Ask the Satanist

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve thought about doing this thread for a while but the impetus has come from Dung Beetle who nudged me into it. So, as the board’s resident Satanist I am open to questions about Satanism, be they basic (what is Satanism about), personal (my own interpretations, how does it affect my life day to day), other Satanists (the Church of Satan and affiliated groups etc), the contents of Satanic literature or anything else and I’ll do my best to answer.

One thing I will make clear from the outset is that I am not a member of the Church of Satan and therefore do not speak for it, but I do socialise online with other members/COS hierarchy and have read quite a lot of information they have given to others so could potentially know things that aren’t immediately accessible on the main Church of Satan website. So, whilst I can probably answer questions on that topic I don’t do so with any authority.

I have no idea how much interest there is in this area, so will be interested to see what kind of questions are asked (if any).

2

Please answer me, once and for all…do you or do you not worship “Satan”?

3

Is satanism about negativity, being wrong, being bad? Or is that just a rep it’s got from godism?

Edit: What is the satanist position on Atheism? Is satan technically a god? As an Atheist I don’t believe in God or anything loosly or tightly defined as a Devil, or heaven or hell.

If this is hell, then ‘hell’ is just a name for this.

4

Whew! When I first saw the thread title, I thought my offhand remark in the “Guilty Pleasures” was too rude, and now I had REAL online enemy…

Since I have no quarrels with Satanists - the few I’ve met were way cool - let’s get to questions.

Does all of the strange stuff written about you (Angel Heart is my fave, the book, NOT the movie) inspire you to write even weirder stuff? After an existence of being insulted, some backlash would be understandable.

5

Have you seen King Diamond without the makeup?

6

Most of the time I read about Satanists it’s a bit disappointing in that the Satanist’s “Satan” is not the classic Judeo-Christian “evil” Satan, but typically some sort of neo-pagan demiurge, or some precious conceit with Satan standing in as God’s tester/prosecutor, which is really not all that antagonistic to Islamo-Judeo-Christian theism. In addition you get the impression the Satanists like being Satanists less in the service of some sincere ontological expression, and more as a rhetorical pit bull that they like to take for walks, but that they’re not clever enough to explain or corral.

7

Are you a gothy sacrifice small animals in pentacles by moonlight in the graveyard “Satanist” or a Rational Humanist who thinks people should think and act in their own best interest and break their unconscious and conscious bonds with traditional Judeo-Christian symbolism and baggage? Or something else?

8

What drew you to Satanism? What are the supernatural claims of Satanism? Do you have any evidence that these claims are true?

9

Are you, technically, then, a theist (I mean, you believe in a god (Satan)? As opposed to none (like an atheist)?)? Is the Satan you worship the Satan of middle-eastern, Judeo-Christian tradition, or one of the traditional European gods (Samhain or whatnot)? Are you on some level polytheistic? (i.e. acknowledging the presence of other gods, but your fave god is Satan)? Or is it something less theistic and more groovy or rhetorical or whatever?

Follow up thoughts very closely related to the above: do you feel antagonistic towards Christians (I guess this is if you see your two religions as being historically in opposition; for example, if you see them as having mischaracterized Satan. What’s your attitude towards their YHWH guy?)? Or are they on the same ground as the worshipers of any other god?

And what do you, as a Satanist, think of atheism?

And everyone, this is a rare and interesting thread-- let’s not let it trainwreck, ok?

10

Scroll down a bit.

11

Nerdily, I saw his post count, 1,011, decided to see what that as binary is in decimal (11), was sad that it wasn’t 666.

Decided to see what 666 is in binary - 1010011010. Googled 1010011010.

Apparently there are many nerds on the internet.

12

That’s a big, emphatic NO. Satanists do not worship the devil, because he doesn’t exist (neither does God). We worship ourselves, we are our own Gods. Anyone who does claim to worship Satan as an actual entity is a devil worshipper - an entirely different category of person.

It’s mainly about individuality, ego building and indulging in the things that makes life worth living. Of course to some people that makes you seem bad (those that believe in a chaste, austere or godly life for example) but Satanists don’t set out to be evil and unpleasant to others for the sake of it. What would be the point? There are pseudo-Satanic groups that say they are based on the principles of furthering evil (such as the Order of the Nine Angles) but they’re fruit loops, not Satanists.

Satanism is atheistic and Satan is mainly a symbol and also the name given to the force of the universe (call it what you will, but it’s definitely not deemed as conscious or intelligent).

The Them - hey, a good man needs enemies, keeps him sharp. :wink: There are different kinds of Satanic writing, obviously Satanic literature like The Satanic Bible and other canon titles are primary, books written by Satanists to express their own views but which aren’t necessarily on the topic of Satanism (such as Androphilia by Jack Malebranche), then books that aren’t directly Satanic but which contain Satanic themes (like Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Machiavelli, the 48 Laws of Power). Generally the best tactic to defending yourself against someone throwing faeces is not to throw some back, so no, Satanic literature isn’t written to try and “out weird” our detractors.

I don’t even know who he is, know the name and that he was a member of the COS but that’s it.

Astro - that’s not really a question, but to answer your (largely rhetorical) point I don’t see how subscribing to an ontological expression as you put it would necessarily make us any more intelligent, nor would trying to further the cause of evil really serve anything including our own individual interests. What makes you happy = what is good in our eyes, and for the vast majority of people what makes them happy is self fulfilment, love, friendship, physical and mental pleasures etc. I don’t know why you see it as disappointing that there aren’t more people trying to curtail those things, or that Satanists aren’t trying to.

Satanism is intended to be anti-theistic, it opposes the very foundation of other (right hand) religions: faith, obedience to a higher power, belief in universal equality/egalitarianism and basically putting one’s ego under another’s.

I’m the latter, again the former you describe is a devil worshipper, not a Satanist - anyone sacrificing animals is automatically not a Satanist as it’s breaking one of the eleven Satanic rules of the earth (and more importantly serves absolutely no purpose and is illegal to boot). However I gather from the phrasing of your question that you already knew the answer. :wink:

13

What exactly do you mean by the force of the universe?

14

Sooo. . . what’s the difference between what you do and a hedonistic kind of atheism or really flaky wannabe Buddhist? You sound kind of like a Unitarian. . .

15

I’d love to have a whole thread devoted to this issue, but I suspect we might be the only people in it! I agree that a “real Satanist” is the rational humanist kind. But I find it interesting that kids with starry eyed visions of *The Craft *and Ozzy Osborne (or whoever the hell it is these days; I’m an old fogey) have created the other kind of “Satanism”. The thing that only existed in Christian fear has become manifest in reality because of those fearful stories. It didn’t exist and get stories told about it, it had stories told about it and then came into existence. I find that fascinating! Talk about words having the power of creation!

It’s like saying that “witches don’t do hexes because The Rule of Three in Wicca says ‘harm none’.” Well, yeah, Gardnerian and Alexandrian abiding Witches don’t do hexes (except when they do), but there are plenty of “witches” who do hexes for the hell of it. Who owns the word “witch”? Who owns the word “Satanist” and why?

And I didn’t really know the answer to my question - which kind are you. I know what I think about real Satanism, and I’m glad we agree. I would have had to make fun of you otherwise. :wink:

16

Ok, Why adopt the loaded terminology then? I guess. . . if you’re atheists. . . why give power to the theist scene by invoking their vocabulary? Doesn’t that play into theist hands? I’ve never understood that about the Church of Satan. Is it an intentionally antagonistic stance? As an atheist, I’m a little confused, I guess.

17

Do you do it to shock Christians?

18

Sweet Mother of Damien, my entire family are Satanists.

19

This was the question I was going to ask. I don’t get the (apparent) mindset of purposeful antagonism.

20

Let me see if **Illuminatiprimus **wants to tackle this. If not, I’ll take a shot at it.