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What do you know about Satanism? I’m assuming your prior knowledge of the religion is one that depicts the spell casting and violence of an evil loving cult who lurk in the shadows ready to cast Satan’s terror over an unsuspecting person who's good and true and pure. It's most probable you heard it from your parents or your church but if not then how would you know about all this? Well, you probably heard it from the media - movies like The Omen, The Exorcist and The Ninth Gate. Even headlines and journalists who are supposed to be unbiased express their passive aggressive anger through hither articles. Fixed on a subject that they have been socially wired to be negative towards. “Satanic cult” does this, “Satanist couple” does that. They may be ‘Satanic’ but that's not Satanism. In the way that Jim Jones murdered his whole church in Jonestown but that's not Christianity. In the way that terrorists may be Muslims but that's not Islam. In the way that Satan was God's son but that's not family. Because everything the general public knows is one big lie.
So, here’s the truth:
In the early days, LaVeyan Satanism was a religious movement founded and named after Anton LaVey, the father and founder of the church of Satan, in 1966. Its core philosophy is based on individualism and egoism, an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality.
They oppose the Abrahamic faiths, which they state promote idealism, self-denigration (to criticise one's own character), collectivism (herd behaviour), and irrationality.
Despite popular belief, practitioners do not believe that the character of Satan literally exists and do not worship him. Instead, Satan is viewed as a positive archetype who represents pride, carnality (meaning physical needs), and enlightenment, The Satanic Bible was written by the founder is their religious book. Although it is their bible, LaVeyan Satanists do not treat The Satanic Bible as a sacred text in the way many other religious groups treat their own but more of a text of guidance in times of disorder, “treated as an authoritative document which effectively functions the Satanic community.”
They study and live their lives by The Seven Fundamental Tenets, (summarised in my own words)
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice prevails over any law.
One’s body is never to be broken or compromised without consent.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend.
One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
Mistakes are understandable, however, one must resolve any harm that might have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding, not mandatory principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought.
I don’t know about you but I see these as great and progressive ways to live your life in a peaceful society, ones that shockingly have strong similarities with not only universal human rights and international law but also our own UWC values, compassion, freedom, growth etc.
Additionally, within the church of Satan and its teachings, they have The Eleven Satanic Rules of the earth. Alike The Ten Commandments, these statements are the rules to help guide you in life.
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. Provide respect when in others home.
4. If a guest acting disrespectfully in your lair act on it pertaining to your wishes.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given consent.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic to succeed with your desires.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop.
All rules maintain their values provided in The Seven Fundamental Tenets, maintaining their message of compassion, restraint and respect.
So, I've concluded here that Satanism isn’t what it's presented to be, so; why does the world present it in this way?
When Satanism was created it was the 1960s, Christianity was the leading religion in America and in other nations across the globe. The Christian church held in their core that opposing their ideas and values was wrong. The non-Abrahamic religions were a blatant form of blasphemy. So any speak against their ideals was forbidden and frowned upon. And they, mainly leaders of the churches, the more aggressive followers, would stop at nothing to protect their religion. But maybe they went a little too far, strayed away from their morals and lost their way.
But why did the Christians hate the religion in the first place? Although a generalisation, the Christian church members were notorious for being very driven and committed to God, they were searching for something to believe in and something to place blame on for the horrible things in their life like natural disasters and death and destruction. Their faith was and somewhat still is extremely important as a key part of their life.
So this new idea, full of equality and non-conformity went against what they viewed as the will of a higher power in the universe. Therefore it threatened their faith, they were scared and possessive of this family they were a part of, so much that they would destroy anything that threatened it. Even in the present day, we see certain followers (again a generalisation) devoted Christians, within every religion really, being judgemental, hateful and even being violent towards those of different religions. They were afraid and ignorant so they used their power to destroy something that they had no idea about and until this day Satanism is rejected and discriminated against by the public.
In the beginning, people hated it not because of their devil leader but because it condoned independent thought and non-conformity. But that wasn’t enough. So what did the church and their followers do? They turned it into the epitome of evil. In the 60s, christianly ruled everything. They drove popular culture so they created horror movies which showed cults and rituals, villains in the film who would do despicable things, made people associate Satanism with death and torture done by evil. To get a mass audience against their ideas so much that they were wrongfully represented through their ignorant creations.
Meanwhile, Anton LaVey, the founder, as he realised this was happening he started changing too. If they were turning his religion into some joke then he would make fun of theirs. So he altered their precious symbols and bible stories they loved so much in his religion. He created the antichrist, the upside down crucifix as a symbol for Satanists and he took the villain from Christianity, the devil, and used it as his god. As intended, this outraged the Christians even more.
Christians were scared, they thought that the rising of another religious teaching means the fall of theirs. They were consumed with this idea that if they made their opposition as physically and visually villainous as they believed it to be, they would remain in control. That's what they were truly afraid of, not the devil, but losing control of him.
In conclusion, Despite what you may have heard before I hope that now you are educated about LaVeyan Satanism and that you will think of it differently. Because the purpose of their religion is about individualism, nonconformity, respect of others and freedom. Just because Christians have twisted it around does not mean that it true. The intention of Anton LaVey was to create a religion full of freedom where people come to feel happy and at home, where they could be free to have fun express their ideas without judgement. Unfortunately, due to the spread of death that Christian rumours left in their path, the impact was catastrophic. The entire structure of our society and the way they viewed a harmless religion shifted. And the intention of the Christian followers, was to protect their family, instead, they inserted irrational fear into the hearts of children, adults and impacted the entire course of history. But if we have the intention to change what people think then maybe we can have an impact.
Good intentions have good impacts.
And bad intentions have bad impacts.
And good intentions have bad impacts.
And bad intentions have good impacts.
To be honest you can never know whats a good intention and what's bad. Whats a good impact and bad. But if it's ever bad, there are plenty of other people reading this that can help you change it.