From the 20Th to the 21St Century, 1994–2016

chapter 13 From the 20th to the 21st Century, 1994–2016

Satan the Wiccan: Michael Ford and the Greater Church of Lucifer

In 1993, Michael W. Ford formed in Indianapolis a Black Metal band called Black Funeral. Ford was among the few Black Metal musicians to join the Order of Nine Angles (ona), where he served as the local Indianapolis leader between 1996 and 1998. In 1998, he separated from the ona, criticizing its Nazi political orientation, and established the Order of Phosphorus. He offered to initiates also the opportunity of joining a companion organization, the Black Order of the Dragon, proposing “Adversarial Magick and Vampyrism”.1 In 2007, he founded the Church of Adversarial Light and in 2013, the Greater Church of Lucifer (gcol). In 2015, Ford announced on his Facebook page that in two years the gcol had expanded to include “several u.s. state based chapters, a Canadian chapter, chapters in Spain, several chapters in South America and we currently have branches in every country in Central America”. In the same post, he explained that the Order of Phosphorus would be integrated into the gcol “in order to give those that are interested in deep Luciferian study, as well as the Magickal Aspect of Luciferianism, an avenue to pursue their studies”.2 Ford made headlines in 2015 by inaugurating on October 30 the first Satanist temple open to the public in the Old Town Spring suburb of Houston, Texas.3 Ford insisted that the gcol welcomes both occult and rationalist Satanists, as well as pagans and miscellaneous followers of different occult spiritualities. However, Ford’s ideas are clearly stated in a voluminous corpus of writings, and in 2015 an official statement of the gcol’s ideas was published under the title Wisdom of Eôsphoros.4 Eôsphoros is a Greek name for Lucifer, and the gcol

1 See Fredrik Gregorius, “Luciferian Witchcraft: At the Crossroads between Paganism and Satanism”, in P. Faxneld, J.Aa. Petersen (eds.), The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity, cit., pp. 229–249 (p. 245). 2 See post at , last accessed on October 15, 2015. 3 See Keith Garvin, “Church of Lucifer Set to Open in Old Town Spring”, click2houston.com, October 6, 2015, available at , last accessed on October 15, 2015. 4 Michael W. Ford, Jacob No, Jeremy Crow, Hope Marie, Wisdom of Eôsphoros: The Luciferian Philosophy, Houston: Succubus Productions, 2015.

From The 20th To The 21st Century, 1994–2016 507 describes itself as “Luciferian”. The book embraces a social Darwinism and a notion of Satan that is not far away from LaVey. “We are above the duality of the cult of Jesus and Yahweh, it proclaims. Luciferians do not recognize the existence or cosmological structure of Yahweh in some literal sense; nor do we accept the reality of a conscious ‘Satan’ inspiring us to revolt! Luciferians view Lucifer as the symbol for our potential and a strong archetype of spiritual self- liberation, knowledge, and power”.5 On closer examination, however, the ambiguity of the early Church of Satan resurfaces in the gcol. Ford’s books are part of Luciferian witchcraft, a galaxy of small groups that try to keep together Wicca and Satanism by reviving the old distinction between Lucifer, the god of the witches, and Satan. It is a con- tentious milieu, where not all like Ford’s approach and taste for publicity. It is not easy, as Swedish scholar Fredrik Gregorius noted, to “force Ford’s ideas into a coherent structure”.6 However, at least in his earlier writings, including Luciferian Witchcraft, published in 2005, it seems that some “primary forces” may exist independently of human consciousness. To Lucifer and Lilith, Ford added Cain, who is both the son of the god of the witches and the Lord of the Sabbath himself.7 One possibility is that LaVeyan Satanism is proposed in the gcol to an outer circle and the media, while those interested in ritual magic and the Order of Phosphorus are introduced to more occult notions about Lucifer and Cain. Media reactions to Ford’s announcement that a Satanist temple would be inaugurated in Texas generated imitations throughout the world. In the town of Calarcá, Colombia, situated near the country’s coffee capital, Armenia, Víctor Damián Rozo (a pseudonym for Héctor Londoño Villegas) made in turn international headlines by announcing the opening of a Luciferian temple at first for December 27, 2015, then for June 6, 2016. Although the first public opening in 2015 was forbidden by the authorities, Rozo started the opera- tions of the “temple”, in fact a small chapel, notwithstanding the protests of the local Catholic Bishop. Rozo operates a huge number of different Web sites and Facebook pages. Although he claims that the temple is home to a congrega- tion of some 200 members, incorporated as the Asociación Templo Semillas de Luz (Association Temple Seeds of Light), worshiping Lucifer as a god of light and happiness, Rozo’s main purpose seems to be the sale of “Luciferian” rituals

5 Ibid., p. 31. 6 F. Gregorius, “Luciferian Witchcraft: At the Crossroads between Paganism and Satanism”, cit., p. 246. 7 See M.W. Ford, Luciferian Witchcraft, self-published at Lulu.com, 2005.