The Misunderstood
Dancing around a fire. The pentacle lit brightly from the flame. The horn god sitting front and center, commanding his cult of followers, brought about to damn humanity.
Stereotyping; Many suffer from this generalization that is brought about many different aspects. Skin color, age, income, and religion tend to be the most common. Religion tends to be one thing that is striving in today’s society, but do people actually know about religions other than their own?
If knowledge is power, then one should look into everything. Satanism is vastly misunderstood. People fear what they do not understand. It is time to reveal the truth about one of the most feared religions. Satanism.
To begin with, one should know a brief history of Satanism and its founder, Anton Szandor LaVey. Anton not only wrote The Satanic Bible, but also founded the first Church of Satan. He took Satan’s symbol as the ultimate evil and changed it to a symbol of personal freedom and individuality. The most mocked -and also interesting- aspect of this religion coming about, is that Anton hadn’t started this religion from having a higher, or supernatural entity coming to speak with him like how many other religions came about. Instead, LaVey confesses that he used his own insight to synthesize Satanism. He understood the human mind, and used the bases of earlier philosophers who promoted materialism and individuality.
Skipping past LaVey’s early life, one should first take a quick peek at the rules set up by the Church of Satan and The Satanic Bible.
The “Nine Satanic Statements” starts off The Satanic Bible, and gives the foundation of what Satanism is, and are as follows, coming straight from The Satanic Bible:
1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence.
2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams.
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit.
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates.
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires.
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all.
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years. (Nine Satanic Statements)
As one can see, these all play off natural human instinct, so one may find Satanism to be a natural choice, and easy to follow and understand. The next set of rules are named, “The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth”. These were found to be too frank and brutal, so they were only issued among members and named on the website.
Moving on past those, one might think that Satanism has no rules and that Satanist just run wild. This assumption is wrong. Sins have been acknowledged. In fact, there are the “Nine Satanic Sins” in which a Satanist is to never break. These rules help one become one with themselves, indulging in their human flaws, their needs, their wants. “Do unto others as they have to you” is one of the sayings that Satanism has come to own, whereas Christians often follow, “Do unto others as you wish to be done unto you”. You are to be kind to others, until they are unkind to you. That is one thing that Satanism allows and encourages. It’s a normal feeling, which is why Satanism tells you to embrace, rather than shove away.
While on the topic of human nature, it is only natural that people have attached stereotypes to Satanism. One of the biggest stereotypes is that Satanists worship Satan, being falsely drawn in by the name. Satanists do not really “worship” anything. In fact, they mainly just use Satan as a symbol. Referring back to the “Nine Satanic Statements” can prove this.
Some other stereotypes would include Satanists doing sacrificial rituals. These sacrifices are usually said to be cats and other such animals. In truth, Satanists are not to harm any non human-animal. Members of the religion can refer to the tenth rule from “The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth”, from which it states: “Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.”
Then, of course, there’s also the people stereotyped with the religion. Black clothes, piercings, white face, lots of ‘funky’ or ‘odd’ makeup. This is true in some cases. Satanism encourages individuality, and modifying ones body in such a way is a perfect mechanism to define oneself. Though, not everyone does dress this way. Some just look like “normal” people, wearing whatever happens to be in style, and still wearing some type of pendant in which they use to represent their faith. The pendant is usually an upside down cross, which actually just came about to mock the Christian cross, or an inverted pentacle which can be used in occult rituals to direct forces or energies. It also often represents the horned god-Pan-or various expressions of contemporary occultism, especially when a goat-head is superimposed on the inverted pentagram. The meaning of the pentacle pointing out that, in fact, some do use spells and rituals, which is one stereotype that is quite true in a lot of instances, though not all. Of course, stereotypes are never easy to knock off, nor to get them all answered and corrected. It takes time, and knowledge.
Maybe it’s the prince of light who had taken over LaVey and made him come up with this religion, trying to get humanity to rebel against God and satisfy ones wants and needs. Should one take this information seriously? Perhaps, to each their own. If any should be offended, the black text can’t apologize, for it only speaks the truth, and is only trying to help the world. Take pity on those that remain afraid of what is no longer unknown.
