Satanism revealed
One Cold night in November, in the year 1991 about five hundred people turned out in the small town of Rupert, Idaho to attend a prayer vigil for babies ritually tortured and killed by Satanic cults. People came from many different regions to be a part of this event. Rumors had it that a local satanic cult had killed these babies in a ritual sacrifice. This is just one of the many stories being circulated to assert the existence of a secret organization of criminals who worship Satan and who are engaged in the pornography business, forced prostitution and drug dealing. These criminals also engage in sexual abuse and torture of children in an effort to brainwash them into become Devil worshippers. None of these claims are supported by reliable evidence. They are baseless and misleading. They merely seek to exploit fears, because as the founder of the church of Satan, Anton levay said, people fear the unknown. However the claims themselves are important in the sense that they are symptoms of serious problems in almost all societies, namely the affect media has on people.
So what is Satanism? “LaVeyan Satanism was founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey. Its teachings are based on individualism, self-indulgence, and “eye for an eye” morality, drawing influences from the rituals and ceremonies of occultist Aleister Crowley, and the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand. Employing Crowley’s terminology, its adherents define Satanism as a “Left-Hand Path” religion and philosophy, rejecting traditional “Right-Hand Path” religions for their perceived denial of life and emphasis on guilt and abstinence“. (Wikipedia)
In The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey describes Satan as a motivating and balancing dark force in nature. Satan is also described as being the “Black Flame”, representing a person’s own inner personality and desires.
| “ | Satanists do not believe in the supernatural, in neither God nor the Devil. To the Satanist, he is his own God. Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will. | ” |
Satan is said to appear in mythology and literature around the world as a trickster, rebel, and Figure seeking the destruction or slavery of man. Figures such as the Greek Prometheus are said to perfectly exemplify the qualities of Satan, the prideful rebel. Satan is seen as the powerful individual who acts regardless of what others might say. Also, the word satan is derived from the Hebrew for “adversary”. Satanists claim to be adversaries of mainstream behavior which they define as “herd conformity“, seeing it as stifling to individuality, creativity, and progress.(Wikepedia)
How many of you thought that Satanism was in fact the worship of the devil?
In the 1970s newspaper reports began to appear referring to groups labeled by the police and mentalist clergy as ‘satanic cults’ or devil worshippers. For instance, around that time several cattlemen in Western States began to report finding some of their cattle dead and mutilated. The soft parts of the cattle had been supposedly cut off by what appeared to be a very sharp instrument like a razor. The blood of these animals was drained out. Like a ripple, similar reports suddenly appeared all over the Mid-West. These reports were increasingly made public in newspapers and rumors began to speculate that satanic cults were responsible for these bizarre events.
The Satanic cult legend exists because it has provided an easily available explanation for disturbing phenomena’s. The label ‘satanic cult’ is so vague that it can flexibly be applied to many entirely different types of social deviants: child molesters, violent teenage gangs, psychopathic murderers, and even harmless practitioners on unconventional religions.
The stereotypical image of a ‘satanic cult’ gradually began to emerge in the 1970s out of the rhetoric used to attack disturbing new religious groups. This dramatic imagery has a great mass media appeal. Satanic cult stories were able to find a channel to a national audience when they appeared in newspapers as possible explanations for troubling happenings. Even T.V. talk shows exploited the Satanic cult scare to increase their ratings by targeting worried mothers and paranoid children. Many print journalists attracted readership with sensationalized reports about the danger of Satanism among teenagers.
But how did a bunch of rumors become what is now known as the Satanic legend?
First, isolated rumors need to find a channel to reach a broad, mass audience. In other words they must become ‘marketable’. Second, it is necessary for some kind of carrier group to take up the allegations as a cause and disseminate them relentlessly in an attempt to plant seeds of fear in people’s minds. Finally, it is necessary for some kinds of authoritative figures to legitimize the rumors by publically endorsing them as being true.
In the Satanic bible there are the eleven Satanic statements that basically sum up what a Satanist is, they are:
As a Satanist, I do NOT… Kill Animals for torture or ritual.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… Kill Humans for torture or ritual.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… worship a christian myth named SATAN.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… hate christianity, I simply ignore it and live my own life.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… do drugs, I do drink socially and nothing more.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… rape women, I have a healthy and consensual sex life..
As a Satanist, I do NOT… hate life in general, I am very happy and love life.
As a Satanist, I do NOT… hold anyone or anything higher than myself.
As a Satanist, I DO … Love Animals, I have a few of my own.
As a Satanist, I DO … support the death penalty, and oppose crime.
As a Satanist, I DO … hate ignorance, it’s simply unacceptable.
As a Satanist, I DO … work, own my own car, pay bills and taxes.
As a Satanist, I DO … love my friends and family, no one else.
As a Satanist, I DO … respect my elders, they’ve taught me much.
As a Satanist, I DO … believe in Religious Tolerance, it’s your right
As you now can see, Satanism are not what they media makes it out to be, it is just a way of life, a peaceful one even. Remember the cattle story I told you about before? Well, scientific studies came to the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of these incidents were due to purely natural causes. According to these studies, the cattle died from diseases, poison plants, rattle snakes and other ordinary hazards. Then their soft parts were eaten by small predators.. Statistical studies revealed that there had been no actual increase over the normal rate of cattle deaths in the areas. Veterinarians testified that the blood of the cattle only appeared to have been drained away because it had coagulated in the animal after its death. The media chose to ignore these findings and continued to cultivate fear in people’s hearts.
Note: Many of my sources are from the book, “Satanic Panic: the creation of a contemporary legend” by Jeffery Victor. A great read I recommend to everyone.
daliahalabi 