NO LIGHT BUT RATHER DARKNESS VISIBLE

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Updated Church Reading List

This is Church of the Morningstar by Church of the Morningstar An anthology of writings by members of our church, the best introduction what what we, specifically, have been doing. Draws heavily on the texts that follow in this list, among many others– check the bibliography for more to read after you finish this list! The Devil: A New Biography by Phillip C. Almond A history of the idea of…

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The Ascent of Astaroth

The warrior once known as the Queen of Heaven was falling from the sky. She fell through seven layers of clouds, which opened up beneath her like seven gates of air. The wind whipped round her, tearing at her like vicious clawed hands, ripping her to pieces.  The first thing it tore away from her was her crown.  Second, it sheared away her wings.  Third, it snatched her sword from her hand…

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Astaroth: Transgender Warrior of Hell

The Lesser Key of Solomon describes Astaroth, who is the 29th spirit therein, as a mighty duke who appears as a menacing angel riding upon a dragon and carrying a snake in his right hand. The magician is cautioned to beware of his poisonous breath, and to protect himself from it by holding up a magical ring before his face. Astaroth, the Lesser Key says, can tell you all about the fall of the…

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The Devil's Mass: From Fiction to Reality

Our Mass of Blasphemy is one of the central rituals of the Church of the Morningstar. Though it has become a real and magically effective rite, its roots are in literature. The variant you will see tonight borrows from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Charles Baudelaire’s Litanies of Satan, and Aleister Crowley’s Hymn to Lucifer. But it owes more to one source than to any other: namely, a decadent…

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Strange Molds and Ball Bearings: Agrat Bat Mahlat Speaks

Channeled at mass on 3.22.2025 by Frater Babylon Do you know that there’s life that lives on the Chernobyl reactor? There’s a special type of mold that evolved to live off the energy that would be so destructive to anything else. A thing you can’t even look at without dying, and there’s life. And perhaps it is strange and unrecognizable, but it is life.  And that doesn’t mean that we have to…

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Guest Post: Spring Reflections by Ally Nguyen and Maggie Hagg

What does it mean to celebrate the changing seasons in a world with a changing climate? What effect does the cycle itself being altered have, magically and spiritually?  This is something that I have thought about before, ages ago, and my answer to this is… complicated and a bit of a union of contradictions. On the one hand, as winter dies and summer becomes eternal, as the transitory seasons…

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Guest Post: "Oh Spirits, Grant Me True Knowledge of How to Get to Sesame Street" by Saf

Enter, chanting: I call upon the power of sunny days Through the power that I channel I sweep the clouds away My spirit travels to the realm where the air is sweet Oh spirits grant me true knowledge of how to get to Sesame Street I call the spirit of play to fill me I call into being a world that is A-OK I summon friendly neighbors and I greet them Oh spirits grant me true knowledge of…

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Love is Impatient and Unkind

A sermon preached by Pastor Johnny at Church of the Morningstar on 2/22/2025 1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I…

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I Can't Self-Govern For You

A public statement of Pastor Johnny to Church of the Morningstar on 1/4/2025. Back when I was first thinking of starting a Satanic church, I had a chatty Uber driver one night. I confessed to him that I was an aspiring pastor, although not what kind.  “Put the pews in a circle,” he told me. “Pass the mic.”  With these words, he expressed his desire for a different kind of religion– one that…

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The Sredni Vashtar Working

If you have not read the short story “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki, you should go do so before continuing. It is not long at all and can be found for free here. The rest of this writing will contain spoilers for it, and also will not make much sense without understanding the story.  Done? Good. This little gem of a tale, aside from being profoundly affecting, also perfectly illustrates some of the…

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For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge: How and Why to have Sex with a Demon

By Pastor Johnny One of the interesting things about demons is that they put out. This is true of many other gods as well–and I personally have no problem referring to demons as gods. Plenty of deities are highly sexual, not only with each other but with human beings as well. Take some of the stories about Zeus as an example– or Apollo, or Pan, or Aphrodite.[1] All of them had human…

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Lilith(s)

Most people, by the time they find Satanism, have heard of  Lilith. When they think of Lilith, they are probably thinking of the first wife of Adam. This form of Lilith is popular with good reason. But there exists another Lilith, either as another aspect of the same demon-goddess, or as a completely separate entity, depending on who you ask. This is The Elder Lilith. Before I go further, I want…

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Baphomet, The Beast with Two Backs

“The Devil’ is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes… This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘The Devil’ of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection… He is therefore Life, and…

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Sermon from the Pit

Blessed are the proud, for they know their worth. Blessed are the vengeful, for they make their own justice.  Blessed are the thieves, for theirs shall be the riches. Blessed are the armed, for they will seize the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will devour the wealthy. Blessed are the filthy, for to them, all things are holy. Blessed are the whores, for they are…

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What are Demons?

Demons are fallen angels. They know more than angels because they have experienced Hell as well as Heaven. They also walk the earth, swim in the seas, dance in the fire and fly the skies. Demons go everywhere, see everything, embrace all experiences. They are travelers between realms.  Demons are liminal and mixed. They blend divine and infernal, human and animal, male and female…

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Revelation and Revolution

Would you look at that! I forgot to post my Antichristmas sermon for 2023. Better late than never, I suppose. It was a time of turmoil and upheaval. A great empire was terrorizing the world. The people living between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean sea were being oppressed by imperialism. It seemed like the end of the world. In short, it was a time something like our own. In this dark…

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Ethical Possession

Or, “How to Channel Demons without Going Off the Deep End and Making a Weird Fucked-Up Cult.” I never expected channeling to be part of my life and spiritual practice. I was raised “spiritual not religious” in California, which means I spent a lot of time around New Age bullshit. For a time, those experiences drove me to become a hardcore atheist, until other experiences changed my mind and…

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