Satan Statue to be unveiled in Detroit

originally posted by: ForteanOrg
a reply to: zbeliever

The statue is not the statue of 'the devil' - it is a statue of the sabbatical goat as depicted by Eliphas Levi in 1856. That sabbatical goat represents the binary unity of all things: female and male, dissolve and create, animal and man, the sun and the moon. From it's lap we see the symbol of knowledge: two snakes curled around the tree of life. And that tree of life is put where it is intentionally: it can also be seen as the male organ, giving life. The two snakes might be seen as the two faces of knowledge: the snake itself is the ultimate duality in one: it's venom can both kill and cure. And what of the two it does is determined by man, the only measure of good and evil.

This 'goat' is just an icon, used by "magicians" to discuss various concepts. Levi's definition of a magician is very close to how I see it. According to Levi a magician "looks on the wicked as invalids whom one must pity and cure; the world, with its errors and vices, is to him God's hospital, and he wishes to serve in it." Note that this requires the magician to be aware of good and evil, of what actually IS wicked. This knowledge is partially born into man, partially taught, and symbols like the 'goat' merely serve to help with that.

This statue is simply that: a statue. It serves as an icon, but is not to be worshipped, as it is stupid to worship a statue (which you can read in the Bible too). Such images and statues are useful though, like the statues of angels, Mary, the Saints or Jesus hanging from the cross (not a pretty sight either). Stuatues are not to be worshipped, they are merely put in place so the people are reminded (by themselves or their ancestors) to discuss good and evil and to teach them that it is not God who defines good and evil - it is man.

The sabbatical goat itself has no name.

It is often referred to as being named Baphomet. This likely stems from medieval times. Baphomet is most likely just a misprononciation of Mahomet = Muhammad. Crusaders, returning from a longer stay in the Middle East had adopted various teachings of Muhammad and had included them into Christendom.

The most powerful of these crusaders were the Knights Templar, whom became very powerful - so powerful they were seen as a (political!) threat. The weird stories circulating around the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust. King Philip IV of France took advantage of these rumours for his own good (he had huge debts with the Templars) and in 1307 (on a Friday - hence the popular belief that Friday the 13th brings bad luck) many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured, subsequently they confessed and were burned at the stake. King Philip pressured Pope Clement V to dissolve the Order in 1312. The rumours of these weird knights that believed in the teachings of "Baphomet" remained and were picked up by nineteenth and twentieth century magicians and hippies. The rest is just pop-culture.

So, you need not worry. Baphomet is not a deity. He is not 'worshipped' - most certainly not by the people that erected this particular statue. Actually, if it were a public statue, I'd advise you to visit it, and use it to discuss Evil and Good with your children, family and/or friends. For example: abortions are often seen as evil by Christians - but are they? Why do we think this, and is this indeed true? Always? Is killing animals to devour them - Good? Is killing people - Good or Evil, why? Is it a Good or Evil thing to give a new kidney to a mass murderer, because it was randomly determined he should get that kidney and not your loving and caring father?

A statue - be it a cross with a dead man hanging from it or "Baphomet" - is just that. It is what happens inside your head and how that influences your behaviour and that of others what matters.

May your day be filled with joy.

Exactly.
Apparently no one who's posted after you (well, one or two maybe) have bothered to read this so here it is again, as it really needed to be said, and you said it well.

originally posted by: buster2010
Well we do have freedom of religion in this country. Would the op prefer we have a nation that is ruled by just one religion and everyone that didn't follow that religion would be treated like second class citizens with no rights?

Of course they would !!

It is the basic reason and core of all of them whether they want to admit it or not !!

And pretty much everything else too!

originally posted by: TheLegend
a reply to: zazzafrazz

Symbols have great power and effect over people, in particular their collective conscious or groupthink.

It would be the same if it were a statue of yarn, or a cat's tail. It does not matter what the symbol is or if it's even religious. What matters is what it represents. This "Satan" idol represents evil and perversion/destruction of mankind and innocence.

The fact people worship this symbol, and how naive hipsters sit on a high horse to defend it (literally condoning their own demise and perversion of the soul), is what is so repulsive here. But let's be cool and throw up pure symbols of perversion and destruction everywhere. Missing babies/pets will skyrocket as blood sacrifices to gain "magical powers" from an idol takes hold in the masses of depressed and misguided hipster youths. Vandalizing and harassing will be considered cool, or fair game, due to "unfairness" etc.

You enjoy that neighborhood. Think I'll stick with the Christian one.

-Nonreligious guy

Eliphas Levi's Sabbatic Goat The Goat of Mendes aka the God Baphomet, which is who the statue is, isn't worshiped by LaVeyan Atheist Satanists(as to who the church behind this statue's revealing is) nor even Theistic Satanists.
Satanists do not worship the Gods but speak to them.

Missing babies/pets will skyrocket as blood sacrifices to gain "magical powers" from an idol takes hold in the masses of depressed and misguided hipster youths. No, because that isn't what is subscribed to.

Of the Eleven Satanic Rules:

Do not harm little children.

Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

What you're referring to is the extremists few, "hipsters", that exists throughout using a religion or ideology to justify harm.

But hey wouldn't a religious or even a non religious atheist want to know what this is really about?

a reply to: zbeliever

Satanists may be the dumbest people

Satan always turns against his friends, you would think Satanists understood that little fact

a reply to: justQ

If you understood the actual facts you would know they do not believe in Satan or God...

Its just a statue. Evil dwells in peoples hearts, not in stone.

the devil is in the details noted m.youtube.com... one hand to god another to the devil? and ש 3:39 and ◉ 3:14 . 90%+ of participants in the flash mob not in the subject . Now go through by the statue, it represents one chosen (by whom?) ambisexual people who should rule the world and other nations must either submit or die

Meh, "satanism" is little more than an X-Rated version of dungeons and dragons meets a weekly Ayn Rand book club. The real devil hangs out on Wall street where testimony is sworn on a solid gold copy of Atlas Shrugged and Billy Graham pulls the Bible Belt to worship the cult of Ronald Reagan's deregulated markets.

originally posted by: KAOStheoryExactly. Apparently no one who's posted after you (well, one or two maybe) have bothered to read this so here it is again, as it really needed to be said, and you said it well.

Thank you for your kind words. I can fully appreciate that most people that visit these forums do not read more than just a few lines of any posting - let alone a long posting. I am happy you - at least - did and am honoured by your comments.

I hope I haven't failed my intention to comfort the OP. She seemed to be genuinely worried, but there is no need.

originally posted by: justQ
a reply to: zbeliever

Satanists may be the dumbest people

Satan always turns against his friends, you would think Satanists understood that little fact

That's exactly the point, my friend. They do.

a reply to: ForteanOrg

It did not go unnoticed, but sadly those who would read it are the ones who already do not fear it.

Without wishing to sound stone-hearted, but i fear that certain people choose to fear.

The Swastika has represented good fortune for thousands of years.
Get a tattoo of one or make an alter to one, and see what happens. Or, when you see one tattooed on some white man, what comes to mind first?

This is the difference between idealism and realism that you don't grasp. And you assume that just because I have a preference for one religion's following over another, that I would somehow oppose the First Amendment. Just more typical naive hipster mentality on both accounts.

Satan, in our culture and even whole of civilization, represents evil, perversion, destruction. Even if in reality it's not the case - such as with the Swastika.

Indeed, I would choose to live in a Christian neighborhood over a Satanist one, even though the former is nonsense and the latter is supposedly just a philosophy for atheists. I'm an atheist and don't call myself a Satanist, nor see any need to join a "religion" that has the namesake of a -spiritual- figure who is (culturally) associated with evil. That's not even something a true Atheist would consider doing. Instead it will attract and cultivate the equivalent of skinheads upon its church steps. Young people like the gothic thugs at pro-abortion rallies chanting "hail Satan", or "kill the babies" with glee (this I've seen firsthand and there's videos on it).

And I accept all religions that want to set up in this country, but I don't have to like them, condone them, or be around them. Problem?

a reply to: ForteanOrg

I have read your post....It is well written . I understand you, and what seems to be the majority that has posted ,want to point out the fact that they don't worship this Idol. Well this may be true.

I really want to get my message across that we are living in the time I was brought up to believe is the end of times....

Ask me if I have went to church in years.......No
Ask me if I broke any commandments ...........Yes
Ask me if I judge others for their believes......No
Ask me if I feel it is the time of Tribulations....YES

Maybe this unveiling will have this effect on more people and we will change our ways for the better.
I understand by posting my true feels I am waking up the trolls on this site....let the ridicule begin

a reply to: TheLegend

I enjoyed your post.....I feel you hit the nail on the head.

a reply to: TheLegend

Good thing for you, and all "Christians," that there is no such thing as a "Satanist Neighborhood."
Please do correct me if I'm wrong, with a Google map for "Satanists" so they know where to move to, in order to avoid "Christians."
ETA same dogma different name. Satan is a Christian thing. You must be a Christian to be a Satanist.
Womp - to - the - womp and then some.
Also, Lucifer is not Satan.
Rosicrucian Robert Fludd, who translated the King James version, used that name to describe an actual person, and you lot mixed it up in a REALLY bad way. Womps again.
Lol. I'm not sorry for the bad news, I am sorry that you take truth as such.

I think depictions of a bloodied, tortured hippy nailed through his hands and feet to a medieval torture device, "seems wrong". But, that could just be me...

a reply to: AlexJowls

Yeah they should have gone with buddy christ.

originally posted by: zbeliever
a reply to: ForteanOrg

I have read your post....It is well written .

Thank you.

understand you, and what seems to be the majority that has posted ,want to point out the fact that they don't worship this Idol. Well this may be true.

It is what you, the observer, make of it. If you insist it's an idol that somehow represents evil, it will be - for you at least.

I really want to get my message across that we are living in the time I was brought up to believe is the end of times....

It's a built-in mechanism, people of all times thought they were living in the end times. Some of them even ended their lives to prevent themselves from falling into the hands of the Devil. If you frequent this site, you will find that more recent and near dates are suggested here on which the end of the world is supposed - or was supposed - to happen. Nothing happened.

You said it well: you were brought up to believe this.

I think you are merely sifting through all the information you have and selectively keep the information that suits your theory. In that process you also became afraid. You are worried, you seem to suffer from this. You are, in fact, punishing yourself - and you are free to do this, as long as you realize that you only suffer because of what you believe. It's not because God, the Devil or good old Eliphas Levy - just a man - have anything to do with it, it's all inside you.

Ask me if I have went to church in years.......No

A while ago I worked for a Christian organisation and of course we all had lunch together. Before meals my temporary collegues would pray. I don' t pray - but I was brought up properly, so I decently stared at my knee caps and waited for them to be done. This went on for a few days - I could feel they were looking at me and wondered why I did not pray. Finally one of them approached me and asked me. He almost did not dare to look at me because the good soul thought he might insult me, but his curiosity got the better of him. So, I told him. And my answer had such an impact on him that he recalled it vividly many years later.

"Sir, I don't pray because I am always on-line".

Anybody, everywhere, has that on-line connection. You don't need to go to church (though it's fine if you do, of course). You don't need to be of a particular faith. If you were born and left behind in the jungle, picked up and raised by wolves - you'd not be praying, not be going to church, not singing hymns. But you'd know God and be - to speak in Christian terms - one of his children nevertheless.

Ask me if I broke any commandments ...........Yes

Than know that if you feel that you should not have done so, you are forgiven. And know that if you feel that you were right in breaking those commandments - you are forgiven. God does not punish anybody - not even his greatest creation, Lucifer, let alone us, mortal humans.

Ask me if I judge others for their believes......No

Then please don't judge the ones that took a rather meaningless symbol from a 19th century book about magic and mistook it for Satan for their believes. They are, like you may be, misguided at best, provocative at worst - but since we just as well might be misguided and sometimes may tend to provoke, we should leave it at that. Let it be.

Ask me if I feel it is the time of Tribulations....YES

I don't think there is such a time nor will there ever be one. If the experience is important to you somehow you can have it at any time. If it experience is not important to you you will never have it. It's literally all in the mind.

Maybe this unveiling will have this effect on more people and we will change our ways for the better.
I understand by posting my true feels I am waking up the trolls on this site....let the ridicule begin

I haven't seen much ridiculisation going on, actually. But even if that happens - consider what Eliphas Levi said: that you are a magician and have been employed by God to serve in his hospital. The evil and cruel are to be pitied and taken care of. So, your answer should always be based on love for the other. Or, to plagiarize an old 1960s hit: use sympathy - if there is not enough love to get around.

May your day be filled with joy.

originally posted by: justQ
a reply to: zbeliever


Satan always turns against his friends, you would think Satanists understood that little fact

Well, it's funny you mention that since god himself hasn't really proven himself to be such a stand-up guy or above lying or dishonest conduct. Straight after giving Moses the first set of Ten Commandments (which included "Thou shalt not kill"), he let Moses go ahead and order the Levites to go on a mass-murdering rampages.

According to 2 Thessolonians 2:11-12, God will send a strong illusion to people so that they will believe lies, so he can condemn everyone to Hell. Again, this isn't really a god you can count on, is it?

a reply to: ForteanOrg

Your knowledgeable and I find you are wise. I have read "The Secret" actually 3x's. So your concepts are not foreign to me. I am not afraid....I realize that how I approach this seems alarmist. I was taught that in the end of days we will not be able to tell the women from the men. That the majority would serve Satan. That we will not be able to tell the seasons...(Global Warming).....I wanted to make a point that I am not a radical Christian. I am a believer that is unfortunately jaded by the organized religion. Which by the way was also a teaching from my younger years. That Churches would be exposed for who they really are.