Having dealt directly with the author of this book, “Magus Thor’rauna High Priest of Satan in South Africa: Phil Botha receives Christ as Lord!” by Francis B. while I was doing research during 2013, I again encountered this book online in March 2023 – and decided to leave a review.
Phil Botha’s story – ostensibly a serious biography, is laced with major inconsistencies, errors and flaws in its claims about Satanism which reveal that neither he (nor the biographer) knew enough about Satanism to ever qualify as a “High Priest” in Satanism, or even to masquerade as a novice.
It is claimed that Botha used to “teleport” all over the planet (while he was a Satanist of course, so presumably they took away his teleportation permit when he got “saved”). Despite the existence of contemporary photographic, video or filming equipment, there are NO recordings of such events. Not even so much as two photos of Phil Botha standing beside two landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall of China minutes apart while holding an alarm clock or calendar – or even at the same moment, seeing as he also claimed he had the ability to time travel!
This sounds like a fairly amusing piece of 1970’s fantasy, and probably one fueled by LSD. But that’s all it is. Fantasy. To present it as incontrovertible fact – as the agent and promoter of this work has done – is just patently ridiculous.
As a work critical of Satanism as a religion and of the occult however – which it purports to be, it is seriously flawed and amounts to nothing less than poorly researched, vile slander against occult religions and Satanism as a New Religious Movement.
According to Botha, Witches, Satanists, Freemasons and professional magicians are buried alive as part of their initiation ceremony? Really? Why then, have none of them received that memo?
Anton LaVey was not known for his levitation or astral projecting skills – LaVey was an Atheistic Satanist and founder of the Church of Satan, who presided over numerous rituals and ceremonies in his capacity as High Priest of the Church of Satan. LaVeyan Satanists are atheistic and do not have a belief in deities or magic other than as a ritual means to focus on goal-fulfillment. Botha suggests that in order for someone to qualify as a High Priest of Satan, they should prove that they can levitate or astral project?! Seriously?!
Botha – and his biographer – create the impression that all Satanists everywhere fall under one central hierarchy, and all believing in the same brand of Satanism, when in truth there is no such thing. As it turns out, there are many different types and groups of Satanism around the world – and as a matter of fact they are wholly independent of each other, and some even view each other in an adversarial light.
“Francis B”, the person managing Botha’s legacy of tall tales claims to have written to Peter H. Gilmore, the present head of the Church of Satan in the USA, asking questions as Phil Botha, also using “Magus” in his email address – which apparently (according to Botha) all Satanists would fear and acknowledge – but Gilmore didn’t, so he concludes that “Gilmore is fake”.
Setting up your victims by claiming in advance that those who don’t recognize your fancy made-up titles are “fakers”, is the hallmark of a scam artist.
Instead of questioning the 158 page-long conspiracy theory they have promoted as fact, the “Francis B.” described their correspondence with the Church of Satan as “proof that the Church of Satan is run by novices & con-artists” in a page-long rant on their website dedicated to Phil Botha. It doesn’t seem to occur to them at all that Botha might have made all this stuff up.
This nonsense isn’t even entertaining enough to read as a badly conceived and poorly-presented joke. Furthermore, in terms of quality, it’s surprising to me that this item is even for sale on Amazon because the author never even bothered to design an actual cover. As a document, it evokes something printed at home and stapled together to sell at the local cult tabernacle on the corner. Rather than being presented as a serious piece of any literary value, I think this item’s only salvation is if it were repackaged as Christian fiction, in which case it might carry at least a little merit or entertainment value for those who find that sort of thing interesting.
The author – in their belief that this fantasy has any basis in fact – as well as demonstrated in the string of emails between them and me back in 2013 – needs to educate themself about Satanism as a NRM (New Religious Movement):
“Satanism: The Acid Test” addresses disinformation being distributed against new religious movements (NRMs) such as neo-Pagan religions and Satanism, and sub-cultures like the Vampire sub-culture, offering clarification and educational information to demystify these groups. https://www.academia.edu/4420379/Satanism_The_Acid_Test_v01_04
I gave this effort a one star rating on Good Reads, but only because I couldn’t leave a no-star review.
As far as the old Tinamometer is concerned, it rates a solid, resounding zero.