

Date:  02-08-90  23:22

From:  Brad Hicks

To:    Ann Waldrum

Subj:  SATANISM



Anyone who claimed that they could give you a succinct overview of Satanism

is probably about as credible as someone who claims that they can sum up all

of Witchcraft in a few paragraphs.  Because you see, Satanism is no more "one

religion" than is Witchcraft.

The largest public, organized Satanic church is the Temple of Set.  Or so it

would appear; they don't publish membership numbers.  The Temple of Set's

version of Satanism assigns the names of Set, and Satan, and many other

"cthonic" deities, to the entity who seperated humanity from the animals by

giving us the gift of Reason.  Their rituals, such as are known, are divided

between on what they call Lesser Black Magic (practical psychology; stuff

like NLP) and Greater Black Magic (basically ceremonial magic, though I

gather from some of their publish material that at least some of their "top"

scholars are also heavily into radionics).  For a detailed introduction to

this one, file request TSINF.SET from 1:100/523, or call 1-314-741-2231

(3/12/2400 bps) and download it from file area 14.

Two other Satanic religions are well-documented...and long defunct.  The

original Church of Satan, which Arthur Lyons neatly described as "a 'human

potential' movement with a twist," for all practical purposes ceased to exist

many years ago after a schism that shattered the Church.  (The Temple of Set

is the only splinter from that schism that is known to still be in

operation.)  The Church's founder, Anton Szandor LaVey, was responsible for

_The Satanic Bible_, _The Satanic Rituals_, and _The Compleat Witch_

(currently, I am told, being re-released as _The Satanic Witch_).  LaVey's

doctrine (to the extent he had one) was pure human sensualism; good ol'

fashioned Epicureanism meets _I'm OK, You're OK_, with a dash of ceremonial

magic and a ton o' theater.

Two ex-Scientologists from England, who took the name DeGrimstone, founded

another once-large Satanic church called the Church of the Process, later

known as the Process Church of the Last Judgement and later still as

Foundation Faith of the Millenium.  This is the only Satanic church I know of

that can honestly be called an "opposite of Christianity" or a "Christian

heresy"; their theology (such of it as I can comprehend; it's pretty turgid

stuff) was two-fold, then later three-fold, then finally four-fold: Jesus,

Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan.  (Or at least one other source: Satan in his

lower form, Jehovah, Jesus, Satan in his higher form.  I told you: it's

pretty confusing stuff.)  They appear to have really "gotten off on" really

scaring the crap out of everybody; hence the infamous issues of their

magazine devoted to "Fear" and to "Death" (the latter with an article by

Charles Manson).  Another Process minor claim to fame: after interviewing

John W. "Lance Collins" Todd in 1976, Dr. Gavin Frost took away Todd's Church

of Wicca credentials, at least in part because he  felt that Todd's theology

was that of the Process Church, not Wicca.  (Reference: his letter to Green

Egg at that time.)

Most scholars familiar with the Process insist that it went belly-up and

dispersed to the four winds when the DeGrimstones abandoned their followers

and "went underground."  As far as I know, only Maury Terry, Ted Gunderson,

Lyndon LaRouche, and Larry Jones believe that it still exists (and we all

know how reliable--and paranoid--those LAST three are on the subject of "the

occult").

Although there are persistent rumors of a fourth international Satanic

religion, one that uses murder, brainwashing, and blackmail to keep its

existence a secret and which funds its operations (including human sacrifice

and "ritualized child abuse") through drug sales and child pornography, some

of us find it very relevant that a massive investigation has produced no

physical evidence, reliable witnesses, or serious suspects, let alone any

convicted members.  I rank this one as a hoax.

Finally, there are the vast hordes out there of people who call themselves

Satanists (for a multitude of individual reasons).  They vary from each other

as much as (or maybe more than) the tens of thousands of Wiccan self-formed

covens and solitary practitioners do.  We have at least two examples here on

MagickNet: Tim Maroney, who at least USED to refer to himself as a "literary"

Satanist, who drew his inspiration from Byron, Bierce, Milton, et al, and

"Lewis Cyper" who, as far as I can tell, is closer to the "Christian heretic"

formulation; somone who sees Satanism as not incompatible with Christianity

and sees Satan as the Adversary not of true Christianity, but of the endless

parade of (by his standards) fake Christianities that prey on this country.

--- ConfMail V4.00

 * Origin: WeirdBase * St. Louis, MO * 1-314-741-2231 * (1:100/523)

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