Radical worldviews, belief systems, and lifestyles reject modern society with the vehemence of adolescence. With the swagger of a bratty teenager, leaders shamelessly deny the physical matter around them, adopting fundamentally disprovable ideas that delineate to their own salvation.
I imagine someone breaking down a cardboard box. Imagine ripping the sides out, but stopping after one flap of cardboard. The box remains intact, and takes up more space than you can afford.
This is how many religious belief systems treat reality. They’re impatient. The world doesn’t morph to their understanding of it. They don’t address the discrepancies.
But then there’s satanism—which also does all of those things BUT it does so in its own belicose way.
In many ways, Satanism embodies theological Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Rather than rejecting the principals of the Christian God, Satanism skirts the religious boundary between tangible belief and lifestyle aesthetic.
As listed on their website, here are the nine satanic principles:
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, who, 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!
It’s interesting to note that #9 concerns itself directly with the idea of opposition, admitting its own reliance on Christian theology. Regardless, let’s break down these statements…
Stan represents:
Indulgence
Vital existence
Undefiled wisdom
Kindness to those who deserve it
Vengeance
Responsibility to the responsible
Man as just another animal
So-called “sins” (we could repeat indulgence here–emotional and physical gratification).
Satan does NOT represent:
Abstinence
Spiritual pipe dreams
Hypocritical self-deceit
Love wasted on ingrates
Turning the other cheek
Concern for psychics or vampires
Two points on the list necessitate human subjectivity to make fundamental judgment calls about the character of others. There’s something distinctly vintage about assuming our current cultural climate to allow for critical thought but I suppose there was less intellectual opposition for Lavey.
Here’s my conundrum: Theology provides systems for understanding a seemingly unjust and chaotic universe. It allows us to excuse the specification of our microscopic individual roles within a vacuous and consuming space. We use god(s) as a way of explaining our progeny as more than a biological drive, our judgments as more legitimate (God told me this meat is bad–don’t eat it ever).
I say this to introduce my qualm with numbers 4 and 6, as they generate rhetorical tension with 7.
Numbers 4 and 6 necessitate subjective judgment to determine the worthiness of any individual for responsibility and love.
7, however, introduces the animal nature of humanity, suggesting that our subjectivity not only presents as a byproduct of natural processes (a principle with which I absolutely agree)--how can we, with our fundamentally limited intellectual capabilities afforded by evolution, how can we pass judgment on other products of the same biological process? Let’s push that question further and ask: If humans are imperfect beasts, how do we make the necessary decisions to survive on a daily basis?
Considering the scope and influence of the Satanic bible, it’s surprising to find such a blatant contradiction, or at least an unanswered question. T’were we reckoning with any other theological system, the answer would be that the system of divinity makes decisions through the individual, or affords them the knowledge to make the decision on their own. But for Satanism, a system fundamentally without divinity, this creates a philosophical gray area.
This is my first post on Satanism. I believe next I’m going to look at the 11 Satanic rules of the Earth, and maybe we’ll get into the syntax of the Satanic bible. More on that soon.
Apologies for the delays—I try to post weekly, but sometimes life gets in the way.
XO
-C
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