Maverick Western Quotes

Far more damaging to Calvin’s reputation was the case of Michael Servetus. An accomplished physician, skilled cartographer, and eclectic theologian from Spain, Servetus held maverick (and sometimes unbalanced) views on many points of Christian doctrine. In 1531, he published Seven Books on the Errors of the Trinity, enraging both Catholics and Protestants, Calvin among them. At one point, Servetus took up residence in Vienne, a suburb of Lyon about ninety miles from Geneva, where, under an assumed name, he began turning out heterodox books while also practicing medicine. His magnum opus, The Restitution of Christianity—a rebuttal of Calvin’s Institutes—rejected predestination, denied original sin, called infant baptism diabolical, and further deprecated the Trinity. Servetus imprudently sent Calvin a copy. Calvin sent back a copy of his Institutes. Servetus filled its margins with insulting comments, then returned it. A bitter exchange of letters followed, in which Servetus announced that the Archangel Michael was girding himself for Armageddon and that he, Servetus, would serve as his armor-bearer. Calvin sent Servetus’s letters to a contact in Vienne, who passed them on to Catholic inquisitors in Lyon. Servetus was promptly arrested and sent to prison, but after a few days he escaped by jumping over a prison wall. After spending three months wandering around France, he decided to seek refuge in Naples. En route, he inexplicably stopped in Geneva. Arriving on a Saturday, he attended Calvin’s lecture the next day. Though disguised, Servetus was recognized by some refugees from Lyon and immediately arrested. Calvin instructed one of his disciples to file capital charges against him with the magistrates for his various blasphemies. After a lengthy trial and multiple examinations, Servetus was condemned for writing against the Trinity and infant baptism and sentenced to death. He asked to be beheaded rather than burned, but the council refused, and on October 27, 1553, Servetus, with a copy of the Restitution tied to his arm, was sent to the stake. Shrieking in agony, he took half an hour to die. Calvin approved. “God makes clear that the false prophet is to be stoned without mercy,” he explained in Defense of the Orthodox Trinity Against the Errors of Michael Servetus. “We are to crush beneath our heel all affections of nature when his honor is involved. The father should not spare the child, nor the brother his brother, nor the husband his own wife or the friend who is dearer to him than life.

Thunderation.” His fingers tightened on the cup. She rushed over. “Where does it hurt? Are you in pain? Is there anything I can do?” He gazed up into her eyes. “I don’t know if you can give me what I need.” 
His steady gaze impaled her. Silence loomed between them like a heavy mist and the room felt warm and heavy. 
A clock chimed. It would be time for the funeral soon. 
 - A Desperate Journey

There was a sheep-breeding crisis in Western Australia during the 1940s. Otherwise healthy sheep weren’t getting pregnant or were losing their young before giving birth. Everyone was stumped until some bright agricultural specialists discovered the little culprit—European clover. This type of clover produces a potent phytoestrogen called formononetin as a natural defense against grazing predators. And, yes, if you’re a plant, a sheep is a predator! Accustomed to the humidity of Europe, the imported clover plants were struggling to cope with the drier Australian climate. When clover has a bad year—not enough rain or sunshine, or too much rain or sunshine—it protects itself by limiting the size of the next generation of predators. It increases production of formononetin and prevents the birth of baby grazers by sterilizing their would-be parents. The next time you’re looking for some convenient birth control, you don’t have to snack on a field of clover, of course. But if you take many forms of the famous “Pill,” you’re not doing something all that different. The gifted chemist Carl Djerassi based his development of the Pill on just this kind of botanical birth control. He wasn’t using clover, though; he was using sweet potatoes—the Mexican yam to be exact. He started with disogenin, a phytoestrogen produced by the yam, and from that base, he synthesized the first marketable contraceptive pill in 1951.

Modern Satanism was pragmatically defined in “The Satanic Bible” by Anton LaVey in the 1960’s and 70’s a Western concept embodying an organized, rational Satanic Philosophy. The Church of Satan was centered on carnal indulgence and fierce independence. Satan has always represented a model of Self-Liberation and crossing boundaries created by dogmatic religion. The Church of Satan provided this platform and over the years the Left-Hand Path tradition has expanded and evolved continuing with Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set. Other controversial and extreme paths centered in Satanic Magick as a road to self-transformation, evolving beyond physical and mental limits and experiencing aspects of Satanic Philosophy and Ceremonial Magick as found in the anarchist and chaos-bringing Sinister Tradition known as the Order of Nine Angles (ONA) in the 1980’s. From the 1960’s and into the late 70’s a self-identified “Sethanic” and “Satanic” Witch named Charles Pace (Hamar’at), living in London, introduced and defined the modern outline of what he called then, “Luciferian” and “Sethanic” initiatory teachings. In the time of Gerald Gardner’s Wiccan movement and the Neo-Pagan RHP explosion, Charles Pace was soon forlorn and a maverick whose authentic Egyptian teachings and rites created a slight aura of fear and the forbidden around him.