Hey,who here has ever heard of Satanism?And if you have,who knows what it actually is?And even past that,anyone else a Satanist here?

I've studied some Satanism, and I live in the city where it was founded. Went to the temple twice, but it was pretty boring. It was just like a Catholic mass. Slow, dirgey, lots of people in robes drinking wine from goblets. The congregation was slightly more interesting looking, though.

Cheers,

Lost

Are you out in San Francisco, Lost_Cause? I glanced at a few websites out of curiosity a few years ago, and seem to recall SF as being where the main couple of branches were founded/based (I suppose if it were Las Vegas, that would be more true to the Fundamentalist Christian and Stephen King takes on evil (ha ha)... but, no biggie.)

Ta attempt to answer the question, Kittie, as I mentioned to Lost_Cause, I looked em' over a while back out of curiosity. As I recall, the original Church of Satan (COS) was founded by the late Anton LeVey <sp?> in San Francisco circa the late 60's. LeVey, a circus carny as a youth, was a consummate showman and colorful character, and the Church of Satan was fundamentally a parady of mainstream (primarily Christian) religion, which LeVay viewed as a financially and otherwise exploitive and deceptive racket based upon ancient myth and nonsensical lore, deployed by the socially savvy so as to manipulate followers to meet the ends of leadership... ultimately meaning (of course) money and influence. LeVey was essentially an atheist, and his church was formed mainly as a statement of rebellion, specializing in "maximized blasphemy" in their ritual and prose, which the atheist-minded might find comical in it's (sometimes boldly distasteful) exaggerated nature, as so being clearly designed to offend and outrage the Faithful. This facet of the organization in concept- as I saw it- illustrated the main message LeVey strived to deliver with a clever device... using "blasphemy" to shamelessly stomp-on some of society's "traditional values" to simultaneously induce laughter/humor via crude parady in some (agnostics)- and seriousness/outrage in others (the Faithful)- realizing an effective (albeit necessarily controversial) method to bring focus upon mainstream religion so as to question its validity, purpose, and nature, at a point in time when the mindset of US society was open to such questioning. So, I think the pragmatic, animated, and independant-thinking LeVey sensed in the turbulant 60's a ripe moment to attack a social institution he viewed as being every bit a con game as found in the circuses and travelling shows of his youth. There were tidbits of philosophy and advice from LeVey's "Satanic Bible" on the websites... some of the messages practical and prudent, others perhaps less-so... but the whole point of it all was to put on "a show with a message," and probably make a few dollars in doing so.

Years later, The Temple of Set (TOS) was also founded in San Francisco by former Church of Satan member and Army Special Forces officer Michael Aquino, who allso taught Political Science at Golden Gate University. TOS differs from COS in that the latter was primarily atheistic in nature, whereas the former incorporates a curious breed of mysticism containing elements from the ancient Egyption religion of Set, including "spell-casting" and the like, and TOS appears to be more academic and philisophical in nature as opposed to the original (media appeal and publicity-oriented) COS, at least as my superficial examination suggested to me.

I hope that's been helpful.

Yes, I'm in San Francisco. Satanism is actually even more than that, now. They have a complete code of ethics based on human psychology and sociological studies. It's very interesting.

One thing that I really like about Satanism is that in a world where all religions are manmade but are masquerading as divine, here is a religion that is unabashed manmade and fake, but yet still manages to retain some credibility. I think it's brilliant.

Cheers,

Lost

nice bit of research there, surf_burn. the one thing i'll add is the apperance of many other satanist groups that claim no affiliation with LeVey. in fact, most of them hate him because he translated the satanic bible incorrcectly (from a language calle enochian, i think). anyway, i used to put my belief in one of those off shoot versions. i have no clue now.

Hey,at least people know about the religion.

Surf_Bum,nice job with all the research.But I was just curious as to how many people know about/practice the religion,not what it was actually about.I have never actually read the bible,but that's because my retarded friend keeps forgetting to bring it whenever the two of us meet up...>_< But,yeah.

Satanism is a genious religion,it really is.

It's like humanism..and I think that would have been a better fitted name.I mean,you hear Satanism,and you think Devil Worshipper,but it's really not.LeVayen Satanism is one of the best religions I have ever come across.I definatly consider myself a LeVayen Satanist.I noticed I followed alot of the laws and thought alot of the same things were sins before I even knew the religion even existed.One thing I've always hated,ignorance.I find out about this Satanism religion,check out the website,and what is the worst sin in the eyes of a Satanist?

Ignorance.

Yeah...my favorite Satanic law/rule/commandment/whatevr you want to call it is:

When walking in open territory,bother no one.If someone bothers you,ask them to stop.If they don't,destroy them.

Very good way to live life.Fuck those who deserve it and help those who need it.

Anyway,yes,this religion kicks major ass.

Glad to see so many other people know about it...makes me most joyful.Alrighty,I'm out.

Peace,yo. XD

(Edited because of my fucked up spelling skills)

[This message has been edited by blue haired kitty (edited 03-15-2006).]

While LaVey's satanism is a very rational approach for a religion, its morals are flawed. It's one thing to fight stupidity and another to promote reckless ambition or dictate how one should feel ("never love anything so much that you cannot see it die"). In the end, it's just another money-making institution, even if probably the most honest of the religious ones.

quote:Originally posted by blue haired kitty:

Yeah...my favorite Satanic law/rule/commandment/whatevr you want to call it is:

When walking in open territory,bother no one.If someone bothers you,ask them to stop.If they don't,destroy them.



I'll throw out one more opinion, Kitty, since I do recall the law/rule you cited as being a tidbit I didn't care for, especially... although it can basically be a sensible idea if it's interpreted reasonably (and that's the problem with the law/rule, and it's one of my major criticisms of similar Christian Bible-based laws/rules)... because it's so vaguely stated, leaving so much potential ambiguity that it's subject to interpretations of hugely varying latitude... this perhaps lends itself to making more followers ("customers"?) happy since seeing ways to make the rule apply to their situations while suiting their personal whims becomes easier, but in doing so, there's both a loss of meaning, and the potential to translate this to justify all kinds of approaches to dealing with "the public" which range from "not called for, and belligerant" to "flat-out lunatic". In other words, you can rationalize that "law" to (pseudo-)justify damn near anything you want, and that's my biggest gripe about the similar Christian Biblical quotations. And it doesn't take much lookin' to know that the Christians constantly do just that. As an aside, I remember another rule/law as being (roughly paraphrased) "Don't waste your love on ingrates- give it to people who'll appreciate and recipricate it"... I recall that as being my favorite, as it was specific, I thought it made a lot of sense, and it's advice many would benefit from considering.

laVeyan satanists are also called modern satanists and they worship the self in the path to godhead(enlightenment)

centuries older, actully claiming to be the very first religion lies traditional satanism, who worship Lucifer as a deity. Lucifer translates to 'bearer of light' and is actually extremely convincing. Like modern satanism, traditional satanists continually strive to achieve godhead by releasing what is called the Kundalini serpernt.

This is an immense energy located at the base of the spine, and is actually so immense, people who attempt it without proper preparation can end up severely injured.

Much of traditional satanism(sometimes called spiritual satanism) relies on the use of chakras and energy flow.

for more info, have a read of www.joyofsatan.com (http://www.joyofsatan.com)

i just thought I'd add, a lot of satanists invoke and evoke demons, the proverbial 'heirachy' of Hell. It is argued that Hell is actually a planet in our solar system(the 12th I think) and is called Nibiru. The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchtin(sp?) is a non biased book that reflects this.

Of course since Satanism is nearly the exact opposite of Christianity, you'll find a lot of role reversals.

Shit I could go on for hours....

I'd like to point out that the contents of that website are some of the most ludicrous, garbled mash of New Age ideas I've ever encountered outside of the Scientologist community. It appears to be drawing on the "mystique" of the Yezidis, so-called devil worshippers in the Middle East, though their writings are nothing like any of that.

Laveyan Satanism has nothing whatever to do with personal transcendence or a mystical apotheosis. It's way better than that. It's the "ultimate conscious alternative to the herd mentality", meaning that it's a great big club saying, "You're a noncoformist? Me too! Come on in and we'll be nonconformists TOGETHER!" It brings a tear to my eye. Traditional Satanism, on the other hand, runs the gamut from so-called Theistic Satanism, where Satan is simply worshipped as a god equal to or greater than the Judeo-Christian one, to more out-there groups like the Order of the Nine Angles, who I'm not even going to get into here, but they're a barrel of fun if you can find them.

My only problem with Satanism is that however much Lavey tried to break it's ties to Christian mythology, it still insists on propogating the symbol system of vice and virtue, sin and hypocracy that have paralyzed the human spirit for ages, the very thing Lavey claimed to be most opposed to. The answers for the future will not not NOT be found by further mining the past.

quote:Originally posted by Kallisti:

(1) I'd like to point out that the contents of that website are some of the most ludicrous...

(2)The answers for the future will not not NOT be found by further mining the past.

(1) Yes, I took a quick glance, and between that and mister_s's references to the paranormal of dubious validity, as a skeptic I can't fathom that there's anything worth examining to such metaphysical gobblygook regarding such, or any other groups labeling themselves "Satanists" who claim to invoke metaphysical phenomenon for whatever their reasons... be them historical in basis, or other.

(2) I'd agree that those seeking "secret keys" of profound significance from transcribed writings of ancient peoples, or the like, which will give them some kind of "edge" in handling the problems Man faces in this life- whether their taste runs along the lines of the Christian Biblical, or other- are most likely (certainly most often, at minimum) just dreamers with a taste for the novel and unconventional... that kind of thing makes for some entertaining movies, and it's fun to imagine that there are esoteric and arcane sources of deep wisdom- unbeknownst to the masses- from millenium past, of supernatural (or possibly extraterrestrial) origin, which can unlock powerful approaches to wordly problems of a personal nature and other... but unfortunately, there's been a long line of such claims of many flavors, and none have "panned out" other than in anecdotal (and highly-questionable) testimonials. From all indications, it seems our "commonsense" and the other cognitive skills at our disposal are still the best tools we have for dealing with life, as they probably have been throughout the eons of Man's history.

[Edited to krect sum spellin errerz, of which I typically make more than are worth bothrin with... I'm sure we're all adequately literate, so I'm with Kitty RE her reference to such of a prior post- no reason to sweat it.]

[This message has been edited by Surf_Bum (edited 03-15-2006).]