The Satanic Bible

Following on from the last post, I came across ‘The Satanic Bible’ which was created by Anton LaVey in 1966 the founder of the Church of Satan, which started off as a group called Magic Circle. Today, however the ‘Church’ has various levels of membership and authority, this notion of authority and membership can yet again be comparable to institutionalised religions of today, which kind of defies the purpose of the so-called atheistic followers of the Church of Satan.

There is a website titled Church of Satan (how creative), dedicated to this particular sect of Devil worship.  I have come to find that the Church of Satan sect is the one that is most easily researched compared to other denominations.

On this website you can download applications to become an

 active member of the 'Church' of Satan. I was so tempted to join but you have to pay a registration fee of $200 and in return you get an embossed crimson card declaring you are a member (and before you ask, no it’s not made out of gold, not even plated with it). I’m not sure I’m quite ready to break the bank just yet to become a registered member of  the Church of Satan. There were also links which lead to forums where you could write letters to the devil, a bit like prayer requests forms on websites of Christian doctrine.

Satan Worship – The Satanic Bible

 Here are the foundation tenants laid out in this book:

1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence.
2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams.
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit.
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates.
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires.
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all fours, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development," has become the most vicious animal of all.
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years.

These tenants or ‘commandments’ as such confirm what I talked about in the last post about this atheistic form of Satanism being totally hedonistic.

Diabolatry

Hello readers, I am researching Devil worship and writing my third post. It is steadily getting dark outside as the day is reaching its close. Therefore I am effectively staring at the laptop screen in semi-darkness...and to top it off I am watching a clip on YouTube about Satanism. The clip starts with eerie music...then the clip just stops (with the resounding sound of the eerie drums in my ears) refusing to load up...OK that is enough to freak me out. Just thought I’d set the scene there.

Anyway enough of the ‘eerie-ness’. Carrying on with my search to finding out what Devil worship really is? I have found, like other religions such as Christianity and Islam, Devil worship also consists of different sects and denominations. A quote from All About The Occult website sums up quite well the varying beliefs throughout Satanism/Devil worship:  

“Beliefs of these Satanists vary; some accept Satan as a god, or as a demon. Some accept him as a father god, replacing the role of god with Satan and inverting the values of good and evil, light and dark. Some choose to believe that the Christian god does not exist and that Satan created the earth. Others believe that Satan was not the bringer of evil, but instead he was a bringer of enlightenment and knowledge."

Anton LeVay

The main Schools of devil worship are Theistic/Traditional Satanism otherwise known as Diabolatry (First century to present) and the Church of Satan (19^th century to present).
Both schools are distinctively different from one another. Diabolatry is the spiritual worship of the Christian Satan whereas the other is based on an atheistic view. The atheistic sect does not believe in God nor Satan but worships the notion of evil on its own merit, something which is disassociated from religion. In this school of Satanism hedonism is key. Ironically, one organisation of atheistic Satanism names itself; Church of Satan, a name which associates itself with being some form of religion.
When I came across the notion of two opposing views in devil worship, I instantly compared it with the Sunni and Shia sects in Islam. In the same way these two groups are seen as rivals, there is also a constant rift between both ‘schools’ of Satanism. Traditional Satanism arguing that LeVay the founder of the Church of Satan held the same views as them originally before turning to hedonism:
“As a Satanist he does believe in the God of the bible but he refused to worship him and made a conscious decision to worship Satan instead.” (sataniccults)

More information about different types of Devil worship or Satanism can be found on the website: The Description, Philosophies and Justification of Satanism. I shall leave you this time with a video of what can be be described as Modern or Philosophical Satanism which is all about ‘recognizing your sovereignty as an individual.’ The video at the same time criticizes the Church of Satan. I came across this Video on YouTube (it did work in the end) which attempts to explain Modern Satanism: A failed religion, by first talking about the ‘pecking order’ between hens. Yes you read that right, ‘hens’. Have a watch for yourself. I hope it does not confuse you too much.



What is Devil Worship?

To define the concept of devil worship I came across an informative website called Devil Worship, Your Friendly neighbourhood Devil Worshipper’s Site mapThroughout the website there are links to articles or as the website describes them as 'sermons' regarding topics that concern Devil Worship. The first sermon is titled What Devil Worship is. The author of this sermon focuses on who devil worshipers actually worship. He denies the basic assumption that many followers of others make (including myself also), that the devil is an fallen Angel. He goes on to claim that the Bible does not refer to the devil as a fallen Angel at all but rather as a dragon. He provides a quote from Revelation 12:9 : "The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." It is a clear from reading this introduction that devil worship is a way of expressing one's devotion to a cultural scapegoat that is reclaimed as a slandered divinity. The examples that are mentioned include Apep in Egypt, Loki in Northern Europe and Satan in Christianity. However if the particular devil being worshiped is Satan a more specific term is used. Instead of devil worship it is referred to as Theistic Satanism. Another website I came across is The Description, Philosophies and Justification of Satanism. This website had a very negative perspective on devil worship. arguing that those who choose to worship the devil are influenced by Christianity and are looking for a way to rebel. To carry out this rebellion they worship the devil rather then God in Christianity. It is clear that this website is biased and is attacking devil worship to justify its own form of satan worship. However the polemics of this website and the differences between devil worship and satanism is a discussion I am going to leave for another post. I am guilty myself for automatically associating the term devil worship to a group of people who worship satan, who is the evil entity mentioned in Christianity and Islam. The tern devil is not limites to a single evil entity such as satan but can be used differntly across various cultures. Although one thing is clear, the term devil whenever used in any culture refers to some sort of evil, be that a spirit or a human being. 

The Last Exorcism

Having a ‘phobia’ to watching horror films, it was with great persuasion from a friend and bravery on my part, that I went along to the cinema to watch the film ‘The Last Exorcism’ directed by Daniel Stamm. Before watching the film I first read the synopsis online which is as follows: 

The Reverend Cotton Marcus had performed more exorcisms than he could remember before he visited the Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer. That would be a day he wouldn't soon forget. The last person Lious Sweetzer ever thought he would invite to his farm was an exorcist. But his young daughter Nell had been acting so strange. He could think of no other explanation for her behaviour than possession by demons. But many long years of attending to those with questionable spiritual infestations has left Cotton a broken man. The faith he once proudly held up as a shield against evil had deserted him long ago.
This day has brought Reverend Marcus to the Sweetzers farm where he plans to film a documentary of what he hopes to be his final exorcism. All of his past experience could not begin to prepare him for the terror that lay within. But upon arriving at the already blood drenched family farm, it was soon clear that nothing could have prepared him for the true evil he would encounter there. The Reverend must call upon a near-empty well of faith to protect Nell, his film crew and ultimately himself.

I also watched this trailer (brace yourself) :

 

Soon as I had agreed to watch the film (after much convincing) and until the beginning of the film I was having a constant battle in my mind to back out at the last minute. The way I was going on any one would think it was a life and death dilemma. Anyone who has seen the film can imagine my disappointment when I finished watching the film. I was laughing throughout the so called disturbing scenes. The film could have redeemed itself from being a ‘don’t watch’ to a 3 star rating if the ending was not so terrible.  What I really should have read is reviews on posted on film shaft and on den of geek,  they just about sum up what I felt about the film myself.

Readers, you must be thinking why am I giving you an account of my opinion of a horror film? The reason being that at the end of the film (Spoiler Alert!) there is an apparent devil occult invocating the devil but the whole issue is left ambiguous and vague with an abrupt ending. Without the viewer getting the full picture of what is actually happening and what the occult is trying to do. Are they worshiping the devil? Is the baby which is delivered the devil? Is it the fire they are calling upon? Instead of the scary chills I was supposed to get, I left the cinema with a head full of these questions and more. Thus leading to my interest to research into the topic of Devil Worship. I am hoping that by scouring the internet and recording what I come across in this blog, it will help clarify what the misconceptions of Devil Worship are and what Devil Worship actually is.