Approaching popular culture as a subject of Satanic consideration must always be done with a razor-sharp awareness. Indeed, it is this awareness (sometimes in the form of what is known as "media literacy") that is one of the valid segregators between us and the herd. A Satanist can (and often does) enjoy a cultural product in a very different way than your average citizen, the Satanist being inoculated against the product's intended narcotic persuasions. Often in the same breath, many of us also enjoy said indoctrination's affect on the populace, which flags the mental weaklings as the voluntary victims that they are.

A prime example could be made of the talk show, "The Jerry Springer Show." Deemed by Your Truly as the Circus Maximus for White Trash, this ostensibly issue-investigative program reveals (perhaps, unintentionally; or maybe intentionally, from a propagandist viewpoint) far too much about the sheeple. The Satanic eye grasps the huckster ringleading of Jerry, the masochism of the guests, and the slave mentality of the audience, all in one fell swoop. It's a ticklish trident of tragedy to those of us not caught in the inane loop of sugar-coated Christ ethics; also obeyed by most of the television viewing audience, vicariously and uncritically (uncritically, being the operative word) feeding off of the spectacle like so many hungry swine.

But, perhaps music, and its fungal growth known as music subculture, serves as the greatest categorizer of social mentalities. While the Springer crowd wallows in some shared trailer trash edicts, the audiences for musical acts are not only largely compliant sheep, but show far more willingness to be exploited (and I will hold to this allegation until I see swarms of people dressing like Jerry Springer, wearing their hair like Springer, copping his mannerisms, and subscribing to his religion for the sake of social advancement in a subculture or any desired club, lodge, or gang). Better used than useless, they say.

Enter our contestants. Each have been elevated by the masses, replacing equally "meaningful" social distractions of the recent past. Both super-pop Spice Girls and goth-shocker Marilyn Manson epitomize this Pied Piper effect on the masses, though the control (even if it's unintentional, though not likely) comes in two distinctly different flavors. And they've each managed to infiltrate an additional media other than music.

Round One: Lesser Magic

If examining which entity has the greater influence, it is glaringly obvious that our bouncy, British boob merchants reign supreme in Lesser Magic prevalence. (According to Billboard, SG had the highest selling album of 1997.) While both our contestants have contributed to the slow dissolution of 90s anti-sex, dumpsterwear fashions, it is the queen quintet that have seduced far more willing souls (in concert arenas and, now, in movie theartres as well with the release of "Spiceworld") and, in my opinion, to a much more productive end.

Case in point: Fans of MM are, often enough, wannabe devil-worshipers (which scores lower than a wannabe-Satanist, in case you haven't been properly informed) wrapping up their teen rebellion in goth garb and whatever they may perceive Satanism to be. Once many of them realize that Satan actually represents Will and progress (instead of scaring parents and getting some lesser-loved social clique to accept you by painting your face in that goofy, post-Alice Cooper way... just like the rest of the Mansonite slaves), these future college flunkies, Army recruits, and Internet-obsessed move on to more popular pastures, and succeed in little more than adding nothing to the body of Satanic thought and theory.

Not the Spice Girls iconography, incredibly enough. Through the Fab Five's promotion of the Diva icon, all of the seductive, productively manipulative, and sexy bombshells of the past have been resurrected (and largely tributed in the lounge-esque "The Lady Is A Vamp" from the soundtrack of their movie). Girl Power = a form of Lesser Magic. And the fact that SG have amassed a large following of 9-12 year old girls is telling in that this future generation of women will have at their disposal the Satanic tools of LM, which their welfare-wear "sisters" will never allow themselves to acknowledge or utilize.

Round Two: Strength Through Joy

I have very little against bitterness, anger, and spite, per se (though, I naturally prefer pleasure... call me kooky). But when these potential enemies of the soul overwhelm a person (read: not ritualized out of the system) and become a full-time lifestyle is when reassessment should enter the picture. Marilyn Manson seems to exemplify this. MM's music is strewn with images of despair, hopelessness, and self-loathing; hardly the qualities embodied by the Satanist (and I will get to his handing of a CoS Priesthood later). If Manson removedly put forth his I-Hate-Life philosophy to the feeble, I might feel otherwise. I'd even laud his efforts (and, regardless, I somewhat do... his expediting the inevitable death urge in inept and dim-witted people is a great public service). But MM isn't just acting, he's participating as his penchant for self-mutilation, excessive drug use, self-pity and unprideful physical appearance amply dictates. When I look at Mr. Manson, I don't see the highest embodiment of human life. I see a garden-variety social misfit who, without his fame, may have succumb to the suicide-seducing backmasking of Judas Priest albums. In short, I see a whole lot of weakness, which MM is hardly hiding from anyone as is voluminously evident in his autobiography of recent note. If he's otherwise, I've yet to see it.

Sending a pummeling piledriver to the Prozac Rock contingent are the Spice Girls. Their innocently-wrapped (to the point of being ironically perverse) sexuality encourages more people (including the women of tomorrow, who will be spared the sex-neutral drilling of the fundamentalist 80s) to explore their carnal nature, and to praise the flesh unabashedly. Conversely, MM's "sexuality" will largely appeal to a limited number of commercial fetishists and music subculture vultures. Sugar (and spice) instead of vinegar, if you will.

Round Three: The Satanic Witch Trial

By default, the Spice Girls backflip MM out of the ring on this one, a task appraently easy to achieve in both figurative and literal terms. Their brand of Girl Power is so closely related to the archetype illustrated by Anton LaVey in The Satanic Witch, it's eerie. No surprise why many of the self-proclaimed "feminists" of our time, along with their soul sisters of the unattractive and sexually-inadequate sorority, decry and trivialize these Brit babes, unknowingly for all of the painfully transparent reasons that any Satanic Witch could spell out for them.

Round Four: Aesthetics

Since taste in music and presentation varies, the round is moot. Depending on your personality, you'll either find the Spice Girls too damn chipper or enjoyable in that "Intellectual Decompression" sense. (If foreign to the term, please refer to The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey.) Likewise, Marilyn Manson can be judged as either one rocking dude or an overrated (depending on your basis of comparison) human fiasco. And since neither act is exactly Beethoven, musical talent is a rather non-issue for the purpose of this essay. (Though it is amusing to note that while the Spice Girls don't entertain any unnatural conceits, Mr. Manson is under the assumption that his music is "art," which is tremendously debatable.) Other talents, mentioned previously, have evidently been employed by both acts, and to some relatively resourceful ends.

The Final Round:

Marilyn Manson's contribution to Satanism is barely existent (though, in all fairness, his contribution to anti-Christianity is worthy of a gargantuan amount of applause). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if, like less-professed Satan-rockers of the 80s, MM denies all connections to the CoS and Satanism in the future, perhaps even admitting that he used Satanism to become successful (if this already hasn't been put forth by MM himself). Understand, however, that the propriety is mutual. Satanism has equally used Marilyn Manson, maybe even more so when you consider that the Church of Satan will be here long after any current music acts in rotation. It is my hypothesis that this was a highly likely reason for LaVey giving Manson the Priesthood (aside from the success thing, which is one of MM's too-little-too-late saving graces). Sooner or later, those who attempt to learn about Satanism from Marilyn Manson (what a joke) must eventually stumble upon the Church of Satan, where they'll have to deal with the concept of Satan as being something more than getting laid and picking on Christians. A true proving ground which will separate junk from jewels.

So, when all is said and shlocked, when MM has poured all of his money into his veins or his psychiatrist's wallet, the spirit of the Spice Girls, in whatever form, will (unintentionally, of course) carry many of Satanism's tenets into 21st Century pop culture. (Opinions on whether this is a beneficial thing or not will vary.) Whether they want it or not (and it's safe to bet on the latter), the Spice Girls win the Satanic Heavyweight Championship belt... to the horror of MM's mindless, denying-the- herd-within disciples. Hail Spice Girls!