I have seen more states in the last 6 months than I have in my whole life. I lived in New England for 28yr 13 spent in NH and the 1st 15 in Mass.

I've recently been very displaced. I never really thought much about the deep south till I moved in to it. I moved from New Hampshire to Texas, then from Texas to Florida. I was in Texas 3 months and I've been in Florida about that long now.

Let me just say Manson's Portrait of an American Family sounds very different now.
I recently met my share of people so far off the grid they have solar power. I thought my friends scared people, these folks scare me. When the walls of your house are soaked with more blood than a crime scene and it's legal. I've never seen any thing like it.

Survivalism! gun toting hunt your dinner, live of the land, don't need to pay for anything, farm living. I knew a lot of people up north talk about being removed from the grid but honey let me tell you they could not survive. It's quite the trip to see it up close and personal. Very, very different from people with a few acres sitting around taking about it. I mean where talking whole towns of people in Florida and Texas that don't need the government to survive.

It's incredible normally I wouldn't find myself on a farm, but I've got nothing left to lose so why not check it all out. So I've taken some pretty risky leaps and it's lead me to some pretty strange and wonderful places. It's funny I move from Laconia to Daytona all by accident. Guess I'm just a biker baby at heart. There's something comforting about knowing Hell's Angels are right there and they make stupidity painful.

Life is very different in reality than what you read about in books or see on t.v. It's stranger than fiction. I'm still in shock a little from the whole upheaval, but more because I didn't give much thought to what was out there.

Real southern cooking it the best. I'm talking home cooked freshly kill and on the grill. Everything is fresh and right in the back yard. They got the life it's probably not that cool but I think it is. I've lived in the city my whole life and would have starved to death with out a grocery store. Now I'm learning to fish and shoot dear.

It's amazing to me because this is still a way of life for many people not just a weekend hobby like it is up north. The kids on these farms are more skilled than any high school student I've ever met.

Yeah there is a lot of god but it's not the fire and brimstone I was expecting. They're actually very polite about it knowing I'm an atheist or as I read it earlier an I-theist.

I just thought I'd share. Life is an incredible adventure.

Have any of you ever had experience where you knew you were out of you element, or just surprised by how incredible the moment was?

All of my feelings on Survival and my personal Survival tool-set / mindset all stem from that one line you just said. Any Satanist should be able to see and feel the impact of that statement. I've met some who don't, and I have to question it internally.

I don't live off the grid. I don't want to live off the grid. Too much work, and the pay is.... well. At the same time, I know I need to learn how to do it if I need to. Honestly, living in a cabin that has no power, water, gas, or septic is really hard work. Butchering is hard work. Farming is hard work. Shit, the daily fixing of stuff that we normally pay others to do is hard work. Still, I think every Satanist should have enough of a Survivalist mindset that they don't end up stuck in that statement I quoted.

And by the way... there are plenty of Yankees that live completely off grid.

Now were talking! This is an area I have a lot of interest in, and I will recommend 'Wilderness Survival - Living off the land with the clothes on your back and the knife on your belt' by Mark Elbroch and Mike Pewtherer if you ever get the urge to take the ultimate plunge and live off the grid in the forests in Russia. It's a pretty in-depth survival guide.



Amen to that brother. Testify!

I went from living in a big city in England to what is best described as the 'Texas of Norway' with just a bag of clothes, books and a pocket full of dreams. The risk was worth it. I'd never actually seen a mountain before. Or a Moose.

Every day.

About a year ago, I moved to rural Colorado from the Balto-Washington region, the very definition of metropolitan. There are anthills in Colorado that are bigger than the "mountains" of Maryland. The vistas are show-stoppers and, at some elevations, can be literally breath-taking.

I love it here, even with the snot-freezing cold. I love the serenity, the lack of traffic and the notable absence of what Old_Pig calls bumper car people. My personal space bubble is never in danger here. So much space. And no one seems to be in a hurry. Coloradoans aren't "slow" people though. Just more calm, I think, and that makes a difference. Not any less weird mind you. I feel like Dale Cooper sometimes, getting all misty-eyed over some of the local quirkiness and scenery.

"Know why I'm whittling? Because that's what you do in a town where a yellow light still means slow down, not speed up."

Re: Survivalism. Many moons ago I got tired of trying to come up with gift ideas for people so started getting all of the "hard to buy for" folks one thing. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. Seemed especially appropriate for a holiday when a lot of Christmas-only Christians seep out of the woodwork and it was something each misfit member of my tribe could get some use out of. It's written with tongue firmly in cheek but, if you read between the metaphor, has lots of useful information. Same goes for a book called Contingency Cannibalism: Superhardcore Survivalism's Dirty Little Secret by Shiguro Takada.

Good topic! As motley a crew as Satanists tend to be I think we may all have a few things in common. Namely, we make our lives worth fighting for.

I have experienced similar survival situations, but never as a permanent way of life. Camping on remote places with only a very basic set of tools on a backpack. Living in a hut made with my own hand, eating what I was able to fish. But never for longer than a week and knowing few miles away there was a road that would connect me back with civilization.

I have also lived in a farm, pulling my dinner from the ground and butchering livestock for meat.

I even had situations where I had to obtain my protein from very unappetizing stuff.

But those were mostly weekend excursions and planed adventures in the company of my brother and friends. And the last of them was ten years ago.

Some times I miss it. I keep thinking abut how little modern commodities really give you and how much they take away.

You say you were around Florida? I would like to know a little more about those places.

I grew up in the woods of South Carolina, in a double wide trailer. There was deer to hunt, and ponds to fish in; plus, we used to raise rabbits for food. I particularly enjoyed wild crafting. I’ve made whole meals with things I picked from the woods. You haven’t lived if you’ve never had milk thistle stew.

But, I never considered that survivalist. My survivalist experience was when I left the country and moved to a big city, with nothing. I lived in a house with no heat. At night, a plume of cloudy breath rose from my bed to the ceiling. I left that place of luxury to move into a house with no electricity. Luckily, I found a third shift job, so I did not have to try to walk around in a dark house.

During that time, I lived on peanut butter and jelly. Wait…scrap the jelly…I was too broke. Once a week, I splurged, and spent $5 at an all you can eat buffet like they only have in the south. I gorged myself on macaroni and cheese and chicken wings. It had to last a week. The neighborhood was just as you would expect…drunks, criminals and drug addicts. It may not be deer hunting, but you had to learn to blend in with the scenery, or you were a target. I am proud to say that I was not reduced to dumpster diving even once; though there was this one time when somebody threw away a jelly filled donut, but I have vowed never to speak of that incident. You understand.

Roho, I do understand. It seems depending the situation going from the country to the city would require quite a bit of survival techniques and street smarts. I was raised in that environment roaches, no lights or heat, bums begging on every corner in the heart of Boston. I wouldn't of considered it survivalism ether but I guess that's a matter of perception depending on the walk of life you approach it from and what you have to muster up to deal with the ordeal.

Thank you, it puts quite a bit in to perspective for me. I didn't consider my life in the city as surviving, but it is, and I got plenty of hard core skills to prove it. I can't fire a gun on mark yet, but I can survive a snow storm and drive in one.

I spent a couple of months living on the streets when I was 16 years old, sleeping in alcoves down alleyways and I there was one sewer grate which always had warm air coming out of it. I still think back on that sewer grate sometimes, that grate was my friend.
I was pretty good at 'aquiring' food and items to trade for food so I never really went all that hungry and luckily I was able to find myself somewhere indoors to live in short enough time. It was only temporary but it was enough for me to decide that I would never let it happen again.

I know it's not in the same league as living off the land like you described but it sure felt pretty 'do or die' to me at the time...

Old_Pig, Florida is paradise. It has every thing. The strangest part to me is my friend who's teaching me to hunt lives in the swamp, gators and all, just 20 minuets out side the city and 45 from the heart of Orlando. It's a trailer park community of hunters who are so spread out no one can hear you scream. You could get lost in the back yard and need a river boat to get around parts of it.

The town is nothing but wide open space. Some of it is farm land with herded live stock. The rest is a hunters play ground with one restaurant and a gas station. There is a wild life preserve supported by the town for the preservation of game, but there is also 30,000 acres of woods, swamps, and uninhabited space for the town of about 400 people max (it might be more like 40 people) to use because the own it. It's not a camp ground for the public. In the hustle and bustle of the city you'd never even know this place is there.

Floria is big and colorful, with something for everyone. The cities offer a wide variety of Haitian and Puerto-Ricoian influences from the islands. It's has a very tropical feel, like being on vacation every day. I'm not sure how long it's going to take, to take it all in, but I don't think it can be done in one life time. It's quite an amalgamation unto it's self like Las Vegas or Hollywood.

You should check it out 1st hand there's nothing like the real thing.


It's funny for all the modern conveniences we indulge, I wonder if it only serves to make us weaker? Not that I would want to go with out things like toilet paper or my fridge, but it helps to be aware of how to get by with out them if need be.

The scenery everywhere I've been has been breath taking in it's own right. I drive every where, I love my car. I've yet to see Colorado but I want to. Those vistas sound fantastic. New Hampshire had mountains beautiful purple mountains on my horizons every day. I miss them some times it's very flat in Florida. The Rocky mountains in Colorado are bigger than the Appalachians in NH too.



That's a great line. I met an 8yr old who could do just that, whittle. He walked in the house with a stick and asked his mom for a knife. I thought it odd till he explained in detail what he was making. I was amazed.

I expected this type of life style from New Hampshire and never saw it to much influence from Massachusetts' city slickers wanting camp ground. I moved to Florida and never expected to see any thing like this but here is where I found it. It's eye opening how one can find things you never knew you were looking for in the most unlikely of places.



Ahhh, Zombies, no amount of praying will save you from those buggers. You need hard core ammo and a super Walmart.
Zombies have made quite the come back it's only right we're prepared That book is very funny. Come to think of it my copy was gifted to me by a friend. The other I haven't read yet I'll give it a look. Is it written with the same humor?



That's for damn sure. Thank you for posting there's quit a lot that can be said for experience. Especially the kind that come from making the most of ones life even if it's just for the sake of survival. I suppose even if you don't wind up in the most ideal place as long as you can make the most of it, you come out on top.

Skjalandir, Thank for the book suggestion.

I've never been outside of America but recently I got to travel all over the country it's the best feeling in world to have that freedom. I've seen mountains and moose. I'd love to see Europe too. I don't know if I'm up for surviving in the deep woods of Russia but I'll try anything once.

I think my 1st adventure out side the states is going to be Tokyo. I love the look of that city and need to see it first hand.

I really went to Texas with a pocket full of dreams too fun isn't it?


No thank you I'd rather not.

Hail Satan!
P.S. I'm a grrrl

Yes, ABZU, I agree. It doesn't need to be a way of life but knowing how to survive, if say, all Hell breaks loose is a vital skill that should not be over looked.

I'm glad I got the opportunity, with everything I've learned form these guy I could live quite comfortably if society collapsed. Considering the rescission America's in these guys aren't even phased, they didn't even need to acknowledge it. It might not seem useful to the day to day lives we lead but it opens up a much bigger world of possibilities that allows me to get a much more in-depth insight into life.

I thought I was living outside the box before this, ha, I really needed to get out of my comfort zone to start living. I'm not stuck now and there is such freedom in it.


Ok, It would be presumptuous of me to think that in all of New England there was no one who could do it. I just find it hard to believe it could be done in Massachusetts with the choke hold the government has on the populous.

If the USA ever collapsed into a state of widespread chaos and raw survivalism became necessary, I'd move in with Magister Svengali.

Yes, it is the same. It's just from the opposite perception. Have you lived in the city your whole life?
Roho made a similar statement in terms of city survival. It depends on perception, surviving off the land is surviving with what your provided. If that's a concrete jungle so be it. It takes a lot more gumption to do it on the streets where there are other people (you can't hunt for food).

I was 15 and did the same thing for 2yrs and vowed never again. I found that type of survival marks people. Growing up on my own, I found there is a big difference between those of us who have been there and those who haven't. There's something softer and weaker about people who've never experienced the struggle to survive. I didn't even think about writing this, till you reminded me.

I know a lot of people who choose the streets over the safe control of the world they're raised in but that's a different subject.

I was fully aware of what I was doing. I knew I did it to my self. I learned more living in the world than I ever did being told about it. I have a wonder lust, I'm always looking for something new. I need to be able to survive the risks I'm willing to take. I challenge my self to constantly learn form the life I'm living, even if it's not a formal education. There's something about "in the real world education". Some collages even give credit for it.

I recommend you have a plan B.