Origins and leaders of Satanism | dstill.ai shared chat

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Origins of Satanism. Who are the current leaders? What are similar cults?

The concept of Satanism has evolved over time and can vary depending on the group or individual involved. Early groups, like the Luciferians, had beliefs that were in opposition to the mainstream Church and saw Satan as a misunderstood deity . However, there is no evidence of any long-term organized group that worships Satan as an evil entity .

The Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey, is an atheistic organization that uses Satan as a metaphorical symbol of opposition to established norms and customs . The Church of Satan is currently led by Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia .

The Satanic Temple is another group that uses Satanism as a means of political activism and social commentary . They have taken on various projects, such as distributing satanic children's activity books and challenging religious influence in schools . The Satanic Temple does not worship Satan as a literal entity, but rather uses the symbolism to highlight the importance of free inquiry and separation of church and state .

It is important to note that there are various misconceptions and stereotypes associated with Satanism, and not all individuals or groups who identify as Satanists engage in harmful or criminal activities . Many Satanists are actually atheists or secular humanists who reject traditional religious doctrines .

There are also other historical groups, such as the Cathars, who were labeled as satanic by the Church but did not actually worship Satan .

Overall, the portrayal and understanding of Satanism can be complex and multifaceted, and it is important to approach the topic with an open mind and critical thinking.

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(someone): Well, I was reading about one, the Luciferians. They may have been. Although their concept of Satan wasn't that he was evil, their concept was that he was the one true deity and that he had been tricked into being kicked out of heaven unfairly by a treacherous Jehovah. Oh, interesting. And that it was actually Lucifer who was supposed to be in charge and that Jehovah was oppressing everybody. So if that's true, then yes, as far as the church goes, that is as satanic as you can possibly get in your beliefs, because they were in total opposition to the church in their beliefs as well. But that's, I mean, for the most part, most of these other groups were not in any way, shape or form satanic as you would think of it today.

(someone): Well, yeah. And Ed even points out in here, the grabster that there's There's no evidence in world history that there's ever been any long-term organized group of people that worship Satan as some evil entity.

(someone): Right. That's a huge one, because that's one of the ways that Christianity was able to smear its rivals by suggesting that they were part of a huge, massive cult, satanic cult. And I mean, like if there's a supernatural entity that's bent on getting you and making your life terrible, And there's actually people on earth who are following this person. It's going to make you stay to the straight and narrow of your prescribed religion even more. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

(someone): Byron Brimstone and whatnot.

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(someone): And that it was actually Lucifer who was supposed to be in charge and that Jehovah was oppressing everybody. So if that's true, then yes, as far as the church goes, that is as satanic as you can possibly get in your beliefs. Because they were in total opposition to the church in their beliefs as well. But that's, I mean, for the most part, most of these other groups were not in any way, shape or form satanic as you would think of it today.

(someone): Well, yeah, and Ed even points out in here, The Grabster, that there's no evidence in world history that there's ever been any long-term organized group of people that worship Satan as some evil entity.

(someone): Right. That's a huge one, because that's one of the ways that Christianity was able to smear its rivals by suggesting that they were part of a huge, massive cult, satanic cult. And I mean, if there's a supernatural entity that's bent on getting you and making your life terrible, And there's actually people on earth who are following this person. It's going to make you stay to the straight and narrow of your prescribed religion even more. Yeah. Yeah.

(someone): Right. Byron Brimstone and whatnot. Yes. I grew up with that, you know?

(someone): Yeah.

(someone): I was. I can't remember which show. I think it was during Satanic Panic.

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(someone): And as a result, it's allowed itself to kind of be drawn into a lot of pedanticness and arguments that it shouldn't. and it almost seems like they feel the need to justify themselves because of putting themselves in that position. So if that kind of turns you off, well then friends, you're going to love the satanic temple.

(someone): Yeah, and if you were interested in that, you can become a member of the Church of Satan by sending $200 to a PO box. Right. That you can find on their website.

(someone): But you get a membership card and that's it. That's all you get. Yeah, and there's actually a lot of criticism among Satanists of the Church of Satan. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, they haven't done anything for a really long time. And a lot of people give credit to LaVey for founding the Church of Satan and that while he was alive, the church was thriving. But after he died, the church kind of died with him in the eyes of a lot of Satanists, especially satanic temple adherents that I've seen.

(someone): Yeah. It's now headed by Peter Gilmore, who I think, I think John Hodgman is actually sort of a pal of his now.

(someone): I believe that. I have to say it showed a lot of restraint by Peter Gilmore, not to change his name to Peter Grimmore.

(someone): And then as I mentioned earlier, Peggy Nadramia is the high priestess right now. But I agree, moving on to the Satanic Temple.

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How Satanism Works

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(someone): But there's like a string of basically political, satanic-based political projects that the satanic temple has taken on that really kind of define who they are, right? They are part performance art very much political activists and are trying to basically Use they say that they they're using Satanism, although they all subscribe to philosophical atheistic human secularism Satanism

(someone): minus the social Darwinism.

(someone): Right. And the Ayn Rand libertarianism. Yes. They're using Satanism, though, in the popular conception as a poison pill for the church versus state debate. Right.

(someone): Yeah. And you can also buy shirts and hoodies and coffee mugs.

(someone): So with this, they use this poison pill, these list of projects. One of them was the satanic children's activity book, which they printed up to distribute at schools. I think there was a school in Florida where Christian evangelists were handing out pamphlets at a public school. Yeah. So the Satanists said, Oh, well, great. Well, if they can do it, then any religion can do it because the first amendment prohibits the establishment of any religion or endorsement of religion by the, by the government. So we can go do it too. So they start handing out satanic stuff. And anytime the Satanists roll into town and say us too, that usually means that the local city council or the state even puts an end to the implicit Christian endorsement of

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(someone): Oh, yeah. Because, you know, they haven't done anything for a really long time. And a lot of people give credit to LaVey for founding the Church of Satan, and that while he was alive, the church was thriving, but after he died, the church kind of died with him in the eyes of a lot of Satanists, especially Satanic temple adherents that I've seen.

(someone): Yeah, it's now headed by Peter Gilmore, who I think John Hodgman is actually sort of a pal of his now.

(someone): I believe that. I have to say it showed a lot of restraint by Peter Gilmore, not to change his name to Peter Grimmore.

(someone): And then, as I mentioned earlier, Peggy Nedromia is the high priestess right now. But I agree. Moving on to the Satanic Temple. It's pretty fun because they have something out there called the Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities. I think it was given to me by Matt Frederick. It was given to me by someone, but it's called the Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities. And it's wonderful.

(someone): We talked about that for sure on Internet Roundup. Yeah, for sure. And that was just like one in a string of I don't want to say countless, because if I bothered to, I could count them. But there's like a string of basically political, satanic-based political projects that the satanic temple has taken on that really kind of define who they are, right? They are

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(someone): 87, I saw. Oh, really? Well, it was copyrighted in 1987.

(someone): So the takeaway is that what's LeVay, what the Church of Satan and LeVayan Satanism, right, what it really is, is atheistic, anti-Christian.

(someone): Well, that is something that you said that is really important. The Church of Satan specifically, the one founded by Anton LaVey, has positioned itself as counter to Christianity. It really does not like Christianity. And as a result, it's allowed itself to kind of be drawn into a lot of pedanticness and arguments that it shouldn't. and it almost seems like they feel the need to justify themselves because of putting themselves in that position. So if that kind of turns you off, well then friends, you're gonna love the satanic temple.

(someone): Yeah, and if you were interested in that, you can become a member of the Church of Satan by sending $200 to a PO box. Right. That you can find on their website.

(someone): But you get a membership card and that's it. That's all you get. Yeah, and there's actually a lot of criticism among Satanists of the Church of Satan. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, they haven't done anything for a really long time.

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(someone): Um, uh, just real quickly, there are nine satanic sins. And again, I hate to say it, but this is sort of appealing to my brain. The nine satanic sins are stupidity, pretentiousness, solipsism, self-deceit, herd conformity, lack of perspective, forgetfulness, forgetfulness, a past orthodoxies, counterproductive pride, and lack of aesthetics.

(someone): A lot of those are really, really tough to explain. I don't think so. Anton LaVey, well, some of them are pretty self-evident, but forgetfulness of past orthodoxies. LaVey wrote this list in 1987, and it's on the Church of Satan website if you're interested, go check it out. Because some of you are like, oh, yeah, it kind of makes sense. 87? 67?

(someone): 87, I saw. Oh, really?

(someone): Well, it was copyrighted in 1987.

(someone): So the takeaway is that what's LeVay, what the Church of Satan and LeVayan Satanism, what it really is, is atheistic, anti-Christian.

(someone): Well, that is something that you said that is really important. The Church of Satan specifically, the one founded by Anton LaVey, has positioned itself as counter to Christianity. It really does not like Christianity. And as a result, it's allowed itself to kind of be drawn into a lot of pedanticness and arguments that it shouldn't. and it almost seems like they feel the need to justify themselves because of putting themselves in that position.

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Selects: How Satanism Works

Stuff You Should Know

(someone): Well, I was reading about one, the Luciferians. They may have been. Although their concept of Satan wasn't that he was evil, their concept was that he was the one true deity and that he had been tricked into being kicked out of heaven unfairly by a treacherous Jehovah. Oh, interesting. And that it was actually Lucifer who was supposed to be in charge and that Jehovah was oppressing everybody. So if that's true, then yes, as far as the church goes, that is as satanic as you can possibly get in your beliefs, because they were in total opposition to the church in their beliefs as well. But that's, I mean, for the most part, most of these other groups were not in any way, shape or form satanic as you would think of it today.

(someone): Well, yeah. And Ed even points out in here, the grabster that there's There's no evidence in world history that there's ever been any long-term organized group of people that worship Satan as some evil entity.

(someone): Right. That's a huge one, because that's one of the ways that Christianity was able to smear its rivals by suggesting that they were part of a huge, massive cult, satanic cult. And I mean, like if there's a supernatural entity that's bent on getting you and making your life terrible, And there's actually people on earth who are following this person. It's going to make you stay to the straight and narrow of your prescribed religion even more. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

(someone): Byron Brimstone and whatnot.

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How Satanism Works

Stuff You Should Know

(someone): Oh, yeah. Because, you know, they haven't done anything for a really long time. And a lot of people give credit to LaVey for founding the Church of Satan, and that while he was alive, the church was thriving, but after he died, the church kind of died with him in the eyes of a lot of Satanists, especially Satanic temple adherents that I've seen.

(someone): Yeah, it's now headed by Peter Gilmore, who I think John Hodgman is actually sort of a pal of his now.

(someone): I believe that. I have to say it showed a lot of restraint by Peter Gilmore, not to change his name to Peter Grimmore.

(someone): And then, as I mentioned earlier, Peggy Nedromia is the high priestess right now. But I agree. Moving on to the Satanic Temple. It's pretty fun because they have something out there called the Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities. I think it was given to me by Matt Frederick. It was given to me by someone, but it's called the Satanic Children's Big Book of Activities. And it's wonderful.

(someone): We talked about that for sure on Internet Roundup. Yeah, for sure. And that was just like one in a string of I don't want to say countless, because if I bothered to, I could count them. But there's like a string of basically political, satanic-based political projects that the satanic temple has taken on that really kind of define who they are, right? They are

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(someone): The Cathers means like the pure ones. They were so Christian that they felt like just being a normal, pious Christian wasn't enough, and you actually had to be baptized again. It was basically like a born-again Christian process, but in, again, like 12th, 13th century France. They were considered heretics, and they were persecuted. You could call them in esoteric order because it didn't follow prescribed Christianity, Orthodox establishment Christianity to a T, it either was lacking some or had extra, and then you're a heretic and hence Satanist. An esoteric order believed in Dan Brown books, basically, that all that stuff is true. All the stuff he writes about is about esoteric orders.

(someone): Well, and here's the thing, though. They were all labeled as satanists, but there's no evidence whatsoever that any of them were satanic in truth.

(someone): Yeah. Well, I was reading about one, the Luciferians. They may have been. Although their concept of Satan wasn't that he was evil. Their concept was that he was the one true deity and that he had been tricked into being kicked out of heaven unfairly by a treacherous Jehovah. Oh, interesting. And that it was actually Lucifer who was supposed to be in charge and that Jehovah was oppressing everybody. So if that's true, then yes, as far as the church goes, that is as satanic as you can possibly get in your beliefs.

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How Satanism Works

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(someone): We prefer to give children appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of an everlasting otherworldly horror. However, being a member of the Satanic Temple or the Church of Satan is not to say that you can just be very much out with it these days. A lot of those folks, even if they are really just secular humanist atheists at heart, they do want to associate with the Satanic Temple or Church of Satan. A lot of times they'll still keep it quiet, keep it a secret, because people don't get what it's about and they will think, well, again, people still believe that they, you know, have blood sacrifice and, you know, sacrifice animals and eat the hearts out of goats and things like that.

(someone): Right. And there have been people in history who have killed in the name of Satan. Sure. And that's who people point to and say, see, see, Satanists are killers. And it's like, no, that person was out of their mind. Yeah. They're mentally ill or they were pretending to be mentally ill so that they would get a lighter sentence. And that's what they were doing, that they weren't actual Satanists again. A true Satanist will point out that Satanists are atheists, that they see Satan as a construct, as a metaphor, a shorthand for something that goes against the norms, that questions the establishment and says, how do you know what you're saying is right is right?

(someone): Who says? Yeah, and we don't even worship Satan per se.

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(someone): Okay. Okay. So we're talking Satanists and Satanism, if you couldn't tell, cause we have been saying Satan a lot. Um, and if like Chuck said, um, you're coming into this blind, let us illuminate for you. Let us bring the light to your eyes.

(someone): And we both, uh, grew goatees for this episode. Yeah, exactly. And shaved our heads and horns. John and Strickland actually could do a, uh, oh man, sort of an amateur, uh, Anton LaVey if you wanted to.

(someone): He could, I'm sure he does at home, if you know what I mean.

(someone): Alright, so let's go back, and this is a Grabster article, so you know it's got the goods, and talk a little bit about the origin story of Satan, which we will lead up to sort of what the modern version of that is. But if you're thinking red guy with a pitchfork and pointy hooves, it tries to lure people away from God to do bad things. That kind of came around later. So we need to go back further to the Hebrew Bible, which the Christian Old Testament is derived from. And there's a lot of uncertainty on what Satan actually meant, depending on how you want to translate the Hebrew term.

(someone): Right, and the reason there's uncertainty is because Satan wasn't a figure in early Judaism, because the early Jews believed that God was all things. God was good. God was evil.

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(someone): They would, that's how like the devil that we know today, the Satan, sorry, that we know today has taken shape because they, like the Greek God Pan had the cloven hooves and the horns.

(someone): Yeah.

(someone): Bacchus, the Roman god, is where you get this insatiable bacchanalian decadence, which, as we'll see with the Church of Satan, isn't too far off. They certainly love their orgies. Sure. And their trays of fine meats and roasted meats and cheeses. Jugs of wine. So in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, then this mythology, Christian mythology, has expanded. you get a couple of books that were very key into shaping who we think of today as Satan. One was John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost. Then of course, Dante's Divine Comedy. This is where we got the idea that Satan was an angel expelled from heaven because of his pride. who then said, and I will defeat the Lord. These are actually from two books written by dudes.

(someone): Yeah. A lot of the mythology about Satan that Christians understand as Satan and that just people in the culture generally understand as Satan don't show up anywhere in the actual Bible, Old Testament or New Testament. All that stuff came afterwards. So Chuck, the enlightenment was another turning point then. For the conception of Satan. And this is, his evolution as like a scary, supernatural, otherworldly figure, takes a different turn. Because the enlightenment was based on rational thought.

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(someone): That was Beelzebubba. Yeah. Well, the same with Lucifer. And when we finally got the English language King James Bible in 1611, Lucifer was really a Latin term for morning star. But in that version of the Bible, they say, no, what that really is, is the name of Satan.

(someone): Right. And he was the light bringer, the one who would reveal the truth to people that they were actually being held down by God. Yeah. Which is not the Christian way.

(someone): Right. So what you were saying by co-opting all these are not co-opting, but what kind of co-opting these bad religions, another band.

(someone): That's actually a real band name.

(someone): Yeah, correct. Yeah. These bad religions and saying those are the bad ones. They would. That's how like the devil that we know today, the Satan, sorry, that we know today has taken shape. because they, like the Greek god Pan had the cloven hooves and the horns. Bacchus, the Roman god, is where you get this insatiable bacchanalian decadence, which, as we'll see with the Church of Satan, isn't too far off. They certainly love their orgies. And their trays of fine meats and roasted meats and cheeses. Jugs of wine. So, in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, then this mythology, Christian mythology, has expanded.

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(someone): God was good. God was evil. God was responsible for everything in the universe. There wasn't what we understand now or anybody who thinks of the Judeo-Christian ethic now, There wasn't dualism, which is there's good and the bad, there's light and the dark, and they equal each other out. In early Judaism, this didn't exist. It was all in one, so there was no need for Satan, right? But as this concept of an all-benevolent, loving God spread, this question arose, which was, Well, wait a minute, if God is just so benevolent and loving, why does he or she let bad things happen? And so the need for the concept of Satan emerged later on. And because of the early Judaism's proximity to Persia, which was ruling the land at the time at about like the 6th to 3rd centuries BCE, Persia had Zoroastrianism, which had dualism. So they kind of introduced the Hebrew faith to dualism, and hence Satan was originally born.

(someone): Yeah. So there's no like consensus when you look at these old texts, what these translations mean. Uh, sometimes it is an adversary or an opponent to God. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's, uh, he's like the, uh, the, uh, an attorney in heaven's legal system, throwing the book at people like, um, Al Pacino. Oh yeah, quite literally.

(someone): Didn't he play the devil? Or did he?

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(someone): And this is, his evolution as like a scary, supernatural, otherworldly figure, takes a different turn. Because the enlightenment was based on rational thought. Secular humanism finds its roots in the enlightenment. And they started to come to see Satan as a kind of a creative force almost. Yeah. A foil to the establishment. This idea that Satan is the opposite of the established norms and customs and moral goods. Yeah. Um, and that he's kind of like a handy archetype for that. So he stops, he loses some of his supernatural. Um, Jewish? Yes. And is replaced by metaphorical Jewish.

(someone): Yeah. And I think that's, that seems to be the one that the church of Satan sort of identified with a little more. Was it Satan was just a, just a free thinking dude.

(someone): Yeah, apparently that's where they got, that's where it finds its roots is the Enlightenment. Very interesting. Which makes sense because most Satanists would be probably humanists, secular humanists. Although they're individualists, but you could make a case that that's an individual humanism. Yeah. And that's, you know, that comes out of the Enlightenment as well. So, you want to take a break and then keep going or you want to keep going?

(someone): Now let's take a break and we'll talk a little bit about witches right after this.

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How Satanism Works

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(someone): But there's like a string of basically political, satanic-based political projects that the satanic temple has taken on that really kind of define who they are, right? They are part performance art very much political activists and are trying to basically Use they say that they they're using Satanism, although they all subscribe to philosophical atheistic human secularism Satanism

(someone): minus the social Darwinism.

(someone): Right. And the Ayn Rand libertarianism. Yes. They're using Satanism, though, in the popular conception as a poison pill for the church versus state debate. Right.

(someone): Yeah. And you can also buy shirts and hoodies and coffee mugs.

(someone): So with this, they use this poison pill, these list of projects. One of them was the satanic children's activity book, which they printed up to distribute at schools. I think there was a school in Florida where Christian evangelists were handing out pamphlets at a public school. Yeah. So the Satanists said, Oh, well, great. Well, if they can do it, then any religion can do it because the first amendment prohibits the establishment of any religion or endorsement of religion by the, by the government. So we can go do it too. So they start handing out satanic stuff. And anytime the Satanists roll into town and say us too, that usually means that the local city council or the state even puts an end to the implicit Christian endorsement of

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How Satanism Works

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(someone): And that it was actually Lucifer who was supposed to be in charge and that Jehovah was oppressing everybody. So if that's true, then yes, as far as the church goes, that is as satanic as you can possibly get in your beliefs. Because they were in total opposition to the church in their beliefs as well. But that's, I mean, for the most part, most of these other groups were not in any way, shape or form satanic as you would think of it today.

(someone): Well, yeah, and Ed even points out in here, The Grabster, that there's no evidence in world history that there's ever been any long-term organized group of people that worship Satan as some evil entity.

(someone): Right. That's a huge one, because that's one of the ways that Christianity was able to smear its rivals by suggesting that they were part of a huge, massive cult, satanic cult. And I mean, if there's a supernatural entity that's bent on getting you and making your life terrible, And there's actually people on earth who are following this person. It's going to make you stay to the straight and narrow of your prescribed religion even more. Yeah. Yeah.

(someone): Right. Byron Brimstone and whatnot. Yes. I grew up with that, you know?

(someone): Yeah.

(someone): I was. I can't remember which show. I think it was during Satanic Panic.

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(someone): Ricky Casso, famously in the 70s, was an American teen who killed someone in the name of Satan and much to Angus Young's chagrin was hauled into court with his ACDC t-shirt on. We're not going to get too much into this because you can go listen to our great episode on the satanic panic of the 80s from January 5th, 2016. But in short, it was a time where people like Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest were making use of satanic imagery purely for gags and selling records. None of it was, I mean, today there are some legit creepy dark metal bands that are very much more overt with their lyrics and things, but I think Ozzy Osbourne has definitely been outed as, you know, not some Satan-worshipping ghoul, you know? Anyone who's ever seen him on television can tell you that.

(someone): Yeah, and I mean, it bears fleshing out there. There are supposedly the goth scene in Germany in particular is where neo-Nazism and neo-paganism kind of come together. A lot of people point to that as some sort of neo-Satanism. But again, if you're talking about Satanism with a capital S, as an atheistic philosophy, and somebody murdering in the name of Satan holds about as much water as somebody murdering in the name of the Easter Bunny. You got anything else?

(someone): Yeah, just let me finish with a passage from the Satanic Bible on love. Satanism has been thought of as being synonymous with cruelty and brutality. This is only so

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(someone): And the floodgates opened, and Lucian Greaves, whose name is Doug Mesner, he's one of the founders of the Satanic Temple, He says, we're doing this because the Good News Club is creating a need for it. If they were just doing this in churches rather than public schools, we wouldn't have our after-school Satan Club. But they are, so we are.

(someone): Yeah, here's a quote. While the Good News Club focuses on indoctrination, instilling children with a fear of hell and God's wrath, after-school Satan clubs will focus on free inquiry and rationalism. We prefer to give children appreciation of the natural wonders surrounding them, not a fear of an everlasting otherworldly horror. However, being a member of the Satan Temple or the Church of Satan is not to say that you can just be very much out with it these days. A lot of those folks, even if they are really just secular, humanist, atheist at heart, they do want to associate with the Satanic Templar Church of Satan. A lot of times they'll still keep it quiet, keep it a secret, because people don't get what it's about and they will think, Well, again, people still believe that they, you know, have blood sacrifice and, you know, sacrifice animals and eat the hearts out of goats and things like that.

(someone): Right. And there have been people in history who have killed in the name of Satan. Sure. And that's who people point to and say, see, see, Satanists are killers. And it's like, no, that person was out of their mind.

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(someone): Jugs of wine. So, in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, then this mythology, Christian mythology, has expanded. You get a couple of books that were very key into shaping who we think of today as Satan. One was John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, and then of course Dante's Divine Comedy. This is where we got the idea that Satan was an angel expelled from heaven because of his pride, who then said, and I will defeat the Lord. These are actually from two books written by dudes.

(someone): Yeah, a lot of the mythology about Satan that Christians understand as Satan, and that just people in the culture generally understand as Satan, don't show up anywhere in the actual Bible, Old Testament or New Testament. All that stuff came afterwards. So Chuck, the enlightenment was another turning point then. For the conception of Satan. His evolution as like a scary, supernatural, otherworldly figure takes a different turn because the enlightenment was based on rational thought. Secular humanism finds its roots in the enlightenment. And they started to come to see Satan as a kind of a creative force almost. A foil to the establishment. This idea that Satan is the opposite of the established norms and customs and moral goods. And that he's kind of like a handy archetype for that. So he stops. He loses some of his supernatural. Jewish. Yes. And is replaced by metaphorical Jewish.

(someone): Yeah.

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(someone): Yeah, I haven't read it all but I read quite a bit of passage.

(someone): So one of the things that he's accused of is plagiarism. And his adherents still to this day, they kind of acknowledge it a little bit, but they more put it like, no, he was building on an earlier work that he didn't really give credit to. But there was a book, so he wrote the Satanic Bible in 69, Published in 1969, yeah. There was a book published in 1890, I think it was, called Might is Right. And it was written pseudonymously by a guy named Ragnar Redbeard. Ragnar Redbeard wrote this book and it was extremely into social Darwinism. It was individualistic to the point of being anarchistic. It had all of the requisite 1890s racism and sexism attendant to it as well. But the point of it was is like, why would you love your enemies? This whole doctrine of love is BS. We're animals. And if you have an enemy, you should go out and beat him up, because he's your enemy. You don't need to love him. You need to love yourself. And it was really just a surprising book that apparently still a lot of people read today. And apparently Anton LeVay read it and adopted a lot of it. But then he also wrote a lot about ritual and stuff as well. and prescribe certain kinds of rituals in the Satanic Bible.

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SYSK Selects: The 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980s

Stuff You Should Know

(someone): No. But that's what they're doing. And if you will, like I said, we'll do one on Satanism. If you look at Satanism, it's not let's sacrifice animals and throw blood on each other. It's more like, hey, we're on this earth for a short time. Let's party. and just live for ourselves. It's more about hedonism and being atheist than some weird, dark occult. Aleister Crowley was darker and more occult.

(someone): Sure, and Anton LaVey definitely dressed his brand of Satanism up in that kind of, like, dark theatrics. But the really ironic thing about both of those guys' occult stuff is that, again, it was life imitating art, or life imitating fiction. Their ideas of the black mask, or the witch's sabbath, or wearing pentagrams, all that stuff, came out of those witch persecutions from before. They were fabricated from whole cloths. So these guys were tapping into what was already part of the popular culture in the way of what people thought of Satanism and satanic rituals, and were just basically playing it up to the nth degree. It was theater, is what it was. Very much so. to people who are scared to death of the idea that Satan is real and his worshippers are here on earth and are ready to kill you, those guys scared those people and just proved that this is very real. See, look at those two.