Today in the U.S. many will celebrate the secular holiday called “Thanksgiving.” It originated as a harvest festival, and the pervasive imagery has been inspired by legends about Calvinist separatist Pilgrims who emigrated in 1620 from The Netherlands to the “New World.” These staunchly Christian folks supposedly included, now and again, select nearby indigenous pagans in their festivities. However, the interactions between the European immigrants and the Native Americans were often not mutually advantageous, as virulent pathogens were unknowingly brought to North America by the colonists, which, in many situations, devastated the local populaces. Thanksgiving has evolved into an occasion […]
carnal religion
5 posts
Today, those who have embraced the title Satanist might recall that it is the anniversary of the birth of Magus Anton Szandor LaVey. We owe him a debt for crafting a rational, skeptical, pragmatic philosophy which embraces the human animal for all the glories and ghastliness of which our species is capable. He properly named it after Satan, that grand, mythical adversary of all stultifying spiritual conventions, inspiring the like-minded with such apt symbolism. He called for responsible individuals to hold themselves as their own highest value, and thus, he pioneered a carnal religion like none before. As he said […]
For Satanists, our carnal religion celebrates every day as Earth Day. We cherish and protect our wondrous home world, with all of its beauties and terrors, and invite you to do the same. If possible, go out of doors and partake of the splendors of Nature—of which you are a vibrant participant! Some musical suggestions to enhance this day: Beethoven’s “Pastorale” Symphony No. 6 presents this brilliant composer’s reactions to Nature—and the first movement’s repetitive use of motivic material is perhaps a precursor to minimalism! Icelandic composer Jon Leifs conjured the sound of a local volcanic eruption in Hekla, which […]
Today marks the 91st anniversary of the birth of our founder, Anton Szandor LaVey. Satanists hold one’s natal anniversary to be our own highest of holidays, so many of us take this day to recall the brilliance of the man who, in 1966, launched Satanism as a full-fledged religion. The philosophy he crafted was built on atheism, viewing humans as just another animal—sometimes better but more often worse than the rest who share this wonderful planet with us. Embracing Satan for the adversarial aspect essential to this word, he set forth a conceptual framework for a carnal religion in opposition […]
For Satanists, our carnal religion celebrates every day as Earth Day. We cherish and protect our wondrous home world and invite you to do the same. —Magus Peter H. Gilmore