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mysteries |
The Dark Side of The Occult |
Other Information |
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For some, dabbling in the occult can become a way of life. But what are the
risks involved?
Sixteen-year-old Sean Sellers had broken all but one of the ten commandments and, on 7th September 1985, set out to violate the remaining decree: thou shalt not kill. But before carrying out the deadly task on his carefully selected sacrificial victims, Sellers chose to practice his method. With the aid of an accomplice, he walked into a general store in his home town of Oklahoma City, engaged the clerk in conversation, placed a gun to the clerk’s head and pulled the trigger. It took three shots to kill the man, and the two boys walked away laughing. But Sellers work was far from complete. The following March, Sellers snuffed out two candles - one black, the other white - in his bedroom and silently crept along the hallway towards his mother’s bedroom. Stripped to his underpants and carrying a .44 Smith and Wesson, Sellers took one final look at his mother and stepfather before calmly shooting them both in the head. It took two shots to kill his mother. Sellers ransacked the house, to give the impression of a burglary, and, although police had difficulty believing this story, there seemed nothing to support the notion that Sellers was the killer. The breakthrough finally came when the principal of Sellers’ school contacted the police with details of an essay the teenager had submitted the previous day - an essay that the principal had read to Sellers mother the day she had died. Demonic Influence. ‘Behold the crucifix,’ began Sellers’ assignment, quoting from The Satanic Bible, a manual for the Church of Satanism, ‘what does it symbolize? Pallid incompetence hanging from a tree.’ Sellers continued in his own words: ‘Satanism taught me to be a better person for myself rather than for the benefit of others... Why should I not have sex or worship other gods?... I am free. I can kill without remorse. I have seen and experienced horrors and joys indescribable on paper.’ This was all it took for the police to hang the deaths of the clerk and Sellers’ parents on the 16-year-old boy. At the trial, Seller’s lawyer claimed that his client was the victim of Satanic possession and that he had slipped into a demonic state of mind. With the help of Curtis Jackson, a Californian occult-murder specialist, the lawyer set out to show that Sellers’ victims had been killed in ritual sacrifices on or near festivals requiring blood in the Satanic calendar. Despite the acceptance of the ‘demonic possession’ defence, the judge found Sellers guilty of all three charges of murder, and sentenced him to death a punishment he still awaits on ‘Death Row’. But was Sellers a victim of possession? Or was his defence manipulated to place the blame on external, demonic, forces? Satanic Crime. The Sean Sellers case - and many others like it - has led police agencies in the US to establish a new category of criminal, known as the ‘Dabbler’, intended to account for a range of occult-based crimes. ‘He would simply learn things from his friends at school,’ explains Sergeant Randy Emon of the Baldwin Park Police Department, describing the typical ‘Dabbler’ in the 1989 documentary film, Devil Worship: The Rise of Satanism. ‘[He would] dabble a bit with the Ouija board... pick up a book and do his own thing. Not really dangerous, but he can be moved into other areas [that] could be criminal or dangerous in nature.’ The development of Sean Sellers’ obsession with the occult attests to Sergeant Emon’s theory. From dabbling with drugs and mild forms of the occult, Sellers and a friend studied the teachings of the Church of Satan - a San Francisco based religion set up in 1966. Sellers set about summoning up demonic forces and later formed his own coven. But many Satanists would argue misinterpreted the fundamentals of their religion or perverted the rituals to suit his own ends. Satanism, in its popular concept, is the practice and worship of things that are upside down, back to front and reversed relative to Christianity. The Ten Commandments take on a new meaning as ‘thou shalt not’ becomes ‘thou shalt’. For many drug abuse, sexual perversion - and even murder - are acceptable. One of the most influential and outspoken so called Satanists of the 20th Century was Edward Alexander ‘Aleister’ Crowley, the son of a brewer from Leamington Spa in England. Rebelling against his austere, evangelical upbringing, hence the anarchistic behaviour, Crowley took to drink and drugs and developed an interest in the occult. In 1898, he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a group that worshipped Egyptian deities, and practiced the ritual deflowering of virgins. By 1914, he had taken over a German occult sect called Ordo Templi Orientus and, along with his many followers, indulged in sodomy, bestiality and animal sacrifice. Crowley was not an unabashed Satanist though, although he did publicize the subject through his many poems and books, most of which are autobiographical. Considering himself the ‘messenger of the Lord of the Universe’, he spoke with ‘absolute authority’ on sexual magic and his remorseless vision of occultism. Despite his outspoken views, it is arguable the Crowley did little other than shock society. In doing so, he opened people’s eyes to the secret practices of the paranormal, and revealed to the world the hedonistic life of an occultist. But in truth he was no real Satanist, merely someone who lived a hedonistic or anarchistic lifestyle, and as such he did not worship the devil in any way. Church of Satan. A more recent, and arguably less controversial, face of Satanism is the Church of Satan. Established on April 30th 1966, it was the brainchild of Anton LaVey, a former lion-tamer, circus organist, magician and police photographer, who became disenchanted with what he called the hypocrisy of Christianity. Showbiz Satanism. Satanism was nothing new of course, but LaVey presented the religion in a new perspective. The hedonism promoted by LaVey attracted many of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Sammy Davis Jr, Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, who shared a short but intimate relationship with LaVey in 1948. And today the Church of Satanism has one of the biggest followings of any religion, with members adopting the rocker look or the Goth look, or the member could be one of the nicest dressed people you will ever meet. (Note: Crowley’s insertion into this text is purely to show what he was really like, and a thank-you goes to Andrew Moore for pointing out the obvious error I had made.) |
Sources: The X Factor |