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"The Cult of Cthulhu Bible - Unimpressive"
This is not a well-written or interesting book. The author knows the works of Lovecraft, Ligotti, Phil Hine, and Anton LaVey, but doesn't seem to understand any of them well, or at least does not notice when his own ideas doesn't correspond to them. (I pass no judgment on the Gurdjieff material, as I'm not familiar with it.)

Much of the book is devoted to repeated claims that Cult members are free to believe whatever they want. The book also claims that the author has a direct line to the Old Ones and that the world will be engulfed in a holocaust when they return, which somewhat narrows the field of acceptable beliefs.

A... More > substantial portion of the Cthulhu Mythos section can be found word-for-word on Wikipedia and at other sites. It would have been more helpful if the author had explained what these beings mean in his personal pantheon.

The ritual portion of the book includes the author's own system of black magic, which consists of commands to awaken followed by three three-line poems to be said three times a day for a year. The book is rounded out by the "Nine Angles," in a section modeled on the Enochian chants at the end of the Satanic Bible. Overall, this section is sketchy and incomplete by any standards.

The author is also an advocate of ritual murder, and the book presents women as sex objects. Those who object to either of these will be highly displeased with those sections.

I should add that the OCR in the PDF version is poorly done, making running searches via Acrobat completely useless.

Why, in a world with such authors as Phil Hine, Peter Carroll, Anton LaVey, Don Webb, Michelle Belanger, Konstantinos, S. Jason Black, Christopher Hyatt, Kenneth Grant, Michael Bertiaux, Stephen Flowers, etc., anyone needs this book is beyond me. It will probably receive some recognition for the title, and those who have read little on dark side occultism might be impressed. Knowledgeable occultists will likely find its contents highly disappointing. < Less

"Cth-lulu "
Admit it. One has to adimire anyone who takes the time to write their own manifesto. Baring all one's inner beliefs for the scrutiny of others is risky and takes guts. Perhaps if more people wrote down what they beleived, as Venger Satanis has, and opened themselves up for criticism, we'd have far fewer people aimlessly adrift spiritually and/or philosophically in this world. As for the book, this unique fusion of ideas from various occult streams (both traditional and post-modern magick)creates a gloriously frightening hybrid. Anyone who believes the book is nothing more than a jumble of others' ideas slapped together should be reminded that EVERY philosophy/religion is a... More > collection of ideas from other sources. Original thought regarding the human conditon ended about 2,500-3000 years ago. Get used to it. We're all working with borrowed ideas. The trick is which ideas one chooses to create a potent admixture of thought. Like cooking, one chooses existing ingredients and methods to create something unique. Venger Satanis has cooked up one mighty, unwholesome dish, and that is, I suspect, precisely his intent. < Less

"Eye opening book" I felt the same way about this book as I did about the Satanic Bible the first time I read it. It fleshed out a lot of my own views and also gave me some new ones, and also a new paradigm. I thought the book was excellently written, very accessible language for someone who is new to the Cthulhu Mythos, with an explanation of the Gods contained within. I myself am not new to the Mythos and needed no explanation. Venger Satanis deserves credit in the Occult community, in my opinion for his pioneering in the publicized worship of the Ancient Ones. The closest anyone (to my knowledge) has ever come is with the Simon Necronomicon or the text of Al-Azif, which contains nearly impossible criteria for the worship of the Ancient Gods. Overall, I would definately reccomend it for fans of HP Lovecraft and the Mythos and to anyone searching for enlightenment in their lives that also is drawn to the dark side of things.

"An intriguing synthesis"
It's hard to do new things in the world of Magick and the Occult. When one is treading the path worn bare by the past greats like Crowley and Regardie, more modern visionaries like Anton LaVey, or even the relatively recent (and continuing) contributions of Hine and Carroll, it's nearly impossible to come up with new ideas, until you stop and realize that Crowley, Regardie, LaVey, Carroll, Hine, and others didn't really INVENT anything, at least not in total. They synthesised what they knew, what they expierenced, and what they themselves had concocted.

In Cthulhu Cult, Venger Satanis has done a pretty damn good job, in my opinion, of synthesizing several... More > different magickal systems into a cohesive, but graciously loose and interpretive, system. A more descriptive name for the book could have been "Mythos-oriented Chaos Magick for the Satanist" which of course would have made a really STUPID title, but an apt description.

I, of course, have only read the book, and the proof of the pudding of any magick system is in it's application, which is something I look forward to working with. < Less

"Geez..." Two decades ago I left the magickal community due to the constant immature bickering between "disiplines" and I see the behavior is still alive and well. I'll stick to my solo work... Geez, people. It's a book. The author has a right to his opinion. Stop trying to disprove the guy or attack his credibility -- his opinions are just as valid as yours. If you didn't like the book, then don't buy it, move along, and leave the reviews to folks with a better grasp on their mental faculties. I came here to read a review of the book, not observe a pissing contest between adolescent boys. Your attacks on others won't stop ME from buying the book, but it will stop me from considering your outburst as anything more than verbal diarrhea.