Know Your Enemy: Astaroth

It's all about the "Game."

Astaroth is described as an Arch-Duke of Hell, one of the three Principal Superior Demons, and the lesser part of the Unholy Trinity of Satanic forces alongside Lucifer and Beelzebub/Ba’al.

Other names include Astarte, Ashtoreth, and Ishtar.

As with all Angels, they lack an actual “gender” designation because they have no corporeal bodies. They can’t reproduce, so why would they? Most often Astaroth is referred to as a female, but occasionally is depicted as either a male “titan” of sorts or a gargoyle-esque lizard bat thing…

For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll be referring to it as a “she” because that’s what my older sources use. However, it has taken on the more masculine depiction in recent times.

She oversees the Americas, both North and South continents, but only as her “terrestrial domain.” Spirits aren’t confined to physical space, they just have stomping grounds that they use like laboratories. Test beds for their schemes. She’s more than capable in reaching across the aisles to other Principalities in order to enact her schemes.

In ancient mythologies, such as Phoenician, Canaanite, and Babylonian lore, she was a goddess of love, fertility, and war.

Prior to the Fall, her angelic role was as a Heavenly Treasurer, Patron of the Sciences and Mathematics, involved in various forms of Handicrafts, and may be known for what we would today call “Research, Development, and Logistics.”

All these things are either neutral or good.

What you need to acknowledge going forward is that these things are not bad. What is bad is the abuse of them. They are features of a working, ordered World which has simply been hijacked by dissidents of the Holy Order of Angels. They’re in rebellion, but they are using their respective Authorities granted them by the Highest Power. No different than how mutinous sailor might commandeer the ship and start firing the cannons at the armada they were until recently a part of.

As for Astaroth, she hijacked everything Nerdy and is using it to tempt souls to rebel against God, just as she had been tempted along with many others by the Silver Tongued, Dawn Star Lucifer — formerly Hel’el (Praise of God / Light Bearer / Prince of Air).

Basically, Astaroth is the patron demon of pencil-pushers…

The other two, Ba’al and Lucifer, are the Brute and the Face respectively…

Nerd, Brute, Face. The three main ingredients for any good rebellion.

Together they form Satan Inc. — The Corporate Incarnation of the Unholy Trinity.

Astaroth’s primary “favor” is the offer to answer any question for which there is a definitive answer. If it can be measured and known categorically, then she has domain over it.

In other words, a “know it all.”

Imagine if everything she uttered was preceded by the words “UMMM! ACKSHUALLY,…”

Additionally, her primary “power” she offers is invisibility, but not in the sense you’re thinking of. More like a “no one ever notices me” thing rather than light tricks. It’s the “super power” of the social outcast — always being overlooked, ignored, belittled, and disenfranchised.

It’s the primary factor in why someone might be picked last for dodge ball.

Past that, her primary temptation is Sloth. More in the sense that lazy people always magically seem to find the path of least resistance. Because they hate doing things hard. They always search for the short cuts and loopholes to avoid hard labor. Basically, procrastinators and lazy people tend to find the most optimal ways to get things done — so they can quickly get back to being lazy.

Okay, that said, let me paint you a picture of one of her “Disciples.”

Richard

Richard is a middle-aged man who has a doctorate in chemical engineering. He’s very punctual and keeps himself well kempt. By all appearances, he seems reliable if just a bit unfocused. Those who know him personally actually have little bad or good to say about him.

Richard works for a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical corporation as chief researcher and developer. His desk is organized and minimalist with little clutter to distract him, save a few very carefully arranged keepsakes. His days are spent primarily looking for ways to alter the current formulation of already available drugs in order to patent a new formulation. Once found, he leverages the lack of studies on the new patent to make wildly false claims about its efficacy while simultaneously financing countless studies to show how the older formulation is hazardous with numerous side-effects. This is necessary to get the old drug banned, ensuring market dominance using the “new” formulation which magically “lacks” those side-effects despite negligible differences in its composition. This “process” will allow his benefactors to milk out a premium for at least another decade, without any competitors being able to infringe on the patent while it holds.

When done at work, Richard heads home, but not before stopping by the gym. No, not to work out… he only works out at home. Rather, Richard had discovered in the building plans that the women’s locker room shares the same wall with a utility closet which contains all the out-dated gym equipment and bits and bobs people have no clue goes to what machines anymore. Typically, there’s no reason for anyone to enter the room, aside from Richard. One day he managed to bring a drill in his gym bag and bore a hole through the mortar in the bricks to create for himself a peep-hole. He now regularly films voyeur of the women changing.

No one ever sees him come or go, as he’s always been a social outcast and easily overlooked.

After the gym, while at home, he back-ups his “score” for the day and settles in to paint table-top figurines. He does not play any table-top games, mind you, as he has no friends with which to do so. Instead, he treats his figurines as his friends. His collection is quite extensive. He’s since branched out and also now takes popular anime figurines, removes the paint, saws the pieces up and re-poses them in provocative ways, then reassembles and repaints them in far more erotic ways than originally designed. He’s even taken to remodeling some to match his peers at the gym to the most minute “anatomical” detail, for which he has much reference material. He’s actually quite talented in this, though none would know for obvious reasons…

Before bed each night, which is typically somewhere after 1:00am, you can find Richard hard at work writing extensive essays in the comment sections of social media videos and on internet forums. His aim? To demonstrate his intellectual superiority. He criticizes, chastises, and insults anyone who crosses his path. Sometimes he does it just to troll. Mostly, though, it’s to inflate his ego in an environment most suitable to his talents — where anonymity protects him. He’s really big into lecturing people on why atheism is the correct world view, and will actively berate people of any and all religious practices for being “anti-science.”

When he feels threatened, he makes sure he always “gets even” with whomever challenges him. At times he’s even DOXX’d and led DDOS attacks against individuals and websites. All times were mostly just a challenge to see if he could do it, rather than to satisfy any real grudges. One may have even led to an actual death, though Richard never bothered to look into it. Not that he was worried about what he might find, but because he just didn’t care.

You see, that’s a common thread with Richard. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what happens to others. That’s because no one cares about what happens to him. Richard is just returning the favor. He’s “invisible” to everyone, so everyone’s feelings are invisible to himself. Always the social outcast… At work he’s just a labcoat despite his accolades. At the gym he’s just another average-sized shmuck. At home he’s just like every terminally online man-child spouting off for who-knows-what reason.

When he’s not doing that, it’s back to doom scrolling on Reddit.

He’s become detached with the world, and now seeks only to exploit it to fuel his last and only passion, which is to live a quiet life.

Those who dare to trespass on his quiet life are his enemy. There is no limit to the indifferent malice and cruelty Richard is capable of when it comes to dispatching his enemies. He is swift and methodical. Once his neighbor’s dog would not stop barking. A hotdog with 98% rich polish chocolate nested inside quickly solved that problem…

This is Richard. He’s a Disciple of Astaroth, patron of the Lazy and Conceited. If his ambitions were great, he would be a greater menace to society. Things as they are, however, he is contented to be contented. He still ruins lives at his day job, sure, but as an individual he’s not on some grand crusade of vengeance. He’s not a leader, he simply does as he pleases. He does perverted things, so long as they “don’t harm anyone”, at least in his mind. He is productive, so long as he can finish quickly. Hard tasks are left to others.

Richard is a dick. An asshole. A jerk.

But, as compared to others with the same designations, he does so on the sly. He’s clever and subtle. He does have an ego, but he strokes it in isolation. He does not like mass attention, he likes focused attention. He wants people, personally, to know he is intellectually superior. Fame isn’t something that particularly interests him. Rather, what he really wants is to know he had a hand in what happens, to look at a headline where little old ladies can’t afford their medicine and exclaim to himself — “That was me!”

Famous in his own mind — or perhaps, infamous?

Profiles and the Sphere of Influence

Now, why did I write out this profile?

What good does it serve?

Because I want you to understand how these “spirits”, these demons, actually interact in the world. They can only operate through humanity, by preying on our inclinations and tempting us with the worst version of ourselves.

Richard is an example of Astaroth’s prey. She is a demon who finds intellectuals, men of wisdom and ingenuity, and castrates them. She tempts them with perversion and laziness. She entices them to use all their talents to make life incrementally worse, little bits at a time. She leads people to use their wit to antagonize others in a self serving dance of egotism.

She adores picking on people with OCD. The anally retentive perfectionists bend to her whim with great propensity.

Most complex crimes for which we lack a name to blame are spawned from the mind of Astaroth. For that reason, her sphere of influence is the most far-reaching and pervasive in a modern, technologically charged digital world. Far and away beyond that of her contemporaries who use force or pomp and circumstance to get their way. If Lucifer is a conman and Beelzebub/Ba’al is a oafish bully, then Astaroth is an embezzler. She nickels and dimes people, coming up with all sorts of corporate schemes to prey on the psychology of consumers.

Gambling? That’s Astaroth.

Subscription Models? That’s Astaroth.

Microtransactions? That’s Astaroth.

Algorithms that condition the mind? That’s Astaroth.

Overdraft fees? That’s Astaroth.

Compounding Interest? That’s Astaroth.

Income Tax? That’s Astaroth.

Rent Economy? That’s Astaroth.

Election Rigging? That’s Astaroth.

Basically, everything we hate about Corporate number games is her Modus Operandi. It’s where she thrives, like a stripper on a pole.

It’s a Numbers thing…

Anything that involves gaming charts and graphs in order to eek out little margins of profit here and there are Astaroth’s Sphere of Influence. They all add up, but individually their influence is practically negligible. These overlooked, “scummy” practices of business are thought up by radically intelligent people for a decidedly nefarious purpose. Suits and face men aren’t responsible for these schemes, they just talk. No, it’s the pencil pushers who come up with these detestable complexities. Their patron is Astaroth. A demon with a hush-ed reputation. The one held in the back office away from the crowd. One who toils in secrecy yet the products of their mind cause untold ruin and economic turmoil.

Every effort to monetize things, things that used to be free and available, is in the domain of Astaroth.

She is the Demon of the Ledger. Fiend of Fraud.

Patron of the likes of Ebenezer Scrooge. Greed for its own sake. Not to live comfortably. Not to show off, but to accumulate. To collect. To hoard.

To amass more — as proof of one’s superiority.

Disciples of Astaroth don’t find these little systems to squeeze money out of every nook and cranny out of greed, mind you, but because they like the puzzle. They like the challenge of finding loopholes and technicalities that set them in a different league than everyone else. They see it as a form of Magic, wrestled from facts and figures. Cheats and exploits are just scratching the surface. We’re talking about the potential to tax, restrict, retard, and stagnate everything there is in this veritable World of Man.

The likes of Richard don’t care about fame, power, fortune — he only cares about stimulation; stimulating his intellect. He doesn’t film women changing for profit or out of sexual desire, he does it to collect “trophies.” He’s a collector. The accumulation of them is proof of his “superiority.” He is in ecstasy every time he successfully films a woman as it adds to the collection of times he “got away with it”; that he was SMART enough to get away with it. No one else has to know, because no one else matters.

You see, Richard is a sociopath, alternating between it and psychopathy.

Obsessed with his Self, like all good followers of Demons are.

He worships at the altar of ME.

What he gets in return is a demeanor that belittles others for not being “on his level.”

His collection is a sign of him “leveling up.”

Gamifying everything there is. It’s how he operates.

It’s how his Patron operates…

Astaroth’s Authority

You know that feeling you get when you’re playing a multiplayer game that’s been around for a while and everyone’s min-max optimized every part of the game to a science, “gaming” the game and reducing it to a calculated sequence — thereby taking all the joy, wonder, and nuance out of the experience?

Yeah, that’s yah gurl Astaroth — hard at work, sucking the fun out of things because she offers the “optimal” path. The soulless grind. The mindless script. Turning everything into chores and checklists. Her Power is in “answering any question for which there is a definitive answer.” A spiritual Google, if you will. What that translates to, practically, is that instead of discovering things for yourself, at a pace that permits True Understanding, you instead take the shortcut and learn the path without actually experiencing it as God, the “game designer” intended. You take a peek at the “spoilers” and then work quickly through the task in order to “save time.” Saving time playing a game for recreation… Think about that for a moment — the futility in finding the most optimal way to have fun. Like following a game guide on your first playthrough, not questioning the guide-writer, then complaining when everything you’d been through leaves you numb.

Not questioning orders…

Whether at work or in a game, everything you do must follow the approved and “optimal” path as decided by a bureaucratic committee and council who oversee such things. This includes the internet forums of people chastising one another for daring to “experience and learn things at their own pace.”

“NO! You get these things, follow this list of tasks, do as your told, question nothing, and THEN AND ONLY THEN can you join us. Just make sure your build and gear look like the picture we sent you, and we’ll accept you.”

The overbearing demand, such a lack of compromise, in even something as simple as having fun. To always demand perfection in an imperfect world, which robs you of that magical first-time feeling… That’s Astaroth’s greatest Tool and Weapon — to reduce everything to a soulless monotony. Scripts you can’t deviate from. Mandates set upon us by “consensus.”

She’s the patron demon of itineraries for vacations. Min-maxing every “experience” and turning it into a cold ritual of “following through with the motions.”

“Go here, do this, go here, go here, do this…”

“Check these boxes.”

“Meet that quota.”

“ArEN’t YoU HAviNG fUN YEt!?!?!?”

Date Mode

You ever been on a date before?

How about MANY dates?

Did you know the more dates you go on, the less likely you are to find a mate? What mate you do find, the more likely it is to end in divorce.

Why is that?

Because the more you experience something, the more you gamify it.

You try to “skip the dialogue” and go right into the “gameplay.”

Let me explain.

On your first date, you’re anxious. You’re so focused on making a good impression. You have a genuine belief that this might be the one. You’re all in, desperate to make a good impression, but totally unexperienced. You make mistakes, but you also are eager to correct them. Sometimes that can backfire. You may seem clumsy and unconfident, sure, but there is actually an appeal to that, for those who recognize real effort. Women want a confident and competent man. How he gets there shouldn’t matter. That’s where things go wrong…

Think about the Game again. The first time you make a new character you take your time. You don’t rush things. You explore things at a random and authentic pace.

The second character. You’ve been there, done that. You start skipping some expository dialogue.

The third character. You collect the key items, skip enemies. Turn in quest. Level up. No point in dwelling in the starting zone.

The fourth character. You skip all the dialogue. You skip all the quests decidedly too slow and unnecessary. You know exactly where to go, what to do, and you do it to get to the “end game” as fast as possible.

Ugh…

Apply it to dating.

First prospective partner, you’re taking your time. You make mistakes, but you’re allowed to. It’s the starting zone after all. Not even first base.

The second prospective partner. Been there, done that. You start skipping some expository dialogue.

The third prospective partner. You take them to the hot spots, movies, park, fancy restaurant. Avoid some topics that lead to failure. Cop a feel. Why not? No point dwelling in the “friend zone.”

The fourth fling. You skip unnecessary dialogue. Use consumables, like liquoring up, to skip steps. You know exactly where to go, what to do, what to say, and you do it to get in their pants as fast as possible. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. On to the next floozie dumb enough to put out…

By this time, all that expository dialogue is a waste of time. You’ll just ghost/block them and move on to the next one anyways. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right?

You see now?

Astaroth is also responsible for our hook-up culture. That’s why they call it “having Game.”

Anything being “Gamified” is in her sphere of influence.

It’s about the shortest distance between two points. Finding that shortcut to get what you want and them move on as fast as you can. Collecting more notches on the belt. Collecting all those “achievements.” Speed-running that Any% route. Instead of playing the game, you’re chasing that progress bar. “Follow the instructions, the recipe, and you will have your cake and eat it too.” That’s the promise. Associations with Astaroth and Lust are less to do with sexual appetite and more to do with the “love of the game.” Getting good at getting good.

THAT is what it’s all about.

Obsessing over refining technique, regardless of what the task at hand is. It’s about “being the best” NO MATTER WHAT!

Lie? Cheat? Steal?

Whatever you gotta do to become Top Dog.

But keep in mind. For a Disciple of Astaroth, it’s more about getting a kick out of finding a scheme, an exploit, a cheat, and abusing it. Winning is just the winning conditions of the “Game.” Most of their pleasure doesn’t come from the accomplishment, but the feeling of superiority in knowing the “hidden method” that puts you in first place. It’s about finding the special formula that makes you “better” than everyone else.

For the nerd who always finishes last when they try… they finally found a way to be NUMBER 1!

Likewise, the dating stuff is less about Lust and sexual gratification, and more about control. When you can bed whomever you please, because you know all the buttons to press and the order in which to press them, then you feel powerful. You feel in control. You feel…

Like a god…

It’s a Pride thing, remember?

Greed may be the root of all evil, but Pride is the seed.

Made for Good

This is a portion of the Authority of God dispensated to his Angels. They wielded these powers before the fall, as they do now. Except, now, they use them for ill, to destroy Humanity. What once was a force for good in the World has turned into something subtly malicious.

It’s been Usurped. Hijacked.

Used against its original intention.

When people DEMAND you do things a specific and certain way, even in matters of recreation, they are tapping into the maligned forces of Astaroth’s dispensated Authority. Powers and Principalities beyond mortal control. An acting force in the world with an overseer that’s gone rogue. Rebelled.

All for the express aim to depress and oppress you.

To be that nagging voice in the back of your mind saying “this is sub-optimal, you could be doing this faster, efficiency is your god.”

All to take from you the joy of just being in the moment.

Anhedonia.

To stop you from enjoying life…

Basking in God’s wonder.

Turning you into a machine dancing for the program.

Robbing you of your Free Will. The Divine Spark. The Inheritance of the Creator. Your Agency. The ability to actuate change, REAL change, in the Waking World.

You don’t have to do everything perfectly, efficiently, optimally, and soullessly. That can only serve a “Corporate” mindset that HATES YOU!

You just have to get the job done and on time. Any more and you’ll work your hands to the bone with nothing to show for it but a sour work ethic obsessed with hurrying up and waiting.

The counter to Astaroth lies in the phrase “Stop and smell the roses.” It disarms her in your life. Taking a moment to put aside the bestest of the bestest ways to do a thing and just cranking the music and enjoying what you’re doing at your own pace.

Playing. Discovering. Having fun.

Not doing what feels good, since pleasure leads to degeneracy. No, it’s about the journey rather than the destination. Taking in all that God’s magnificent Creation has to offer.

There’s a time and place for going full drone mode on the assembly line. That’s why the Authority, the force God created for the once angelic Astaroth to uphold exists. Knowing when to turn it off and on, so that you don’t rob yourself of the pleasantries of life… well, that’s the hard part. Didn’t used to be so hard, but alas, we are Fallen creatures — beset upon by what was once a force for good.

We aren’t doing as we were designed. That’s why everything seems difficult and overly laborious. Because we know not what we do.

I wish I had more advice on how to overcome this monster, but as you probably could tell, overthinking things is my gift and curse. Of the three, I’m most susceptible to the wiles of Astaroth.

I’m a know-it-all. I’m lazy. I’m a hoarder.

I always seem to have an answer for everything…

I fight daily with this demon, as do so many others in this Hellscape we call Corporate America. I’m nowhere near as bad as Ebenezer or Richard, mind you. I simply couldn’t stomach doing such vile things as I described, knowing what I do. I do care for others, probably even more than I do for myself. That, too, is a critical flaw, just as tumultuous as the polar opposite of Self-Worship. I’m far too eager to sacrifice myself for others to be free of the temptation to do otherwise. I was very selfish when I was younger. I’ve since flipped, but it hasn’t exactly solved all my problem.

No… I’m just stuck in the “how do I optimize this” pitfall, which is enough to be in danger. I’m a perfectionist, who is far from perfect. The temptation is there, as it is with everyone else. It’s by God’s grace alone at this point that I’m holding out against these cruel forces from beyond the pale. My penance is to reveal the obscure and occult so that others may defend against them — hopefully, to better effect than with myself.

I hope this helps…