Chapter Sixteen - Satanists & Thelemites

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Satanists & Thelemites

IF YOU SAY you are a Satanist or Thelemite, here’s what that means.

You are not necessarily evil.
You are not necessarily a devil worshiper.
But you are flipping the script.

If you’re a LaVeyan Satanist, you don’t believe in a literal Satan.
You believe in Satan as a symbol: of freedom, pride, individuality, and defiance.
You follow the Nine Satanic Statements, which praise indulgence, vengeance, and carnal existence over abstinence, guilt, or spiritual fantasy.

You believe man is just another animal. Sometimes better, often worse.
You reject the idea of sin.
You reject the idea of a soul.
You believe in rational self-interest.
You believe in ritual as psychodrama. Theatrical, cathartic, but not supernatural.

You might join the Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey in 1966.
Or you might just live by the idea:
That religion is repression, and Satan represents resistance.

If you’re part of the Satanic Temple, your views may be political.
You may use Satanic imagery to fight for secularism, reproductive rights, and separation of church and state.
You may not believe in anything supernatural, just the symbolism.
You may erect Baphomet statues next to Ten Commandments plaques to make a point.
You may file lawsuits.
You may troll the culture war on purpose.

But whether theatrical, symbolic, ironic, or sincere, Satan is a mirror.
A rejection of imposed morality.
A claim on your own authority.

If you follow Thelema, you follow Aleister Crowley. An early 20th century occultist, poet, mountaineer, and self-declared “Great Beast 666.”

You believe in one central law:
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”
Follow your True Will. The deep, divine purpose of your existence.

You believe in ritual magick. Real, not stagecraft.
You believe in personal transformation through sacred texts, symbolic systems, and ceremonial practice.
You may work with tarot, astrology, alchemical symbols, or Egyptian deities like Nuit and Hadit.

You may study the Book of the Law.
You may see the universe as conscious.
You may seek union with it.
Or domination over it.
Or both.

You don’t beg.
You declare.
You don’t submit.
You ascend.