From "Satan Wants You" by Arthur Lyons -------------------------------------------------- In this book, the term "Satanist" refers to anyone who sincerely describes himself as a worshiper of the Christian Devil, *whatever he perceives that to mean*. As we will see, what it does mean to the individual worshiper can vary drastically. Because many modern groups have picked up their practices from horror movies or fictional accounts of Black Masses, there is great latitude among modern cults in both practice and belief. Only in Dennis Wheatley novels is there such a thing as a "traditional Satanist." As it emerged in the mid-1960s, a contemporary Satanism can be divided into three distinct realities: (1) solitary Satanists, (2) "outlaw" cults, and (3) neo-Satanic churches. Solitary Satanists belong to no cult and employ their own made-up brand, which they usually procure from books on the subject. For the most part, these Satanists are alienated teenagers who have a difficult time socializing, and the rituals they perform usually involve some sort of wish fulfillment, such as the acquisition of of money, popularity, romance, or sex. Often the practices of these individuals are tied to drug use and a fanatical devotion to rock music -- particularly heavy metal rock -- and their Satanic "rituals" consist of little more than getting stoned, lighting candles, and reading a passage aloud from Anton LaVey's "The Satanic Bible", to the accompaniment of an Ozzy Osbourne tape. Since they hold their rituals in private, not much is known about how many of these solitary Satanists are around or how long they cling to their belief system. My impression, from the few I have talked to, is that the seriousness of such dabblers is not deep, lasting only as long as it takes this person to realize that Satan is not going to make his or her dreams come true. Aidan Kelly, rather than viewing such dabblings with alarm, sees them as part of a process of "religious maturation." Occasionally, however, the symbolism of evil can become enmeshed with antisocial rage and psychotic impulses, and become a rationalization for violence.... The main interest of this book is in groups; and in determining the myth and reality of a Satanic *human* (vs. supernatural) conspiracy, the focus will be on the remaining two categories of cults, rather than on the solitary Satanists.... "Outlaw" groups worship Satan as the Evil One of the New Testament, and their practices reflect that orientation. Historically, such groups were primarily made up of sadomasochists and other sexual deviants, and their *raison d'etre* was orgiastic, a la the old British Hellfire Club. Since the emergence of the counterculture in the late 1960s, however, and the easing of sexual taboos by society, the focus of such groups has tended to be more on drugs, music, and vandalism than sex. The members are usually young (fifteen to twenty-five), socially alienated, and held together by a charismatic leader. Meetings are generally sporadic and lack any coherent theology; the rituals, like those solitary Satanists, tend to be slapped together from movies and books on black magic. Since feelings of alienation are the Krazy Glue that holds these groups together, the rituals often include socially deviant, and sometimes violent, acts.... In such "outlaw" groups, the practice of Satanism is often secondary to the acting out of deviant impulses. As sociologist Howard Becker puts it: Instead of the deviant motives leading to deviant behavior, the deviant behavior in time produces the deviant motivation. {NOTE: Becker, Howard, "Outsiders", New York Free Press of Glencoe, 1963, p. 42.} In stark contrast to such groups are the neo-Satanic churches like the Church of Satan and its splinter organizations. These groups -- which constitute the overwhelming bulk of the current Satanic membership -- strictly prohibit the ritualistic harming of any living thing, and enjoin members from participating in illegal activities. These cults have adopted an unorthodox theological reconstruction of the Devil quite different from that of Christianity. Satan is perceived not as evil, but as a Miltonian symbol of man's carnality and rationality. They advocate egotism, indulgence, and the acquisition and use of personal and political power, have well-defined theologies and authority structures, and recruit members openly -- to the point where two such groups, the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, maintain listings in the San Franciso yellow pages under the heading "Churches -- Satanic." Most other churches either are splinters of the Church of Satan, founded in San Francisco in 1966 by erstwhile lion tamer Anton Szandor LaVey, or rely heavily on LaVey's works, "The Satanic Bible" and "The Satanic Rituals", which are the only two popularly published works in print that lay out Satanic doctrine and philosophy. In spite of the fact that some current Satanists dismiss LaVey as a carnival huckster, he began the movement and remains by far its most influential spokesman. The size and growth of the current Satanic movement is difficul to gauge accurately, for several reasons. One is that most of the so- called outlaw groups, as well as the solitary Satanists, hold their rituals in secret. Often, their presence is known by circumstantial evidence (sacrificial animal remains, for example), or when members of such a cult are arrested for a crime. Another is that both Satanists and anti-Satanists, as I've stated, have intentionally and unintentionally distorted facts, for reasons of economics and self-aggrandizement.... Discounting distortions due to hype and hysteria, and a tradition by neo-Satanic churches of inflating membership figures for publicity purposes, I would estimate the total number of Satanists of all types, worldwide, to be nor more than five thousand.... "Satan Wants You", by Arthur Lyons, Mysterious Press, 1988; pp. 9-14. ____________________________________________________________________ _ [re: the Church of Satan] Social psychologist Marcello Truzzi, who has studied the Church from its inception, says: The Church of Satan's philosophical world view is really more accurately designed as an ideological than a religious one. The name "Satanism" and its other seeming relations to Christianity are actually somewhat misleading, for these are mainly used in a symbolic sense (thus, Satan is simply the symbol of the Adversary, in this case to the dominant belief system of Christianity). Thus, the Church of Satan is not really a sect of Christianity in the same sense as are most present and past Satanic groups. {NOTE: Truzzi, Marcello, "Towards a Sociology of the Occult: Notes on Modern Witchcraft," in Irving I. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone, ed., "Religious Movements in Contemporary America", Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 645.} His brand of Satanism, explains LaVey, was designed to fill the void between religion and psychiatry, meeting man's need for ritual, fantasy, and enchantment while at the same time providing a rational set of beliefs on which to base his life. The other major religions are outmoded, he asserts, because they are trying to keep superstition alive in a technological age. Christianity preaches the virtues of altruism and asceticism, LaVey acknowledges, but for political, not world, reasons.... Ibid., p. 110. ______________ Emotion, or "adrenal energy," as LaVey calls it, is the cornerstone of his system of magic. His rituals, he has explained, were designed to induce in the clebrant a subjective state through which he or she might be able to achieve external goals. This is not "magic," in the classical sense of invoking demonic entities and sending them out to do one's bidding, but the harnessing of one's own extrasensory biological powers -- what LaVey calls "applied psychology multiplied tenfold." There is nothing supernatural about his magic, the High Priest insists. It is merely tappinginto and exploiting a system of causal relationships always operational in the universe but presently uknown to modern science. As he puts it: I don't believe that magic is supernatural, only that it is supernormal. That is, it works for reasons science cannot yet understand. As a shaman or magician, I am concerned with obtaining recipes. As a scientist, you seek formulas. When I make a soup, I don't care about the chemical reactions between the potatoes and the carrots. I only care about how to get the flavor of the soup I seek. In the same way, when I want to hex someone, I don't care about the scientific mechanisms involved whether they be psychosomatic, psychological, or what-not. My concern is with how to best hex someone. As a magician, my concern is with effectively doing the thing -- not with the scientist's job of explaining it. {NOTE: LaVey, Anton Szandor, "The Satanic Rituals", New York, Avon, 1972, p. 25.} That LaVey's magical ideas were strongly influenced by the writings of Aleister Crowley can be seen in the distinction he makes between "greater" and "lesser" magic. Crowley defined "MAGICK" as the science of effecting environmental change in conformity with one's will that could be manifested in mundane forms of physical and mental control, such as banking or farming. Similarly, LaVey's "lesser magic" is that lower order of "magic" which mean uses to manipulate his everyday environment -- moving the right way, saying the right things, using appearance and demeanor to accomplish one's goals. In this sense, the use of sex is a basic tool of lesser magic, and in 1970, LaVey put out a sexually oriented how-to-manipulate manual for females called "The Compleat Witch, or What do Do When Virtue Fails". "Greater magic," on the other hand, is regarded as the accomplishment of changes in the objective universe through those "great subjective outpourings of the will" summoned during ritual. This is how curses work, LaVey says, although he is quick to point out that even if a curse doesn't work objectively, it doesn't matter, because it is cathartically beneficial to the cursor.... Ibid., pp. 114-5. _________________ Throughout the early 1970s, LaVey's Church of Satan continued to grow.... Members were disaffected refugees from disbanded wicca, or "white" witchcraft groups, fed up with self-effacement and attracted by the Church of Satan's values of ego-aggrandizement and personal gain. Some sought the Church as a reaction against their strict fundamentalist upbringing. Stil others, notably homosexuals, were attracted by Satanic attitudes of sexual tolerance. The occupational spectrum of the proselytes was wide, ranging from doctors, lawyers, computer programmers, and FBI agents to plumbers, electricians, and bartenders. ...quite a few of those seeking admittance also shared another trait -- dissatisfaction with their lives. Many seemed to be underachievers who expressed bitterness about their economic plight or lack of social status, or who complained about the boring nature of their jobs. A common lament was the lack of control these people felt over their own lives. Often, feelings of inadequacy were turned inside out, and at social gatherings the Satanists would sneer disdainfully at "outsiders." "Normal" people were chumps, moronic conformists; they, the Satanists, were different. In joining the Church of Satan, these people not only managed to inject a little mystery and exoticism into their otherwise banal lives, they achieved a satisfying sense of mastery over their own fates by the practice of ritual magic. By becoming masters of arcane powers they became unique. As Edward Moody, an anthropologist who observed the church, noted, many Satanists were seeking successes denied them -- money, fame, recognition, power -- and with all the avenues apparently blocked, with no apparent means by which legitimate effort will bring reward, they turned to Satanism and witchcraft. {NOTE: Moody, Edward, "Magical Therapy: An Anthropological Investigation of Contemporary Satanism," in Irvine I. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone, ed., "Religious Movements in Contemporary America", Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 358.} But when insecure, frustrated initiates began to rely more on the grottos for their internal worth, and less on the mundane world, problems began to surface. Rapid expansion and the competition for titles within the hierarchical system LaVey had set up accentuated personal jealousies between some members, and San Francisco headquarters was soon bogged down by requests from grottos all over the country for arbitration of rivalrous disputes.... In 1975, [Michael] Aquino, the editor of the Church of Satan's newsletter, accused LaVey of selling priesthoods. Aquino contended that such degrees should be conferred solely on the basis of personal magical achievement, but LaVey dismissed the complaints, saying that members who contributed monetarily or with services to the Church often helped the cause more than "theologians." LaVey considered the degrees as symbols reflective of the members' status in the outside world, and reserved the right, as High Priest, to confer them as he saw fit. In protest, Aquino resigned his priesthood and with Lilith Sinclair (aka Pat Wise), head of the New York Lilith Grotto, announced the formation of the Temple of Set. Other resignations followed.... Ibid., p. 119. ______________ LaVey decided to create a network of "true" occultists -- "underground men," in the Dostoyevskian sense of the term. The mind of Western man, as he saw it, was being anesthetized and controlled through the manipulation of the electronic media; in particular, television. It is the ultimate goal of the political powers that be, LaVey believes, to create through television the uniform society in which individualism is stifled and the masses are preprogrammed to march to whatever tune is played. Satanists pose a threat to such a vision, LaVey asserts, but not in the way claimed by religious alarmists. It is his contention that true Satanists do not meet in groups in dimly lit basements plotting ritual murders. Rather, they are the truly dangerous individuals who have turned off their television sets and sit by themselves, thinking. Thought, according to LaVey, is the biggest enemy of the uniform society.... ...LaVey... said emphatically, "...the kind of members I want [are] people who can stand on their own without a bunch of slobbering idiots propping them up!" LaVey claims that this is what differentiates his cult from others. Unlike other cult leaders, he does not seek to impose his "truth" on his members. He does not even profess to know the truth. "The truth never set anyone free," he wrote in 1969. "It is only DOUBT which will bring mental emancipation." True Satanists, he says, now need no hierarchy to tell them how to think. And once that bulwark of Satanists is formed, the old order will fall. It is difficult to say how much of this LaVey actually believes, and how much of it is rationalization to compensat for his unwillingness to deal with the inevitable personality conflicts that would accompany the building up of another organization. But at the present time, the fifty-seven-year-old High Priest seems more interested in compiling his essays for publication, transferring obscure pieces of celluloid to videotape, and playing his keyboards than committing himself to administering the day-to-day needs of his flock. Although he is purposely vague when discussing membership figures, saying that the positions of the players carry greater importance than mere numbers, LaVey will assert that subscribers to *The Cloven Hoof* the church newsletter, stand at about two thousand. More significant, perhaps, is the *increase* reported by LaVey in membership applications since 1982. LaVey attributes the rise to the new public visibility of the church in response to the recent wave of allegations of Satanic child abuse, and theorizes that the current hysteria has perhaps generated a perverse result. ...Proclaims the High Priest: "[LaVey's brand of Satanism] is a studied, contrived set of principles and exercises, designed to prevent and liberate from the contagion of mindlessness which destroys innovation. Here are some reasons why it is called 'Satanism': It is most stimulating under that name, and self- discipline and motivation are easier under stimulating conditions. It means 'the opposition,' and epitomizes all symbols of non- conformity. It represents the strongest ability to turn a liability into an advantage -- to turn alienation into exclusivity. In other words, the reason it's called 'Satanism' is because it's fun, it's accurate, and it's productive." {NOTE: *The Cloven Hoof*, Vol. 19, No. 3.} Some of the "few good men" attracted to LaVey's free thinking, egotistic philosophy might be able to utilize it and turn it into a source of strength. But for the weaker-minded, turning "alienation into exclusivity" might only promote further alienation and exacerbate already existing psychological and emotional problems. Yet LaVey is optimistic that those people he seeks -- his underground men -- will seek him out, and that when they do, society will be transformed. Ibid, pp. 122-4. ________________ EOF