The Devil's Satanism

If one has to give a brief definition on Satanism it could be something like this (remembering the antagonism between Satanism and Christianity; this is essential!):

Likewise we ought to linger shortly at a definition on Christianity focusing on its escatological nature:

What is culture? It is certainly not what we speak of when discussing whether or not more money should be given to cultural activities. Culture is that which defines a certain group of human beings within a larger perspective of time, the spirit that satuates the society in question. It is that model which is most successful in explaining this world, just compare with the world history's great cultures. They were all based on religion and mythology. One cannot help wondering why the Egyptian culture survived for so long, compared to our own ( which died when Judgment Day never came in the first century a. d.). Is it not fair to assume that here was a religion which was working and at the same time was so flexible, that it was able to survive several centuries?

Satanism as a phenomenon cannot be viewed outside a Judeo/Christian context since Satanism is the most logical successor to Christianity, representing a return to a cyclic view of the world. Furthermore one could rightfully claim that the cosmology of Satanism has the same roots as the Judeo/Christian - or rather the semitic ditto.
There is, however, an old Eastern Left Hand Path tradition using the terms Sat and Tan (SatTan), the so called Dark Doctrines (see www.geocities.com/satanicreds and http://www.apodion.com/vad/dark/ for further info on this). This tradition represents a Satanism that predates the Biblical definition of Satanism. It speaks of a Dark Force which permeates and motivates all things in the universe (this is a very brief describtion).

From the Middle Ages and up to this day it has been told from time to time of people who worshipped Satan ( or the Devil). Most of these cases undoubtfully derives from Christianity's (read: the Church's) attempts to consolidate its position of power by calling all of its opponents devil worshippers or claiming that they have a pact with the Devil. Thus many cultural gods of the Mediterranean countries ended their "careers" as either demons, or they were being identified with Satan himself (e.g. Baal, Beelzebul, the Roman and the Greek gods and several local gods of fertility), likewise the Inquisition and the witch processes can be viewed from the same angle. Furthermore magicians, philosophers and scientists have "enjoyed" the Church's attention as "representatives of evil".

There are several people who claim themselves to be Satanists. They have established churches and temples throughout the world ( especially in this century); the most renowned of these probably is Anton La Vey, founder of the Church of Satan. The problem with most of these groups is that even though they claim to represent a religion, they deny the existence of spiritual phenomena. According to the best of my knowledge the C.O.S. and similar organizations represent some sort of an atheistic, social darwinistic humanism. That is my opinion, though: check out the C.O.S. on the Web (they have several web sites) and be your own judge!

Satanic groups who claim to worship the Evil One, who practice black magic and so on do exist, though. Most of it is more show than go; a vulgar staging of travesties on the Catholic Mass. It must be granted that Satanists do exist who practice a qualified form of occultism. They are often people with many years of studying left behind them; people who have taken up the difficult task of reading all sorts of religious written sources, people who have acquired various religious basic knowledge. They are not Satanists for the sake of "being tough", to provoke or anything like that, but simply because this explanation model on the world is that which works most successfully for them.

The idea of an entity defined as evil (or a mere opponent to the main entity of a cultural pantheon) is known in many other religions( e.g. Greek Mythology, The Mythology of the Vikings, The Egyptian Mythology, Islam etc.) In the following, however, we shall deal only with Satanism in relation to the the Judeo/Christian definition of ethics as well as of the world.

First of all Satanism does not operate with the terms "good" and "evil". Those terms depend on a dualistic world view which Satanism doen't share. "Evil" in itself doesn't make any sense if one does not operate with its opponent "good". This means that "evil" as a term may have different meanings in different cultural contexts. In terms of religion not many religions - except for Christendom - use the said terms in the absolute ethical and moral meaning of these which permeates the Western worldview. Another terms needs to be defined in order to illustrate what I mean by the aforementioned; namely desire. Desire (or will) is an - in the human existence - incorporated tendency to "want" the world, to exist. This may not be mixed up with the phenomenon lust, which is "the bait" to make one fulfill his or hers desire (it feels "good" to this or that). Therefore "evil" could be defined as that which interferes with or opposes one's desire or will or that which endulges in actions for the sole purpose of feeling good (focusing on lust rather than desire). "Good" could likewise be defined as that which acts according to or promotes one's desire or will. It is important here to notice that life is not a rose garden and it was never meant to be so. Life is worth its while because of the many challenges it offers, and one may suffer both failure and enjoy success it doesn't really matter as long as one is in it , is a part of life. In short "good" is acting according to one's destiny; "evil" the contrary! It is in this context that the following statements from "The Book of The Law" by Aleister Crowley are to be viewed: "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"; "law is the law, love under will" and "every man and woman is a star". This does not mean that one can do as one likes, but what the inner or higher will of oneself dictaes one to do. All action ought to spring from love, a love for the world/ a love for existence itself. And every individual is a universe in him or herself, thus this conclusion - to use the words of William Blake:"one law for lion and the ox would be oppression". Perception is a subjective phenomenon, also the way we perceive the world, therefore no absolutes will do in this context.

Considering Christianity´s main purpose is to end the world, all attempts to interact with the world must be looked upon as being evil; therefore it is practically impossible to want the world and at the same time observe The Ten Commandments. E.g. "love Thy neighbor as Thou loveth Thouself" really means not to love anybody since vanity is one of the Seven Deadly Sins one cannot love one self; thus it is impossible to love others as well. Another problem is that the more you love the weaker the love"Thou shalt not kill" is also a problem; it is forbidden to love but it is likewise forbidden to hate enough to be wanting to kill somebody. We do have a serious problem here; it seems like all strong feelings are evil. It does make sense in a Christian context, however. The main purpose of Christianity is to free the spirit from the matter and thus end the world. Strong feelings of whatever kind are connected to the world, are in fact binding one to the world - binding the spirit to the matter; they are evil! Also the interaction with entities other than the angels, Christ or Jehova is considered evil, because of the fact that no other than the above mentioned entities were accepted; the others were referred to as demons (that goes for the gods of other cultures as well because of the envious nature of Jehova).

Although Satanism seems to be the direct opposite of Christianity on several issues, and one therefore could be tempted to believe that killing is "good", I have to mention that all life is sacred - this does not mean that one should not kill, but there has to be a reasonable cause: e.g. that your loved ones or yourself are threatened on life and health; that a rival has to be eliminated in order to achieve your goal (read: destiny) - not because of a vacant job at the office or the factory and likewise. Minor items like "he said I'm stupid", the neighbor is playing too loud on his stereo or she didn't wait for her turn in the supermarket are not what I consider reasonable causes to kill somebody! It must be legal to defend/protect yourself and your loved ones against whatever perils others might represent. This does not lead to anarchy and a reign of violence, as some might say, on the contrary it leads to a respect for your fellow man, that the world seems to have a fatal lack of in modern society: if you kill, mutilate or in other ways do harm to me and mine you will pay for it with your own blood!
It is my postulate, however, that Man primarily is a social and empathic being, who does not kill nor cause harm without any reason to do so - as in the natural behavior of the wild beasts (natural defined as not being regulated og influenced by humans); these do not kill lest for the sake of providing food or defending their offspring or themselves. Any behavior differing from this must be charaterized as being being sick in terms of either a hereditary mental decease or a socially provoked ditto. Thus to be master of ones own life/to be the god in ones own universe is not as frightening a thought as some people claim, it is all up to the mental and social habitus of the individual in question.

Now we are reaching the end of our journey, having established why Satanism is considered evil. Satanism is desire towards the world, it is love, hate, pride, valeur, fear, aggression, compassion, sympathy, anger, joy and ecstasy. It is the readiness to defend your loved ones with your own blood (as well as the amount of enemies you succeed to strike down doing so), to kill your enemies without remorse. It is the ability to pity and spare the ones that are not worthy. But foremost it is the ability to love with a passion and a desire that leaves no room for anything else on the priority list of your life. It is a love affair with the world, with your woman (or your man) and it is a possibility to go behind the curtain and take charge of your life and destiny by communicating the ground of reality, the psycho dynamics of the world also known as entities - thus attaining and realizing your destiny! But that is another story...

The Holy Ghost doesn't forgive because the Holy Ghost is within you.
The Holy Ghost is you: your very You. So if, in your conceit of your ego,
you make a break in your own You, in your own integrity, how can you be forgiven?
You might as well make a rip in your own bowels. You know if you rip your own bowels
they will go rotten and you will go rotten. And there's an end of you: in the body.
The same if you make a breach with your own Holy Ghost. You go soul rotten.

D. H. Lawrence