All failure begins with fear—especially fear of others.

You have fear of others judging your admirability or importance or excellence. Hearing that you or your work sucks cuts you like a knife. And so you try to avoid it at all costs. But this only ensures that you fail. You would rather truly fail by not even trying than “fail” by way of rejection. If no one says that you suck then you have a kind of victory.

In all of world mythology, Christianity is the most pictorial. It’s about betrayal, torture, humiliating execution by way of crucifixion, and then death. The central image is Christ Crucified.

Why not the empty tomb? Why not wear a pendant of an empty tomb? This would be happier and more consistent with Pauline Christianity, which is all about crucifixion and resurrection (as opposed to most of early Christianity, which cared about other things). Well, it’s because of marketing—in image of execution, like a photo of roadkill, is something irresistible for humans. (Violence and sex are the two things we’re wired to care the most about.)

The greatest move in image-manipulation history was when some artist depicted the wounded, cut, sunburned, naked, scourged, pounded, pierced, and hanging Jesus as blissful and smiling. What a shocking thing! Another shocking thing which we don’t consider much these days—the equally shocking public suicides by early Christians. Who can kill herself while smiling and mean it?

So Jesus on the cross laughing is perhaps the greatest mythological icon of all time. It’s a good antidote to stage fright. This is at least one way where being “Christ like” won’t make you sick, unlike being nice to sadistic assholes who enjoy hurting you. The laughing Christ crucified valorizes exposure, putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, and joyfully embracing the pain of rejection and insult.

Remember: even Crowley took Parzival as his Adeptus Minor motto. Even Crowley. Actually, the spirit of crucifixion isn’t contrary to his system. He just eroticized it. There’s also Liber Cheth, which gives his psychological interpretation of the Holy Grail: