| Satanism Satanic rules of behaviour include: - Prayer is useless; it distracts people from useful activity - Enjoy indulgence instead of abstinence. Practice with joy all the seven deadly Christian sins (greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony, lust and sloth) - If a man smites you on one cheek, smash him on the other . D Do onto others as they do onto you - Engage in sexual activity freely, in accordance with your needs (which may be best realized through monogamy, or by having sex with many others; through heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality; using sexual fetishes as you wish; by yourself or with one or more persons). Sexual activity must be between consenting adults. The ideal is a monogamous relationship based on compatibility and commitment. - Suicide is frowned upon. - The Satanist needs no elaborate, detailed list of rules of behaviour. Local groups of Satanists are called grottos; they correspond to Christian congregations and Wiccan covens. Numbers of religious Satanists are believed to be declining in North America. They appear to harbor contempt towards Wiccans; their attitude towards Christianity seems to be more of amusement and ridicule. They have incorporated some anti- Wiccan elements in their rituals; there are few or no elements which are opposed to Christianity or to other religions. Gothic Satanism -Its Origins Gothic Satanism was an invention of the Christian Church at the time of the Witch burnings. Christians believe that it existed then and was a great threat to the established order. Many Christians (particularly conservative ones) still believe this today. However, it is an imaginary that does not exist. Throughout the 15th Century, there was a rising hysteria within the Christian Church about the perceived presence of Satan worshipers, who were seen as a destabilizing influence. The Witch burnings (sometimes called the burning times or the female holocaust) began. Two Dominican priests, Kramer and Sprenger wrote a book circa 1486 The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer) which became the main reference text for the genocide. They wrote that these Gothic Satanists: - are mostly women because they are more impressionable, more perfidious, more carnal, more vengeful, and (intellectually) more like children than are men. God, being male, has mostly preserved men from heresy; - kill, bewitch and induce plagues in animals; stop cows from giving milk; - cause impotence, sterility, abortions and miscarriages; - ride at night on broomsticks to sexual orgies; - drink the blood of unbaptised infants and devour them, or convert them into soup, or bake them in an oven; their bones are made into ritual instruments; - offer their children to demons; - kill or place curses on people by simply looking at them, saying a phrase, causing lightning to strike them, by blowing in their face, pushing pins into a wax doll made in the image of the victim, etc; - beat, break, stab or step on a crucifix whenever they can. A second reference text was Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum, which was written about 1620. He described how Satan worshipers: - ride through the air on the back of a goat or a staff - anoint themselves with magical oil and fly on their own - anoint themselves with a cream or make a certain sign, and immediately vanish; - appear to change shape from human to animal and back; - can change people and animals from male to female and back; - swear homage and obedience to Satan, and had their bodies branded with his mark; - rejoice, dance, eat and drink in the presence of Satan who appears at these celebrations in the form of a hideous and deformed black goat; - suffocated, pierced and killed their own infants, cut off their extremities and cooked their trunks. The Inquisition tortured suspects until they were willing to confess to anything in order to end the pain. So, of course, there is abundant testimony available in the court records as evidence. The last European victim of the inquisition was burned at the stake in 1792, although the Church continued to exterminate heretics by burning, in South America into the 1830's. Near the end of the burning times, the concept of the Black Mass was added to the public's beliefs about Satanists. This was allegedly a parody on the Roman Catholic Mass. Urine or dirty water were substituted for wine; moldy bread or turnips were substituted for the host. The Mass was said in the local language (opposite to the Church's use of Latin). Texts were read backwards. The cross would be spat upon and broken. Infants would be sacrificed. Public beliefs about Gothic Satanism coalesced into a religion which was anti-Christian in every detail. |
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