
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)
