This week we have a very special guest: La Carmina, who blogs at the intersection of Satanism and Japanese culture. She joined us to talk about her upcoming book, The Little Book of Satanism, available in time for Halloween or Christmas, depending on your needs!
Keeping the important links up toward the top where the web spiders can find them:
… Information about The Little Book of Satanism, including preorder information and more about the book’s content and the philosophy behind it
La Carmina’s blog at lacarmina.com, lots of fun images and travel/fashion/Satan articles!
Follow La Carmina on your social media of choice, as long as you’re selective in your choices 🙂
Instagram – www.instagram.com/lacarmina
Twitter – www.twitter.com/lacarmina
Facebook – www.facebook.com/lacarminaofficial
We were immediately impressed with the book’s look and feel. Baphomet was so warm and friendly, the interiors had a gently posh “Victorian wall deco but classy,” and the cover was so very purple. Jacob loves purple. Jacob loves this purple. You’ll love this purple too. We didn’t ask, but if the book is bound in flocked velvet, we would appreciate it.
Okay, being impressed with the purple is a bit shallow on our part, but on the other hand, a popular culture book on Satanism that doesn’t try for shock? That’s a good thing.
The book is a little tome that focuses on the history and philosophy of modern Satanism…not specifically leaning on any one branch of Satanism (though La Carmina has a non-theistic approach to Satanism and is a part of The Satanic Temple, and the book’s tone leans that way). It’s a very accessible book, written for people that aren’t interested in a deep academic dive or have an occult background.
Let’s talk briefly about The Satanic Temple TV. It’s available for $6.66 a month, both a reasonable price and a solid low-hanging fruit joke. You can follow TSTTV on Twitter or Facebook to get announcements on events and such, and events are available for non-subscribers as well. La Carmina hosts “Satanic Show + Tell,” and a callout to the Satanic Chef’s show, “Devil’s Food“
A brief aside on The Process Church of the Final Judgment, a British religious movement running from 1966-1970. It sprouted from the Church of Scientology, but developed a dark and hellish style, digging into Crowley’s world and drawing the attention of artists and cinema types. It seems to have melted down over religious differences, one founder taking a more Christian path, the other drifting more toward extraterrestrial dolphins (we may be deliberately misunderstanding. There will almost certainly be more on the Process Church down the road.
Also on the “learn more about” list, The Affair of the Poisons, a scandal in France toward the end of the 1600s (a very big time for grimoires and the occult, interestingly). Over the course of the event a Madame de Brinvilliers was acccused of conspiring to poison her father and brothers, and was burned at the stake. The trial lead to a crackdown on fortune-tellers and alchemists, and their clients as well, an apothecarian version of the witch trials. Briefly the special court of the Chambre Ardente, or “burning court,” was established, but it was abolished in 1682 as it was simply too much of a scandle in and of itself.
Since we reference the Elvis Dancers of Yoyogi Koen Park, we need to post a video of the Elvis Dancers of Yoyogi Koen Park. Bringing things full circle, Yoyugi Park is in the Harajuku district, which is the home of a vibrant youth fashion culture that is quirky AF and extremely expressive and photographable.
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Good interview. A few corrections:
Buddhism and Satanism really have no overlaps or compatibility besides their atheism.
There doesn’t need to be a “banner of Satanic representation”, since each Satanist interprets representational needs as different and what one wants to have represented for themselves isn’t necessarily a concern for another.
Their [TST] angle is not very “Satan”, since Satan hasn’t, in history, replicated Christianity in order to get the advantage (unlike TST). Absent-minded trolling doesn’t equal Satan.
The activism in the media associated with Satanism isn’t Satanism and there is no community within Satanism.
There is a purple book already released discussing Satanism and that is The Satanic Witch by Anton Szandor LaVey. So no, this book is not the first ever.
Thanks for those!
The person above commenting has their own anti-TST perspective on Satanism and that’s fine. It does not mean other perspectives are incorrect.
Understood! We know there’s a few very different perspectives on modern Satanism. At some point we’ll have a series of episodes that are more in-depth on Satanism and bring in more diverse opinions. We were very happy to talk with La Carmina about her perspective, and while her book leans heavily into TST-style non-theistic social activism Satanism, it touches on other branches and is positive about them. Trying to put all different ideas of 21st century Satanism under the same umbrella maaaay not be a realistic goal, considering just the differences of opinion on the Theistic/Non-Theistic spectrum alone. But it was a fun interview!