The previous page of Black Souls opens a topic that many have probably asked themselves, even at an unconscious level and also based on their own sexual, satanic and ritual experience. Does the approach of Hermetic Magic - read sexual magic - to sex with another partner presuppose mutual awareness of the ritual, its purposes and the intentions of the participants? The most obvious answer is no, based on common experience and the form that these rituals usually have. The ritual that we saw on the previous page, for example, includes the total unawareness of the partner to his participation in the ritual. Indeed: in this non-awareness lies the profound meaning of the ritual itself, without which the ritual would not exist or would exist with a very different form, development and objectives. For example, in its aware form, the ritual of "Planting the Seed of Satan" would take the form of a consensual initiation ritual. The Rite of Initiation of a Brotherhood that I propose in the Black Room is exactly such a ritual. In truth, the concept of awareness can be formalized in a somewhat more objective way and this allows it to be exploited deliberately in Black Magic rituals. Although the concept is intuitively clear, there are nuances that are not evident at first glance and that are better clarified, because they become important on a ritualistic and empathic level.

• Awareness: this presupposes that all participants in the Hermetic Magic ritual are aware of the ritual itself. They are aware of its organization, prediction, beginning, development and end, although they do not necessarily have to be involved in its planning. The concept of awareness focuses on being aware that the sexual act in progress is being exploited to satisfy one's own perverse desires as well as to arouse satanic energies, open a nexion to the Dark World and use these energies for a predefined sinister goal. All participants contribute to the good outcome of the ritual and usually all are aware and in agreement about the sinister goal towards which the energies produced in the nexion will be directed.

• Non-Awareness: at least one participant in the Hermetic Magic ritual is completely unaware of the fact that he or she is participating in this type of event. He is unaware that the ritual has been planned, that it closely involves the person or persons he is having sex with, he is unaware of its beginning and end, and of the presence of a nexion or satanic energies involved, and of the sinister objective that is the purpose of the ritual. This participant does not contribute in any way to the outcome of the ritual, despite his non-awareness being one of the founding bases of the ritual itself (as we said before).

The non-aware participant in the ritual is not necessarily the target of the sinister energies that the Satanist draws upon from the nexion. In the simplest cases, he is - as in the ritual on the previous page - but it is interesting to note how the Satanist can exploit non-aware participants in his undeclared Satanic ritual to open a nexion and harness its energies for himself or for purposes that do not involve the people present, let alone the non-aware participant. We will see examples of this in the following pages. If the non-aware participant is also the target of these energies, the ritual usually takes a slightly different form: it is longer, more involved, more intimate, and the Satanist has probably chosen this person specifically for the purposes of his sinister goal. If the Satanist is instead involving one or more non-aware participants in his ritual - as might happen in a cruising club, for example - the sexual intercourse aimed at opening and exploiting the nexion is usually shorter and/or more intense, quicker and more impersonal, but no less effective. A ritual of this type in which a Satanist takes loads by as many men as possible, all strangers, is an example of a Hermetic Magic ritual in which the Satanist, the only aware one, exploits many non-aware men, none of whom are the target of the ritual, and the true sinister goal of the Satanist is to unleash a deep nexion to tap into Dark Energies for entirely different purposes - from demonic evocation to personal empathic and magical growth, to the deliberate sinister will to open a nexion for the sole purpose of releasing the energies of the Dark World and spreading them into our world.

More sophisticated rituals include the presence of more than one aware Satanist who exploits one or more non-aware participants in the ritual. In any case, the Satanist must be conscious of the fact that the non-aware participant will not participate in the successful outcome of the ritual under any circumstances. In fact, the Satanist should be conscious of the fact that the non-aware participants may work against him, i.e. the ritual may not go as he planned precisely because of the participation of people who are unaware of it. Preventing this or knowing how to exploit or adapt to unexpected changes is all in the empathic skills of the Satanist, who should be prepared for anything in these cases - up to having to interrupt the ritual. Various aspects of all that we have said will be explored in specific cases, in the next pages of Back Souls.

An important question remains: does non-awareness presuppose rape? Does it contain elements of non-consensuality? Although the answer may depend on the point of view, it is essentially negative. A non-aware Hermetic Magic ritual doesn't include any rape. A non-aware participant is unaware on a spiritual level but not on a material level, that is, non-awareness is not the same as non-consensuality. This is obviously important for the Satanist: the sex he practices in Hermetic Magic is always consensual. What happens on an energetic and spiritual level is the Satanist's business, and the non-aware participant doesn't necessarily have to be informed about it. Indeed, as we have already said and repeated, non-awareness becomes a basic element of this type of ritual. That is, the ritual exists and functions in this form precisely on the basis of the fact that one or more participants have not been informed of its existence. This unscrupulous approach is inherent in Black Magic, which is the application of Satanism as a Left Hand Path: that is, it is a purely Satanic approach. The Satanist accepts it as part of his new sinister values, and he's essentially indifferent as to whether and how it may be accepted by non-aware participants in his rituals.