Year of Faith

The reason for the lack of updates lately is simple- I’ve been living, and by that I mean I have been indulging.  I have been slothful, lustful, prideful, and just plain full.  I have probably had more intoxicants in my body this past week than I have in the entirety of 2009, and I am only getting started.  It’s been a lot of fun, but I’ve been paying the price these past few days with some wicked hangovers, so I’m having an early night tonight.  But first, some thoughts.

The Satanic Bible often makes the point that Satan has many names.  The SB is divided into sections titled Satan, Lucifer, Belial, and Leviathan.  Reciting a list of infernal names is required during every Satanic ritual, which are different names for various cultural devils and demons.  But my favourite of the list is Lucifer.

The Roman god, Lucifer, was the bearer of light, the spirit of the air, the personification of enlightenment.  In Christian mythology he became synonymous with evil, which was only to have been expected from a religion whose very existence is perpetuated by clouded definitions and bogus values!

-The Satanic Bible, p. 39

Lucifer in the New Testament is meant to represent the morning star (another meaning of Lucifer) and is used to reference a dethroned Babylonian king, and is not explicitly tied anywhere to the devil.  Nevertheless Lucifer has come to be synonymous with Satan, and thus with Satanism.

LaVey characterizes Satan as many things- as being masterless, as the prototypical adversary, and as the light-bearer, the herald of knowledge and understanding. This is why I have an affinity with the title ‘Lucifer.’ It has a lot in common with how I tend to see humanity.  In the first section of the SB, the “Infernal Diatribe,” LaVey writes a long tirade from the perspective of the Devil, calling down God and Heaven and challenging Christian moral precepts.  But halfway through, the emphasis changes, and Satan is no longer shouting alone.  The diatribe begins as Satan, the fallen angel, addressing God and man, but it switches to ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and suddenly Satan is identifying himself as one of us, as another human being screaming at the heavens.  Satan is not just some anthropological adversary who exists to challenge God, he is depicted as rooting for us, as urging us on.  He becomes a rallying point for earthly delights as well as our accoplishments and our lust for life, our will to power and to be great.  Satan becomes the pride of humanity.

I think, when seen in this way, Satan can be compared to Prometheus, that old Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity.  I always see this story as a recognition of our potential, a freeing of our souls from mediocrity.  Satan is often condemned for his pride in the Abrahamic faiths- for refusing to bow down to the first man, or for wishing to become God.  He is that which will not scrape, who will not bow down, he does not flinch in the face of the greatest of all gods.  He is just like Prometheus.  Satan strives for the greatest of all possible things, to be God, and LaVey depicts him as that force which wishes the same for humanity, ceaselessy trying to steal fire.

When on this topic I tend to think about T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men, specifically the last few lines,

This is the way the worlds ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

This last line is my personal mantra when considering the future of humanity- “Not a whisper” (whisper, in my humble opinion, is a better choice of words).   I fear that we may all be snuffed out by some errant asteroid or our own bloody mindedness before we really make something of ourselves.  I want us to be endless.  I want us to be able to see the end of our solar system, the end of our galaxy.  This seems in line with what I have learned about Satanism so far.

Satanism is a bang, not a whimper.

PS- The contact form works now.  Much thanks to S.

The first, and as I have come to expect, the most usual misinterpretation of what Satanism is, is that it is some kind of devil worship, or sacrificial cult.

Only a  brief acquantance with the Satanic Bible or some genuine Satanic philosophy removes this thin fable, but I believe that there is another one laying underneath- that Satanism is grounds for being an asshole.

This is not necessarily the case.

Some of the principle rules of Satanism (the Nine Satanic Statements) involve pursuing vengeance and respecting only those who you feel deserve it, but this doesn’t mean that one should stop being a nice guy.  At least, I hope it doesn’t.  I tend to be very giving, I will go out of my way to avoid a conflict, I will keep silent when I would rather call someone out or criticize.  This may have served me well in the past, better to avoid a potentially explosive argument, right?  But often one’s integrity and principles are sacrificed in the process, and I think Satanists recognizes this.  If we abstain from these sorts of social faux pas, then we aren’t standing up for ourselves.  Thus follows hypocrisy, thus the lesser ideas seem victorious.  Thus defeat.

However, those who do deserve your respect should garner it.  Good works are still rewarded, effort should see its just reward- so Satanism doesn’t give you license to be a dick, but it does ask something of us, or at least it does to me.  It asks me to reflect on how I behave around other people, it wonders if I am being authentic.

I can see now this devil, sizing me up, red eyes trailing over me from head to toe and asking, “Who’s interests do you serve?  ‘Cause they ought to be your own.”

I don’t know if I can stop being a nice guy, but this month I must look at how I meter out my respect.  I should weight it against each person’s worth, and ask whether it is in my best interests to treat this person as I would like to be treated.

Being a Satanist does not require you to be rude.  It requires you to respect yourself.

I expected a switch, like a literal ‘on/off’ state where suddenly I am this other person, this more perfect man who is already everything that I want to be at the end of this month. It was like that last year too, and it’s just as untrue today. No miracles, no transformation. Just me, still.

Been very busy these last few days moving into a new home, so haven’t had much time to devote to the project. This changes tomorrow, I start reading the Satanic Bible, I introduce and engage with the online Satanic community, and try to track down some local Satanists. Not, as it turns out, an easy task.

In the mean time I indulge. I drink, I make sloppy advances on cute girls. I live… like, really live. So far, things are pretty simple.

I paid my friends who helped me move with food- burgers at one of the better hamburger establishments in my new neighborhood. At the moment it seemed somewhat out of my new Satanist persona’s character. Such things are not a given under Satanism, my default stance cannot be charitable. Instead goodness is reserved for those who deserve it, metered out at moments where it benefits myself.

Which means it was okay to treat my friends to dinner. Hard work should see its rewards reaped. It should be acknowledged, the best of us should triumph.

This is the language of a meritocracy, and I am in very new territory.

Happy New Year.