Satanism as a religion has been very misunderstood for some time. This article will hopefully give you a better picture of what satanism is all about.

Satanism as an organised religion is fairly new, and the Church of Satan was founded by Anton Szandor Lavey on April 30th, 1966.
The Church of Satan was a new approach to the idea of Satan, they viewed him not as a devil, the embodiment of evil, but a representative figure of the carnal and natural desires felt by all living beings, a "dark force in nature". The name of Satan was used, as being the church's natural enemy, he is a perfect representation for all of the things the christian church views as "sin".

Satanists do not follow many of the stereotypes attributed to them by the media. We do not in most cases follow a reversal of christian concepts, in fact our religion in different forms was practiced long before christianity. It has many links with paganism, it has only been considered evil since christianity was created and spread across the world. As christianity disagrees with many of the principles in other religions, they are labelled as evil.

Satanists also do not make animal or child sacrifices, drink blood, or any other of the violent and disturbing images that appear in films or fiction. We believe that since there is no afterlife, that life is sacred, and we revere children and animals because they live according to their own natural desires, rather than being held back by guilt-ridden moral systems, as adults often are. Anton Lavey points out in the Satanic Bible that killing anything for the sake of ritual serves no purpose.

A good way to introduce and summarise satanism is to look at the "Nine Satanic Statements" written by Lavey in his book The Satanic Bible.

1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
Satanism teaches that instead of being ashamed of our natural desires and suppressing our will to do "sinful" things, we should indulge in them to the full, as all of them lead to physical, emotional or mental gratification. However, this does not include acts like murder, rape, or other acts of violence against other people, as satanism believes strongly in justice, and that you should never attack another person when unprovoked.

2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
We believe that there is no heaven, no hell, no life other than this. therefore we live in the here and now, we do not deny ourselves pleasure in order to get to a "better place" as we know there is none. We make the most of our lives and live them to the fullest, because we have only one chance at life.

3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
Satanism realises the full reality of the world, and that there are some truths that we as humans find unpleasant. There is no afterlife, we are all by nature selfish and carnal beings, there is no supreme power looking out for us. We believe acceptance of the truth and dealing with that truth is better than deluding yourself by supporting a religion just to make yourself feel better.
Self-deceit is when you lie about something and believe it yourself. Satanism teaches that honesty with ioneself is the only way to come to terms with one's problems and weaknesses and solve them accordingly.

4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
Satanism believes love should onl;y be given to those that deserve it, rather than the idea of loving everyone presented by many religions. Our reasoning is that if you love everyone, you devalue your love and destroy your ability to be a good judge of character. You only love your wife as much as the enemy who wants you dead.
Since satanists admit their capacity for love and hatred, we are often seen as hateful. This is not so, by expressing our hatred towards our enemies, we are far more capable of love, the truest and strongest form of love, towards those that we care for.

5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
As natural beings, our strongest desire is, or should be, for self-preservation. Satanism believes that if someone attacks you in any form, and you forgive them, or "turn the other cheek", you only make yourself vulnerable to more attack, and will be destroyed. Therefore we believe that any attack should be met with justified revenge. The law of natural selection shows us that only the strong survive and are succesful. Those who submit are destroyed and forgotten.

6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!
"Psychic vampires" are defined as those who make others feel responsible toward them, without reason. they will often use some vulnerability or condition to evoke sympathy, and those who feel they have "moral obligations" to those less fortunate than themselves will be drawn, through guilt, into helping them out at their own expense.
As an example;
In a satanic society, the laws of natural selection would be observed, and much of the behaviour of those who use sympathy and guilt to get support or money would be stopped. If only the strong survive, then people should onl;y get what they earn, and not make others feel as if they have a moral duty to hand over their hard-earned money. At the moment, in many places of the world, there are problems because of those who feel that because they "need" something, that they have a right to it. They feel that those who work hard and earn money should give money to those who have no money, usually through their own mistakes and bad judgement. Why? Why should one man's need be another's obligation? If we continue to support those who will not support themselves, we disrupt the natural balance of nature, and as we destroy the purpose of natural selection, our species gradually gets weaker, as those who would have perished through weakness are allowed to carry on at our expense and drain our society.

7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!
We see that mankind is just as much a part of nature as any other animal. Many religions will tell us that we are above animals, that we should not have the same desires as them. We recognise that all living beings have the same carnal nature, and we should not be ashamed of the instincts and desires we have.

8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
As mentioned in the section about indulgence, we do not view the traditional "seven deadly sins" of the christian church as wrong. We believe they are all part of mankind's natural desire, and should be indulged in to live life to the fullest. This does not mean that we indulge to such an extent that we damage ourselves. For example, if you over-indulge in gluttony, you become unhealthy and limit your capacity for enjoyment. Also, in endangering your health, you go against the most imoportant principle of self-preservation.

9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!
It is often assumed that we base our philosophy on christian concepts. In fact, the reverse could often be said to be true. Our religion, being based on the true nature of mankind, needs no enemy to fight against, and its same beliefs have been practiced for millions of years in different religions and cultures. When a new system takes over, the heros of the past become villains, and this is what has happened with religion. The old systems that practised these same beliefs have become evil, and their gods have become devils, to those who agree with the christian viewpoint.
Humans will always naturally go back to their strongest desires.
The church has always attributed horrifying and foul acts to satan and those who use his name. They hope by exaggerating the forces of nature and caricaturing them that they can create a suitable fear of anything that goes against their religion. Their religion only exists because there are those who have been convinced that our natural state is imperfect, sinful, evil. They believe we must fight against our natural desires, and because the idea of doing so goes against our normal tendencies, they must invent a justification in the form of the devil.

The simple fact is that without their "satanic foe" christianity would be nothing, while satanism can exist completely independently of the christian church.

Well, that was quite a long introduction, but hopefully from looking at the main statements you can get a basic idea, and then read the paragraphs underneath each for more details.
If you are interested in reading more about satanism, the best thing would be to buy The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey, which is inexpensive and available from Amazon if you can't find it in bookshops near you. Alternatively you can visit the Church of Satan Website

I hope the people reading this now have a better basic understanding of satanism. Any further questions about this article can be directed to the author by clicking on the link below

Hydra

Written by Hydra for Paganus
"The Nine Satanic Statements" are the intellectual property of the Church of Satan.