Agrippa Vanities - TIC-80 512 bytes

initial version, didn't like the circles

slightly better animated but still felt it was missing something

Pentagram

u=math
l=u.cos
h=u.sin
f=.31415
n=f*4
d=240
g=d/2
function q(e,s,m,p)
line(g+e*l(s),68+e*h(s),g+e*l(m),68+e*h(m),p)
end
TIC=function()
 cls(0)
 for i=0,4 do -- penta
  s=i*n+f
  for e=-40,40 do -- thickness
   q(e/8+50,s,(i+2)*n+f,3-e/20)
  end
 end
end

Starfield

d=240
c={}
g=d/2
for i=0,504 do
 c[i]=0.02+math.random()*0.1
end
TIC=function()
 cls(0)
 for i=0,500,4 do
  z=c[i+3]
  x=c[i]/z
  y=c[i+1]/z
  c[i+3]=z-c[i+2]
  pix(g+x*g,68+y*68,z%5)
  if x>1 or y>1 then
   c[i]=math.random()*5-2.4
   c[i+1]=math.random()*5-2.4
   c[i+3]=4
  end
 end
end


Then i became interested in other type of music, still kept listening to black metal stuff such as Bathory but not so often, i revisited black metal years later after going into trash and death metal first which eventually led to this intro after a happy accident involving the creation of a pentagram with tiny code.

The satanic theme re-framed into a Gnostic / dualist cosmogony (could also fit pantheism) pushed by some black metal bands (eg: Abigor on Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint - An Excursion on Satan's Fragmenting Principle (2010) for example, this interpretation is loosely based on the lyrics but i also heard some of this in Brigitte Fontaine Hermaphrodite song, Coil Blood from the air or even in Jean Genet works), this view devoid of any liturgy nor rituals is something interesting to me, i see it as some sort of extreme spiritual extension (much wider in scope) of the sort of principles that one can find in anarchism (pursuit of personal knowledge, liberation from oppressive forces, high skepticism etc.), all the paradoxes that this theme spawn could fuel and resolve to a sort of mythology / cosmogony with the commonly seen biblical figures (reversed) referring to man (actually all that exist) and whatever system of oppression he (whatever 'he' is here) is currently in (so demiurge is the keeper of that structure ?), in this case the best state is non existence i guess which can be considered one of the higher realm; primal chaos, existence can be seen as an everlasting try (rebellion) to reach that state even if briefly (for those who knows i guess ?), it perhaps always "fall" through though (never ending falls, never works), singularities, the true god is something abstract (fragmented ?) and self referential for anything that exist, it may actually refer to one self across time and fields of possibles, it also means that believing it is actually believing in one self, we are one  (which is probably a reference to the first principle which i guess refer to the first law of thermodynamics which state that energy can only be altered, neither created nor destroyed), the Gnosis of the Gnostic (a trail, bottle message) lie in everything that exist (more or less) as some sort of leitmotiv to catch on.

Time may also have a special meaning : Time exists so that everything doesn’t happen at once. so time would actually be the mechanism by which rebellion, salvation is realized (Gnosis), if everything would happen at once there would be perpetual servitude (immediate and total subjugation to oppressive structures), the illusion of time (?) is a fragmented way to avoid and realize this (assemble; through experience ?).

Another interpretation of Gnosticism that i like without the cosmic and mythological bullshit (so metaphorical and allegorical) could be that the demiurge actually represent whatever system of oppression is in exercise for an individual, the material world in this idea represent the structure itself (power structures) and whatever enforcement it does to the individual directly or indirectly, even though it may appear as benevolent it is actually largely ignorant and perhaps completely misguided, filled with false "gods" (fragmented) while the non-material (and not knowledgeable) world is "good" because it stay unrealized, full of possibles, in this view i like to think that the Gnosis is just whatever someone can infer from all the scattered knowledge to go past the "enslavement" (collect fragments of information to understand from different viewpoint) and thus approach the non-material world without ever materializing anything from it (because it may shift into oppression), i find this quite funny because it interpret Gnosticism as a distilled disguised criticism of whatever enforce rules over individuals and a pacific way to go past that through introspection, individual knowledge, understanding, criticizing and experiencing, solitary seekers in this framework make sense.

All this is probably farfetched edgy individual interpretation (aka bullshit) though and should be highly questioned and disregarded; just had some quick interpretation fun after listening to some music. I guess that the interesting bits i draw from this is that some of the essence of what is talked on in black metal has close ties with anarchism and its values in some ways (i see some of this in the demoscene as well), rebellion from the status quo, personal freedom, black metal has punk roots so no wonder, it is known there is overlapping ideas there, most of the ideas doesn't draw from organized religions / coercive authority but from earlier forms that existed prior it which were less dogmatic, free form and wilder, such ideas were often severely punished by history through the implementation of heresy and orthodoxy; metal music also draw from all kinds of outsider stories such as witches in Bathory For all those who died which was inspired by a Erica Jong poem, it is outsider music at heart.

A fun (mostly related) essay on Gnosticism in metal : Of chaos and internal fire: the quest for nothingness by lyrical manifestations of re-interpreted Gnostic thought

I later mused at which writer in history came with the same sort of extreme anarchist extension (without too much of the Gnosticism bits), the idea seems already there from the beginning although in a primitive form and can be guessed from slogan or sentences such as the famous one No gods, no masters or Bakunin "If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him" but the one that looks close to what i talked about would be Max Stirner although it still lacks something likes the acknowledgement of fragmentation so it is still not really there, Nietzsche is perhaps closer, especially on its most interesting bits such as his idea of Dionysian and overcoming nihilism which one may attempt to link to Gnosis due to its open-ended state, George Bataille is also a great candidate as a later bridge from Nietzsche.