Manny the Satanist

I still see this on the Church of Satan's Twitter's comments sections but it's also been showing up A LOT on my personal Instagram's post's comments section in the last several weeks.  I'm going to settle this once and for all and I'm staying silent on the matter from now on unless someone really pushes my buttons. "Why is (The Satanic Temple/literally any other organization that claims to be Satanic or that claims to be theistic Satanism) not a legitimate Satanic organization just like the Church of Satan?" I'm going to try to explain this in the simplest way that I can. Prior to the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966, there was no evidence of the existence of any above/below ground Satanic groups.  The term "Satanic" was/is used by Christians or any other ignorant groups and individuals that describe things and people they considered "evil" or things they plain don't like.  Many people who went along with being ac...

Earlier today as of this writing, I just read the chapter “From Hallowed Halls” in Blanche Barton’s We Are Satanists: The History and Future of the Church of Satan .  In this chapter, there’s a section (pg. 339-40) where Barton discussed that when talking about Satanism, using the term “LaVeyan” is basically giving acknowledgment and equal leveling of other pseudo-satanic groups as also being Satanists. Anton LaVey himself said that that “there are Satanists and there are nuts.”  Magus Gilmore has also stated in his book that no other groups can be acknowledged as Satanic. I wholeheartedly agree with this.  If an individual or group isn’t abiding by the principles of The Satanic Bible , they’re not Satanists.  There were no Satanic groups prior to 1966.  Anyone else after that isn’t a Satanic group or individual, either.  Anton LaVey’s bible is the one sole authority on Satanism. So why do I personally keep using the term “LaVeyan?” I mainly do this on soci...

Satanic Rule of the Earth #1: Don’t give opinions or advice unless you are asked. - Anton Szandor LaVey, 1967. There’s a very good reason for this earthly rule.  Even since before the internet, people have had a habit of opening their mouths without thinking of potential consequences for doing so, or before thinking, for that matter. See, we live in a country where you can say whatever the heck you want, whether it’s good or bad.  Total freedom of speech.  However, you’re not free from the consequences of reaction of what you say. The habit of speaking before you think continues to exist, and it’s more prevalent on the internet.  People will tend to take what you say the wrong way sometimes.  Or sometimes people can’t handle what you spit out even if it’s truth.  Sometimes, you don’t say things before formulating it in your mind correctly first. These kind of shitstorms lead to drama and lost friendships.  People will sometimes not even give you a chan...

As many Satanists know, our religion symbolizes freedom.  However, some people have some screwed-up ideas as to what this freedom means. In the dictionary, hedonism is defined as “the pursuit of pleasure, sensual self-indulgence.”  According to my recently acquired We Are Satanists , Satanism isn’t just uncontrolled hedonism. The pursuit of pleasure shouldn’t be without lack of control or logic.  Doing whatever the heck you want doesn’t mean that very thing in the literal sense.  Obviously there are limits, especially within the context of the local laws that you have to follow. For instance, you can’t just do things like rob a bank or smoke in places you’re not allowed to do such things at, as exemplified by this guy I saw at the train station I just left as of this time of writing.  It doesn’t mean forcing your way into businesses without a mask on and acting like a Karen when someone calls you out on it. There are a few main things to remember as a Satanist: ...

This is another opinion blog post that I’m doing here.  I’m going to be basing this on what I’ve read in Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing The Way We Talk About Religion (2020) by Joseph P. Laycock.  I wish the TST had something akin to The Satanic Bible or The Satanic Scriptures but I couldn’t find anything like it on their website page of list of literature, so Speak of the Devil is what I’ll be going by. This is based on my best interpretation of what TST is like in my perspective, and I really tried my best to learn when I read Speak of the Devil .  Anyways, here it goes. The main thing to remember is that The Satanic Temple and The Church of Satan are not the same thing.  These two groups are often confused for one another all the time and it’s gotten a bit annoying for both organizations and its people.  The CoS was started in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey while TST was started in 2013 by Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves.  While...

55 years ago today, the Church of Satan was founded.  Anton LaVey started the world’s first carnal religion and started a church in the name of Satan, thus shocking the world and bringing opposition to spiritual dogma. The CoS has survived many things during these 5 and a half decades, like the Satanic Panic and the death of its founder.  But a lot of good things have happened throughout this time.  Individuals who felt they were outsiders in their society found a religion with people who thought just like them.  They have used Satanism to be the very best versions of themselves possible. People think that the CoS and its philosophy would die out after a matter of time and that it would dissipate.  But this religion continues to get stronger each and every day.  More Satanists will continue to come across The Satanic Bible  and discover who they’ve been their whole lives.  The people who have run the organization for decades continue to do what th...

I saw this on my Facebook timeline recently and I wanted to talk about this. The mention of Ayn Rand caught my attention because Anton LaVey drew much influence from Ayn Rand.  Rand’s philosophy was all about self-interest and looking out for number one (yourself). We’re all familiar with the story of Satan’s fall.  He didn’t want to be part of the herd.  He didn’t want to conform and think just like everyone else which is why he was kicked out. That’s what we Satanists model ourselves after, especially when it comes to religion, society, and looking out for ourselves. People like the man (if I can even call him that) in my picture think that when it comes to society, we’re supposed to help and care about everyone one else and care about everything that’s going on in society, which is fine, but he thinks that that’s all your life is supposed to be about.  He thinks being selfish and looking out for only yourself is evil. I don’t like that kind of mentality.  Tha...

“ Satanic Rule of the Earth Number 5: Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.” -Anton Szandor LaVey (1967). I want to start this blog by talking about an incident I witnessed on 3/25/21. My girlfriend and I had just come out of a café and we were waiting for our Uber ride.  While we were waiting, this woman walks by us and she’s on the phone.  Then some man drives by her slowly trying to hit on her.  She showed no signs of interests towards him.  Then the man drives his car ahead to park into a gas station and then gets out of his car to sort of get in her space and hit on her again.  She keeps walking and crosses the street to get away to where he couldn’t drive into.  The man drove away when he knew he was defeated. Oftentimes, people think Satanists are the ones prowling the streets to harass and assault innocent women for perverted and ritualistic purposes but you have Christians and regular folks doing what the man in my sto...

LaVeyan Satanists do not have actual Church buildings where people meet once or twice a week to congregate.  There used to be grottos back in the early days of the CoS but those disbanded quickly.  Having churches and places of meeting would be in contradiction to our individualistic philosophy and wouldn’t make us different than the herds and spiritual religions we oppose.  Also, because we are individuals, there are Satanists with various different outlooks on life.  Things can happen when you put those kind of people together in a building.  Individuals have different kind of opinions and other kinds of philosophies and sometimes there can be clashes.  Lots of Satanists go their whole lives without meeting another Satanist.  Some join the CoS but choose to remain alone in order to have success and peace in their personal endeavors. Some Satanists who do meet each other and become friends through mutual interests in Satanism and other activities do g...

Any real Satanist who has done plenty of study knows this: Satanists are born, not made.  Satanism isn’t for everyone. After you read The Satanic Bible , you saw a reflection of yourself, your ideas, and your philosophies that you’ve naturally had through most of your life.  You don’t just read the book and say “I like these ideas; I’m going to adopt them and ‘become’ a Satanist.” To use an example I saw on a Facebook post, it’s like saying a heterosexual person suddenly decides they are attracted to the same gender.  It doesn’t work that way.  You’re born heterosexual.  You don’t just suddenly change your attraction out of the blue.  You were born this way. So it irks me whenever I scroll through YouTube videos or news articles where the person being interviewed says they’re an “ex-Satanist.”  Now, I haven’t gone through those videos and articles because of the point I’m trying to make here.  But being a Satanist means you abide by a certain code...

King Diamond.   (image credit goes to metalsucks.net at  https://www.metalsucks.net/2013/02/04/a-metalsucks-exclusive-return-from-the-graveyard-king-diamond-on-his-near-death-and-new-life/ ) This is more of an opinion blog post for me so here it goes. People think that Rock/Metal music is Satanic or at least that certain genres of rock and metal are Satanic.  For decades, Christianity and other Abrahamic religions have tried to label rock and metal as Satanic so that people will avoid this type of music like it’s an automatic ticket to hell. Is this type of music Satanic?  Well, there’s ways that it can and can’t be Satanic, so here’s how it goes. The CoS founder, Anton Szandor LaVey, actually disliked rock and metal music.  In his biography, The Secret Life of a Satanist , Blanche Barton stated that LaVey "saw modern rock as part of the current desensitizing and de-emotionalizing trend of the country" (p. 133).  Blanche also states that "as outlined i...

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 accus...

What's up, fellow Satanists and others who have found this blog somehow? My name is Manny.  For now this is the name I’ll identify as. I’m a 30 year-old Satanist from the Bay Area in California.  I’ve wanted to find a platform where I can express my thoughts and feelings when it comes to the subject of Satanism, specifically LaVeyan Satanism, the one and only real Satanism as codified in 1966 on Walpurgisnacht by Anton Szandor LaVey.  Because of the current misconceptions about Satanism and due to the fact that certain family members of mine would give me so much trouble if they knew of my newly discovered identity, I could never talk about Satanism on my personal social media accounts.  For now, this blog will do.  I’ll eventually make this blog look more presentable and infernal. I guess let’s start from the beginning. My parents raised me as a Jehovah’s Witness starting around the age of three right up until the age of nineteen.  Well, mostly my mom did....