⛧ Galena ⛧ @Galena@gameliberty.club

@se7en @galena@blob.cat @ikocevski LaVeyan Satanism officially considers the first category you mentioned, worship of Satan as an actual, real deity, to be "devil worship" and not "Satanism". LaVeyan Satanists are very, very careful to avoid referring to it as Satanism, to avoid getting themselves mixed in with devil worshiping groups and accused of being associated with crimes they're uninvolved with. To them, LaVey invented the concept of "Satanism" as a religion, and only religions derived from LaVeyan Satanism can be called "Satanism". I try to avoid referring to devil worship as Satanism too, though I'll occasionally call it "Theistic Satanism" when referring to more established groups that believe in those kinds of things (eg Temple of Set) because they are an actual offshoot of LaVeyan Satanism, despite believing "Satan" (or Set, specifically) is real.

Satanists have a very long history of being grouped in with insane cultists, devil-worshipers who commit heinous crimes, and other such fringe groups, and I'd rather not grant any legitimacy whatsoever to those claims. I'm sure you've seen how easy it is for a group to be co-opted and corrupted if it doesn't constantly police itself and who it accepts and who it rejects when they use its name. When I use the term "Satanist", I am referring primarily to LaVeyan Satanism and associated religions, because I don't consider devil worshipers to be Satanists.

@ikocevski He's not saying "no one" cares, just that "the universe" itself doesn't care. Your car doesn't care if you crash it or not, your home doesn't care if you live in it or abandon it, etc. The universe isn't alive and it doesn't think, so it can't care about things. People care, people have morals, people have their own codes and thoughts and belief systems. Satanism is just one of many such systems, with its own set of rules.

1 - You asked, I answered. It's a public forum for discussion, it's reasonable to expect people to give their opinions and comments.

2 - What it's trying to say is, don't whine to people about your problems if they don't care about your problems.

4 - I agree with that. I consider myself a Satanist, but I also don't want to harm others unless it's absolutely necessary - ie, only in self defense. The Satanic Bible, taken literally, is often a bit too extreme when it comes to retaliation. I prefer to think it's being hyperbolic to exaggerate the effect, because it often does that in other places, but some people do take that stuff literally which is something I disagree with.

6 - You're missing the point, assisted suicide is a completely separate topic. What this is saying is basically "Don't steal, but it's okay to take something if its owner asks you to." As for assisted suicide, if someone wants to die, it's their choice to do so. I support the right to suicide. Don't get me wrong, I'd never advise someone to do so, and I'd never assist someone in doing so, but if someone is truly suicidal and wants to go about it in a "safe" manner, eg medically assisted suicide, it's ultimately their choice to make. It's unfortunate that anyone ever reaches that point, and I believe there's almost always a better option.

7 - Kind of, but not exactly. Explaining Satanism's view of magic is rather complex, and I'll admit I don't fully understand it. Quite a few Satanists believe it's all just role-playing and make believe as a form of catharsis. From how it's described in the Satanic Bible and Satanic Scriptures, it's sort of like trying to mentally enforce your will upon the collective consciousness in a way that will benefit you. It's pretty open to interpretation, but basically, it isn't "real" but you try to convince yourself it is "real". If you then reject it, and say it isn't "real", that's going to shatter the illusion you've made for yourself. Or something like that, maybe.

8 - If you can fix something, fix it instead of complaining about it. If you can't fix it, have no power over it, and it doesn't effect you, then there's no point in complaining about it. Basically, don't waste time complaining about things beyond your control that don't effect you.

11 - If you need help, ask for help. If people don't want to help, don't bother them by begging for help. This ties into rule 2, you should generally be asking for help from people who will actually be willing to help you. It's saying don't bother people in public, and if someone doesn't want to interact with you, don't force yourself on them, lest you incur their wrath.

As for the golden rule, it isn't explicitly "Harm people who harm you" like "eye for an eye" is. It applies to both good and bad, not just bad: harm those who harm you and help those who help you. Defaulting to treating people with kindness and respect is good, and pairs perfectly with the golden rule. I believe most people, and even many more intelligent animals, eg cats and dogs, tend to operate on something similar to that on the most basic level. People tend to like people who are nice to them, and dislike people who are mean to them. Cats and dogs and other animals tend to be loving towards people who are loving towards them, but react with fear and/or aggression towards people who harm them. The rule goes both ways - treat people how they treat you, and expect them to treat you how you've treated them. I'll admit that a lot of Satanists miss the point there. If you treat people with some level of kindness and respect as a default, then they'll usually react in kind. That's how I try to act.
But some people aren't like that. There are people who act with hostility towards strangers who've done nothing wrong to them, or even take advantage of kindness and choose to act cruelly towards people who've been kind and respectful towards them. These people are not worth respect or kindness, and deserve to be either cut out of your life, or treated as cruelly as they've treated you. Don't help someone who's harmed you, don't treat someone who disrespects you with respect, don't love someone who hates you. Hate earns hate, harm earns harm, disrespect earns disrespect. It's better, imo, to cut them out of your life if possible. This also happens to tie in to magic. Using magic to curse them is acceptable and encouraged as a form of revenge - and most people would probably say that this "magic" does literally nothing but make the person casting the spell feel better, and even some Satanists share that sentiment.

@ikocevski This is only tangentially related, but one thing I've always found interesting to note is the fifth rule. It forbids unwarranted "sexual advances" in general, not just sexual contact. The "mating signal" is a bit vague, depending heavily on context, and essentially meaning that they've shown interest in you. Satanism views even something like making sexual advances on someone who hasn't shown any signs of being interested in you as being wrong enough to be added as one of its core rules.

@ikocevski What's your point? The universe is amoral - "the universe" itself doesn't have any sense of morality that it enforces onto people. That isn't saying people should be amoral, it's only saying that "the universe" doesn't care.
Technically, not harming children is the 9th rule, not the 1st rule (they're given in no particular order), but the Satanic bible does make it pretty clear that animal abuse and child abuse, of any kind, are two of the things most despised by the religion. Any form of rape is also utterly despised by the religion - it promotes the sexual freedom of the individual (so long as all parties involved are consenting adults), and is very sexual in nature. Sexual freedom is extremely important. Rape, of any kind, is stripping another individual of their sexual freedom - it's an extremely grievous crime. Sexually assaulting a child is therefor a combination of what Satanism views as two of the most heinous acts someone can commit. Satanists hate child molesters more than they hate almost any other group of people on the planet.

The Eleven Satanic Rules of The Earth are:
1 - Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2 - Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3 - When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4 - If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5 - Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6 - Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7 - Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8 - Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9 - Do not harm little children.
10 - Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11 - When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

There is also the "golden rule" of Satanism, "Do unto others as they have done unto you", which serves as the core foundation of much of their philosophy. Basically, don't harm someone unless they harm you first, don't be cruel to someone unless they're cruel to you first, if someone treats you well you should treat them well instead of scorning their kindness, etc.