QUESTION: Is Satanism always centered on violence, harm to others, addiction, sex, and direct defiance of Christ? It seems so in the forums I’ve found with the exception of yours. You are different and appear just and compassionate.
Most of the self-identified Satanists I’ve met in person seem like decent, reasonable human beings — with good boundaries.
But online, I see a lot of what you’re talking about on Tumblr and elsewhere on the Internet. Especially online, I see a great deal of nihilism and destructive hatred — both towards others and self — put out there in the name of Satan. And I can see why many people encountering this feel that this must be what Satanism is about — because Satan is the personification of evil.
Or is He?
I’ve often considered what I think of as “My Satanism” as a philosophy that is more deeply good than many traditional religions, many of which promote teachings and dogmas that are deeply anti-life — this includes a lot of self-identified Satanists who treat Satanism as a religion. I view My Satanism as a philosophy, and by definition a philosophy is a world view and approach to living a “good” life.
But how can anything calling itself “Satanism” be good? Isn’t Satan the epitome of evil? How do I justify thinking of Satan as representing a “higher good?”
And if Satan is a symbol for good, then what is evil?
I view Satan as an archetype — a powerful symbol that carries deep cultural significance. You can still believe in a literal Satan if you want, but that is not My personal approach. Archetypes tell us something deep about ourselves. One of the most well-known examples of an archetype is “The Hero”, and we’ve all heard of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Some characters embody particular archetypes. For example, Jesus Christ is an embodiment of the “Savior/Redeemer” archetype. Jesus was (as the story goes) sent to save us from our own innate depravity. I think that the nihilism you see associated with Satanism is basically in line with this — these nihilists embrace depravity and destruction as an inversion and rejection of the idea that we need to be saved or redeemed: instead of embracing redemption they embrace destruction. They are still essentially Christian in their worldview — they are just doing their best to “play for the other team” as they understand it.
But that’s not the only way of looking at things.
We all have a “dark side,” which the famous psychologist of archetype theory C.G. Jung called “The Shadow.” The Shadow is comprised of the aspects of us that we are inclined to deny or that the culture in which we are embedded has made taboo or told us are “wrong” without justification in reason or evidence. But in Jung’s view, The Shadow, properly understood, was not something to be saved or redeemed from, but something to be integrated into our being. Failure to integrate the Shadow results in various manifestations of repression, ultimately leading to mental illness of various kinds. If we will not possess our Shadow, we eventually become possessed by it.
If we indeed have a Shadow that we must integrate to be truly healthy, then it becomes even harder to believe that we are all innately morally corrupt or wicked. In fact, we are both dark and light, chaos and order, yin and yang. We therefore have nothing we need to be “saved” from. We have no need to be “redeemed.”
“You should be a monster. An absolute monster. And then you should learn how to control it.” — Jordan B. Peterson
In My view, Satan’s archetype is properly understood as that of the “Skeptic / Opposer.” As the Skeptic, He is the Disagreeable One. The one who is willing to speak truth to power. The one who has the temerity to ask, “Is that really true?” The one who is, even as a child, willing to say out loud that the Emperor has no clothes. As the Opposer, Satan is not about to keep that truth to Himself, but neither can He shout it from the roof tops, because that would be unwise and counterproductive.
As the light-bringer Lucifer, He offers enlightenment to those who are willing to receive the responsibility that goes with having the power of the truth. There is no real power without responsibility, and the burden of that responsibility is great — most people can’t handle it. As a Satanist, I am a warrior for the truth. But if I am wise, I understand that the truth is offensive to many and, if wielded unwisely can easily lead to My being trampled by the herd of blind and panicked cattle that are the vast majority of my fellow humans.
What sort of truths am I talking about? There are many. The truth that The Shadow is not to be feared but embraced is one I have already mentioned. The truth that in matters of your own life there is no higher authority than you yourself — that you are literally your own God. Anything that, while true, the media in our fucked-up culture is currently repressing as “hate facts.” Even the idea that people of different cultures and ideologies can actually sit down together and have a calm and decent discussion that enlightens them both is a dangerous, hated idea in our world.
It’s not stretching things to say that there is no shortage of people out there who will label these truths and many others I hold as “Satanic.”
So, I embrace that.
But I know what it really means when they say that. They are afraid. They are irresponsible. They are infantile and want to find someone — anyone — to whom to give their sovereign power so they can avoid the terrible responsibility that comes with truly owning yourself.
And there are plenty who are eager to take that offered power — who are in fact, addicted to other peoples’ power. And even if those power-addicted leaders claim to want a “higher-good,” the nature of that addiction inevitably leads to the tragic destruction of both their utopian visions, and countless lives.
In My view, Satan doesn’t want your allegiance, your sacrifice, your worship, your soul. Satan is not a leader — He’s a light. He wants you to own yourself. That is terrible enough to contemplate and, yes, widely regarded as evil, because those who call Him evil would rather they and their false idols own you.
So returning to the question I asked above: if Satan is somehow good then what is evil? Don’t we need a symbol to represent it? How do we name that which promotes nihilism, destruction, hopelessness, non-being… nothing?
The Nothing.
The Neverending Story is a kid’s book and movie, and yet not at all for kids. Parts of it are deeply philosophical and can only be understood by adults who have lived long enough to see The Nothing at the edges of their world. And yet, the only adults who I think can understand it fully are those who have looked into the abyss of their own non-being, and yet chosen to not be devoured by it.
Satan is an archetype. Archetypes have meaning. Archetypes are something. The Nothing is… nothing. Not even a symbol. It is meaning-less. You can’t worship it, you can’t tattoo it on your body, you can’t obey it. But you can “fall into it” — by giving up, by giving away your power, by not caring, by telling untruths, by being untrue, by opposing those who truly want to live… by allowing yourself to sink. Those who cannot or will not act to make meaning in their lives, or even worse who willfully blind themselves to meaning and who work to blind others, are the servants of The Nothing.
So many ideologies and religions sacrifice right now for Paradise. They promise something great just beyond the veil. To pass that veil, all you have to do is give up on now and teach others to do the same. I see this in Christians preaching “pie in the sky when you die,” and I see this in the anonymous, hateful violence in our streets blasphemously attributed to a desire for a peaceful, tolerant, and “fair” world, and I see this in self-identified Satanists preaching the gospel of nihilism, addiction, and harm to self and others. They are all servants of The Nothing, and they appear in many forms.
This is the best explanation of actual evil I can give.
To me, being Satanic means being alive right now. It means fully living, and teaching others to do the same who are ready to hear it.
Whether or not our lives continue beyond our death — in heaven, hell, as self-deified gods, or something we can’t imagine — is unimportant when compared to the meaning we choose to make in our own lives right now: moment by moment, breath by breath, with each careful thought, and with each passionate beat of our hearts.
