For those unfamiliar, describe the history of the Church Of Satan and how and when it did form?
"The Church Of Satan was formed in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey on the 30th Of April, the date that has become known as Walpurgisnacht. It stands in any direct opposition to any and all spiritual doctrines. The word Satan by itself, when translated from the original Hebrew, means the adversary. That's exactly what we are. We are the adversary to any and all spiritual religions."
Please describe what the definition of a "true" Satanist is compared to the stereotypical devil worshiper, what are the Church's main philosophies?
"The Church Of Satan believes you need to embrace this life as the only life there is because once you are dead, you're dead. That being said, it would be…, it would say to reason that a good Satanist lives their life to the fullest, indulges in which they find pleasurable, avoid that which brings discomfort and does everything they can to be the most successful human being they can be upon themselves. Now that stands in pretty much direct opposition to your standard devil worshipper who takes the Christian concept of Satan basically and practices inverse Christianity: they take the entire Christian model and just say we're gonna worship "the bad guy" and follow that deity. In real Satanism there is no deity except yourself, you are your own god. We don't put our believes in anything that is not of this world, because there is nothing that is not of this world, this is the only world."
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What are the Church Of Satan's view on the teachings of others such as Aleister Crowley, the Necronomicon?
"Crowley himself was a decent poet, and probably a better mountain climber, but as an occult practitioner, he was severely lacking. One need only see that Crowley died destitute and addicted to drugs to see that. Those that follow Crowley's "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of law" philosophy fail to see that indulgence must be tempered with some intelligence, lest they become consumed by their desires, and their indulgences become compulsions.
As far as The Necronomicon goes, most people don't realize that there was never any ancient book of the dead, and that the book you commonly see on the shelves of occultniks everywhere was written by H.P Lovecraft as a prop for his fictional writings. There is a fantastic essay on this very subject on www.churchofsatan.com, written by our High Priest, Peter H. Gilmore."
Please describe the meaning and definition behind the rituals of Satanism?
"Well, all religions have rituals, and the Church of Satan is no different. When a Satanist steps into the ritual chamber, he or she does so with a very focused and intended purpose. The Satanist uses ritual to purge themselves of any excess negative emotion that may be keeping them from achieving an intended goal. It's very much a dogmatic psychodrama, and acts as a very powerful catharsis. Now, in addition to that, there are some within the Church of Satan (and I certainly count myself among them) that believe that such a powerful focusing of one's energy can have some real-world effect. However, we claim nothing is certain, save for the therapeutic value of ritual."
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