In the previous post called The Occult: Hidden Knowledge, we de-mystified the word occult and explained that the word occult has nothing to do with what most people think it relates to. Similarly, Satanism is a word that attracts many false perceptions. When people think of Satanism, they imagine a quaint religion that rebellious former-Christian teenagers practice. They imagine that this religion has something to do with an anthropomorphic demon figure or that it is about wearing black clothing while practicing rituals in the woods late at night. This article is here to tell people that, at its core, Satanism has very little to do with any of these superficialities. It is an ideology that many people are unaware that they practice on a daily basis. These are de-facto (in-deed) Satanists.

Before I reveal the meaning of Satanism, let me first share a personal anecdote about my intro to this religion, so that we might understand how insidious this ideology can be.

When I was in high school, a close family member decided to abandon Christianity to become a Satanist. Curious, I picked up a copy of the Satanic Bible for myself.  I hesitated, wondering if I were committing some sort of sin just by reading it. I expected to uncover instructions on twisted rituals or demon-summoning. But, I was wrong. While demon-summoning instruction did make an appearance in the book, most of the literature seemed rather benign. I was surprised to find that Satanism actually sounded reasonable. The more I read, the more I thought that this could be the perfect religion for the Atheist, materialist, or hedonist who feels they are missing out on religious ritual.  Upon finishing the last page of the book, I thought, “to each their own” and continued on my own ill-guided quest for knowledge and meaning, not realizing that I might have been a de-facto Satanist myself.

I continued studying other false religious traps ranging from the New Age all the way to cold scientific materialism and Atheism. But, early on in my search for truth, I found myself consistently annoyed by several unanswered questions. One of the more nagging questions was whether I could be sure that other people even existed. This led me to a contorted ideology called Solipsism. And this ideology is one of the main worldviews propagated by Satanists. It is the false notion that one’s own experience is the only reality that can be sure to exist, that the workings of the external world cannot be known, and therefore, that Truth is subjective. So, somehow, there I was– a dumb 18 year old, dismissing the content of The Satanic Bible as nothing more than a quaint religion, while I myself had succumb to the twisted worldview called solipsism that the Satanists themselves propagate to the ignorant masses to create a power differential.

Solipsism:

From the Latin adjective solus: “alone” and the Latin pronoun ipse: “self.“ The belief that only one’s mind is sure to exist. Solipsists contend that, since knowledge outside one’s own mind is unsure, that there is no such thing as objective truth.

I later uncovered more knowledge on the topic of Satanism. Here are the basics: In San Francisco 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey founded the Church of Satan. But LaVey did not create Satanism. He merely propelled this religion out into the mainstream as a vetting system for the masses. I won't go into much detail here on who is behind this system (more on The Dark Occult in future content). Suffice it to say that Satanism is ancient and could also be referred to as Dark Luciferianism or the Cult of the Black Sun, amongst other names. Although, most participants do not refer to it by any name.

One must remember that names such as the Cult of the Black Sun or the Church of Satan are merely symbols. The ideology behind these symbols is what is important. Let’s understand Satanism in the apophatic (through negation) way first. After all, de-facto Satanists do not realize that they are indeed Satanists because they do not necessarily involve themselves in any of the religious trappings, rituals, or aesthetics– none of which have anything to do with the core ideology being propagated by Satanist. The peddlers of Satanism or the Cult of the Black Cube were brilliantly cunning in assigning this religion its contemporary name. This label of Satanism gives the impression of just another quaint religion. As a result, many Satanists, as I’ve explained, do not realize that they are practitioners of this religion.

This is what Satanism is not: Satanism has nothing whatever to do with the devil of the Christian religion. It scarcely has relevance within the Church of Satan, the Temple of Set, or the Order of the Evil Eye. Satan is not a red devil-man or any other evil mythological figure to be worshipped.

This is the Real Meaning of Satanism: The word Satan comes from the Hebrew word שָׂטָן, meaning adversary. Satan is an adversary, an opponent, an inversion of Truth, a perversion of morality, a quality of flipping upside-down, and an attempt to bend Natural Law. Satanism is the embodiment of these adversarial forces. It is about Subjective Morality; Humans get to make up what is right and wrong as they see fit. 

Satanism is a religion of selfishness. Its adherents do not want to worship a god such as Satan; They want to be God themselves. The practitioner of Satanism considers only the well-being and preservation of oneself. To practice this religion is to exist in pure ego and base-consciousness. And, the some of the most direct paths towards the state of de-facto Satanic unconsciousness include moral relativism, solipsism, materialism, nihilism, ignorance, and apathy.

The Four Main Tenets of Modern Satanism

1. Egotism: Service-to-self is life’s highest goal.

2. Moral Relativism: Right and wrong are whatever human beings say they are.

3. Social Darwinism: The most dominant and cruel humans should become the Masters and rule humanity.

4. Eugenics: The Masters should determine who is allowed to live and who must die.

For further study on this topic, I recommend reading The Satanic Bible and The Cult of the Black Cube. I also suggest watching De-Mystifying the Occult – Part 2: Satanism and the Dark Occult by Mark Passio, a former priest of this religion. To hear about the Satanic agenda of eugenics straight from Anton LaVey’s daughter and her associates, watch this compilation entitled Satanism – The Basics.