“Holy shit! A Satanist? You devil, cannibalistic being! Are you possessed by the demons?!” Whoa calm down, folks. I know Satan acquired quite a bad image in almost every societies but when it comes to Satanism, it’s a whole different thing. This post isn’t a “marketing attempt” or any kind of promotion to draw people into Satanism, just…well…as the title says. This is an explanation (or may be description, I don’t know), not a persuasion.
Satanism have a long history. The concept was traced back to the dark ages, the Templar-thing era. Long story short (or history aside lol), the concept evolved and created several types of Satanism but the common one today is known as Modern Satansim. Modern Satanism is a “belief” found by Anton LaVey in 1966, also known as LaVeyan Satanism. He also established the Satanic Bible which earned him that “founder” title since his book is considered influential by several Satanic communities. A common misconception of this book is it is often thought as a compilation of sadistic, inhumane rituals and scripts of spells or mantras and black magic related stuff. The truth is, it is essentially a parody of Christianity, especially their Holy Bible. I think most of us are aware that the well known Abrahamic/Ibrahimic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam are considered full of exclusivity, hypocrisy and inconsistencies by many people throughout the world. But since the establishment took place in U.S.A, Christianity which was and is still the common belief is the target of LaVey’s mockery. Another important point is that unlike many other religious groups, the LaVeyan Satanists doesn’t treat the Satanic Bible as a sacred text. It is “treated as an authoritative document which effectively functions as scripture within the Satanic community”-(Lewis, 2002).
LaVeyan Satanism is basically a manifestation of atheistic ideas, both in philosophical and dogmatic aspects (I said “dogmatic” because by using scientific logic, the claim of the absence of any deity is just as “unscientific” as the claim of it’s presence). Therefore, it is an absurd judgement to label LaVeyan Satanists as “those who worship Satan” when in reality they don’t believe in any of such beings, nor the devil alias Satan neither God. This of course is by not considering the ones who practice modern Satanism the way Christians practice Christianity or Muslims practice Islam. Those people are considered “those who took Satan too seriously and got carried away”.
Even though LaVeyan Satanism is an atheistic belief, it is still a belief. And just like any other beliefs, the believers sees their belief in different ways. This paradigm difference created a number of types of LaVeyan Satanists. According to Thomas LeRoy, a LaVeyan Satanist from the Sect of the Horned God, the believers can be categorized into three large groups:
- The left-hand path
- The right-hand path
- The trolls a.k.a assholes
The left-hand path emphasized the strength of the individual. It is about departing the herd on a spiritual level and evolving oneself into a “higher being”. The right-hand path is considered relatively new. This type of Satanism identify themselves with a certain type or figure of deity (or multiple types/figures) which LeRoy himself claimed is/are not important for him. On the contrary from the left-hand path, this type of people emphasized upon the empathy and growth of the herd or community. Judging from the idea, it is safe to assume that the figures are used as uniting tools for the communities (but more research is needed). Last but not least, there is the third type of LaVeyan Satanists and they’re identified by LeRoy as the trolls, the assholes as he said. Think of them as any religious extremist groups. They tend to know less or even nothing about the basic LaVeyan Satanism which is the left-hand path, let alone the right-hand path. Like other considerably stupid believers from any religion we know, these people are the one dragging the spreading process and acceptability of Satanism (somehow I found this sentence funny, but meh…). LeRoy said that they have no philosophical or dogmatic understanding of the belief. Unfortunately, like many others who despise the activity called thinking, these trolls are the dominant voice of Satanism. They might not be the majority but they might be the loud ones, spreading hate and anger all over the place, anywhere and anytime (when you decide not to think, the time required for thinking can be allocated to “blabbering around” activity, right?).
In the end, I wish my fellow readers a good understanding of Satanism, especially the LaVeyan. Of course not in details but I hope all of you get the basic idea of what it is and what it is not. Anyway don’t you think it is kinda funny and ironic that Satanism ,as a belief trying to escape Abrahamic/Ibrahimic problems such as exclusivity, hypocrisy, and inconsistency which probably emerged from dogmatic aspects, also used dogmatic aspects in their belief? (Laughs in agnosticism)
