We recently connected with Ryan O’Doud and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I have worked on is The Temple of Lucifer Sophia. The Temple is a crystallization of my spiritual identity in OCI. It exists as a conjoining of all media that I work on. The Temple is literal and figurative. It is the full body of my work, as well as a physical location. I work in multiple disciplines. For instance, Bitter, Inc. is the music arm of what I do. It features songs about future events, allegories, and occulted symbolism regarding our world. I write. I have written several volumes of poetry. I paint as well, drawing inspiration from the ideas of the Order. The Temple is the physical manifestation of OCI. OCI is about embracing the challenging reality of progress. It embraces new technology, new medicine, new art, new thinking. It is a Promethean cult. I am to celebrate great achievements of human beings. I look forward to an eternity in space and endless exploration of new worlds. I look forward to human beings overcoming of death. Through genetic editing, artificial intelligence, human machine interface and innovation, this will come about. Though these desires can create ethical dilemmas, I press for them in all that I do. The Temple of Lucifer Sophia will be a literal monument to these ideas.
With that in mind, I compose songs, paintings, books, etc. with this in mind. I have begun the project in earnest. I have started painting. I have planned the design of the building itself. I have released volumes of text and sound. I keep all of it focused on this. By keeping this in mind I am always aware of what I am trying to achieve. The Temple of Lucifer Sophia.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m Ryan O’Doud. I was born in CT. I moved to NC when I was 12. I realized fairly young that I wanted to be an artist. My parents took me to a lot of museums as a child. I would look at these huge paintings. I had no conception of why they were made but there was something majestic about them. I got into my mind fairly quickly that art could be a way to accomplish something grand. That sense of grandeur is what attracted me to it.

Before I knew I was an artist I was a strange, solitary, but creative kid. I would play imaginary games by drawing figures on paper. I would assign all the characters names and personalities. I would draw but it also existed as a kind of theatre. I was always making little games up like this.
As a teenager I got deeper into the arts and really found my identity in it. I was interested in punk rock because I felt it celebrated the individual’s triumph over social conformity. Later I got interested in Bebop, in progressive rock, and into avant-garde music. Those felt like a deeper expression of that same individuality.
I began playing music often. I would practice with friends. I tried to combine the improvisational nature of jazz with the aggression of punk.
I was also increasingly interested in painting. I would check out art books at the library. I was particularly inspired by the Abstract Expressionists. I enjoyed that they liberated painting from the figure.
As I continued to grow and evolve, I began to weave together multiple disciplines.
In my 20s I suffered a nervous breakdown. I was in and out of hospitals. I was contemplating suicide. I decided that I had to live for something. I needed some kind of meaning and structure in my life. I could only come up with three reasons to live: my nephews, art, and music.
I began to paint in earnest. I started programming synth every day. I quickly got my first art showing, which was also my first music performance as Bitter, Inc. I felt like I was doing something meaningful so I kept investing my time into.
Eventually I started CFR- Commodity Fetish Records. I began to release music by other performers. I started touring. I booked entire US tours. I created American Babylon as a yearly showcase of outsider and DIY art. American Babylon is a festival that I’ve done in NC for 7 years (minus 2020 because of COVID).
Finally, when I was stuck in a hospital bed for 2 months because of a massive infection, I worked out the details of my life’s philosophy. With nothing else to do I was able to write and think. That’s when I wrote The Tablet of Lucifer Sophia. That’s when I started The Order of Celestial Integration. That’s how all my life’s work culminated.
Now I know what I am writing, painting, and composing for. I’ve combined my work by focusing my intentions.
Going into the future, OCI will continue to be a vehicle for all that I do; Bitter, Inc., my paintings, my books, CFR, and American Babylon.
My goal is simple: create something beautiful and meaningful.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me it is the ability to perfectly manifest my desires. Outside of a canvas or a blank page, there are very few opportunities to say and do exactly what you want. There is no compromise necessary in a piece of art.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To manifest my will in this reality. To live in conformity to my true will. To be exactly what I am at all times.

Contact Info:

• Website: orderofcelestialintegration.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/commodityfetishrecords/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Commodityfetishrecords/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCCHzqK3MecWsTSYoisr4O4Q
• Other: commodityfetishrecords.com bitterinc.bandcamp.com www.instagram.com/bitter_inc_official/

Image Credits
These were taken by my phone.