the NachtKabarett

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All Writing & Content © Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise
In collaboration with Gilles R. Maurice

Among the Biblical depictions and references to the Baphomet, the Tetragrammaton, the Tarot and variations on the Shock Logo, the Antichrist Svperstar booklet also included passages from the books of Isaiah and Revelation related to Satan and eternal damnation, and pertaining to Manson's incarnations of the Worm and the Antichrist, previously discussed in The Third And Final Beast article of The NACHTKABARETT.

 

"The time has come it is quite clear
Our Antichrist
Is almost here."

Marilyn Manson, Antichrist Superstar
Antichrist Superstar lyrics page with a passage from Revelation describing Satan's apparition under the form of a seven-headed red dragon, which combined with the lyrics creates a new story and brings light on our Antichrist's empowerment. Note that the first portion of the Book's cut title, "The Rev...", could be a reference to Manson's title of Reverend after his recent ordination among the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in 1994, given that Manson's persona has never been closer to an evocation of this role than it was during his Antichrist Svperstar era.

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."

Revelation 12:1-5

Besides the mere Satanic connotation of the passage implementing Manson's numerous references to the forces of evil, particularly his later incarnation of The Third And Final Beast, its combination with the lyrics on a red background creates a new narration, situating the Antichrist and its origins in relation to Satan, by identifying him to the mysterious 'man child' of Revelation. Note the quasi-homonymy with our rockstar's borrowed last name and the fact that much like the Beast of Revelation, Daniel's Little Horn, and Manson himself through his Nuremberg-esque performances, the man child is depicted as a powerful and despotic ruler. Remarkably, the theme of devouring which Manson would continue to use and abuse until recently, is already present here.

 

"When the worm consumes the boy it's never considered rape"

Marilyn Manson, Cryptorchid
Detail from Antichrist Svperstar's booklet with Manson incarnating the worm, writhing and changing shapes, and whose Biblical nature is revealed to us through a passage from the book of Isaiah (mechanically repeated in Mark 9:44, 46 and 48) superimposed with the lyrics of 'Deformography', actually a reminder of the eternal and dishumanizing pain awaiting for the damned in Hell.

And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

Isaiah 66:23-24

Although the inclusion obviously reinforces Manson's prominent Nietzschean theme of the worm in his lyrics and imagery, as a stage zero of the Antichrist/Angel's transformation, this particular passage of the Old Testament evokes the worm more as an image expressing the eternal, dishumanizing suffering and torments of Hell, and to describe the painful state and vile appearance of the damned after the judgment, their deformation/deformography/obscenity and regression as they writhe in pain. The account can also relate to the separation between the "horrible/abhorring" and "beautiful" people in Manson's eponymous song. The subliminal highlighted portion "their worm shall not die" clarifies the point, and also recalls the mechanical repetition of remarkably similar scriptures in three verses of the New Testament describing Hell (and originally intertwined with the verses evoked in our "Amputation of Sin" article) :

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:44, 46 & 48

However, Manson's primary interpretation of the worm as a metaphor of man's lowest state is nevertheless also present in the Bible:

How much less man, that maggot,
And the son of man, that worm!

Job 25:6

The metaphor is also present in the Psalms, where David compares a believer whose faith is tested by torture to the most miserable of all creatures, which also transcendentally anticipates the sufferings of Christ :

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Psalm 22:6

 

S e e   a l s o   o n   T h e   N A C H T K A B A R E T T :



THE THIRD & FINAL BEAST - THE ANTICHRIST | Marilyn Manson's successive incarnations of Satanic beasts from the Biblical prophecies including The Red Dragon, under the Third and Final Beast (of Revelation) title, also presenting an interresting view on the worm's transformation into the Angel/Antichrist/Hydra.

"When the boy is still a worm it's hard to learn the number seven" Marilyn Manson, Cryptorchid.
"The Angel has spead its wings..." Marilyn Manson, Cryptorchid & Antichrist Superstar.


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LITTERARY VICES - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE | "You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape." Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, prologue.

"The whole metamorphosis theme really comes from my studies in Social Darwinism. There's been the theory of man as a worm that then transforms into an ape, and finally into a man. [...] I wouldn't say anything inspired it other than things I've read -- the ones I've mentioned and books like Antichrist by Nietzsche." MM, Guitar World, December 1996

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