...So my coworker handed me the Satanic Bible.

[Aldrnari]

A while ago, at work, I was discussing religions with a coworker of mine. I told her about my current research into Heathenry, and she explained to me about her interest in Satanism. I told her that I had a copy of the Gathas she might find interesting, and so she wanted to lend me her copy of the Satanic Bible.

This old, tattered book is covered in Christmas wrapping paper. Apparently, she brought it with her to Morocco, and she hid the cover so she wouldn't be caught by the authorities, or anyone really (probably wouldn't be good if she were, it being a Muslim majority country).

Ultimately, I really know nothing about left hand paths. I can't say I've ever really been interested, either. Maybe this book will strike my interest, though.

As someone with only the most surface deep understanding of lefthand paths, is there anything you folks think I should know before digging in?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Basically that Anton LaVey was a charlatan who lied about pretty much his entire life (that wasn't even his real name) and mixed right-wing crap into his made up form of "Satanism" by ripping off an older book called Might is Right and Ayn Rand's junk. IIt's basically just hedonism, social Darwinism and shock value thrown together. There is some useful stuff there but it's just common sense stuff you can find elsewhere. I really can't stand LaVey, the Church of Satan or his little sycophants.

Take it with a big grain of salt and be wary of its claim to speak for all of Satanism. But go ahead and give it a read. Make up your own mind about it. I have. Lol.

 

[1137]

It's whatever, an important artifact of LHP history. I would recommend a much better starting place, here chapter 4 and on:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIEhAB&usg=AOvVaw230OTZ_rnN-Vr-CPr6lDyf

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's definitely worth the read and it contains some unusual and powerful language imagery, but, at the same time, it can't even decide if it's theist and atheist. It's rules and list of sins I consider to be far morally superior to that of Christianity, but it fails short in realizing there is no such thing as self sufficient.

 

[Frater Sisyphus]

Satanism really isn't my path or a real interest (though some of the developments/off-shoots from it are) but I'll continue anyway.

I like the novelty of The Satanic Bible but it hasn't impacted or informed me at all. This possibly might be because I am already well-familiar with many of it's influences like Nietzsche, Dee (if my avatar wasn't already blatant), Crowley (as I am a Thelemite) and so on. I am not personally interested in Rand but I'll give her a shout out too.

The book, despite how obvious it is, still has an interesting aesthetic feel or 'presence', which seems to place the aforementioned influences through a completely different light. Although I much prefer LaVey's "The Satanic Mass" CD - for non-religious reasons BUT I think The Satanic Bible was a book that needed to be written - as far as the LHP goes.

While I don't fully endorse the entire message of Satanism, I do very much respect it's treatment of individualism and way of subverting and challenging what was (and still tends to be) quite a stigmatized position in Abrahamic religion. I think through that, there is a lot that Christians can learn from Satanists, and vice versa.

 

[Frater Sisyphus]

It's definitely worth the read and it contains some unusual and powerful language imagery, but, at the same time, it can't even decide if it's theist and atheist. It's rules and list of sins I consider to be far morally superior to that of Christianity, but it fails short in realizing there is no such thing as self sufficient.

Correct me Satanists if I'm wrong but:

Interestingly Michael Aquino (former Church Of Satan alumni) has stated that the original church - which had it's foundations in the ideas presented in the Satanic Bible was inherently theistic (or something close to it) but then during the schism in the mid 80s (I think), it turned into a purely atheistic and anti-christian money-grubbing organisation.

 

[Mindmaster]

As someone with only the most surface deep understanding of lefthand paths, is there anything you folks think I should know before digging in?

Not really, it explains itself pretty well. You either vibe with it or you don't, but it's a short of enough read that even if you are merely reading it as a curiosity it's not going to be a supreme waste of time. Personally, I feel the book has more entertainment value than practical value or insight. Though, I would say it did make me think in my younger years and that thinking lead me to where I am.

Ignore the haters though, how many ideas are actually original? Sometimes the artistry of weaving several disparate philosophies and coming up with a cohesive whole is the work. Few, if any, Satanists actually use that book as a "Bible" but most read it to understand the Western left-hand path in the complete sense. This is the Bhagavad Gita of modern Satanism basically and in that light realize that many interpretations and refactorings have occurred as in the case of that Hindu text. Many others have used it as an impetus to create their own systems, so I don't feel you can actually understand the modern left-hand path or it's offshoots without understanding its foundation.

 

[1137]

Correct me Satanists if I'm wrong but:

Interestingly Michael Aquino (former Church Of Satan alumni) has stated that the original church - which had it's foundations in the ideas presented in the Satanic Bible was inherently theistic (or something close to it) but then during the schism in the mid 80s (I think), it turned into a purely atheistic and anti-christian money-grubbing organisation.

Some were esoterically inclined, and some were not.

 

[EtuMalku]

Apex of importance in regards to the foundation of Satanism, well worth the read.

 

[Sutekh]

Correct me Satanists if I'm wrong but:

Interestingly Michael Aquino (former Church Of Satan alumni) has stated that the original church - which had it's foundations in the ideas presented in the Satanic Bible was inherently theistic (or something close to it) but then during the schism in the mid 80s (I think), it turned into a purely atheistic and anti-christian money-grubbing organisation.

I wouldn't really say that the Church was theistic as a whole, but some of its members perhaps were theists themselves being attracted to the esotericism. Dr. LaVey is a complex man, even though he was a charlatan re inventing himself, I do think that he carried a theistic belief but it's hard to say whether or not he truly believed in what he was doing.

I am currently reading "The Church of Satan" by Dr. Aquino, it's interesting but it's hard to condense most of the info and details. According to Michael Aquinos calculations the Church started to become corrupt before he departed ways with LaVey in the mid 70's. I would believe like others that LaVey later on became a reclusive person.

I think the Organization definitely fell apart in the 80's since Anton's daughter Zeena cut ties with him. Zeena I think was the one who kept the Organization balanced a bit being their agent of defense to put it in words.

 

[Kapalika]

There's plenty of sources other than LaVey you could seek out. Others already mentioned the Temple of Set but you could check out a couple of these sites:

Theistic Satanism: Diane Vera on today's new kinds of Satanists
SpiritualSatanist.com - Spiritual Satanism Website

And of course there is always the wikipedia articles which are fairly decent, and I'm only linking them as sometimes people don't realize there are multiple pages on it:

Satanism - Wikipedia
Theistic Satanism - Wikipedia

(The Satanic Bible is reflective of this form) : LaVeyan Satanism - Wikipedia

Also off the top of my head if you really want to know about the bizarre aspects there is also this:

Satanism and the Far Right

But those guys discussed in that article above not representative of Satanism, well really no one is. But it is safe to say that this should give you an overall picture.

Also lastly the new kids on the block, who are as far as I can tell the largest Satanic organization yet. People complain that they are not Satanists because they are too liberal but i think that's a bunch of bull**** more or less since I'm super liberal myself:

The Satanic Temple

---

To conclude, in terms of actual adherents I'd say that the 4 largest Satanic theological "spheres" so to speak are probably The Satanic Temple, the Church of Satan, the Temple of Set and then a bunch of individual/self styled theists like I gave a couple of links to (those were/are fairly prominent examples, actually, at one point both were the most well known). We might consider a "fifth" group as the crazy far right types.

I say "theological spheres" as everyone and their uncle has made some variation on something like that; there are in particular lately a lot of Temple of Set like groups and philosophies popping up that pretty much trace back their ideas to a single author but all with their own spin. And of course the Church of Satan has inspired countless groups. I've yet to see groups inspired by The Satanic Temple but in a way they came out of ideas I've seen floating around for a long time in small much less notable groups.

It's all one giant Satanic soup. We can't agree on anything because we are too busy being adversarial to one another. Haha, no that's just some types of Satanists. Others of us get along really well. *glances and smiles at some of the other posters*

 

[Satans_Serrated_Edge]

A while ago, at work, I was discussing religions with a coworker of mine. I told her about my current research into Heathenry, and she explained to me about her interest in Satanism. I told her that I had a copy of the Gathas she might find interesting, and so she wanted to lend me her copy of the Satanic Bible.

This old, tattered book is covered in Christmas wrapping paper. Apparently, she brought it with her to Morocco, and she hid the cover so she wouldn't be caught by the authorities, or anyone really (probably wouldn't be good if she were, it being a Muslim majority country).

Ultimately, I really know nothing about left hand paths. I can't say I've ever really been interested, either. Maybe this book will strike my interest, though.

As someone with only the most surface deep understanding of lefthand paths, is there anything you folks think I should know before digging in?

Naw tsb is white belt level ****. Perfect place to get started.

 

[Liu]

I've yet to see groups inspired by The Satanic Temple but in a way they came out of ideas I've seen floating around for a long time in small much less notable groups.

Not sure whether they were directly inspired by TST, but here in Germany we have a small group called Brotherhood of Samael who do some comparable stuff, although on a much smaller level (e.g. handing out flyers against the anti-blasphemy-law we still have here, handing out food and stuff to the homeless, kinda trying to inform the public about the falsity of the cliches/reputation of Satanism). They also haven't gone into any legal conflicts thus far.

Also, would you count it TST-inspired if a TST-member starts his own esoteric group? Shea Bilé (a musician, and one of his songs is clearly about TST's Baphomet statue) founded an occult club at the university where he's now studying. Don't think they do much any public things thus far, though.

 

[Kapalika]

Not sure whether they were directly inspired by TST, but here in Germany we have a small group called Brotherhood of Samael who do some comparable stuff, although on a much smaller level (e.g. handing out flyers against the anti-blasphemy-law we still have here, handing out food and stuff to the homeless, kinda trying to inform the public about the falsity of the cliches/reputation of Satanism). They also haven't gone into any legal conflicts thus far.

Also, would you count it TST-inspired if a TST-member starts his own esoteric group? Shea Bilé (a musician, and one of his songs is clearly about TST's Baphomet statue) founded an occult club at the university where he's now studying. Don't think they do much any public things thus far, though.

Ya, I'd put it in the same camp. I mean, I pretty much covered all kinds there. Funny enough I realized I hadn't really done a full article on the different kinds of Satanist on my site... I might get around to that eventually and flesh it out from my previous post (but omg I already got a big backlog of topics to cover).