An Omen of Death and Conflict

The Celts believed that crows were an omen of death and conflict.

In Erebus Rising #2, an article (titled “Holier Than Thou”) by Donna Crow (Deadly Nightshade, 1995, pages 48-49) reviews David Farrant’s Beyond the Highgate Vampire pamphlet that contains copyright infringement of images, one hundred lines of text from my book The Highgate Vampire, and defamation of character. Farrant and Crow were in contact and, as I would later learn from Crow, had met in a pub to discuss their mutual interests and aims. Soon after her statement denying that she was a Satanist, following her meeting with Farrant, she came out as a member of the Church of Satan.

Describing herself as a “sorceress,” Donna Crow joined Fortean Times’ online forum on 3 September 2001. In her first message, published on the “Witchcraft – Fact versus Fiction” thread on Fortean Times’ specialist topic “Esoterica,” she announced:

“Yes I’m a witch - not the fluffy wiccan or pagan kind though. More of a - well - Satanic witch.” Later she explained: “Satan represents Man and Nature. God is an invention by Man for the control of Man.” The following day she revealed: “When I finally happened upon Satanism I figured I’d give it a go. I never really thought that sensory indulgence and egotism would bring happiness, but, hey, it worked for me.”

By 19 November 2001, Crow was ready to reveal more: “As a Satanic witch I’m the antithesis of the miserable ‘goth’ type. I’m glamorous and use my ‘womanly wiles’ … I don’t believe in gods and goddesses, and have inverted that kinda [sic] faith by having ultimate self-belief. … Wicca, Paganism, etc, seem to me to be misguided at best. Hearkening back to the ‘goode olde days’ when everyone worshipped the ‘great goddess’ or ‘mother earth’ is a fallacy based, as it is, upon fiction. … Personally, I’m sticking with LaVey’s ‘self-empowerment’.”

She later posted on the same day, perhaps as an afterthought: “I’d just like to say that I also practice Satanic rituals. … Satanism is common sense (amongst other things), therefore I don’t believe in all that ‘love thy neighbour’ and ‘turning the other cheek’ [Christ]ian nonsense. … When all the ‘usual’ methods of getting rid of [persistent nuisances etc] fail, I will perform a ‘destruction’ ritual. So far, it hasn’t failed.” If such a destruction ritual has been aimed at me and mine, this last claim is patently bogus. On 23 November 2001, Crow elaborated further: “Even if the recipient doesn’t believe in magic, the idea will play on their negative state of mind until they themselves cause their own ‘misfortune.’ This often has a snowball effect so that they may become reckless with their own safety, for instance, and crash the car.”

On 27 November 2001, she announced on Fortean Times’ forum: “Personally, I’d been living a Satanic life without realising it until I happened upon LaVey’s work.”

Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966 in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht (April 30th). LaVey identified his particular brand of diabolism in his book The Satanic Bible (1969). A derivative group and offspring of the Church of Satan - the Temple of Set - was founded by Michael Aquino in 1975. One of the delusions of diabolism is the lie that leading Satanists do not believe in or truly worship the Devil. LaVey viewed Satan as a true entity which he revealed he absolutely worshipped before his death. He deceived a lot of people who joined the Church of Satan by claiming that Satan only represented the repressed forces of nature and was not a real entity. Interviews with former Charles Manson family member Susan Atkins, who was convicted of eight murders, resulted in her exposing LaVey’s deception. As a former associate of Anton LaVey, who danced for him and spent personal time with him before joining the Manson family, Atkins was privy to conversations with LaVey before he became popular. Atkins revealed repeatedly that, while LaVey promoted a watered down, almost palatable form of Satanism to those whom he deceived, he acknowledged the exact opposite to her and to his inner core of members within the Church of Satan. Atkins revealed that LaVey told her emphatically, while she was in his home, that they truly worshipped Satan as a real entity and as the one who began the initial rebellion against God. He appreciated that few people would wittingly turn their lives over to the Devil and allow themselves to be deceived by their worst enemy, so a user-friendly form of diabolism was devised propagating the false claim that Satan merely represents a force in nature. Yet those who make a study of Left-hand Path occultism will know that, for Satanists, deceit and lying is among the highest of virtues. They serve the one whom Jesus Christ repudiated as “the father of lies” (John 8: 44).

LaVey let his guard down when responding to other Satanists who claimed he was “not extreme enough.” While in a defensive mode, Anton LaVey admitted that the image he presented publicly was deceptive, declaring: “If they’re at all intelligent … they’ll realize that there’s only so much I can say publicly … I will not advance things in print which make my position untenable. … How long would the Church of Satan have lasted if I hadn’t appeased and outraged in just the right combination? It required a certain amount of discretion and diplomacy to balance the outrage.”