Satanism and You

As an author, I get to research interesting things. For my book Minion of Evil, I needed to learn more about Satanists. And I did a little research on the Church of Satan and its founder Anton LaVey.

To start out, LaVey himself is an interesting character. According  to autobiographical information. He was a circus performer and  roustabout, a police psychic, an organ player in a burlesque house, and briefly dated Marilyn Monroe before she became famous. And this was all before he started the Church of Satan. However, much of this information is non-verifiable, and much of his story have been questioned by biographers.

When most people hear “Church of Satan,” their immediate reaction is, “I don’t want anything to do with that.” They don’t bother to dig any deeper. In part, I believe LaVey wanted it this way.

The first thing you need to understand is that LaVey’s Church of Satan doesn’t believe in the man in the red tights with the pitchfork. In fact, they don’t necessarily believe in any sort of higher (or lower) power. The Church of Satan is more an organization promoting a specific code of behavior than a religion. 

My real feeling is that anybody who believes in supernatural entities on some level is insane. Whether they believe in The Devil or God, they are abdicating reason.
–Peter Gilmore, former High Priest of the Church of Satan

It might seem ironic to some and yet appropriate to others, but Anton LaVey denounced devil worshipers or theistic Satanists for praying to the devil, saying, “Satan to us is a symbol rather than an anthropomorphic being… In answer to those who would label us devil worshipers or be very quick to call us Satan worshipers, I must say that Satan demands study, not worship… We do not pray. We do not get down on our knees. We do not genuflect.

So, in the end, the Church of Satan, was a no-go as far as researching devil worshipers for  Minion of Evil. I did learn so very interesting things, though.

There are supposedly real devil worshipers or Theistic Satanists out there. However, I never found a lot of good information about them. Unlike the Church of Satan, they don’t advertise themselves on the internet.

Note:
If you are a member of the Church of Satan and believe that I’ve gotten any details wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments. I’m just writing my impressions based on some simple research. I don’t claim to be a perfect expert.

2 thoughts on “Satanism and You

  1. Katy Sozaeva

    Hey, it’s nice to see Satanism shown in its proper lights – it’s actually a form of secular humanism and you’re very correct; LaVey designed it for its shock value. you’re also right that it’s hard to know what’s true about ol’ Anton, because he was a shyster from the word “go” and made up all sorts of crap about himself 🙂 If you want to learn about true evil, just read a Bible – it’s full of terrible things, like God commanding parents to stone their children if they talk back. Now *that” is EVIL! And let’s not forget the overarching point that knowledge = bad; it’s better to be naive and unknowing and just follow the crowd (if that crowd is properly hateful) than to think for yourself.

    But I ramble… Good luck in finding out more information – it is out there, I’m certain. You might check the Sacred Texts website – I know they have some texts they label “evil”. http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
    they’re not about Satanism, though, as that’s too new for public domain works. http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/index.htm
    Lots of good stuff on that site!

    Reply
    1. shannon Post author

      Thanks for the links.

      I don’t think I’d ever advocate LaVey Satanism to anyone, but there are definitely worse things out there.

      Reply

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