I'm Natassja Noctis.
I consider myself to be an artist, as creating art, both musical and visual,
is the major focus of my life.
I was never "normal", "average" or "usual", but at the same time, I personally don't think that I'm extremely "wierd and way out" compared to most of American society, and I am, in fact, fairly "old-fashioned" in many ways.
Some people assume me to be "left-wing" and/or democrat
because of my sexuality and/or ethnicity,
but some people think I'm "right-wing" or "conservative"
because I believe in rules and order.
Either would be both over-simplifying and over-complicating my political perspective, which is, basically "do what works", not based on any rigid "party line".
Both of my Grandfathers served in the U.S. Armed Forces,
one in the Army in World War II, one in the Navy in the Korean War.
Writer H.P. Lovecraft is a distant cousin of mine, via the Sprague/Whipple family.
I also am a descendant of Confederate outlaw Cole Younger of the infamous James-Younger Gang, as well as Civil war hero Union Colonel Henry Tillinghast Sisson.
I have been playing the guitar since age 6, and drawing / painting since around the same time.
I was in my very first "band" at age 9 with two older kids from Indiana.
I have always played music, in one style or another, since then.
I "came out" as being "queer" at age twelve, both to my family and socially.
I "came out" as being a "Satanist" at age thirteen, both to my family and socially.
I even carried The Satanic Bible with me in my schoolbag.
Simply put, I have been "known" as being "different" pretty much my entire life.
Some may suggest that this may have worked against me in social situations, but I tend to look at it with the more positive perspective that I avoided having to deal with bigoted morons by being so naturally outwardly "wierd".
I also like to think that, in some small way, by being a responsible, generally law-abiding (I did jaywalk once), intelligent, and somewhat well-spoken member of my local community (I even won an essay award from the American Legion for "Americanism"), I helped end what was an existing local "Satanic Panic", and helped mold the local community's image of "Satanists" from bunny-sacificing toothless Heavy Metal listening drug addicts into the image of Artistic, Talented, Well-Read people whose real threat to society lies in their Intelligence, NOT violent behavior.
In short, many people were and still are "afraid" of me because of my Identification as a Satanist, but at least it's for the right reasons.
I was born a Satanist, but I formally affiliated with the Church of Satan by registering as a Member in early 2006.
I wrote a book entitled The Therian Bible which was released also in 2006, although several of the rituals are several years old. This was originally as a ritual book for me and some of my friends who were interested in "were-ism" and magic, but I eventually decided to allow other people to read / use / discuss it by forming the Therian Temple, in which new members are required to buy the book to join.
Some people have suggested that I am an Iconoclast, because, just by being myself, I "challenge" many established ideas and stereotypes.
i·con·o·clast Pronunciation (-kn-klst)
n.
1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.
2. One who destroys sacred religious images.
[French iconoclaste, from Medieval Greek eikonoklasts, smasher of religious images : eikono-, icono- + Greek -klasts, breaker (from Greek kln, klas-, to break).]
i·cono·clastic adj.
i·cono·clasti·cal·ly adv.
Word History: An iconoclast can be unpleasant company, but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions. The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art. Eikonoklasts, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in Medieval Greek from the elements eikn, "image, likeness," and -klasts, "breaker," from kln, "to break." The images referred to by the word are religious images, which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height. In addition to destroying many sculptures and paintings, those opposed to images attempted to have them barred from display and veneration. During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed. It is around this time that iconoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Byzantine iconoclasts. In the 19th century iconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in "Kant was the great iconoclast" (James Martineau).
