Do you know if Kassinen had Theosophical background or sources she had studied? Because if so, it's quite likely that Pekka Ervast's visions of Satan could have been there in the background and instead of Siitoin's comment being purely a jab towards his former mentor defaming her in the eyes of the general public, it could have been a serious initiation in to Satanism. I don't mean nominally, rather in spirit. The culture wasn't yet ripe for Satanism to be taken nominally, and thus also the readiness of the individuals taking it must not have been so well prepared. Taking an initiation that accepts Satan in the degree of Ervastian Satanism (the weird sound of this term marks how Ervast was including Satan in the spirit of his teaching, yet remaining from taking it nominally because of unripe situations: it would have been sensational and attracting a wrong kind of attention, where as in our time the nominal thing has become constructive way of action in certain spheres) could have easily failed, asking for so much from the student, and could have given a birth to a crisis that results the intitiant casting the Heriophant's mask of the particular initiation on one's own persona. Instead of managing to process the powers in a esoteric context (overviewed by the discipline and the teacher), one might use the initial spark to become a jester to the exoterical side of the outer culture, detonating bombs, marching in nazi unforms in the clear daylight of a major city etc. Siitoin did all of those things, but it is ofcourse beyond me to say if this was the case regarding the movements in his soul. It just draws out such a notion to consider when positioning oneself towards the initiations one takes. How one is to process the initiations, the powers given, the Hierophant's mask etc.LotN promotion material regarding Aino Kassinen wrote:Siitoin claimed later: “She told me that I had occult powers and urged me to study more from certain books. Then she initiated me into satanism. So she was my teacher in the occult.” It is extremely unlikely that Kassinen would have initiated Siitoin into satanism, for her worldview was throughoutly benevolent, emphasizing the love of one’s neighbor and helping other people. Siitoin’s claim is better seen as a jab at his former mentor, who froze their relationship when Siitoin stepped over to the dark side.
If some of you have read the book or will read it in the future, perhaps this topic might be used to discuss the examples given. While these examples might be like the bones of the fallen we see in our path, or a encouraging breeze of air, I would suggest the discussion would lead through ideas rather than passing of judgement on the personas. To compare, the legends of the Eighty-Niny Mahasiddhas draw out also quite a bunch of characters and I would not judge them by their personas.