Here it will be relevant to remind ourselves that Douglas Misicko (using the aliases “Lucien Greaves” and “Doug Mesner”) has been involved in occultist networks long before the advent of The Satanic Temple. As previously noted, Misicko, under the alias Mesner, is the primary contributor to a group blog hosted at “process.org,” the website of “The Process,” along with “process.org” contributor William Morrison of the musical group Skinny Puppy who, we have also previously noted, has acted as a close collaborator with TST.

Wikipedia describes The Process as “an art and philosophy collective formed in the early 1990s” whose members are sometimes dubbed “Processors.” The Process art and philosophy online-based collective of the 1990s took much of its inspiration, as well as its name, from the Process Church of the Final Judgement, otherwise known as the Process Church, which began in the 1960s as an offshoot of the Church of Scientology and gained notoriety for its connection to Charles Manson, who contributed an article directly to The Process (the group’s magazine) from prison, in addition to rumors that he may have met, collaborated with, or been influenced by the group before orchestrating the series of brutal murders committed by his “Manson Family” cult in the summer of 1969.

Although the beliefs of The Process are said to have evolved over time, it eventually developed a theological doctrine of four entities, variously described as “divinities,” “psychological realities,” or “Great Powers of the Universe.” These four entities, making up a “Quaternity,” were actually two dualistic, polarized pairings: (1) Jehovah and Lucifer and (2) Satan and Christ. The main emphases of The Process were the “dual relationships of the gods and the unity of Christ and Satan” (Lewis 216). James R. Lewis, a scholar sympathetic to so-called “new religious movements” has described the theology of The Process as follows:

“As indicated by the longer name of the group—the Process Church of the Final Judgment—the Process also taught a form of millennialism in which the world as we know it would eventually come to an end. The polarized divinities—Lucifer and Jehovah; Christ and Satan—will be unified in this endtime. This notion is reflected in such passages from Process scripture as: ‘Through Love, Christ and Satan have destroyed their enmity and come together for the End, Christ to judge, Satan to execute the judgement. . . . Christ and Satan joined, the Lamb and the Goat, pure Love descended from the pinnacle of Heaven, united with pure Hatred raised from the depths of Hell . . . The End is now. The New Beginning is to come’” (Bainbridge, 1997, 245 [in Lewis 215]).

In light of Misicko’s affiliation with Genesis P-Orridge’s latter-day iteration of “The Process” as well as his concomitant strong identification with the Process Church of the Final Judgement (evinced by even having tattooed the sect’s symbol, which Misicko himself has described as a “variation of the swastika,” on his arm [see 3.1]), it is worth reconsidering his statement on behalf of The Satanic Temple about the group’s reasoning behind wanting to erect Satanic monuments in juxtaposition to Christian monuments (quoted in the penultimate paragraph of Chapter 4). It is apparent from the reporting which has been done on TST’s efforts over the past several years to erect Satanism-inspired statues and monuments around the United States that the group only seeks to place these at locations where there are already Christian ones, and Misicko’s statement suggests that this is being done according to a “Processor” vision in order to create a symbolic unity between Satan and Christ, figures who “complement and contrast” one another, according to TST’s chief spokesman and co-founder. Needless to say, this goal fits squarely into the Process Church’s doctrine about Christ and Satan (“pure Love” and “pure Hatred”) being “unified” in the end times. The talk of respect for “plurality” also fits soundly within the “Processor” worldview, with its visions of four “Great Powers of the Universe.” The original Process Church is said to have “respected plurality” by singing “solemn hymns” to Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ at their weekly “Sabbath Assemblies” which “blended Judeo-Christian, occult, and Satanist imagery” (van Luijk 304). Thus we see that what TST hopes to accomplish (namely, to blend Judeo-Christian and Satanic imagery in a public, monumental way, by erecting, inter alia, a statue of based on Éliphas Lévi’s drawing of an “evil god” at a site where a Christian monument stands) has a very precise analogue within the practice of The Process Church.

The old “Processor” view that these entities—Christ and, more particularly, Satan—could perhaps more aptly be defined as “psychological realities” than as “gods” is also compatible with The Satanic Temple’s proclaimed doctrine of atheistic Satanism, and can be seen as providing some basis for the latter. Given these facts, along with Douglas Misicko’s prominent long time involvement with The Process, there seems to be little room for doubt that “Processor” beliefs provide a significant part of The Satanic Temple’s philosophical and ideological (or pseudo-theological) foundation.

 

 

CONTINUE READING… 5.1 The “Grey” Metaphor: From “Force” to “Faction”

OR RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS (Anatomy of a Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple”)

 

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