Satanism and My Response

"What do you do when you’re the underdog, fighting for survival? What do you do when God is dead and there are no rules? What kind of character or honor or sense of justice do you really have when there’s no God to judge you, no threat of eternity in the fiery furnace? That’s when things get interesting. Step beyond the boundaries and see what you might find within yourself. Satanists want to cut through the bullshit, challenge themselves and others, and enjoy life."
Magistra Templi Rex Blanche Barton

My Response: Understood. I, also, wish to cut through bullshit, challenge and be challenged and to enjoy life.

The Nine Satanic Statements
from The Satanic Bible, ©1969
by Anton Szandor LaVey

1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
My opinion is that neither extreme can be good on a permanent basis. I think that there's a time for both indulgence and abstinence, and this timing varies dependent on many, many factors.

2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
Again, one extreme to the other. Is it a mistake to want to live a vital AND spiritual existence? Does not spirituality not give life the only meaning that can be extracted from its existence? In everything we obtain meaning or purpose from, that meaning we know and feel to the core of our essence is due to a spiritualization of it. (I speak of spirituality here as concerning matters that are immaterial or 'not of the world'. 'Meaning', for example, is immaterial and something not concrete or of this world. It is significant to nothing other than the spirit or soul or core of being.) If we say that is is love that gives our lives meaning, it is because we have given it significance that resonated with our spirits/souls, i.e. the irrational, the illogical, the insubstantial. We can apply this to anything to which we describe as meaningful. Meaning can only be a spiritual meaning, and by this I don't (necessarily) mean a religious meaning. But it isn't concrete, it isn't 'real', per se, yet it is still so significant to personal well-being. Or at least a life with which one can be content with. Hence, it is through spirituality only that we can obtain meaning, and only through spirituality that we can acheive happiness. On the other hand, though, I believe that it is the vital existence that must be spiritualized. It is also the darkness that requires this. We want to become spiritual 'wholes' and can only acheive this by extracting spiritual meaning from both sides of humanity. Spiritualizing the flesh is the first step towards embracing this whole. It is not abstinence from sex (although much can be learned from this), or extreme promiscuity but it is by enjoying the pleasures of the flesh and other wordly or physical pleasures with a spiritual perspective.

3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
Fair enough.

4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
Ok. Kindess to all...always, is my belief. But when you are being abused, walked on, mistreated, hurt, then you must also consider kindess to yourself, and step away from the situation or person around which this is occuring. In this world, there is enough suffering to be had without suffering for no reason or benefit.

5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
Never. Vengeance will only cause you to find yourself in an even greater place of pain in the end. Learn for yourself....if you must. But it won't be pretty.

6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!
Agreed.

7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!
It is only either when basic needs are denied or when both sides of the indivdual are conflicted and not accepted or merged does the human animal become vicious. Think about it. Humans have the potential to be the most vicious due to our 'intent', which is so much deeper in humans than animals. Animals act on instinct and survival, humans have thought, which has turned everything into concepts, stuctures by which we try to fit everything into a category or place in order to bring order to chaos. These concepts are that which we find ourselves at war with. Merge the animal with the divine and spiritual. I am convinced this is the answer.

8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
Sin originally meant 'to miss the mark'. In relation to Christianity, sin came to mean all these forms of gratification since Christian doctrine advocated that the only gratification worth seeking was through the gratification of God.

9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!
Hahaha. True.