The Swamp logo

Satanism in popular culture: what is the Church of Satan?

Veganism or vegetarianism are therefore nevertheless not part of the world view of the church.

By AddictiveWritingsPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
2
Satanism in popular culture: what is the Church of Satan?
Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash

On Twitter, the Church declared in November 2018: “Veganism (a diet) is not Satanism (a religion), but there are some Satanists who are vegans and some vegans who are Satanists. One is not a subset of the other.”

Equality, hedonism, LGBTQ members, animal rights, Suzie Grime and Christian Bale. A potpourri that actually sounds like the next best hipster club in Berlin-Mitte. But in fact we are talking about the Church of Satan.

Fun-Fact: The headquarters of the Church of Satan is now located in New York, Manhattan. The Manhattan neighborhood that the organization chose fits like a glove: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West.

Actor Christian Bale thanks Satan himself during his Golden Globe speech. Rapper Cardi B agrees via social media with the Church of Satan on what appears to be a particularly diabolical penis. Singer Marilyn Manson has been an ordained priest of the satanic church since the end of the 70s anyway. And influencer Suzie Grime follows the religious organization on Twitter.

The Church of Satan has undoubtedly arrived in pop culture — and more relevant than ever. But why? Why is there so much evil wind blowing around our ears right now? Has someone hired a new marketing dude or does the Church of Satan, founded in 1966, simply suddenly fit into our zeitgeist?

Sacrificial rituals and drinking blood: prejudices and what the church represents

When we think of Satanists, images of sacrificed cats, bloodied women in frocks, and creepy rituals in the darkness of a remote cemetery shoot through our minds. The reality of the Church of Satan moves in much more otto-normal realms. No black magic, no Satan to whom desperate people want to sell their souls at a ridiculous price.

On the official website of the Church, it is stated correctly: “We do not believe in Satan as a being or a person. Satan is for us a symbol of pride, freedom, and individualism and serves as a metaphorical projection from outside.” To put it plainly, the Church of Satan takes an atheistic view. Satan describes for the followers of the Church exclusively a kind of prototype with which they identify.

The acting high priest of the Church of Satan, Peter H. Gilmore, deals with rituals and black magic in his blog entry “Satanism: The Dreaded Religion”. Ritual magic would be practiced, but not to reach supernatural beings but as self-therapy.

The Church of Satan was founded by Anton Szandor LaVey (†) at the end of the 1960s in San Francisco. His declared goal: to establish hedonism and an alternative to most world religions. “I renounce all conventions that do not promise me success and satisfaction in this world,” he writes in the satanic Bible published in 1969. He allegedly wrote this in the Walpurgis Night, i.e. the night from April 30 to May 1. The house has always been able to market itself well.

In the nine satanic principles it says among other things “Satan means sensual pleasure instead of abstinence”. The Christian mortal sin of “lust” is therefore written very, very small here.

Satanism and its image of horror

In 1993, three teenagers murder their classmates with an electric cable, making headlines with their deed as Satan’s murderer. The court concluded that the constant preoccupation with Satanic ideas of the teenagers lowered the inhibition threshold during the murder. The teenagers hold out against it.

In 2001, a Satanist couple from Witten killed a young man with 66 stab wounds. The devil allegedly demanded human sacrifice. In 2014, a 19-year-old girl kills a man together with her husband. Satan had ordered her to do it.

The list is long. However, none of these perpetrators were specifically assigned to the Church of Satan. The deeds nevertheless created a deterrent public image — and cast a bad light on the San Francisco organization, which repeatedly distances itself from such acts.

“It has always been the intention of the Church of Satan to educate people about what Satanism is and to eliminate deliberately spread misinformation, which we have done successfully over the past five decades,” Peter H. Gilmore explains in an interview with Black Magazine.

LGBTQ friendliness, women’s rights, and animal welfare? This is why the “Church of Satan” fits into our time

The Church of Satan does not think little of an almighty Creator. Nor within the organization does it rely on one man at the top. The leadership, the so-called “Order of the Trapezoid”, is composed of two high priests, one man and one woman each. In comparison with other religions such as Catholicism (keyword: Pope) and view of the #MeToo debate, the church is showing itself to be too progressive.

In the FAQs on its website, the church also makes clear what it thinks of the LGBTQ community: “We fully accept all forms of human sexual expression between adults. The Church of Satan has always welcomed gay, lesbian, bisexual, and asexual members since its founding year. The topic is already covered in the chapter “satanic sex” in the satanic bible of founder LaVey.

In the Satanic Bible, it is also written that man is not on a higher level than the beast. According to author LaVey, man is considered an equal part of nature, which is why animals must be respected in the same way. LaVey goes one step further and writes …that for him, animals are the true Satanist. His reasoning: They live purely according to their drives, while man is restricted by spiritual and intellectual development.

Veganism or vegetarianism is therefore nevertheless not part of the world view of the church. On Twitter, the Church declared in November 2018: “Veganism (a diet) is not Satanism (a religion), but there are some Satanists who are vegans and some vegans who are Satanists. One is not a subset of the other.”

Equality, hedonism, LGBTQ members, animal rights, Suzie Grime, and Christian Bale. A potpourri that sounds like the next best hipster club in Berlin-Mitte. But we are talking about the Church of Satan.

Fun-Fact: The headquarters of the Church of Satan is now located in New York, Manhattan. The Manhattan neighborhood that the organization chose fits like a glove: Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown West.

pop culture
2

About the Creator

AddictiveWritings

I’m a young creative writer and artist from Germany who has a fable for anything strange or odd.^^

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments (1)

Sign in to comment
  • Valentina Savage2 years ago

    I like your storie. Scary a little. Like you, I have written a storie about Lucifer, I invite you to read it and subscribe. I subscribed to you. Thank you :)

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.