Marilyn Manson Was My Gateway Drug to Traditional Satanism

The beginning of my descent to depravity

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

This is another of my more disturbing essay pieces, something else that I look back on and wish never happened. The beauty of it is that by the grace and mercy of God, I’ve been redeemed from this hell.

When I speak of Satanism in my context, I’m referring to Theistic Satanism, otherwise known as Traditional Satanism, associated with the occult and people such as Aleister Crowley.

Marilyn Manson is a controversial figure and has been wrongly blamed for so many things that he probably had nothing to do with, such as the massacre at Columbine High School.

The meaning that my friends and I got from his work is our own. For me, Marilyn Manson was the beginning of my descent into utter depravity.

From what I understand, Manson himself has never claimed to be a Theistic Satanist. He did intend to be controversial, but by his own words he is not himself a Satanist.

In the beginning, a young bloke named Brian Warner created an utterly complex, carefully crafted character named after two American cultural icons. The character’s name was Marilyn Manson.

He had chosen the name Marilyn after Marilyn Monroe because he thought she was sexy…