The
Devil Made Me Do It: A Note on Satanism (Part 1 of 2)
by Terrie
Renwick, IG Grá-auga
Many pagans &
heathens, especially most of the Wiccans of my acquaintance,
have a stock response to folks who question or accuse them about
Satanism: "We don't believe in Satan." Although
this will suffice, & I suppose it's indeed the best reply in
many instances, it is my opinion that it doesn't go quite far
enough. Now, I certainly don't pretend to be any kind of
expert in such matters, nor was I able to consult every single
reference on Satanism that exists, but I did some researching
& came up with the odd bit of information, here & there,
which I found interesting & informative. I hope some
of you readers will think so, too. Much of the analytical
stuff I've been plowing through is, quite frankly, boring as
you-know-what! I keep falling asleep on it, & it's
been taking a lot longer than I wanted to polish it off, so I
decided to get at least the first part off to the presses &
hope the next bit will be ready by next issue! OK, here
goes!
How I see it so far: Satanism began as a result of
Christians who were secretly rebelling against the harshness of
the early Church, praying to the opposite of God since they were
unsatisfied with the results of praying to God. Whether or
not their lot was improved, they no doubt felt better for having
the anti-establishment outlet to show their contempt for the
authorities of the day. Some actually practiced those
nasty things we see in the movies: sexual orgies, human
sacrifice, canibalism, & various other desecrations &
parodies of Christian practices. Dabblers included young
noblemen & their commoner cronies, mostly in it for the wild
parties often
accompanied by orgies, mind you.
In the 1800's interest in Satanism faded & other forms of
mysticism came into popularity. People often wrongly
connect Aleister Crowley with Satanism, but he was in fact
involved with Golden Dawn & O.T.O. Just because some
of what
he's written on magick have been used by Satanists, that doesn't
mean he was one of them.
Yes, there are indeed real people who practice what they call
Satanism, but neither Anton Lavey's Church of Satan or Michael
Aquino's Temple of Set advocate belief in the existence of the
Devil, Black Masses, or breaking civil laws. They are not
the same as the disturbed, criminal sickos whose
self-styled, so-called Satanism comes from the stereotypes of
Hollywood fantasy, comic books, role-playing games &
Christian anti-everything literature. Scrawlers of Satanic
graffiti are no more Satanists than scrawlers of UFO graffiti
are extraterrestrials! Unfortunately, their view seems to
be that Satanism offers power in exchange for submission &
sometimes in exchange for criminal sociopathic acts.
OK, so far, so good (or bad, as the case may be ... LOL).
Believe it or not, it seems that most of the philosophy of the
upper management of modern-day Satanism got its beginning in
what is Iran & Iraq today, when they were Sidonia &
Persia, in Summeria, home of a cult of heretics. Their
philosophy
can be followed back to even more eastern & elder Indian
& pre-Chinese cultures. Survival of the fastest, smartest,
strongest first, with social cooperation coming only after
Number One has been looked after, was apparently the order of
the day. That was how they saw God's will.
So, who were they, anyway? Sethanists, that's who - the
self-named Children of Sethaniel. Their existence was
reported as early as 250 B.C.E. & their rites were of homage
& immitation of God's first-born angel (Ibisi/Lucifer) as
ruler of the material world. Their religious ecstasy came
from its
extreme excesses. They hoped to get him to ease their
lives & make their enemies' lives difficult.
Templars & Jewish Caballists were each accused of Satanism.
Templars probably got more attention from the Church after they
became wealthy. Yeah, yeah, so what else is new, right?
OK, during about the same time that the Templars were attracting
attention, an Italian sect called Cathari espoused doctrines
similar to the Sethanists. The fusion of the two
engendered Luciferians, who used many aliases based on biblican
inspirers or geographical base of operations (e.g. Messalinians,
Cainians). They maintained that Lucifer would eventually
return to the glory that was his before being unjustly cast into
Hell. Unfortunately, certain conniving
individuals implicated superstitious but wealthy &
influential patrons into infanticide, rape, heresy, blasphemy
& treason in order to ensure their loyalty & financial
support. Their success attracted others - poor folk who
despised the conspicuous wealth & luxury of the Church &
envied that of the clergy of Lucifer.
Many other secret societies arose from the duality of enriching
oneself at others' expense versus denying oneself, within
certain acceptable limits, in order to better oneself or one's
group (be it family, tribe, or whatever). The founders of
some of these societies came from many areas. There were
theological students, politicians, clergy, Masons, nobles, &
university professors, to name a few.
Some actually used Masonic practices, their orders' lesser
degrees dealing with the leading of a virtuous life, while all
the time the upper echelons explored libertine pursuits, often
aided by libraries full of secret documents & chemical
laboratories of considerable magnitude. Other groups
explored Mesmerism, in conjunction with Masonic rites, for
social & political means of achieving their goals. One
police raid in the late 1700's uncovered documents describing
plans for creating deep-cover "sleeper" agents out of
women who would become mistresses to selected financially &
politically elite individuals.
Not everyone was successful in their attempts to inseminate
freemasonry with Satanic influence. Many balked when they
found out that the degrees for the rogue Masonic Illuminati
required actual work outside the Temple. Other adepts,
however, willingly turned renegade & embraced the Luciferian
slant, right down to the human sacrifice & renunciation of
faith. Certain areas went so far as to suppress the orders
because of the anarchy they taught!
Now, before someone misinterprets me as a Mason-basher, let me
underline that the Masons mentionnned above were rogues &
renegades, & a very small minority compared to the others
who did indeed live up to the Masons' Good Samaritanism which
continues to this very day.
In addition to Luciferians (typically the schemers) & the
Sethanists (seemingly the pedigreed wealthy), a third faction,
the more flamboyant Paladianists (or Paladians), make up the
third side of the Satanist triangle of emphasis. They will
be discussed in the sequel to this article, along with a general
wrap-up.
Wes thu hail from Terrie Renwick, I.G. Grá-auga
