Before I continue with this “news item”, I need to record my reservations about including it here.
LAShTAL.COM is at best a serious and, I’d like to think, “scholarly” site. It concerns itself with the writings, life and creative work of Aleister Crowley and other serous Thelemites. What it’s not interested in is those individuals that seek to continue the wholly erroneous image of Crowley and students of his work as “Satanists” (whatever that really means, these days), “devil worshippers” and the rest.
Crowley was no Satanist as the term is generally understood.
However, the media seems unable to deal with him as anything other than a cultural bogeyman. It is greatly to be regretted that some self-professed Thelemites often exacerbate the problem, preventing Crowley from being considered as anything other than a cartoonish, perverted, drug-addicted, psychotic demonologist.
Today’s Tiscali.Europe site presents an example of what Thelema has descended to in the public eye:
In the UK, Henry Bibby was sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 February 2001 for stabbing Diego Pineiro-Villar (12) over 30 times. Inspired by Aleister Crowley (self-proclaimed Satanist and “Wickedest Man in the World”) Bibby carried out a child sacrifice ritual on the boy in Covent Garden in London on 8 May 2000. According to police, Bibby’s holdall contained a quote from Aleister Crowley’s Magick in Theory and Practice (1929): “For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”
The whole, sad article is available here under the headline “Satanism In Europe”…
Satanism in Europe
‘Beasts of Satan’ sweep across Europe
Following a spate of ritualistic killings in Italy, Germany, and Britain, is Satanism spreading through Europe? Or is this just another media witch-hunt, sensationalising the lives and deaths of people who are either mentally unstable or simply high on drugs? With singer Robbie Williams and J.K.Rowling (of Harry Potter fame) recently accused of devil-worship, should we really be afraid or is it just another ploy to sell more papers?
Whatever your beliefs, a court in Milan yesterday sentenced Mario Maccione to 19 years for his part in the murders of Fabio Tollis (19) and Chiara Marino (16). They were brutally killed and buried alive in woods near Milan in January 1998. The apparent sacrifice to Satan took place when Maccione was still a minor, for which reason he escaped a life sentence. In a parallel verdict, Massimiliano Magni, fellow band member from heavy metal group ‘Beasts of Satan’ was acquitted due to “lack of evidence”. As the judgment was read out, Marino’s mother shouted: “This isn’t justice – it’s a disgrace. 19 years for my daughter is not enough”. Before the verdict she said she wanted her “murderers to rot in the ground like my daughter”. The bodies were discovered after a similar case in Lombardy, in which Andrea Volpe – leader of the ‘Beasts of Satan’ – was sentenced to 30 years for the killing of ex-girlfriend Mariangela Pezzotta in 2004. She had been shot in the mouth. A further 11 deaths in northern Italy are now being linked to the band, involving drug-crazed ritualistic killings and orders from Lucifer.
Over in Germany, Daniel Ruda (26) and wife Manuela (23) admitted killing Frank Haagen (33) with hammer blows and 66 knife stabs in July 2001. They said they were following orders from the devil and therefore denied responsibility. Manuela Ruda said she first encountered Satanism in the UK: “I was in England and Scotland, met people and vampires in London. We went out at night, to cemeteries, in ruins and in the woods… I also slept on graves and even allowed myself to be buried in a grave to test the feeling. I signed over my soul to Satan two and a half years ago”. Public prosecutor, Dieter Justinsky, said: “I have never, ever seen such a picture of cruelty and depravity before. They simply had a lust for murder. Both believed in Satan, they worshipped him.” For their part, prosecutors rejected calls from the victim’s parents for a life sentence, saying the accused were ”not the monsters” of sensational media reports and showed diminished responsibility. A number of witnesses testified that the couple suffered from personality disorders and they were both jailed for over a decade in 2002, with their sentences beginning in secure psychiatric facilities.
In the UK, Henry Bibby was sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 February 2001 for stabbing Diego Pineiro-Villar (12) over 30 times. Inspired by Aleister Crowley (self-proclaimed Satanist and “Wickedest Man in the World”) Bibby carried out a child sacrifice ritual on the boy in Covent Garden in London on 8 May 2000. According to police, Bibby’s holdall contained a quote from Aleister Crowley’s Magick in Theory and Practice (1929): “For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”
Whether or not you believe in Satan, several people have been killed in his name in recent times. Drugs and mental instability have, however, been part and parcel of many of these crimes. Some argue that Satanism stems from the dualistic nature of Judeo-Christian faiths (good/evil, light/dark, body/spirit, etc.), and may even be seen as a reaction to extreme (religious) conservatism. In any case, Italy’s ‘leading exorcist’, Father Gabriele Amorth, says there are two kinds of Satanist: “those who adore the Devil, celebrate Satanic masses, have their own priests and hierarchy; and those who don’t really believe in Satan, but engage in actions that are either iniquitous or against nature”. His simple conclusion: “The latter is more dangerous”.
Howard Hudson,
12 April 2005