The Rite of Hell
The Officers of the Temple
Devil. Sol in Capricorn, the Fire of Earth.
Devil's Wife. Sol in Aries.
Rintrah. Sol in Leo.
Palambron. Sol in Virgo.
The Council Communist. Mercury Anubis.
The Angel who becomes a Devil. Sol in Gemini.
The Eternal Hell Revives
(The Rite of Hell)
Of whom does the Devil's party consist? A small sampling of its membership: the Chaos Magician; the Nietzchian Superman; the Anarcho-Syndicalist; the Marxist-Leninist; the Fabian-Socialist; the Fesbian-Leminist; etc.
A recipe for pandemonium, no?
Satan herds cats in Hell!
The Rite of Hell
The people enter the Temple of Hell. All are given a cup of champagne, juice, or soda. Devil's Wife does an exotic circumambulation. She then gives Devil his Lance.
Devil, Rintrah, and Palambron circumambulate. They take their places, perhaps in the North.
A voice is heard reciting:
Into this wild abyss, The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which must ever fight, Unless th'Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds — Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while, Pondering his voyage....
Devil
Note. The reason Milton wrote in letters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.
Devil's Wife
When will the serpent hiss?
Devil
In due time. But first I would hear my lion!
Rintrah steps forward.
Rintrah
That's me! I said Rintrah!
All roar.
Rintrah
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep Once meek, and in a perilous path, The just man kept his course along The vale of death. Roses are planted where thorns grow, And on the barren heath Sing the honey bees. Then the perilous path was planted; And a river, and a spring On every cliff and tomb; And on the bleached bones Red clay brought forth. Till the villain left the path of ease, To walk in perilous paths, and drive The just man into barren climes. Now the sneaking serpent walks In mild humility, And the just man rages in the wilds Where lions roam. Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air; Hungry clouds swag on the deep.
(pauses briefly)
What is the worship of God?
Devil
Honoring his gifts in other men each according to his genius, and loving the greatest men best. Those who envy or calumniate great men hate God, for there is no other God.
Palambron
Who are some of these great men?
Devil's Wife
(interrupting)
Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Shelley. Lucy Parsons. Emma Goldman. Rosa Luxemburg. Jane Jacobs.
Devil
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.
And being restrain'd it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire.
The history of this is written in Paradise Lost, & the Governor of Reason is call'd Messiah.
And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the heavenly host, is call'd the Devil or Satan and his children are call'd Sin & Death
But in the Book of Job Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan.
For this history has been adopted by both parties
It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell, & formed a heaven of what he stole from the Abyss.
The Giants who formed this world into its sensual existence and now seem to live in it in chains, are in truth, the causes of its life & the sources of all activity, but the chains are, the cunning of weak and tame minds, which have power to resist energy, according to the proverb, the weak in courage is strong in cunning.
Thus one portion of being, is the Prolific, the other, the Devouring: to the devourer it seems as if the producer was in his chains, but it is not so, he only takes portions of existence and fancies that the whole.
But the Prolific would cease to be Prolific unless the Devourer as a sea received the excess of his delights.
Some will say, Is not God alone the Prolific? I answer, God only Acts & Is, in existing beings or Men.
These two classes of men are always upon earth, & they should be enemies; whoever tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence.
Council Communist raises his hand. Devil calls on him.
Council Communist
The working class and the ruling class have nothing in common?
Devil
I like the way you think!
Palambron
The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity.
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began the Priesthood.
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.
Devil
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from energy.
Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.
The Angel slowly strolls across the room solemnly proclaiming such platitudes as:
Angel
You can't fight City Hall. If you can't beat them, join them. Life's a bitch, then you die. There's nothing new under the sun.
The Council Communist is anti-Bolshevik but he values Gramsci on a certain point. He expounds:
Council Communist
According to Gramsci, "common sense" is hegemonistically powerful, and hence resistant to radical change — but it is not entirely static. It incorporates into itself elements of religion but also philosophy and science. Thus there is room to negotiate and places to apply political pressure. Gramsci has it that every philosophical current leaves behind a sedimentation of "common sense": this is the document of its historical effectiveness. Common sense is not something rigid and immobile, but is continually transforming ideas with philosophical opinions which have entered everyday life.
Common sense is an ambiguous, contradictory, and multiform concept. Referring to common sense as a confirmation of truth is a nonsense!
It is possible to state correctly that a ceertain truth has become part of common sense in order to indicate that it has spread beyond the confines of intellectual groups.
This is merely to make an historical observation and an assertion of the rationality of history.
Now, "common sense" tends to be crudely conservative, to fear and hate innovation and change.
To succeed in forcing the introduction of a new truth is proof that the truth in question has exceptional evidence and capacity for expansion.
Devil
Wow. Usually Gramsci and I discuss Dante's Inferno.
Council Communist
Ask him about the contrast between heavenly common sense and hellish good sense.
Rintrah
Five windows light the cavern'd man; thro' one he breathes the air; Thro' one, hears music of the spheres; tho' one, the eternal vine Flourishes, that he may receive the grapes; thro' one can look, And see small portions of the eternal word that ever groweth.
Palambron
How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?
Devil
By Behemoth and Leviathan, we will challenge Heaven's hegemony. Let the conquest of common sense by the infernal wisdom commence. We mount our challenge on the plane of proverbs: the Proverbs of Hell!
All present take a slip of paper from a small cauldron and read the proverb printed thereon. But the officers of the Rite read the longer ones; for instance:
Palambron
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
One proverb is saved for last:
Devil
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Upon hearing this, the Devil's Wife dashes a cup of water in the Devil's face!
Devil
O.K., then. Dear wife, how about a song?
She plays and sings [Hunter: Friend of the Devil].
The Angel comes strolling slowly across the room. Then, he becomes a devil!
Angel
All power to the Workers' Councils!
Angel sits by Devil's side.
Devil
Yes, this Angel who has now become a Devil is my particular friend: we often read the Bible together in its infernal or diabolical sense which the world shall have if they behave well.
Council Communist holds up Marx's Grundrisse.
I have also: The Bible of Hell, which the world shall have whether they will or no!
Council Communist holds up Marx's Das Kapital.
Palambron
Let the Priests of the Raven of dawn, no longer in deadly black, with hoarse note curse the sons of joy. Nor his accepted brethren whom, tyrant, he calls free: lay the bound or build the roof. Nor pale religious letchery call that virginity, that wishes but acts not!
For every thing that lives is Holy.
Devil
The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire is true, take it from Hell!
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite, and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of our sensual enjoyment.
Thus ends our play. As our bodies are frozen desire, let us melt — slowly, to be sure! — and dissolve in bliss.