Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

The “Beast” Computer Legend 23
At the moment of death, the spirit sees the
primary Clear Light, and experiences ecstasy. All
persons get at least a glimpse of the Clear Light,
but the more enlightened can see it longer and use
it to transcend the cycle of death and rebirth to a
higher reality. Most relapse into the Secondary
Clear Light, a lesser ecstasy.
The second stage is like an awakening, in which
the spirit is presented with hallucinations created
by karmic reflexes of actions done while alive.
Unless enlightened, the spirit is under the illusion
that it still has a body like the one that died. There
begins a series of apparitions, the Coming of the
Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, or personifications
of human sentiment, which must be faced without
flinching. The Bardo Thödol provides a relevant
prayer: “When I will have left my dear friends and
gone on my own, and when the empty forms of
my own projections appear, may the buddhas
grant me the strength of their compassion so that
the terrors of the bardo will not come.”
Most escape the second stage through the third
stage, rebirth; the circumstances of rebirth are
determined by past karma. The most enlightened
of yogis are said to bypass all of the Bardo, going
directly to a paradise realm or else directly into
another body in rebirth without any loss of
consciousness. Yoga during life prepares one for
the after-death experiences.
See also Buddhism; Demons
For Further Reading:
Bromage, Bernard. Tibetan Yoga. 1952.
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK:
Aquarian Press, 1979.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y., ed. The Tibetan Book of the
Dead. 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press,
1960.
Baudelaire, Charles
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French
poet who was seemingly obsessed with alienation
and evil. Although some have labeled him a
Satanist, his religious attitudes were complex, and
seem to have fluctuated throughout his lifetime.
He died reconciled with the church.
In many places, Baudelaire used Satan as a
symbol of evil. In other places, however, he reacted
to the God of the Bible as cruel and tyrannical, and
portrayed the Devil positively. For example, in his
poem “The Possessed” in Les Fleurs du Mal (1861)
he exclaims, “There is no fiber in my trembling
body that does not cry, ‘Dear Beelzebub, I adore
you!’” Perhaps Baudelaire’s most familiar Satanic
piece is his “Litanies of Satan,” which, as the title
suggests, reads like a litany. To cite a few lines:
O thou, of Angels loveliest, most wise,
O God betrayed by fate, deprived of praise!
Satan, have mercy on my long distress!
O Prince of exile, who was dispossessed,
Who ever rises stronger when oppressed,
Satan, have mercy on my long distress!
O thou who knowest all, Hell’s sovereign,
Known healer of mankind’s afflictions
Satan, have mercy on my long distress!
At least one Satanist group, the Brotherhood of
the Ram, incorporated it into their regular rituals. It
can also sometimes be found on Satanist websites.
See also Brotherhood of the Ram
For Further Reading:
Baddeley, Gavin. Lucifer Rising: Sin, Devil Worship
and Rock’n’Roll. London: Plexus, 1999.
Scott, Miriam Van. Encyclopedia of Hell. New York:
Thomas Dunne Books, 1998.
The “Beast” Computer Legend
According to an urban legend that has been heard
and repeated by millions of Christians, there is a
computer under the control of the European
Common Market in Belgium that occupies three
stories of an unmarked building. One version of
this tale from a letter written by a Georgia woman
appears on the Ship of Fools website:
A myth I heard as early as 1973, and have
heard repeatedly over the years, concerns a
giant computer in Belgium, taking up the
space of a city block, and housed in a
building. The name of the computer is “The
Beast,” and reportedly information on
everyone in the world is kept on it. This
means that when we have to take the “mark of
the beast,” the antichrist government can
track us down. High school teachers talked