Talisman wrote:Prak, I have a question for you. You've often mentioned that you're a Satanist; what does that actually mean for you? My knowledge of Satanism is fairly limited, and I have a hard time envisioning you (or my vague, probably-incorrect image of you) wearing a black robe and chanting the Lord's Prayer backwards as you sacrifice a baby.
Somehow, that doesn't seem right.
well, let's start by giving people some kind of image of me:
That's the most recent pic of me, a few weeks old. Don't mind the look on my face, I wasn't paying attention to the fact that my face was completely at rest and made me look like a stoned dumbass. I have this odd tendancy to not smile in pictures unless some attractive young woman is taking the picture.
Anyway.
Absentminded Wizard wrote:From what I can get from Wikipedia, being a "spiritual satanist" means he actually believes in Satan as a supernatural being and worships him. However, his statements lead me to believe he's not a "reverse Christian" Satanist. The "reverse Christians" would be the ones who celebrate Black Masses and say the Lord's Prayer backwards.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia is pretty sparse on the subject, so I wouldn't mind more information. I mean, I get the impression that most people who call themselves Satanists are either psychos or rebellious teens who want to impress/scare their peers, so I'd love to know what deep spiritual beliefs motivate Prak.
there are a few main categories of satanism, LaVeyan Satanism (founded by Anton LaVey in 1969), Spiritual Satanism and Diabolotry.
Laveyan Satanism is really atheism with symbols and magic. I'm not, strictly speaking, a LaVeyan Satanist. It's where I started, but I'm not the type to be an atheist, and if I were, I wouldn't be a Satanist, because magic is integral to Satanism and Magic and the Supernatural are correlaries to my mind, without one you don't have the other. But, otherwise, my philosophy is mostly based on LaVey, and I respect him as pretty much the king of bullshitting. Usually LaVeyan Satanists simply use Satan and co. as symbols, and at most will see Satan as "prechristian force of nature" which for the longest time I thought meant actually meant an entity of some sort, but just now, having thought on the concept for the first time in a while, realize it's just using satan to name a generic force within nature (balance through opposition and survival of the fittest), much like the term entropy. LaVeyan do employ Black Masses, but as a form of psychodrama to strengthen and entertain the will, not as a devotional ritual. LaVeyan Satanists do not perform sacrifices because the act of taking a life from someone (who doesn't deserve to have their life taken, which pretty much covers people who attack the satanist with intent to kill) is anathema because it is a philosophy of Life and enjoying life, which makes sense because they don't believe in anything after this world. However, some are willing to use willing sacrifices, which would have to be humans, as it's tricky to consent from animals. And... well, there's nothing saying the knife you keep for self defense which you've used to drop a home intruder or two and the knife you use in rituals can't be the same... The main idea of LS is that all the various sins, or most of them, anyway, are part of animal nature, and to abstain from them is to reject what you are. It oppines that they were declared sins as a way of controlling the masses, which, well, they were. It teaches one to indulge in the sins, because to do so is gratifying. IT cautions against compulsion, because once you feel compelled to do something, it's not healthy indulgence anymore, and is in fact as harmful as repression. There's more to it. I mean, hell, there's a 272 page book in front of me as it's main treatise, plus four other books full of LaVey's writings regarding various topics within it, all quite good, actually, LaVey had a good grasp of the language and can write
very impressively, plus another by Peter Gilmore, the current High Priest and head of the church, whose writing and ritual design cannot hold a fucking candle to LaVey's.
Spiritual Satanism is the belief in some Satanic Entity. The Temple of Set uses the Egyptian god Set as their Satanic Entity. Usually there's some form of worship going on. I am a Spiritual Satanist in that I believe in the existence of a Satanic Entity, who even answers to the name Satan, but it's not necessarily the christian Satan, or even actually "a" Satan, just someone who's listening to people like me when they intone the name "Satan". Spiritual Satanists pretty much do what they think their personal form of SE wants them to do.
Diabolotry is a subform of Spiritual Satanism and is what you guys have called Antichristianity and Reverse Christianity. They're the guys who chant the lord's prayer backwards, defile religious artifacts as a form of devotion, etc, etc. LaVeyan Satanists might do these things, but more for fun or psychodrama to strengthen their rituals than as a show of devotion to Satan. Diabolotors are the most likely form of Satanists to do sacrifices and so forth. I don't know much about Diabolotors because they are all but an urban legend, to be honest.
Koumei wrote:Wait, what? You worship Satan? Didn't he, you know, lose? I'm all for picking a team and staying with them through thick and thin, but who starts cheering for the guy who just got knocked out?
First, I don't believe in the christian devil, per se, I believe, as I said above, to someone who answers to that name and has some power. Second, I don't worship him, just respect him.
shirak wrote:OK, Satanism 101. There are two kinds of Satanism. We'll call the black-robe baby-sacrificing one Antichristianity. LaVeyan Satanism is the other one. It's a "religion" where you are supposed to not do what Catholics are doing which sounds really stupid. But for all it's goods (and as a humanocentric philosophy of moderation it works about as well as Budhism) Satanism is all about having a club mentality and making fun of Christians. And while LaVey himself never went "nyah nyah" many of his proponents do. Like, daily.
LaVey took quite a few potshots at christianity, just in a place they're unlike to find them, his own book. They're not hidden, any christian can pick up the Satanic Bible and read them for themselves, but come on, how many are going to do that?
Yeah, a lot of Satanists these days have giant chips on their shoulders towards the church, and I'm beginning to understand why. I'm getting a lot of people saying "Oh Jesus has a plan for you!" and shit, and if the entity using that name keeps reaching out to me thinking I need a hand up, I'm going to start biting the fucking hands off.
Prak, my advice to you is to get the good stuff out of the Church and leave the rest as far away from you as possible. I have been really disillusioned with the Church lately. And remember that the proper Satanic response upon meeting God is to stage a coup.
yeah, way ahead of you there. I respect LaVey, since he gave the philosophy a name (it's always been there so he didn't found the philosophy, just the first official church for it)
Anyway, my personal cosmological view is animistic, a belief in a multitude of spirits, everything's got one (which has some interesting implications for some objects, such as dildo and vibrator spirits... I think of new spirits pretty much every time I talk about my view). Some of these spirits are more powerful than others, but I don't recognize one as being anymore powerful than all of the others, and they've all got their areas. I believe a spirit or several spirits answer to pretty much every name people have thrown out there throughout history, and will commonly refer to the spirit that answers the abrahamics as "the patriarch" (yes, I got the name from WWtA, so sue me). I prefer the darker spirits, they resonate with my psyche better and they've never told people they can't have sex. Or enjoy a good meal, and so on and so forth. I pride myself on my tendency to commit the seven deadly sins on a daily basis, and my having broken most of the commandments, all of them if you go by Catholic thinking on them. I work with the spirits, or try to, because it's the easiest way for my mind to work magic, it works for me, and it's incredibly versatile. Taking a walk through the city at night and getting cold? Well, the street lamps have fire/electricity/light spirits in and around them, coax 'em down and they'll warm you up. The sun a bit hot on your back? Coax some air spirits to give you a bit of breeze and some shade/shadow spirits to cut the glare a bit. I've even got what I suppose amount to a few familiar spirits.
I don't worship anyone, I respect various spirits, and one of the great things about my view? I can find spirits that will answer to the names "Gregory House" and "Spider Jerusalem." Most world views would smack you upside the head for intoning the names of fictional characters that weren't theirs.[/img]