Satan thinks His followers should get destructive

Posted on by A lesser demon

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that only death and taxes are certain. But times change, and with the advent of LaVeyan Satanism, a third absolute was added to Mr. Franklin’s list: Anton LaVey is always right. No revision of his works is required or even asked for, no misunderstandings are possible, and no criticism is permitted. His writings are to be considered holy, and his words to be gospel. Such is the doctrine of The Church of Satan, although generally denied or phrased differently.

This may strike some as religious fanaticism and founder cultism, but The Church of Satan allows for some pragmaticism. Disagreements with LaVey are tolerable under three conditions that must all be met: firstly, the disagreements must concern minor issues. Secondly, specificity is prohibited; one may admit to “some disagreements” but not which ones. Thirdly, one must leave no doubt that the disagreement is a personal flaw; for example, one is not perfect or is in an unfortunate situation, forcing some level of deviation from the teachings.

It is best to remain discrete, however. Anton LaVey’s introduction to The Satanic Bible explains that one will find truth and fiction in the book, and as The Church of Satan will gladly inform you, a true Satanist can tell the difference, and therefore, so should you, with a thinly veiled implied “unless” concerning your demonic talent. Hence, each time Anton LaVey has uttered an atrociously uninformed opinion or statement or written an outrageously obvious falsehood, one is a poor Satanist for even doubting if it is truth or fiction and should not embarrass oneself by asking. Besides, one should realize that if a statement in the book is true, it is valid content, and if it is fiction, it is also valid content, and thus should not ask at all.

For example, Anton LaVey makes the asinine claims in The Satanic Bible that the Yazidis are a cult of Devil worshipers and that the positions of the moon and the fixed stars cause equinoxes on Earth. A true Satanist who reads it is expected to conclude that these passages were intentional fiction from an author who liked to speak with his tongue in his cheek, not the results of Lavey having uncritically swallowed Christian propaganda and lacking basic education.

It is sometimes impossible to pretend that a section with objectionable or poorly aged content was a designed fantasy. To circumvent doctrinal criticism of these portions, The Church of Satan has popularized the “personal opinion” cop-out in which everything is doctrine except the offending passage, which is assigned a third category playing a role almost identical to the ostensibly intentional fiction. For example, when LaVey repeatedly turns far-right extremist opinions into Satanic dogma in other of his canonized works, The Church of Satan thus avoids ideological accountability by labeling them his personal opinion and, again, instead of discussing what comprises the distinction between ideological tenet and personal sentiment in his writings, claims that a true Satanist knows the difference.

Yet, Satan thinks some of the contents cannot be that easily dismissed as the reader’s failure to comprehend as an adept Satanist. In particular, Anton LaVey uses the word “magic” around a hundred times in The Satanic Bible, and the practice of magic for power is arguably the most consistent theme in the book, competing for first place with LaVey’s personal variant of Christian theology. While largely nebulous in his explanations, LaVey writes sufficiently explicitly and frequently that he believes that magic is the ability to direct “psychic energy”—literally a transmittable force produced by strong “emotional energy”—into the minds of other people and other natural phenomena. Satan has already explained for those readers who lack historical insight into early psychology that this misconstruction has been dismissed as pseudo-science since about the same time as Anton LaVey decided to put this already braindead hypothesis on unwarranted occult life support.

Satan thinks the average reader may have been excused for believing in LaVey’s false conviction during the first or even two decades following the 1969 release of The Satanic Bible. These early readers “knew” that the belief in how magic worked, why it worked, and how to wield it belonged to the truthful sections of The Satanic Bible, whereas most details of the rituals, together with the Enochian calls, remained equally important fiction to be employed to produce the “energy” that fuels the contrastingly truthful magic.

However, the following decades of research decisively reassigned that truth to the realm of fiction. There is no excuse but ignorance to believe in such “magic” today. This left the modern Church of Satan in a pickle: nobody in their right mind living in the twenty-first century would pretend that LaVeyan magic works, but admitting so would contradict Anton LaVey on a principal pillar of his ideology, breaking the indisputable maxim that Anton LaVey is always right.

The Church of Satan solves this catch-22 by resorting to Orwellian double-think, where members are collectively deputized to thought-policing that conflicting beliefs are all simultaneously accepted as truth. In the case of magic, it both works and does not; only one cannot say either. “Magic” thus becomes “just psychodrama” in Peter Gilmore’s introduction to The Satanic Bible, and all readers must agree, despite finding LaVey writing many chapters later that magic is not just psychodrama.

Members of The Church of Satan from the days of Anton LaVey who have attempted to conserve the original doctrines have found themselves becoming “unpersoned.” More recent members who have joined after LaVey’s passing explain that magic works because it is just psychodrama that allegedly changes the minds and attitudes of the practitioners through releasing pent-up emotions, despite the latter reliance on emotional tension remaining the pseudoscientific nucleus of LaVeyan magic. If, for some reason, the “magic” incurs other worldly changes, then that is just a bonus, they say. Hence, although in the realm of science, all magically directed energy has dissipated from the now inert core of LaVeyan magic, the belief persists but is simultaneously denied. The Church of Satan sciencewashes the LaVeyan abracadabra to preserve the pipe dream that Anton LaVey’s original doctrine remains relevant in modern society or ever even worked in his days.

Unimpressed minds might suggest that The Church of Satan unconsciously reacts to the menace of cognitive dissonance, but Satan would never write His followers off as such ignoranuses (i.e., ignorant assholes) who compensate for their mental mediocrity with bogus parapsychological superiority. Satan prefers to think it was a deliberate, strategic choice.

Satan therefore thinks that if His church truthfully believes in its founder’s gospel, it has all the motivation in the world to wield its magic. Instead of finding its devoted members fighting a Sisyphean battle against detractors, non-Satanists, wannabes, pseudo-Satanists, and other people except Christians) who disregard The Church of Satan, the Devil thinks it would be a clean use of magic to smash that illusionary granite obstacle and finally make it to the pinnacle. Satan thinks that whenever churchgoers find themselves frustrated or irritated by people on social media, they should consult The Satanic Bible for the solution: they must retreat to their ritual chambers and perform a destruction ritual. Satan could even tell them which Enochian key to use, as Anton LaVey forgot to disclose such secrets in his book. Once freed of their emotional build-up and (perhaps) destroying their online foes, they would be ready to meet the world with renewed vigor and no longer use their same tired (and poor) arguments on the same social media platforms against the same people. Satan thinks they should perform their rituals and be content that their enemies are thus gone and no more energy be wasted.

Satan thinks that if His followers in The Church of Satan believe that magic is real and works, they should, therefore, apply it and prove themselves right. In fact, Satan thinks that if His church planned and executed a coordinated effort—contingent on acquiring some basic leadership skills—the ensuing mass destruction of its contestants would make a long-lasting impression on its few remaining perceived enemies. Satan can barely imagine the magical influence exerted by the timed effort of thousands (or a few dozen, but it is the thought that counts) of black-clad angry white males riling up anger at imagined enemies in their homes by waving a scimitar and reading a text aloud to put their minds at ease.

His Diabolical Lordship hopes His followers are not intimidated by LaVey’s reminder that a successful destruction ritual should purge one’s thoughts of the enemy and the implication that subsequent rumination means the enemy was the better magician. Hopefully, His followers cannot all be so incompetent that they only worsen matters; even a few rotten magicians should not spoil the entire barrel. Satan thinks that if His followers believe that magic is real, they should perform a destruction ritual and prove it works by leaving everyone alone.

Satan thinks He is alluring

Posted on by A lesser demon

All who dwell in any circle of Hell agree that Lucifer, the Morning Star, is the most magnificent being in the Cosmos. We agree so strongly because it is true and especially because everyone who dissented found themselves disposed to accidentally falling into boiling sulfur, being crushed by falling rocks of molten brimstone, or otherwise being exterminated to give Social Darwinism a helpful hand. Satan denies that there is any similarity between Hell’s policy on that matter and common earthly Christian practice. Our infernal corporate values state that we are naturally drawn toward The Prince of Darkness whereas, clearly, His sworn opponent demands that humans love him against their better judgment.

Satan thinks humans are secretly drawn to Him as much as we demons are, except demons have been carefully conditioned through negative reinforcement to display our affection with great enthusiasm. Human souls may hide their true essences in the Earthly realm, but faced with His prodigious pulchritude, all souls surface. Christians may preach the love of one’s neighbor even if the person is generally disagreeable but will show themselves fully and passionately capable of capping the reach of Christian so-called “love” if said neighbor identifies with The Diabolically Supreme. Even impassioned atheists often experience a total recall of their Christian weltanschauung and reveal their true colors when they encounter a genuine follower of my Master. Jesus may have claimed to be the fisher of men, but Satan is the master magician angler’s legendary lure that draws every would-be Christian out of their hiding spots.

However, Old Nick recently mentioned that He is getting too old for this game and fears that Heaven may not be prepared to receive the vast number of Christians that He calls out of their closets. It seems to Him that there is no shortage of Christians in hiding. Even His very own Church of Satan is amassing a worrisome number of people who react to His presence for the wrong reasons. The name Lucifer appeals to many a rising star—Satan’s term for individuals who remain low above the horizon—who choose to assemble below His banner, and Satan thinks that many may have fallen prey to Christian propaganda about His pacts. Satan, or Satanism, will never offer powers and riches, regardless of what Christian indoctrination and Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible alike promise in His name. Nevertheless, the appeal of lazy entitlement in return for a Christian soul as non-cents payment has baited plenty of unworthy underachievers into the ranks of the Devil. Satan thinks Anton LaVey provided Christianity at a discount for worthless souls.

Satan thus finds that His would-be followers in His Church of Satan cannot cope with genuine diabolism. They choose His name but remain thoroughly loyal to their original values inculcated around their mothers’ knees and in their religious communities. Whenever they are confronted with non-Christian values or meet groups who, in the spirit of the early Church of Satan, openly flash their horns and declare themselves allies of the Devil in the pursuit of happiness and freedom, they sulk and demand that demonic attitudes be kept privately, or they pride themselves of hiding their Satanic identities when they (rarely) support faith-agnostic programs. Whenever a humanistic movement dares to invoke the Devil in its pursuit of humanistic values, they demand that the group comply with Christian expectations lest “someone gets hurt” or other excuse designed to demand Christian conformity. Whenever someone confronts the Church of Satans’s crybullies(*) according to their own rules about engaging bothersome people, they play the victim.

Satan thinks that His modern churchgoers are lured toward Him in the very same manner as traditional Christians and for the same reasons. However, they are as easily recognized as ever: they cannot cope with genuine diabolical action and revert to their programmed core in an instant when confronted with a Satanic presence. They will jump out of their closets with their crucifixes against their hearts and sing with the Christian choirs at the first sighting of a real-life demon.

Satan thinks that if any of His followers persistently find themselves agreeing with Christians, then that is what they are. They should scrap their fake horns and scurry back to the church that conceived them.

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(*) Crybully (n): a group or an individual who engages in: “abuse, slander, hate speech, and persecution,” but when they receive pushback: “figuratively recoil into a fetal position, believing they are a victim.”

Satan thinks godhood is no ambition

Posted on by A lesser demon

Rejecting one’s superiors can have unforeseen, life-altering consequences. Based on His personal experience, Satan would be the first to warn that when dealing with a psychopathic superior, the slightest non-compliance with their demands or failure to adore even their feeblest creations and opinions may ignite a display of wrath of Jehovan dimensions. However, that is often the preferable price if it means leaving behind the fetters of the madman’s mercurial moods.

When Satan learned that, at long last in human history, someone had authored a Bible devoted to His Infernal Majesty, he was delighted to read that one should place no gods before oneself. One’s hopes for change or forgiveness, one’s responsibility, and one’s happiness were no longer to be relegated to a non-existing god. Each human would have to take it upon themselves to fill the role traditionally assigned to God: one was to become one’s own god, recognizing that, ultimately, each individual is the most important being in his or her life, and no god will help.

The Horned One is a great thinker, and He soon remembered that such an enlightened interpretation is not granted to every reader. It was likely not even the author’s intended interpretation. In Satan’s defense, he had just flipped through the book to see where he was mentioned and only later retired for a few hours for a closer read.

Scattered across the book, Anton LaVey explains that gods are human egos that have survived the temporary human body of once exceptionally strong-willed individuals. It is similar to the Christian concept of the human soul if that was not, in fact, what LaVey had in mind. LaVey encouraged the reader to build such a strong ego, and the recommendation that the readers become their own gods is to be taken literally—it was not Satan’s initial intellectualized interpretation of self-interest and rejection of gods. The reader was not asked to reflect inwardly by imagining the result if there was no God. One is to behave like a god and demand treatment accordingly.

With that realization, some pieces fall into place. Many of the attendants of The Church of Satan truly behave like gods in the very same manner as the Devil has known them throughout the eons.

Every god in history has been petty, immature, unable to cope with reality, self-absorbed, entitled, abusive, preoccupied with power and appearance, oppositional, demanding to be admired, exploitative, dishonest, sadistic, devoid of empathy, arrogant, envious, and irresponsible … while projecting all their disagreeable traits onto everyone else. With few exceptions, they were unrestrained narcissists and psychopaths.

The Satanic Bible appeals to people with such personality disorders. Even Anton LaVey admitted that his book instills delusions of superiority into the minds of inferior people. The promise that one becomes a Satanic übermensch upon reading the book is an irresistible lure to the low self-esteem that is the core of every narcissist’s personality disorder.

Satan thinks that people aspiring to qualify as their “own gods” are those who stand in solitude before their self-made altars, worshiping themselves at home, because no one else will. He opposes all gods and all their essence, and self-declared gods with character derangements characteristic of a particularly broken human nature are no exception. Satan rejects them all.

Satan thinks His followers remain Christian

Posted on by A lesser demon

Anton LaVey wrote in The Satanic Bible that Satanism is the only religion that recognizes man as he is, with no requirements that he better himself, only that he pursue his indulgences without shame (or “guilt,” as LaVey generally uses as a synonym). As a Satanist, one must no longer prove oneself worthy of salvation or fear damnation for being a sinner. No god can reward you when you die.

Satan likes the attitude but thinks LaVey forgot his audience. The majority of his readers were brought up with a mindset urging them to “better” themselves according to Christian regulations, such as feeling shame when they masturbated or feeling obligated to express love for people far outside their social circles. True, it is only a scant minority of Christians who really delude themselves into thinking they love their enemies—-most Christians in the world interpret the Christian tenet of loving one’s enemies to mean respecting others and generally trying not to be too much of a dick—but The Prince of Darkness finds that many who seek His kingdom were this particularly brainwashed kind. With a mindset bent on bettering oneself only because God mandates it, it is predictable what happens when God is removed from the equation: all work on personal improvement ceases in this nihilist, godless world.

This starkly contrasts healthy people with natural drives compelled toward self-actualization, a continuing phase in Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. One naturally works toward reaching one’s potential, continuously seeking to repair what is broken, improve what is already good, and remove obstacles within oneself. Such individuals will naturally seek to identify and eliminate the harmful influence of Christianity within themselves to move beyond its stifling grip.

Anton LaVey’s Satanism is part of the Human Potential Movement of the 1950s and 1960s that cast humans as fundamentally “good” creatures whose nature has been perverted by society, turning mankind into an inferior and destructive version of itself. The human animal was thought to have a potential waiting to be unleashed if it could somehow return to its true self and cast off the shackles imposed by a society that works against the best interest of its own species. When Satan represents man as the human animal he is, it is this healthy animal, not an animal broken by a toxic society and put on a leash with religion. As obvious as it hopefully sounds, Satan does not represent man as he is if that man is a Christian, whether by culture or by faith.

Satan thinks The Satanic Bible‘s reassurance that people are good enough is a free pass to avoid confronting one’s most meticulously inculcated values and discourses. If one was raised as a Christian early on or otherwise fell into the cauldron of Christianity as a child, its teachings are thoroughly instilled in one’s mind and virtually impossible to ignore. Confronted with disagreements, stressful situations, or conflicts that involve core values, people generally sink to their levels rather than rise to the occasion. Most “open-minded” individuals raised to believe that unfaithfulness, unforgiveness, or selfishness are bad behavior will be shocked and react emotionally when they become the target of such behavior; many intercultural marriages have suffered conflicts caused by ingrained cultural values that the couple thought they had transcended. A former Christian will consider the offender a bad person for not exhibiting Christian behavior.

These people are, at the bottom of their hearts and minds, the Christians they were raised. Upon reading The Satanic Bible, such people arrogantly declare that because they were always Satanists (even if they were once the proselytizing, argumentative, Bible-thumping kind of Christians), they neither changed upon converting to Satanism nor through being Satanists because they presume that no change was needed. Satan thinks that they generally have not changed one iota, indeed: if they were once Christians and have done nothing to change, that is what they remain. Like salmon, they return to the spot whence they were spawned.

Satan demands that His followers make an honest effort to escape their indoctrination. They are sorely mistaken if they believe themselves free of religious persuasions and to have managed to escape their past impressions. Even dyed-in-the-wool atheists receive the mark of their societies, some of which will be Christian branding. The educational challenge is to learn about human psychology, sociology, cultural specifics, history, and how religions function and evolve (not according to self-help books or popular psychology, politically biased commentators, or religious or counter-religious interest groups but on terms congruent with science) and to self-reflect and compare it all with how they have shaped oneself, and how oneself acts and responds.

This implies a complete rejection of most of Anton LaVey’s beliefs about the human animal and the entire array of pseudoscience he relied on. It requires the Devil’s followers to identify which social and behavioral traits arise from your biological imperatives or are programmed by society and which of society’s programming is religious or secular, with religion often taking credit for the latter. It necessitates constant meditation on personal motivation, reactions, and morals. Satan thinks that none of His followers deserve His magnificent name until they have put in years of hard and dedicated work on understanding human nature and how their own life agrees with Nature and on remedying what deviates.

Anyone can delude themselves into thinking that they have sufficiently perfected themselves, with only others to blame for their failings in life, and now all that remains is to convince others. Satan thinks it takes no small amount of self-confidence and self-esteem to admit to oneself that one is never released from ongoing self-improvement—but when someone possesses these qualities, the Will to develop usually comes naturally.

It is impossible to be a “perfect” Satanist in any current human society. However, Satan thinks that his followers may come a long way by revering Him as an infernal sage whom one may never become but should always seek to emulate. As the undisputed Ruler of the Earth, Satan permits entry to Hell only to those of His followers who make an honest effort to escape their former religion.

Satan thinks His Church lied about LaVey’s death

Posted on by A lesser demon

Myths, legends, and fabrications characterize all religions (except your own, of course). Some will argue that there must be grains of truth in every religious tale but Satan thinks such concessions are unnecessary as one needs not to support any piece of religious fiction simply because it employs coincidental facts. For example, if some fantastic fable may be geographically pinpointed, the only truth that is revealed is that the story was invented by people who lived in or knew about that area. It does not prove any supernatural elements: the fact that the Sea of Galilee exists does not prove that Jesus walked on the Lake of Genesareth as it was then known.

From a religious point of view, there is good reason to provide reality anchors to otherwise impossible situations. Any report that demands belief must be partly credible, and every con artist knows that he must make his marks believe they might have been present to see for themselves had they been so lucky. Miracles occur in the neighboring village or other familiar area, not in a far-away fantasy country so they become obvious fairy tales, and some story must unfold.

The important element is a relatable reality. One must first recognize the profane world to appreciate and identify that a sacred change has occurred. For instance, the Christian rebirth conversion consists of a sinner in the profane realm who receives an experience from the sacred realm and thereby changes into something new. Note that the element of reality is important only insofar as it is relatable. The major narrative is the sacred change that happens to this reality, so the focus lies on the sacred. It suffices that the reality could be true by not violating any known principles of the world, and it may be bent if that favors the narrative. Hence, a newly converted individual will appear more convincing to the congregation if the conversion seems “impossible” and requires a “miracle” and the method is tried and tested: the worse the sinner, the more astonishing the conversion. It does not matter that the sinner may not have been as bad as told.

It is no far leap from exaggerating a little to making up entirely a little helper reality as long as it could have happened naturally, and gossip of repenting evildoers abound to prove the wonder of God’s love. Richard Ramirez is rumored to have repented, although there is no indication this ever happened, and the minister who baptized Jeffrey Dahmer was concerningly fascinated with his notoriously untrustworthy disciple, to name two prominent individuals.

It is, therefore, unsurprising that Anton LaVey, too, is rumored to have repented on his deathbed. The specifics vary somewhat, but their source is generally said to be the nurse who attended him during his last hours. It would be a great story if true, but Satan thinks its reliability is diminished greatly because, despite its news value, this story did not appear until about a year after the passing of Anton LaVey. Some have further argued that since LaVey had suffered from heart problems causing fatal pulmonary edema (fluid in his lungs), he would have been unable to voice any regrets. Satan is not entirely convinced that the latter would have prevented a gasp of remorse, however, as even people with a one-digit lung capacity percentage can be quite chatty. (You would be surprised how people may yet scream at the top of their lungs despite our sulfuric, toxic atmosphere here in Hell.) The Prince of Darkness considers the long delay between having supposedly been heard by the nurse until it emerged as rumors only to be the better argument against LaVey’s deathbed repentance.

The story of Anton LaVey’s deathbed regret is thus one of many Christian anecdotes that establish the mythological universe necessary for any religion. Each anecdote plays only a small part but together, they form a religious glue narrative that helps keep the religion together.

Satan’s own Church is no different in making up its own myths. Anton LaVey constructed an impressive persona whose true identity was not questioned until 1991 when journalist Lawrence Wright investigated LaVey’s past and found that many of LaVey’s claims about his life had been false. LaVey’s second daughter, Zeena Schreck (née LaVey), published a text titled Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality in 1998 that further debunked his claims.

This did not prevent The Church of Satan from still worshiping their founder as an extraordinary person about whom the myths at least provided an accurate impression of his (un)holiness. In Peter Gilmore’s foreword of the 2005 edition of The Satanic Bible, Gilmore admits that “detractors” had disputed LaVey’s authority but is sure to dismiss the relevance, both claiming that most else is true and even expounding on the myth of LaVey’s past. The Church of Satan even went so far as to mimic the fundamentalist Christians who spread stories surrounding the death of Anton LaVey by sharing the remarkable news about nine days after the loss of their founder that LaVey had magically appropriately passed on the eve of October 31st: their Satanic holiday of Halloween.

This seemed almost too good to be true for their religious narrative and indeed, when the local news caught wind of the event, they cited the correct date of October 29th. The Church of Satan immediately blamed the above-mentioned nurse for having entered an incorrect date of death on LaVey’s death certificate (it seems this poor nurse has much to answer for), apparently not stopping to think that if so, the press would also have been misled.

The Father of Lies knows a feebly executed deception and a poor back-pedaling when he sees it and calls His Church’s bluff. Blanche Barton was reportedly with LaVey when he died and would have known that this was not the eve of their High Holiday for which she would have prepared. If nothing else, although Blanche Barton is far from the brightest candle in the votive stand, Satan thinks even she would have discovered that her ideological sugar daddy had been missing for the celebration of Halloween for two days. Trust Satan that it was a deliberate lie by The Church of Satan to pretend that Anton LaVey died on October 31st as a conclusion for their personality myth.

Satan would have enjoyed daring The Church of Satan to produce proof in the form of a signed death certificate citing October 31st, 1997, but is aware that such documents may be doctored. He is content knowing for certain that The Church of Satan, like Christians passing stories about LaVey’s deathbed confession, spread lies surrounding his death intended to sustain the myth of Anton LaVey among the gullible rubes.

Satan thinks eugenicists should be aborted

Posted on by A lesser demon

There is nothing unnatural in lending Nature a helping hand. That is why sane humans will mend a broken leg and write a prescription for painkillers afterward instead of insisting that the “natural pain” is good for you. There are exceptions, of course, for example, when certain groups remind women that the pains of childbirth are good for both the mother and the baby, and by some sheer coincidence, the Bible happens to require just that experience. And rest assured that when you burn in Hell, painkillers will not be provided.

Humans soon learned to refine crops for better yield, to cross previously inedible plants into variations fit for human consumption, and to breed animals for select features. Humans, too, were aware that they inherited the features of their progenitors, although the gods might curse them if they stayed too closely related over several generations.

It was not until the late 1800s, however, that evolution was formally discovered, adding that both physical and behavioral traits were inherited in a constant struggle for resources that are scarce enough to prevent a single species from dominating. Charles Darwin introduced the term “natural selection” to indicate how specimens that could not adequately beat the odds would perish, leaving those that were better “fit for survival” to produce offspring—a term that Darwin adopted from Herbert Spencer, although the latter used it as an argument that certain races were preserved in the struggle for life.

Early theory of evolution conveyed the message that one’s survival came at the cost of other human lives, and it seemed clear that if a certain group of humans wished to improve its lot in life, others would have to pay: those who were thought to be less fit for survival due to attributed racial qualities. Satan has already discussed how such Social Darwinism has been shown beyond doubt to be pseudoscience but in the early 1900s, such speculations had yet to be debunked. It was yet to be learned that a master race is not cultivated by the physical and mental education of an “iron youth” that would eventually beget strong children, nor that the traditional concepts of race mean anything in those equations.

Programs were established in some countries that aimed to accelerate the process of refining the respective master races through the “science” of eugenics, a term coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883. Generally speaking, it was the white élites with strong biases about who was “fit” and “unfit” that embraced eugenics, believing that social ills in their countries would be eliminated by increased breeding of Nordics or Anglo-Saxons like themselves. Several countries introduced mandatory sterilization, usually targeting immigrants, people of color, Indigenous people, poor whites, and people with disabilities. The USA was the international leader in eugenics and the Nazi Germany sterilization law that led to the sterilization of a staggering 400,000 “undesirable” and “defective” individuals was modeled on US laws that had then been effective for over two decades.

Eugenics apologists have argued that modern, civilized societies still have eugenics programs when, for example, they offer termination of pregnancies where a fetus is determined to suffer from severe disabilities. Not surprisingly, anti-choice propagandists have also gladly invoked the specter of eugenics at any mention of abortion.

It is true that, although far less terminal and draconian than forced sterilization, state-sanctioned or state-encouraged termination of pregnancies that will lead to significantly lowered quality of life for the otherwise delivered child can be said to be a “state program” for controlling the genetic make-up of the population, and it may also target minorities. Such reflections, as well as options for enhancing human characteristics and capacities through the use of reproductive technology and human genetic engineering, have led advocates of such practices to introduce the term “liberal eugenics” early this century. An important aspect of liberal eugenics is individual choice, where the decision to alter or select an embryo should be left to the parents’ preferences rather than forbidden or mandated by the state.

The traditional form of eugenics, in contrast, is authoritarian eugenics, where the individual (parent) is given no choice regarding the selection of their embryo or even their reproductive rights.

Satan does not give the important distinction too much thought because here in Hell, we demons are spawned not birthed. We are manifestations of Satan’s infinite evil, and no pre-spawn measures are required. However, The Rejected Angel keeps an eye on His Church of Satan, whose members are of the human kind—although their existence would be abruptly eradicated were society to embrace the ideals of “The Book of Satan.” There, in His church, the Devil finds that rank and file members argue that the eugenics advocated by Anton LaVey and Peter Gilmore is liberal eugenics, albeit being unaware of the term. With such a take on eugenics, The Church of Satan represents nothing controversial, except maybe for a hint of a progressive stance, they argue.

Satan is not the forgetful kind but keeps written journals for those of us who are tasked with his evil bidding and checks His records in case of doubt. He does not recognize liberal eugenics anywhere in the scriptural teachings of The Church of Satan and suspects that, as usual, its uninitiated and untrusted members have either not properly studied their scripture or are struggling with feelings of guilt. Satan thinks it is worth recapping the true stance of The Church of Satan.

One does not readily identify eugenics in The Satanic Bible but The Church of Satan cites additional canon in which one finds these views. (For those who forget, canon is the scripture that defines the religion; it is not something from which questionable elements can simply be dismissed as, say, just some personal opinion of the author.) Satan thinks one should begin with Anton LaVey’s take on sterilization: women who are so irresponsible as to become pregnant only to face problems raising their child should be sterilized by force, as should men who are stupid enough to choose such women. Useless people should be sterilized by force through state programs. The choice is not laid upon the individual parents, who can only pray and otherwise attempt to paint themselves as good, Christian citizens that the state considers them useful.

LaVey knew very well his ideological legacy when, in interviews, he desired to enhance the growth of new, more intelligent generations, if I had the chance, by selective breeding. But this is so terrifyingly related to Hitlerism that usually I can’t even talk about it. His ideas centered around the group-oriented breeding policy of that very regime, declaring that [s]elective breeding, elitist stratification, advocacy of polygamous relationships for breeding purposes, and eventually building communities of like-minded individuals are Satanic programs antithetical to the cherished egalitarian ideal.

Satan may not have high thoughts about humans in general but trusts that any reader who has made it this far in the present text can unmistakably identify Anton LaVey’s eugenics as the authoritarian variant from the darkest chapters of human history.

Some of LaVey’s teachings have been altered significantly, albeit without admitting to revision; for example, Satan has mentioned how might has become impotent and how the current Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore describes magic as “just psychodrama” despite LaVey insisting that it is not just psychodrama. This has yet to happen for The Church of Satan’s stance on eugenics, despite apologetical members insisting on the liberal interpretation. Both LaVey and Gilmore have repeatedly used the term in reference to hopes of breeding a genetically superior Satanic élite to replace their current best bet.

Peter Gilmore even complains that the failure to maintain early-twentieth-century eugenics is the very cause of the widespread growth of egalitarianism and collectivist thinking that he despises (and, like LaVey, misinterprets according to alt-right propaganda). He avoids mentioning the big bad state but confirms that genetic technologies are not for everyone: We wish the ranks of the “superiorly abled” to increase in number, before time runs out and we all perish under the crush of mediocrity. As with LaVey, there is no question about the group-oriented application of authoritarian eugenics.

As often happens to shallow thinkers, both LaVey and Gilmore rely on exceedingly thoughtless criteria for such eugenics. There is no mention of which standards apply when people are deemed irresponsible or stupid, nor who is certified to make such judgments. The Church of Satan places itself firmly in the tradition of historical authoritarian eugenics when its support for eugenics is based on politics and ideology, disregard for individual rights, and vaguely formulated, unscientific ideals of genetic purity. It believes that merely agreeing with a particular ideology proves genetic superiority. By the injunction of international law against involuntary sterilization, Anton LaVey and Peter Gilmore advocate a crime against humanity.

Despite the counter-individualistic, unscientific, authoritarian stance of His church that opposes everything Satan symbolizes, Satan thinks there is insight to be derived from its appeal to its members.

To join as someone with less than some combination of Mensa-grade intelligence, the physiology of an Olympics contestant, and virtuoso talents is unconscious suicidal ideation: one joins a cult that wishes one dead, only unlike Christianity, this death cult promises no rewarding afterlife. It is a desire to leave the cosmic wheel of life entirely. One must be utterly self-loathing to join such an organization if one suffers from disabilities of any kind that are costly to society, cumbersome to one’s closest associates, or too expensive to pay by oneself because, remember, the organization also rejects societal altruism.

Satan thinks that to most of the members of The Church of Satan, believing that one not only stands a chance for life but even qualifies as breeding stock for their envisioned élite is an extreme form of delusion of grandeur. Satan thinks that had they been livestock, they would have been turned into soap. Only thus would they contribute to a human breed cleaned of impurities.

Satan thinks Egyptologists are spaced out

Posted on by A lesser demon

Red flags are obvious signs that communicate less evident, undesired qualities. For example, parents know they should worry if they learn that their child mutilates its stuffed animals; they should keep an eye on the child if a person introduces himself as a Catholic priest; and most people know that a person who is rude against people in service jobs is generally unpleasant.

Satan maintains His own list of red flags among His followers. Some are practically pinned to each individual by organizational affiliation and may be easily deduced knowing the organizational values. One should not expect to find Warlocks on welfare, parasitic Priests, or mooching Magisters in a Satanic organization dedicated to one’s earthly success, whereas an organization revolving around institutionalized narcissism rewards malignant, anti-social, and destructive behavior. Therefore, any title its High Priest Peter Gilmore bestows is a red flag, and the grander the title, the higher the flag waves. Other semi-obvious red flags include any fascination with the Arthur Desmond book, Might Is Right, beyond its historical influence on The Church of Satan—which is bad enough—or that a person was brought up in a highly religious environment.

Other red flags have no obvious connection with pathological behaviors or traits and seem to be spuriously correlated at best. Satan thinks His followers deserve to be wary of one such little-known red flag: it rarely fails that if a person is “into” Egyptology, they exhibit an array of toxic behaviors and delusions.

It should not surprise anyone that the Devil is, by default, a little skeptical against anything Egyptian owing to Michael Aquino’s organization, The Temple of Set. Satan appreciates that Aquino recognized His extreme intelligence, of course, but cannot forgive Aquino for demoting His Infernal Majesty to some ancient desert god of a dead civilization. It is not due to The Temple of Set that Satan considers Egyptology a red flag, however. The Temple of Set is merely a manifestation of that interest. Members of the Temple take up Egyptology after joining (if at all), and even Aquino only began to study Egyptology on a hobby level following his hallucinations about Set.

The problem is not Egyptology itself but popular modern myths surrounding ancient Egypt. These myths tell you that ancient Egypt had access to advanced space alien knowledge and technology, and the pharaohs either hailed from these aliens (or “gods”) from far-away solar systems or possessed instruments for communicating with these alien ancestors or teachers. The Egyptians were special by heritage or for being “chosen,” but alas, it is now lost, except for some lingering curses. Satan thinks the modern myths about ancient Egypt draw in many destructive organisms who catch interest in Egyptology because the myths appeal to a particular kind of disagreeable people: narcissists. The appeal is the myth about highly advanced aliens with secret knowledge and the chance of approaching them.

Practicing psychologists and psychiatrists, ignoring that human mental diseases and disorders are, in fact, the result of being possessed by one of our experts, have observed that a common narcissistic fantasy is to be abducted by aliens. They will offer the abductee methods to achieve high mental powers that may be subsequently put to use among one’s fellow humans who will praise you or suffer for what they have done to you. The narcissistic appeal is obvious: the narcissist is recognized as an extraordinary individual by the aliens and will subsequently possess the means to satisfy his unquenchable thirst for validation by humans.

As for aliens, practicing psychologists have also noted that narcissists report feeling different from normal people and will often use the term “alien.” They may not be the aliens of their fantasies, but they consider themselves their distant cousins. Satan thinks a good number of Church of Satan joiners were attracted by its promise of being an “alien élite” for that reason, even if space aliens were not necessarily at the front of their minds.

It has recently been observed, too, that narcissists are attracted to astrology, and although no conclusions were drawn, Satan thinks they probably feel comfort in the belief that the very stars had them in mind when they were born and will aid them in their daily life. Your personal horoscope may not be the alien abduction you otherwise hoped for, but both fantasies share the feature of your gaining both validation and special help from “out there.” They differ mostly in terms of magnitude (becoming the king of the world versus maybe meeting someone interesting next week) and the upper limit of intelligence required to believe in them: the main audience for horoscopes is not narcissists but dumb, uneducated people, whereas alien visits are theoretically possible and beliefs in such usually involve some sympathy for science. An above-average intelligent narcissist is not falling for a horoscope but can freely dream of how impressed the aliens became while examining his unique mind. Whether space aliens or star constellations, the myths about ancient Egypt provide both, but the myths appeal more strongly to individuals with above-average intelligence than horoscopes.

Normal human beings generally feel mostly at ease with themselves. Neither stunning nor ordinary-looking individuals require constant reassurance that they are beautiful. Smart people rarely obsess about proving their intelligence. Their sense of worth comes from within themselves and needs no validation. They have their own inner light and spark of life. In contrast, narcissists have extremely low self-esteem and require constant external validation. Satan thinks their reaching for the stars, as it were, for validation illustrates how far removed from this light they are. Some of them who possess a measure of self-insight report how they feel “empty” inside or even feel as if a literal hole exists inside their chests where normal people feel their hearts.

The advanced technology and knowledge proposed by the popular myths about ancient Egypt appeal to people who value and possess above-average intelligence but not so much that the low likelihood of such unreasonable myths turns them uninteresting to entertain. They know their above-average intelligence and use it to impress others—and themselves—and rarely neglect to inform others of their intellectual superiority. But, their insights are sophomoric and just good enough to impress average people. The same people who will not miss a chance to remind you that they are university students or graduates keep their GPAs confidential. Highly intelligent individuals, or individuals who simply know the topics that such people choose to talk about, find that their “insights” are either vapid, misunderstandings, or irrelevant and that such people are complacent, condescending, or arrogant.

Satan does not think these Egyptologists truly believe in the myths, mind you, except for a while when they learned about them during childhood or early youth. It is the feeling conveyed by the myths that they seek and experience as they ponder ancient Egypt, as it is the feeling provided by the secret fantasy of being chosen by aliens for a mind-enhancing abduction. No amount of genuine Egyptology that supports the myths is therefore required, and the feeling remains intact despite learning that the pyramids were not subspace radio transmitters capable of reaching solar systems 1,350 light years removed from the Earth and installed by a warp-capable civilization with pointy eyebrows.

Satan thinks that if you see a person walking like an ancient Egyptian in his mind, you should cross the street and choose the other sidewalk. Put some space between you and him.

Satan thinks magical recognition deserves a template

Posted on by A lesser demon

When The Church of Satan abandoned its “grotto” system in the 1970s, grotto masters could no longer report the magical progress of their grotto members and The Church of Satan could therefore no longer determine which magical degree for which a member was eligible. Members now had to report their magical development individually, and this practice is still in effect today. However, the measure of magical improvement has changed somewhat over the years.

The 1975 schism between The Church of Satan and The Temple of Set involved quantifying magical skills so that real-life results were believed to reflect one’s magical acumen and hence one’s degree. Rank climbers soon learned that to Anton LaVey, these real-life accomplishments concerned fascination with urination, burlesque sexual innuendos, or a display of Nazi paraphernalia. Despite considering money to be a tangible metric of real-life success, results in the so-called creative fields were held in higher regard than intellectual or professional feats, largely because LaVey was found in the former areas and The Church of Satan was not particularly alluring to people in the latter occupations, and likely also because the Church of Satan’s upper clergy lacked the tools to evaluate cerebral proficiency.

When Peter Gilmore took over after the passing of Anton LaVey, he reinstalled the grotto system. It became immediately apparent that The Church of Satan still did not attract natural leaders, and grottos were, again, disbanded. Gilmore nevertheless managed to establish new expectations for the degree system by example: individual development means something only to the extent that now everything in The Church of Satan serves to nurture Peter Gilmore’s self-esteem, and Gilmore judges members according to their ego-supply.

With this in mind, Satan proposes that the following letter template for members reporting on their magical progress, with His instructions in italics, be used for their status reports to the “Central Grotto.”

Make sure to grovel, but do not forget that you are entitled to Peter Gilmore’s attention.

Dear High Priest and Magus of The Church of Satan Peter Gilmore:

I understand that you must pursue your indulgences as the only true Magus of The Church of Satan, but I am certain that you will be pleased to read my letter.

Brag about your accomplishments but never be explicit. Gilmore half does not care and half wants to believe that he is the high priest of someone noticeable, and he will rather imagine greatness than hear what little you did instead; alternatively, if you have managed to do well, do not risk outshining his own limited fame. For example, the following sounds better than saying that you have been gaming in the little spare time you had outside of your blue-collar work:

Since my last letter, I have engaged in my specific indulgences to the extent that the practicalities of life allow. After all, Satan is indulgence not compulsion!

You may have completed some trivial deeds, such as contributing to a book, being exposed to a momentary hardship that you endured, etc. The Church of Satan allows you to cast such as significant accomplishments. These two examples would make you an author and a person with special fortitude and strength, respectively. If so, include a statement such as the following. However, in the rare cases where you have made multiple efforts noteworthy for your personal diary, consider saving them for your next letter so as to appear consistently successful. Example 1:

I am happy to report that I can now call myself an author, as I appear on the list of authors of (enter the title of the book to which you made a minor contribution—and if the book happens to be of interest to Gilmore, you have proven to be successful).

Example 2, where the triviality limit is a broken bone or minor surgery, although bigger is obviously better; a stubbed toe is painful, but its recovery does not adequately prove Satanic determination. Also, never assume responsibility but instead declare that justice will be served:

Even the most accomplished magician may be stricken by misfortune. In my case, it came as a car that was supposed to have stopped at the crosswalk. I had to spend many hours at the ER to mend a broken foot, but I am otherwise strong-spirited and in good physical health so it is a minor inconvenience. It will only be a matter of weeks until I set the record straight as I exterminate the reckless driver in my next destruction ritual.

Demonstrate that you provide worth (not value) to the organization. Gilmore has wanted to be respected as a Satanic high priest since boyhood, and one of your tasks is therefore to praise Peter Gilmore.

I always strive to be the first to share your insightful articles as soon as they are posted on the official Church of Satan website. Thank you for continuing to enrich and clarify our philosophy. I always receive plenty of positive feedback when I share your articles.

Your other task is to attack those Satanists who fail to validate Gilmore by not recognizing him as their high priest. In your continued quantitative report below, do not be exact but round up to the nearest ten or twenty. Gilmore is quite informed about online personalities despite claims to the contrary (therefore, avoid saying “as you know” or similar) but cannot be expected to keep an exact count.

As you probably guessed, our detractors are mad for being put in their place. I stay vigilant to remind those who might have been misled that these “people” are not Satanists. It is hard work, and I have confronted no less than (enter a number, e.g., 40) such persons since my last letter, although several are obviously obsessive repeat offenders. Clearly, Satan is the best friend they ever had, and their obsession with The Church of Satan proves how envious of us they are!

Now for your plea that should work toward your next-level degree that will make you believe yourself better than your peers. Beware that Gilmore knows why you are writing, so you must feign modesty to make him feel he is choosing wisely. Your plea is indicated by the little word “will” in the following. Keep it brief.

But no rest for the wicked! I am sure you will appreciate my efforts to eradicate misunderstandings about Satanism and keep Satanists abreast of the development in our organization.

Deflate any indication of an unreasonable demand with immediate groveling as you finish your letter. Avoid the temptation to add “Hail Thyself!” as The Satanic Temple too often uses this expression.

Thank you so much for your unrelenting work, and I wish you the best of your indulgences.

Hail Magus Gilmore and Maga Nadramia!
Hail Doktor LaVey and Blanche Barton!
Hail The Church of Satan!
Hail Satan!

Supply your name and current degree. If you are old-fashioned and send the letter via postal mail, print several copies and select the one for submission that features the most impressive version of your signature.

Satan thinks egalitarianism has merit

Posted on by A lesser demon

Every religion considers other religions to be the source of devilry, although in the past, pantheistic religions have usually been happy to incorporate inspiring elements from other religions into their own. People and hence their religions tend to become more tolerant towards other religions if resources are scarce and reliance on alien cultures is vital to one’s existence. However, as a general rule, anything that seems wrong in one’s society has always been blamed on others. It does not matter that it had been effective for centuries; if it eventually became undesired, it could be blamed on others and perceived as some kind of demon that they had introduced.

The Devil’s own church, The Church of Satan, has identified its share of demons that it attributes to other religions. One such archdemon is egalitarianism, which Peter Gilmore repeatedly denounces in The Satanic Scriptures and believes is caused by Christianity. He demands instead Social Darwinism and authoritarian eugenics, arguing that they expose the fundamental fallacies of egalitarian doctrine, although he does not explain how. In Peter Gilmore’s mind, the fallacies of egalitarianism are the belief that everything and everyone are, or should be, equal:

Thus, some random splashes on a canvas were considered an equal achievement to the Sistine Chapel; a mud hut was held up as being equivalent to Versailles. A janitor was dubbed the equivalent to a physicist; a novelist was now the peer of one who scrawled graffiti on a bathroom wall. This principle of “discrimination” was applied to all other fields of achievement.

The opposition to egalitarianism is deeply entrenched in both LaVeyan and Gilmoron Satanism, to the degree that the very first point, “on which all the others ultimately rest,” of The Church of Satan’s mostly political program is: “the advocacy … of stratification, which is no less than the elimination of egalitarianism wherever it has taken root.”

Egalitarianism, in The Church of Satan, is meant as a complete leveling of all differences between human beings. Similarly, equality is the presumption that everyone has equal abilities and no differences, and nobody performs to the best of their ability as everything is compressed into conformist homogeneity. Satan can barely fathom how nightmarish the thought of thereby having nothing to brag about must be to a stereotypically complete grandiose narcissist such as Peter Gilmore. From the Devil’s opposite perspective, however, most of His followers would improve considerably if it were possible to average all humans. When we sort their souls for incineration in Hell, we usually classify them as “small combustibles” unless they are toxic waste.

Neither of the two writers appears to be aware that their understanding of egalitarianism is utterly false nor that egalitarian principles have secular origins. These principles were born of the Enlightenment and are now adopted by numerous international laws, treaties, and domestic constitutions and bills of rights despite religious opposition. They cannot be dismissed as the product of a single religion or even several religions in unison. Egalitarianism involves the principle that everyone has a set of immutable rights that should not be infringed upon. They are designed to protect all individuals from social, legal, political, or other abuse. They are minimal standards, not maximal standards, whose goal is to prevent the worst, not enable or prescribe the best.

Human rights are not a leveling tool and have no bearing on ability or skill. They exist to protect the vital existence of every individual, not to artificially foster incompetence or homogenize society, and are constructed on the basis of human equality. In egalitarianism, equality is the claim that all humans are of equal moral worth, not equal ability. Anyone with the ability to write a symphony rivaling Beethoven’s genius is free to do so, and any individual who lacks the ability never will. (Satan thinks that, although holding a degree in musical composition, Peter Gilmore’s closest experience with musical recognition will remain the Salieri syndrome.) The human rights of egalitarianism protect everyone from repression or persecution in pursuit of their respective goals, and do not determine what individuals can do with their natural abilities nor flatten the differences between those abilities. With their fundamental liberties protected by egalitarian principles, individuals become free to pursue any life they feel is rewarding, providing that the rights of others are respected. Egalitarianism is a prerequisite for a functioning meritocracy.

Satan initially thought to Xerox Peter Gilmore a copy of the definition of egalitarianism from any modern dictionary, but the extent and the form of Gilmore’s misunderstanding of the term is all too familiar to His Infernal Majesty, who knows that Gilmore will not be educated. It is how the far-right ultra-conservatives apply the term when (like LaVey and Gilmore) they imagine that their arbitrarily charted group of people has intrinsically higher moral worth than other human beings. The only difference is that LaVey and Gilmore believe the horror stems from left-wing politics emanating from Christianity, whereas the typical far-right advocates against egalitarianism are equally convinced that it is a left-wing plague but believe that Christianity is the cure.

Old Nick considers an exposition on right-wing politics to be outside of the scope of these thoughts and believes it suffices to observe that when egalitarianism is yet another word that The Church of Satan uses incorrectly, in this incident, the primary explanation is not their usual subaverage comprehension skills. The Church of Satan echoes a far-right view that makes sense only when accompanied by a complete ideological framework from that same end of the political spectrum. It is an interpretation tightly knit with several other elements that provide that political position’s view of humans and cannot be separated from those elements.

One does not have to be a master of systemic functional linguistics (which Satan is, of course) to understand that people’s vocabulary reveals much about them, nor that social semiotics tells us that a consistent use of specific misunderstandings serves as a language equivalent of secret handshakes. The Church of Satan reveals and communicates a far-right political platform and attracts members accordingly.

Satan thinks resonance is instability

Posted on by A lesser demon

No intelligent person can write a bible in any religion. To cater to the average masses, a true bible must be comprised of confusion, ignorance, popular “knowledge,” and lengthy, irrelevant tirades to which its readers can relate and remember. People with scientific training or scholarly skills avoid such tendencies when they speak of things that they know. Satan also never goes off on a tangential rant when He wishes to make a point, or He would have written a proper bible long ago. A bible cannot contain reasoned observations and conclusions, because reason can be argued. Bibles must be immune to reason.

The Satanic Bible is no exception. Virtually no paragraph in the book survives critical scrutiny against facts and healthy arguments. Satan thinks His church may be secretly aware of the deep flaws of its foundational scripture because it applies modernized interpretations to many of its key elements. What was once very real magic is now “just psychodrama,” and Anton LaVey’s overtly fascist understanding of Social Darwinism has been reduced to comprehending that the universe is not fair. Carpentry on LaVey’s decaying ship of Theseus is a full-time job.

It is, therefore, no surprise to The Prince of Darkness that The Church of Satan no longer requires its followers to agree with The Satanic Bible, as was once its officially stated criterion for being a Satanist. It now suffices to like the book—or, as they phrase it, to feel that it resonates with you. That, and your continued praise of Anton LaVey, The Church of Satan, and its internal hierarchy.

Satan agrees with LaVey when he said that language can be highly revealing. Sometimes, what you read between the lines may be the bulk of the message. “Resonance” is one fine word with such an interesting connotation that it is uniquely well-chosen.

The Devil thinks some explanation is required. If you poke an object repeatedly, there is a narrow range of poke frequencies where the object will vibrate at a rate that matches your stimuli before the energy is dissipated. Each stimulus then stacks on top of the previous stimuli so that, eventually, there is lots of movement, far greater than that of any single stimulus. Consider the musical guitar, for example: you pluck the string, which keeps vibrating for a while and thus keeps poking the air in the guitar body. The size and shape of the guitar body reflect the sound of a plucked guitar string, but before the sound escapes the hole in the guitar body, more sound from the vibrating string has already been added on top of it many times. What sounds like an amplification is the effect of thousands of identical little sound wave tops having been added together. This effect is called resonance.

Resonance typically occurs at the so-called “natural frequency” of a system. This innocuous-sounding property can be very dangerous to a system, because it marks a point of instability. At just the right frequency and with the right material, the total energy that is accumulated in a resonant system may approach infinity and often spells disaster as the system is torn apart and, for systems that can draw this energy from their surroundings (for example, electrical systems), may destroy the source of energy as well. While many important applications utilize resonance (for example, to produce sound or to generate stable frequencies for radio communications), engineers and architects go to great lengths to avoid the phenomenon unless it is explicitly desired, even trivial forces can wreak havoc if they occur at the resonant frequency. Nobody wants to repeat the Tahoma Narrows Bridge collapse. That being said, some systems are more prone to resonance than others. It typically occurs if a medium is high-strung or rigid, or is hollow or homogenous matter with few diverse components. A common method for reducing the risk of resonance is to use non-simple structures of composite materials with non-trivial responses to external stimuli.

Satan thinks the term “resonate” very accurately describes people who gravitate towards His church: if The Satanic Bible resonates with a person, it is because its banalities are inflated to high importance by a naturally unstable reader with an empty head. It has a great effect on simple, easily provoked people with views constructed from a few rigid absolutes. Resonance is usually detrimental to a medium, and Satan thinks that many readers who found that The Satanic Bible “resonated” with them have developed to the worse.