Recently, I’ve come into possession of a book that was mailed to me by a friend. Slim, obsidian black, with a strange magical symbol on the front cover that I’ve never encountered before. On the back, in the darkest shade of gray, you can see faintest tracings of the circuit board schematics of the Roland TB-303 bassline synthesizer. There’s only three articles. Each one penned by pseudonymous authors associated with magical (or political?) organizations I’m unfamiliar with. The three writers in question, Meinhof Pandemonium, Commisar Murnau, and Laccio Bombacci. Their respective cabals, Krasnaya Latsis Terror Cell, Saloth Commandos, and one Gruppo di Draghi Rossi. All writings are additionally attributed to a broader collective, the Temple of the Red Lodge.
Judging from the terminology employed, all of the groups appear to be the offspring of deviant Internal Adepts of the Order of Nine Angles, or they’re at least intimately conversant with their extant writings. The first article, titled “On the Sinister Dialectic,” by Monsieur Pandemonium, is an extended commentary on multiple documents weaved together into a critique of the basic conceptual framework of “sinister dialectics” elaborated by the parent Order, and thus a critique of their conception of “aeonic magick.” A selection runs, “[…] in the last instance, Capital is the Dark God continuously presenced by this Sinister Ideological Apparatus, it remains the Choronzon at the gates of the Abyss, combusting the despotic causality of production relations with fuel from the malignant acausality of anarchy in production. The Acausal has been here revealed as both an ideological construct and a resentful response to the Secret of Secrets: surplus-value extraction, a Gift for every Prince of Production.” They continue their assault, arguing that the professed “sinister dialectic” itself remains inconsistently dialectical through careful selections of Mao and Feuerbach, and elaborate that the working of “aeonic magick” is a futile, desperate response to the coming “Aeon of the Commune.” The final sentence ends with a rather cryptic declaration, “These revenants of the Black Lodge, who roam the wastelands baring their fangs, patiently await their Vindex. We have 3. Marx, Lenin, Mao. Proceeds the Noctulian, Nazareth.” Dated 196YF, Era Horrificus.[1.]
Moving on to the second article, we have “Divine Light Severed,” by Signore Bombacci, a rather curious writing which examines the theological undercurrents of the video game Cruelty Squad. The tone isn’t nearly as hostile as the previous article, and the author seems quite dejected, even depressed. The writing itself begins with a fictional framing, “The phone rings. As you look out your apartment window, someone is shooting into a crowd of people. You answer. A voice worms its way through your ears, slithering into you, but the syllables are disjointed, like an assemblage of rotting teeth held together by wire. You’re offered a job. Maybe you’ll be able to afford a proper bedframe, or food that doesn’t leave behind an arcology of empty pizza boxes. You shower.” [2.] Then, a selection I quite enjoy, “Cruelty Squad is a sledgehammer, it pulps the skulls of those who play it, your scrambled brains splatter against its textures of pristine black marble. What’s leftover is refuse, your headless skeleton another addition to the catacombs buried beneath tasteless McMansions of a neighborhood you’ll never afford.” After, they continue, as I would expect, with a disassembly of the prophetic utterances of the three targets representing the Triagons during one of the later levels. To begin their elucidation, they use a selection from the Phenomenology of Spirit regarding the work of the Artisan: “[…] Now these ambiguous essences burst out into the language of a deeper, but scarcely comprehensible wisdom.”[3.] They continue their account through selections of Georges Bataille’s writings on Gnosticism and Base Materialism, along with lines of Goethe’s Faust. It ends with a quote from the game’s designer, Ville Kallio, which he gave during an interview, “It’s a sadistic game born almost entirely out of spite.”
Lastly, and the most interesting to me, “The Durance of Kavathal,” from the pen of Herr Murnau. It opens with a quote from Althusser, “In the battle that is philosophy all the techniques of war, including looting and camouflage, are permissible.” The author then proceeds, “1980 marks the omnidirectional release of hyperstitious energies radiating out from the Peruvian countryside. With the Communist Party of Peru's declaration of its 'Inicio de la Lucha Armada' the sacred name was first uttered from the mists of the Andes, GNZL. Only one year later, the High Priest Kavathal entered the earth, cast from the womb a child of Noctulian communion. The effects of this eruption are ever-present, groups that declare the sanctity of the name, the eternal invincibility of their Fourth Sword, continue to proliferate from France to Brazil, across the expanse of oceans and continents. The Aeon of the Commune has been prefigured.” I've determined that the reference to 'Kavathal' is an amalgamation of 'Kavga' and 'Cathal,' two psuedonyms of Jared Roark, a now discreted Gonzaloist militant who attempted to organize the Committee to Reconstitute the Communist Party of the United States after the dissolution of Red Guards, an ostensibly Maoist organization. This is also the only article that presents photographs, one is a picture of an altar prepared by Jared, complete with three red candles, a bouquet of flowers, a rosary, and pamplets from the Parti Communiste Maoiste, the French organization responsible for introducing Gonzaloism to Europe. The second is a rather disturbing drawing of the infamous portrait of Chairman Gonzalo, depicted with the features of a demon and a garland of skulls in the style of Soviet prison tattoos, with the number 333 cut into the forehead, dripping blood.
The rest of the article is a dizzying assortment of paragraphs ranging from an analysis of the effectivity of the aeonic magick
of existent Gonzaloist organizations, especially the Partido Comunista do Brasil – Fração Vermelha, as well as a discussion of the Communist Party of Peru's practice of Selective Annihilation
as a form of Wamphyric Culling,
which evidently refers to a writing of Meinhof Pandemonium titled, Conspectus on Selective Annihilation,
which wasn't included as part of this compliation, but is featured in the Temple of the Red Lodge's internal theoretical journal referred to by the author. Puzzlingly, there's also numerous references to a novel titled Iron Gates as well as a similar book called Rusted Gates which seems to have been written in response and takes place in the same setting. As far as I can tell, Rusted Gates is a post-apocalyptic novel concerning Gonzaloist militants combating the ravages of a world after a nuclear war, who seem to be in perpetual conflict with the armies of The Organization.
The article itself ends with lyrics from a song by the band Hastur, who are referred to as the first ritual invocators of Black Metal in Peru.
The lyrics, after translation, read the battle has to be won, the smell of death calls us.
[4.]
Notes:
[1.] Their idiosyncratic dating begins from the year of Karl Marx’s birth. Thus, 2014.
[2.] This portrays the game's opening cutscene.
[3.] From the Terry Pinkard translation.
[4.] Hastur - Ritos de Iniciación