The Four Central Supports of the ECoD


The theology of the ECoD is based on four central foundation-stones: Freedom, Faith, Ecstasy, and Hope.

Freedom. We do not teach the Myths of Freedom. These myths extol Freedom while actually supporting the opposite--conditioning humanity to accept more and more subtle forms of slavery. They are tools of the Spectacle and as such must be identified, neutralized, and eradicated.

We teach real Freedom, total Freedom, complete with all its attendant horrors. In truth Freedom is to have the soft and comforting silken robes of the Spectacle stripped off leaving us naked and shivering before the all-penetrant, all-judging, oppressive Eyes of the Universe. There is no more hiding behind impotent mythologies. This is the true nature of total Freedom--a frightening and necessary component of Salvation--and is what we must teach in the ECoD.

Faith. Believe it or not, faith plays an important role in the ECoD. Christians have always placed great stress on faith and their Bible even claims that by its power one can move a mountain. That is not true, of course, since in their 2000 or so years of existence, no Christian has ever moved a mountain by faith (you cannot hide a missing or moved mountain!), nevertheless faith is a power and has its uses.

Faith is simply strong belief, a belief so strong it is capable of creating change within the psyche. This type of belief is crucial in ritual and magical contexts in order to develop the energies needed for success. However, problems arise when faith overflows its natural ritual context and spills out into daily life, where it leads to the usual idiocies believed and practiced by most Christians and many other religious individuals. Therefore, in the ECoD we teach practical methods whereby faith can be turned on for ritual purposes but deactivated for daily living. This is an essential skill to master in order to avoid most religious pitfalls, to keep your life free from the shackles of faith, and yet to still imbue your ritual work with the power of pure and steadfast belief, no matter what tradition you are working.

Ecstasy. This is what others have erroneously called "the pursuit of happiness," but happiness is only one aspect of ecstasy. In its totality it entails joy, fun, excitement, adventure, love, thrills, quiet moments and storms of activity--everything that makes being alive more interesting and fun than being dead. We seek after our ecstasy through communion and sacrament, knowing it to be a fundamental staple of spirituality; a fragile instrument in the gnostic toolkit. Fragile because it is easily over-whelmed by the travails of this life. The ECoD teaches methods of acquiring ecstasy, how to protect it, and how to use it in our individual quests for Eternal Life.

Hope. Everyone hopes for the best, but we have to place our hopes on the correct things for it to bear any fruit. We have no hope, no optimism for the vast Techno-Machine which is racing towards its own destruction and which threatens to pull the Earth herself down with it. We have no hope that the mindless minions of the Machine will make rational and sane decisions when the day of choice arrives. Therefore, the ECoD teaches hope on an individual and communal basis. We see the filth and the idiocy of the world around us, but we don't let it poison our souls. We still dance and sing amidst the stupidity, for we are a happy church, a healthy church; we don't embrace despair for that is for the weak, the sheep, the followers, the minions who are not of us; those who willingly attach themselves to the Great Machine and who will be pulled down into oblivion along with their false god. We foster the hope that we will triumph as individuals and as a community upon the path towards Eternal Life.


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