You really could Nazi these coming....

Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi

In a recent post we discussed swastikas made from trees, among other arboreal and geoglyphical curiosities, which can only be seen from the air or from afar.  

LoS originally wrote about a related topic in 2007, after a minor kerfuffle over a swastika-shaped barracks and the 600K spent to cover it up.  A later post addressed a similar controversy about a retirement home in Alabama.  A million dollars had already been spent in 2001 to add extensions to hide that fylfot.

 

I won't go into details about each of them, but Web Urbanist has compiled a list of 9 swastika-shaped buildings now easily-seen via Google Earth, from a low-flying Cessna, or if you're a perceptive pelican (Crossed Up: 9 Twisted Swastika-Shaped Buildings).

We launch satellites into orbit so we can communicate globally, find our way on unfamiliar roads, predict the weather, see the cosmos, and spot Nazis from the sky.

Some of the "swastikas" in the Web Urbanist list are a bit of a stretch, but some of them really pop right out atcha.  As the article says: 

The swastika-shaped buildings described above have nothing whatsoever to do with Nazism, they’re merely “unfortunate architectural coincidences"....

Or so they would have you believe.  

As Richard Hoagland "proves" in Dark Mission, the Nazis and Freemasons running NASA planned moon missions to correspond with Masonic and Nazi numerological symbolism.  You don't think they'd know that one day we'd be able to see those buildings from space?

Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home

Remember that Alabama retirement home mentioned above?  Near Huntsville, Alabama, home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center?  Where, after WW2, the US repatriated a whole passel of Nazi engineers to help develop America's nascent space program?

A retirement home that some claim housed many of those same Nazi rocket scientists in their dotage?

Coincidence?  You can Nazi them from the ground, but from the Iron Sky, Sieg Heil, y'all.

Burn Baby, Burn!

On the 20th we posted about monuments which can only be seen from above or from afar, including geoglyphs such as hill figures, effigy mounds and the Nazca lines.  What started it all were a few examples of monuments made of living trees.  One was a benign Celtic cross, a few were celebrations of Lenin's birthday centennial, and then there were the swastikas.  Three of them!  (See Forest for the Trees, Stones for the Mountain)

But we neglected to include another fascist monument.  In this case it's a monument to Hitler's pal Benito Mussolini, aka "Il Duce".  The tree memorial in questions spell out "DVX" ("leader"). But we'll get back to that in a moment.

Mussolini was officially the Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 until he was formally dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel in July, 1943, then promptly arrested.  Ensuing events are too complex to summarize here, but as the Allies began to advance into Italy in April, Mussolini and his girlfriend Clara Petacci decided it was time to flee.  As they were heading to Switzerland to catch a plane to Fascist Spain, he and Petacci, along with some of his closest cohorts, were captured by Communist partisans on April, 27th.  A day later, the couple and most of their cohorts were shot in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra -- only two days before Hitler and his mistress killed themselves just outside their bunker as the Russians advanced upon Berlin.  The bodies were then brought to Milan.  The long-suffering Italians were none too happy with their former leader, to whit:

After being kicked and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down from the roof of an Esso gas station. The bodies were then stoned from below by civilians. This was done both to discourage any Fascists from continuing the fight, and as an act of revenge for the hanging of many partisans in the same place by Axis authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader was subject to ridicule and abuse. (Wikipedia)

His corpse had an active afterlife.  It was buried in an unmarked grave, then dug up a year later by Fascists.  It was found months later after being constantly moved around in order to avoid being discovered.  The body was then stuffed into a trunk and hidden in a town near Milan.  There it was kept for another decade before the authorities agreed to allow Mussolini's body to be re-interred in the town of his birth.  Here he was accorded the courtesy of a crypt, flanked by marble fasces and topped with a marble bust.  

Hitler's remains also had a curious afterlife, but the Russians weren't taking any chances and the exact fate of his remains, erm, remains unknown.  Like the US did when they hid the corpses of Che Guevara and Bin Laden, the Russians kept the location of their burial unknown from preventing it from becoming a pilgrimage site (See No Body Home)

Il Duce derives from the Latin word dux (leader), and gives us the word "duke" in English.  The title had been used outside the traditional noble usage to refer to Garibaldi in 1860, although he never used it himself.  King Victor Emmanuel III was called "Duce Supremo" during WWI, and Gabriele d'Annunzio used the title as dictator of the Italian Regency of Carnaro in 1920.  Incidentally, D'Annunzio was an untranationalist who, though he never self-identified as a fascist, is often "credited" with partially inventing Italian fascism and was an influence on the ideas and Fascist aesthetics (the Black Shirts, balcony speeches, etc.) of Mussolini.  D'Annunzio was critical of Mussolini, and the latter saw him as a rival and a threat to his leadership, especially his alliance with Hitler.  It is said Mussolini supported D'Annunzio financially as a kind of "bribe" to keep him out of politics.

Of course, Mussolini is who we usually think of when we hear the title Il Duce, just as we think of Hitler when we hear the title Der Führer, which, incidentally, also means "leader".  Indeed:

This position was the model which other fascist leaders adopted, such as the position of Führer by Adolf Hitler and Caudillo by Francisco Franco.

Mussolini actually was first called by the title as early as 1912, after he was appointed editor of Avanti!  This paper, founded in 1896 "as the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party," still exists, although in 1976 its political alignment shifted to social democracy  (a socialist tradition, it promotes a gradual and democratic, as opposed to revolutionary, move towards socialism within a capitalist "mixed" economic system.  I'm sure that's a bit simplistic but you get the idea).

Enter the "fascist forest".  On Monte Giano, about 100k from Rome, cadets at the Scuola Allievi Guardie Forestali (a forestry academy) in the aptly-named town of Cittaducale ("ducal city") planted about 20,000 fir trees in 1938-39 to honor Il Duce by spelling out "DUX." 

 

A first attempt to eradicate the forest took place in the 1950's, and in 1998, after years of neglect, the center-left regional government allocated over 100,000 USD to both revitalize the forest and obscure the letters.  But in 2004, the neo-Fascist leader of a by then far-right regional government started to restore them.  Then in 2017, a motorist passing through the area was cooking tomato sauce (can't make this stuff up) accidentally (?) started a forest fire which did what earlier, human-led attempts failed to do.  

"Accidentally?"  According to The Local, -- "Italy's News in English":

...forestry police....found paper balls and inflammable liquid on the mountain believed to have been used to spread the fire deliberately, according to Rome-based daily Il Messaggero.

That report was on August 29th.  I like the way Italian newspaper Il Messaggero put it on the 25th, a few days before police discovered the evidence of arson:

No revisionism, no carelessness, no chainsaw:  in the end tomato sauce was enough, a pummarola (tomato sauce) that was stronger than the delusions of grandeur of the Regime.

According to the same article by The Local:

In clear weather, the letters – which are 630 feet tall and 1,360 feet across – could even be seen from Rome, some 50 miles away, but due to fire damage, only the 'D' has been left intact.

It also states that:

....Alessandra Mussolini – the granddaughter of Benito and an MEP with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party – said she would visit the forest.

 She said that she would talk to local authorities about the possibility of repairing the homage.

The far-right group CasaPound has already launched a fundraising effort to restore the   forest as well as a call to farmers to help with the restoration, under the slogan 'You can't erase history'.

So, I'm not sure of the exact state of the letters today, but Italian Wikipedia, citing Corriere Della Sera, says:

In February 2018, a group of CasaPound volunteers planted 1000 pine trees on Mount Giano in order to restore the writing.  The operation was deemed unnecessary by members of the local community, due to incorrect timing.

The original article quotes the VP of CasaPound as writing that up to 200 people from CasaPound, the Salamandra civil protection group, and the ecological association La Foresta che Avanza planted "a thousand Austrian pines, similar to the old ones destroyed, purchased thanks to the fundraising in which many Italians participated."

Not quite sure why the Wikipedia article mentions "bad timing" because the original article doesn't mention this at all.  And anyway, what a weird objection.  When would any time be "good" timing? 

So, those final days of Mussolini, and Italy's turnaround vis-a-vis Germany, is fascinating stuff.  As is the story of D'Annunzio.  Makes me think I should do a bit on ultra-nationalist poets and artists with political pretensions.  One example being Japan's then-most famous novelist Yukio Mishima, a right-wing nationalist who wanted to restore Japan to its former imperial glory, even forming his own private militia reminiscent of the Black Shirts and Brown Shirts of the Fascists and the Nazis.

Mishima formed the Tatenokai for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Emperor of Japan [something Hitler and Mussolini evoked endlessly].  On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took its commandant hostage, and tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's 1947 Constitution, which he called "a constitution of defeat".  After his speech and screaming of "Long live the Emperor!", he committed seppuku [ritual suicide].

I looked briefly at Mishima's Wiki page and was struck immediately by a photo of that speech, from a balcony; you may recall that speeches given from balconies was one of the influences D'Annunzio had on Mussolini's Fascist aesthetic.  (Follow links for images of the rival "Duci" doing just that.)

There's a great photo of Mishima's balcony speech here.

Anyway, here's a cool collection of (non-political) 8 Extraordinary Pieces of Architecture Grown From Living Trees.

The Ballot or the Bullet?

It's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz ("Malcolm X" at the time), The Ballot or the Bullet, April 3, 1964, Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, Ohio. (Boldface added)

I began this months ago and never really finished it, but it's still relevant, so I publish it now, with some additions.  It's somewhat wonky, but not all that bad....

In the past few years a few of my ostensibly pacifist, liberal American friends have purchased firearms, specifically because of the increasing presence of firearms at right-leaning protest marches and rallies.  They figure if the right wing is going to be heavily armed, they themselves should be prepared to defend themselves.  Some of these friends are LBGTQ, some are merely Democrats.  But they admit that the Trump years left them scared.  I only recently learned of groups like the Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) and Redneck Revolt, leftist groups advocating training with firearms.  This trend does not bode well.

SLA Banner

If the hard (and even the not-so-hard) right and left are arming themselves, not for hunting or sport but for political fears, one wonders how long it will be until the shooting starts.  I've read of course about groups in the 60's and 70's like the Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Weather Underground (left wing).  And I've lived through the rise of the 90's militia movement, and more recently the birth of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys (right wing). 

In the 90's, right-wing rage was fueled by two standoffs during which excessive force by the ATF resulted in a large number of  civilian casualties.  The first was against the Weavers at Ruby Ridge (1992) and the second against the Branch Davidians at Waco (1993).  A rage that is perfectly justified.  At Ruby Ridge, ATF agents killed, among others, a 14-year-old kid, Sammy Weaver, and a woman, Vicki Weaver, while she held her baby in her arms.  At Waco, aggressive tactics led to a fire which resulted in the deaths of 76 people, including 25 children.  I remember the outrage I felt.  

The Waco incident begat even more violence; on the second anniversary of the tragedy, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  At least 168 were killed and over 680 were injured.  McVeigh didn't trust the ballot, so he chose the bullet.

These militias didn't get as motivated by the MOVE bombing (1985), in which an incendiary device dropped from a helicopter by the Philadelphia PD caused a fire that left 6 adults and 5 children dead, but hey, the victims weren't white.  And if that seems too "woke" an interpretation, I say horse-hockey.  McVeigh, the militias, the Proud Boys, and perhaps to a lesser degree the Oath Keepers, all adhere to varying degrees of a white nationalist ideology.

I'm not saying that all the people killed in these standoffs were peaceful innocents, but the police responses were an almost guaranteed recipe for catastrophe.  At the MOVE bombing, for example, 500 police officers were mobilized and fired over 10,000 rounds at the MOVE compound in the exchanges of gunfire that preceded the bombing.  The Weavers and the Davidians were also heavily-armed.  But there are ways to deal with these kinds of situations that need not result in firefights and loss of human life, it's just that American law enforcement doesn't yet seem to have mastered the art of de-escalation.  We are a violent society.  Always have been.  The American public is armed to the teeth, and our police look more and more like GI Joe than Officer Friendly.

Neither "side" of the left/right spectrum can claim innocence when it comes to political violence:  the Weather Underground, SLA, and Panthers were not just waving guns around for street theater.  I know my history.  The right-wing militias talk a lot of talk, but those leftist groups of the 60's were no shirkers when it came to planting bombs, robbing banks, and many other acts of violence.  

It has seemed that in recent years a 60's-style storm is brewing.  The internet has intensified existing political divisions, as Google algorithms lead people to websites that correspond to previous searches and essentially serve as a tool for confirmation bias.  People are increasingly living within separate "infospheres" and it's making political discourse increasingly difficult to meet in the middle.  

The protestors/mob/insurrectionists/patriots (take your pick) of January 6th sincerely believed that the 2020 election was stolen, as that is what their President and choice of media were telling them.  Fox pundits still say the election was stolen, CNN calls that narrative "the big lie."  I was aghast at what I saw that day, but if ordinarily decent people genuinely believed an illegitimate election pushed Biden into office, it's understandable they'd want to do something about it.  People had lost faith in the ballot, and they resorted to the bullet.  

I don't want to start a political shouting match.  This post is not about who's right and who's wrong, just some observations about the increasingly different "reality tunnels" into which we're being led, and how people are increasingly choosing to arm themselves because of it.  It's a tunnel through which a dead-end road runs.   

I remain hopeful, but it's hard not to be pessimistic about it all.  It's hard to debate an opinion when the very facts are in question.  We have an ex-President who for years has uttered easily-refuted lies on a daily basis, yet people still believe him.  The "lamestream" media, the "enemy of the people," are not considered trustworthy.  Healthy skepticism is not a bad thing, but when the truth becomes lost among a daily deluge of "alternative facts" -- Orwellian Newspeak for "demonstrable falsehoods" (aka "lies") -- we've gone beyond healthy skepticism into the realm of paranoia and a reactionary complicity with the dishonorable manipulations of self-serving con-artists.  If half of the American population no longer trusts the ballot, how long will it be before they again decide to cast the bullet?

And what happens when a good chunk of one half decide they need to arm themselves against a good chunk of the other?

If "civil war" does come, it won't be fought by armies, but will essentially be terrorist acts, street-fighting, murder, and assassination.  I don't think we've reached the point of no return, but despite a seeming lull in domestic political violence, I fear more of the same on the horizon.  I'm sure people felt the same in the 60's.  Maybe it will pass, and our "anni di piombo" are behind us.  I lived in Italy in the late 70's, and recall having to learn about what mail not to open, not to linger too long in front of the windows, to be alert for strange cars in the neighborhood.  I recall vividly General Dozier's kidnapping.  It wasn't 24/7 fear and paranoia, but it was a fact of our lives.  I just hope that it won't become like that in America's most certainly "interesting times" to come.  If we make it through 2024 without a repeat of 2020, maybe I can stop holding my breath.  My face doesn't look so good in blue.

Be safe people, and read the news with all the critical might you can muster.  Am I being overly alarmist?  I hesitated to use the term "civil war" earlier, but "civil conflict" or "political violence" didn't seem to fit for a future scenario because as I see it, we're already living it.  I believe a lot of our current problems boil down to unresolved political issues between the Federalist/Anti-Federalist factions during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and which was part of the rhetoric used in Congressional debates in the years just before the Civil War.  The very name of the Tea Party movement evoked the Revolution, but what we seem to be witnessing today is a younger, more radicalized phase arising out of that discontent, which, though angry, remained mostly peaceful despite the sometimes violent rhetoric ("2nd Amendment solutions," for example).  I was always alarmed by that kind of talk, a kind of sewing of seeds which today are bearing such bitter fruit.

For some reason all this makes me think of that skit on SNL where Tom Hanks plays a Trump supporter on "Black Jeopardy" who discovers he has more in common with his black competitors than moneyed whites.  Left, right, black, white.  Perhaps our emphasis on these divisions obscure the fact that what we're really dealing with is an ongoing class struggle.  And though I understand the temptation of the bullet, I'm still willing to try to push ahead with the ballot.  But for it to work we need to start by rejecting lies and make an honest attempt to agree upon the truth, or at least the facts.  Maybe I'm just naive, but I'd rather not just yet resort to buying an AR-15.

 

Forest for the Trees, Stones for the Mountain

Not sure how, but my recent Ukraine-related searches somehow led me to a photo I hadn't seen in a while.  I think it was a result of Czar Vladimir's claim that Ukraine is led by Nazis.  All this despite the fact that President Zelensky is Jewish.  But hey ho!  Jews for Hitler, right?  

It worked for Richard Green.  (See Apocalypse Culture II, Adam Parfrey, ed., P. 397)

I'd mentioned the photo in question back in 2007 as part of a post about the kerfuffle surrounding a swastika-shaped barracks at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in San Diego.  In that post I mentioned a swastika which, like the Coronado building, was visible only from the air.  But this swastika was made of trees, and became visible when the seasons turned the strategically-placed larches yellow against the surrounding evergreen pines.  The origin of this "treestika" is uncertain, but it's fate is more clear.  In 1995 a few leiderhosen-clad dudes with chainsaws cut down 43 of the 100 offending trees; yet in 2000, traces were still visible, so a further 25 trees were felled.  By all accounts it's now been pretty much obscured.  Auf Wiedersehen, Nazi trees.  Situated near the German village of Zernikow, not so far from Berlin, this is what the treestika looked like when the season was right (i.e. Spring and Autumn):

 

 

According to Wikipedia:

Reports say the larches were planted in 1938. It is unclear how the trees came to be planted and arranged in such a fashion. It seems they were planted in commemoration of Adolf Hitler's birthday, either by local Hitler Youth members or by a warden.

At the time of the Coronado post, I'd heard of another "forest swastika" near the town of Asterode in the state of Hesse, which also included the date "1933".  This second homage was apparently discovered by American soldiers in the 70's, but its origins are even more obscure than the Zernikow version.  Until recently I hadn't seen a photo, but now we have, and here it is (from Atlas Obscura): 

 

 

 

Apparently such "horticultural hate" (quote from ABC News) was a pretty popular hobby for Nazi sympathizers, because there is yet another tree swastika in Kyrgyzstan, near the village of Eki Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, on the edge of the Tian Shan Mountains.  This was first reported by the New York Times in 2006.  According to the article it was at least 60-years old at the time.  Roughly 600-feet across, legend has it that German POW's duped their Soviet captors to plant the symbol as an act of defiance.  But the legend is untrue, and the article recounts several conflicting versions about its origins. But no German POW's ever worked there. One account says it was planted in the 30's, others say the 40's.  Still others say 1958.  Another version dates it to 1960.  

Those who point to the 30's say it was made to celebrate Stalin and Hitler's non-aggression pact.  Those who point to later dates blame German nationalists or Nazi sympathizers.  The local forestry service hasn't been much help, as its records are in disarray and date back only to 1960.  Whatever the case, it should be noted that today it's hard to make out and isn't very accurate.  For one thing it's flat, and not at a 45° angle; for another, it points in the opposite direction of the Nazi swastika.

 

You can read the article yourself if it's not behind a pay wall.  The NYT is tricky that way.

 

This is the best photo we've seen of the swastika, and as you can see, it was either poorly-executed or time hasn't been kind to it, because it takes a little imagination to see the swastika.

But this kind of tree imagery is not the province of fascists alone; the Soviets also did it.  According to this article, Russian photographer Slava Stepanov captured the following image with the aide of a drone. 300-meters long and 82-meters high, one can clearly see the Cyrillic for "Lenin" spelled out with pine trees.  Stepanov figures the work dates back to the 1970's.  1970 was the 100th anniversary of Lenin's birth, so it's not an improbable estimate.  It's located near the town of Tyukalinsk in the Ornsk region.

 

 

The Telegraph reports on another Lenin tree memorial, but you have to sign up for a free trial to read it.  Wikimapia doesn't have much to say, but it does say the trees spell out "Lenin's 100 Years".  So that 1970 date for the Tyukalinsk version might be on the money.

 

This Twitter account (USSR Pictures) links to yet another Lenin tree memorial near the town of Ivanava.  Not gonna show that photo here, but you get the idea.  I'd be willing to be there are more of these scattered throughout the ex-USSR.

The use of trees to make art is not limited to political statements.  Irish Central reports on a Celtic cross made of trees, saying

The Emmery Celtic Cross, which appeared in Donegal in Fall 2016, was the handiwork of forester Liam Emmery, who sadly passed away before seeing the magnificent final product.

 

 

The cross is 100-meters long and 70-meters wide and is made of two different species of trees.  It is sad that Mr. Emmery died before it was fully-realized; apparently he'd had an accident and lingered for two years before passing on.   I kind of feel bad for including his handiwork in such dubious company, but I think it's interesting that the technique has been in use so recently.  Hats off to you, Mr. Emmery.

 

Apparently the cross should be visible for another 60 to 70 years.  Maybe the local authorities will do something to help it live a little bit longer.

I guess this kind of work would be akin to what is sometimes called "land art", which in effect is a kind of monumental sculpture.  That these works of "tree art" are literally living things is a pretty nifty take on the concept.  Art that grows and changes over time, and eventually, dies.  I guess all art eventually "dies," as even stone erodes.  I myself once made an assemblage topped with a plastic skull which serves as a flower pot, but I keep forgetting to water the damn thing and can't get the plants I've added to really bloom. 

These forest artworks also remind me of what are known as geoglyphs, defined by Wikipedia  as

a large design or motif (generally longer than 4 metres) produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth.

Geoglyphs can often (but not always) only be seen from the sky, which has prompted more than a few people to speculate they were made for aliens.  Of course they were!  It is possible they were intended to be seen by the gods from the heavens.  It's also possible they weren't intended to be seen at all, which is as fascinating a concept as anything from among the -isms, jisms and paroxysms of high modernism.  

What I've heard referred to as "land art" may be the closest corollary to geoglyphs in the "fine" art world.  The most famous example may be Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970, fancy that), a form chosen perhaps, because so many ancient geo- and petroglyphs are spirals, a symbol some interpret to be a representation of the cosmos.  As above so below:  from the milky way to water down the drain, the universe moves in spirals.  Tornadoes, atoms, DNA...helices ans spirals.  I've even heard it said that the swastika, in a way, represents the same cosmological movement as the spiral.  And the swastika, though sadly tarnished by the Nazis, has been used as a spiritual symbol for millennia in Buddhism, Hinduism, various pagan contexts, even in ancient synagogues (eg Capernaum).

For an idea of just how universal the swastika is:

In various European languages, it is known as the fylfot, gammadion, tetraskelion, or cross cramponnée (a term in Anglo-Norman heraldry); German: Hakenkreuz; French: croix gammée; Italian: croce uncinata; Latvian: ugunskrusts. In Mongolian it is called Хас (khas) and mainly used in seals. In Chinese it is called 卍字 (wànzì) meaning "all things symbol", pronounced manji in Japanese, manja (만자) in Korean and vạn tự / chữ vạn in Vietnamese. 

The most famous of geoglyphs are perhaps the Nazca lines,  built by the Inca in what is now Peru.  These were created in two phases over the millennium between roughly 500 BCE and 500 CE.  Hundreds of these geoglyphs have been found and the largest is over a kilometer in width.  Some of the lines are just that, lines; but there are also animals, flowers and even humanoid forms. No swastikas or Cyrillic, though.  According to National Geographic, there are over 800 lines, 300 geometric patterns and 70 zoomorphic (flowers, animals, humanoids) designs.

The purpose of the Nazca Lines is unknown, although it's generally believed they have religious significance.  Others have suggested they are linked to irrigation patterns, still others to astronomy or astrological calendars.  None of which preclude a religious significance as well.

But these messages to the skies are not limited to South America.  I've been fascinated by the so-called mound builders of North America since I saw my first small mound in St. Mary's, West Virginia, where my dad grew up.  There's even a nearby town called Moundsville.  The Grave Creek Mound is not a geoglyph, but it is the largest conical-type burial mound in North America, standing 63 feet high and 240 feet in diameter at the base.  Many of the mounds are just that, mounds, much like the barrows of England.  

Some of the mounds, known as effigy mounds, are shaped like animals, people, or abstract geometric patterns and like the Nazca lines, often visible only from above.  The are also believed to have served a religious function and some are also burial sites.  Most of the effigy mounds were built in present-day Wisconsin, where as many as 20,000 were though to have existed, but only about 4000 are intact today.

Here's an example known as the the Marching Bear Group from the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa:

The "Mound Builder" culture extended primarily across the American Midwest, with the largest and most complex site located at Cahokia, just outside St Louis, but there are mounds as far south as Florida (there is a site I've visited in Safety Harbor with mounds built by the Tocobago people) and as far north as Canada.  According to the National Park Service, effigy mounds are located primarily in an area that

extends from Dubuque, Iowa, north into southeast Minnesota, across southern Wisconsin from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and along the Wisconsin–Illinois boundary.

In addition to the aforementioned barrows, there is another form of geoglyph in Great Britain referred to as a "hill figure".  Many were once thought to be ancient, but more sophisticated archeological studies have revealed that many of them, at least in their current form, date to as recently as the 19th century.  The only verifiable ancient hill figure is the Bronze or Iron Age Uffington White Horse, but the most famous is arguably the Cerne Abbas Giant.  His date of origin is unknown, with some saying it was made as recently as the 17th century, others placing it back to circa 1000 BCE.  Other scholars date it to well, just about any time in between.

The giant is a source of great mirth because he's well, rather giant.  A real "size queen's" delight.  I'd say the giant is well-hung, but that thing ain't hanging at all, but shooting skyward like a cock rocket.

(You ever hear of a Japanese motorcycle referred to as a "cock rocket?"  I actually just Googled the term and it seems the phrase has now become associated with Jeff Bezos' New Shepard rocket; it doesn't help that a model of what has been said to "resemble a sex toy" recently went on sale.  For 69 $!)

But I digress.  The Cerne Abbas Giant.  Boiiinngg-g! 

 

In England a few years back I was surprised to see a hill figure near Westbury.  I'd been in the area to visit the magnificent stone circle built in and around the village of Avebury.  Apparently, many hill figures are horses.  This one, the Westbury White Horse, has origins as equally obscure as the Cerne Abbas Giant.  While some say it dates back to the 9th century, real evidence only appears as late as 1778.  Which is odd when you think about it.  These figures are massive, yet know one knows exactly how long they have been there?  The range of dates for the giant and horse are millennia apart.  

 

It's like the Kyrgyzstan swastika.  1930's?  1960'?  Know one knows.  The only two of these giant pieces of land art we can date with any precision are the Emmery cross (2016) and the Hesse swastika (1933).  Even for the latter, there is some uncertainty.  Was it made in 1933?  Or was it made later to commemorate the year Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany?

So, I began this with the intention of adding the Hesse and Kyrgyzstan swastikas to the blog because I'm something of an obsessive completist.  Then Lenin came along.  And Emmery (my apologies, good sir). 

That geoglyphs and hill figures are massive works of art visible either only from the sky or from afar seemed a natural extension of that idea.  Same concept, different tools.  Still using the earth itself as a medium, just in different ways.  As a student of art, with a fascination for architecture, monuments, and the strange, how could I resist?

The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished

 

Press play for the State Anthem of Ukraine

 

I apologize in advance for the self-righteous tone of this post, but this subject has really gotten me back to my college-era sense of political outrage, after years of what has generally been a kind of jaded apathy.  The parallels with WW2 keep striking me and well, that was definitely something about which one had to speak up and make oneself heard.  So, hear goes nyet....

I hate to jump on bandwagons, but for the senseless attack by Czar Vladimir on Ukraine, risking a wider European if not global war; for the courage of the everyday citizens who have vowed to defend their sovereignty; for the fierce resistance Ukraine's military has put up against a vastly larger and better-equipped force; for the defiance of President Voldymyr Zelensky, who hasn't fled, knowing he will almost certainly be killed if the Russian army takes Kyiv; for the Russians who protest this war, facing arrest, or worse; for the Russian journalists who have not toed the line; for the Russian woman arrested for carrying a blank sign; for the old Ukrainian woman who offered Russian soldiers seeds to carry so that where they fall, flowers will grow....As the Russian would-be blitzkrieg gets bogged down by stiff resistance, unfavorable ground conditions, poor logistics and surprisingly bad strategic decisions, this has ceased to be a precise war against a military opponent, but the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, including the elderly, children, pregnant women...you know, the very elite of the Ukrainian Military.

Well, call me a sucker for a good old-fashioned fight against tyranny, but I post the links below for whatever they're worth.  How many Ukrainian civilians, scores of children among them, need to die to satisfy Putin's imperial ambitions?  How many Ukrainian soldiers have died, how many hapless Russians soldiers lie face down in the mud -- kids my son's age -- who probably don't want to be there in the first place?  Will my adoptive country (France) be drawn into this fiasco?  Will my home country get involved in another war after 20+ years of pointless fighting in Afghanistan?   I am pretty much a pacifist.  I do not glorify war and rarely buy into the idea of a "just" war.  But defending a country whose only crime is wanting to be free from the impaled-pie thumb of a gangster state led by a disillusioned, former KGB agent who openly dreams of restoring Mother Russia's imperial "glory" -- dominating the Eastern Europe for the sake of his bruised ego after the demise of the Soviet Union?  Well, that is as close as it comes to a just cause

The plight, pluck, and tenacity of Ukraine has stirred me.  There may be corruption there, injustices, and their own government less than perfect.  But they don't deserve what Putin has inflicted upon them.  Certainly not the scared children huddled in the metros and basements as the missiles reduce their cities to rubble.  I'm an unfit old dude who fights about as well as I can fly by flapping my arms, and I'd probably last a day under such conditions, yet I feel compelled to do something, even if it is only linking to places where you can help by opening your wallets or, if you're brave and qualified enough, to go and fight.  I always admired the Lincoln Brigades:  the American Reds (oh, the irony), Anarchists and Wobblies who went to Spain to fight the Fascists.  And Putin is a fascist:  a warmongering, authoritarian, bigot; a misogynist who exploits the worst religious tendencies of Russian Orthodoxy; a thin-skinned thug who arrests or murders political adversaries, persecutes the LGBTQ community, and has criminalized telling the truth.  2022?  More like 1984.

Sadly, as the Russians have gotten bogged down and expended more and more of their precision missiles, they are resorting to less precise and brutal methods.  They are hitting schools and residential areas.  In Mariupol the Russians recently struck a hospital maternity ward.  In the same city they bombed a theater being used as a civilian bomb shelter, where from the air one could clearly see the Russian word for "children" marked in large letters on the ground.  Pregnant women, newborns and kids.  This is simply intolerably savage. 

Some estimates say 80% of the buildings in that city have been either damaged or completely destroyed.  Some put the figure at 90%.  This is a city of 446,103 people (2017).  Imagine Tampa or Minneapolis if 80% of its buildings had been bombed.  The Russians are hitting power stations, the water supply, internet, TV and radio towers, houses....Unable to break the Ukrainian military, they are going after the civilian infrastructure to break the people.  No Western country wants to risk a hot war with the Russian military, especially as Putin has not exactly taken the nuclear option off the table.  But there are indications Putin may be willing to create a pretext to use chemical or even biological weapons.  No Western power wants to enforce a "no-fly zone" that would entail shooting down Russian warplanes.  But will the West let every city in Ukraine on the way to Kyiv suffer the fate of Mariupol?  If the West us unwilling to fight, at least furnish them with the materiel they need to protect their civilian population.  Biden called Putin a "murderous dictator" and a "pure thug."  Indeed.  Send him a polonium smoothie, my treat.

Don't be overly hard on those Russian artists and athletes abroad who don't vociferously denounce Putin.  They have families to think of.  Just take a look at what happened to dissident Alexander Litvinenko.  The Russian people are not our enemies, even those who don't speak up.  They aren't cowards or collaborators, they're merely terrified.  Heck, even posting this scares me.

One unnamed dolt considers Putin a "genius" and only wishes he could pull off the kind of corrupted "elections" Czar Vladimir has managed to do with help from his media and political enablers.  There are Facebook pages set up by Americans extolling the virtues of  Putin's "strength."  (No link to you fucktards.  And yeah, juvenile ad hominem attacks are the only words I'll waste on you.)  This little blog ain't got that sway, but we do at least have our say.  And we say to you:  "Nuts!!"  Make your Gadsen flag yellow and blue, and don't tread on Snake Island!   

If you Putin apologists love him so much, go and live in Russia and see how long you can stay out of jail for hinting at lynching elected officials.  "Love it or Leave it" as they use to tell those dastardly lefties (Ah, the irony; again).  Hey Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, why not put your money where your mouth is and go really fight for freedom?  It's one thing to stand around scowling at black-clad college kids with an AR-15 in your arms.  It's fun to play dress up, like some right-wing version of the Society for Creative Anachronism.  Playing soldier.  Go be one.  But perhaps beating up police officers as part of a mob at the Capitol is closer to your actual skill-set.  Maybe what the unnamed dolt couldn't do for you, Putin can.  That means you too, Fucker Carlson, the Kremlin's favorite propagandist.  Don't let fascist apologists pollute the airwaves unchecked.  Send your fan mail to:

Tucker "Putin's Goebbels" Carlson
c/o Fox News
21st Century Fox
1211 Avenue of the Americas New York
NY 10036
United States

For shame, Carlson.  One of your own colleagues was just killed in Ukraine.  At the beginning of this farrago TC asked his audience “Why do I hate Putin so much?...Has Putin ever called me a racist?  Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?”  No, but he has jailed and murdered those who have.  Maybe you can ask the family of your dead colleague the same idiotic questions at the next company Christmas party.  Maybe you can tell them how owning liberals and flogging the "woke" horse is more important than condemning a murderous dictator.  But it may be hard for him to speak with the unnamed dolt's cock in his mouth.  Then again, tiny hands and all.  He may have plenty of space left over to murmur another inane excuse for commentary.

But enough of American fascists.

If you want to support Ukraine financially:

Want to support the people in Ukraine? Here's how you can help.

Millions of people have already fled Ukraine, and they need our help. One 11-year-old fled Ukraine alone with nothing but a backpack, his passport and a phone number written on his hand.  620 miles to Slovakia.  Alone.  Reminds me of the story of my mum and her aunts being put on a train north from London in the darkest days of the Blitz, with nothing but a small bag and her parents' names and address safety-pinned to her coat.  Or my uncle, whose own dad was swept out of his arms as he stood in the doorway of his train north, when a "doodlebug" (V-1 flying bomb) struck the station.   (Maybe Victoria Station?)  His dad apparently got back up, dusted himself off, and carried on with what had to be done. My mum, aunts and uncle are still with us.  They didn't know what would happen to them, but they were met by strangers, whose kindness may have kept them alive as they spent the remaining days of the Blitz in the Lake District.

If you want to host Ukrainian refugees here in France (Si vous souhaitez accueillir des réfugiés ukrainiens ici en France).

Recensemement des capacités d'hébergement des particuliers - dispositif Ukraine 

If you want to fight for Ukraine, don't be a hopeless romantic, make sure you actually can. This is not a game, and I don't encourage you to risk your life if you don't have some capacity to preserve it.  But if you think you can, here are some ways to do it.   Make sure you aren't breaking any of your national laws.

International legion of Defense of Ukraine

Join Ukraine’s Foreign Legion

 
Want to go fight for Ukraine? Here’s what to do

Update 24/03:  Remember what I said about making sure you actually can help?  Without medical, military, or even police training, you may be more hindrance than help.  Take this WaPo article as a cautionary tale; go through official channels!

Update 25/03:  Thousands of foreign volunteers are fighting in Ukraine. History suggests it could go badly.  Not to be overly discouraging, but while I admire those who have volunteered, but I don't want to encourage anyone to be foolhardy.  You may best be of help but opening your wallets, or homes, for refugees.

Don't harass the average Russian immigrant in your neighborhood.  Chances are they are as horrified as you may be. This is not a war against the Russian people, but Putin and his enablers, including the unnamed dolt and his media mouthpieces in the States. The Russian people were Putin's earliest victims. Putin has stated he has his sights on Moldova, the Baltic states, and even perhaps East Germany. He has openly dreamed of "recreating the Soviet Union." Don't let history repeat itself and appease Putin, who had made no secret of his desire to take over any place with a significant Russian-speaking population. Much like Hitler wanted to take over any place with a large German-speaking population. Putin is a threat to global security, stability, economic health....and shirtless men who ride horses the world over. Hitler wanted revenge after Germany's defeat in WW1. Putin wants to avenge the humiliation of being on the losing side of the Cold War. The parallels are striking. The comparisons fail when we see that unlike Hitler's early military success, Putin has tragically underestimated the capacity of the Ukrainian military and the will of the average citizen to resist. The shocking incompetence of his armed forces may give him pause, but if he is not stopped cold in Ukraine, he will not stop with Ukraine.

The West should help Ukraine, and the Russian people. Bring Putin and his circle of supportive oligarchs to their knees. Be selfish if that makes it easier: A wider European war will do none of us any good. In the 60's they used to say fighting for peace was like screwing for virginity. But letting Putin grab what he wants unopposed is a victory for naked aggression. Don't let Putin grab Ukraine by the Pussy Riot.

Resistance. Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova risked her freedom, and maybe her life, to protest the war on live TV. That is courage. That is what taking a real stand means. Bloviating about freedom and spreading lies under the guise of "just asking questions, man" is just that: bloviating and lying to the American public. Pravda has a whole structure in place to manipulate social media and spread disinformation, propaganda, and sew discord. Don't let Fox News pundits make their job any easier. That means you Tuckersky Carlsonovitch, you tepid cum-rag. To quote the Snake Island Thirteen, "Go fuck yourself!"

Resistance is not futile. For Western leaders, I understand and totally agree we need to avoid a full-scale European war. But timidity before WW2 got us nowhere. I'm not saying we are merely putting off the inevitable. WW3 is not inevitable. But something must be done. This is what you have been elected for. Figure it out.

 

I'd like to share this smart and humane message by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the hopes that some of you Russians out there will see it and it will help bolster your courage in the face of severe repression.  

 

No one blames you the people if you choose not to protest and instead lie low; we know it's very risky to speak up.  We know those sanctions will be tough on you. The sooner the Ukraine invasion ends, the sooner the sanctions will as well.  

 

For any soldiers who may see this, I frankly hope it inspires mutiny.  Open rebellion may be complicated, but, hey, there's always fragging....

 

I know from from LoS' analytics Russia is our largest audience outside of the Anglo-sphere.  This post is not against you, but Putin, his propagandists, and his political allies.  If I ever say "Russia" and not "Putin," my apologies.  Be safe.  Be strong. Good luck.  Don't let Vlad the Impaler leave your country hanging on a pike to be picked apart by fat carrion-oligarchs who bought your country at a discount like pigs in a dollar store.  Basta!  No pasaran!

 

Позвольте мне сказать вам правду: Арнольд Шварценеггер

 

 

 Anton LaVey:  LEGEND and REALITY

compiled by Zeena and Nikolas Schreck February 2, 1998 © 1998 Wolfslair, Inc.

8033 Sunset Boulevard #1313 Los Angeles, CA 90046; U.S.A. 

Zeena Schreck (Official Website)

Nikolas Schreck (Official Website)

 

Note:  I mentioned in my last post (8-8-88: H8 is Gr8) that a lot of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey's official biography is "BS," so today I dug up this old list compiled by his daughter and her husband that compares the legend to the reality upon which I based that statement.  A lot of the falsehoods are easy to verify, and a lot of it is harmless self-mythologizing.  Some of it, like accusations of beating his wife and the animal cruelty, is a lot more disturbing.  Some of this "de-bunking" would be so easy to counter with evidence I can't see why Zeena would lie about it.  I can't verify a lot of it, but she does provide sources.  A dedicated biographer could easily separate the fact and the fiction, and as I've said, I for one would like to see a proper biography of the man, warts and all.

 

While one must bear in mind this compilation comes from an estranged daughter with a pitchfork to grind, one must also consider that if Zeena is lying it would be easy enough to disprove.  And one must ask, unless Zeena is insanely bitter, why would she malign her father so badly?  Clearly, this was a family with issues.  Believe or disbelieve what you want, but I found this to be illuminating, and I've linked to some things that either support Zeena's claims or shed light on what might for some people be rather obscure references.

 

As I've said, I've always had a soft spot for LaVey and can excuse his self-mythologizing; the CoS was, after all, his business, and as such required a larger-than-life figurehead to make it fun and intriguing.  I always saw LaVey as a carny of sorts, and he created a world for himself into which people are drawn to this day.  I was disheartened by a lot of this stuff and in the end, my image of the man became less rosy.  But like I said, decide for yourself....The CoS has written its own rebuttal, but as of today, their website seems to be down.  So when I said before the CoS seems to consist only of a website these days, even that doesn't seem to be the case....

 

Bold-face and italicized text are my own tweaks and insertions.  I also added the photos.  I have no affiliation with either Schreck.  I am neither pro- nor anti-Anton LaVey, either, just following up on an off-hand comment I'd made.  Getting back into the completist swing of things it would seem. In  many ways, I'm merely a compulsive "lister," or maker of lists....

Anton Szandor LaVey (1930-1997), along with Charles Manson, Timothy Leary, and other messianic pop gurus, was a notorious figure of the 1960s' subculture of social experiment. As the flamboyant High Priest of the Church of Satan and the author of The Satanic Bible, he served as an ideal bogeyman for the sensation-seeking American media of that tumultuous period. His curious celebrity was based largely on a self-created legend. This carefully-orchestrated legend may, in the final analysis, be LaVey's most enduring legacy. LaVey disseminated his legend through interviews with journalists, personal discussion with his disciples, and two LaVey-approved [auto]biographies (apparently ghostwritten by LaVey himself). The first of these, 1974's The Devil's Avenger (credited to LaVey associate Burton Wolfe), embellished on the fabrications Wolfe had already sketched in his introduction to The Satanic Bible [Wolfe did a second, longer introduction after a brief period when the intro was penned by Michael Aquino; current editions are introduced by Magus Peter H. Gilmore.  According to Wikipedia, The Satanic Bible has gone through 30 printings, has never been out of print, and had sold over a million copies worldwide.]  The second, 1990's Secret Life of a Satanist (credited to Blanche Barton, LaVey's live-in secretary and mother of his son), contradicted many of LaVey's own claims in the earlier volume, while putting forth new legends for public consumption. As social historians and scholars of occult movements begin to study LaVey's life and times in an objective historical context, a wealth of information concerning the man beneath the Devil horns has come to light. This brief checklist is a concise guide to separating the deliberate prevarications from the human, all-too-human facts. For brevity's sake, only the most well-known aspects of the legend will be clarified here.

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LEGEND: Claimed that "Anton Szandor LaVey" was his genuine birth name.

REALITY: Born "Howard Stanton Levey".

SOURCES: Birth certificate 4/11/1930, Cook County, Illinois. Confirmed by relatives.

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LEGEND: Claimed his parents were Joseph and Augusta LaVey.

REALITY: Parents were Michael and Gertrude Levey.

SOURCES: Birth certificate 4/11/1930, Cook County, Illinois. Confirmed by ASL's daughter Zeena and daughter Karla according to her entry on ASL's death certificate.

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LEGEND: Claimed he was introduced to the Dark Side by his Transylvanian Gypsy grandmother, who regaled him as a child with supernatural folklore and tales of vampires and werewolves.

REALITY: ASL's grandmother was not Transylvanian nor of Gypsy stock. She was a Ukrainian named Cecile Luba Primokov-Coulton ("Coulton" was Anglicized from "Koltonoff"). Despite his frequent claims, ASL had no Gypsy ancestry.

SOURCES: Relatives, including ASL's parents.

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LEGEND: In 1945 the 15-year-old ASL was brought to the ruins of postwar Germany by his uncle, a U.S. Coast Guard officer. There the teenaged ASL was shown top-secret films inspired by Satanic cult lodges and their rituals. ASL claimed that the "German" rituals in his 1972 book The Satanic Rituals were actual transcripts of the filmed rituals he saw as a youth.

REALITY: Young Howard spent the entirety of 1945 in suburban northern California, and never visited Germany at any time in his life. The uncle who he claimed brought him to Germany was incarcerated at McNeill Island Penitentiary for involvement with Al Capone-related criminal activity during 1945, and was never in the armed forces. Allied martial law forbade U.S. citizens from visiting postwar Germany. The "German" rituals in The Satanic Rituals are written in extremely poor, Anglicized German. They are clearly uncredited adaptations of the short story The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long and H.G. Wells' famous novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.

SOURCES: ASL relatives, former wife Diane LaVey, The Hounds of Tindalos, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Satanic Rituals, Church of Satan member Rosalind Herkommer (who translated ASL's rituals into German).

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LEGEND: The 15-year-old ASL played second oboe with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, making him the youngest musician ever to play with that prestigious institution.

REALITY: There was no "San Francisco Ballet Orchestra" in 1945. The San Francisco Ballet was accompanied by a local orchestra, whose records show that none of its three oboists was named "Levey" or "LaVey".

SOURCES: San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, San Francisco, California.

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LEGEND: In 1947 ASL ran away from home and joined the Clyde Beatty Circus. The Circus employed the 17-year-old as a lion tamer. He then replaced the Circus calliope player, accompanying such famous Beatty acts as the Concellos, Harold Alanza, and the Cristianis.

REALITY: The voluminous Beatty archives show no record of a "Levey" or "LaVey" as lion tamer or musician. The Concellos, Alanza, and Cristianis were never Beatty performers; they worked exclusively for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

SOURCES: Beatty 1947 Route Books, Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin (Wright, "SD", page 67); ASL relatives.

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LEGEND: In 1948 the 18-year-old ASL was engaged to play organ at the Mayan burlesque theater in Los Angeles. There he met a young stripper named Marilyn Monroe, with whom he had a passionate love affair in the period before her rise to film stardom. According to ASL, Monroe had resorted to stripping to pay her rent. As proof of his relationship with Monroe, ASL later showed visitors a copy of Monroe's famous nude calendar inscribed "Dear Tony, How many times have you seen this! Love, Marilyn".

REALITY: ASL never knew Monroe. Monroe intimate Robert Slatzer and Harry Lipton, Monroe's agent in 1948, have exposed and discredited this tale. [Note:  Slatzer claimed to have been briefly married to Monroe and has himself been called a "liar and a fantasist."]  Lipton paid Monroe's expenses, including her rent. Paul Valentine, director of the Mayan Theater, has stated that the Mayan was never a burlesque theater, and that neither Monroe nor ASL ever worked for the Mayan in any capacity. Diane LaVey, ASL's former wife, has admitted that she forged the "Monroe" inscription on the calendar. ASL's former publicist Edward Webber claims ASL admitted he never knew Monroe.

SOURCES: Diane LaVey, Paul Valentine (Wright, "SD", page #68), Harry Lipton (Aquino-Lipton conversation 12/1/82), Robert Slatzer (letter to Aquino 11/27/82), Edward Webber (interview by Aquino 6/2/91). 

[Note:  LaVey was an accomplished organist.]
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LEGEND: ASL was exposed to the savagery of human nature during his stint as a San Francisco Police photographer in the early 1950s.

REALITY: San Francisco Police Department past employment records include no "Howard Levey" nor "Anton LaVey". Frank Moser, who was a SFPD photographer in the early 1950s, said that ASL never worked for the Department.

SOURCES: SFPD records, Frank Moser (Wright, "SD", page 68).

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LEGEND: ASL studied criminology at San Francisco City College during the Korean War.

REALITY: SFCC has no record of ASL's enrollment at any time.

SOURCES: SFCC records (Wright, "SD", page 68).

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LEGEND: ASL purchased the house at 6114 California Street (which would later become the headquarters of the Church of Satan - the infamous "Black House") because he discovered on first inspection that it was the former brothel of Barbary Coast madam Mammy Pleasant. The house was honeycombed with trapdoors and secret passageways, built by Pleasant to elude police raids.

REALITY: 6114 was ASL's parents' home. It was never a brothel, nor did Mammy Pleasant ever live or work there. ASL's parents first allowed ASL and his first wife Carole to live in the house, then transferred ownership of it to ASL and his second wife Diane in 1971. Such secret passages and hidden rooms that exist were constructed by ASL.

SOURCES: Relatives, San Francisco property records (Michael & Gertrude Levey, Joint Tenancy Grant Deed, July 9, 1971).

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LEGEND: In the 1950s ASL traveled to Nice, France, where he recorded an album of organ music under the pseudonym of "Georges Montalba".

REALITY: ASL's first and only trip to France was in the mid-1970s, when his Dutch disciple Maarten Lamers, Amsterdam sex club owner, financed his voyage. The "ASL=Montalba" story appeared in 1989, when a gullible Church of Satan member found a Montalba album and suggested that it was similar to ASL's own music. ASL, never pleased by competition, responded with the preposterous "pseudonym" claim - which is still ardently supported by his posthumous followers.

SOURCES: Diane LaVey, Zeena LaVey.

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LEGEND: ASL was the official city organist for San Francisco until 1966, playing for gala events such as government banquets and political meetings.

REALITY: San Francisco has never had an "official city organist". According to ASL's first wife Carole, his only income of $29.91/week was generated by his regular engagement at the "Lost Weekend" nightclub, where he was the house Wurlitzer organist.

SOURCE: Julie Burford, Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, California (Wright, "SD", page 68). Carole LaVey's divorce proceeding records (Wright, "SD", page 68).

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LEGEND: On the night of April 30, 1966 (the German Satanic [The night is associated with witches and pranks in Germany, but it is named after a Christian Saint and is celebrated as such in most of Europe] festival of Walpurgisnacht), ASL in a "blinding flash" declared himself the High Priest of Satan, proclaimed that the Age of Satan had begun, and founded the Church of Satan as a religious institution.

REALITY: In 1966 ASL supplemented his income by presenting weekend lectures on exotic and occult topics, and by conducting "Witches' Workshops". He charged $2 a head, filling his living room with the curious and establishing a local reputation as an eccentric. Professional publicist Edward Webber suggested to ASL that he "would never make any money by lecturing on Friday nights for donations ... it would be better to form some sort of church and get a charter from the State of California ... I told Anton at the time that the press was going to flip out over all this and that we would get a lot of notoriety". In the summer of 1966, long after the fictional founding-date invented later, a newspaper article about ASL's lectures offhandedly referred to him as "priest of the Devil's church". This mixture of Webber's idea and the newspaper's characterization resulted in the creation of the Church of Satan as a business and publicity vehicle. Jack Webb, a San Francisco Police investigator who knew ASL from the "Lost Weekend" nightclub, also suggested that he should form a church of some kind to exploit his recondite knowledge.

SOURCES: Edward Webber (interview by Aquino 6/2/91), Jack Webb, Diane LaVey.

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LEGEND: ASL's trademark shaved head was the result of a ceremonial head-shaving on April 30, 1966, to formalize his role as High Priest of Satan. This ritual was performed in the tradition of the Yezidi devil-worshiping [The Yezidi are a religious minority, monotheists persecuted by the Muslim majority, but in no sense "devil-worshipers"] tribes of Iraq, who were said to have carried out a similar ceremony.

REALITY: ASL shaved his head in the summer of 1966 due to a lighthearted dare from his wife. The "LaVey look" had nothing to do with the Church of Satan founding nor any mystical meaning attached to it later. Nor do Yezidi qawwals (religious teachers) shave their heads.

SOURCES: Diane LaVey; Ethel S. Drower, Peacock Angel, 1941; C.J. Edmonds, A Pilgrimage to Lalish, Royal Asiatic Society, 1967.

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LEGEND: In 1966 ASL personally designed the Baphomet emblem of the Church of Satan. He owns the right to this design, claiming it cannot be reproduced without obtaining licensing rights from the Church of Satan.

REALITY: The Baphomet emblem [More properly, the "Sigil of   Baphomet"] used by the Church of Satan was neither original to it nor created by ASL, hence cannot be trademarked. The original Baphomet dates at least as far back as the medieval Knights Templar. The artwork for the current emblem's goat/pentagram first appears in a 1931 book by Oswald Wirth. The complete emblem with the added circles and "LVYThN" Hebrew letters appears on the cover of a book by Maurice Bessy two years before the creation of the Church of Satan. Early photos of Church activities often show ASL or his disciples using the Bessy book as a photo-prop because of its prominent cover-Baphomet, and he included that book in his Compleat Witch bibliography. The Baphomet, including this rendition of it, is clearly in the public domain.

SOURCES: Oswald Wirth, La fran-maconnerie rendue intelligible a ces adeptes - II, "Le compagnon", Paris: Derry-Livres, 1931, page #60; Maurice Bessy, A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural, London: Spring Books, 1964 [the original edition of this work - Histoire en 1000 images de la magie - was published in 1961 by Editions du Pont Royal]; Thomas H. Hilton, Sex and the Occult, Vol. I, Los Angeles: Centurion Press, 1974; Church of Satan members, The Black Flame (a 1980s Church of Satan magazine).

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LEGEND: One of ASL's most widely-accepted falsehoods is his claim that he served as technical advisor for the 1968 Roman Polanski film Rosemary's Baby. ASL also claimed to have played the curiously-unaccredited part of the Devil in that film.

REALITY: ASL had no involvement with Rosemary's Baby. Polanski's close friend Gene Gutowski (original producer of the film) stated that there was no technical advisor, nor did ASL ever even meet Polanski. Producer William Castle, who details all aspects of the film's production in his autobiography, never mentions ASL. He does describe Polanski's diligence in basing the film exactly on the Ira Levin novel from which it was adapted, eliminating any need for technical advice. The father of the actress who played Mia Farrow's body-double in the Devil scene recalled that a young, very slender professional dancer played the part, dressed in a small rubber suit. In 1971 this suit was acquired by Studio One Productions in Louisville, Kentucky, for use in a low-budget horror film Asylum of Satan. Michael Aquino, technical advisor for that film, examined the suit and concluded that the 200-pound, 6-foot ASL could not possibly have worn it. [The suit was worn by a girl in the Asylum film.] Not a single member of the cast or crew of Rosemary's Baby has ever mentioned ASL's involvement. In 1968 a San Francisco theater did ask ASL to make an appearance at the film's local opening as a promotional event. This appears to have been ASL's only connection with the film that engendered the 1960s' popular interest in Satanism.

SOURCES: Gene Gutowski; William Castle, Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America, New York: Pharos Books, 1992; Diane LaVey, Michael A. Aquino (COS, page #17).

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LEGEND: Jayne Mansfield, Hollywood sex symbol and actress, was a card-carrying Satanist and had an affair with ASL.

REALITY: Publicity agent Tony Kent, an associate of Ed Webber, arranged the meeting between Mansfield and ASL as a publicity stunt. ASL was smitten with the actress. Mansfield, who made no secret of her many affairs, denied knowing ASL intimately, and no associate of hers has ever confirmed any supposed romance with ASL. In a 1967 interview she said, "He had fallen in love with me and wanted to join my life with his. It was a laugh." According to ASL's publicist Edward Webber, Mansfield would ridicule her Satanic suitor by calling from her Los Angeles home and seductively teasing him while her friends listened in on the conversation. ASL's public claims that he had an affair with Mansfield began only after Mansfield's death in an automobile accident, which he also claimed was the result of a curse he had placed on her lover Sam Brody.

SOURCES: Edward Webber (interview by Aquino 6/2/91); interview with Mansfield quoted in Jayne Mansfield by May Mann, Pocket Books, 1974.

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LEGEND: ASL wrote The Satanic Bible, his principal work, to fulfill his congregation's need for a scriptural guide.

REALITY: The Satanic Bible was conceived as a commercial vehicle by paperback publisher Avon Books. Avon approached ASL for some kind of Satanic work to cash in on the Satanism & witchcraft fad of the late 1960s. Pressed for material to meet Avon's deadline, ASL resorted to plagiarism, assembling extracts from an obscure 1896 tract - Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard into a "Book of Satan" for the SB, and claiming its authorship by himself. [Ironically these MiR passages are the ones most frequently quoted by ASL disciples.] Another third of the SB consists of John Dee's "Enochian Keys", taken directly but again without attribution from Aleister Crowley's Equinox. The SB's "Nine Satanic Statements", one of the Church of Satan's central doctrines, is a paraphrase, again unacknowledged, of passages from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The last words in the SB - "Yankee Rose" - have been puzzled over for years by readers. "YR" is actually the name of an old popular tune in ASL's nightclub repertoire.

SOURCES: ASL, The Satanic Bible; Ragnar Redbeard, Might is Right, Port Townsend: Loompanics (reprint), 1896; Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (Galt's speech, ca. pages #936-993); "Yankee Rose" by Sidney Holden & Abe Frankl (Irving Berlin Music, 1926).

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LEGEND: ASL claimed that at the height of the Church of Satan's popularity there were hundreds of thousands of formal members.

REALITY: Diane LaVey (who administered the Church as High Priestess 1966-1984), Michael A. Aquino (senior Magister of the Church and Editor of its Cloven Hoof newsletter 1971-1975), and Zeena LaVey (High Priestess of the Church 1985-1990) have all affirmed that the figures claimed by ASL were grossly exaggerated. The membership of the Church of Satan never exceeded 300 individuals, several of whom were nonmember subscribers to the newsletter or ASL friends receiving complimentary mailings.

SOURCES: Diane LaVey, Michael A. Aquino, Zeena LaVey. 

[One day I'll do a post on Aquino:  Ph.D., Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army (PsyOps, Green Beret), Temple of Set founder, self-styled Scottish Baron.....interesting cat.  CoS-types despise Aquino, but his C.V. is impressive....]
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LEGEND: ASL claimed to be a multimillionaire, owning three homes in northern California, a convent in Italy, a chateau in France, a fleet of luxury automobiles, a 185-foot yacht, three salvage ships, and other property.

REALITY: During Diane [LaVey] Hegarty's 1988-91 lawsuit against ASL, and ASL's subsequent 1991 filing for bankruptcy, ASL stipulated under oath that he owned nothing more than 50% of the house his parents had given jointly to him and Diane, along with the personal items he kept therein. ASL's final years were subsidized by California state aid. Assessors declared the house to be in such poor repair as to be nearly worthless on the real estate market. Family members have attested to the fact that by the mid-1970s the LaVeys lived in near-poverty, frequently having to rely upon ASL's father's generosity. According to other LaVey relatives, ASL continued to rely on handouts from friends and relatives until the end of his life.

SOURCES: Hegarty v. LaVey (San Francisco Superior Court Case #891863), Anton LaVey Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern California, Case #91-34251), Zeena LaVey, other relatives.

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LEGEND: ASL was a close friend of Sammy Davis, Jr. and inducted him into the Church of Satan.

REALITY: Sammy Davis, Jr. was invited to accept an honorary membership in the Church of Satan by Michael Aquino. After Davis sent Aquino his acceptance on March 17, 1973, he was presented with the honorary membership on April 13, 1973 by Aquino and Karla LaVey alone. ASL did not meet Davis until August 1973.

SOURCES: Davis letter to Aquino 3/17/73; Church of Satan Priesthood Bulletin 4/30/73; Aquino, COS, Chapter 23; Sammy Davis, Hollywood in a Suitcase (pre-publication text, printed in Daily News, New York, 9/11/80), Karla LaVey.

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LEGEND: ASL presented himself as a loving family man.

REALITY: ASL violently beat his wife Diane throughout their marriage. In 1984 a police report was made describing Diane being strangled into unconsciousness by ASL, who was in such a murderous rage that his daughter Karla had to pull him off Diane and drag her outside the house to save her life. ASL routinely physically beat and abused those of his female disciples with whom he had sex, forcing them into prostitution as part of his "Satanic counseling" and collecting their earnings. In 1986 ASL was a passive witness to the sexual molestation of his own grandson by a longtime friend who was later convicted of sex crimes with minors. In 1990 ASL informed a mentally-ill stalker of his daughter Zeena of her whereabouts and the time & location of a public appearance she was scheduled to make, deliberately endangering her life.

SOURCES: San Francisco Police records of ASL attack on Diane LaVey, Zeena LaVey, Diane LaVey, Stanton LaVey.

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LEGEND: ASL had a deeply affectionate relationship with Togare, his pet lion.

REALITY: While ASL was always careful to portray himself to the public as an animal lover, in private he was cruel to and neglectful of his pets. When he was given Togare as a cub in 1964, he was ill-equipped to deal with such an exotic, wild animal despite his pretensions as a circus lion-tamer. As Togare became larger and more unruly, ASL frequently used an electric cattle prod to hurt and frighten him into submission. Many animal-rights proponents, including Togare's final owner Tippi Hedren, agree that it is detrimental to a wild animal's development to be raised in a domestic environment. ASL was arrested due to Togare's unruly behavior, and ASL was ordered to donate him to the San Francisco Zoo. After complying, ASL made only two visits to Togare. Due to the trauma of his early life, Togare needed special care at the Zoo and at every animal-care facility in which he subsequently lived.

SOURCES: Jack Castor (Lion Keeper, San Francisco Zoo), Diane LaVey, Zeena LaVey, Tippi Hedren (The Cats of Shambala, McGraw-Hill, 1985).

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LEGEND: ASL had a deeply affectionate relationship with his other pets.

REALITY: In the late 1960s ASL acquired a Doberman Pinscher (Loki) as an accent to his "sinister" image. ASL never took the time to housebreak or train Loki, and relegated him to the overgrown and unkempt backyard of the house, regardless of weather. If Loki ever tried to slip into the house for shelter, ASL routinely used Togare's cattle-prod on him to terrify him back outside. In his old age Loki developed such severe arthritis that he could not climb the stairs to the back door to eat, and began wasting away from malnutrition. ASL then gave him to one of his prostitute "students", who at least saw that Loki had a warm, inside home until he died a few months later. During her young childhood ASL's daughter Zeena once awoke late at night to hear slamming sounds and the shrieking of her German Shepherd puppy. Running downstairs, she saw ASL savagely beating the cowering, cornered dog with a wooden plank. When Zeena begged ASL to stop and asked him what the dog had done to deserve such treatment, ASL screamed, "She won't listen to me! I'm going to force her to obey me!" ASL continued beating the dog until her face was covered with her blood, then dropped the plank and left the dog quivering in the hallway, so injured and frightened that she wouldn't let even Zeena come near her. This incident left the dog traumatized for a long time afterwards.

SOURCES: Diane LaVey, Zeena LaVey.

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LEGEND: On ASL's original death certificate the date of his demise was recorded as October 31, 1997 (Halloween).

REALITY: An official investigation by the City of San Francisco determined that ASL's actual date of death was October 29, 1997 and that the "Halloween" date had been illegally written on the document.

SOURCES: Death Certificate #380278667, San Francisco Department of Public Health; Dr. Giles Miller (attending physician at ASL's death), Physician's Amendment to Death Certificate, 11/26/97.

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RESEARCH REFERENCES: Wright, Lawrence, "Sympathy for the Devil", Rolling Stone #612, September 5, 1991, Saints and Sinners. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Aquino, Michael A., The Church of Satan. San Francisco: Temple of Set, 1983. We extend our thanks to ASL's relatives and associates who contributed their memories.