Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail From: boboroshi@satanservice.org (SOD of the CoE) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.christnet.satanism,alt.fan.satan,alt.politics.satanism,alt.satanism Subject: Re: What is satanism? Organization: Sonoma Interconnect,Santa Rosa,CA(us),http://www.sonic.net Lines: 73 Sender: yronwode@sonic.net Message-ID: <8ch5g4$tkf@bolt.sonic.net> References: <8buknv026u1@enews2.newsguy.com> <8c0chi0ugi@enews1.newsguy.com> Reply-To: boboroshi@satanservice.org (SOD of the CoE) X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.4 (NOV) Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 04:57:32 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.201.224.36 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 954997052 208.201.224.36 (Wed, 05 Apr 2000 21:57:32 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 21:57:32 PDT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:22607 alt.christnet.satanism:3069 alt.fan.satan:2374 alt.politics.satanism:2201 alt.satanism:143916 50000405 IVom Hail Satan! "Matt" : >So there is no devil worship, no selling your soul, no magic, . some Satanists worship devils, even The Devil. some Satanists sell themselves and/or their soul to some being called Satan or the Devil. many Satanists seem to find value in magic. >But I thought there was no satan. some Satanists are atheists and would agree with you. >So, is there a satan? What is lesser magic? What do the five points >represent on the pentagram( beph..something?) and is it inverted or not? ... a difficult question to answer because of its ambiguity. if "a satan" is merely an adversary -- of course there is one. if "a satan" is an Old Testament District Attorney (cf. Job) and wandering angel (cf. Baalam) for the chieftain god Jehovah -- there is a character in this batch of books, yes; I have no evidence that such a being exists outside of fiction and imagination. if "a satan" is a cosmic adversary as portrayed by Christian poets and writers of prose -- there is a character (really a whole bunch of very different characters) portrayed by fearful and majestic writers with this name, yes; I have no evidence that such a being exists outside of fiction and imagination. if "a satan" is some mystical "inner dark force" or "black flame" -- there are descriptions of this phenomenon by well-known Satanists, yes; I have no evidence that such a phenomenon exists outside of the imaginations of those who describe it. if "a satan" is a personification of wild nature -- there are descriptions by a few Satanists that equate these two, yes; it is obvious to everywhere that wild nature exists. "lesser magic" is usually a pair with "greater magic", the two provided valuative difference because the greater is mystical whereas the lesser is merely materialistic and egotistical. some Satanists merely discern them based on the area of effect ('lesser' localized to a certain interaction in which one uses techniques of manipulation upon another human being; 'greater' being some kind of liberative or mystical ritual designed to deprogram the ritualist and perhaps leading to additional results of an exalted character as is described by Hermeticists). the five points on the pentagram have been given numerous different assignments of meaning. there is no One True Answer with regard to symbolism. Judeochristians seem to like the Aristotlean elements (Earth/Air/Fire/Water) combined with 'Spirit' and will align the point up if they like the Spirit dominating the rest or the point down if they want to say something about the value of the elements dominating Spirit. 'inversion' presumes that one orientation is more correct or original than another, for which I find no evidence. the Church of Satan identifies one pentagrammatical diagram as their "Baphomet" (borrowing a condemnation of Templaristic history from Levi and Crowley) and applying it to their seal. blessed beast! boboroshi Satanic Outreach Director, Church of Euthanasia (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/) -- mailto:nagasiva@luckymojo.com ; http://www.luckymojo.com/nagasiva.html mailto:boboroshi@satanservice.org ; http://www.satanservice.org/ emailed replies may be posted; cc replies if response desired