Paganism by River Higginbotham

Author:River Higginbotham
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: paganism, herb, herbal, herbalism, garden, gardening, herb gardening, plants, nature, natural, natural magick, natural magic, god, goddess, polytheistic
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2013-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

your view of satan

1. When someone mentions Satan, what comes to your mind? What feelings come with the images? Where did you learn the views you currently have of Satan?

2. Can you think of any additional roles Satan has played socially or mythologically? If so, what?

3. Do you find it difficult to approach the issue of Satan from different perspectives? If so, which one is causing you difficulty? Which of the perspectives covered above is the most unusual or different from your own?

Who Is a Satanist?

Are there Satanists out there or not? If the label doesn’t apply to Pagans in general, who does it describe, if anyone? We identify three primary groupings of people we consider “satanic,” though for different reasons.

The first group consists of those who truly worship Satan as a Deity of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim pantheon. People in this group are not Pagans and would not likely identify themselves as Pagans. Frequently, they identify mythologically with their religion of origin, which in the United States is probably Christianity. To members of such a cult, Satan acts in his role as the embodiment of evil, a principle which these Satanists claim to serve and worship. The wild tales that occasionally circulate about human and animal sacrifice and ritual abuse—if they have any factual basis at all—would be related to these destructive cults. The movie Rosemary’s Baby gives us Hollywood’s version of them.

The next group of Satanists are those who belong to the Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey in 1966. LaVey wrote The Satanic Bible, which sets out the essentials of his satanic beliefs. In the Church of Satan, Satan is viewed primarily as an archetype representing a variety of specific energies. It is these energies that interest the members of the Church of Satan, not Satan himself per se; they do not worship Satan. In fact, they do not worship any Deity, since one of their guiding principles is autonomy and self-determinism. They look to Satan as an archetype of how to think for themselves, act from the center of their own power, and avoid the “herd mentality.”

The third group of Satanists are those who belong to the church of the Temple of Set, founded by Michael Aquino in 1975. Setians consider themselves an offshoot of the Church of Satan. This group does not focus on Satan at all but on the Egyptian god Set. Setians are mixed on what Set is; some view him as a concrete being, others as an archetypal energy. However, he represents to both views the principle of intelligence or consciousness, especially when it is “isolate” or acting independently, relying solely on its own conscience and taking full responsibility for its actions.

You may hear both the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set described as “left-hand” paths. This term is not meant as an insult to lefties, but commonly refers to something that differs or dissents from the norm. A left-hand path is one of spiritual dissent and one that tends to

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