Satanism special report
T
hink you hate Christmas? Tinsel, shiny baubles and other dross cluttering our supermarkets from September onwards. Saccharine sweet carols, guilt trips, truces you’re forced to make with family members with whom you’d rather not share a turkey. But what about Satanists? What do they do when the big fat guy in the red suit makes his rounds? I decided to find out. But first, let’s clear the air: If you’re anything like me, the term ‘Satanist’ conjures images of bad 80s horror movies and Today Tonight exposes about cemetery vandals and animal sacrifice.
from Pagan Reconstructionism, Traditional Witchcraft and Vodoun to forms of NeoPaganism, Ceremonial Magic, and Goddess Worship.
If someone says they’re a Satanist, chances are they’re a non-theistic Satanist. That is, they don’t believe in or worship Satan as a god, but emulate the image of the fallen angel as the powerful adversary on which they base their lives. Pretty cool, when you look at it that way. Everyone loves an underdog. Warlock Marquis HK, 39, has been a member of the Church of Satan for 15 years and cofounded the Satanic publication The Sentinel with associate Atronach over a year ago. He said the moment he read Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible he knew it was the philosophy for him.
We’re sure there is some profound ritualistic meaning to all this, but to some of the unlearned staff at BLACK, this looks like a bunch of guys dressed like the muppets.
“There are many benefits, for me personally performing a ritual and seeing a working manifest itself is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world—one of power!” he said. “The rewarding feeling of accomplishment at the completion of projects and endeavours, and of course being a hedonistic philosophy, we pride ourselves on indulging in the finer things in life—art, literature, music, film, sex, fine food, and quality alcohol to name but a few.” Perdita Carnivean discovered LaVey’s writings in about 1984 in a cache of books her household inherited from a deceased male witch. “Initially I was too scared to read them—having only discovered ‘the occult’ that year,” she said. “Eventually, in about 1988, I finally read LaVey’s The Compleat Witch (now called The Satanic Witch) and then realised that his ideas were interesting, entertaining, and effective. What a lot of people don’t realise about LaVey is that he has a terrific sense of humour.” Carnivean said Satanism now fills a niche in her polytheistic approach to life, which includes a variety of Pagan beliefs and practices ranging
“Church of Satan-style Satanism fulfils my cynical, misanthropic, no-nonsense, practical side, while other forms of non-Christian religion provide other things I need or want,” she said. “I also like how LaVey’s magical methods have been pared back to simple rituals, which on first glance sometimes appear like they may be too un-complicated to be effective—if you’re used to the usual fare offered in ceremonial magic books or courses—but then you come to realise that LaVey’s rituals have been designed to provide the shortest way between what you want and getting it. They are about results in the real world, not about surrounding oneself with occult paraphernalia and retreating from the world into a fantasy of Renaissance-style High Magic. LaVey reminds us that magic is a means to an end not an end in itself.” So, if Satanists are really a form of atheists, what was LaVey’s big idea—why draw heat by naming your church after the world’s number one bad guy? Marquis HK said it’s because LaVey valued curiosity and independent thought—he wanted followers who could distance themselves from ‘the herd’.
“When Anton LaVey founded the philosophy, he was seeking individuals who weren’t content to blindly accept what was thrown at them, and who had the motivation and desire to think for themselves,” he said. “Indeed, if I wasn’t that way inclined myself, I would have never picked up The Satanic Bible. Satanists question everything with logic and reason.”
Satanic panic Carnivean, a practising witch since 1985, said she did not know how the Church of Satan survived the ‘Satanic Panic’ era in the USA, when media reports connected Satanists with ritual abuse. “I don’t know how they avoided being lynched, because of the connotations associated with the word Satanism,” she said. “Although I have been a fan of LaVey’s since the 80s, I did not actually join the Church of Satan until about 2003, so I was not in touch with the American members, or any members, back in the Satanic Panic era. “And of course, I do not need to say that Satanic Panic is all complete bunkum and 23