Marilyn Manson vs. Boyd Rice

Boyd Rice has been a prominent figure in alternative/experimental music, and most of his work is pervaded by overtly occult themes---with an orientation distinctly towards the dark side.  Much banter has been going on over the wastelands of cyberspace about whether or not Boyd still considers himself a Satanist in accordance with the LaVeyan definition, as he has in more recent years been more vocal about his involvement in half-serious or pseudo-satirical organizations like The Partridge Family Temple, which seems to be closer in flavor to something like Discordianism or The Church of the Subgenius than to the more serious Church of Satan aesthetic.
While chaos magic and Satanism have had their overlaps---chaos magic admittedly draws from the work of Anton LaVey and shares certain core beliefs---however Satanism is something in its own right and LaVey did not have much praise for chaos magic (just hear what he has to say about it in the interview Church of Satan-member and radical traditionalist Michael Moynihan did which is featured in Disinformation's Book of Lies).  I mention this only because Boyd Rice seems to be more of a chaos magician than a Satanist these days, although I'm sure he would revile being labeled as such.  The thing about Boyd is he doesn't want to be labeled anything, regardless of whether the shoe fits.  He wants to be that happy blob of custard that you can't nail to the wall, as they say.  He would probably reject any label you would put on him, solely because he desires so strongly NOT to be pigeonholed.
Of course, Boyd Rice wrote a vituperative essay in his book "NO" which is clearly a tongue-in-cheek indictment of the Church of Satan in its current form, and of the people who make up its general membership.  But despite his apparent dislike for what he feels the Church of Satan has become, he has never backtracked about his adoration for LaVey and still refers to him as a friend.  I feel Boyd Rice will always be a Satanist in some sense, whether or not he feels at home amongst the kind of people who make up the Church of Satan's membership these days.  Boyd is a lone wolf by nature, however.  At least he didn't turn out like Zeena "un-LaVey" Schreck, and his loyalties to the man and the philosophy itself have not faltered.
Now, more to the point of this article, the influence that Boyd Rice has had on shock rocker Marilyn Manson is no secret.  There are several photographs from Marilyn Manson's early days as an up-and-coming rock celebrity depicting Marilyn Manson and band-mates hanging out with Boyd.  Boyd Rice himself has said in interviews that, whenever Manson is in his area, he calls him and pays him a visit.
Now Boyd and Manson have both always been masters of imagery and iconography, re-appropriating sometimes age-old symbols for their artistic purposes.
As of the last two years, with the release of Manson's wonderful "Born Villain" album, Manson has taken to prominently using the Cross of Lorraine in promotional artwork and in stage performances, going so far as to emblazon it on the back of his leather jacket, putting on the compact disc itself and incorporating it into the letters of his MM logo.  Although he has been using the Cross of Lorraine for years in certain instances since at least the Holy Wood era, this is the first time it has become his prominent logo.

Back cover of 2012's "Born Villain" album

Boyd has described its symbolic meaning as, "both an upright cross and an upturned cross, in one."  This represents the dualism that is so important to both Boyd and Manson's personal occult philosophy.

Manson during stage performance during the recent "Twins of Evil Tour" co-headed with Rob Zombie

A giant red light-up Cross of Lorraine hangs prominently over center-stage.

 



The purpose of this article is simply to point this out, and to enlighten those of you who think that virtually anything Manson does is not a subtle reference to something else.  As they say, "Nothing new under the sun."  Like all truly genius artists, almost everything Manson does makes reference to some other artist or piece of artwork---most frequently to obscure, underground films and to transgressive artists of the past.  See the website the Nacht Kabarett for further elucidation of the symbolism and hidden references which pervade his artistic output.

An image recently released by Manson via Facebook, with the caption "nailed it."

Side note: It strikes me as very unlikely that the release date for "Born Villain" was May 1st, also known to occultists as "Walpurgisnacht" or "Beltane," and incidentally the most important holiday in the religion of Satanism.

 

Boyd Rice seen wearing Cross of Lorraine pendant on album cover.

 

Marilyn Manson with Boyd Rice and Shaun Partridge

 

Pictured above: "Inequality serpent" symbol, the intro image to Boyd Rice's official website.  While I realize this is the mathematical inequality symbol, I can't help but notice its stylistic similarity to the Cross of Lorraine of which he is so fond.  I'm sure Boyd Rice chose to use this because he appreciates the subtle correlation and the potential double-meaning (it both refers to the dualism aspect of his philosophy which the Cross of Lorraine expresses as well as the misanthropic, elitist aspect of his worldview which the inequality symbol sums up iconically.)

Manson's earliest use of the Cross of Lorraine symbol, to my knowledge, on the cover of the novel Holy Wood, which was sadly either never finished or simply never released.  It is very subtle here, being formed abstractly by the combinations of the gun-cross and the written text. Posted on the Internet by Manson in 2000.

 

Another side note is that this symbol was used by the band H.I.M. at least once, the instance of which I am aware being in the 2004 music video for the 1999 song "Join Me In Death."

 

 

The band H.I.M., which tellingly stands for "His Infernal Majesty" (hmmm!), have flirted with occult imagery during the entire duration of their career, and despite the constant use of the number 666 and a symbol combining a heart with an upturned pentagram, frontman Ville Valo has consistently tried to claim that they are not Satanic.  Yet a song on the Venus Doom album makes reference in its title to The Nightside of Eden, an obscure dark occult book by renegade Thelemite Kenneth Grant, and the band has recently taken to using the overtly Crowleyan "Seal of Babalon" in combination with their "heartagram" symbol.  Their most recent album uses Malachim script on the cover, a language developed by the occultist Agrippa, and features an ouroboros of sorts.  I have nothing against the band and find much of their music to be catchy, but I think its obvious that they (or at least Ville Valo) have a deep interest in the occult and "black magic," as they would not use so much of a variety of occult symbols nor would they be so knowledgeable about genuinely occult subject matter (such as Malachim script and books by Kenneth Grant) if they weren't deeply interested in the subject.  I think they backtrack when confronted on the issue because they don't want to have to defend it or be associated with what many deem "objectionable" or "demonic," which is unfortunate.  Another reference to Aleister Crowley can be seen in their album title "Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice," clearly a play on the title of a well-known Crowley book titled Magick in Theory and Practice.

 

The newest H.I.M. band logo, featured on much recent promotional material.  Do I detect a subtle reference to the Cross of Lorraine here, or is it just me?