What is Satanism?
When people think of Satanism, they think of a cult that worships an anthropomorphic devil. They think of black robes, drinking the blood of babies, sacrificing animals and virgins, sex orgies.
Well, that’s all wrong. That’s basically all the crap that’s been fed by the Christian church and entertainment outlets for thousands of years.
Satanism is a religion and a philosophy. For starters, we are atheists. This may come as a surprise to many people. We are a carnal religion rather than a spiritual one. We don’t believe in a literal God or a literal Satan. In fact, we don’t even believe in or follow the Christian interpretation of Satan. Satan is more of a symbol and mascot for individualism, freedom, individual liberty, pride, and the dark force that exists in all of nature. Satan is the role model for what we Satanists are about.
In Hebrew, Satan means “accuser, opposer, adversary,” so in that sense, we Satanists are the accusers, opposers and adversaries of spiritual religions. In the Christian Bible, Satan was the rebel, the free thinker, he didn’t want to just be a sheep blindly following some deity without free will.
The figure of Satan exists not just in Christianity but in many other spiritual religions and cultures. Generally he’s the rebel and outsider in all those religions and that’s one of the core beliefs of Satanism.
Satanists don’t worship a literal Satan or any other fictional being. After all, one of the core ideas of Satanism is that “Satanism demands study, not worship.”
Because Satanism is big on individualism, we are against herd conformity. Spiritual religions are basically just giant herds. We also despise herd conformity that’s outside of religion. For example, people who go and buy the latest sports cars or shoes to fit in and choose to be part of the herd. We try to maintain little to no contact with herds as often as we can.
As Satanists who have free will, we also take responsibility for the successes and failures in our lives and we don’t credit a God or Satan for those things. One of my favorite quotes by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead is “Fuck god and fuck the devil and fuck the church too. I’m responsible for my actions. The devil didn’t make me do it, I did...whatever I did.” We disdain scapegoating of any kind when it comes to personal responsibility for one’s actions.
Satanists also believe in Lex Talionis, meaning that the punishment should fit the crime. The level of crime that they commit should be equaled in punishment. We want to see justice carried out to the fullest extent possible.
We don’t depend on some deity for the answers to life and how we’re supposed to live it. In our own subjective universe, we are our own Gods. Not in the sense of being an anthropomorphic being with super powers but we treat our individual selves as the most important person in our own universe. We also decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil for us. Now we don’t mean just go ahead and rob and bank or something. I’m talking common sense here. We believe that all morals are subjective and not decided for everyone by anything, especially not by some divine being that doesn’t exist.
Satanism is also about indulging in the pleasures of life, something that Christianity and many other spiritual religions tell you not to do. Since we’re atheists, we don’t believe in an afterlife so our religion encourages us to enjoy what life has to offer and not let spiritual religions make us feel guilty about it.
While Satanism has an atheistic outlook, we also incorporate ritual and magic into our lives to release any pent-up emotion that interferes with our lives. We also use ritual magic because as human beings, we recognize we need ritual and fantasy. It’s therapeutic and fun. We do acknowledge that when we do these activities, we know it’s fantasy, something that spiritual religions don’t acknowledge. Sometimes things happen after we conduct rituals. Is it mere coincidence or the true effects of the dark force in nature that we’ve called upon? Who knows?
I’d like to remind you guys that I do not speak as a representative of the Church of Satan, especially since I’m not even a registered member yet as of this time of writing. Speaking of which, you don’t need to join the CoS to be a Satanist. All you have to do is basically live your life to the fullest and abide by the general principles of The Satanic Bible, something you should have already been doing naturally. Joining the CoS is basically another step in showing your support of Satanism.
How does a Satanist look like? Well, besides the obvious Sigil of Baphomet medallion, Satanists don’t have a stereotype look to go by. As I mentioned, we’re made up of individuals. Satanists are many types of people such as police officers, artists, musicians, doctors, scientists, movie and television directors, writers, lawyers, military personnel, salesmen, chefs, etc. For all you know, you may have met a Satanist and not even realized it!
Alrighty, I think I’ve written plenty of what Satanism means to me as written in The Satanic Bible. If any Satanists are reading this and see that I got something wrong, please tell me so I can correct it. Thank you.
And for anyone who wants to know more about Satanism, I highly encourage you to read The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Scriptures, the two books that are the backbone of Satanism. More information is on the CoS website at
Hail Satan!
-Manny
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