"And when he saw her, he was filled with ignorance. He became arrogant, saying, 'I am God, and there is no other God besides me,' not knowing that the source of his strength came from his mother." ~ The Apocryphon of John
Within every man, there is a woman. Within every woman, there is a man. Thusly were the sexes created – for from within Adam emerged Eve. Humans contain within themselves a natural bipolar constitution, and from this emerges all the intrapsychic dynamics and conflicts of human life. Within the individual we see conflicting poles of Darkness and Light, Love and Hate, Pleasure and Pain, Masculinity and Femininity, Homosexuality and Heterosexuality, Indulgence and Restraint. Indeed, it is not until testosterone is introduced to and dominates the embryonic environment that the Wolffian duct, present within every foetus, develops and becomes male genitalia. When absent, it regresses and becomes female. Both men and women have present testosterone and estrogen and require an agreeable balance of both male and female sex hormones. Within every Cain, there is an Abel – And within every Abel, there is a Cain. When these inner conflicts are unable to be resolved, the diseases and perversions of the mind erupt and latent or manifest symptoms and emotions are made known. All individuals are born with darkness, but with cultivation, one learns to subdue unruly sentiments and supplant them with prudent ones. What occurs, however, when the darkness within oneself cannot be tamed and the ravaging beast is released from its prison? What follows is the total consumption of darkness by an individual and a sinking into the depths of the sea of evil until finally, the individual becomes indistinguishable from the evil itself. Such persons are demonstrated herein.
The word ‘Incel’ represents “Involuntary Celibate”, used to denote men who live (undesirably) inactive sex lives. They are unable to attract, seduce, or copulate with women either genuinely (meaning beyond the realm of prostitution) or in total. These men characterise themselves as victims of an oppressive social system wherein they are the victims and call for violent justification and vindication. In Incel Psychology, the ones guilty of their grievances are none other than women (and femininity in general) and men (who overcome them in attractiveness and virility). Especially hated, however, are women who reject the incel – for there is no other individual more guilty and heinous than she. These beliefs are shared by all members of the cult and one cannot be considered an incel lest one possess, at the very least, one or more of the aforementioned qualities – to any degree. I refer to the Incel “community” as a cult for the following reasons:
Their totalising and isolated world-view.
Common psychological and social patterns.
Their collective Thanatic nature makes them a Thanatic Cult – worshippers of death and destruction (i.e. self-destruction, destruction in general, violence, nihilism).
Their commonly shared symbols, mythology, and language.
Commencing with their world-view, the Incels have a “they against us” mindset that is characteristic of cults. The members are already men with poor social skills, which advances their social isolation. Upon finding other individuals like them to socialise with, they feel a sense of belonging and the herd instinct begins to cultivate. It is through this cultivation of the herd instinct that a common Group Mind is established and the thoughts of a few become the thoughts of many. This very same principle of associating survivability with the membership in a cult or its leader is what is used universally throughout every single cult group. Not infrequently shall you see that the death of a leader results in the death of the cult, since there is no ideal figure to attach to and associate survivability with. In the case of the Incel Cult, you shall find that there is no physical figure present – rather, symbolic ones which are perpetually present in the Group Mind. Elliot Rodger for instance, is praised as a saint in the Incel community. In 2014, Rodger, an incel, was responsible for a mass murder in the Santa Barbara area in the name of his hatred towards women and sexually successful men before killing himself. This act of mass murder not only brought the incel community into the popular view, but also resulted in an ignition of incel enthusiasm. The day of his attacks marks “Saint Elliot’s Day” in the community. The attacks of Rodger was a culmination of demiurgic energy in the consciousness of the collective and resulted in a cultural eruption. This is akin to the ministry of St. John the Baptist and Jesus – their death resulting in the eruption of messianic energy in the consciousness of the collective at the time and resulting in a cultural movement which reverberated and remains in motion today.
Further, the Romans, excelling and surpassing their successors in hygiene and plumbing, worshipped the goddess Cloaca, the patroness of the sewer, and established her temple as the very same sewer system of Rome, naming it “Cloaca Maxima”. Cloaca was a Cthonic (Underworld) goddess and resided beneath the earth. She was believed to oversee the purification and maintenance of the sewer, ensuring the health and wellness of Rome. Her archetypal and symbolic strength exists even today, evident and reflected in our modern Romance languages. In Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Galician, and Portuguese, “Cloaca” literally means sewer. In French, the word “Cloaque” is used. And in Romanian, “Cloacă”. The symbols and figures a group identifies with become the complexes of the group itself. By worshipping the goddess Cloaca, the Romans directed mental energy towards the valuation of water cleanliness and social hygiene. Maintaining the sewer (and thereby cleanliness) became indistinguishable from preserving the temple of the Cloaca Maxima, transforming this duty from a civic responsibility into a divine one. For this reason, it is not surprising that a cult that internalises the violent, destructive, and Thanatic symbol of Elliot Rodger is also responsible for 68 terror attacks as of 2024 (Rottweiler et. al., 2024). To corroborate this claim of identification with the Thanatic figure of Rodger, Alec Minassian praised Rodgers on Facebook before driving a van into a crowd of people and killing ten in 2018. In 2021, Jake Davison, who self-identified as an incel, killed 5 people including his mother.
Arriving at my third point, we can plainly observe the instinctual dynamics of the incel. Instinctually, we observe the evolution of the sexual instincts into the death instincts (i.e. a redirection of libidinal energy once contained in Eros therein channelised in Thanatos). Women are, either at first or simultaneously, desired. When this desire is not fulfilled, gratified, or reciprocated, it transforms into hatred. The presence of death, self-murder, mass murder, homicide, and self-loathing is noteworthy. The Thanatic nature of the Incel community cannot be denied. Because the Erotic instinct in these individuals is inherently dammed up, there is an overgrowth of Thanatos. Because Thanatos does not limit itself to only external subjects, but internal ones as well, this hatred also assumes the form of self-directed hatred, so common in Incels. Eventually, what we see instead of an overflowing of Erotic energy, resulting in sex appeal and sexual magnetism, we see an overflowing of Thanatic energy. Perhaps it is this overflowing of negative, Thanatic energy that makes the incel so repelling in the first place.
The mythology and symbols of The Cult of Involuntary Celibates is the main and principal concern of this article. The Chad Archetype and the Incel Archetype seem to exist in the collective mind of the Incel community. They are, in a sense, a modern mythological, symbolic embodiment of two polarities in the spectrum of masculinity – Active and Passive. ‘Chad’ refers to the idealised male in the Incel imagination. Chad is typically portrayed in incel discourses as hypermasculine, totally ideal, charismatic, dominant, shallow, devoid of challenges, and attractive. Chad pertains to the Active polarity of masculinity. On the opposite side of the polarity is the Incel. The incel himself in the incel imagination is physically inferior, unattractive, mentally superior to Chad, weak, awkward, and hopeless. In the Incel worldview, the Chad & Incel function as opposing forces – Chad is the winner and evolutionarily superior while the Incel is the loser and born to deteriorate. The Incel archetype itself serves as a scapegoat identity, allowing individuals to externalize their pain, loneliness, and social struggles onto a deterministic explanation. It functions as a coping mechanism, albeit a destructive one, reinforcing a victim mindset rather than fostering change. From a collective standpoint, however, the incel embodies the shadow of the modern male psyche, representing fear of failure, rejection, and sexual or general inadequacy in a world that increasingly emphasizes social and sexual competition. In a similar manner, Chad is an existential symbol of male success.
Masculinity is not the only thing symbolised. There is also a mythologisation of femininity as well. In the incel imagination, Stacy is the female counterpart to Chad, representing the ultimate unattainable woman—hyper-feminine, sexually selective, shallow, and entirely focused on high-status men. She is both desired and resented, embodying everything that incels believe prevents them from experiencing romantic or sexual success. Stacy functions as a projection of male fears and frustrations, much like Chad. Stacy, in my view, is the embodiment of Venus Cotytto within the incel framework. Venus Cotytto (from the Latin word Coitus, implicitly meaning Venus Slut) is the aspect of Venus that pertains to earthly love (in contrast to Venus Urania or Venus Anadyomene). For such reason, Venus rules the earthly sign of Taurus and the airy sign of Libra, for there is love that is carnal and love that is sacred. Venus Cotytto is the licentious, lustful, debaucherous, and profane aspect of love. Psychoanalytically, she represents the ambivalence of female sexuality – both delicate and unbridled. On one hand, it offers a model of sexual empowerment—a recognition of innate beauty and potent sexual energy. On the other, the same archetype provokes objectification and shame. “Stacy” in incel discourse is the hyper-attractive, effortlessly desirable woman—an ideal that incels believe they can never obtain. Similarly, the Venus Cotytto archetype elevates the image of the divine feminine by combining classical beauty (as symbolized by Venus) with unrestrained sexual energy. In both cases, the ideal is not only admired but is also set at an unreachable standard. Both constructs embody the classic Madonna–Whore dichotomy. “Stacy” is often worshipped for her beauty and sexual availability, yet incels also decry her as a symbol of everything they feel is unattainable or alienating. The Venus Cotytto archetype, by fusing Venus’s divine allure with potent sexual power, similarly captures this ambivalence—she is both a source of ultimate desire and an object of envy and frustration. For incels, “Stacy” becomes the mirror in which they see both what they yearn for and what they believe condemns them. The Venus Cotytto archetype reflects the same inner conflict: the idealization of an almost divine feminine energy that simultaneously represents the unattainable object of desire and the source of all their frustrations. Thus, they are the figure of the indomitable, powerful sexual woman. Hence why “Stacy” is both an object of worship and a trigger for deep-seated disdain in incel narratives – as Venus Cotytto. There is a certain type of collective Madonna-Whore complex present in the cult. Women, to incels, are not divided into passivity and activity, or feminine women and masculine women. Perhaps this is because the dilemma of incels is the premise that no woman will submit herself unto them. Rather, women are divided into domitable and indomitable. The former pertains to the Madonna polarity and the latter to the Whore polarity. Perhaps Venus Cotytto/Stacy fuse these two together.
The hatred of other women is obviously the projection of self-hatred. By undermining women, they elevate themselves. The hatred of Stacy is also a reaction against sadness and self-pity. The hatred of Chad (the conceptualised masculine principle) is also a mere projection of self-hatred. The hatred of the world could be due to nature itself constantly being in a state of reproduction via the seasons and natural course of life – Reproduction being something they cannot attain.
Elaborating more on the mythology of the cult of Incels, these individuals believe in a prophesied day of vindication and redemption known as “The Day of the Rope” which is a time when all women shall be punished for rejecting and humiliating them. Then and only then shall all Incels be vindicated. This fantasy is a wish to destroy both objects of hatred and the self – also an object of hatred.
You shall not find among incels any worshippers of Mary, Minerva, Diana, or Venus. There is a clear resentment and hatred towards women and the feminine principle. It is Demiurgic. The Incel, as a Demiurgic imago, seeks the destruction of Sophia, the feminine principle, via the destruction of herself and the world around them.
Furthering my premise that The Incel is an image of the lonely, asexual Demiurge is the call for the sexual subjugation of women, often via rape. This is akin to the demiurge ordering his archons to rape Eve in order to pollute her.
“Then the rulers (Archons) laid plans and said, ‘Come, let us seize her and let us cast our seed into her, so that she, being defiled, may not be able to ascend to her light, but those who shall be born of her will be under our charge.’ But Eve, being a force, laughed at their decision. She darkened their eyes and left her likeness behind with them. And she entered the tree of knowledge and remained there." ~ (On the Origin of the World, Nag Hammadi Library, Codex II)
It calls my attention that Eve “being a force” is depicted as laughing at the ignorance of the archons who believed that they were able to subdue her and actually uses her own power to blind them, while leaving an illusion or phantom version of herself in her wake so that they may think that they raped her, though they did not. Eve, as a feminine and seemingly weak and persecuted force, actually mocks and ridicules the masculine persecutory force. It is the Archons who feel inferior to Eve, not the opposite. Thus, in symbolic parallel, the Incel male, while desiring the female, ridicules her and despises her. Not only for what she inherently represents, but also because all that she is is averse to all that they are. They perceive women as not only being worthy of hate and misguided, but also participants in the infliction of their humiliation – especially sexual. The Archons (in my interpretation) seem to experience a parallel sexual humiliation when realising that they did not truly rape Eve, but rather, an illusion of her.
In another version, however, the spiritual aspect of Eve does not escape the onslaught of the Demiurge and his Archons:
“But they raped Eve and produced children out of darkness, in order to make them like themselves and to keep humanity enslaved." ~ (The Hypostasis of the Archons, Codex II)
This contrasting mythological account represents a psychological split of instinctual reality and its relation to womanhood. In the rape version, Thanatos, the destructive instinct, triumphs and overcomes the incel. The feminine principle is subjugated and destroyed. In the escape version, the tarnished Eros (love instinct) triumphs and wins over the incel. The feminine principle is subjugated, but not destroyed – perhaps only in fantasy. Though they are unattainable, they are not annihilated or corrupted. Hence, women represent both a power and a threat. In the escape version, the superiority of women is recognised, but not accepted. This mythological split is the root of the perceptual conflict of incels: The rape of Eve facilitates the subjugation of women and male Incel power is restored. The violent impulses are indulged and the aggressive fantasies are made reality. Alternatively, the escape of Eve maintains women as unattainable and male Incel power is lost. The incels masochistic impulses are indulged and self-directed hatred and despair is made reality. The mythological split reveals the incel psyche’s failure to integrate both aspects of the feminine.
When certain individuals become endowed with a great quantity of archetypal, symbolic, and mythological psychic energy, they very often become emperors, kings, rulers, and other important historical or symbolic figures. Elliot Rodger himself was a vessel for the Demiurgic Archetypal Energies.
A Psychobiographical & Mythological Analysis of Elliot Rodger as a Vessel for the Demiurge
Born into privilege and expectation, Rodger was the son of a filmmaker and a woman with Hollywood connections. From an early age, he was exposed to an image-driven world where status, wealth, and desirability dictated one’s worth. Yet, despite the external glamour of his surroundings, his internal world was riddled with perceived rejection and humiliation. His inability to integrate his idealized self-image with his real-life social failures gave rise to a Thanatic obsession, leading to the psychosexual and existential crisis that culminated in the Isla Vista killings.
Rodger’s early childhood was defined by doting parental attention, particularly from his mother. His parents’ divorce at age seven marked the first rupture in his narcissistic world, introducing the reality that he was not the centre of all things. The entrance of his father’s new wife, whom he resented, further destabilized his grandiose self-identity. We can assume that this was the rival mother who must be destroyed in the infantile mind of Rodger. In his writings, Rodger repeatedly laments that his mother should have married a wealthy man, evidencing a negated Oedipal fixation in which he saw his mother as an extension of his own self-worth.
At around age 9 or 10, his father remarried, thereby inducing feelings of loss of attention. In the eyes of Rodger, his fathers’ ‘new’ family took centre stage and he was displaced in importance – especially with the introduction of step-siblings. This surely augmented his underlying insecurities of self-worth and set the stage for future tensions. It was around this time when Rodger claims he began to notice differences between himself and his male peers, fixating on their height, strength, and social confidence. Realising other boys were stronger, taller, and more attractive than he may have caused a narcissistic wound, threatening his sense of masculine adequacy. A boy’s envy of another boy’s body or social/sexual prowess involves an intricate blend of identification and homosexual desire. In the former, we see the expression “I wish I could be like him.” In the latter, we see “I am drawn unto him.” On a conscious level, the boy experiences envy and frustration (i.e. “he is taller and stronger, thereby making me feel inadequate.”) But this feeling also involves an awareness, perception, and agreement that the other boy is attractive. Thus, there is an unconscious, repressed erotic attraction to male strength or yearning for a close bonding that cannot safely be acknowledged without the homosexual taboo likewise being made conscious. His father’s remarrying, causing him to feel discarded by his male figure, likely impelled him to unconsciously seek new forms of male love. He may have viewed boys unconsciously as either substitute figures of love or as oedipal rivals. This part of him that yearned to merge with that “superior” male form – an unconscious erotic drive entangled with conscious resentment – persisted all through his life in the form of homosexual envy. His hostility, in this view, was a defence against attraction i.e. “I don’t want him for being handsome; I hate him for being handsome.”
Several years later, at the age of 11, Rodger would experience what he described as the catalysing traumatic incident that defined his psychology towards women. At this age, he was sent to a four-week summer camp by his father. During this time, he accidentally bumped into a girl his age, who erupted in anger and berated him with vulgarities and physical shoves. This was done with the entire youths at the camp as audience. Rodger described this experience as traumatising him “to no end”, leading him to feel more apprehensive and nervous around girls. Being humiliated in front of peers – especially a girl – delivers a severe injury to the narcissism of the boy. At this age, peer opinion and self-image are exaggerated and hold an outsized importance. This humiliation led to shame, which merged with Rodgers’ developing sexual self-consciousness. This incident enforced a fear of being overpowered or belittled by females, which contributed to the unconscious equation of females with threats. This emotional and physical domination was a symbolic castration and induced a powerful and impressive castration anxiety effect on Rodger. His later hatred towards women was clearly a transformation of shame into anger.
At age 12, Rodger encountered sexual images at an internet cafe, seeing explicit material on someone else’s computer. This was his first direct introduction to adult sexuality (that he notes in his diary), which arrived at a moment when he already felt inadequate and humiliated. Seeing this sexual material likely stirred within him desire, but also alienation, especially if he questioned whether he could attain such experiences. This sexual tension (longing to participate in coitus) yet feeling unworthy or incapable likely laid the groundwork for hostile entitlement (i.e. “Why may I not have what I see?”) Thus, even before the first blossoming of adolescence, Rodger’s interpersonal world was already marked by a sense of inadequacy, desire, and bitterness.
In the beginning of his adolescence, when the innocence of childhood is beginning to appear as a distant memory and an acuity of sexuality, sex appeal, and seduction develops, Rodger became self-conscious about his short stature and mixed-race heritage. He tried dyeing his hair blond and briefly took up skateboarding to “blend in” with peers. He started to socialize with his more popular (sexually attractive) peers and attempted to approach girls. Due to extreme social awkwardness, these approaches largely failed, feeding feelings of isolation. He grew convinced his life was “unfair” compared to peers who had smoother social and romantic experiences. As puberty set in, Rodger realized he had a strong sex drive but felt he would never have sexual relationships due to his insecurities and lack of success with girls. Socializing and sexual conquest became replaced by hours of video games and online chatrooms.
His teenage years solidified his perception of women as gatekeepers of his happiness. Each rejection further confirmed his belief that the world was ruled by an unjust feminine force, much like the Demiurge’s paranoia about Sophia’s wisdom and superiority. Women, however, were not the only subjects of his sexual anger. A homosexual envy likewise surged within him as well. When he began Crespi Carmelite High School, he was initially relieved to be in an all-boys environment, but quickly became anxious seeing older, taller, more virile and sexually attractive male students who he felt overshadowed him. He was bullied by male peers, which reinforced his sense of social inferiority. The transition from middle school to high school naturally comes with a certain sexual anxiety. The overhearing of the conversations, probably vulgar and sexually explicit, of older boys fuels sexual curiosity and fantasies in the adolescent. Hearing classmates brag about sexual encounters magnified Rodger’s envy and shame. He formed a belief that others were having sex while he remained excluded—an exclusion he saw as cosmically unfair.
Rodger recounts that, once he reached adolescence, he became painfully aware that his peers were pairing up romantically while he remained isolated. This intensified his feelings of envy and rage, feeding the sense that others were enjoying privileges he was unfairly denied. "I was thrown into a world of sexuality that I was not a part of." (Elliot Rodger, My Twisted World) He fixates on the fact that many of his classmates had girlfriends, while he felt perpetually rejected. This constant observation of “happy couples” fueled his obsession that he was being wronged by a society or universe that refused to grant him what he believed he deserved. "Every time I walked onto campus, I was tortured by the sight of so many couples." His failure to secure the female attention he felt entitled to was not merely a personal rejection—it was a cosmic betrayal.
Unable to discharge the resurgence of erotic oedipal libido during the awakening of puberty via penetrative intercourse, this libido flowed into the Thanatic domain and submitted unto its dominion.
Recall that if an individual is unable to sublimate Eros into meaningful relationships, the libido does not disappear—it is redirected towards destruction. Rodger’s hatred of couples signals the collapse of his Eros. This hatred, however, was tinged with a demiurgic envy "Whenever I saw a couple, I felt so much envy... seeing them reminded me of my loneliness." In another part, he says "I hated them for it, wanted to destroy them all... kill as many couples as I possibly could." This demiurgic envy involves not only the domination and destruction of his rivals, but also the impulse to suppress, control, or annihilate anything he cannot possess. We read in The Hypostasis of the Archons “He saw the luminous shadow of Sophia... He grew jealous and could not grasp her light.”
The internal parental couple of Rodger was greatly disturbed by the presence of his stepmother. Turbulent encounters and feelings between the both of them demonstrate this perfectly. Recall also that his father rapidly remarried after his mother’s divorce – even writing that upon seeing that finding a wife “in such a short amount of time baffled me. I was completely taken aback”. The hope of reuniting his mother and father (a common fantasy for children after divorce) was shattered by this intrusive maternal figure. Rather than compete with the father for the mother’s attention, Rodger perhaps competed with Soumaya for his father’s attention and affection. Reflected in fairy tales is the stepmother who enslaves the father and forces him into submission. In a similar fashion, Rodger likely experienced Soumaya as the usurper of the paternal attention that once might have been focused on him. Interestingly, Rodger noted that because his father could so easily attract a new girlfriend, he “held him in higher regard” for it, even as he resented the consequences. This hints at an interesting paradox – admiration for the father’s sexual prowess combined with resentment that the father’s new sexual bond diminished the child’s own primacy. Soumaya stood in the position of a mother-figure in his father’s house, but she was not his mother. To Rodger, she likely represented an intruder who “took his father’s attention away” and broke the mother-father-child triad. Rodger effectively split the maternal figure into two: his “good mother” (Chin, his biological mother) who could do no wrong, and the “bad mother” (Soumaya) who became the repository of all his anger and disappointment. He shared, “My mother indulged me more than my father and Soumaya ever did. She knew what I liked… and would go out of her way to make my life pleasant and enjoyable.” Soumaya, on the other hand, imposed strict rules and discipline that he “hated”. One of his most vivid complaints was that she forced him to consume things he detested: “she would force me to drink milk every morning and very foul-tasting soup for dinner… Whenever I did something wrong, she would force me to drink the soup”. This literal force-feeding of something bitter is symbolic of the “bad breast” – in his eyes, Soumaya became the punitive, depriving mother who makes the child ingest unpleasantness. Meanwhile, his biological mother remained associated with sweet treats and comfort. He recalls how during “treat time” at his mother's house, she brought out a box of candies for him and his sister. Thus, all the “good milk” of maternal care was attributed to his real mother, and Soumaya embodied the “bad milk” (the hated soup) that he choked down along with his resentments.
One particularly evocative episode is Rodger’s experience of being taken to Morocco by Soumaya. In 2008, when he was 17, his father and Soumaya planned a trip to visit her homeland of Morocco (taking Elliot and his half-brother along). He “wasn’t excited about Morocco…we’d be staying there for six weeks… I had no choice in the matter”. He describes the country as extremely foreign to him, and the long stay made him miserable. This situation uncannily resembles those myths where the wicked stepmother contrives to send the rightful heir away to a far-off land. Elliot felt essentially banished to an unfamiliar “kingdom” (her country, her family) against his will – removed from his own mother and comfort zone. During that trip, he was so unhappy that he incessantly contacted his mother begging to come home, until she relented and “allowed him to return” early. Symbolically, he was like a prince cast out of his father’s home by a scheming queen, only to be saved by the original, loving mother. In his mind, going to Soumaya’s “castle” (her father’s large house in Tangier, which he notes was “almost castle-like” was akin to enslavement. This may have solidified his perception of Soumaya as the terrible and powerful evil stepmother queen. Rodger’s writings suggest that his ‘escape’ back was turbulent and conflictual.
When Elliot emailed Soumaya and tried to extend an olive branch, Soumaya responded with a very stern and forward message. Soumaya’s message frames eleven years of failed attempts to forge a relationship with Elliot. She accuses him of manipulating his father, refusing her “caring stepmother” efforts, and undermining household peace. She details specific grievances: that he “ignored her authority,” “refused to do chores,” “twisted her words,” and “chose his mother’s stance” over hers. She alludes to Rodger’s father having tried to remain close, but indicates her emotional exhaustion—“I have reached out to you, but you never acknowledged me.” Both Rodger’s and Soumaya appear to have “split” each other into irreconcilably bad objects. Soumaya’s email itemizes a list of ways Rodger’s was “bad” or “manipulative,” while Rodger, in turn, had long cast her as the “wicked stepmother.” Each sees the other as wholly blameworthy. She references Rodger’s half-brother, alleging that Rodger told him “girls are bad, you should hate them.” From her perspective, Rodger’s is a negative influence, reinforcing that she must “protect” her own child. This is a key boundary: she sees Rodger as potentially harmful to her younger child’s psychological well-being. Soumaya requested that Rodger stay as far away from her as possible and rejected his apology “It’s not enough just to say sorry; the damage is done”. Resentment on the part of Soumaya towards Rodger is apparent – she even goes so far as to say “You’ve made my life miserable.”
After this happened, one day, Rodger went to his father’s house to stop for a drink of water. The door was open and he helped himself in. When Soumaya saw him, Rodger describes that she was surprised and angry that he didn’t knock. She ordered him to go outside and knock. When he refused, he got up and helped himself to a drink of water. Soumaya knocked the glass out of his hand and it shattered. His father ran in and demanded to know what was going on. Rodger claimed that his father supported Soumaya and kicked him out, forbidding him from returning. Rodger did not return for many months. He said at that moment, he “hated the both of them. My mother was all I had left in this bleak world.”
As he reached young adulthood, Rodger pinned his hopes on being rich (winning the lottery, or screenwriting success) so that women would automatically be attracted to him. He urged his mother to marry someone wealthy and tried “shortcuts” (inventions, scripts) but gave up when they demanded effort. To him, wealth was the only method of obtaining sexual success. Instead of directly flirting or asking women out, he waited for them to approach him, loitering in cafés or outside Domino’s Pizza. Growing resentful whenever he saw couples, he found going to the movies unbearable due to the sight of happy lovers. He played the lottery several times in hopes that he would win and fulfil his wishes. Of course, this was for nought.
Enrolling at Santa Barbara City College ushered in an intolerable amount of feelings of sexual inadequacy. Rodger encountered male peers who had girlfriends or bragged about early sexual experiences—further fueling his anger at “unfairness.” He avoided social events and clashed with various roommates, at times calling them racial slurs or deeming their girlfriends “ugly whores.” He attempted again in this new epoch of his life to achieve success. He drove around Isla Vista or sat alone in public places, hoping a “blonde girl” would initiate contact. When no one approached him, he spiralled into deeper hatred for those who seemed able to enjoy normal relationships. This concretised his descent into Thanatos.
Rodger then began targeting couples (throwing drinks at them, envisioning stabbing them). He dropped classes upon seeing couples in them, saying it was torture to be reminded of his isolation. His repeated acts of public humiliation (throwing drinks at people, and cursing women for rejecting him) demonstrate his transition from erotic longing to destructive rage. His desire to either annihilate or subjugate women mirrors the Demiurge’s attempts to enslave Sophia in Gnostic mythology. Likewise, he and his archons seek the destruction of, insult, and attack the vessels of the divine feminine principle (Eve, Norea, Magdalena). Rodger’s inability to integrate his failures led to a complete collapse into Thanatos. He sought not just revenge on women, but the destruction of the entire social order that he felt had wronged him. "If I can’t have them, no one will. I will take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you."
Over time, these repeated failed attempts at attracting women morphed into grandiose fantasies of punishing anyone who symbolized his sexual exclusion, especially couples and women who “denied” him. His diaries and manifesto describe a plan to obtain wealth or, failing that, to exact revenge on those with fulfilling sex lives. The sexual rejection of women was not only a personal failure, it was a declaration of war.
Finally, in an ultimate, desperate attempt, he began purchasing designer clothes, driving a BMW, or trying to appear “cool” on social media in order to “manifest” sexual success – Likely inspired by the book “The Secret” which was gifted to him by his father. Discovering none of these changes drew in the attention he desired, he turned definitively toward violence. It appears that his Erotic libido, which manifests also in personal beautification and attractiveness, made an attempt to salvage itself – to no avail. Faith was lost in Eros and invested in Thanatos instead. To further this, Rodger’s manifesto reveals a plan to murder his father’s family once his father was out of town, largely because he feared his younger half-brother would “surpass” him in life. This fits the Demiurge’s envy of anything that might become “greater” or more favoured. "I planned to kill my little brother... so he won't outshine me." There is not only a Demiurgic anger towards the father – For the Demiurge is also at odds with The Father of Light – but there is also a Cainian anger towards his younger half-brother. The Cain-Abel constellation is notably striking. Cain & Abel (in some traditions) were half-brothers. Cain was the firstborn child of Eve and The Serpent while Abel was the son of Eve and Adam. They were thus half-brothers. Rodger was also the firstborn of his father. Both Cain and Rodger, though firstborn sons, considered themselves inferior to their younger, perceivably superior brothers. Both, also, desired the murder of their younger brother out of inferiority feelings. The presence of a Cain Complex in Rodger indicates an overgrowth of the Thanatic instinct.
On May 23, 2014, the day of his apocalypse, Rodger’s day began with the murder of his two roommates, Weihan “David” Wang and Cheng Yuan “James” Hong, and their friend George Chen. He ambushed each as they entered the apartment, ensuring none of them could disrupt his meticulously planned “Day of Retribution.”
Immediately after the stabbings of his roommates, Rodger calmly stopped at a Starbucks for a triple-vanilla latte. Despite having committed three murders just moments earlier, he appeared composed, blending into ordinary social routines. This moment underscores a dissociative calm—he carried on as if his actions existed in a separate mental compartment. It also echoes the false omnipotence of the Demiurge, who believes himself unaccountable to higher laws. Rodger’s everyday purchase in the midst of chaos hints at the delusional, omnipotent confidence that marked his “divine mission.”
Returning to his now bloodied apartment, Rodger sent out his 137-page manifesto (My Twisted World) by email to over thirty recipients, then uploaded his final YouTube video, titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution.” In it, he declared vengeance upon the world for denying him love and sex. By publicly announcing his cosmic grievance, Rodger took on the role of a vengeful god—akin to the Demiurge proclaiming his law to those he deems “blind sheep.” Psychoanalytically, this was the peak of his grandiosity: he believed he was delivering a universal judgment to rectify his perceived injustices. In this moment, the spirit of the Demiurge overshadowed him.
Rodger next drove to the Alpha Phi sorority house at UC Santa Barbara. Finding the door locked, he spotted three women outside, shooting at them and killing two (Veronika Weiss and Katherine Cooper). Psychosexually, I interpret the sorority house as representing to him the female body. He unsuccessfully attempted to symbolically infiltrate (penetrate, rape) the sorority house - representing his attempts to penetrate a woman, to no avail. In Gnostic symbolism, this assault parallels the Demiurge’s attempt to corrupt Sophia. For Rodger, sorority women embodied the sexual feminine ideal (Venus Cotytto) that had spurned him. Denied literal entry, he resorted to violence—akin to a Demiurgic assault on the “temple” of the feminine. From a psychoanalytic angle, it represented the fulfilment of his unattainable fantasy of sexual conquest.
Shortly after fleeing the sorority, Rodger went to I.V. Deli Mart and fired shots inside, killing Christopher Michaels-Martinez. This abrupt shift—from targeting symbolic feminine spaces to gunning down a random male student—highlights the overflowing of demiurgic and Thanatic energy. In Demiurgic fashion, he perceived all who led normal, desirable lives as part of an unjust cosmos. He was no longer just attacking women who had “denied” him but anyone who represented the carefree happiness he couldn’t attain.
Continuing his rampage, Rodger drove through Isla Vista, firing at pedestrians and cyclists, and using his BMW as a weapon to hit others. In his mind, he was “cleansing” a society that had rejected him, lashing out at bystanders he viewed as oblivious to his “suffering.”Here, we see the Demiurge’s arrogance at full potency: Rodger assumed the right to decide who should live or die. Because he could not join those he envied, he felt entitled to annihilate them. Just as the Demiurge destructively flooded (yet cleansed) the earth with the Great Deluge, so too did Rodger.
The final scene unfolded when Rodger, already wounded from a police shootout, crashed his BMW into a cyclist. Moments later, he took his own life with a gunshot to the head. In Gnostic myth, the Demiurge is ultimately exposed by the higher realm and collapses under the weight of his ignorance. Likewise, Rodger’s grandiose illusions disintegrated as reality (law enforcement closing in, unstoppable chaos) converged on him. Turning the gun on himself symbolizes the Ouroboros—the serpent devouring its own tail—a destructive cycle that ends in self-consumption. Psychoanalytically, it marks the collapse of his narcissistic defence; once external destruction no longer served his delusions, he internalized the lethal aggressive force.
Rodger’s final spree played out as a psychosexual and quasi-Gnostic ‘apocalypse.’ First, he ritually prepared by killing those in his closest space (roommates). Then he made a public declaration of his cosmic grievance (the manifesto and final video). Next came the symbolic ‘rape’ or desecration of the sorority house, signifying his failed penetration of the feminine realm. When he could not truly enter that “temple,” he punished “blind sheep” at random—mirroring a Demiurge’s wrath against a creation that refuses to worship. Finally, he consumed himself with the same destruction he had unleashed, echoing the fate of a fallen god undone by his own ignorance and rage. Rodger’s story represents the Demiurge undone by his blind pursuit of total control—proving, ultimately, that his self-declared divinity was nothing more than an arrogant illusion.
Rodger’s story is not just one of personal failure—it is an archetypal narrative of a man who could not reconcile his internal contradictions. His descent into Thanatos, his rejection of Eros, his resentment of the feminine, and his delusions of godhood all point to a Demiurgic figure consumed by his own darkness.
His life serves as a psychobiographical testament to the dangers of unintegrated shadow material, the failure to sublimate sexual frustration, and the consequences of delusional narcissism unchecked by reality. In the end, Rodger was not the god he imagined himself to be—he was simply a Vessel of the Demiurge: blind, wrathful, and ultimately doomed by his own ignorance.
1.0 Similarities between the Demiurge & Elliot Rodger
Demiurge Trait | Demiurge Quote (Gnostic Text) | Elliot Rodger’s Parallel | Elliot Rodger’s Quote |
False claim of divinity | "I am God, and there is no other God apart from me." (The Apocryphon of John, Codex II) | Rodger believes in his own supremacy and views himself as a god-like, Demiurgic figure. | "I am the closest thing there is to a living god. I am superior to everyone in the world." |
Hatred of the feminine principle (Sophia/Eve) | "Come, let us seize her and cast our seed into her, so that she, being defiled, may not be able to ascend to her light."(On the Origin of the World, Codex II) | Rodger seeks to dominate women, believing they should be stripped of their autonomy and forced into submission. Like the demiurge, he believes women are either to be subjugated or destroyed. | "Women should not have the right to choose who to mate and breed with. That decision should be made for them by civilized men of intelligence." |
Tyrannical desire to rule | "The rulers took man and put him in the shadow of death in order that they might form him again from earth, water, fire, and the spirit which derives from the rulers. But this spirit is ignorance and darkness." (The Hypostasis of the Archons, Codex II) | Rodger fantasizes about a world where he holds ultimate power, particularly over women, and rules through fear and violence. | "If I can’t have them, no one will. I will take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you." |
Jealousy towards other beings | "He was jealous of the light he had seen in his mother, and he was full of ignorance." (The Apocryphon of John, Codex II) | Rodger expresses deep envy toward men who succeed with women, believing they do not deserve their success. | "How could an inferior, ugly black boy be able to get a white girl and not me? I am beautiful, and I am half-white myself. I am descended from British aristocracy. He is descended from slaves." |
Thanatic impulse (death over life) | "He cast a shadow over the world, and what was formed out of this shadow became the material world, lifeless and flawed." (On the Origin of the World, Codex II) | Rodger fantasizes about the eradication of women, seeing mass death and destruction as a solution to his suffering. | "I dream of a world where women are abolished. In order to completely abolish sex, women themselves would have to be abolished." |
Rodger’s mass killing plan was framed as a cosmic reckoning, much like the Demiurge’s creation of a flawed world to subjugate others. His desire to punish women and sexually successful men was an inversion of divine justice, casting him as a tyrannical god. His final act of self-inflicted death was not a surrender, but a grandiose attempt at martyrdom. He sought to immortalize himself within the incel mythos, akin to a false god attempting to defy fate. In the same manner the Ouroboros consumes its own tail and perishes, so too did Rodger consume himself and die. Nonetheless, he became canonised and lives eternally in the collective incel imagination as ‘Saint Elliot’.
In the Cult of Involuntary Celibates, a predisposition to the Demiurgic complex already exists and fuels itself. However, the demiurgic energy is introjected even more intimately and powerfully when the figure of Elliot Rodger is identified with or idealised – Elliot Rodger himself being, as exposited, a fountain of demiurgic archetypal energy. Davison, the incel who was mentioned earlier in the article, likewise consumed his own tail and committed suicide. This same self-cannibalizing phenomenon, symptomatic of the demiurgic complex of the incel, likewise occurred in 2015 when Chris Harper-Mercer, after killing nine and injuring eight others at Umpqua Community College, also took his own life. Similarly, in 2018, Scott Paul Beierle killed himself at the scene after murdering two women and wounding four at a yoga studio. Additionally, in 2009, George Sodini brought two handguns to an LA fitness where he killed three women and injured nine others, before killing himself.
The Demiurgic Energies in World Events & Politics
Beyond the plane of Incels, the Demiurgic energies reign in the Taliban. The Taliban’s obsession with controlling female agency parallels the Demiurge subjugating Sophia. Under Taliban rule, Afghan women have effectively been erased from public life – an institutionalized subjugation. By enforcing the veil, they enforce the darkening of the feminine. The Taliban have systematically stripped women and girls of basic rights. Education for girls beyond primary school has been plainly banned; as of 2023, teenage girls and women are prohibited from attending high school and university. Just as the Demiurge sought to keep humanity ignorant of divine wisdom (Sophia), the Taliban seek to exclude women – bearers of life and teachers of the young – from all realms of knowledge and influence. In myth, Sophia’s wisdom is a threat to the Demiurge’s false authority; in Afghanistan, educated and empowered women are a threat to the Taliban’s patriarchal authority. Beyond targeting living people, the Taliban have also waged war on culture and history – destroying art, heritage, and any symbols of human creativity that lie outside their control. This iconoclasm can be seen as an expression of Demiurgic “cosmic envy.” In Gnostic lore, the Demiurge, being an inferior god, is jealous of the true divine spark and the beauty of creation that he cannot fully grasp. He thus rules with spite and seeks to keep souls ignorant and subservient. The Taliban’s annihilation of cultural artifacts – most infamously the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan – reflects a similar impulse to obliterate what they neither created nor understand. Whereas The Cult of Involuntary Celibates may be called, as in this article, ‘a cult of death’, the Taliban may be called ‘a regime of death’. Both are Thanatic in nature. In the Taliban’s psychology, we see a fascination with death, martyrdom, and the severe penalty that suggests an embrace of Thanatos. There is a notable cult of death: suicide bombers are glorified as heroes, “martyrdom” is promised as the highest honour, and the Taliban’s propaganda often revels in apocalyptic, end-of-days imagery. The destruction of art and history can also be seen as a manifestation of a death drive turned outward against culture. Chadwick (2013) calls the God of the Taliban demiurgic in his article on “Religious Fanaticism”. Taliban’s ideal is a harsh patriarchal authority that demands blood sacrifice (of pleasure, of dissenters, even of one’s life) – a clear alignment with death-driven impulses. This helps explain the casual cruelty and lack of mercy: drives for empathy or creativity have been subjugated by an overpowered death-oriented zeal. The Taliban’s incessant readiness to destroy (be it people, monuments, or themselves in self-consuming suicidal terrorism) reveals how Thanatos – but more so Demiurgic energies – underpin their movement.
Therapeutic Implications & Conclusion
After anagnorisis has been achieved, therapy should address feelings of helplessness and despair. The incel must see that the world is not bleak and hopeless. Their inner light must rise from within and illuminate their world. After, emphasis should be focused on integrating the split view of the world. True psychological integration would involve acknowledging the feminine as both powerful and autonomous, rather than seeing it as a threat or an object to be dominated. They must also acknowledge the masculine not as something envied, but something cultivated and empowered within them. Rodger himself stated, “I only feel envious towards the male, of course, and hatred towards the girl for being with him.” The incel must confront their own shadow—feelings of inadequacy, rejection, and self-loathing—and integrate it rather than displacing it onto women. The Superego must be reconditioned, so that instead of being a force that chastises, it may be a force that impels and inspires. The incel must be made aware of his own Thanatic energies and how they pervade his life and seep through every pore. He must cultivate thereafter his Erotic energies so that beauty – both internal and external – are appreciated and reflected outward onto the world.
For so long as this written work exists, may it endure as a solemn warning for generations yet to come. When psychological complexes and archetypal energies reach extraordinary potency, they channalise through notorious figures. Elliot Rodger was but one vessel through which the Demiurge manifested. The Demiurgic energies shall be born and reborn until it reaches full incarnation. This has occurred throughout history with Lucifer, Ahriman, Wotan, Moloch, and others – and shall occur again. Hence, verily can the Incel speak in the spirit of the Demiurge the following:
"The woman thou seest is the reflection of my shadow"
REFERENCES
Chadwick, A. (2013, May 8). Religious fanaticism. The Blue Flower. https://sarumuse.org/2013/05/08/religious-fanaticism/
Rottweiler, B., Clemmow, C., & Gill, P. (2024). A common psychology of male violence? Assessing the effects of misogyny on intentions to engage in violent extremism, interpersonal violence, and support for violence against women. Terrorism and Political Violence. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2023.2292723
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