow connected to the designate, “Church of Satan,” absolutely no connection at all. “Church” is my family’s old Irish/English last name and admittedly a little paradoxical for a Satanist.

Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex is my legal name, I officially removed “Church” some time ago.

Was getting your name legally changed a lot of work?

Not really, I have a good lawyer. He composed the paperwork, and I signed it.

Is it more for outward appearances or your own self? Do people seem to take you more or less seriously with a name like Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex? What are your thoughts on the magical implications of chosen names?

Historically and from magickal tradition it was common practice to change ones name in keeping with one’s initiatory development and transformation. In the ritual chamber, the function of which is to act as an amplifier and a magnet. A magical name is as much a sorceric weapon as a sword, dagger, bell, staff, etc… and should not be scoffed at.

Many practitioners will forgo this essential element as a result of ingrained timidity or embarrassment. The more your magickal name is used there will be the reciprocal effect of growing affinity and power; in time the mask will become the face. As for how others may feel about my name, whether amused, frightened, or angered, is of no consequence.

When you combine iron and carbon, it becomes “steel.” The psych-eccentric consciousness refined through the fire of “Will” in the ritual chamber becomes the crucible and forge for the advent of a new “Being,” one is no longer the same creature. This is the nature of authentic initiation.

I remember reading something on your website years ago about a piece of artwork. You created some sort of display behind glass including worms and maggots. Was this in High School? Tell me about that whole experience.

High school was an unpleasant time for me. I was a poor student as I found nothing of interest to occupy my mind, so I spent a great deal of time in the back of the classroom drawing “demonic pornography”. That’s how the teacher who discovered my obsessions described it to the principal after my drawing book was confiscated. In any case, art was my only escape. So the art instructor (a woman of good intentions but no talent) gave me the opportunity to display my work in one of the school’s empty trophy cases. I desired my work should make an impression and perhaps overdid things.

Having full access to a machine shop as my father was a journeyman tool and die maker, I fashioned a duel trapezoidal box a little under two feet in height. Inside the walls were scored and welded so as to give the impression of rot and decay. On a neck vertebrae cast in steel was a human skull with projecting tentacles and feelers erupting out of its head. The skull had fangs and a tongue projecting outward from its jaws, really quite horrific. For an added touch I filled the bottom of the sculpture with chum (fish blood and guts) from one of the fish houses and let it sit in the sun for a couple of days, lovingly tending the grotesque miasma growing within. When the larvae were ready I added meal worms to the mix. It was really magnificently awful. I and my girlfriend at the time acquired permission to install the art after school in the evening, so no one was aware of the horror waiting for them until the next day when the putrescence made its way down the halls like Zyklon ~B .

I began homeschooling after this which granted me the opportunities of the autodidact.

Did homeschooling involve subjects that interested you more than public school?

In addition to the more pedestrian curriculum I was allowed to integrate outside studies such as magickal history and its primary figures, dark art, (what there was of it at the time), the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, Derleth, Long, etc. I was studying the work of Crowley and Grant as well, this was the early 70’s, surrealism and erotic art were also permitted. I was also very interested in psychology, military history, and fringe science. My parents were fairly permissive as long as I stayed out of trouble.

Was the reaction you received from that High School artwork representative of what you experience today?

In regards to my work as an airbrush artist/designer, people are fairly polarized, they either love and respect it, for which I am grateful, or hate and despise it because they incorrectly perceive it as overly influenced or pandering after the work of HR Giger. For the record, I discovered Giger’s work in 1969; I was 9 years old at the time. The posters that I acquired were neither airbrushed nor overly “biomechanical” in presentation. I was already developing my own mechanistic/organic approach to art and had never seen his “Necronomicon” or Alien because they did not exist.

I was fascinated by bones and machinery because my father was a tool and die maker and master machinist, and I spent many hours in our home shop. We cast bones in metal and cut mechanized stencils from thin stainless steel strips and I used these in my first paintings. To integrate this stylistic approach to the occult world was an obvious pathway for me. Giger’s work inspired but never influenced. They are not the same thing.

How do you approach a new piece of art or “blank canvas”?

Most of my work, almost without exception, is produced through the discipline of “automatic painting” and is the result of dream and ritual states of mind. Lovecraft was my mentor in this as his stories are replete with references to art, both writing and painting created in such a manner.

I paint mostly at night when psychic disturbance is at a minimum, starting at about 4-6 in the afternoon and going straight through to around 6 the next morning. Once I start it becomes almost impossible to stop especially if a piece is particularly difficult. Paintings such as “Satan 1″ and the “Necro Totem” series were painted in this fashion.

By “automatic painting” I assume that you just pick out some colors and just start in. Are you directed by random creative impulses more than some image which suddenly comes to you as you begin?

Authentic automatic painting begins with no preconceptions, no submerged imagery, but the rather flow of the hand over the painting surface, absently, spontaneously, and without deliberation. Soon, an eye appears, then a face, lips, spinal columns, fangs etc, the work drives and erupts purely out of the subconscious. If the subjective mind is tuned to this activity through experience, soon it becomes second nature and altered consciousness becomes the norm.

Besides the airbrush, do you ever use a brush, palette knife, or other conventional artistic tool? What are some unconventional artistic tools you’ve recently used or incorporated in your paintings?

I am a purist and paint almost entirely with airbrush, implementing 5 to 6 different guns. I also use sea sponges and nitro soaked blotting paper to create effects germane to my particular style.

How much time do you spend in your warehouse? Does the city it’s located in have an impact on your environment?

I spend most of my time in my studio. Environmental impact is at a minimum. People are the real contagion, so I limit my interaction accordingly.

Tell me of specific points during your tenure within the Church of Satan where you felt uneasy, disenfranchised, or alienated.

There was never a moment when I felt any of these things with reference to the Church of Satan. My opposition to various official positions was never compromised as I also lived a rich internal private life with respect to my own perceptions. I never accepted the idea that there was only “one species of Satanism” or singular denomination.

Grotesque material reductionism is a refutation of the greater potential for the experience of the Infernal Principle, a state of conviction that I was convinced of by way of rigorous ritual work, experimentation, and testing. This never created a problem as the core of the Chaos Imperium was cabal and we worked in secret. It was only after my decision to make this Order public knowledge that my resignation was required.

The idea that there are multiple species of Satanism and, following that metaphor, that Satanism can evolve… did that put you at odds with the CoS after Anton LaVey’s death?

Anton LaVey held the staunch perspective after codifying Satanism as a philosophy and religious movement, that there would be no tolerance of “denominationalism” and wanted that made known to the world by representatives of the Priesthood and Hierarchy. Anyone who has taken the time to read the literature of the COS should already be aware of this. I represented this perspective in public presentations on the Church of Satan as I also held to the party line regarding Satanism as an atheistic perspective on the nature of the cosmos. Privately I was in complete disagreement. The magickal work of the Chaos Imperium had proven that for me, but since the Ch.I is a secret society and was working in seclusion, it was deemed unnecessary to proffer an alternative viewpoint. Satanism is evolving and there is no room (in my world) for the atheist perspective given the reality of the Prince of Darkness as super-consciousness within the mechanical construct. This should not be interpreted as worship, at any time, but an intense mental inter-communicative magickal action.

How relevant is Satanism today as a religion, philosophy, movement, aesthetic, and/or sub-culture?

More relevant than ever, but to remain so, it must have parameters of definition, not an “anything goes occult socialist circle jerk” as has been so adroitly demonstrated in cyber space.

If reductionism and oversimplification are inherent aspects of humanity, then how does one keep infernal principles separate from ordinary perception? I’m speaking of safeguards. Are greater truths and higher understanding always going to be brought down to the lowest level?

This should be obvious I would think. The word “occult” means hidden, secret, immersed in darkness. The path of the magickian is a left-handed sign guiding him/her alone. Through initiation the adept moves deeper into the underworld, without concern or care of the perspectives, prejudice, or viewpoints of philistines. The work of any magickal order is to develop, refine, and safeguard its secrets. Unfortunately, the web creates personalities who are less concerned with sorceric development than they are with ego gratification; ergo they give it all away in a search for status.

What was your relationship with Anton Szandor LaVey before he died?

Anton LaVey treated me very well. He enjoyed and collected my art and we spent many long hours discussing subjects of magickal import. I was shown around the Black House and was privy to many of its secrets.

I’m sure everyone is curious about the various body modifications you’ve made over the years. What’s that all about?

As a magician, I utilize the concepts of “Total Environments.” This had its earliest manifestation in my art exhibitions where every detail of a show had to align perfectly, even if abstractly. I would even request that attending guests dress somber as a sign of respect for the beings evoked in the paintings and to integrate with the ambiance of the exhibition.

There has always been a resonant psychic mental pattern of thinking and being which aligned with the “other,” and my need to mirror this in the exterior objective world as it manifested in the interior psychic visage. When the opportunity arose to realize this through the work of genius body modification master, Stephen Hayworth, I committed to becoming art, as well as, creating it.

The sub-dermal horn implants came first, then the trident in the forehead and the Ragnarok sigil in my crown. I assisted Steve in designing these implants so as to blend harmoniously and not overpower. I have plans for full titanium dental work involving multiple sets of fangs and incisors, a work in progress.

Speaking of initiation and transformation, can you see a pattern or common theme running through notable magicians of history? What about the magicians of today?

The desired end results of modern magick are the same today as they were in antiquity: power and command of Universal forces. But the perceptions as to how this can be accomplished have changed in light of the proliferation of unfit minds vested in the Black Arts and whether we are discussing Left or right hand path disciplines.

Initiation and the path of the “sorcerer’s apprentice” has been replaced by “socialized magickal practice” (an oxymoron) and “self initiation” as ego impoverishment devolving into a search for a commanding identity that is de rigeur in the cyber age. The unfit soul is not concerned with refinement and evolution of the psyche by way of magickal practice, but how this translates to “hits” on their website or increasing the sale of a book or service related to magick. Where the focus is commerce, the method is prostitution.

How can an individual, especially an artist, avoid prostituting himself or herself while still being able to function, let alone succeed in the 21st century?

I will not speak for other artists, but for myself I chose simple work for sustenance over art as commerce sanctifying my work for magickal internal convictions. The modern art ‘dance macabre’ is commodity over quality and conceptual flatulence over command of technique. I am hardwired against compromise and therefore outside the contagion of corruption. Vengeance is the new art form. Sculpture and the forms of psychic machinery are my complete aesthetic focus now.

What is the “Chaos Imperium?”

The Chaos Imperium functions as a quantum network which does not operate through a terrestrially based Temple or physical Order because its members are not – in a Black Magickal sense – centered in this terrestrial sphere. Their zones of occult activity are located in spaces “in between” which both include and transcend astral levels of consciousness, the angular ether. The Chaos Imperium must therefore not be thought of as corporate entity in the mundane sense. It is controlled by inner-plane contacts- themselves adepts of extra-dimensional magick centered in Dark Energy- focused today through the GOTOS of the Aeon of Chaos, Diabolus Rex the avatar of the Black God ~Nyarlathotep, channeling currents in the angled realms outside the circles of time and space!

There is no comparison to other Satanic Orders or LHP systems. The Chaos Imperium is an Order of dark beings. The basis of our Work being the direct assimilation and manipulation of angular inertia and black magickal power. As the work of the Order progresses, revelations in adeptship are conferred upon various members by only one source… the Dark God of our order, Yog-Sothoth. This elevated master of being is then recognized by other members of the internal cabal and formally sanctioned. In this way, self-initiation, the ultimate act of being, is the refined action of becoming.

How do you differentiate between false self-initiation and true self-initiation?

If chaos magickians subscribe to the concept of “belief structures reality,” then there are always going to be those who think that they have reached levels of adeptship that they obviously have not. The reality of the power of an advanced and elite adept will be the ability to demonstrate their prowess in magick within the structure of the cabal itself, in the presence of one’s magickal peers and before the master and GOTOS of the order, temple, or lodge. The worth of a magickal order will present itself in the quality of its initiates, not in the numbers of members in its roster.

How does personal initiation and transformation relate to various aeons or currents surrounding the magician?

I will only speak of Aeonic action in relation to my own context: that of the Aeonic Word Chaos and its continually cycling vortex. This aetheric stream is manifesting various nadirs simultaneously as it becomes the focal point for evolutionary constructs within the objective and subjective universe/Universes.

Chaos is the Satanic “Dark Energy” conduit that magickly speaking is the creative “Duat” or nature of the Underworld from whence all being springs. However, once manifested it is the discipline of the LHP that the magickian, in complete understanding, outside illusion, beyond time and space shapes, refines, and balances with the psyche in a movement to ascend to the higher mind. This mind is the “super-consciousness” unbound by all physical constructs.

Do you think the ritual chamber amplifies the magician’s consciousness, subconsciousness, and/or something else?

As stated before, the ritual chamber is magnet and amplifier, this construction works together to bring in elemental force, subdue pure intellect, (belief as reality) and amplify consciousness. This can be done through meditation, chemignosis, or psyche-altering machinery, this being the method of the Chaos Imperium.

After years of this form of Work, something else begins to happen; another element becomes distinct, active and ever present within the construct. Doors open that are never again shut, visionary experiences invade objective space as well as subjective. It is this platform of experience that I have built my art upon as the inspiration from noetic impressions have imprinted themselves on my psyche forever.

What about the magnetic pull? What sort of energy/force are you usually hoping to attract in the ritual chamber?

Personal power, transformation, and solutions to entropy are the focus. There is a highly deliberate drive to solve the problems of these equations. Information in all its potentialities derived from beings of many psychic species is the work of the Chaos Imperium.

Do you have a physical ritual chamber in use now, multiple ones, or is your ritual chamber more of a state of mind? Please describe what you can.

Being an occult artist ritual chambers are for me always highly evolved aesthetic projects. I have two separate rooms in my warehouse for ritual work. One with a massive altar composed in steel adorned with objects traditional to LHP/Satanic workings, sword, dagger, bell, and electromagnetic light source, (no candles) a human skull caste from stainless steel and presiding over all the Chaos Imperium sigil. In a separate room much larger than the first is the chamber of the Ragnarok Engine and other elements of EMS and techno-magick. This chamber is much like a madlab from the Third Reich with expressionistic decor and instrumentation germane to advanced magickal programs.

What would you say to people who believe that ordinary human interaction and influence keeps the magickian from becoming delusional? Is this something you ever worry about?

In an insane world, a sane man must appear……insane. The most powerful magickians of my acquaintance are men who spent tremendous amounts of time in isolation and solitude and could demonstrate control of their physical realm in a way that was undeniable. A degree of their power was the result of “isolationism,” a concept I strongly endorse, but when I hear it described by Left Hand Path practitioners as a “trial” or occult hardship, I am secretly amused.

Separation from other humans for extended periods of time is for me not a trial… it’s a vacation [or vocation? ~ VS]. The “delusion” is what others outside of the black magician’s internal reality will presume by mere observation as insanity. It takes an enormous degree of spiritual courage to persevere in the face of almost universal ostracization by elements external, as well as, internal to our subjective universes. There will be those who break under the strain and return to the morass of the cultural doldrums.

In your opinion, should outsiders, Satanists, LHP practitioners, occultists, and similar types of people be content to create their own reality or total environment? Even small influences contribute to consensual reality, but do such individuals have any kind of responsibility to affect change on a larger scale?

Socialism and “social responsibility” have no place in black magick. If that is some form of “post Satanic” perspective it could only be endorsed by a simpleton.

If Socialism is the political realization of the equality of all beings within a system, this automatically cancels all potential for the great art of initiation. No magickal practitioner would be allowed to eclipse the work of his fellows by dent of his accomplishments within the etheric and sublime. It is all too prevalent a modern phenomena, the claims of “elitist” sorcerers of the LHP, great self-proclaimed black magicians who nevertheless in their profiles support egalitarian, leftist, “marxist,” socialist, irrationality and weakness. Their magick smells like a corpse… their own.

Do those ideas inform your political views?

I am an adept of “transhumanism” and therefore outside of the human contagion of politics. Should others deem me politically controlled by dint of my humanity, they know nothing of the “other” I share my consciousness with and therefore are condemned to their one dimensional perspective.

What about a socialist government or economy while keeping the values of Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, and LaVey?

Nietzsche’s concept of the “Uberman” holds power for those magicians that are working strictly within the concept of refined separation from the paradigm of base materialism and into the structured trans-human equation of the potential new being. This transformation is beyond the political spectrum of control and human concerns.

Anton LaVey and Ayn Rand advocated predatory capitalism. This position belongs to a segment of society who have simply sold themselves to Moloch in exchange for grotesque materialism. The goals of the Black Magickian are as differentiated from this position as stainless steel is from rust.

What kind of artist would you have become without the incorporation or use of magick? Would you have chosen a different profession?

I hold the conviction that spirit descends into matter and that this is not my first remanifestation. I was an artist previously, and I am one again. There could be no personal identity in reference to the “I” without magick as the catalyst.

What is it about German Expressionism that interests you?

Hard edges and angular inertia are inherent to this form of work. The German culture during the second world war was itself a “total environment.” Anton LaVey’s ‘Law of the Trapezoid’ was beautifully realized in much of the art and design of the Third Reich. This comes as no surprise as Albert Speer the architect of Germania was himself a master of mass spectacle and ritual. Speer’s ‘cathedral of lights’ is a concept that will be implemented in the first public presentation of the Ragnarok Engine.

The trapezoid has always been a fascinating shape for me and many others. What’s your personal view of trapezoids and how often do you use them in your artwork / magick?

Trapezoidal technology is one of the disciplines at the heart of the Chaos Imperium and we actively search for any historical manifestation or reference where this shape and its influence has impacted universal events. Doctor LaVey was one of the first magickians to actively implement the trapezoid into magickal workings when other “great sorcerers” were completely oblivious to it, (the Kenneth Grant/Ozman Spare connection) being a prime example.

Trapezoidal mass is formula implemented in chaos engineering and is most evident in projects such as the Ragnarok Engine and elements of its components. The RE itself has a base constructed as a massive trapezoid with its numerical values proving rather interesting. Black magicians working in the Lovecraft current are aware, the “shining trapezohedron” of the Starry Wisdom cult was a “shew-stone” for divination and window into the angular ether, a “techno magick GPS” device. All trapezoids have the ability to influence consciousness and the Magickians of the Chaos Imperium have knowledge of the methodology to siphon power from its angular matrix.

If you had to pick three personal favorites of Lovecraft’s stories, what would they be? Describe the reasoning behind your choices.

“Shadow over Innsmouth” as it has deep magickal connections to my childhood home of Astoria Oregon. “The Dreams in the Witch-House” as it demonstrates the Lovecraft/Chaos connection in a manner beyond a mere story and reveals Lovecraft’s magickal understanding of “occult entanglement”. Finally, “At the Mountains of Madness,” as it was the catalyst for several dream images that later became important paintings in my career.

Doesn’t “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” have sexual undertones as the foundation of that story is based on the breeding of Deep Ones with human beings? Any thoughts on the theme?

Agreed, but the greater genetic subtext of the story still reads like a Victorian novel. Lovecraft never presented himself at any time as a purveyor of erotica, rather his approach was always scholarly, clinical, and mystical. I have no problem with modern writers interjecting erotica whether subtle or overt into Lovecraft inspired work; I simply appreciate Lovecraft’s scientific approach.

Regarding, “The Dreams in the Witch-House”, how does Lovecraft’s preoccupation with angles, dimensional travel, and folkloric black magick / witchcraft affect our perception of Satanism, as well as, reality itself?

I will not belabor the obvious, it was Lovecraft’s genius to take the newly emergent discipline of quantum mechanics and its dimensional nomenclature and place it in the subtext of black magick. No one before Lovecraft had envisioned that the trapezoid and angular inertia could be used in a ritualistic context to describe the mechanism behind “astral travel”, “invisibility”, and congress with demonic intelligences.

It is for these reasons that I hold that Lovecraft was more than a mere writer of horror stories. The reality before us, driven by discoveries in quantum theory and occult engineering, have demonstrated a reality far stranger than almost anyone dreamt possible. With this knowledge, a newly emergent magical discipline is arising as the Chaos Imperium generates a magickal system of future Black Magick far darker than anything “Satanic” whether traditional or modern.

How does August Derleth, Frank Belknap Long, and possibly other authors such as Ramsey Campbell, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith relate to your conception of the Cthulhu Mythos? Does the Lovecraft Circle enhance or detract from the stories written by Lovecraft himself?

The horror writer Brian Lumley, I feel, has added more to the Cthulhu Mythos with a greater continued conceptual impact than the others you mentioned. Though Lumley holds a strong sexual angle in many of his stories, a paradigm Lovecraft did not dare touch. Lumley’s “Necroscope” and “Psychomech” series are gold for inspiration in Mythos ritual work. I would also recommend his “Kai of Khem” for an “Egyptron” current.

What was Lovecraft trying to show us with his vague, yet very specific descriptions? How does that affect your art and magick?

There was no doubt that Lovecraft understood physics and was versed in the newly emerging discipline of quantum mechanics. He noeticly apprehended many aspects of it intuitively, naturally, as he was psychically “tuned in” to a burgeoning force growing in the world at that time. Lovecraft was the last great mythologist as far as I and the Chaos Imperium are concerned.

His work has formidable power as it has nothing “ethnic” written on it. It is completely alien in character. He was the “reluctant prophet” and synchronistically tied into the chaos current in part without his knowledge; though it is my contention that he embraced this awareness in secret.

Does the Cthulhu Mythos relate to super-consciousness? To what degree?

When the Chaos Imperium speaks of the ’super consciousness’ it is in direct reference to the Being we interpret as the Prince of Darkness. This reference is not to be understood in the contemporary sense as the profane imagine him, nor in the materialistic, hedonistic, reductive “symbol” or vibration as referenced in “atheistic Satanism”. Interpretations with regard to this mind extend to a Luciferian, Setian, and Theistic Satanic perception.

I and the Chaos Imperium conceptualize this mind in the Lovecraftian construct as the being Yog-Sothoth… both gate and key to the manipulation of matter and movement into trans-dimensional space, a consciousness within the mechanical matrix of matter but able to transcend, manipulate, and bend cosmic laws unbound by time and space. This definition makes this being a “God” in the transcendent sense, but does not imply worship.

Let’s talk about the blending of Satanism and the Cthulhu Mythos. Are these parallel paradigms or does it make sense to combine them into a singular model?

Satanism is “antinomian,” the purposeful reversal of conventional normatives: “evil” becomes “good,” “impure” becomes “pure,” “darkness” becomes “light,” etc. There is an embracing of conventional symbols such as “evil,” “impurity” “rationality,” or those qualities that pedestrian and conventional culture deems fearful and loathsome.

The Cthulhu Mythos falls into this category and can be implemented by Satanists as a model for magickal work or by groups, such as the Cult of Cthulhu, as an initiatory system outside of Satanism (whether traditional of modern) but still classified as Left Hand Path. It is my perspective that Satanism is evolving and refining itself under visionary magickians of courage, character, and integrity.  It will become something quite different than what is generally accepted at this moment. The Chaos Imperium is driving that evolution.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 27th, 2011 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Interviews and tagged with airbrush, Anton Szandor LaVey, artwork, Black Magick, Chaos Imperium, Chaos Magick, Cult of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft, initiation, Left Hand Path, Nietzsche, Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex, quantum mechanics, Ragnarok, Satanic Orders, Satanism, Super-Consciousness, transhuman, Venger As'Nas Satanis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.