Authors: Anton Szandor LaVey
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Humor, #Philosophy, #Religion
Baphomet - worshipped by the Templars as symbolic of Satan Bast - Egyptian goddess of pleasure represented by the cat Beelzebub - (Hebrew) Lord of the Flies, taken from symbolism of the scarab Behemoth - Hebrew personification of Satan in the form of an elephant Beherit
- Syriac name for Satan
Bilé
- Celtic god of Hell
Chemosh
- national god of Moabites, later a devil
Cimeries
- rides a black horse and rules Africa
Coyote
- American Indian devil
Dagon
- Philistine avenging devil of the sea
Damballa
- Voodoo serpent god
Demogorgon - Greek name of the devil, it is said should not be known to mortals Diabolus
- (Greek) “flowing downwards”
Dracula
- Romanian name for devil
Emma-O
- Japanese ruler of Hell
Euronymous
- Greek prince of death
Fenriz
- son of Loki, depicted as a wolf
Gorgo - dim. of Demogorgon, Greek name of the devil Haborym
- Hebrew synonym for Satan
Hecate - Greek goddess of the underworld and witchcraft Ishtar
- Babylonian goddess of fertility
Kali - (Hindu) daughter of Shiva, high priestess of the Thuggees Lilith - Hebrew female devil, Adam's first wife who taught him the ropes Loki
- Teutonic devil
Mammon
- Aramaic god of wealth and profit
Mania
- Etruscan goddess of Hell
Mantus
- Etruscan god of Hell
Marduk
- god of the city of Babylon
Mastema
- Hebrew synonym for Satan
Melek Taus
- Yezidi devil
Mephistopheles - (Greek) he who shuns the light, q. v. Faust Metztli
- Aztec goddess of the night
Mictian
- Aztec god of death
Midgard
- son of Loki, depicted as a serpent
Milcom
- Ammonite devil
Moloch
- Phoenician and Canaanite devil
Mormo - (Greek) King of the Ghouls, consort of Hecate Naamah
- Hebrew female devil of seduction
Nergal
- Babylonian god of Hades
Nihasa
- American Indian devil
Nija
- Polish god of the underworld
O-Yama
- Japanese name for Satan
Pan - Greek god of lust, later relegated to devildom Pluto
- Greek god of the underworld
Proserpine
- Greek queen of the underworld
Pwcca
- Welsh name for Satan
Rimmon
- Syrian devil worshipped at Damascus
Sabazios - Phrygian origin, identified with Dionysos, snake worship Saitan
- Enochian equivalent of Satan
Sammael
- (Hebrew) “venom of God”
Samnu
- Central Asian devil
Sedit
- American Indian devil
Sekhmet
- Egyptian goddess of vengeance
Set
- Egyptian devil
Shaitan
- Arabic name for Satan
Shiva
- (Hindu) the destroyer
Supay
- Inca god of the underworld
T'an-mo - Chinese counterpart to the devil, covetousness, desire Tchort
- Russian name for Satan, “black god”
Tezcatlipoca
- Aztec god of Hell
Thamuz - Sumerian god who later was relegated to devildom Thoth
- Egyptian god of magic
Tunrida
- Scandanavian female devil
Typhon
- Greek personification of Satan
Yaotzin
- Aztec god of Hell
Yen-lo-Wang
- Chinese ruler of Hell
The devils of past religions have always, at least in part, had animal characteristics, evidence of man's constant need to deny that he too is an animal, for to do so would serve a mighty blow to his impoverished ego.
The pig was despised by the Jews and the Egyptians. It symbolized the gods Frey, Osiris, Adonis, Persephone, Attis, and Demeter, and was sacrificed to Osiris and the Moon. But, in time, it became degraded into a devil. The Phoenicians worhipped a fly god, Baal, from which comes the devil, Beelzebub. Both Baal and Beelzebub are identical to the dung beetle or scarabaeus of the Egyptians which appeared to resurrect itself, much as the mythical bird, the phoenix, rose from its own ashes. The ancient Jews believed, through their contact with the Persians, that the two great forces in the world were Ahura-Mazda, the god of fire, light, life, and goodness; and Ahriman, the serpent, the god of darkness, destruction, death, and evil. These, and countless other examples, not only depict man's devils as animals, but also show his need to sacrifice the original animal gods and demote them to his devils.
At the time of the Reformation, in the Sixteenth Century, the alchemist, Dr. Johann Faustus, discovered a method of summoning a demon - Mephistopheles - from Hell and making a pact with him. He signed a contract in blood to turn his soul over to Mephistopheles in return for the feeling of youth, and at once became young. When the time came for Faustus to die, he retired to his room and was blown to bits as though his laboratory had exploded. This story is a protest of the times (the Sixteenth Century) against science, chemistry, and magic.
To the Satanist, it is unnecessary to sell your soul to the Devil or make a pact with Satan. This threat was devised by Christianity to terrorize people so they would not stray from the fold. With scolding fingers and trembling voices, they taught their followers that if they gave in to the temptations of Satan, and lived their lives according to their natural predilictions, they would have to pay for their sinful pleasures by giving their souls to Satan and suffering in Hell for all eternity.
People were led to believe that a pure soul was a passport to everlasting life.
Pious prophets have taught man to fear Satan. But what of terms like “God fearing”? If God is so merciful, why do people have to fear him? Are we to believe there is nowhere we can turn to escape fear? If you have to fear God, why not be “Satan fearing” and at least have the fun that being God fearing denies you? Without such a wholesale fear religionists would have had nothing with which to wield power over their followers.
The Teutonic Goddess of the Dead and daughter of Loki was named Hel, a Pagan god of torture and punishment. Another “L” was added when the books of the Old Testament were formulated.
The prophets who wrote the Bible did not know the word “Hell”; they used the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades, which meant the grave; also the Greek Tartaros, which was the abode of fallen angels, the underworld (inside the earth), and Gehenna, which was a valley near Jerusalem where Moloch reigned and garbage was dumped and burned. It is from this that the Christian Church has evolved the idea of “fire and brimstone” in Hell.
The Protestant Hell and the Catholic Hell are places of eternal punishment; however, the Catholics also believe there is a “Purgatory” where all souls go for a time, and a “Limbo” where unbaptized souls go. The Buddhist Hell is divided into eight sections, the first seven of which can be expiated. The ecclesiastical description of Hell is that of a horrible place of fire and torment; in Dante's Inferno, and in northern climes, it was thought to be an icy cold region, a giant refrigerator.
(Even with all their threats of eternal damnation and soul roasting, Christian missionaries have run across some who were not so quick to swallow their drivel. Pleasure and pain, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. So, when missionaries ventured into Alaska and warned the Eskimos of the horrors of Hell and the blazing lake of fire awaiting transgressors, they eagerly asked: “How do we get there?”!)
Most Satanists do not accept Satan as an anthropomorphic being with cloven hooves, a barbed tail, and horns. He merely represents a force in nature - the powers of darkness which have been named just that because no religion has taken these forces out of the darkness. Nor has science been able to apply technical terminology to this force. It is an untapped reservoir that few can make use of because they lack the ability use a tool without having to first break down and label all the parts which make it run. It is this incessant need to analyze which prohibits most people from taking advantage of this many faceted key to the unknown - which the Satanist chooses to call “Satan”.
Satan, as a god, demi-god, personal saviour, or whatever you wish to call him, was invented by the formulators of every religion on the face of the earth for only one purpose - to preside over man's so-called wicked activities and situations here on earth. Consequently, anything resulting in physical or mental gratification was defined as “evil” - thus assuring a lifetime of unwarrented guilt for everyone!
So, if “evil” they have named us, evil we are - and so what! The Satanic Age is upon us! Why not take advantage of it and LIVE!
SATANISM represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can. If you love everyone and everything you lose your natural powers of selection and wind up being a pretty poor judge of character and quality. If anything is used too freely it loses its true meaning.
Therefore, the Satanist believes you should love strongly and completely those who deserve your love, but never turn the other cheek to your enemy!
Love is one of the most intense emotions felt by man; another is hate. Forcing yourself to feel indiscriminate love is very unnatural. If you try to love everyone you only lessen your feelings for those who deserve your love. Repressed hatred can lead to many physical and emotional ailments.
By learning to release your hatred towards those who deserve it, you cleanse yourself of these malignant emotions and need not take your pent-up hatred out on your loved ones.
There has never been a great “love” movement in the history of the world that hasn't wound up killing countless numbers of people, we must assume, to prove how much they loved them! Every hypocrite who ever walked the earth has had pockets buldging with love!
Every pharisaical religionist claims to love his enemies, even though when wronged he consoles himself by thinking “God will punish them”. Instead of admitting to themselves that they are capable of hating their foes and treating them in the manner they deserve, they say: “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” and “pray” for them. Why should we humiliate and lower ourselves by drawing such inaccurate comparisons?
Satanism has been thought of as being synonymous with cruelty and brutality. This is so only because people are afraid to face the truth - and the truth is that human beings are not all benign or all loving. Just because the Satanist admits he is capable of both love and hate, he is considered hateful. On the contrary, because he is able to give vent to his hatred through ritualized expression, he is far more capable of love - the deepest kind of love. By honestly recognizing and admitting to both the hate and the love he feels, there is no confusing one emotion with the other.
Without being able to experience one of these emotions, you cannot fully experience the other.
MUCH controversy has arisen over the Satanic views on “free love”. It is often assumed that sexual activity is the most important factor of the Satanic religion, and that willingness to participate in sex-orgies is a prerequisite for becoming a Satanist.
Nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, opportunists who have no deeper interest in Satanism than merely the sexual aspects are emphatically discouraged.
Satanism does advocate sexual freedom, but only in the true sense of the word. Free love, in the Satanic concept, means exactly that - freedom to either be faithful to one person or to indulge your sexual desires with as many others as you feel is necessary to satisfy your particular needs.
Satanism does not encourage orgiastic activity or extramarital affairs for those to whom they do not come naturally. For many, it would be very unnatural and detrimental to be unfaithful to their chosen mates. To others, it would be frustrating to be bound sexually to just one person. Each person must decide for himself what form of sexual activity best suits his individual needs. Self-deceitfully forcing yourself to be adulterous or to have sex partners when not married just for the sake of proving others (or worse yet, to yourself) that you are emancipated from sexual guilt is just as wrong, by Satanic standards, as leaving any sexual need unfulfilled because of ingrained feelings of guilt.
Many of those who are constantly preoccupied with demonstrating their emancipation from sexual guilt are, in reality, held in even greater sexual bondage than those who simply accept sexual activity as a natural part of life and don't make a big to-do over their sexual freedom. For example, it is an established fact that the nymphomaniac (every man's dream girl and heroine of all lurid novels) is not sexually free, but is actually frigid and roves from man to man because she is too inhibited to ever find complete sexual release.
Another misconception is the idea that ability to engage in group sexual activity is the indicative of sexual freedom. All contemporary free-sex groups have one thing in common - discouragement of fetishistic or deviant activity.
Actually, the most forced examples of non-fetishistic sexual activity thinly disguised as “freedom”
have a common format. Each of the participants in an orgy removes all clothing, following the example set forth by one, and mechanically fornicate - also following the leader's example. None of the performers consider that their “emancipated” form of sex might be regarded as regimented and infantile by non-members who fail to equate uniformity with freedom.
The Satanist realizes that if he is to be a sexual connoiseur (and truly free from all sexual guilt) he cannot be stifled by the so-called sexual revolutionists any more than he can by the prudery of his guilt-ridden society. These free-sex clubs miss the whole point of sexual freedom. Unless sexual activity can be expressed on an individual basis (which includes personal fetishes), there is absolutely no purpose in belonging to a sexual freedom organization.