exploring satanism

A repository for my notes and thoughts as I explore Satanism ⛧ side-blog; likes will come from FibromyalgicAF

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ Hail Satan ⛧

For a long time now, I've had an interest in satanism and comparative religions. This blog is my place to channel that interest and to collect my notes and thoughts as I go. I may also delve into the occult, and the supernatural, paranormal, and unexplained

I am not here to promote any particular belief system or support any particular organization. This is simply a place for me to collect info, links, and thoughts as I read and learn about the topics that I find intriguing.

If you share my fascination, welcome! Asks are always open. Please feel free to add on to my posts if you have more info, links, or thoughts ✌️

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A little bit about me...

I'm a non-binary (they/them), queer, disabled person living in Aotearoa New Zealand who loves sci-fi and fantasy fiction, gaming, and learning about history, science, and philosophy. I am an ex-Christian atheist and Satanist, and a liberal with anarchopunk and socialist leanings. I am passionate about equality, accessibility, and living a simple, low-waste life.

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Hail Satan. Hail Yourself!

[amateursatanologist]

"Life is the great indulgence—death, the great abstinence. Therefore, make the most of life—HERE AND NOW! There is no heaven of glory bright, and no hell where sinners roast. Here and now is our day of torment! Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth! Say unto thine own heart, “I am mine own redeemer.”" - The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey.

[amateursatanologist]

From Satan Speaks! by Anton LaVey:

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ The History of Baphomet ⛧

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[amateursatanologist]

⛧ My Thoughts on The Book of Satan (The Satanic Bible) ⛧

Obviously, the first thing to consider is that this first book of The Satanic Bible is largely copied from Might Is Right (see also: this post by queersatanic), but I think there may still be a few good nuggets...

The bits I liked:

"I stand forth to challenge the wisdom of the world; to interrogate the “laws” of man and of “God”!"

↳ I agree that laws and dogmas should be questioned. Nobody should accept everything without a gram of skepticism, especially Satanists.

"No hoary falsehood shall be a truth to me; no stifling dogma shall encramp my pen!"

↳ I feel like this really matches with the core ideas of Satanism – finding truth and challenging dogma.

"I break away from all conventions that do not lead to my earthly success and happiness."

↳ I like this from a Satanist point of view but also from a wellbeing point of view; how much time and energy do we waste following rules, conventions, and expectations that we actually don't care about?!

"No creed must be accepted upon authority of a “divine” nature. Religions must be put to the question. No moral dogma must be taken for granted—no standard of measurement deified. There is nothing inherently sacred about moral codes. Like the wooden idols of long ago, they are the work of human hands, and what man has made, man can destroy!"

↳ 100%! Religions and ideologies, rely on people accepting all sorts purely on faith, conforming, behaving, and never questioning. One thing I really like about Satanism is that it is based on an adversarial character who questioned and rebelled; it is built on skepticism and individuality.

"As environments change, no human ideal standeth sure!"

↳ The attitude of "we've always done it this way" has ruined so much. We must adapt and grow. If we don't learn and change, we will be left behind.

"The most dangerous of all enthroned lies is the holy, the sanctified, the privileged lie the lie everyone believes to be a model truth. ...The lie that is known to be a lie is half eradicated, but the lie that even intelligent persons accept as fact ... is more dangerous to contend against than a creeping pestilence!"

↳ The level of drama here amuses me but it's a good point – the most dangerous ideas in our world currently are those that are not easily spotted by the intelligent, educated, informed people.

"make the most of life—HERE AND NOW!"

↳ What else is there? We only have one life.

"Cursed are the gazers toward a richer life beyond the grave, for they shall perish amidst plenty!"

↳ As an ex-christian, this one hit me especially hard, because I know too many people in the church spend all their time and energy on preparing for the "next life" (that they will never see), and ignoring the life right in front of them.

The bits I wasn't sure about:

"Blessed are the destroyers of false hope, for they are the true Messiahs—Cursed are the god‐adorers, for they shall be shorn sheep!"

↳ I'm not sure about the "shorn sheep" part, but I do know that false hope destroys people so I'm on board with that part.

"“Love one another” it has been said is the supreme law, but what power made it so? Upon what rational authority does the gospel of love rest? Why should I not hate mine enemies—if I “love” them does that not place me at their mercy? ... Love your enemies and do good to them that hate and use you—is this not the despicable philosophy of the spaniel that rolls upon its back when kicked?"

↳ I'm in partial agreement here. Yeah, we shouldn't let ourselves get trampled and taken advantage of, but then I feel like the writer kicks the drama up a notch too far.

"Blessed is the man who has a sprinkling of enemies, for they shall make him a hero..."

↳ I'm not 100% sure what is meant her but... If it means that having enemies builds strength and resilience, then yeah I agree. But "make him a hero"?

"Thrice cursed are the weak whose insecurity makes them vile, for they shall serve and suffer!"

↳ This didn't sit right with me at first because I have sympathy for people with insecurities and calling them vile is really over-the-top. But if the writer meant this more as a simple observation, and we ignore the word 'vile' for a moment, it is true that people with insecurities will have it very rough. That might be giving too much benefit of the doubt, though.

The bits I couldn't get behind:

"Give blow for blow, scorn for scorn, doom for doom—with compound interest liberally added thereunto! Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, aye four‐fold, a hundredfold! Make yourself a Terror to your adversary..."

↳ This is the passage/idea I have probably spent the most time pondering... And I will probably continue to think about it (too much?). I believe it's important to not be a doormat and people deserve to get a taste of what they dish out, but I feel like retaliation with interest is taking it too far.

"Blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the earth—Cursed are the weak, for they shall inherit the yoke!"

↳ This is too much Might Is Right for me.

"Blessed are the powerful, for they shall be reverenced among men—Cursed are the feeble, for they shall be blotted out!"

↳ Again, too much Might Is Right for me. The "powerful" shouldn't necessarily be revered; they don't all deserve it. Also, I feel like this has a eugenics flavor to it.

[queersatanic]

Anton LaVey plagiarized* "Might Is Right" for "The Satanic Bible" — here's the proof

Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, directly lifted passages from the 19th century proto-fascist book "Might Is Right" by “Ragnar Redbeard” (Arthur Desmond) and did so extensively and without credit to produce a substantial part of LaVey’s most famous and popular work "The Satanic Bible".

This has been known for a very long while, although most Satanists tend not to be aware of just how shamelessly and thoroughly this work was done.

In fact, the Church of Satan sometimes tweets out passages from Might Is Right while supposedly praising LaVey.

To have quoted LaVey there, the Church of Satan would have had to tweet just "on the other".

And this is not a stray, incidental unattributed line that LaVey could have argued his readers ought to have immediately been familiar with as a sort of homage.

This was part of a wholesale, uncredited and unacknowledged ransacking of another person’s writing in order to create another, ostensibly-original book and sell it for profit. For example, here is how much from one particular section of Might Is Right ended up making it into LaVey’s book:

This is what LaVey and his partner Diane Hegarty, who also served as his typist an editor, used to introduce people to The Satanic Bible in its opening section the "Book of Satan". This isn't in some appendix or footnote; this is the first thing people reading the book were shown.

The "Book of Satan" portion of The Satanic Bible is essentially identical to parallel lines in Might Is Right: www.diffchecker.com/ppXjtPGV/

If you strip out differences in punctuation(!) and Capitalization and compare them, it's even more shameful: www.diffchecker.com/td0vLevN/

Depending on how you want to count, about 85 percent of this opening can be identified as directly copied, which still includes Americanization of spellings, leaving words out from the original, and a handful of words substituted within much larger phrases and ideas that were retained fully intact.

Only two of the 53 statements of the “Book of Satan” appear to be original creations of LaVey and Hegarty: Book III No. 5 and Book V No. 13. Feel free to check out the full comparison for yourself here:

Anton LaVey plagiarized* "Might Is Right" — here's the proof

Anton LaVey , the founder of the Church of Satan, directly lifted passages from the 19th century proto-fascist book Might Is Right by “Ragna

[queersatanic]

The Church of Satan can't admit Anton LaVey was a plagiarist

The Church of Satan can't admit Anton LaVey was a plagiarist

The "Magister Kevin L. Slaughter" article "Anton LaVey and the Right of Might" was written and published to the Church of Satan website now

Or: "Boy, a hit dog will holler, won't it?"

Let's just be up front that despite referencing mainly Church of Satan apostate and Temple of Set founder Michael Aquino, it's obvious that the "Magister Kevin L. Slaughter" article "Anton LaVey and the Right of Might" was written and published to the Church of Satan website now only as a response to our own piece last month — just too cowardly to reference it directly, much less hyperlink to it for people to examine the criticisms and underlying evidence for themselves.

We would say that Slaughter goes well out of his way to invent a bunch of things to argue against, but feel free to read it in full for yourself first before you come back here, including just to yell at us for being unfair to him and/or his reasoning in some way. (Sincerely.)

We think we can actually reply to all his article pretty succinctly, though.

Anton LaVey plagiarized Arthur Desmond’s Might Is Right. You can skip the whole first section of Slaughter’s defense because the claim that contemporary intellectual property protections made it legal in 1966 in ways it wouldn’t be today isn’t what’s at issue: copying someone else’s work word-for-word and presenting it as your own without credit is what’s at issue. To make this more clear, copyright law is not what makes it plagiarism when you copy someone else’s homework for class and submit it as your own. Putting your name on a public domain bit of poetry and submitting it as if it’s yours to a collection is still plagiarism. Again, copying word-for-word at length while presenting it as an original work is demonstrably what happened with the “Book of Satan”. You do not need to take our word for it; you can use your own eyes for that.

Look at the dedication for yourself. There’s reason the official Church of Satan response on this for years has been to claim and claim and claim that the wrongly-removed dedication at the front of The Satanic Bible would have solved all of this misunderstanding from jump — rather than just show people the referenced dedication. Because this is not how a citation works. No reasonable person would say that sandwiching “Ragnar Redbeard, whose might was right” in between 18 others including Rasputin and Fritz Lang would lead one to believe 5 percent of the book that is to come — its entire first section! — would be the guy named 7th of 19 in the “To” section, with more “And to” people listed after. It is an insult to your intelligence that this is still the excuse being trotted out, and it’s embarrassing if you are a Church of Satan member who repeats this claim without seeing for yourself what they’re talking about. Please, talk to any professional writer or academic about this if you think this is standard or sufficient considering the scale we’re talking about. It is not.

Finally: LaVey is not being criticized for being a hypocrite; the Church of Satan is. To be clear: LaVey is criticized for being an intellectually lazy mediocre writer whose best “work” had to come from pillaging someone else, having his wife type and edit it for him, and presenting it without credit as if it were his own. Really, all of this stuff about how the true Satanists SEIZE, etc., etc., is pretty fucking rich from the same Church of Satan that at least as of a decade ago, didn’t even want PDFs of LaVey’s writings being shared. Of course, if the claim being made nowadays is that LaVey taking Desmond’s writing without pay or credit is even more justified because Desmond was also a plagiarist and unoriginal thinker, well, you’d think it’d be pretty obvious where this reasoning would go as far as people treating LaVey’s work as fair game to take for themselves, too.

That’s all it takes to unravel 4400+ words of pretentious slop.

Of course, Slaughter prolly didn’t want to link to our article for his audience to examine for themselves because rather than any argument about “uncomfortable ideas,” as he characterizes it, we made all this explicit: it was people like him, not LaVey, being mocked.

In this context, the sanctity of The Satanic Bible and rejection of ILLEGALITY(!!!) as represented by Church of Satan members is even sillier. Their book literally exists thanks to public domain and not paying for shit…

Like lots of Church of Satan members, Magister Slaughter is a master at making up arguments and calling himself superior to things he hallucinated in order to vanquish, but he is really, really bad at actually being persuasive or making sense except to his own choir. Even then, he can’t trust that his own choir might not utilize and trust their own lying eyes about this stuff.

The fact that the Church of Satan increasingly has to retreat behind Internet architecture hierarchies and annoying social media reply-guys rather than, you know, actually being a force of intimidation or even relevance in the world means that if we are to weigh and measure them by the standards they claim the world is run on, what are we left to conclude about them?

People aren’t talking about what’s permissible to Satanism and saying LaVey is illegitimate, we’re all just saying that LaVeyan Satanism is legitimately bad. That is: Anton LaVey was politically, personally, and literally odious as a person. We criticize and mock him because deserves it, as does anyone who has devoted their lives to apologetics of him.

The reason that nobody gives a shit what the Church of Satan says is permissible and impermissible as True Satanism™ is because it is irrelevant what they say. We have already taken what we please, what little there was to please us, and it is ours to use to our own ends including toss into the fire to our pleasure.

Magisters are free to see this and screech, “No! Everyone else but us are fake Satanists! They’re appropriating our culture!” — but when you say that without a ban button behind you, who listens? Be honest. The reason this is an article instead of just a Reddit comment reply is simply that Church of Satan Rev. Rob Leuthold is so sensitive he blocked our account before sharing this to a curated audience of sycophants, and r/satanism mods cling to one of the last places anywhere that LaVeyans can pretend their Social Darwinist philosophy rewards them: a subreddit hierarchy for posting pictures of tattoos and altars and talking about how no one else is Satanists the right way but the eight of them. When you take survey of it, the whinging and the whimpering and the whining — while simultaneously bemoaning victim culture, naturally — are all that’s left. And boy, it is tiresome. If you’re a Church of Satan official, you can’t even be confident enough to link to what you’re responding to because you’re that frightened of someone seeing for themselves your irrelevance and realizing it. And what would you have left then? An all-black wardrobe, some nifty candles, and a wasted life?

For what it’s worth, Anton LaVey is mainly a coward and a hypocrite because of how he lived his life, the way he moaned constantly about how badly mistreated he was despite being coddled and handed everything his entire life, how things weren’t good like they used to be when he was a kid, and how the actual end of his days was as a sick, smelly, broke man, whose sugar daddy was a real-estate developer and convicted sexual predator of children.

We look forward next to the Church of Satan article defending LaVey’s choice of child bride and all of that stuff, of course, whether from Leuthold or Slaughter or whomever. Maybe they’ll even link back to what they’re talking about. But probably they will be too intimidated by these “fake Satanists” to do even that and just declare victory to no one and basking in imagined glory.

Ave Satanas.

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ My Satanic Reading Wishlist ⛧

The Invention of Satanism – Asbjørn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis & Jesper Aagaard Petersen

The Demon Haunted World – Carl Sagan

Romantic Satanism – Peter A. Schock

The Devil’s Party – Per Faxneld & Jesper Aa. Petersen (editors)

Speak Of The Devil: How The Satanic Temple Is Changing The Way We Talk About Religion – Joseph Laycock

Founding of the Satanic Temple – Shane Bugbee

Children of Lucifer – Ruben van Luijk

Paradise Lost – John Milton

The Satanic Scriptures – Peter H. Gilmore

The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics – Elaine Pagels

The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of Satanism – Jesper Aagard Petersen

Revolt of the Angels – Anatole France

Prometheus Unbound – Percy Shelley

Cain, A Mystery – Lord Byron

Satanic Feminism – Per Faxneld

The Devil is Red: Socialist Satanism in the Nineteenth Century – Per Faxneld

and maybe some of these

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(this post will likely be edited as I find more books to add to the list)

[amateursatanologist]

And probably some of the Church of Satan's recommended reading list: churchofsatan.com/sources-book-list/

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ More recommended reading: ⛧

Satanic Citizen's recommended books list, including:

Satanism: A Reader by Per Faxneld and Johan Nilsson

Satanism by Joseph P. Laycock

Introduction to Romantic Satanism by Michael Osiris Snuffin

Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism by Spencer Sunshine

Ozzlem Bune's Neo-Romantic Satanic Corpus: A Curated Bibliography for Neo-Romantic Satanism Studies

Coven of Satan Ministries' suggested reading list

[amateursatanologist]

The Little Book of Satanism: A Guide to Satanic History, Culture & Wisdom by La Carmina

Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics by Richard Holloway

Compassionate Satanism by Lilith Starr

The Happy Satanist: Finding Self-Empowerment by Lilith Starr

[amateursatanologist]

Genetically Modified Skeptic's review and discussion of The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France...

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ Satanic Altars; 7 Satanists' Perspectives ⛧

What purposes the altars serve for these seven Satanists:

focal point for meditation or to achieve a particular mindset

statement of beliefs

a reminder of "who I am and what I’m about"

encourages artistic expression

Items:

Baphomet symbols

(black) candles

ritual bell

individually meaningful items like pins, jewellery, momentos

knife, dagger, or similar

bones or skulls

incense

cup

Satanic Altars: An Inside Look

Some Satanists find that having a Satanic altar in their home is a useful form of expression. A Satanic altar isn't dedicated to worshiping

[amateursatanologist]

Happy birthday to (modern) Satanism! 60 years ago today, Anton LaVey officially launched the Church of Satan.

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Also, as today (30th April) is Hexennacht, I'm remembering and honoring those who have been hurt, killed, or had their freedom taken away as a result of superstition or pseudoscience.

Too many people were tortured and killed in witch hunts through the centuries.

Too many lives have been stolen and ruined by cults and even mainstream religions.

Too many people have given too much energy, time, and money to pseudoscience.

Too many people were accused of terrible acts and too many others were unreasonably worked into a frenzied state of fear during the satanic panic.

Too many people continue to devote energy to superstitions – energy that could be better used in other parts of their lives.

[amateursatanologist]

The Black Mass Appeal crew talk to Taylor/Antibot about how do you *do* Satanism? How do you practice this freeform self-religion? They go on to give examples of what they personally do but these two lines really stood out to me:

"Telling someone how to do Satanism feels very very wrong..."

"Satanism is what you make of it. Your practice is exactly that – *your* practice."

Black Mass Appeal #219: Why the Hell Do People Believe In Hell?

Why the hell do people believe in Hell? With the AntiBot and Genetically Modified Skeptic.

[amateursatanologist]

⛧ Satanic Symbols – What They Mean To Me ⛧

Baphomet symbolizes Satanic philosophy, rebellion, balance and integration of opposites, and liberation from religious dogma.

The pentagram is a representation of the interconnectedness of the world (harmony between elements), and of challenging preconceived ideas.

The Leviathan Cross symbolizes the limitless nature of the human mind and soul. And very personally, to me it represents choosing to explore the path to 'hell' (i.e. the non-christian way of life).

Since Lucifer is a rebellious character and fights for freedom, his sigil represents freedom to me.

[amateursatanologist]

Did you know you can choose a satanym that's not Lilith or Lucius, Lucien, or some variation of Lucifer right? Y'all need more imagination or something

What about...?

Abaddon

Amon / Amun

Apollyon (Greek synonym for Satan; "angel of the bottomless pit")

Asmodeus

Azazel

Baphomet

Beelzebub

Beherit (Syriac name for Satan)  

Hecate

Mastema (a fallen angel)

Mephistopheles

Nergal

Pan

Sekhmet

Thoth

Or any one of the few hundred demons and devil characters

[amateursatanologist]

"An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. [An atheist] wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated." – Madalyn Murray O'Hair

[amateursatanologist]

"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse." – Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

[amateursatanologist]

I feel like christians should know that satanists are actually pretty chill, despite the name. No, not all of them worship satan.

Definitely! I've met a few online who are aggressive and contrary but the vast majority are just kind, chill, helpful people. And very few (from what I've seen) actually worship Satan (or anyone).

Thanks for the ask 🤘

[amateursatanologist]

"The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it." - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark