Bringing some Light...

Something that hasn't yet come up on this blog since I started updating it is that I've made some pretty big changes to my spirituality/religious beliefs! Which is, namely, that I'm a Luciferian now. I was never really a believer in the way that the bible taught about Lucifer, even when I was a Christian. Something about all of it just didn't quite sit right with me. Lucifer always seemed to be getting an undeserved bad wrap -- after all,  most of the genuinely horrifying things (from my perspective) that happened in the bible were done by God.  And also the whole "the apple gave us knowledge of good and evil" thing never felt right to me in a way that I couldn't quite put my finger on. 

As I started to explore more of paganism and witchcraft and began to search for things that tied into my more... monstrous bits and my history as an abuse victim and survivor, I found myself being slowly drawn towards two specific figures: Lilith and Lucifer. Now, this post isn't going to be about Lilith since the question about revering Lilith when one isn't Jewish is fraught with a lot of controversy and I'm not exactly interested in getting into that.  I will be talking about Lucifer, though. Specifically, I want to talk about Satanism and Luciferianism. 

I'm a member and admin over on Witches of PA on facebook and repeatedly, we have members who seem to have very little understanding of Satanism and Luciferianism throwing the words around to describe "evil" or "selfish" (or making my favorite erroneous claim that "witches don't believe in Satan" -- which is a holdover from the days when basically all witchcraft and paganism were looked at through the lens of Gardnerian Wicca/neo-paganism or Silver Ravenwolf books) It gets really frustrating to see so many people who seem to consider themselves "pagan" resorting to that kind of utterly Christian thinking -- that Satan is evil and etc., Or insisting that all witches are Wiccan (I wish this mindset would die but it's still alive and well in a lot of witchcraft spaces and pagan reconstructionist settings -- I could go on forever about how much I dislike the way Wicca treats the Divine but... That would be getting horrifically off topic.)

Anyway, I wrote a sort of "primer" on the basics of Satanism and Luciferianism for those who are miseducated in the group (and aren't willing to do basic research) and I've decided to share it here (links & formatting added because facebook sucks)

Hey there witches -- your local Satanic Admin here to clear up some sh!t about Satanism and Luciferianism for y'all since I've seen some really worrying behavior in this group from some folks and it's starting to get very, very old. 

First off: Satanists and Luciferians aren't evil. That's Far Right, Evangelical Christian Propaganda. There were no Satanic Cults in the 70s and 80s abusing children, sacrificing goats and performing evil rituals. Satanists, as a general rule, don't sit here planning how to do evil and harm people. This is stuff you could easily learn with a basic google search or even just checking Wikipedia. Research is your friend but since I know a lot of people don't like to do research, I'm reaching out to do some education.

Second: Luciferianism and Satanism are not actually the same thing and neither of them are synonyms for selfishness. 

Third, a little primer on Satanism: 

Satanists, unless they're self-proclaimed "theistic Satanists", don't worship Satan or even *believe* in the existence of Satan (or God, for that matter.) Satanism is a nontheistic/atheist religion that focuses on self-determination, free-will, autonomy, enlightenment and self-betterment. 

They do not believe in encroaching upon the rights of others in any capacity or in harming others (unless in self-defense). There are two major organizations that exist in Satanism, though I'm sure there are more branches -- the Church of Satan (which was founded by Anton LaVey, an American Occultist, and is considered the first incidence of Satanic Continuity in history) and the Satanic Temple. Neither of which are theistic in nature! In fact...

The Satanic Temple regarding Satan (taken from Wikipedia): "The Satanic Temple does not believe in a supernatural Satan; instead it employs the literary Satan as a metaphor to promote pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity. Satan is thus used as a symbol representing "the eternal rebel" against arbitrary authority and social norms."

The Church of Satan regarding Satan (taken from Wikipedia): "The Church does not believe in the Devil, neither a Christian nor Islamic notion of Satan. Peter H. Gilmore describes its members as "skeptical atheists", embracing the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "adversary". The Church views Satan as a positive archetype who represents pride, individualism, and enlightenment, and as a symbol of defiance against the Abrahamic faiths which LaVey criticized for what he saw as the suppression of humanity's natural instincts." 

[Note added for blog version: there are some controversies surrounding both the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple, both iirc, involving sexual misconduct. Anton LaVey himself is a pretty problematic figure but this doesn't change what Satanism as a belief structure espouses its beliefs are -- and I think we should always take the word of members of a group as to what it believes over those who are not (and never have been) members of this group. We can criticize their actions as not in line with their professed beliefs, certainly, but we can't say that the CoS and ST having problems in their leadership suddenly means that all Satanists don't actually believe what they say they do.]

Fourth, a quick primer on Luciferianism: Luciferianism is a belief system that views Lucifer not as evil but as a destroyer of unjust systems, a guardian and liberator and light bringer... Some Luciferians may even consider Lucifer the *true* God as opposed to Jehovah/ The Christian God.

Luciferianism, in the modern sense (there are some Medieval/14th century occurances of Luciferianism but most Luciferians are followers of the modern thought), is based in Anarchism and self-determination, much like Satanism. 

From the author of the Anarchist Journal "Lucifer the Lightbringer": "The god of the Bible doomed mankind to perpetual ignorance, and [people] would never have known Good from Evil if Lucifer had not told them how to become as wise as the gods themselves." (source) 

[note added to blog post: yes, Harman was involved in the foundation of the Eugenics Movement which is, fucking obviously, bad. But Christianity isn't free of problematic actors either and no belief system or religious movement is. While I personally call myself a Luciferian (since I despise the term "Satan Worshipper" or "Devil Worshipper" -- I'm considering changing my personal identification to "demonolator" but that's neither here nor there.]

Fifth: I want to ask a question: why are so many *Pagans* invoking Satan as a symbol of evil in this group? Why are so many *Pagans* against Satanists? You're not Christian, Satan has *nothing to do* with your religious/spiritual practice, according to most Pagan practices, Satan doesn't even *exist*. You're literally giving into Christian mindsets and applying them to non-Christians while calling yourself witches and Pagans. That's utterly hypocritical and it needs to stop. 

If you've read this far, please leave me a comment -- if you've got any questions, I will answer them as best I can. If people start clowning on this post, I *will not* be taking that lightly. This is an attempt to clear up miseducation. If you decide you want to continue to be miseducated and be a dick well.. I'll take it up with the modmin team. 

Thank you for reading and for Lucifer's sake,  do some freaking research once in awhile

 It could be more in-depth and more nuanced by the fact that Facebook doesn't allow for formatting of any kind makes it hard to write a good informational post on there without it turning into an incomprehensible wall or text.