The Church of the Black Sun

The Darkside of Paganism

Wicca is not the only pagan witchcraft religion. Thousands of pagans, uncomfortable with the conspicuously Judeo-Christian moralistic elements now pervasive throughout the witch community, are using the phrase "Dark Pagan", "Grey Witch", or "Black Witch" to describe their spiritual paths. Most of these individuals beliefs would be considered deviations from the Wiccan standards, though others have abandoned entirely the god and goddess imagery and worship various Greek, Indian, Babylonian, Egyptian or other divinities.

A Hallowed Circle, Writ in Shadow

The Church of the Black Sun is a dark paganic tradition of witchcraft, that has very strong parallels to Wicca, but may be thought of as it's mirror or counterpart. It's primary objective is to enact a series of power-raising rituals, intended to let in powers from elsewhere that will destroy the world.

Wicca celebrates life and light, those who venerate the Black Sun moreso celebrate death and darkness.
Wicca glorifies mankind and it's place in the cycle of nature, while those of the Black Sun have abandoned humanity and consider themselves fundamentally different and more allied with nature.
Wicca adores a god and goddess based on Celtic and other lore, while Black Sun pagans adore a goddess and her three daughters based on myriad underworld traditions.
Wicca's goddess is linked to the green earth, The Church of the Black Sun's goddess is moreso linked to caverns, deep forests, wells, seabottoms, standing stones, mountains, and crypts.
Wicca is a religion of rennaissance of the past for the present, the Church of the Black Sun is a rennaissance of the past for the future.
Wicca is a non-proselytizing and non-prophetic religion, and Black Sun paganism is proselytizing and prophetic.
Wicca encourages ecological activism in various forms, and Black Sun paganism also encourages deadly occult retribution for ecologic damage.
Wicca supports peaceful opposition to witch persecution and interdiction, and Black Sun paganism supports the opposition of these by any means necessary.

Both are earth-venerating religions, which are largely comprised by individuals who have abandoned the religions of their birth.

Key Beliefs

The practice of magic in it's various forms is not a human art, but is the bridge between worlds, and beings of only one world cannot use nor identify it.
True practitioners of magic are partially non-human, as the development of these powers progressively and permenantly alter the spiritual consituency of the mind and soul.
Magic is attuned with the collective forces of elemental darkness which exist outside of the mundane, known, wholesome, and comprehensable in terms of humanity and civilization. Even "white" magic is attuned to these powers, but is relatively weak and a misnomer- and humanized.
Black Sun Paganism identifies these practitoners as "Children of Darkness", for they recieve these powers as ambassadors and extensions of the Queen of Darkness, the soul of the black earth.
Children of Darkness are the natural predators of mankind.
There is a foretold apocalypse, called the "Rising", whereupon the Sun will be destroyed and the earth will be transformed black and terrible. Children of Darkness will usher this aeon in using special magics, and will be rewarded with their true monstrous and immortal forms upon the completion of this task. This Rising will purify the world which humanity has poisoned and turned on end.

Pagan Ethics

The ethical structure of Black Sun paganism is strongly tribal and conditional. Honor, fairness and loyalty are only required between individuals who consider themselves to be mutual members of a tribal bond, and all others are dealt with as the individual sees fit. Tribal groupings are based by conscious choice, not ancestry. Black Sun pagans are under no obligations to be kind, fair, or loyal to anyone whom they do not choose to embrace. This is a natural ethical system, as opposed to one which is imposed. A Black Sun pagan is measured by the degree they are generous and fair to their companions, and the degree they are destructive and painful to their enemies.

The Religion

Black Sun paganism is emphatically not solitary, and key holidays require the participation of all coven members. Self-initiation is not acceptable, as the proven ability to work with other Children of Darkness in a profound spiritual (but strongly individualistic) way is essential towards successful initiatory transformation.

Symbols of life and death, including blood, bones, ash, fire, soil and stones are frequent raw materials in Black Sun devotional and practical rituals. Animal sacrifice is not frowned upon by Black Sun paganism, and there is a strong sexual element to many rituals as well as most of the revered divinities.

Black Sun

The prophecy of the Rising of the Black Sun predicts a doomsday age, during which the face of nature will become terrifying and murderous to mankind, but empowering and vitalizing to Children of Darkness. All the security of human institutions, sciences, governments, religions will shatter when everything people have relied upon is blasted to shards. Undead monsters will rise to devour the living. Innocuous plants will become predatory and venomous. The children of the cities and suburbs will transform into monsters. Predatory shapechangers will enslave and devour the champions of man. The sun that has risen daily for all of history will be snuffed out. A hole will be torn in the hemisphere of the sky, and a spiral stone from the heart of the planet will Rise and ignite in the opening void as a Black Sun, cascading an aurora down upon the world unlike anything ever seen before.

In a more esoteric sense, a Black Sun is a moment where all of your preconceptions and paradigms are exploded, giving forth the opportunity to transform into something terrifyingly powerful. A Rising is the buildup which leads to that explosion. Rising is a universal principle of calling up, or descending into terrifying formlessness to choose a new form. Hermetic Magicians often describe the Black Sun tradition as Plutonian; focusing on raw power, secrets, and metamorphosis.

The core aim of the Black Sun pagan, along with a reverence for Nature, is to use Her passion and vital power to break inside to the source of all forms and restructure from the heart outward. Physical, mental, spiritual, and cosmic transformations all follow the Rising principle, and have their own Black Suns.

Rising is our power, our destiny, our definition, our vice, and our wisdom.

Worldviews

Black Sun pagans are attuned to varying degrees to three principles, each of which contain alternate perspectives on HCWS, outlooks on life, and objectives. They take the shape of roles in a tribe, and totems, but are in fact three dimensions to the body of Black Sun spirituality.

The first principle is that of the Wolf Warrior. She masters links and divisions between people, and is the lover within the tribe and killer without. She is the passionate one, who seeks to use the Black Sun as a means of purification, to destroy the enemy and let the joy of living come forth again.

The second principle is that of the Serpent Priest. She masters the powers of fear, and all that is cast out, or hidden. She is the initiator, and the initiated. She is the wise one, who seeks to use the Black Sun as a means of growth, to hasten wholeness and the fulfillment of destiny.

The third principle is that of the Raven Artificer. She masters the powers of revelation and all doubt that leads to joy. She is the artist, who entertains the tribe by giving strange insights, and baffles the enemy with masterful deciets. She is the clever one, who seeks the Black Sun as a means of pleasuring, to enrich life with adventure and novelty.

Initiatory Structure

Ranking is never used to lord over anyone, merely to indentify individuals who are experts or teachers in particular skills. Ranking in general leadership is totally seperate from rank bestowed by religious initiation. Few people can juggle the responsibilities of stenuous advanced spiritual discovery with strenuous advanced organizational work.

Covens are like Synagogues and Churches, in that they both are spiritual gatherings, yet pool the resources of the participants and tend to their material needs.

Four occult skills are taught, following the general balancing guide of the Black Hand and Red Hand objectives. One is Quido; a meditational and energy-focusing discipline developed from a fusion of Aikido and Xi Gong. Another is traditional Magick, which is taught as a dark fusion of conventional forms of occultism, such as Chaos Magick, Thelema, and medieval grimoire material. Yet another is Eldritch Grammarye, which is a new form having elements of riddling and rhyme, runework, shamanism, spiritism, voudon, sex magic, and folk magic as a part of it's matrix. Lastly is Rising itself, which uses magical, eldritch, and quido forms to warp the mind and body.

Entities

Many, though definitely not all, Black Sun pagans take the issue of spirits in a way akin to the manner Spiritism and Voudon approach them- fairly literally. Lightside Wiccan traditions tend to explain gods and spirits as thoughtforms as archetypes and thoughtforms, in part to dodge the ethical ambiguities of gods who don't seem responsible and fair. Most other polytheistic traditions recognize that gods are not merely roles, but actual beings who are extremely powerful, but not perfect and absolute. Black Sun paganism takes issue with the concept of an all-powerful perfect god, as such an entity would have no need to deal with mortals, yet would be responsible for all the perpetuated miseries of existence.

The relationship with the spirits of the Black Sun goes in two directions, and is basically one of peers. Nevertheless, the Black Sun spirits are referred to in terms of royalty, because they are our leaders who in return for our loyal service, provide for us power and security during the troubling times ahead, at great cost to themselves. The Dark Queen and her daughters are reaching out into this world of walls and ideas and calling our hearts to her. The Dark Queen is the ultimate leader of our tribe, our matriarch, and our counselor. She is also the shadow side of the earth, the savage and forbidden aspect to nature that calls to our blood and brains. She is the black earth; alive, aware, and enraged.

Her daughters are easier to contact, because they are our tutors and serve as examples for us. Like the Dark Queen, they rule the underworld and speak to us in visions and dreams.

The Dark Queen

It has been said that she appears as a tall gaunt woman, with skin the color of pale ashes, and kind eyes like that of cats, but colored like dark rubies. Her lips are black and her teeth are those of a predator. Her fingers are long and tipped by talons kept wet with the heart blood of enemies. She appears mature, but beautiful and very sexual. Her garments tend to be composed of flowing veils, black cobwebs, transparent skins, polished leather, and silver.

She is the Earth wrapped in shadow. She loathes what the mortal kin have done to her body and species who live and die on her back. For centuries she planned revenge for the slaughter of her dark children, but no one stood up as her champions. As the corruption of her upper lands became more horrid, she stockpiled her weapons and sharpened her claws, preparing for an incredible and apocalyptic transformation to be issued forth. But no one did the rituals for Rising, and no one offered her love and blood like in the olden days.

Now it is time for us to take our places and prepare for the ressurection of our fallen kin, Raise the Black Sun, and roar across the world as a nightmare army, to cleanse and rule forever. For the love of our allies, and our most Dark Queen.

The Princess of Graves

She glides over the cemetaries like a ghost, beautiful yet firm as granite. Her skin is the white of bleached bone, and garments black and cold. She wears a leather mask covering her upper face, with fringes in the appearance of bat wings. Her lips are black, and she wears a necklace of pallid human fingers fused at the root knuckles, which squirm and twitch about her throat like maggots. Her garments are a fusion of tattered lingerie and shroud.

She is the guardian of the secrets of death, transition and conclusion. Her bridal chamber is the crypt; her bed is huge sarcophagus blanketed with scavengers, and pillowed by skulls. Her rituals are performed in ditches, cemetaries, and crypts. She accepts offerings of desire, bones and fire.

The Princess of Storms

She rules from the pinnacle of a stone tower. Her skin is a wan green, black lipped and crimson taloned. She wears a black tiara, and long flowing black robes with a high collar. Her staves and long fingers stir the clouds to boil and rage, and sends them forth as armies. Thunder is her heartbeat, and gaze is the lightning.

She is the guardian of madness, artistry and rage. Her lair is the mountain and her throne is the city. Her rituals are performed in large open spaces or vast enclosures. She accepts offerings of desire, ashes, and blood.

The Princess of Pleasures

She rules from her bedroom at the center of a maze, draped in purple silk and glowing mists. She has long light colored hair, and lambent eyes; she wears purple lingerie. Her presence is felt with every thrilling touch and every hungry kiss. Her empire is built from living skin and transgression, bound together by knots of need and desire.

She is the guardian of lust, decay, fertility and secrets. Her rituals are peformed in places of lust, forests, and open fields. She accepts offerings of desire, incense, and flesh.

Hidden Worlds

The principle powers of Children of Darkness involve tapping into other aspects of our world, or extending our perceptions into others and manipulating things we could not otherwise contact. Quido taps into the hidden energies of life and earth which exists past our consensual Dream of Walls. Traditional Magick taps into the world of ideas and thoughts, which Black Sun pagans call The Stage; which is where the story of life is played out. Eldritch Grammarye taps into a counter-world of the forbidden and transgressive urges, called the Abyss. Rising itself taps into the raw energies of immortality and transformation buried in the wild and black Underworld.