The Outlaw Interview: Magus Coyotel Leyba
O.O. - Where did you grow up?
Magus Leyba - I grew up in Southern California till I was eleven and southern Arkansas from eleven to seventeen and I am now living in New Mexico trying to never grow up..
O.O. - Were you raised with a particular religion?
Magus Leyba - Californiaism is the religion; everything is cool and everyone is o.k. We are all Californian and American; we are everything is the philosophy of that prison state (more people are in prison per capita in California than in anywhere in the world). My parent's were non religious. Both my parents and my stepfather grew to hate what people did in the name of religion, especially Christianity. This was confirmed when my stepfather got a job in Arkansas and we moved there from southern California and lived amongst the Baptists. Later one of my mom's friends after years of friendship told her that her and her family would burn in hell. My mother told her to fuck off and shortly after that the x friend started telling people we were devil worshipers. My parents were somewhat agnostic and no dogma was shoved down my throat from them.
O.O. - You are very open about your Native American heritage. How does this heritage influence your current organization and your views on Satanism?
Magus Leyba - In my book Coyote Satan Amerika (www.lastgasp.com) I have several manifestos that describe my application of Satanism. Part of the reason I started the ritual performance electronica band U.S.A.F. United Satanic Apache Front (I have two cd's that can be purchased at www.adversaryrecordings.com) was to get my Satanic philosophy out there. I wanted to bring the warrior philosophy into modern practice so I mixed American world politics, Satanism, blood rituals, performance art and Native American warrior philosophy into a new aesthetic. The rest is history as they say, or infamy depending on how you look at it. My current organization The Coyotel Church is the next step and rather that attacking the systems of personal control and trying to destroy it we are concentrating on creating another option because we see everyone as a creator of their own lives. You have to ask yourself why most people are encouraged to express themselves till they are about to graduate High school then they are suddenly discouraged and told to put those childish ways aside. I feel life is short and most of my time should be spent creating rather than destroying. Don't get me wrong I still love a good fight and enjoy fighting true enemies but let's just say I am more choosey about the battles I fight.
O.O. - As an artist, what do you think about the educational system shutting down what they consider "non-core" subjects, such as art, music and drama?
Magus Leyba - From a social and historical point of view art, music and drama are the most important subjects because they teach you to express yourself and that your point of view can matter in the world. Not everyone is an artist but everyone should be creative their entire life. Getting rid of the subjects that teach you how to express yourself is a premeditative criminal act and does a disservice to all other subjects because if you cannot create you are always forced to comply. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge" for a very important reason. They are not cutting these programs for lack of funds. They see personal expression as an affront to consumerism. People that express themselves creatively live creative lives and tend not to follow the prescribed stereotypical lifestyles and products forced on us by our parasitic corporate masters. Bottom line people that are creative make poor consumers and are seen at best as a sort of ineffectual consumer citizen and at worst as an eventual threat. Those that do not follow the trends of the marketplace are seen as unpatriotic and as a problem not as human beings. America is open for world business or else. Schools are for indoctrination and compliance not education. Not to say that you can't get an education out of it you just have to look past the propaganda and supplement your education by seeking knowledge elsewhere and doing your own research and by reading.
O.O. - How do you think the art world, at large, will be affected by these subjects no longer being available to children?
Magus Leyba - The actual art world that creates art will suffer greatly by the bankruptcy of the imagination and they already have. If children are not given the option to create early in their lives then they are dependent on what the art market says is TRUE ART. History has shown that the art market is a separate money system that is often times at odds with art that is actually making us see the world in a different way. The little wall street of the "Art World" will benefit greatly as the definition of salable art will narrow and be more controllable. To those that actually create real art this is an act of war. Society should stop complaining about school shootings because it is directly related to this subject. If a young person cannot create they will seek to destroy it is the same instinct. Do you blame them? Look at their options. They know life for them after school is slavery. Children are not stupid they know life after school is a new plantation system of indentured servitude where they don't matter and their opinions are not welcomed. They are taught that the only thing that matters is what they can buy and how much money they can make and how famous they can become. They see it as the game that it is; trite and predictable with almost no way out, even the "alternatives" are dictated to us all. They know that in their hearts even some of their creative heroes like Madonna and Spielberg are contrived and controlled prison guards in this "creative" consumerland plantation world we all take so seriously.
My mother used to say that if I didn't have my art I would have been a sniper. I never understood what she meant till now. I agree with her if I had not been encouraged to create and express myself I would have turned against a system of suppression and subjugation. But in reality we can turn our back on this bankruptcy of the imagination and make these fuckers actually go bankrupt. Every generation is more contrived than the next. This is what many Native American tribes warned us many years ago was the outcome of the over grazers of white culture. This is the outcome of the world's style of capitalism which is really a corporatism which in fact is a functioning fascism. America is on the fore front of this. We are a nation of perpetual emotional adult children being spoon fed bullshit and we have lost our most of our voice and creativity because we were taught that what we have to say feel and create does not matter, we do not matter; it is only what we buy that matters.
O.O. - What would you like to see happen in the next election?
Magus Leyba - I would like to see the end of the two party system that is really a one party system of the selected that we pretend to elect. I would love to see the end of the Electoral College and the outlawing of the Diebolt computer voting machines. What a blatant joke voting for a president in this country has become. It is a sporting event where you really only get to vote between Republican and Democrat and they are the same team. They say the same things, go to the same universities, country clubs etc. We are fooling ourselves because it is not about Democracy, we never had a Democracy we had a republic. Follow the money and if you do that you see that the same people fund both parties. It is a joke. I promised myself if I ever voted again for a president I'd wear a monkey suit to vote in. Perhaps we all pretend that our vote counts and we have a voice so we are not murdered by our children or imprisoned by our parasitic corporate masters.
O.O. - Do you have a favorite in this race? If so, who and why?
Magus Leyba - I don't. I wish their bread and circus was more believable but I lost my suspicion of disbelief.
O.O. - How do you feel about the general state of this country and where it is headed?
Magus Leyba - We are at the phase in a society that shows the historical signs of decline. Our country is about to experience its greatest challenges. I don't know what exactly what the scenario will be but most signs point to the United States being absorbed and assimilated into some global government unless we truly fight it. If you speak out and remind people of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution you mine as well speak about crazy alien conspiracy theories. Speak out and remind people of the constitution and you can be labeled an enemy combatant under the U.S. Patriot act. The United States may end in a whimper and be absorbed by the money monsters of this planet. The Constitution will still be talked about but in a self denial sort of nostalgic way just as the British pretend their once great Monarchy still rules the world. On a more positive note this scenario could just as easily backfire as it is quite clear those in power are fumbling and making insane mistakes. I am not going to give up, I still believe in America and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is a lot of bullshit and I truly believe everyone smells it at this point. Orwell said, "In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
O.O. - What are your views about the "War on Terror"?
Magus Leyba - They used to call it the "War on Communism." It is conflict control. Most Wars on this planet now are instigated wars. Wars strategically started to instill conflict. They want us to beg for help so we lovingly give up all our rights and freedoms so that we can have the illusion of freedom and safety. The "War on Terror" is ludicrous; it is so unbelievable Orwell could not have written it this way because as literature it is not believable. It is the WAR OF TERROR. Terror Incorporated wants all of us to constantly live in fear but it is backfiring because most of us are living in this heightened sense of RAGE and because we have no clear visible enemy this rage will have to be placed somewhere. This is a slippery slope for a propaganda system that has almost no credibility at all only entertainment value.
O.O. - Okay, now, many people know of your former association with the Church of Satan, but what they may not know is that you have started your own organization called Coyotel Church, so tell us a little about your organization and what you hope to accomplish with it.
Magus Leyba - The Coyotel Church is the first Church of creative application. We believe that everyone is creative and must continue to create their entire life. If you do not remain creative you can easily become enslaved. Not everyone is an artist; we are not trying to make everyone an artist. It isn't the Church of Art. Just like we discussed about high schools getting rid of their music, art and drama classes we see this as premeditative and a planned strategy. For at the same time as schools are encouraged to can self expressive subjects major stores like Wal-Mart are making the craft sections smaller and smaller to make room for home decor. It is quite obvious that the companies that corral our lives would rather we buy our creativity from them. It is as if companies like Ikea give us the crap we "creatively" arrange in our homes like a bad 3rd grade collage. Our creativity is being reduced to scrap books. The marketers have always wanted to control the content of our creativity now they want to limit the ways we can choose to create.
Well native American culture has always had a very affective way of preventing society from going insane and that was the Coyote Trickster stories. Coyote is a renegade that turns the world upside down but rather than bringing it back to normal (business as usual, status quo etc.) the world is forever changed and upside down. Coyote is forced to use his instincts to adapt just as actual coyotes are one of the most powerful instinctual animals that can survive in almost any situation. Coyote sabotages the systems of control and teaches us to rely on our instincts. Culture starts out as good thing but soon entraps us and the Coyote stories teach us to take responsibility for our freedom.
In The Coyotel Way (to be published in early 2008) we say, "We have been tricked. You have been tricked by a culture of tricks. Why do you take it so seriously? You wouldn't take a bad joke as serious and as personal as you take this trick culture, would you? We are living a bad joke and it is no longer funny. Western culture has separated us from the natural world, other people, separated the sexes, ourselves and our bodies. All of the things we have been separated from are used to control and contain us."
Also in The Coyotel Way are the Seven Ways of Coyote-
The Seven Ways of Coyote
1. Do not trust those that do not create, those that buy their creativity from the media, the advertiser, the corporation, the church or the state; Put all resources in those that promote and propagate your personal creativity.
2. Nothing can be more powerful than one's imagination, it is your instinct and right; never doubt this.
3. Use your power of creativity against the power and authority of compliance; they have waged a war on you and they will continue to enslave you with it if you remain passive.
4. The only power is the power of creating, we all can create because we are the creator; always create.
5. We have become a civilization fueled by logic and consumption of consumer goods and in the process we have sacrificed our instincts, our ability to trust ourselves and our ability to create; we must find our way back, we must create our way forward.
6. The age of reason has lost its purpose and our ability to be creative has been discouraged, trivialized, suppressed and stolen from us. We can no longer listen or trust the people of authority that tell us our creativity is childish, impractical, insignificant and unnecessary. Make a mockery of them and always laugh. Humor can create, humor will destroy!
7. These people of authority confuse their positions with power but the only power they have is the power we give them; turn your back on them and create your own way.
Coyote must address what exactly it is in our world culture that is trying to squash all personal expression. In the Book of Accusations Coyote addresses our compliance.
The Book of Accusations
You are threatened by the chaos of the imagination, of creativity, of the unbound spirit, and by unfettered emotion. Coyote feeds on your fear, and laughs at your systems of control.
Coyote accuses you of being slaves to the money machine;
Coyote accuses you of having the imagination of concrete and rust;
Coyote accuses you of believing beauty is silicon tits and plastic hair;
Coyote accuses you of being complacent in your fear and despair;
Coyote accuses you of hiding in your addictions and your addictions hiding in you;
Coyote accuses you of needing to control people's thoughts, lives, and emotions in order to survive;
Coyote accuses you of sterilizing and shrink-wrapping the ideals you pretend to represent.
I hope to accomplish nothing less than the transformation of the human spirit into an infinitely creative being. (for a membership application write The Coyotel Church, 2118 Central S.E. 16, Albuquerque, N.M. 87106).
O.O. - As a Satanist, what is it that you believe would advance Satanism?
Magus Leyba - Only the Satanist can advance Satanism an organization can facilitate advancement but often times hinders it. Advancement can only occur by actually producing and taking an active role rather than being a passive member simply announcing you're a Satanist and flaunting your title is not enough. Satanists forget that it is no longer a huge stigma and that it is no longer shocking to simply be OUT as a Satanist. It is not radical, it is not political it is down right conformist. Being a Satanist is not a guarantee that you won't become a slave. It has become kitsch and cool. Pop Satanism has taken the edge off. I love to talk to young people about why they are Satanists. There are a lot of pretty sophisticated young people that identify as Satanists and they are not interested in the power trip hierarchy bullshit. In fact they are anti- organization as many young people believe it is better to be a Satanist without a church setting guidelines and rules and regulations on their personal freedom as Satanists. I think the only thing that can advance Satanism is the Satanist. Satanists just like me must take the initiative and take it to the next level and taking it where they instinctively believe it should go. You can not sit and wait for headquarters to o.k. whatever it is you feel must be done. Trust your instincts and use common sense. It is not enough to simply be a Satanist one must apply it in the real world in away they feel is important and we are not all going to agree nor shall we feel the need to always agree.
O.O. - What should or shouldn't be done?
Magus Leyba - No one organization or person(s) should define what Satanism is. Everyone should advance Satanism in the way they truly believe as they see fit. Every angle and way should be explored by all Satanists and in the end there will be clarity and options we can personally choose from and not have to consult a Satanic authority figure. True Satanists know instinctively what needs to be done. If you have to ask you are not a Satanist. Advance out self is the most important thing that must be done.
O.O. - Where would you like to see Satanism in say 5 yrs?
Magus Leyba - Satanism must return to the socio-political attacker of Christianity. In the past few years the New York Times best seller list has had several books blatantly calling Christianity out on its atrocious history. None of these books are written by Satanists, why is that? The people doing this are radical atheists like Richard Dawkins. I have a friend who has had conversations with Dawkins and even he seems to want to know why Satanists have gone soft on Christianity.
O.O. - Could you give us an example or two of what you believe is detrimental to Satanism at large?
Magus Leyba - That is simple; I have talked about it for years. The most detrimental thing is when the inferiority complex becomes a superiority complex, when your rank and title and obsession to obtain that become a substitute for real accomplishment in the real world.
Satanism resting on its laurels and not deepening this left hand path has created a bad guy badge club of conformists.
O.O. - How do you feel about the effect (if any) of pop culture on the newcomers to Satanism?
Magus Leyba - It is a joke and has trivialized the political anti-Christian elements of Satanism and made it shallow and kitsch. But pop culture has also validated Satanism and those that truly want to contribute can seek out our history and the true practitioners. The best thing this trivialization of Satanism by pop culture has done for us is to get off our asses and show the world that Satanism isn't about Devil girls, fedoras, capes and being "Ladies and Gentlemen." Who the fuck cares? If you are in it for the fashion and because it is cool then you are the most un-dangerous, un-radical fool and you are no ones adversay.
O.O. - There seems to be, among Satanist today, several different "denominations" of Satanism, what is your view on these different types?
Magus Leyba - They are like art schools teaching us form and technique that must later be challenged and thrown away or elaborated on. These denominations of Satanism baby sit us till we are strong enough to go out into the world ourselves. Those that do not grow up and out of the programs are like those perpetual addicts that can never get past their AA programs and live their lives in the REAL WORLD.
O.O. - In your own words, describe to us what Satanism is.
Magus Leyba - Satanism is being your own god, taking responsibility for your own life and calling society on its bullshit. But you can do that without being a Satanist. I used to be proud to be a Satanist now with all these high profile underachievers proclaiming Satanism a fixed system without need of advancement, introspection and person human spirit it is quite embarrassing. I have met some great people within Satanism but I have met great people that are not Satanists. I have met many shitty people in my life many of them were Satanists. Being an artist I have always felt that great artists don't always make the best people, perhaps that is true within Satanism also.
O.O. - Now, in closing...if you could make one statement to the Satanic community, what would you say?
Magus Leyba - Do not submit to the tyranny of your community, take what you need that you feel will benefit you and flush the rest. Do not surround yourself with the yes men and women of Satanism. By all means enrich your life with those that are worthy but trust not nor simply accept and cherish someone simply because they are a Satanist. Stand alone as a Satanist and be proud to be the person you have made yourself to be. Create your life as you see fit and don't take any shit off of anyone!
O.O. - We appreciate the time you took to answer these questions.
Magus Leyba - Thank you for asking the REAL questions that many of my detractors are afraid to ask.
