Manny the Satanist

Technically this happened this past April, but as of this third week of May, I have finished my graduate program and I now have my Master's Degree in Library and Information Science.  By all intents and purposes and consideration by my librarian peers, I'm now considered a librarian. I have Satanism to thank for this.  Why?  I'll try to explain this the best way I can. As some of you may know, I grew up going to the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall.  This is a religious Christian organization that suppresses individual freedom and they expect you to dedicate your whole life to Jehovah, the Kingdom Hall, and to gathering more members for the Kingdom Hall until the day you die. One of the topics of sermons that I would keep hearing over the years is about how one should basically avoid going to university because it was considered the "Devil's Playground of Sin" (well, they didn't use those exact words but that was basically the idea they were trying to co...

Today’s my birthday and it’s been around a year since I first read The Satanic Bible .  I have some personal history with birthdays. As I’ve mentioned in my very first blog entry, my mom tried raising me as a Jehovah’s Witness (with no success, obviously; the complete opposite.  Not her fault, though.  Kind of).  I remember all those sermons I heard over the years that discussed birthdays and why the Witnesses were vehemently against them.  During the first couple of years in the Kingdom Hall, it didn’t make sense to me; I just thought this religion was run by prudes and that God was some boring asshole who didn’t want people to have fun.  I remember being invited to birthdays by friends and classmates and I’d have to decline because (my mom’s) religion forbade birthdays.  I was denied the chance to live like a normal person. If you want to hear something sad, I didn't have my first official birthday celebration until I was 21.  A coworker had to ...

Happy Independence Day, whoever reads this blog. I appreciate living in a country where I can say whatever I want, do whatever I want, and follow whatever philosophy that I choose.  I don’t get to do that in many parts of the world, so I never take these freedoms for granted. I’m happy that Satanism was born in America.  When I think of Satanism, I also think of Americanism.  Satanism is essentially Americanism.  I see the Sigil of Baphomet, I think of the American flag and vice versa. Our forefathers founded this country for many reasons, including to have the separation of church and state and to promote freedom, liberty, and individualism, as well as to be free from tyranny, whether it be political, social, or religious tyranny.  Those things to me are Satanism.  Those things are Americanism. Yes, I acknowledge that America is not a perfect country.  We have flaws that we need to work on, which we are doing to this day.  But here, I’m free to b...

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: ...

June is Pride Month.  On this month 6 years ago, the United States Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.  Ever since then, every June has been Pride Month. Now, when it comes to Satanism and gay marriage, our stance should be obvious: we fully support it. Basically, our philosophy is all about individual liberty and we generally support politics that help champion our individual freedoms.  So if two adults of the same sex want to marry each other, let them be!  It’s their choice to do so. Out of many religions I’ve seen over my 30 years on this planet, Satanism is the first religion I’ve seen that actively accepts people of all sexual orientations.   The Satanic Bible  explains this stance where Anton LaVey states that “Satanism encourages any form of sexual expression you may desire, so long as it hurts no one else” (pg. 69). The following quote is the one that I feel shows that Satanism supports gay marriage in The Satanic Bible .  In this...

So I have just finished reading this book recently.  The book took me about 13 days to read due to work and school and all.  I just read the last 140-something pages within 24 hours. When I started going through this book, I started with part of Magus Gilmore’s introduction to this book.  He explained a lot of information about how Anton LaVey read this book and used a lot of parts of its content and structure to write The Satanic Bible .  Much of the beginning of Might Is Right  reads a lot like The Book of Satan  in The Satanic Bible . In fact, LaVey had actually used several of Redbeard’s quotes in The Book of Satan .  Many people would say that LaVey had plagiarized Might Is Right  but Redbeard was also accused of the same thing.  But it didn’t take away from the experience of reading this book. Many reviews about this book that I read have mentioned that this book has a lot of anti-Semitic, sexist, and racist content in the book.  R...

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...

Satanic Statement Number 9: Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years! (Anton Szandor LaVey,  The Satanic Bible , 1969). This is something to think about.  Remember my blog posts on personal responsibility and rock/metal music?  Satan is the one to scapegoat when they’re caught committing injustices and Satan is used to scare youth away from certain types of music.  These are tactics used by the church and used by their followers.  Blame Satan and utilize him for the needs of the church. It all comes down to using Satan as a fear-mongering control tool.  For thousands of years, Satan was used as a control device and a fear tactic by the Christian church in order to keep their followers in line.  The threat of eternity in hell with a demonic being who’d torture you for eternity was used to scare people into avoiding being human and living their lives the way they wanted to.  I remember all...

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...