Traditional Satanism

by Levi Satanas

Today when we think of the word 'Satanism' we think of crack junkies living in an abandoned house with plywood windows, spraypainting inverted crosses and pentagrams on the walls and floors, having orgies, killing small animals and cutting themselves.

If we express this, we may be told by the apparently knowledgeable; 'In actual fact, Satanists do not beleive in Satan as a real being and do not worship him at all. They celebreate Satan as the human nature and the Dark side of the human mind'.

An enquiring mind attracted to the left hand path who wants to learn about Satanism and the worship of the Satan may get a quick, snappy and derogatory reply that true satanism doesn't actually beleive in Satan or worship him at all and that they should stop being an angsty teen 'goth' before they choose their religion.

The reason for this?

In 1966 Doctor Szandor Anton LaVey founded the first 'Church of Satan'. The COS was the first above ground organisation dedicated to 'the worship of Satan', but if anything they only worship Satan as the true, carnal human nature of the dark side of the mind. They are in truth an Athietistic Organisation who do not beleive in god (other then a vague idea he might be a subtle force disconnected from any earthly religion far far away from earth and unconcerned with it's people, affairs and problems), 'the devil', 'heaven', 'hell', 'good' and 'evil', or any sort of afterlife or spiritual reality. Their 'Satanic' rituals are a mockery, as it has been from the start when LaVey founded 'the first church of Satan' wearing a white necked preist garb with a shaved head and devilish goatee. What they intend to do is renounce christianity, spirituality, the occult, and organised religion in general while athiestically 'worshipping' Satan who is commonly known as a 'christian mythological figure'. Their Satanic rituals are treated as a joke and are simply a mockery of christianity.

So what is a tradional Satanist?

A traditional Satanist is someone intelligent enough to know that the word satanism, the myth, and the religion existed long before the first church of Satan ever did.

What is the myth? The myth is what I explained at the beginning of this article; 'crack junkies living in an abandoned house with plywood windows, spraypainting inverted crosses and pentagrams on the walls and floors, having orgies, killing small animals and cutting themselves.'

This is mostly the popular culture veiw of Satanists, Satan and Satanism fed by the ever growing amount of hollywood horror flicks depicting demonic possesion, evil spirits and Satanic baddies.

And even the media which seems to love stories of killers who claim Satan as their master who told them to kill their victims, or something to that effect. In virtually all of these cases, it has been proven mental insanity on the part of the killer or a pety attempt to be excused jail sentence on the grounds of mental insanity.

During the 1980's, something called SRA 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' experienced popularity, however the existance of such an organisation is probably more unlikely then those supposed SRA stories which all have proven to be hoaxes. Books and Movies recounting supposed 'true stories' of Satanic ritual abuse experienced popularity however were later proven to be elaborate or perhaps not so elaborate hoaxes by christian fundamentalist nutcases. 'SRA' later came to represnt 'sadistic ritual abuse' and came to refer to ritual abuse of any religion of belief system.

So when we dispell the myths; what is Traditional Satanism, really?

"A traditional Satanist is someone intelligent enough to know that the word satanism, the myth, and the religion existed long before the first church of Satan ever did."

While these maybe qualities of the Traditional Satanist, a true definition of a Traditional Satanist is one who beleives Satan to be a very real being which they either worship or establish a relationship with. Generally, Traditional Satanists do not reverse the 'Christian' (but essentially and originally Zoroastrain) ideology of good and evil duality where 'jehova', 'yahweh', or the judaeo-christian 'god' represents the good or the light or and where Satan or Lucifer represents the evil or the darkness. A stab that the layman may take at Traditional Satanism is that Satanism must be christianity or at least christianity turned inside out, so reversing zoroastrian polarities is something that Satanists, particulary Tradional Satanists who beleive Satan to be a real being tend to avoid doing.

That said, Traditional Satanists do not consider Satan do represent darkness or evil and thus they worship evil. Nobody with at least a few uncrossed wires in their head is twisted enough to worship their own concept of evil, however this has been observed in groups such as that of Charles Manson and other psychotic murders whose heinous acts are not to do with the true religion of Satanism or the Worship of Satan but rather the twistedness and trouble of their own minds. These groups are of course the ones the media pays attention to and thus this feeds the incorrect and inane popular culture veiw of Satanists and Satanism. So with that said Traditional Satanists do leave the Zoroastrian polarities unreversed not because they worship their own concept of evil, but because they do not beleive in evil and rather consider it to be a relative concept in the eye of the beholder. They do, however, veiw Satan in a positive light and if they do beleive in the judeao-christian 'god'(s) and his angels then they veiw them with disdain.

Now that we know Traditional Satanists consider Satan to be a real being, what is it exactly that Traditional Satanists beleive?

To get an idea of this one might consult the Satanic Bible. Observing that it is written by Dr Szandor Anton LaVey they may get the idea that this is a book soley for modern/Laveyn Satanists or members of the 'first church of satan' but suprisingly, they are in the wrong about this. While the Satanic Bible does not contain rituals for summoning demonic spirits it does indeed treat Satan in its writings not neccesarily as a real being to be worshipped or as an archtype. However, if one were to choose between the two they would probably say the book deals with Satan as a real being. It presents a Satanic Philosphy which is held at least loosely throughout the whole of the Satanic Community whether that be modern/LaVeyan/COS Satanism or traditional/theistic/spiritual Satanism. It contains the nine Satanic 'sins' and other Satanic precepts which convey the general Satanic philosophy.

Generally all Satanists beleive that there is nothing wrong with whatever sexual preference one beholds, sexual indulgence, and other things which are true to human nature. They usually beleive that turning the other cheek is not the correct thing to do and that revenge, justice and punishment is neccesary. They usually show disdain for the christian religion and its organisation and usually organised religion in general whether they consider jehova and the ilk to be real beings or not.

As for a philosophy or ideology which is excluse to Traditional Satanists, Traditional Satanists usually beleive that their is or was a fight between Lucifer and the Demons and jehova and the angels, some beleive that the battle has already been won and soon Lucifer will claim what is his, but there is almost always a connotation of human liberation with Lucifer and a favour and love for humanity.

Most if not all Traditional Satanists actively interact with or worship Satan through ritual and also engage in occultic and magickal ritual and activity whether it be for contact and Interaction with Demonic Entity and Satan or not. Human sacrifice is basically entirely a myth and generally animal sacrifice is not involved in ritual and worship however in some rare cases this does take place. This however, is not an exclusivley 'Satanic' practice as a good deal of well known religions practice or have practiced animal sacrifice, including judeao-christianity, where the old testament is filled with not only animal sacrifice but human sacrifice, ritual rape, abuse, murder, infantcide, vampirism and cannibalism. Christianity and new testament itself is a religion based off human sacrifice.

If one who is fairly knowledgable is asked for the name of a Traditional Satanic organisation or perhaps an early or original Traditional Satanic organisation, the inquirer may be given the 'Temple of Set'. This organisation originated as a group which broke away from the first church of Satan due to disagreements in terms of ideology and religious beleifs. However, there have been many pre-laVeyan Traditional Satanic groups and Traditional Satanists such as the Black Lodge and Hellfire Society of germany. The Thule Society of germany although essentialy a lodge of esotoricism, 'black' magick and norse pagan worship, also had Satan worship in the inner circle.

Those are just a few of the pre-LaVeyan Traditional Satanic groups or lodges. Benjamin franklin is just one example of a pre-LaVeyan Traditional Satanist. Some examples of Traditional Satanic Lodges of today are the Temple of Set, HOME, the Joy Of Satan and many others. The websites of these organisations can be found online as well as many other Satanic Organisations with the use of any good internet search engine.