A Transgressive Reading of Religious Metaphor

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Master of Arts

in

Religious Studies

University of Regina

By

Sean Brian Campbell

Regina, Saskatchewan

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FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH

SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Seari Brian Campbell, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies, has presented a thesis titled, A Transgressive Reading of Religious Metaphor, in an oral examination held on December 14, 2009. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material.

External Examiner: Dr. Mark Anderson, Department of History, Luther College

Supervisor: Dr. William Arnal, Department of Religious Studies

Committee Member: Dr. Jacoba Kuikman, Department of Religious Studies

Committee Member: Dr. Darlene Juschka, Department of Religious Studies

Chair of Defense: Dr. Philip Hansen, Department of Philosophy and Classics ABSTRACT

In this thesis I comment on a selection of metaphors from the bible and related literature. I read the texts through a transgressive lens. These readings will demonstrate other possibilities for the meaning of scripture. There is never one exclusive meaning to religious mythology. The meaning-making I establish is distinct from devotional exegesis. My intention is to demonstrate that religiosity can take surprising - and wholly non-traditional - forms, that scripture can be turned into many things. By applying a transgressive reading to religious texts, the flux of meaning is expressed.

The transgressive approach allows for a certain amount of methodological freedom. My readings are creative and justifiable insofar as the commentary is derived from the actual text. The creative narrative route allows the reader a more visceral reaction. The referent of a metaphor is not essential. Information never exists by itself. It is constantly manipulated.

In this paper I offer an a-theological application of meaning to religious metaphor.

It makes room for other perspectives of the already bizarre, yet commonsensical-sized, human strangeness that is constituted as religious.

The possibilities of meaning behind religious discourse are numerous. The effectiveness of the metaphor depends on the justifications and ramifications of the particular interpretation. In my commentary I try show that there is never one exclusive

"meaning" to religious mythology. A creative narrative transgressive approach provides a forum of openness with regard to the ambivalence of religious truth. The readings provide reminder that god is not beyond humanity because it is part of humanity. I attempt to provide a different type of exegesis. Religion is not one thing. Scripture can be

- and has been - turned into many things, reared in nothing. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. A Transgressive Reading of Religious Metaphor

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The Path of the Goat 6

Lilith 8

Screech Owl 17

Sympathy for the Dragon 21

Jesus as Necromantical Vampiric Exorcist 24

Tertullian, King James and the faeries 33

3. Conclusion 45

Bibliography 53 1

A Transgressive Reading of Religious Metaphor

In this thesis I comment on a selection of metaphors from the bible and related literature. I read the texts through a transgressive lens. These readings will demonstrate other possibilities for the meaning of scripture. There is never one exclusive meaning to religious mythology. The meaning-making 1 establish is distinct from devotional exegesis. My intention is to demonstrate that religiosity can take surprising - and wholly non-traditional - forms, that scripture can be turned into many things. By applying a transgressive reading to religious texts, the flux of meaning is expressed.

The transgressive approach allows for a certain amount of methodological freedom. My readings are creative and justifiable insofar as the commentary is derived from the actual text. The creative narrative route allows the reader a more visceral reaction. The referent of a metaphor is not essential. Information never exists by itself. It is constantly manipulated.

In this paper I offer an a-theological application of meaning to religious metaphor.

It makes room for other perspectives of the already bizarre, yet commonsensical-sized, human strangeness that is constituted as religious. The conceptual angle is chaotically and freely carried over from Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Nietzsche's article "On Truth and Falsity in their Extramoral Sense." Nietzsche writes:

What therefore is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonymies, anthropomorphisms: in short a sum of human relations which became poetically and rhetorically intensified, metamorphosed, adorned, and after long usage seem to a nation fixed, canonic and binding; truths are illusions 2

of which one has forgotten that they are illusions; worn-out metaphors which have become powerless to affect the senses. (5)

This characterization is the rationalization and centerpiece for all the following readings.

History is based on metaphor. Not a traditional metaphor; it is metaphor rooted in the idea "to carry over" (the word's literal meaning in Greek). The concept is carried over from Nietzsche's reading of Aristotle's Poetics: '"a metaphor is the carrying over of a word whose usual meaning is something else, either from the genus to the species, from the species to the genus, from species to species, or according to proportion' (Rh, p.317;

ET, p.55)" (Schrift, 1990, 125). Nietzsche takes Aristotle's concept, which is limited to linguistics, and carries it over, "and comes to regard any transference from one sphere to another (e.g. physical to spiritual, literal to figurative, audible to visual, subject to object, etc.) as an instance of metaphor" (Schrift, 1990, 126).

The process is carried over through the application of metaphors. It is an ongoing state of active meaning-making. Nietzsche expresses the concept through a biological

metaphor:

everything, anything, which exists and which prevails anywhere, will always be put to new purposes by a force superior to itself, will be commandeered afresh, will be turned and transformed to new uses; all "happening" in the organic world consists of overpowering and dominating, and again all overpowering and domination is a new interpretation and adjustment, which must necessarily obscure or absolutely extinguish the subsisting "meaning" and "end." (2004)

The discourse will be as effective as its position among other socio-discursive strata allows: "the nature of this new identity will depend on the connotative dimensions of the domains... [and] their respective places in history and culture" (Murphy, 2001, 4).

Manipulation of the topic for some desired group-specific accomplishment is a methodological factor that is often expressed in terms of reified classifications, a 3 phenomenon which, in what follows, will be explored via the example of classifications of heavy-metal music. Lines of normality are instigated through ideological devices, and defined within group-specific discourses.

It is important not to get carried over in the concept of "carry over": "Aristotle's definition of metaphor could not be retained as such by Nietzsche since it is based on a division of the world into well-defined genra and species corresponding to essences, whereas for Nietzsche the essence of things is enigmatic" (Kofman, 1993, 15). In

Nietzsche's earlier approach to metaphor, such as in The Birth of Tragedy, there could be possibilities for hierarchical pristine origin claims: "[the] youthful text as adhering to the metaphysical tradition, and which continues to draw on Aristotle's definition: the proper is likened to a father, with metaphors as his sons or grandsons" (Kofman, 1993, 15).

Kofman adds further categorical ramifications: "metaphor for metaphor implies a devalorization of metaphor, for it is considered to be inferior if not to the concept, which is itself metaphorical, then at least to the essence, the authentic proper" (Kofman, 1993,

15-16). The source for the metaphor could be idealized and reified. Claims for pure- source motivation are derived from intra-discursive conflicts. The un-touchable mystical essence from which words came to be is a tool for the prestige of dominant agents and for the survival of their social position. Following The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche grounded his metaphor, as explained by Kofman: "in the later texts the notion of metaphor will lose its strategic importance, once it has served to deconstruct the 'proper' by its generalization" (Kofman, 1993, 16). In the later works Nietzsche re-evaluates some of his own reifications. 4

Nietzsche did not create an interpretative method (Schrift, 1990, 124). To reiterate: he did not create an interpretive method. In regard to structures or factions based on portions of Nietzsche's ideas various theoretical institutions have been proposed such as the German, the French and the Anglo-American traditions. In some sense, these

"identities" are strategic lies. There is not one specific "French scene." But there is enough cohesiveness amongst certain French writers from a particular time as to warrant the academic category. The interests from France have generally been psycho- sociologically based: "here questions of language, style, rhetoric, and force are often highlighted in relation to Nietzsche's texts, as well as the constitution of human subjectivity in the context of psychoanalysis or social relations of power" (Sedgwick,

1995,2).

Without Heidegger's assumptions about Nietzsche's un-thought much of the

French works would not have surfaced. The 1961 publication of Heidegger's Nietzsche in

France caused a vast amount of reaction and inspired alternative Nietzsche systemizations (Schrift, 1990, 75). For Heidegger the fall of truth began with Plato

(Alvesson and Skoldberg, 2004, 83) and Nietzsche, although he reverses it, still carries over the "error." The parts of Nietzsche's whole thoughts are achieved through

Nietzsche's un-thought. Heidegger's quest revolves around his attempt to manipulate the thinker into a complete metaphysicalization. Schrift writes: "Heidegger argues that what is un-thought in Plato and Aristotle is the same as what is un-thought in such figures as

Descartes, Leibniz, Hegel and Nietzsche ... Western philosophy has been guided by

'What is the being?' the ultimate is: 'What is Being itself?'" (Schrift, 1990, 17- 35).

Heidegger represents one of many factional applications. The application of 5

Heideggerian ideas into my commentary, as seen in the area of my thesis about Lazarus and Legion, are manipulated for my purpose. That purpose is to interpret metaphor which denotes the plight of the individual in conflict with the collective. My Heideggerian sense is fractured. Metaphor in this thesis is the force behind interpretation. The interpretation becomes true through the power of its force. The power of the metaphor is attained by the relative position of the faction responsible for it. Within my thesis I am the dominant faction and the creator of truth. I play the microcosmic imperator of this discourse.

I have loosely broken my commentary into the thematic divisions of submission, fetishism, alienation, domination, deviation, and totalitarianism. All passages from scripture, with the exception of some comparisons in the commentary section on screech owl, are taken from the Kings James Version. I use the KJV because of its historical and poetical attributes. It aptly denotes Western nihilism through its archaic language and other aesthetic occultisms. The thesis is organized into two major sections: first, The Path of the Goat, which makes up the bulk of the thesis, consists of commentary centered on the bible and related literature. The section also looks at some religious individuals as well as into the vectors emitted by religiosity. The final section is the conclusion and raises some ideological issues about the many ways in which that religiosity could be construed, the general organization of data, and my theoretical ideas.

What all of this implies is an opening up of a wider arena of possibilities for meaning-making and scripture in conjunction with religious metaphor. Justifications for many world views could be extracted from the bible and related literature and activities. I look at metaphor fundamentally for the negativity of a religious mode of universalism in 6 which the potential for freedom is denied by driving it off as sin, thus depriving it of impact on the herd.

The Path of the Goat

Early on a God of conditions alienates his people through the priests of Leviticus.

A Jewish Testament metaphor that could convey a form of priestly alienation is the scapegoat from the Day of Atonement in Leviticus:

and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness/: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let the goat in the wilderness. (16:21-22)

The second goat, instead of being sacrificed and used up like the first by the priestly nation, was set free into a realm away from God. The goat is left to be the hated outsider, free but alone. The second goat of Leviticus could be seen as a metaphor for the collective hatred against those who do not bow down to priestly faith.

The metaphor could be read as the potential in each individual for freedom, which must be driven off by the priest and so deprived of possible impact on the herd. The goat is provided liberation but only through the priestly collective's alienating totalitarianism.

The goat could be viewed as the spirit of resistance against priestly ideology and abuse. I explain more clearly what I mean by "priestly faith" and "priestly ideology" in the opening paragraphs of the Screech Owl section.

Matthew continues the segregation of the free-goat; it is written: 7

and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepard divideth his sheep from the goats/: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. (25:32-33)

And in John: my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (10:27)

and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. (10:12)

The goats on the left hand path are segregated from the herd due to their potentialities for freedom from priests and theism. Sheep are gentle there is not any wild left in them. It is metaphor of domestication that allows for willing sacrifice. Sheep are easy victims.

Passivity and subservience are heavily promoted by the masters of the bible.

In his First Epistle General Peter promotes the Christian virtues of submissive behaviour:

be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward/. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully/. (2:18-19)

Peter epitomizes the sadomasochistic spirit of the New Covenant. The first letter pontificates:

if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (4:16)

Christ cults are slavish to their fascistic inferiority. It comes across as hatred against individual potentiality. In the Christ faction, the slavish lust for power resonates through the sentiment:

when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels/, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess 1:7-8)

The holy force craves pain and vengeance. The petty nature of the slave regime is revealed through its murderous intentions. 8

The wolf and the second goat represent the hidden "demonic" path of free thought and the opportunity for a type of freedom from religious neurosis. The wolf in John denotes the potentiality of each individual. Jesus guards his flock from freethinking wolves. The free-thinking wolves scatter the flock; they threaten precisely the herd-like uniformity of the sheep.

Lilith

The Hebrew demon Lilith is primarily a post-exilic metaphor. Prior to the

Babylonian exile, it was believed that Javeh was both good and evil (Khanam, 165,

2003). Demons became the new metaphor for evil (Khanam, 165, 2003). A

Mesopotamian version of Lilith is seen in the myth realm of Ereshkigal in the abode of

Irkal where those who dwell there take on bird form in reverence of Queen Ereshkigal,

Mistress of the Nether World (Pritchard, 80-85, 1958).

I will now look at the demon Lilith from Isaiah, or "screech owl" as the word

(TV y /) is rendered in the King James Version. I treat this alternative translation as replete with meaning.

There is only one overt reference to Lilith in the Hebrew testament, namely Isaiah

34:14. There is very little established on Lilith from a biblical point of departure. Lilith as demon is a post-biblical Jewish literary development, in which Lilith is aligned with the

"Lilin," one of 3 classifications of demons that arise in rabbinic writings.

The Babylonian Talmud describes Lilith as possessing a woman's face and long hair as well as wings like an angel ('Eruv. 100b & Nib. 24b) (Umansky, 1987, 554). In

Bava' Batra ' 73a it is claimed that the demon Hormiz is the son of Lilith, and in Shabbat 9

171b, men are warned against sleeping solo as it could provide opportunity for Lilith to possess them. Other Talmudic references are found in Pesahim 112b, where there is yet another warning to men, this time advising them not wander alone on Wednesday and

Sabbath evenings. This is due to the existence of "Agrat," the daughter of Mahalat. Many commentators have assumed a connection between Agrat and Lilith, but as Gershom

Scholem points out (Umansky, 1987, 554), the identification seems to have no actual foundation other than that both are night demons. In Midrashic commentary Lilith is presented as a killer of children, resorting to the slaughter of her own children when others elude her (Nm. Rab. 16.25) (Umansky, 1987, 554).

The Alphabet of Ben Sira, a biblical commentary written between 7 and 10 CE, provides the first account of a developed and matured Lilith. Here she appears as a homicidal night demon in conjunction with a plethora of rabbinic midrashim (Umansky,

1987, 554). The creation of Lilith and the dynamics of her relationship with Adam are explained in the commentary. Louis Ginzberg, in The Legends of the Jews, provides a version of the story based on a close reading of the Alphabet of Ben Sira (Umansky,

1987, 555). Briefly, the tale tells of Lilith's refusal to adhere to Adam's demands: she practises forbidden activity by vocalising God's name; and she removes herself from his oppression by flying away. God sent three angels named Sennoi, Sansanui, and

Samangaluf to find Lilith. The enforcers tracked her down at the Red Sea where she refused to submit to their demands. The angels threatened the life of her demon children; they held her children as ransom and warn of the impending slaughter which 1000 of her children shall face daily. Lilith reacted by lashing out against the children of Adam. 10

In kabbalistic text Lilith is generally constructed as the Queen of the dark-world and in the Zohar as wife to the demon Samael. Post 13th-century kabbalists predominantly construct a dyadic Lilith; which includes Lilith the Elder and Lilith the

Younger who are wives to the demon kings Samael and Asmodeus respectively

(Umansky, 1987, 555). The metaphors circulating around kabbalistic ideas demonstrate even more possibilities for screech owl/Lilith in systems of belief stemming from

Abraham. Khanam comments: "The demonology of the Qabbala is extremely interesting.

Many beautiful 'Minhagim' of Jewish ceremonial are derived from Qabbala, which assumes a mystic connection between things terrestrial and celestial, and symbolically identifies the form with matter" (Khanam, 2003, 149). Observations from various factions of Kabbalistic thought provide new metaphoric possibilities for the demon screech owl/Lilith.

On the Kabbalistic tree Lilith is categorized within Malkuth (Kingdom). Lilith is the Qliphah, or inversion of Malkuth (Crowley, 58, 1986). I will provide a brief explanation of the kabbalistic structure and hierarchy and in the process comment on

Lilith/screech owl's place upon the tree. The Tree of Life is distributed upon three pillars signifying severity (left-hand), mildness (middle), and mercy (right-hand). The right side the pillar consists of Binah, Geburah, and Hod. The pillar on the left includes, Chokmah,

Chesed, and Netzach. The pillar in the middle contains Kether, Tipareth, Yesod, and

Malkuth (Fortune, 1998, 49-53). Malkuth sits alone at the bottom.

There are four worlds of manifestation within the kabbalistic universe.

Lilith/screech owl's world is the basest of them. The four worlds are as follows, Atziluth,

the Archetypal World; Briah, the Creative World; Yetzirah, the World of Formation; and 11

Assiah, the Material World (Greer, 1996, 26). Assiah is the realm of Lilith/screech owl.

The worlds are positioned along the tree: "Kether occupying by itself the one plane is the

Archetypal World...second and third Sephiroth constitute the Creative World... the

Formative World is compromised of the next six Sephiroth... Malkuth is the Physical

World" (Regardie, 2002, 61).

In the kabbalistic structure Malkuth and Lilith are also associated with the feet and anus. The metaphorical association between screech owl with the feet and anus is interesting on a fetishistic level and could be derived from some psycho-sexual dimension. Freud informs us: "psychoanalysis has filled the gap in the understanding of fetichisms (sic) by showing that the selection of the fetich (sic) depends on a coprophilic smell-desire which has been lost by repression. Feet are strong smelling objects which are raised to fetiches (sic)" (Freud, 1995, 535). Freud's ideas about foot fetishism and

"coprophilic smell-desire" demonstrate that the ancients were insightful and natural in their associations. Freud concluded that: "the foot is a very primitive sexual symbol already found in myths" (Freud, 1995, 535). When Freud's ideas are iterated in conjunction with screech owl's feet and anus it becomes an even stronger authentic religious metaphor. The tree shows screech owl as a symbol of the forbidden hidden body parts; the true essence of humanity. True godliness is found in the fleshy and smelly; going down not up; it is found in the church of embellishment and foot worship and other bodily rituals.

Foot worship could be pious in that the activity celebrates human essence as opposed to the alien God. The mytho-poetic foot fetish cult cultivates unpretentious worship and authentic religion from a truly blessed godly realm. Lilith's feet have more 12 substance than His holy spirit. On the Tree of Life the alien place of God, the outer, outer nothingness where God dwells is hidden by phantom drapes or veils of nothingness.

Kether denotes Crown. Chokmah, the second Sephirah means Wisdom, and Binah translates to Understanding (Regardie, 2002, 47-49). These three Sephiroth mark the first triad of the tree, namely The Supernal Triangle: "These three Spheres are called the

Supernal Triad. They represent the three highest powers of the universe" (Greer, 1996,

12). These "highest powers of the universe" are useless without materialization. Without the brain ideas cannot exist. Malkuth is the only Sephirah worthy of humanistic attention and it is completely separated from the others. Kether is the cosmic sperm donor. It represents the primordial source attained from Or En Soph. Or En Soph is metaphor for the nothingness beyond nothing, namely Ayin. There could be nihilism connected with

Abrahamic tree mysticism. Chokmah and Binah gain the "knowledge" passed through father Kether. The pattern continues along the same fashion down the tree turning back up again in Malkuth.

The third and final triad of the Tree of Life is called the Magical Triangle. It contains the Sephiroth Netzach (Victory), Hod (Glory), and Yesod (Foundation)

(Fortune, 1998, 46). Here again the priestly evolutionary hierarchy of the Tree is displayed: "the Third Triangle is an exact replica of the Second Triangle, upon a lower arc" (Fortune, 1998, 45). It is from within The Magical Triangle that human consciousness is allowed to partake in the journey. Of course humans are relegated to the

"lower" triangle. It was human scum who came up with it all in the first place. Netzach signifies the goddess of nature while Hod is the god of books; the two differentiate into

Yesod which represents there union as the sphere of the moon and the goddess of 13 witchcraft: "subconsciousness and superconsciousness correlate in psychism" (Fortune,

1998, 47). This leaves the feet and anus of Malkuth.

The system is sourced from the bible and Talmud, and the early kabbalistic texts;

Sefer Yetzirah, the Bahir, and the Zohar (Kaplan, 1979, intr.5-7). The oldest is the Sefer

Yetzirah (11 CE): the text is attributed to the Patriarch Abraham (Kaplan, 1997, 12).

Screech owl is antithesis, although Aryeh Kaplan would change "antithesis" to "effect":

"The Cause-Effect or Keter-Malkhut relationship is that which is primary. The thesis- antithesis relationship was introduced only to make the cause-effect relationship possible" (Kaplan, 1997, 87). But he also states that the roles could be reversed: "even though Keter is Cause and Malkhut is Effect, there is also a sense in which Malkhut is the cause of Keter. Often in Kabbalah, where the situation exists, Keter is seen as existing on a lower level than Malkhut" (Kaplan, 1997, 57). Lililth's position remains dark even within occult structures. Kaplan's commentary reflects on screech owl's role in the Sefer

Yetzirah system: "Malkhut, the Sefirah furthest from God, is said to be evil. Malkhut points in the direction away from God, it is said to denote the direction of evil" (Kaplan,

1997, 47-46).

In the Targum to Job 1:15 the claim is made that Lilith or screech owl is the

Queen of Sheba herself (Umansky, 1987, 555). The Queen of Sheba appears in the previous chapter to that in which Solomon demonstrated an open forum for his partners' wills. Lilith as the Queen of Sheba provides a metaphor to a path for a possibly more natural mental existence free from the guilt and unclear, yet regimental, demands of God.

When the second goat of Leviticus is read as a motivation for the Queen of Sheba's potential for freedom to creativity, the action of Solomon and his wives in I Kings could 14 be viewed as an individualistic operation in conflict with the alienation of priestly absolutions. It is written:

his wives turned away his heart after other gods/... For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess/... And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord/... Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon/. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burned incense and sacrificed unto their gods/. And the Lord was angry with Solomon. (I Kings 4-9)

The will to find other gods could be viewed as a reaction against an ineffective

God-system. In connection with some of Nietzsche's conjecture, in which I go deeper into in the Screech Owl section; during Genesis the God of the Hebrews is a natural and unconditional part of Hebrew bondage and liberation and thusly was a healthy influence connected within the folk. But the Storm-God eventually no longer provided Israel pleasure, but rather only provided conditions without victory. Following Genesis God is reachable only through priests and manuals. He is manifested though groups of old men.

His impotence has severe impact upon her.

Screech owl is an effective metaphor for the Queen of Sheba and for the collective action of King Solomon's wives. But the metaphorical significance does not stray beyond the act of will or the act of meaning-making. Screech owl is not a theistic replacement for the old "God"; rather it signifies the will to be free from gods. Solomon's faction is weakened by the gravitation of his partners towards their other gods. Their power, by contrast, is achieved not in the other gods, but through the motivation and action to be free from the Hebrew God. Chemosh is still as slavish as Solomon's daddy- deity but just dressed up in different raiment. In the end the relationship between 15

Solomon and the Hebrew God is futile because ultimately Solomon is owned by that

God. He is to God what his wives are to him.

In my reading of screech owl through the Queen of Sheba, following her enchantment into Solomon's aristocratic realm, she celebrates the second goat's will with

Solomon who shares the ideas with his son Rehoboam. The records of Solomon's reign are lost. Had God preordained it as a great set up? It is stated in the 15th century Key of

Solomon that Solomon tells Rehoboam the methods came to him through: "a light in the shape of a burning star, to secure enjoyment of all earthly treasures and all natural things"

(Nataf, 1996, 18). The Hebrew God is threatened by Solomon's and Rehoboam's inner burning star of freedom. In the bible(s) God tries to rid the herd of any potential little burning stars through magic and his preordained truth. It is written about Ahijah:

And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. (I Kings: 11:31)

The occult term for Ahijah's God-magic divination is pecthimancy. God uses the magical scraps of one of his mad prophet's garments. The 10 tribes denied Rehoboam in I Kings because their jealous God conjured it upon them in reaction to the natural goat-spirit of

Solomon's realm.

Ezekiel was also mesmerized by the burning star of divine freedom. He could not fully embrace the natural light as his bondage to God kept him in exile. Ezekiel envisions and informs about the ambiguous bright one:

thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created/. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast 16

walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire/. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created. (28:13-15)

Like a prisoner's yearning gaze from his little cell window towards the fresh morning air of the day star Ezekiel longed for the nobility of satanic liberation. Through his words the poor deprived slave conceptualizes but an inkling of the left hand path.

In the bible Lucifer is greatness and spiritual privacy. He confiscates spiritual into private. His noble demeanour extends to enemy factions. Slave orientation and pettiness are foreign to his light. The light of Lucifer is non-conditional. Christ is even given a chance to let go of his sickly ways. The intervention takes place in Matthew:

the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them/; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me/. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (4:8-10)

To worship Satan is to free oneself of oppressive mythology. The fact that this opportunity is provided to Jesus demonstrates the noble grace of satanic relativity. But

Christ is too crucified and wrapped up in the Hebrew slave sect to let go of his hatred for the earth and all things free and great.

The path of personal subtle greatness is attained through Lucifer's light which rays potentiality on each individual's rough ashlar providing the building tools for refinement and a better life. The biblical burning star of freedom is realized by Isaiah:

how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground. (14:12)

Lucifer's fall from heaven may be read as a rise into nature. Lucifer is initiated, through

Abrahamic occult ordeal, into screech owl's Sephirah Malkuth. He represents tangible happiness. As the morning star he provides humanistic enlightenment. Lucifer shines 17 light on earth as the prince of Malkuth. He comes to earth as the saviour of a bright new day. His ascent sows golden wheat for the children of tomorrow to reap. He is a better tomorrow and the bringer of a future. His smile shines forth health upon earth. He is kind to beasts as brethren. Lucifer is liberator. A bright blue "G", which stands for

"Greatness," beams out freedom from his forehead as a beacon against theological tyranny. His burning star is one of resistance to priestly command.

Screech Owl

Nietzsche calls Isaiah: "critic and satirist of the hour" (Nietzsche, 2004, 94, sec.

25). He is a metaphor of the nation, with the legitimate will of the people. There was an attempt for the old "Javeh," but to no avail: "the old God could no longer do what he formerly could" (Nietzsche, 2004, 94, sec. 25). Nietzsche outlines the "denaturalization" of metaphor for ancient Israel.

The ancient Israelite religion, differing from Christianity, had a period of dignified religiosity and as conceptuality changed the Hebrew God became sick and impotent. The unconscious God ruled from a celebratory as opposed to a self-conscious state in an unconscious and non-legalistic manner. The organization, systematization, and eradication of that God were learned by the Hebrews through their masters. Nietzsche writes:

a lot is said today about the Semitic spirit of the New Testament: but what is called Semitic is merely priestly... the development of the Jewish priestly state is not original: they learned the pattern in Babylon: the pattern is Aryan... priests at its head- this oldest of the great cultural products of Asia in the realm of organization- was bound to invite 18

reflection and imitation in every respect. Again Plato: but above all the Egyptians (Nietzsche, 1967, 92, sec.143).

It is the old priestly sick impotent God that Christianity embraces. To Nietzsche the true period of freedom for the Israelites is the undateable primeval period. It goes back to

Hebrew paganism: "their Javeh was the expression of consciousness of power, the delight in themselves, and the hope of themselves... they denaturalised his concept... Javeh no longer a unity with Israel, an expression of national pride: only a God under conditions"

(Nietzsche, 2004, 94, sec. 25). The strong hands of the Egyptian and neo-Babylonian priests taught the Hebrews in bondage how to rule their people.

The Genesis God was a natural and "aristocratic" god in relation to the ancient

Hebrew's slave situation: "the priestly mode of valuation can branch off from aristocratic mode, and then develop into the very antithesis of the latter" (Nietzsche,

2003, 16, sec. 7). In an obtuse way the ancient Israelite bondage made slave mentality into a naturalized morality. It was at later period that the glory of the storm-god was infected by priests, and Israel enslaved itself. The heathen god brought the tribe out of bondage. Due to priests the God of Genesis was no longer with the Hebrews of Isaiah.

The term "nothing" in the bible is a euphemism for wholeness and fitness.

Screech owl is the nihilistic paradox in Isaiah 34. She is nothing to the priests hence everything to life.

And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch (9);

It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever (10). 19

These verses describe chaos in the land. There is blackness and desolation. That is the required state for change, for confiscation and then synthesis of metaphor. It signifies the wiping of the slate. From the destruction of old truths new truths are created. Pitch and brimstone is the cleansing force of natural will in reaction to priestly disease. It is the darkness of human existence: none shall pass through it for ever and ever. The thick smoke is confiscated and redirected into humanistic enchantment. The thick cover provides a dissecting dioptre into religious manipulations, which are made out by the priest to be celestial order. There is no hope in passing through material, just as there is no hope in passing through the smoke. The smoke is the breath of life from screech owl.

The smoke is the result of the old god as a burnt offering to screech owl.

But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness;

They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. (Isa 34:11-12)

A mysterious premise is set with "the cormorant and the bittern shall posses it."

The sea bird and marsh bird are a microcosmic "domains interaction" metaphor. Within the world of the screech owl is the dyad of naturalism. The NIV translates the birds as the

"desert owl" and "screech owl." The notes claim that the Hebrew translation of the owls is "chaos and desolation." The NRSV translates as "hawk" and "hedgehog" and the

Tanakah translates as "Jackdaws" and "owls". The metaphor denotes a dialectic tension that is willed from this earth and will be the inevitable factor in reaction to priestly morality. It signifies a natural obstinacy to priestly celestial molestations.

Of course "all her princes shall be nothing" to the old God. Her princes are not of the conditional God, they are not to be fathomed in a priestly manner. The plague bearer, 20 so delusional and far-gone, cannot possibly render up such healthy mentality. In this place "the stones of emptiness" overfloweth.

And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and court for owls;

The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest. (Isa 34:13-14)

The beasts of the desert and of the island will unite in existence and react to the conditional-God through confiscation and re-creation. The goat is the lonely will of screech owl. In Isaiah 34:14 the second goat dwells in screech owl's wilderness as the satyr who cries to his fellow. Goethe writes: "up pops satyr... refreshed in freedoms air,/ he mocks all humankind from there:/ deep in their valleys' steamy stew/ they fancy they are living too,/ but high above all taint and throng/ those regions to him alone belong"

(5829-5839, p.39). Humans are animals. Authenticity is realized in the satyr. Priests and other holy people attempt to deny the satyr though the separation of human and animal which is one in the same. It is the will of the goat that allowed Legion freedom before

Christ depressed him.

Dragon and owl is the dyadic existence within the realm of screech owl. Screech owl is knowledge in desolation and the dragon (Lotan, Rahab, Tiamat, and Leviathan) is chaos and health. Dragon and owl represent a naturalistic dyad of chaos and wisdom; of formless and form. This dyad goes back to creation in Genesis, back to when Israel was at its "Dionysian" stage (Murphy, 2001, 5). This is when the serpent clashed formless deep and differentiated into being. The screech owl is a lonely God: she protects her wisdom under her wings. The dragon is the serpent of action, the fluid foundation. From 21 dragons' blood grew the Tree of Knowledge. The great owl makes its nest on the Tree of

Knowledge. The synthesis is realized through the Tree of Knowledge; to partake in owl and dragon is godliness, hence then to partake in the fruit is lonely and holy, because it marks the first natural action against resentment due to condition. The Tree allowed screech owl to take form and spread will to Eve through the serpent.

Sympathy for the Dragon

The dragon in Revelation 12:1-17 should be read as denoting greatness. He is even called "great" in scripture. It is written:

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (12:9)

Biblical deception is in actuality enlightenment. The war in heaven between Michael and the dragon symbolizes the nihilistic triumph of Michael's heavenly nothingness faction:

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you. (12:12)

Christ and his angels deem earthy existence as evil and cursed. Death is valued more than life. Holiness and death are promoted over fitness and life. Heaven and nothingness are elevated to supreme status. The dragon as the hated outsider fights against Jesus and

Michael. The dragon attempts to reverse the lie and invert their herd system. He is isolated because of his free spirit and nobility which are in conflict with Jesus' herd mentality. 22

The Archangel Michael is the successful leader of a slave army who have adopted their principals from Babylonia, Egypt, Hebrew tribes, and the Hellenistic world. The dragon attempts to baptize the winged women as to purge her of Christ. As Christ's factions are penal based and power-sick the great dragon's only option is to apply great force in execution of the baptism. It is written:

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. (12:15)

Through his forceful baptism the dragon attempts to reverse the nihilistic curse created by his defeat at the hands of the slave driver Michael and his fall from nothingness into action on earth. But the winged-woman has been controlled to the point of siding with her captors. The dragon turns his campaign for civil liberty towards the children:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (12:17)

His holy war on the children is for their freedom. The dragon becomes a cultural physician with humanistic motivations. His motivation becomes one of liberation for the enslaved children of Michael's faction.

The great dragon has carried out the will of screech owl through many incarnations throughout the biblical text. In scripture he is an agent of freedom policing the activities of Michael's missions. Early on when the Archangel held Moses in his grasp the dragon reasoned with Michael about the harmful motivations of Moses and his cult. According to Jude the dragon as Satan shed light on the murderer but the commander for Christ would hear none of it:

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. (1:9) 23

The dragon as the devil tried to educate Michael about the black magic that Moses

usurped from Egypt. The dragon attempts to deprogram the infected agents of Christ and

the priest god.

The dragon's kingdom under screech owl has metaphoric relevance as a symbol

for escape due to alienation into positive isolation from God. Job could demonstrate

sentiment as such. The spirit of the dragon's advocacy for civil liberties is distorted in the

Book of Job. When just and upright Job faced the ultimate psychological desolation,

when his God left him, he turned to screech owl and the great dragon:

I went mourning without the sun: I stood up and I cried in the congregation/. I am brother to dragons and a companion to owls (30:28- 29).

Screech owl is the realm of the alienated individual in confrontation with slave

collectives and unnatural moral dogma. Job became a skinhead and pleaded with his

fascist god. Screech owl's realm is the place Job escaped to when he was free from God.

A sad and lonely place is better than the confines of his moody celestial master. It was his

master who caused him the pain. He used Job as a slave object. He used his family. God

used Job for a vulgar display of power. He used to him to one up Satan; to show noble

Satan that this God-pimp's whores take a beating and stay loyal. Job might argue his case

but in the end always backs down. It is a kangaroo court anyway. The system is set up by

God. The judges are all corrupt. Job's God is the garish dictator of a banana republic. Job

is a battered wife. She needs to find sanctuary in screech owl's shelter. God is

condescending towards Job. In the end God shuts him up with a new house and a

replacement family. 24

Job could have found more authenticity in his lonely place away from God. It is in lonely places that the creativity of self-hood development occurs. Selfishness could take on many forms. The Abrahamic God is a tool for negative selfhood. The negativity arises from the collective neurotic celebration of conditions and bondage. The biblical systems promote guilt, passivity, and subservience. The realization of a possible escape from the

Abrahamic God is the first step to a better type of being. In Faust Part Two Goethe expressed the idea through the allusion of Plutus and his charioteer who is poetry: "Only where you gaze clear into sweet clarity/, Trusting yourself alone, there you should be/:

Where you are yours, the beautiful and the good/ Alone can please. There make your world: in solitude" (5693-5696, p.35).

Jesus as Necromantical Vampiric Exorcist

The Christian Testament uses stories about different types of magic to execute domination. A powerful metaphor for domination can be seen through Jesus'

"rehabilitation" work on Legion in which he transforms the individual into the social through the conversion of Legion from deviant to devotee.

Exorcism does not come up often in the bible. Other than Matthew, Mark, and

Luke exorcism is mentioned only in Acts (Howard, 2001, 154). But the lack of references to should not de-value its effectiveness as an ambiguous rhetorical enforcer: "scholars have long been troubled by its rambling complexities" (Funk, 1998, 78). From an eschatological perspective, Howard suggests: "explanation of the phenomenon, that he 25 cast out demons through the spirit of God, underlines this, pointing to the arrival of the promised end time and the power of that age" (Howard, 2001, 153-154). If Jesus is either exorcising for the purpose of illustrating the coming end times or to display divine wisdom, the practice is a demonstration of domination.

The metaphor of exorcist, in written form, seems to be a specifically later expression, from the first century C.E., as opposed to a Jewish Testament metaphor, but it is also found in latter rabbinic literature (Howard, 2001, 154). Exorcism could be a strategic mode for domination. Josephus writes: "the exorcism is an exceptionally powerful cure among our own people down to this very day" (Funk, 1998, 309). The climate of the era called for a particular mode of propaganda. Confiscation of metaphor could occur with the application of Jesus as exorcist as an expression of domination and normalization, just as the priests of Aaron established right-practice in the most effective mode of manipulating their followers. Jesus as exorcist could be a rhetorical amplification of a tool for domination. The priestly bondage from Egypt is used to make people into sheep. Christian factions use the God of bondage as a path to freedom. But the priests killed Javeh and the lie became a monster through Jesus Christ and Paul.

Mark is the most raw and primitive of the Gospels. Mark's reference to a demon as Legion is overtly political and the fact that the demons were cast into pigs resonates as a strong ideological symbol. Pigs are forbidden food. The Roman legions maintained the order of the ruling culture. The humans, who partook in the developing Jesus religions of the time, were faced with formidable cultural/religious conflicts, both inside and outside.

Dietary law, as displayed by the Hebrews in the Jewish Testament, is an effective mode of determining and of maintaining lines of normality and orthodoxy in an unstable 26 cultural situation. And with that said, Legion's region, as described in Mark, was ethnically non-Jewish.

A hierarchical gaze is applied with the Gerasene demon in Mark. There could be no higher gaze than the All Seeing Eye, and nothing is more furious than Jesus as a wizard exorcising demons with the finger of God. In this way Jesus is the interrogator, the eternal punisher dominating through modes of normalization as a form of dogma.

Legion is a non-conformist. It is written in Mark that:

no man could bind him, no not with chains: / Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. (5:3-4)

Legion is as a wolf amongst the dogs. He is not harmonized. Legion must be assimilated into the order of the society. The herd seeks to kill Legion's vitality and potentiality for freedom. Jesus as exorcist is a powerful expression of the penalty. Jesus is the master of the society. The finger of God beams the magical gaze of an exorcising Christ.

Nietzsche writes: "it is the object of education to create in the herd member a definite faith concerning the nature of man: it first invents this faith and then demands

'truthfulness'" (Nietzsche, 1968,158, sec. 277). An example of Jesus weaving his penal action into a special fetish tool erected from God can be seen in Luke. Jesus takes on a much more philosophical role in Luke. There are speculations on the reasons. Luke is a later book. Nonetheless Jesus uses some philosophising with his exorcising. In Luke 11:

14-23 after Jesus exorcised a demon from a mute and returned his speech some wondered if the act was demonic itself. Individuals asked Jesus about his motivations, and he replied: 27

and if I Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges/. But it I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. (11:19-20)

"The finger of God" is the special fetish weapon that Christ possesses. Its lineage goes back to Exodus:

And he gave unto Moses, when he made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God (32:18)

"The finger of God" metaphor could have carried powerful conations. Jesus can dominate well with such a hard metaphor. It is a foundational idea from the first five books of the

Jewish Testament. The Pharisees probably would have been aware of the metaphor. Jesus as exorcist with the finger of God is a weapon to accomplish ideological supremacy.

Obey the finger of god because it will not bend. To have God give one the finger could be intimidating. The finger takes on a fetishistic role. It has phallic qualities. In Luke

Jesus seems very involved with his own neo-Jewish cause yet he still maintains a type of universalism through the book's Jewish Testament references, such as to "the finger of

God." The Christian idea in Luke is portrayed as something deeply instituted as opposed to a reactionary movement. It could be a tactic used to match depth with rival Jewish factions.

Jesus with the erect finger of God becomes the new dominator; the revealed hard fingered Messiah. The power is exclusive. Jesus with the finger of God is the ultimate magician. Jesus doles out the power of special holy exorcism to worthy agents. In

Matthew it is written:

and when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,/... raise the dead, cast out devils. (10:1,8) 28

Christ indoctrinates a gang of 12 thugs to carry out occult activities against the "evil spirit," which is a euphemism for freethinkers and individuals. The magical power of the

Christ exorcism is a ruling regulator. The 12 storm-troopers are taught Christ's necromantical rites as well. The magical Christ law is not interested in naturalistic rehabilitation, but only in conversion and sectarian normalization through fear and control. Jesus passes the finger of God to Paul. It is written in Acts 19:

then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. (13)

And the evil spirit answered, and said Jesus I know, and Paul I know; bout who are ye? (15)

The evil spirit triumphs over the non-Christ Jewish magicians. When others try to exorcise and practice magic Jesus displays his occult exclusivity. Jesus is the grand master of exorcism. The other types of slave magic are useless. Imitations of Christ's magic are false occult. Only the magic from Leviticus, as recited by true Christ-slaves, is potent. Paul early in Acts 19 is metaphor of Christ's rigid slave ideology. Folks get together for a little rally. A book burning takes place. Paul exhibits the lack of options available to individuals in conjunction with Jesus Christ. The path to Jesus' exorcist magic is attained only by a chosen few through penetration by the finger of God.

Jesus performs necromantical rites, by contrast, in the Gospel of John. He reanimates Lazarus' corpse and executes a type of vampirism on him through the affliction of immortality. Necromancy is brought up in John 5:25-29:

and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man/. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. (5:27-28)

Again in John 11:1 -44: 29

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live/: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this/? (11:25-26);

and when thus had spoken he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth/, and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound with a napkin. Loose him and let him go. (11:43-44)

Smith describes John as: "the most Hellenistic, and least Jewish, of the Gospels.

However, as such hellenization -assimilation to the high culture of the Greek-speaking world- had already occurred among contemporary Jews" (M.D. Smith, 1988, 1045).

Jewish was Hellenistic (Arnal, 2005, 80-87).

John represents various Hellenistic factions colliding with other factions during a period of catastrophe and syncretistic totalitarianism. M.D. Smith writes: "in 70 Judaism underwent an internal self-assessment and retrenchment... measures were apparently taken to eliminate what were regarded as harmful sectarian divisions" (1988, 1045). The ideological rhetorical device of immortality and otherworldly salvation as contained in the metaphor of Jesus as miracle worker and reprieve-doler could be seen as an ultimate tool of persuasion.

The role that I have proposed is in actuality a synthesis of two roles: Jesus as exorcist in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and Jesus as necromantical vampire in John. My proposal, from a formalistic perspective, reflects the differences between Mark (and the other two synoptics) and John. The faction(s) that created the propaganda contained in

John used a distinct tactic that differentiates it from the factions which contributed to the propaganda of Mark and the other two. The Jesus Seminar comments: "In the synoptic gospels, Jesus speaks in brief, pithy one-liners and couplets, and in parables. His witticisms are sometimes embedded in a short dialogue with disciples or opponents. In 30

John, by contrast, Jesus speaks in lengthy discourse or monologues, or in elaborate dialogues promoted by some deed Jesus has performed" (Funk, 1998, 10). The portrait of

Jesus in John, for a fully realized metaphor confiscation, begins at a less-raw stage than the more politically overt and literal metaphor of Jesus as exorcist. In John Jesus does not present himself in the same lower level God-enforced mode as that of Mark. Jesus is much more of a made-man in John; his mission represents a more developed ego. In

Mark Jesus is just following orders, in John his mission is more personal. Jesus as vampire is not a literal rendition, unlike as exorcist. The metaphor of vampire is not as raw as the exorcist metaphor.

Legion, before being exorcized, could have had transcended what Martin

Heidegger in The Concept of Time calls being, or Dasein, as determined as "being-with- one-another" (Heidegger, 1992, 18). Legion, before Jesus harmonizes him, could have achieved a state of authentic being through "the authentic and singular future of one's own 'Dasein'" (Heidegger, 1992, 13). Legion had escaped social pressure; he was free from the rest of the townsfolk. But after Jesus finishes with him he is thrust back into submission and into oppression, he sits with the rest of the herd. It was amusing to read the Jesus Seminar's comment that "pigs do not form herds" (Funk, 1998, 297). As a result of Jesus and his magic, Legion chooses pigs, which do not form herds, over the weak and self-loathing human.

If the metaphor of Legion can be understood in terms of Heidegger's idea of "the authentic and singular future of one's own Dasein" (Heidegger, 1992, 13), it may also be applied to the Lazarus metaphor. According to Heidegger this "singular future of one's own Dasein" is achieved through anxiety, awareness, and preparation (through "futural 31 being of the past" [Heidegger, 1992, 16]) of and for impending death: "Dasein has in itself the possibility of meeting with its death as the most extreme possibility of itself...

The self-interpretation of Dasein, which towers over every other statement of certainty and authenticity is its interpretation with respect to its death, the indeterminate certainty of its own most possibility of being at an end" (Heidegger, 1992, 11). That "self- interpretation" is stolen from Lazarus.

"Believe" is euphemism for entrapment. Nietzsche writes: "the "believer" does not belong to himself, he can only be a means, he must be used up, he needs somebody who will use him up" (Nietzsche, 2004, 123, sec. 54). Legion and Lazarus are victims of belief; they are victims of methods of anti-humanistic and anti-actuality Jesus-torture and meaning-making incarceration. For Legion, "demon" is euphemism for self, and the self s on-going process of confiscation-subjectification and synthesis, which again leads to further confiscation-subjectification and synthesis.

Meaning-making is stolen from Lazarus as his right to die is taken away. So are his chances of creating a natural life for himself through the creation and fulfilment of projects in an attempt at authenticity through the creation of a future in preparation for death. Lazarus's self-surpassing is stifled through Christ's nihilistic necromancy. Death is something we all share as humans. It is the great universal truth. The objective for healthy self-hood is the attempt to create a future before death. Death is natural, it is human, and Jesus takes humanity away from Lazarus through his black magic necromancy.

In my reading Jesus executes vampirism upon Lazarus. Lazarus is sent off in his grave clothes. Will he ever die again? My interpretation says no and I base my hypothesis 32 on Lazarus' unnatural birth, or rebirth. It seems that such an unnatural birth can only result in an unnatural death or none whatsoever. Lazarus is left in a psychologically scared and alienated state, perhaps forever. The power to create and to plan a legacy is for

Lazarus destroyed by Christian magic. Would he attempt suicide to test his unnatural vampiric existence? Would he attempt to compensate through becoming a predator of the night? Not much hope of that within the confines of Christ's vampirism. Jesus leaves

Lazarus as an impotent slave vampire with his fangs ripped out and sacrificed to the Holy

Ghost. Lazarus becomes the benign and unquestioning undead lamb of God, a servant attained through necromantic rites for all eternity. Lazarus is enslaved and victimized through Christ's twisted magic show, vampirism, and demonstration of holy power.

Lazarus and Legion are victims of herd mentality. In the meaning of Jesus the self is lost.

The metaphor of eternal earthly existence is used to express otherworldly salvation and immortality. Lazarus is an example of Christian factions' flawed ideologies: Lazarus is condemned to the material as an exemplification of heavenly immortality. Jesus as necromantical vampiric exorcist reveals the consequences of

"salvation." Creativity is lost because humanity is cut off from the natural process of self enchantment. Heaven and immortality are rhetorical conquests to incarcerate meaning- making.

Jesus alienates Lazarus in a tactically different way than with that of the exorcism of Legion. With Legion Jesus cast out "demons," or human potentiality, by draining him of his vitality and life-action. Jesus deforms the humanity of Lazarus through the infection of immortality. The on-going process and confiscations and synthesises are halted when Jesus performs necromantical rites and raises Lazarus, and in doing so sucks 33 out his humanity, his chance of a dignified death. It displays Jesus as a hater of life. Jesus is a vampire. Jesus as exorcist pulls it out while Jesus as necromantical vampire sticks it in.

Tertullian, King James and the faeries

Certain non-religious metaphors could be transformed over time. The implications of the action behind categorizations and philosophies about category and taxonomy are worth analyzing. I show some of the possible ramifications first through the ideas of

Tertullian followed by iteration around the propaganda possibilities behind specific

"Celtic" and "British" metaphors, concluding with a look at sub-cultural music.

The totalitarian agenda of the Christian Testament is rightly recognized and perpetuated by its later followers. Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics, especially chapters 7 and 10, for example, continue the masochistic totalitarianism of their foundational scripture. It is supposed that Tertullian was born around 160 CE and that he lived until around 225 CE. He received a good education in Carthage and converted to

Christianity in about 194 CE. He rose to powerful influence within the Carthaginian church, but he was never ordained a presbyter; he was laity (Hinson, 1987, 406).

Academic structure has categorized Tertullian's writings into the following sections:

"apologies for Christianity," "treatises on the Christian life" and, that which Against

Heretics falls under, "antiheretical works" (Hinson, 1987, 406). In On the Shows he speaks out against attending pagan theatre and games; in On Idolatry he speaks out on 34 sin-free living amongst the pagan horde; in On the Dress of Women he instructs women on style and commands them to walk and talk according to his particular instruction; in

The Martyrs he deems the dungeon a sacred place, that it provides a wholesome escape from the outside world, and bondage as discipline is heavenly; in To His Wife he commands his wife not to re-marry if he dies (Hinson, 406-407). Wright comments:

"women and marriage were subjects that preoccupied the Christian Tertullian" (Wright,

2000, 1028). The work under examination here, Against Heretics, displays his disgust and contempt for philosophy.

To set the stage for Tertullian I look first at the climate. The sacrificial aspects that abound in Christianity are explained as dependant upon a hypothesised historical context, which Nietzsche describes thus: "in the midst of a sceptical and southerly free- spirited world, which had centuries of struggle between philosophical schools behind it and in it, counting besides in plus the education in tolerance which the Imperium

Romanum gave" (Nietzsche, 1997, 34, sec. 46). An example of the lingering Hellenistic syncretism can be seen through activities in major cities. It was not until after

Constantine's death, during the reign of Theodosius the Great, that the temple of the

Celestial Venus in Carthage was converted into a Christian church (Campbell, 1991, 390-

394).

Tertullian is very concerned with the establishment of a proper order for his faction. The Montanists of Phrygia provided an ideal society for Tertullian's masochistic lifestyle. Montanism promoted asceticism, martyrdom, and firm ethical-centrism (Aland,

1987, 81). It was the strictness of Montanism that prompted Tertullian to join their ranks.

Tertullian is an instigator of what was to become orthodoxy in western Christianity 35

(Wright, 2000, 1027), while at the same time he was condemned as a heretic. Karen L.

King comments: "it is particularly ironic that Tertullian, who so fully articulated the foundational paradigm for combating heresy, was himself condemned as a heretic"

(2003, 36). He was in conflict against the dominant church of the time due to their allegorical ways; for Tertullian, by 207 the dominant church had lost its rigidity.

Tertullian needed better punishment. After several years as a Montanist Tertullian parted ways with the sect and formed his own even stricter faction known as Tertullianists, still known during the days of Augustine (Hinson, 1987, 406). Tertullian's twisted need to be dominated comes across most clearly in his Prescription Against Heretics, chapters 7 and

10.

"Chapter VII- Pagan Philosophy The Parent Of Heresies. The Connection Between

Deflections From Christian Faith And The Old Systems Of Pagan Philosophy "

Tertullian commences the chapter by delegating out ownership of philosophy; it is owned and operated by humanity but he prefers to use the term "demons" to denote this human activity. "Demons" obviously is in reference to Greek culture. He comments on their volumes of sacred law: '"doctrines' of men and 'of demons' produced for itching ears of the spirit of this world's wisdom... indeed heresies are themselves instigated by philosophy" (Tertullian, 1966, 343). He continues on to list leaders of other factions and their philosophical/political leanings. He explores the factions of his rivals. Valentinus is an agent of Plato; Marcion is an agent of the Stoics; he iterates all soul-death believers as agents of the Epicureans; agents for an equalitarian platform of God and form are from

Zeno; and agents of the fire-god are commanded by Heraclitus. Tertullian concludes: "the 36 same subject-matter is discussed over and over again by the heretics and the philosopher; the same arguments are involved" (Tertullian, 1966, 343). The quote provides an example of the oppositional rhetoric that Tertullian uses. A direct correlation is drawn between "heresy" and "philosophy"; he uses the terms synonymously: "what indeed has

Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the

Church? What between heretics and Christians?" (Tertullian, 1966, 344). The attack on philosophers could be a reaction against the years of Greek domination: "the thinkers of the period from the death of Aristotle to the close of the third century of the Christian era used the words 'Greeks' as synonym for 'philosophers'" (Saunders, 1966, 2). Tertullian establishes boundaries and attempts to create ideological autonomy.

"Chapter X. One Has Succeeded In Finding Definite Truth, When He Believes. Heretical

Wits Are Always Offering Many Things For Vain Discussion, But We Are Not To Be

Always Seeking "

In chapter ten, through the rhetorical device of "Definite Truth" Tertullian provides his logical method. The device of "Definite Truth" is highly derivative of

Irenaeus's polemical rhetorical device of "Rule of the Truth" from chapter nine and ten of

Against the Heresies. Tertullian appeared to be heavily influenced by Irenaeus (Hinson,

1987, 408). The methodological technique of the rhetorical "Rule of the Truth" is an ideological-conceptual device of universalistic euphemism for a particular agenda of power and normalization. Tertullian's "Rule of the Truth" device of un-questionable, absolutist, and un-human power is "Definite Truth": "your object, therefore, in seeking was to find; and your object in finding was to believe" (Tertullian, 1966, 347). Tertullian, 37 as elite-slave plague bearer to the herd, in his enslavement, attempts to enslave meaning- making. An equation for Tertullian's model is as follows: object in seeking = find = object in finding = believe.

Oppositional anti-syncretism could be a reaction against syncretistic totalitarianism. This could account for Tertullian's attack on other early Christian factions. The rhetorical othering and megalithical associations could be reactionary action emanating from the Hellenistic cultural apparatus. Tertullian is attempting to establish boundaries from an alienated ideology, amongst centuries of past Greek and current

Roman domination. He turns to the Jews for authentic lineage, but historical possibilities have shed light on the cultural realities: "the Jewish community in Carthage probably did

not go back beyond the second century" (Wright, 2000, 1030). Yet it is the Jews who

Tertullian turns to, that is, Latinized Jews.

The pristine origin claim technique as displayed by Tertullian is carried over from the propaganda of sectarian Jews. It is the attempts by various factions to establish new orthodoxy from lower status within the religious hierarchy; Keith Hopkins comments:

"the frequent direct quotations and the even more numerous echoes of and allusions to the Jewish scriptures... the Jewish scriptures provide the scaffolding within which the

life, sayings, and achievements of Jesus were constructed" (2000, 291). The discourse's role is for enforcement and legitimacy and the mode depends on the historical realities.

Turning again to Hopkins: "early Christian leaders seemed to think they could make a stronger and more convincing appeal to their at first predominantly Jewish Christian

readers/hearers if they could show that Jewish prophets of old had predicted all that came 38 to pass in Jesus' life" (Hopkins, 200, 291). In the Christian modules there are many power propaganda techniques.

My presentation of Tertullian is important because it reminds us that Christianity was created around metaphors of torture and guilt. It also reminds us that it is through processes of human animals rallying for power that religious truth is created. Religious things are created around the strange abstract aspects of humanity. States of power always have a vested interest in religion.

King James and St. Patrick both created ideological meaning using Celtic mythological metaphor. Bruce Lincoln, in Death, War, And Sacrifice looks at "The Indo-

European Cattle-Raiding Myth." He writes: "perhaps the legend of St. Patrick having driven the snakes out of Ireland ought to be interpreted as expressing the belief that he thereby transformed the island into a paradisal realm" (Lincoln, 1991, 30, note). Just what kind of paradise the island was turned into and from which group or groups it was transformed depends on who is in control of the metaphor. Scottish folklorist Lewis

Spence comments on some Celtic metaphors of serpent:

act of the snakes, says Dr. Owen Pughe, was only performed at one season of the year - in the summer... he who possessed it [the ejaculation of serpents] was certain to gain any lawsuit in which he might engage and would be well received by kings... the Druids, says Davies, are called Nadredd, adders, by Welsh bards... transmigration was symbolized by the serpent, which cast its skin and returned to a second youth... Algernon Herbert was of the opinion that the serpents were none other than the Druids themselves. (21)

The serpent metaphor has been transformed and re-created by many different factions.

Each is truthful depending on the ideology and the interests from which it speaks.

The serpent could also be revered in Celtic religiosity and in being so the metaphor of the snakes and the act of driving them out could come now to signify rival 39 philosophies. There is satanic lore to consider. There are religiosities in Scotland and

Northern Ireland, and Ireland to some extent, which are philosophically individualistically based. W. B. Yeats claimed: "that we do not hear more of them is merely because the darker kinds of magic have been but little practised... I know better now. We have the dark powers much more than I thought, but not as much as the

Scottish" (Yeats, 2004, 31). He goes on to recount: "I asked about the origin of his sorcery, but he got little of importance, except that he had learned it from his father"

(Yeats, 2004, 33-34). The serpent could symbolize victory over theism, or the potential for victory over theism. Lincoln comments: "iconoclasm has no specific political content, although it always has a political dimension... often it is employed as an instrument of conquest or colonial domination, for instance, in St. Boniface's destruction of the

Germans' sacred oak at Geismar or later missionaries' campaigns against the sacred art of the missionized" (Lincoln, 1989, 118-119). The Celtic serpent is a good example of

Lincoln's idea of "later missionaries' campaigns against the sacred art of the missionized" (Lincoln, 1989, 119). When Celtic serpents represent the will of the second goat it seems plausible for St. Patrick to want to rid Ireland of the satanic force. After Eve and the fruit the serpent left Eden and traveled north to Ireland.

In various Celtic myth tales it is said that the faerie folk are children of Lilith:

"the legends say that the good people are descended from Adam's first wife, Lilith"

(Asala, 1995, 60). I wrote earlier that Lilith from Isaiah 34 is translated as screech owl in the King James Version. Henderson and Cowan iterate about the children of screech owl: "it seems clear, given the majority of description, that the fairies were aristocratic, engaging in the hunt, playing music, and dancing. In many cases their home was 40 described as a hall or court" (Henderson and Cowan, 2001, 65). This "aristocratic" quality is at odds with the Latin Palestinian slave ideology behind Christianity. From before or after the Reformation the faerie folk metaphor is powerfully ambiguous, and especially so during its earlier inception. In addition "Christianity would accept only two categories of spirits, angels and devils, and fairies belonged to neither" (Henderson and

Cowan, 2001, 127). This did not give faeries immunity from King James but it did allow for a powerful metaphor. Henderson and Cowan comment: "once fairy belief became identified as demonically inspired, it too was a target for reformers... the rise of the demonic, and the subsequent demonisation of the fairies can be traced in Scotland through the witch trials" (Henderson and Cowan, 2001, 127). The earlier failed amalgamations of religious sentiments had given the faerie metaphor powerful potentiality: "the intermingling of fairies and witches is also found in belief traditions about the goddess... James VI was of the opinion that the court of the goddess Diana was composed of fairies" (Henderson and Cowan, 2001, 135). The metaphor of screech owl and the faerie folk constitutes the path of the second goat.

Religiosity can take on many forms. Certain non-religious metaphors could be transformed over time through the creative action into religious/socio-political metaphor.

The following analysis relates to the material in that it demonstrates through the examples of soccer in Scotland and subgenres of metal music that the vectors of religious subject matter extend beyond the limits of what is normally constituted as religious.

Soccer in Scotland is my first example. The two teams of Glasgow, collectively known as the Old Firm, Rangers F.C. and Celtic represent much more than just simple rival sports teams with corporate motivations. The teams represent the sectarian divide 41 between the Vatican and Ulster-Scots in Glasgow. The metaphor is strongly religious to the point that for a Rangers player to openly confess his Catholicism was only just tolerated with Mo Johnston in 1989. The team was established in 1873. To digress for a moment of reflection about the ideas "Celtic" and "British"; the two are examples of creative cultural developments that require religion for nourishment. The various Irish terrorist splinter groups collectively known as The Fenians were an organization whose name was derived from non-Abrahamic religious sentiment that came to be associated with Catholicism. The name comes from the Celtic hero Fionn. Within Celtic metaphor discourse factional advancement for many sides are plausible. The early Christian Jews made a similar effort to portray Jesus as a "sacred hero" (Hopkins, 2000, 287). Diabolic reversions are a reality of interpretive freedom and cultural assertion. From within the

Fionn myths, Diarmaid could be used as a metaphor against Fenian domination.

Diarmaid could be used as metaphor for other marginal peoples in north and

Northern Ireland against the universalism of rival factions. The events in the various gospels of Fionn following Diarmaid's murder support this: "Fionn went for the water, and when he thought on Grainne he would spill the water and he would think of

Diarmaid, he would take sorrow, and he would take it to him but Diarmaid was dead before Fionn returned... and they understood that Diarmaid was guiltless and the Fein were exceedingly sorrowful about what had befallen" (Macalister, 1994, 264-2). In the new interpretation Diarmaid becomes the forgotten folk hero of Ulster.

Scottish soccer support congregations have developed orthodoxy and heresy. The soccer action groups from the Old Firm of the early 1980 have created orthodoxy through dress code. Like an orthodox Jew the various youth action groups who followed Rangers 42

F.C. created ways to distinguish themselves as a faction. Instead of side curls and kippah they chose a shaved head and rolled up pants. Skinhead raiment became orthodoxy for action based soccer support groups in Scotland. For a period of time all was violently normal and right for the Old Firm until the emerging soccer movement from Aberdeen found economic prosperity and new romantic music. The support groups from Aberdeen challenged the established orthodoxy through their own new dress and music. Aberdeen supporters adopted posh designer disco cloths, eyeliner, and feathered hair. This was antithetical to the established pub fashions and music involved with Rangers F.C. and

Celtic. Instead of singing songs like "The Billy Boys" it was "Smalltown Boy." Through violent clashes with the Old Firm supporters and many other clubs Aberdeen established its new orthodoxy.

Activities within pop-culture underground music could be viewed as factions in pursuit of an aesthetic power or religious capital. Within metal music and the subgenre of

"black metal", much like biblical exegeses, truths are re-defined and confiscated through selfish creative assertions.

The canon of metal music has been spilt into several sub-genres including new wave of British metal, thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, power metal, black metal - and there are many more but this is enough data for my purpose - and the genres come and go and change. From a broad focus all the sub-genres are part of the same category; all of them are metal. These categories can be split further linking thrash, death and black metal together, separated from power metal. The focus can then be narrowed more to find ideological and aesthetic differences between death metal and black metal. It could be argued that black metal was formed as a reaction to death metal in the late eighties. Prior 43 black metal was not a well defined classification because the genre was under development and the term had not been fully confiscated by the new generation who listened to the eighties bands and created campaigns to generate myth and ideology from the older bands' ideas. The listeners who picked up on some of the metaphors and ideas from the eighties bands attempted to establish orthodoxy from the information developed unintentionally by the "first wave." In the early nineties many of the newly defined black metal bands were very vocal in the assertion of an authentic black metal. They reacted to other similar metal genres as well as to other newer black metal bands that were seen as hieratical to authentic black metal. (For more on this see Moynihan and Soderlind

[1998].)

The focus can revert to a broad based focus to include categories off grid. In this mode heavy metal can be linked with punk and industrial as extreme or underground music in contrast with mainstream music genres. Or on another level black metal and power metal could be classified with certain Wagnerian traditions or from another categorical perspective black metal and power metal are separate when in comparison with seventies ambient artists such as Tangerine Dream; in this case black metal is conjoined with ambient genres and is separate from other heavy metal genres.

Motivation for the category is an important issue. One could assume that skinhead black metal incorporates racist ideologies because perhaps previous music-based factions prior to skinhead black metal with similar uniforms may have shown attention to racist ideologies. When viewed from a perspective that focuses on American skinhead black metal the ideologies fall more into satanic libertarianism than blood and soil "family values" ideological perspectives. This changes if the focus is switched over to the 44 majority of eastern European skinhead black metal factions circa the late 1990s. If categories are similar in one mode it does not make them similar in another mode. In

another mode the comparison might be valid. All three factions could agree with certain

aspects and in this way the broad classification of "skinhead" is valid. In another

comparison, one that deals with the physical appearance, the shaved head as ideological

sentiment in skinhead black metal in correlation with traditional white nationalist and

skinhead physicality are incorrectly categorized together. American skinhead black metal

is a mix of shaved headed members along with members who possess the traditionally

established long hair of "black metal proper." But in another outlook "skinhead" has a

connection with 1960's mod and Jamaican based factions in conjunction with British pub

and punk culture. In this mode "skinhead" can be explored from a sociological

perspective as a reaction to British culture and colonialism, as can some factions within

the category of oi skinhead music with mod roots. But to explore this avenue of

"skinhead" from a perspective of looking into racial skinhead black metal connections

with Slavonic national socialist black metal the Jamaican influenced skinhead category

application would not be valid. What is a "skinhead"? The classifications and categories

provide several possible answers. The particular purposes of categories behind

"skinhead" are numerous but they are valid depending on how they communicate for

particular factions.

The soccer example shows how religious metaphor can take on un-religious forms

and apply orthodoxies or lines of normality rooted in the ideology of factional social

locations. The black metal metaphor shows how humans will use religious justifications,

as seen through the example of claims to an "authentic" black metal, to exploit the 45 opportunities within a particular social stratum. Both examples demonstrate constructions of categories and, as well, the creativity and power behind classifications.

The effectiveness of the metaphor depends on the power of the factions involved.

A comparison is only as good as its classification, which is only as good as its domain awareness. Categories are creations that manifest from factional thrusts. Categories are constructed; they are fabricated; they are artificial. Categories are a product of interested imposition.

Conclusion

The left hand path of Leviticus' second goat from Sinai blazes like a burning star through the Wilderness of Sin to Solomon and his pagan united monarchy; taking form in screech owl/Lilith during the Southern Kingdom of Judah under Uzziah; and onward against Jesus through Legion of Gerasa. A mode of biblical resistance is revealed. The goat shows priests as sorcerers and turns Jesus into a necromantical vampiric exorcist.

For clarification sake I will briefly look at "transgressive" and what the method encompasses. The tradition comes from art that attempts to violate the senses by overstepping boundaries of normality through the use of gratuitous incident. The method is open to the ideology of the faction of which who makes utilization of the technique.

But with that said there are certain tropes within the genre. The works generally deal with mental states and the construction of social realms. Extreme violence and sexuality are foundational to the point of departure as depicting morbid inner worlds transformed into actuality. 46

In the discipline of film an examples can be seen through Dada and surrealism going back to Bunuel with Un chien andalou. Later, in the USA, reacting to the influence of film makers like John Waters, the genre was formalized into something by people in

New York (Sargent, 1995). This New York formulation of the transgressive approach could be viewed as a low point for the concept. The setting up of a school around the transgressive method is hollow and contradicts the methods momentum. It is better for an individual to watch non-art horror films as an example of transgressive art as opposed to

"Trangressive Art Film".

The same could be said around the idea of transgressive music. Music artists that seek to create transgressive noise fail because the motivation is systematized and thusly the creative spirit is stifled. To be surreally strong the music art must naturally fall into transgressive territory. That is not to say that there are not certain conventions from within the newly formed, and I write this painfully, "noise genre". The true transgression arises from the sound artists that naturally create new noise as reprieve from over­ produced public and corporate music, but the motivation should be unconscious and realized after the creation, The pioneers of the "noise' genre did not set out to create noise, rather noise was their musical creation. After the art has been set free into the hierarchies of critic and market place then let the labels and schools cater to the art. The music proper of the market place is noise to a transgressive sound creator and the sounds created in reaction to the market place music is the sound of creative freedom; or at least a metaphor of that ideal.

In an effective transgressive work the declaration of "transgressive" should happen post-creation and not before. This thesis is not specifically a pure work of art. The 47 use of "transgressive" in the title is placed for the sake of academic organization; I must be true to my medium. My interpretation, albeit deliberately gratuitous, and from a grammatical sense is transgressive, but it was not deliberately transgressive in the sense of an attempted initiation into a disciplinary club, and in fact if the thesis was a different type of art "transgressive" would be omitted from the title. Rather than attempting to cater to a particular school the thesis naturally falls into the free transgressive tradition.

My commentary is fundamentally empowered by Nietzsche and Freud with a focus on the individual from the more psycho-social realms of their ideas. The themes that I have chosen for my creative narrative reading and commentary were used to invoke a sense of suspicion when encountering religious truths. By looking at symbols from scripture and other propaganda the ambiguous nature of truth is revealed. Other possibilities are created.

Religious metaphors are instigated by factions. The implications of the action behind categorizations and philosophies about category and taxonomy are worth analyzing.

A ruling power has a vested interest in religion (or lack thereof) and of how that religion is communicated. Nietzsche writes: "[the] process of naming gives rise to concepts, seen as the consequence of an artificial process of differentiation, classification, and designation" (Schirft, 1990, 125). Jonathan Z. Smith proposed that within the area of religious studies laws from taxonomical systems that were not intended for the humanities and not created to pose moral or judgemental signification have been executed through ideological designations. Smith iterates: "in the classification of religions, a dichotomous agenda of division has been most frequently employed. 48

However, unlike the biological system, there are usually normative implications or the assignment of positive or negative valences which render the classification useless"

(Smith, 1982, 6). Smith writes: "confidence rested, in Patterns, on adapting Goethe's morphological project, on reorienting it away from its focus on botanical objects to religious formations... the 'sacred' appears to function in a manner similar to leaf in

Goethe's Metamorphosis" (Smith, 2004, 83-84). Nietzsche comments on "leaf' and "Ur- plant":

Every idea originates through equating the unequal. As certainly no one leaf is exactly similar to any other, so certain is it that the idea "leaf' has been formed through an arbitrary omission of these individual differences, through a forgetting of the differentiating qualities, and this idea now awakens the notion that in nature there is, besides leaves, a something called the "leaf', perhaps a primal form from according to which all leaves were woven, drawn, accurately measured, coloured, crinkled, painted, but by unskilled hands, so that no copy had turned out correct and trustworthy as a true copy of the primal from. We call a man "honest"... "the Honesty!" That means again: the "leaf' is the cause of the leaves. We really and truly do not know anything at all about an essential quality which might be called the honesty. (1972, 5)

Systems are communicated through ideological evaluation and metaphor and presented as something autonomously predetermined. It all links back to a sacred centre core. Smith comments: "It consists in encompassing morphology in a metaphysical hierarchy"

(Smith, 2004, 94). All parts are dictated from the essence; the essence drives the process.

But even Father himself finally admitted that it was all a lie. Smith iterates the story of

Schiller's intervention on Goethe: "'it is an ideal'; Goethe ultimately accepted Schiller's correction" (Smith, 2004, 99). Nietzsche writes: "man, as the infinitely protracted echo of an original sound: man; as the multiplied copy of the one arch-type: man... he starts from the error of believing that he has these things immediately before him as pure objects. He therefore forgets that the original metaphors of perception are metaphors, and takes them 49 for the things themselves" (Nietzsche, 1972, 7). The mystical taxonomical application has resulted in the execution of an essentialist system. Goethe realized that from a socio- cultural perspective the concept was poetical.

One truth leads to numerous other truths. There is no essence to mythology. There is no individual in the pure ideal of a truly non-differential human animal. The herd is imperative for the individual's identity. Max Stirner describes the state "lie," or the ongoing processes of domination and truth insertion, as "right": "right is the spirit of society. If society has a will, this will is simply right: society exists only through right.

But, as it endures only exercising sovereignty over individuals, right is its sovereign will.

Aristotle says justice is the advantage of society" (Stirner, 2005, 186). The individual ceases to exist without socialistic structures and social interactions in conflict. The idea is not to be nihilistic but rather continue onward in the knowledge that there are no true ideologies and with the will to maintain a path of individuality and to aspire for abstract fitness.

The tools which allow for movement within social stratification depend on that which is most effective within the particular stratum; language and artistic communication could be major components to an individual's development and well being. Nietzsche speaks out against the learning of many languages: "it fills the memory with words instead of thoughts... the learning of many languages is injurious, inasmuch as it arouses a belief in possessing dexterity and, as a matter of fact... it opposes the acquirement of solid knowledge" (Nietzsche, 2006, 144, sec.267). The utilization of several types of lies (many languages) can be used to promote the lie of an elevated social discourse, the ideal and appearance that by learning metaphors from another set of word 50 principles you somehow come into contact with the "essence" of metaphor and communication. The so-called learning of many languages can be viewed as regressive in that it is only a pose or a way to keep up appearances within various social strata and within a larger stratification. It displays exhibitionism for power through all the various metaphor types or different ways to lie. Expression of the native language, the language that has the most hope for communication, actually suffers. From this perspective it is more important to be aware of the history behind and the political motivations of the translator than attempt to ineptly "learn" a foreign language and then penetrate the sacred

"autograph." The focus should be on suspicion and on the most effective mode of communicating the lies. The befuddlement of foreign metaphors for the sake of social elevation and egoism could cause decay of the natural language and poetry of the culture.

Freud's idea about the individual and society can add some theoretical stabilization to this approach to religious metaphor. Civilization and Its Discontents questions communal existence in conjunction with the human drive for personal fulfilment. Civilization counteracts the drive for pleasure and it subverts it into institutional forums. The processes could be viewed both from an individualistic as well socialistic frame. In this inclination the two ideas are integral. The assertion of individuality is achieved through interaction with others: the drive for domination starts first between child and parent (Stirner, 2005, 9). The child's assertion and failure is a valid metaphor for anxiety and other classifications for the concept of neurotic religiosity.

Freud asserts: "the origin of the religious temperament can be traced in clear outline to the child's feeling of helplessness" (Freud, 2002, 10). It is a foundational institution. The development begins with child and parent. From a base point of departure, Stirner 51 surmises: "because each thing cares for itself and at the same time comes into constant collision with other things, the combat of self-assertion is unavoidable" (Stimer, 2005, 9).

That is the unavoidable incivility of self-assertion.

Freud addresses the concept of the faith. The social whole objectifies sublimation.

The individual is fettered to civilization, and in turn fettered to "their time." Drugs are a good escape from "their time" but they enhance the literal seeking for more drugs. It is devastating to run out. Drugs could be progressive in that they create a "time" distinct from civilization. Freud, sensitively, promoted drugs over faith as did Nietzsche with fitness. The spirit of Civilization and Its Discontents is exemplified through Freud's sources of human suffering: "the superior power of nature, the frailty of our bodies, and the inadequacy of the institutions" (Freud, 2002, 24). Deathly, the three sources are actually one.

The ideal is for each individual to be allowed the opportunity to feel dignified in their existence. But the actuality of the previously stated ideal is that the individual is left to create a sense of power through agency and an idea constructed realm; left to the reality in which the body and society will allow. The individual is not aware of the greater mechanisms because they do not exist as such beyond the realm of the individual's circumstance, self conception, and will to create labour and build a mental and physical realm. Under the shadow of theism a sense of dignity is a more difficult achievement.

The possibilities of meaning behind religious discourse are numerous. The effectiveness of the metaphor depends on the justifications and ramifications of the particular interpretation. In my commentary I have tried to show that there is never one 52 exclusive "meaning" to religious mythology. A creative narrative transgressive approach provides a forum of openness with regard to the ambivalence of religious truth. The readings provide reminder that god is not beyond humanity because it is part of humanity. I have attempted to provide a different type of exegesis. Religion is not one thing. Scripture can be - and has been - turned into many things, reared in nothing. 53

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