American Satanism

Convictions, morals, other societies and religions.
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Kenazis
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American Satanism

Post by Kenazis »

American Satanism...Not the best title, but good enough. By American Satanism I mean the rising popularity of the Satanism/Luciferianism that authors like Michael W. Ford and E.A. Koetting are representing.

What are your opinions about this kind of approach to Satanism. I have kind of mixed feelings. I had seen the books of E.A. Koetting before, but couple of days ago I saw his youtube-videos and that gave me an idea to ask about this form of Satanism/occultism.

For people living in America, is this some kind of trend?

It seems that this approach is some mixture of serious interest in occult themes, moneymaking, hyper-individuality and active adversity towards fundamental Christianity etc.

I think mentioned two gentlemen are the most famous who represent this “American approach”. One that I see Koetting has that Ford doesn’t is clarity of his teachings and skill to communicate his ideas in understandable form.

Books of Michael W. Ford was the first ones I started studying years ago and I don't recommend to anyone to start on his books.

What’s good (if any) and what’s bad (if any) on this “new wave”?
"We live for the woods and the moon and the night"
swordofapostasy
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Re: American Satanism

Post by swordofapostasy »

I am disgusted by this kind of Satanism, I am an American and most Satanists I have seen here are of the Laveyan variety and it drives me nuts. To see Satanism, which I see as a deep and beautiful philosophy rooted in Gnostic heresies, debased by rampant Ayn Rand worship, its just sad.

Keotting and Ford seem like just theistic versions of Lavey, guys wanting to cash in on Satanism, delighting in petty ostentation and shock value.

Is this a trend? Within the American Satanist scene I guess so but Satanism of any type is rare here, the U.S. is dominated primarily by right wing Protestant Christianity. There is a trend among hipsters though to wear upside down crosses and pentagrams n such but that's just people trying to be edgy, it has nothing to do with actual Satanism as a religion.
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Sebomai
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Re: American Satanism

Post by Sebomai »

I have no issue with things like Ford's brand of Satanism because I honestly see it as mostly a shallow and vaguely incoherent dabbling in the occult. Not positive by any means but not overly harmful to anyone outside of their own most likely deluded souls. What I do have an issue with is the Cathedral of the Black Goat variety of Satanism, that I actually dabbled with a bit, and values not our form of purified hate but just plain and simple hate of people and aggression against anything that displeases them. I find it to be thoroughly negative in nature, all in the name of "Traditional Satanism." True belief in active opposition to "God," as they perceive God, and willingness to indulge in violence or other soul destroying behavior with very little theological underpinning to it.
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Nefastos
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Re: American Satanism

Post by Nefastos »

In the vein of "the attempt to spiritually unite different forms of esotericism", would you be able to find something praiseworthy in that kind of Satanism, too?
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Sebomai
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Re: American Satanism

Post by Sebomai »

Well, yes. First of all, I believe the dedication involved in that kind of Satanism is borderline heroic. It is also borderline fanatical, so it concerns me but I'd rather deal with a fanatic in some instances than with someone who is a materialist or a follower of whatever church is closest to home out of laziness. Also, it gets people thinking about and studying and active in occult work so I feel that in many ways it is a necessary karmic stage to go through for many, where they develop spiritually while also creating massive karmic debt and suffering for themselves so that the point comes eventually where they have the knowledge needed to develop and the experience with suffering to realize that the path of regression is not one they wish to tread any longer. And lastly, I feel that these people are very loyal to each other, which is perhaps a very limited loyalty and love that ignores unity and embraces separateness but any praiseworthy quality can be nurtured to become less selfish and more open, as long as one embraces it at all in the first place. So I feel they are tending a garden that contains many fleurs du mal, so to speak, but also many truly beautiful roses and perhaps a lotus or two! ;)
obnoxion
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Re: American Satanism

Post by obnoxion »

I find many aspects to “American Satanism” as represented above that strikes me as admirable. For example: the enthusiasm, the encyclopedic knowledge, the bold visibility, the work ethics, the networking and the modernism.

I have more than once toyed with theoretic concepts of Eastern and Western Satanism, where our Star of Azazel would represent the Eastern variety. There are many correspondences that make up this theoretic divide, one being geological. But one - admittedly blunt – way to put it would be that the foundation of the SoA is bodhisattvic, and the philosophy monistic, whereas I find the Western Satanism to be based more or less strictly on individualism and dualism. And I must stress that individualism and dualism are very beautiful and powerful ways to work in & understand the World. And they definitely are a traditional part of the LHP. This is not an easy thing to explain, as from one angle these are only differences of nuance, and yet from another angle these difference become quite fundamental.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
Kenazis
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Re: American Satanism

Post by Kenazis »

http://warlockasylum.wordpress.com/2012 ... -the-soul/

I recommend reading this. It makes you wonder and provoke a thought or two.
"We live for the woods and the moon and the night"
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Sebomai
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Re: American Satanism

Post by Sebomai »

Fra. o's response is sheer beauty. I agree with all that you said about the eastern and western differences in focus. And while those are fundamental differences in the end, to take what Nefastos has said about evil being one of the threefold key qualities being overdeveloped to the point it overwhelms the others, perhaps no theological outlook becomes truly evil until it takes one of our impulses such as body/emotions/lower intellect and raises it to a tyrant like level over all the rest of our being? In the case of the form of American satanism I discussed, it seems to me that they over-emphasize the emotions, and it is not a buddhic form of heart activity. They deny the body to an almost Manichean degree, and their intellects are quite developed but not given ultimate control over their actions. That control tends to belong to their lower emotional impulses. So I feel they are not exercising the higher functions of the key and that they are permitting a their baser and more formal emotional states to decide their actions which leads to much of what we would call "evil" but is ultimately also a form of honesty that you may not find so much in those who permit their bodies or their intellects to be the dictatorial force. Hope all that made sense and was not gibberish! :)
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