Lies serpents tell themselves

I've read this bewildering book in the original Swedish version. The author, Thomas Karlsson, is the leader of an occult society in Stockholm known as Dragon Rogue. They are often regarded as Satanists, but reject the designation in favour of "dark magicians". I actually encountered Thomas and his female shakti in person about ten years ago. Weirdly, it was at a university seminar also featuring one of Sweden's most well-known anti-Satanists?! But then, Karlsson believes in the powers of Chaos, so I suppose this was just apt. "I'm not here to teach you, I'm only here to eat you", as good ol' Cthulu would no doubt have put it.

Dragon Rogue claim to base themselves on Kabbala, Odinist "runology", left-handed Tantrism and alchemy. "Qabalah, Qliphoth and Goetic Magic" is the major published work of this particular group, giving an overview of their interpretation of the Kabbala, a form of Jewish mysticism also taken up by Christian Hermeticists and modern occultists (in suitably revised versions).

The centrepiece of the Kabbala is the Tree of Life, a kind of symbolical "map" of God, various spiritual worlds and the material cosmos. The Tree of Life consists of a number of levels, known as sephiroth, of which Keter (The Crown) is the highest. Very simply put, Keter could be identified with God in his hidden or apophatic aspect. Karlsson, however, isn't particularly interested in the "official" Tree of Life, neither in its Jewish nor Hermetic form. Rather, he concentrates on the kelipot or qliphoth, the "husks" of evil which Kabbalists believe are products of the Fall. In some interpretations, the qliphoth form a evil counterpart to the Tree of Life, known as the Tree of Knowledge (sic), making up a kind of demonic anti-world to God's creation. The task of the black magician is to enter each qlipha on this "tree", ascending higher and higher, until he reaches Thaumiel, the highest level. Thaumiel is the counterpart to Keter on the Tree of Life, and could perhaps be seen as God's evil twin or an anti-God.

Incantations of demons, sado-masochistic rituals and animal sacrifice are some of the ingredients on this "left-hand path", although Dragon Rogue actually opposes the latter practice. Well known demons on the path include Buer, Astaroth and Asmodeus. Others have names such as Frimost, Musisin, Merfilde and Clisthereth. The adept will eventually open three secret chakras unknown to "official" Hinduism and occultism: golata, lalata and lalanu. Interestingly, Thaumiel is a duality, ruled by Satan and Molok - a kind of evil version of Shiva and Shakti, I suppose. The ultimate goal of the magician is to become completely independent of God, to become a god himself, and to create new worlds as he see fit by opening a "black hole" in the present universe.

But where do these frankly bizarre ideas come from? Something tells me you won't find this in the Zohar or the Bahir! Karlsson mentions two medieval texts on ritual magic, "The Keys of Solomon" and "The Lesser Keys of Solomon" or "Lemegeton". The Goetic magic of the book title comes from the latter. These texts were translated and popularized by the Golden Dawn about a century ago. Karlsson also refers to "Grimorium Verum", apparently a fraudulent work from the 18th century purported to be substantially older. Some other sources are wholly modern: "The Yoga of Power" by Julius Evola and "The Nightside of Eden" by Kenneth Grant. Thus, it would seem that the dark side Kabbala of Dragon Rogue has a relatively recent provenance.

Of course, the lie of the serpent is much older: "Ye shall be like gods". Hiss...