what's up with anarchy and alternative spirituality?

a collaboration with QueerSatanic

Hi all! Someone wrote in asking about anarchism and Satanism—whether they’re at all related, why there’s so much overlap, whether new anarchists should care, etc. I didn’t think I could really speak to this, given that I’m very much not a Satanist, and this doesn’t come up very much in the anarchist organizing spaces I participate in. So I passed this along to QueerSatanic, who are also participating members of Sabot Media. We decided to do a “listicle” type of thing about some of the inaccurate stuff that a lot of new organizers tend to hear. This also ended up being a Mastodon thread. So, without further ado, the following is QueerSatanic’s perspective. - mk

There are a lot of myths about Satanism that young people in particular ought to be aware of.

Myth #1: Satanism involves worshiping the devil

Reality: Almost all self-described Satanists do not believe in much less worship a literal, supernatural deity called Satan, Lucifer, the devil, etc. Theistic Satanists, demonolaters, and varied Gnostic Luciferians *do* exist and do that, but they are a tiny minority within an already tiny minority.

Myth #2: Satanism involves animal sacrifice, blood magic, child abuse, etc.

Reality: Basically nobody who calls themselves Satanists engages in those sorts of things or makes any excuses for it. There do exist some occultists, particularly in the esoteric fascist flavor, who celebrate this sort of thing, but again, it's a minority within a minority and marginalized within an already marginal population. Satanists tend to be materialists who only support magic in the sense of subjective effect or psychodrama, and to make no excuses or have patience for those who hurt animals, children, or non-consenting adults.

Myth #3: Satanists are cool.

Reality: Satanists are extremely cringe. The more Satanists you talk to and meet, the more apparent this will be come.

Myth #4: Satanists are edgy.

Reality: Not *really*. Satanists as edgelords tends to have a lot of crossover, but edgy in terms of challenging dominant power structures, no, sadly, just the opposite, both historically and at present.

Myth #5: Satanists are queer friendly.

Reality: Of all the various hierarchical systems of oppression reproduced in the subculture, this one probably is the one *least* present in Satanism. Anton LaVey had good things to say about queer people in "The Satanic Bible", including homosexual and asexual people explicitly. Into the present day, queer people excluded from Christianity find Satanism to not be all that concerned with queer sexuality, which can be freeing. But in terms of actually and materially being supportive of queer folk, and trans people specifically? Much to the contrary. The Church of Satan shifted into the position that "If fascism makes men look like men and women look like women, I'm all for it," and always and still maintain that if the law makes it illegal, Satanists need to obey the law out of "pragmatism," regardless of how homophobic or transphobic the law may be. The Satanic Temple is *rhetorically* better, but as a matter of practicality, its two owners care about queer people insofar as they can sell Pride merch at them, and no more. That said, Satanism as a subculture is much more queer-affirming than lots of places you'll bump into, for sure.

Myth #6: Satanism is close to pagan spirituality/animism/can be whatever you want it to be

Reality: Satanism is a New Religious Movement (NRM), so there *is* more freedom in it than in lots of religious traditions that have more established rules and institutional guidelines. But: this has positives *and* negatives because without past experience and customs setting up good guardrails, bad things can and do happen. You also don't get to just pretend that Satanism has never existed in the past, does not have a history of coziness with fascism and white nationalism, or hasn't ransacked other religious traditions to fill out its own rituals and aesthetics. Yeah, you have the freedom to create your own practices and rituals, but you don't have the freedom to do this in a vacuum of all context, past and present.

Myth #7: Satanism is antifascist, anarchist, and progressive.

Reality: There is an 18th and 19th century Satanism that was liberatory, that looked at the dogmatism of prevailing hierarchies and the way that Christianity was fundamentally just apologism for the status quo and its inequalities, and this Satanism said, "If poverty is the work of God, then I'm with the devil." There were anarchists and communists and socialists who all saw in the literary figure of Satan — and even more so, Lucifer the Light-Bringer — an idea worth holding up against the traditionalist and reactionary forces in their own societies. But by the mid-20th century, this flame had died out. Maybe some embers still kept their heat, but they were buried and hidden under ash. When Anton LaVey sought to create his interpretation of inverted Christianity, he reached back not to William Blake or Felix Pignal or Bakunin or any such figure but to the proto-fascist "Ragnar Redbeard" and his Social Darwinist drivel "Might Is Right". You don't need to agree with this to be a Satanist, and in fact you shouldn't, but you can't pretend it isn't there, or that this white nationalist-adjacent Satanism was not the primary version that existed for decades.

But remember, Satanism *can* be whatever you want it to be. So you do have the power to assert and make possible an anarcho-satanism, a satanic antifascism in your own spaces and in your own practices.

But you'll have to be the one to do it. There is nothing inherent in Satanism, as it is or as it has been, that necessitates that as a result.

Plenty of people look at Christianity and are upset that it is *too* empathetic, that it is *too* concerned with egalitarianism and care for others. Their version of Christianity inverted is indistinguishable from Christian Nationalism sans some terminology.

So if you're a Satanist, and you want to be anarchist, you're going to have to fight for it to make it true. There will be no work done for you without your shoulder put into it as well.