Satanism can easily be called on of the most misunderstood religious movements in history. This is mostly thanks to the media and the uprising of criminals using this as an excuse to get sent to mental hospitals instead of prison cells.
To fully start to understand what Satanism truly stands for, we need to understand the origin of Satan himself. During the creation of the universe God created the angel Lucifer. The name Lucifer means “The Shining One”. Lucifer was intelligent, powerful and beautiful but he also had one very important advantage above the others. Lucifer was created with free will and the ability to make his own decisions. Along with this he was given one very important decision to make. He could either accept that God was God or he could choose to be God to himself. He chose to be God to himself.
In doing so he declared himself most high. This is how Satan came about. (It is obviously more complicated than that but you get the just of their relationship). With Lucifer becoming conscious into existence he was expected to just believe the “creator” had in fact created him shortly after he, himself came into consciousness. Lucifer was created smart enough to question this and therefore had his doubts. After this Satan enlisted mankind to join him on his path. To love themselves and become autonomous from God.
Now that you have a very brief and somewhat vague understanding of this, you now know enough that I can move onto Satanism as a belief and a religion. To start this off I will first explain to you the 11 fundamental rules of The Church of Satan.
Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
Do not tell your troubles to others, unless you are certain that they want to hear them.
When in another’s lair, show respect or else do not go there.
If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat them cruelly and without mercy (this just means that you should stand up for your beliefs the same way that they would for theirs)
Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and the cry out to be relieved.
Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after you have acknowledged it, you will lose all the power you have so far obtained.
Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
Do not harm children.
Do not kill animals unless you are attacked or need them for food.
When walking in open territory bother no one. If they bother you, ask them to stop. If they do not stop, destroy them. (Again, this refers to you standing up for yourself and for your freedom).
Although I will admit that the language used to write these rules can be a bit misleading, the same can be said for a lot of writings in almost every religion on Earth. There is no reason we should treat these writings any differently.
The Church of Satan was founded by Anton LaVey on April 30th, 1966. It has been going strong, even after his death. The church currently maintains a modest internet presence and guidance and information are easily obtained on the site. There are plenty of serious misconceptions about Satanism that were brought about by the media and by horror movies.
For instance, it is widely believed that all Satanists worship The Devil. This is not always the case. Just as with Christianity, there are different forms of Satanism as well. Most Satanists use the term in order to differentiate themselves from close-minded Christianity. There is not one form of Satanic Church.
Another common misconception is that Satanists sacrifice little animals and people. This is not true. Only those who are mentally ill and looking for what they believe to be a good enough reason to do these horrible things will actually sacrifice any living soul. In reality Satanists are non-violent and from years of invalid discrimination have developed a hatred for violence.
On the subject of souls, let me make it clear that to be a Satanist you do not have to “sell your soul to The Devil”. Although there is a ritual termed “soul selling” it is more of a baptism. There will be no demons dragging your soul to hell and no spontaneous flames or hallucinations. This goes along with the belief that Satanists have magic powers. Please tell me I don’t have to explain why this misconception is so ridiculous.
Another thing people need to realise is that Satanists do not hate Christians. They are however weary of them and this is completely understandable. The amount of abuse and torment and hatred shown towards Satanists by Christians is unthinkable and so, understandably, they tend to stay away from each other. In reality, Satanists are accepting of people from all walks of life with all beliefs and experiences. A large majority of Satanists are successful people with well-paying jobs. Far from the “loser” image that movies and media tend to use.
Although there are plenty of arguments against Satanists and their religion, most of them are not liable. It is easy to bring out a list of Satanic crimes since 1966, but compare it to the total number of crimes committed since then and then separate those into their respective religious motives and you will see that Satanism makes up a very small percentage of this. If we are going to bad mouth one religion for the crimes related to it then we should do so for all religions.
Satanism has a very deep and important history and it is imperative that it gets acknowledged the same way that other religions do so that Satanists can practice in peace and live the lives that make them happiest.
