Your personal religion does not represent all truths under this label. There are different forms of satanism or worship of Lucifer, etc. The Church of Satan is a seperate branch, founded by Levay, a freak. Your thread title is misleading. You should have titled it "Join Church of Satan".

You haven't dispelled any myths for me, sorry to dissapoint you. The witch burning excuse is getting really old, as are the remaining excuses you try to use as reasons why you've been given a bad name and are always having to cry "we're misunderstood".

I don't need to join a satanist group to learn how to fend off psychic vampires. Secondly, on that note: sure there are ungrateful people, always asking, never giving, but perhaps they give you something else you fail to recognize? Because you're taught to disregard it.

You forgot one thing: Satan attempts to deceive with lies and illusions and preys upon the weak.


"VIII Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!"


Just go around and do whatever your heart desires, when you are misled there is no judgement after death.
What will you do when you were wrong?
Eternity is a very, very long time.

As an agnostic who feels a sort of draw to spirituality, there are many things about satanism that I agree with.

The problem Satantism is that it seems to obnoxious. The main website does not need to have people in animal masks and the like. I realize that one of the interest points to many is the false idea that it is based on judeo-christian entities but as a student who hopes to become a professor and or professional today, telling people your a satanist is nothing but trouble.

I just remembered one oof the funniest things I learned at christian grade school!

My sixth grade teacher who was a devot and superbly ignorant christian would tell us satanist "horror" stories of people selling their soul to the devil.

The sad part was he reinfirmed the idea in all of us that if you sold your soul to the devil anything you asked for would come true but he would take your life as compensation!!!

As I always questioned religion, telling me that the devil had actual physical power while i was lefy wondering what the hell god has ever done should have been extrememly embarrassing to him!

Originally posted by Zenskeptical
As an agnostic who feels a sort of draw to spirituality, there are many things about satanism that I agree with.

The problem Satantism is that it seems to obnoxious. The main website does not need to have people in animal masks and the like. I realize that one of the interest points to many is the false idea that it is based on judeo-christian entities but as a student who hopes to become a professor and or professional today, telling people your a satanist is nothing but trouble.

I understand what you're saying when you say it seems obnoxious. I actually felt the same way when I was first introduced to it. However, it was only that I didn't understand the nature of LaVey and the early days of the Church.

To put it bluntly, those pictures of LaVey in capes and people in animal head masks aren't real. They're really just for fun and theatrics. Much of LaVeyan Satanism still holds dear the old carnival world and the mystique of the circus. Organ music was common in the early days but shared equal time with calliope music ( a calliope was essentially a smaller organ and was used in circuses and the like, you've heard one before)

When you look at it with the mentality that these people are serious black magic practitioners who think these animal masks will give them power it does seem silly because it's an incorrect assumption.

Satanism is very concerned with Aesthetics or basically the look and image of something. Image is very important in many aspects of Satanism, it is why there are black robes, naked women, daggers and pentagrams in many of the photos and ceremonies.

If this were the 1920s the Church of Satan might have used a carnie barker shouting "Hurry hurry hurry!! Come see the devil himself!! Live and in person!! Just a nickel! Hurry hurry hurry!!!" and I'm sure that inside the tent would've been some horrid creation made of pieced together animal carcasses with a person sticking their head through a tarp to make the thing look alive. It would've been lit with lanterns painted red and featured creepy organ music. The audience would've stood there, slack jawed and horrified and gladly have paid another nickle next week.

Personally, this is one of my favorite aspects to Satanism as I have always loved the circus, I've even known a few performers, one of whom taught me to juggle. I spent every New Years Eve for a long time at the circus, drinking champagne with the performers under the big top.

Just a quick note, I'm going to be away for the weekend and may not be able to respond as quickly or as thoroughly as I have been. I only ask that you please be respectful to the topic and purpose of this thread and please try not to fill it with posts denouncing Satanism or LaVey while I'm on vacation.

Thanks guys

I, for one, want to commend the OP for posting factual information about this subject that is not ridden with editorial hyberbole. I find it ironic that some posters are pointing to a handful of crimes committed by people who claim satanic influence and then using those examples to generalize an entire segment of the population. How many people have killed in the name of the Hebrew God? Does that mean that Christians are inherently horrible people?

Of course not. Generalizations based upon isolated events is always a poor choice and reflects a lack of thinking.

From childhood until I was twenty years old I lived in the Bay Area of California (Fremont) was highly exposed to the works of AZL. I owned copies of the Satanic Bible and the Satanic Rituals.

It is mind numbing to me that so many people have so many misconceptions about this practice which, at its very core, is completely about living life to the fullest and NOT harming others, unless they seek to cause you harm. I have known many Satanists over the course of my life and, to be frank, they were much more laid back and considerate people than most I have encountered.

The nonsense about ritual murder, human baby-fat candles, and ritual sex abuse is just that. Nonsense. Ghost stories and urban legends. Nothing more.

I should point out that my own spiritual growth led me away from Satanism years ago. But I never did get over my surpise about how misunderstood the actual practice is.

Starred and flagged!

my beef with Satanism:

the rule says, "do not kill NON HUMAN animals unless in self defense or for food". this means they think it is okay to kill another human for whatever reason deemed worthy. that is sick and a total disregard for the value of human life.

it's all a big game anyway, i mean look at them ... the one guy doesnt get along with the other guy at the evil church of Zetan, so he parts ways and makes the .. TEMPLE OF SET! based on some old egyptian crap.. that way he gets to revamp the rules on the super diety! are you getting it yet?

Satanism is a hollow "religion". They have no surviving ancient texts from BIBLICAL times .. so its make up whatever you want, throw some aleister crowley in there, maybe some h.p. lovecraft, and add a necronomicon, blend at high for 30 seconds, and you've got it.

I will start off by saying that I am friends with several members of the Church of Satan and I proudly admit these people are a very respectable group who adhere to the information as posted in the OP. Even my wife, many years ago, was a member of the CoS.

However, like any broad-based religion, there are groups who call themselves Satanists who do not fit into the neat little category as presented. Many of those groups have already been mentioned in this thread. And just because they do not fit into the LaVey ideas of Satanism, does that mean they not Satanists? Because if you say they aren't, then a sense of elitism on the concept of Satanism creeps up.

Take the snake-handler churches within Christianity. Many will consider them extremists of the religion. But if you ask them, they will proudly claim they are Christians. Roman Catholics and Baptists both claim to be Christians but they are worlds apart. (I only make this comparison within Christianity because it is easy for people to understand.)

The same holds true with groups within Satanism. Just because they take the foundation and reassess it to their own interpretation, does this make them less Satanist. Less LaVey Satanist, sure... but the Lavey path is not the end all to be all of Satanism.

And while it is easy to say these other groups are just fakers or posers or not true believers in Satanism, that would be the same as Baptists saying Roman Catholics aren't christians because they were't "saved" according to their beliefs.

Sorry, but LaVey did not write the book on Satanism. He wrote his perspective on it (and most was either while high or drunk). This is what is widely followed today by many. But not all. If Satanism, as stated, predates LaVey, then the foundations are not necessarily the current beliefs within the Church of Satan. The CoS is then just an interpretation of an older belief system - and as a mere interpretation, it does not necessarily make it correct.

Who then could claim the right to the name of a Satanist, one who follows the books and teachings of LaVey or those who follow a different path, perhaps one established millenia ago? Or do all qualify? You can either stand as an elitist and say your beliefs are the only beliefs OR you can accept that there are other groups that adhere to another Satanist belief system.

This is not bashing the Church of Satan, but there ARE many different groups that consider and call themselves Satanists. And many of these groups are, unfortunately, the evils the media and those stories make them out to be.

I know Satanism to a fair degree... and it is easy to paint a rosy picture of what they stand for. But not all churches and groups and individuals are like that. Yes, the Church of Satan is a respectable organization. But if one claims that Satanism is ONLY LaVey Satanism, then I'm sorry, I cannot agree.

MM