Customer Reviews

Cthulhu Cult

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Before we begin, there is some unpleasantries we need to address right away.

Buyers beware: Venger Satanis, aka Darrick Dishaw, is an admitted plagiarist. He was removed and the hardcover versions of this book were aborted from Waning Moon Publishers; and later Nephilim Press when they learned of his lies and misdeeds. This book steals information and intellectual property from Wikipedia. See all the details on the website 'Papers Falling From An Attic Window'; which is hosted by Lovecraftian scholar Dan Harms, as there is a large section on the plagiarism.

Furthermore, Disahw also takes most of his fourth way descriptions from P.D. Ouspensky's THE FOURTH WAY, and essentially uses G.I. Gurdgieff's essays as his own. He also takes lines from Phil Hine's PRIME CHAOS and CONDENSED CHAOS regarding Paradim Evolution and the general description of Chaos Magic, and he "borrows" his text on Neuro-Linguistic Programming taking both from Hine and he tweaks works by Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton Erickson, yet he doesn't cite them as sources. He has also stolen and copied artwork by Peter Carroll.

This is the fraud you're dealing with. "AFAKE!"

Now that we have that ugly business out of the way, it's fair to say Dishaw is the Uwe Boll of the occult world. He's a irrelevant clown, and is so pathetic, he actually makes hack author Raven Silverwolf look good. What does this book have to offer? Nothing. Anyone who's read it knows there is no religion, magick, or occult significance. Andone who claims otherwise, is either artifically trying to prop up Dishaw, or doesn't know what real magick is. Dishaw is a fake and a liar, just as his plagiarism demonstrated. All this book is, a personal manifesto from a guy who likes horror movies, cartoons, soccer mom Satanism, H.P. Lovecraft, roll playing, poker, and pornography, but couldn't find a website that had all of these together, so he wrote a painfully bad book filled with grammatical mistakes and stolen lines that incorporates all of his interests.

He's an unoriginal mimic, stealing everything from someone else, but creating nothing of his own. He shamelessly copied LaVey's appearance, and dubbed himself a "high priest" without any legitimate accreditation. Furthermore, his entire book and faux cult is basically a rated X 'Call of Cthulhu' fan fiction. Don't believe me? Check it out. Don't waste your cash here, download the free PDF version! (Especially those of you who are Lovecraftian Satanists, or even practitioners in any magick system or the occult. Pay special attention to his "sigils". That showcases his utter lack of knowledge more than anything else!) For the rest of you who may be dubious of me and swayed by all the good reviews (written by his friends), look through the book and find all of his literature, rituals, prayers, work shops, scheduled public appearances, ceremonies, and temple locations. Oh dear, he has none of that! All he has, is the same mission statement used over and over again: screaming at the top of his lungs his favorite catch word "Left Hand Path", every color of green imaginable ad nauseam, and endless Lovecraftian adjectives thrown four or five words deep to pad his page count. (Yet another person not Lovecraft trying to write like Lovecraft...)

Dishaw is a fantasy/horror geek and roll player, and his entire book shows that in spades. The book is more geared as a Live Action Roll Playing handbook for 'Call of Cthulhu' fans at a convention. More-so, the entire Cult of Cthulhu is Dishaw's own private booster seat where he can sit at the kitchen table and see above it and talk about his cult and how great he is, but not get shouted down by others because his book is his vehicle, so he can spam his juvenile thought diarrhea as much as he wants. He needs an audience because in the real world he's a nobody from a yokel town in Wisconsin that no one pays attention to. And like a pom or a chihuahua, he needs the constant petting and attention of sitting on a collective lap to reinforce his own ego, because otherwise he has nothing to show for his menial, pathetic little life except "accomplishments" he didn't earn, but ones that he self-proclaimed and self-bestowed upon himself; but in the real world, means nothing.

Ironically on his website, Dishaw complains that he has boxes upon boxes of these books no one wants to buy (probably because we can read all the stolen information online or on Wiki for free, or download the whole PDF file), complains he doesn't have more Facebook friends, complains he has jewelry he can't sell, and he even gripes that if he doesn't get more cult members and participation (different from his registered website users), he's not going to pay to keep his site ad-free. Boo hoo.

Overall Dishaw doesn't have a clue. He wants a Lovecratian world, and he has a very basic grasp of things like The Fourth Way and Left Hand Path, but he doesn't understand it well enough to demonstrate how it fits into his pretend world of toys, movies, and roll playing. To compound that folly, he's too lazy to do it himself, so he continually falls back on stealing hodgepodges of ideas and prose from others and haphazardly tries to tie it all together with absurd notions to prop himself up. But the sad part is, Dishaw doesn't understand the material he wants to embrace, and it's painfully obvious when we see his words intermixed with someone else's, or when he only generalizes his views without ever getting into specific details.

What do I mean by that? Well, to start with, his ego is his own worst enemy. He thinks he knows everything he needs to know, and therefore doesn't research his field (or outside his field) to enrich his understanding. After reading extremely well-written books on the occult, one will easily see Dishaw's lack of knowledge really becomes a problem since his only goal is to be a "name" in the occult community, but he doesn't want to do the work or study to make it happen. His lack of understanding in basic occult concepts and the history behind them is glaringly obvious. Moreover, he seems unwilling to put any real effort or work into educating himself, as he still clings to his "cliff notes" magick of scribbled sigils and wishful thinking. This has already destroyed his credibility with other groups working in a Lovecraftian current, and he is also publically mocked by the Church of Satan and Temple of Set---two groups he applied for membership in, and was rejected from.

For example, when reading LIBER FALXIFER, it's obvious the author is well acquainted with: Kaballah, Goetia, Hoodoo/Vodou, Traditional witchcraft, Theurgy, and various myth cycles from all over the world. Even though the book is fairly focused on one tradition, it benefits tremendously from the author's wide knowledge base. But when you read Dishaw's book, it's just cut and pasted Wiki descriptions, and a very general sense of what things mean to him, but it doesn't go past that. How does Thomas Ligotti, Satanism, Arkham, and poker link to bring about Old Ones from space? Nothing is original. Instead of crafting his own world, Dishaw falls back on taking everything that's already been established, packaged, and trademarked so he doesn't have to do the legwork. So what we have with Dishaw's writing, is an author who writes about magick from neither knowledge OR experience. So what does that leave? A book of pure fantasy and speculation devoid of any worthwhile information gleaned from experience or methods developed from innovative personal praxis. In a word: fiction. He should write about philosophy, not practical magick.

Take Dishaw away from his book, and all you have is a confused and lonely middle aged man sitting at home crying into his milkshake and lamenting the fact his Tiefling Wizard would have lived if only his D20 hadn't failed that critical save against that [forest, feldgrau, emerald, jade, kelly, celadon, darmouth] GREEN!!!!1!1! [SIC] dragon's breath weapon.

I agree with the view that Venger Satanis is not to be trusted as an information source.
I downloaded for free Liber AOS, and never read it.
I was going to read Cthulhu Cult and had talked about it with Venger for a long time, then dropped my decision when I saw Venger for who he really was.
The empire of the Cult of Cthulhu, was based on the flawed presumption that he could institute a lovecraftian theology.
There were nice videos, including one I miss where they held a ritual, but since then nothing has happened, the cult has degenerated and gone the way of the Cult of Carbon and Al Gore.
Venger was always advertising for himself as a leader, when he strikes me as having absolutely no leadership talent whatsoever.
I had used for too long to consider the Cult of Cthulhu as a litterary society rather than a cult.
Now Venger's empire has collapsed, if it ever was an empire in the first place existing anyplace else than in his mind.
Then he tried to mess up with the Order of Nine Angles.
Despite numerous warnings from others, he didn't listen.
Now he's on the run from reality, on the run from common sense, on the run from authenticity, from intellectual self - honesty.
He's even on the run from egotism, and especially his own ego.
When you're no longer running from your ego you can confront it head - on, instead of denying it like some stupid New Age movements have tried to do.
Lovecraft himself would turn in his grave if reality was able to provide him with the means necessary to do it - I would if I was Lovecraft.
So let's put it honest here - Venger is a fraud.
He has been exposed on a few places on the internet as a fraud and it's only so understandable why.
He promised he'd make a movie and never did, and paints like a 9 year old.
Venger should go be a naivist, and leave serious Satanists alone.
The dark side is not for fools and stupid clowns!
As far as I am concerned the CoC's haydays are over.

This review is not for Lovecraft fans or anyone that is involved in LHP or magick, et cetera, rather it is for plain and open-minded (albeit atheist) Joes and Josephinas that are interested in examining the birth and emergence of a cult.

I love the honesty of this bible. What is evident yet disavowed in most religions is freely admitted in Cthulhu Cult. Venger Satanis confesses to believing in something he knows isn't true as well as that the Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythology is fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions. When I look objectively at religions and their mythologies, they are equal in their preposterousness. Satanis indicates his worldview is subjective. When I suspend disbelief and enter into the subjective reality that Satanis shares with us, I am fascinated and still free to believe and incorporate similar and even incongruous beliefs and practices. It is up to me to make them fit as I see fit.

The beginning of the book contains an overview of the early acts and players in the mythology as well as a number of the alien names, descriptions and histories. I especially loved the prophecies, which are great and terrible and fortunately specific so as not to be applied willy-nilly to a number of circumstances. Like the literal physical return of Christ in the clouds there is an august event and era to look forward to with great preparation and anticipation. That it likely won't happen in our lifetime isn't as meaningful as the belief that it will happen.

There are some interesting self-discovery and self-help stuff incorporating magic. I won't do spoilers but I will say that this is not the Law of Attraction stuff, but more like the Law of Action with belief stirred in. There are some interesting visions with powerful glyphs that can be used for specific purposes.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. I can almost envision the return of the Old Ones. I would be interested in more future prophecies and then maybe even a fictional account of what really happens when they return. In a future edition an index would also be helpful.

I was once associated with Darrick Dishaw (Venger Satanis) and his "Cult" so I want to give a nice personal warning for those interested in what he calls his "work".

First off, I joined his online forum/cult website 2 years ago because I wanted to join a social site for Lovecraft fans and occult enthusiasts. I officially joined by answering three questions Venger wanted people to answer and I didnt even know what I was answering but yet I got in and that is when I began to see how much of a mindless fake he was.

Second, To anyone who wishes to buy his book BE WARNED!!! it is filled with plagerized material and you wanna know where from? Wikipedia. yes Wikipedia, and anything else in the book is stuff he ripped off other people and occult/philasophical groups. An author by the name of Daniel Harms exposed Venger for the fraud he is on his website:[...]

So this is my brief review/warning for this piece of junk in an effort to save your hard earned money going to waste but if you actually want this book just go to Venger's youtube and ask for a free PDF....yeah keep the $25!

I don't have alot of time to write an essay on how I enjoyed the 'Cthulhu Cult', But I will say that this book is very enlightening and gives a good message.
I'a I'a Cthulhu F'tagn!

While having many detractors, what Mr. Satanas has done here, is basically break down characters from the many Lovecraft books. This will make introducing someone to Lovecraft's works less intimidating.

As far as the mythos within the book, there are no new concepts that are introduced, especially with those who have been inside the Left Hand Path for years. However, this would be a great book to introduce someone who is looking for more than what the Church of Satan, Joy of Satan, or even the Temples of Satan can bring you.

Cthulhu Cult

Wow, this is a fantastic book! I've always been terrified of nightmares, and those feelings are definitely stirred up when reading Cthulhu Cult.

Venger Satanis' religion is a combination of several paths, different from what I've read before. It makes a lot of sense and is easy to follow. I really enjoyed reading it. The green oozing slimy stuff is very interesting too.

I recommend this introductory text to those who are curious about the Cult of Cthulhu. Five stars (that are always right!)

Lynne Lean

The Old Ones called to me as I read this book. While I've read numerous other books on the subject, Cthulhu Cult was written in a manner that spoke to me. For those who want to connect with the Old Ones without the BS, buy this book! The author has personal experience and insight that only come with a strong connection to the Old Ones!

'Cthulhu Cult', written by Ipsissimus of the Cult of Cthulhu, Venger Satanis, represents a great change to the way modern magicians can utilize the infamous Cthulhu Mythos of HP Lovecraft to accomplish feats in both the mundane and occult lives of the practitioner. Culling relevant morsels from a mass of sources, this book forms a slimy, glowing charnel platter sure to whet the appetite of any Magickian seriously interested in working within the paradigm of the Great Old Ones.
This book aids the formation of the Cults basic principles within the practitioner through accessible text that is rich in adjectives and metaphors. These core teachings pave the Viridian way to the nighted dynasty of the Great Old Ones, and to overall self-improvement, pursued and supplemented through the numerous other essays of the Cult of Cthulhu. Chanelling art, the occult, poetry, horror and psychology through the willed fanatacism of religion, Venger Satanis offers a glistening tentacle for human advancement in the form of this innovative and insightful book. Will you leap into the Void?

To me the expectations for the Cthulhu Cult is paramount. They bring a new viewpoint to the occult and esotericism table. Their views are sublime and have been know to produce a shudder. If you want something new, unlike anything else, then this is for you. If your thoughts pattern with any good lovecraftian, then this is for you.

Insanity is sanity in this cult. Madness is never ever without knowledge. Wisdom and green enlightenment can be attained with this syrup cult. They are the kryptonite to christianity. I am delighted to see they are selling their secrets. Because once you go Cthulhu religion goes koo koo.