Tolkien and the Black Magic

”Morlindalë” is a piece of Tolkien fan fiction, described as a parody. It spoofs both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion”. The author is supposedly The One Ring itself. The editor, a certain Baron of Rachane, found the ring around 2003. He bought it from a fan site! It seems Gollum's precious wasn't destroyed at Mount Doom, after all. The old piece of jewelry has lost nothing of its magical potency, for the moment the Baron put it on, it compelled him through a channeling-like process to write down “Morlindalë”.

Or so he says. It's parody, remember?

A search on the web reveals that Baron Rachane is really Michael Aquino, founder of the Temple of Set, a group often described as Satanist. Perhaps he wrote “Morlindalë” for his own amusement, being an old fan of LOTR. And then, perhaps not. We could be dealing with a subtle attempt to influence the reader in the right Setian direction. Set (usually spelled Seth) is the god of chaos in ancient Egyptian mythology. Aquino isn't referring to Adam's righteous son! Thus, I'm not sure if “parody” is the right word for this opus. Besides, it doesn't sound particularly humorous or mocking. The piece is pretty well written and much of the context is clearly derived from Tolkien's original writings.

Since Aquino is a Satanist, we would expect his “parody” (if that's what it is) to claim that the evil powers in Tolkien's epics are worthy of our support and admiration. Instead, the Baron chooses a more sophisticated approach. He doesn't claim that we should support evil. His point, rather, is that “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion” are Elvish propaganda. In reality, the Elves, the Maiar and the Valar are evil. The actual forces of good are Melkor, Sauron and the Nazgûls! Naturally, the nefarious Elves have been trying to hide this fact from the human race. Now, the truth can finally be told…

“Morlindalë” is written in the form of scrolls, some of which are attributed to Melkor (Morgoth), others to Sauron, and still others to the Witch-King of Angmar or the Blue Wizard Pallando (a minor character in Tolkien's sagas). We learn that Melkor (Tolkien's Devil) didn't fall away from Eru Ilúvatar (God) due to pride or misuse of free will. Rather, the other Valar (archangels) cast him out, for no particular reason at all. Melkor is therefore an innocent victim of the unfathomable evil of the Valar. Indeed, it's not clear whether Illúvatar exists at all. “God” may simply be a collective projection of the Valar, and many laws of the universe are said to be self-existing.

Later, Melkor visits the paradise-like home of the Valar, only to realize that it's based on a form of psychic vampirism. The two magnificent trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin, are in constant pain and anguish, being forced by the Valar to grow taller. The monstrous spider-demon Ungoliant is really a normal, innocent spider forced to feed the trees with dark energy. When Melkor destroys the trees with the help of Ungoliant, they all revert to small size and become completely natural. Melkor realizes that the splendor of Valinor is based on the suffering and servitude of the mortal beings of Middle-earth. Even the Elves have been conned, since they are destined to fade away, living too close to Valar splendor. Perhaps the Elves, too, are tapped on life energy by the vampire-like Valar?

Sauron is a Maia (angel) of Valinor who realizes the truth, breaks with his “divine” surroundings and moves to Middle-earth, where he encounters Melkor. On route, Sauron sees how Elves massacre innocent Orcs (including women and children) for no particular reason. The remaining Orcs are saved by a Balrog, who turns out to be a benign creature commissioned by Melkor to protect the weak and the innocent. After the death or disappearance of Melkor, Sauron leads the resistance against the Valar. He forges the magical rings to unite men, dwarves and Elves against the common enemy, and almost succeeds when a huge unsinkable fleet from Númenor (Tolkien's Atlantis) attacks the “divine” stronghold. At the last moment, Sauron is betrayed by the Elves (including Galadriel), at which point the Valar counter-attacks and destroys Númenor, killing thousands of humans.

Before the events described in “The Lord of the Rings”, Sauron encounters Gandalf at Lórien. Despite ample opportunity, the grey wizard chooses not to kill Sauron. While fighting on the evil side (i.e. the side of the Elves and humans), Gandalf is depicted as an essentially good character, who is unsure of his mission. Gandalf's fellow wizard Pallando is taken captive by the Orcs and brought before Sauron, who reveals the truth to him. Pallando then edits “Morlindalë”. After the defeat of Sauron at the hands of Aragorn, Pallando escapes and hides the scrolls at a secure location. (Note the parallels to the Book of Mormon, with Pallando playing the role of Moroni after the last battle at Cumorah, and The One Ring found by Aquino in 2003 playing the role of the Urim and Thummim.)

I admit that I liked the story, with its blasphemous take on “The Silmarillion” and “The Lord of the Rings”. While I don't mind LOTR as much as I used to, the story *does* get tedious after a while, especially the constant wars and migrations recounted in “The Silmarillion”. Besides, Tolkien's oeuvres almost cry out for creative interpretations and reinterpretations. An intriguing fact is that Melkor and Sauron are depicted as female or at least very effeminate characters on Aldona Kalinowska's illustrations.

But what is the message of “Morlindalë”?

On the face of it, there seems to be very little message in the “scrolls”, the whole thing simply being a fun piece of fiction. But perhaps there is a message, after all? I've already mentioned that God might be a projection of the Valar's collective consciousness. Since the Valar are a kind of “gods” or “angels”, this implies polytheism. It also implies pantheism, since the Valar are born from a seemingly unconscious force. A more earthy form of spirituality is also visible, since Middle-earth (the “normal” world with its nature, humans, stormy weather and death) is seen as more natural and better than the paradise of the Valar, which is an artificial and somewhat absurd creation.

More intriguing are the similarities between the “good” Melkor/Sauron and the “evil” Valar. It turns out that both sets of beings believe that everything in the universe is based on a kind of negative karma, with every force automatically bringing forth its counter-force. This is why the Valar's perfect paradise is ultimately based on suffering and psychic vampirism inflicted on other creatures (such as poor little Ungoliant). But when Melkor lays out his own plans for the universe, they turn out to be based on pretty much the same principle: heroic progress which will, inevitably, also increase suffering and failure. And when Sauron mobilizes Númenor and Middle-earth to attack the tyrannical Valar, he does so through the power of the rings, which binds every creature to his will – in effect, also a form of tyranny.

In the end, it seems that the good and the evil are interchangeable. Power is the only reality in the cosmos. I'm not sure if this is the actual message of Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set (or just the scribbling of a confused blue wizard), but it sure as hell does sound Satanic…