Chuck everything you know about Theistic Satanism and Demonolatry in the fucking bin for a second and lets have a serious talk.
Satanists venerate Satan.
Demonolators venerate Demons.
Is satan a demon?
Depends who you ask but by definition some demonolators are satanists and some satanists are demonolators.
Upon studying theistic satanism and demonolatry I have come to a few interesting conclusions.
So assuming we know nothing about satanism lets google this shit real quick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVeyan_Satanism
Is where you will be lead to when you type in Satanism into google.
This is a favorably misleading and arguably disappointing first search result.
here is why I think this.
- This is an atheistic religion
- It is described as "A new religious movement" (Many Theistic Satanists Claim Satanism Predates Monotheism and Most Religions, My opinion on this is too complex to state here)
- It is a cult. By definition
-(A quick google of the world cult will explain to you what I mean)
-[a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
"a network of Satan-worshiping cults"
synonyms: sect, denomination, group, movement, church, persuasion, body, faction
"a religious cult"
a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
"a cult of personality surrounding the leaders"
synonyms: obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for, idolization of, devotion to, worship of, veneration of
"the cult of eternal youth in Hollywood"]
So basically atheism is the religion. And Anton LaVey is the cult leader.
Now, when entering into satanism one thing that is often overlooked is that ALL MATERIAL IN SATANISM IS CULT MATERIAL.
So whether you identify as an atheist or a theist if you have beliefs regarding satan or satanism they likely stem from cult material of some sort.
My problems with LaVeyan Satanism are not limited to the following.
-they claim to be the only true satanists (true of most satanic cults)
-lots of in-fighting between satanists. (also true of most satanic cults)
-Elitism (also plaguing many satanic cults)
-An atheist cult seems to be an oxymoron from my perspective. this still exists.
-the church of satan and the satanic temple both push political beliefs and even though I view them as progressive and helpful and necessary this still seems to willfully violate separation of church and state from my perspective. I don't think its necessary to use your cult to push political beliefs it makes your church as guilty as the state. (which is a giant joke because the satanic temple exists to bring about the separation of church and state)
-the church of satan offers a moral paradigm such as the 9 satanic statements while shunning this sort of thing from other religious groups???
(given these nine satanic statements are more virtuous than the christian equivalent it still is unnecessary to have morality spoon fed to you by a religious organization)
-the list literally goes on and on and the same can be said for most cults its just hilarious that the problems that most religions suffer still exist within satanism and most of us have not found ways around all of this yet. This is funny because by design satanism is supposed to be free of this nonsense but in practice that just isn't how these cults work.
What's the point of claiming to be a morally sound paradigm anyways? isn't being good and moral a monotheistic concept anyways? why do you care?
Honestly I am both proud of and ashamed of The Church of Satan for too many reasons to list here. I do believe it is a necessary first step and a good starting place when entering into satanism. Why? Because if you're going to be embracing cult teachings you may as well understand why and the purpose of cult teaching in the first place.
You may not believe this as a satanist but even satanists seem to be having morality spoon fed to them by cult leaders. I am aware most cult teachings in satanism shun this sort of thing by nature but simple analysis of the practice tells you this just simply isn't true. Venus Satanas described in one of her videos, organizations like this are "A right hand path methodology applied to a left hand path framework"
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Venus Satanas and her writings and video I suggest you go to http://www.spiritualsatanist.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/VenusSatanas
I would just go ahead and watch all of her videos and click around on her site for a bit.
She is also comparable to someone like LaVey. The difference here is that she is not a cult leader. She is still spewing cult material and what I mean by that is a misplaced admiration or obsession with a particular person or thing. Event though her own opinions are against this sort of thing. if you take her opinions as gospel and label them your own. you are still absorbing cult material. she may not be a cult leader but these beliefs are not your own and they come from a small group of religious individual and the non-traditional nature of it screams cult to me. or at bare minimum cult mentality which is unavoidable in this field of study.
A cult is a cult is a cult. http://theisticsatanism.com/politics/LaVey/index.html
Now this sort of thing being so easily overlooked in satanism might explain why there so many Neo-nazi satanists. Which i think is funny because if you read up on most popularized forms of satanism and even most of the opinions of the ONA and the JOS (the two most notorious neo-nazi theistic satanist cults I have read up on personally) You'll find them doing exactly the same shit. Taking otherwise intelligent people and persuading them to believe what you want them to. its not hard to see that this only benefits the cult leader. if you behave the way your cult leaders says you are arguably a sheep. even if you subscribe to a more hardcore paradigm like the ONA. you can practice human sacrifice all you want you're still a giant pussy if everything you do only serves to further the political agenda of your cult leader you fucking sheep. So as hardcore as killing your friends and enemies might seem its actually a really fearful and willfully obedient behavior that should not be viewed as revolutionary but rather i would view it as hilarious pussyfooting if its done to serve a cult leader.
Now maybe the occult teachings of these groups would have been properly understood had these people not embraced this as gospel.
This problem i would identify as religious extremism. and I have in the past and fuck it still probably am considered by many to be a religious extremist.
an extremist maybe.
I am not a fucking nazi.
There is no excuse for neo-nazism in 2017. Especially among satanist groups that push a moral paradigm that should shun that sort of thing if it were properly understood by those perpetuating it.
Diane Vera of http://theisticsatanism.com/ has written quite a bit on the subject of theistic satanism and neo nazism. She is to the best of my knowledge still NOT a nazi.
Her site on theistic satanism eventually lead me to the cult of Demonolatry and the works of S Connoly and other DB Publishing Authors. (much information I am grateful to have studied)
Basically what Diane Vera suggests on her site is understood by me to be a cure for religious extremism in general. keeping politics out of religion is necessary. this is the moral message one should have taken from groups like the church of satan or the satanic temple. Separation of church and state are necessary and keep power out of the hands of cult leaders.
Whether or not you have political beliefs is your own personal ballgame but I would like to suggest the works of Larken Rose. He is a wonderful author I really like that he compares political affiliation to cult mentality. And even if you do not subscribe to the idea that political beliefs are pretty much always religious beliefs reading his books would still benefit you. So if anarchism and voluntaryism scares you maybe an in depth understanding of adversarial spiritual practices isn't for you in the first place.
I also believe a working knowledge of philosophy could liberate you from servitude to a cult leader. I don't think Anton LaVey needs to tell me how to interpret neitzche when i can just go read his works myself. (an enlightened individual might observe that I too am suggesting my own interpretation of an authors works and basically doing the work for you like La Vey did) fuck all that noise. Go read it yourself so that you understand the opinion I am trying to force feed you.
This is the sort of thing you should avoid. Why is it then that all of these writers in satanism are inadvertently preaching the very thing that they demonize. I think its because taboo keeps us safe. and if the behavior of monotheists becomes taboo or even demonized completely (the goal of many satanic cults). I can't say I don't see the world improving. What I mean by this is maybe there is a need for taboo. If we make a religion where the whole idea is destroying religious extremism. maybe then we have progress. but in practice this just creates more cults and more followers. so maybe this isnt the right approach to ridding the world of monotheism. If you don't understand the idea of necessary taboo try thinking about a world where rape murder and incest were not taboo. some things are meant to be taboo to keep us safe. and in my honest opinion monotheism should be taboo and it is my belief that mankind will improve drastically if this were attainable. I believe this is what might have made satanism attractive to me in the first place funny enough.
Some people on this planet are born to be lead. and some people on this planet won't be lead by any man. Id like to consider myself in the second category. These people in the second category are dangerous. They are potential cult leaders at worst and enlightened masters at best. There is a level of knowledge and freedom that comes along with a life without leaders. and to me this is what satanism is about. its about being the wolf and not the sheep. Maybe one day people won't feel the need to be led but until that day comes it is smartest to be your own leader.
So when I say satanism is not for everyone I don't mean elitism is for me. What I mean is that right now it seems that some people are meant to be followers and if that is you, you should really reconsider studying satanism. I don't believe satanism benefits the follower. Cult mentality only benefits the cult leader.
If you are an independent satanist in this situation you should...
-refuse to be the cult leader
-refuse to be lead
Arguably that is it. but is that in and of itself a moral paradigm and still arguably authoritarian? I don't know but at least I've thought of it.
This makes nihilism seem like an appealing option for even the strongest among us. why even both playing the game or labeling yourself that way in the first place? I will write more on this later but the only reason I can find is legitimately useful occult practices are associated with satanic cults and they are too useful for me personally to leave out of my daily practice. If I ever decide to label the occult as completely useless you can label me a nihilist. until then in order to support this belief I have enough evidence that is "good enough for me" evidence that would hardly be considered scientific or weighted heavily enough to convince any scholar. So while I believe in Satan and Demons my opinions about them may shock you and the reasons why I came to this conclusion may be even more shocking. But I can feel entitled to my opinion if i want and so I choose to study the occult until given evidence that is "good enough for me" that the occult is not going to be useful to me anymore. I would also need evidence that all of my previous occult study in satanism is no longer useful to me. This isn't something I am really expecting to be presented. I pretty much only plan on studying further to obtain knowledge.
In summary,
I have given you a few good starting resources for understanding satanism and demonolatry.
Don't be a fucking sheep and don't go start a cult. Just be free.
Don't go around believing a thing I say.
If you really want to have your mind blown try reading Peter J Carroll https://zalbarath666.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/peter-j-carroll-liber-null-psychonaut.pdf
and then wonder how the fuck the Illuminates of Thanateros ever became a thing. (yes there really is a religious cult for chaos magick and an understanding of chaos magick makes the cult seem unnecessary and hilarious, of course chaos magick by nature doesn't forbid this sort of thing it only serves to make this obsolete and unnecessary)
so why does this cult exist?
In closing I'd like to point out that all I did with this post was shit on every satanic group while simultaneously promoting cult mentality as useful?
This is an opinion piece and should not be considered to be fact.
Independent Spiritual Practice is where its at because then you can honestly say that your beliefs are your own beliefs and your opinions are in fact opinions and not gospel.
I personally choose to integrate the more sane feeling spiritual practices from many satanic cults. You don't have to choose to do shit. But to be honest if you only limit your research to one satanic cult, there is a lot of information and a lot of knowledge you are willfully keeping from yourself.
I would also like to add that I personally have benefited from every satanic cult i have studied. Even if for no other reason than to know my own enemy. So i can see certain satanic groups as ignorant and my understanding and study of those groups has really helped to lessen my own ignorance. you should try it sometime. Not all religious studies have to be sunshine lollipops and rainbows and understanding things from a new perspective might actually teach you a thing or two.