Coby Michael Smith wrote the article On Women in the Church of Satan for Patheos on December 5, 2016 AD.
Sadly, Smith appears to uncritically repeat, in copy and paste manner, Satanic PR talking point one liners. For example, that “Satanists do not call upon the devil for aid” is inaccurate. When Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey’s girlfriend Jane Mansfield’s son was mauled by a lion LaVey and his co-religionists gathered together to “call up the devil for aid” summoning him as their “brother Satan” for healing. Thus, they not only called up the generic conceptual symbolic devil but did so as a personal being who could hear them and act on their behalf.
Moreover, irony of ironies: on the Church of Satan’s very own website It is noted that LaVey “encourages his followers to perform rituals, dress up and employ nude women as altars and Anton LaVey himself stated the following, “A Satanist enters the supernatural realm by choice,” etc. and specifically on point, “LaVey makes no distinction between white and black magic, claiming that white Wiccan witches and ‘new agers’ have been freely calling upon the dark forces and suiting them to their own hypocritical purposes. He stated, ‘All magic is the realm of the Devil, no matter how righteously you dress it up. The claims that ‘black’ magic is only for destruction and ‘white’ for healing is bunk. Satanic magic is used to invoke powers of justice, and can be used to help yourself or one you care about, just as easily as it would be used to curse someone.’”
The specific topic covered is due to Coby Michael Smith’s “final project for my Women in Religion class” so you can imagine the utter error taught within that class.
And right on schedule, two sentences into the article come the Christophobic hate speech. Smith notes that Pat Robertson, apparently some sort of exemplary and representative of 2,000 years of Christianity, “uses the term Wicca and Satanism interchangeably” and this is a problem because, as Smith tells us, “‘The Wiccan position is that they do not worship the devil nor do they believe in Hell.’ (Anderson, p. 317) Interestingly, Satanists do not worship the devil or believe in Hell either” so then, they agree and Roberson is justified in using the terms interchangeably within certain contexts. But what was his context? Well, Smith does not tell us: Smith does not quote or cite Robertson but merely paraphrases him, Smith only quotes and cites Satanists.
Of course, unless and until such as time as Satanists and Wiccans can prove that it is forbidden for them to deceive then 1) we can only take their word for it that they do not worship the devil and 2) can understand that they do even if they claim not to when placed within the context of a different theology: for example, I could say that Earth/nature/self worship is devil worship.
The issue for Smith is that “the similarities between Wicca and Satanism end there” and then there is the feminist context of the article in asserting that “Wicca being a feminine oriented religion has many feminist adherents.” That may be accurate to some extent but the fact is that Wicca was established by a man, Gerald Gardner (1884-1964 at least “Gardnerian Wicca” was), and he was influenced by Aleister Crowley who was less than inclined to consider women to be anything but tools for his craft: his magickal witchcraft.
“One can always replace a woman in a few days”
—Aleister Crowley; letter dated January 17, 1929 AD“Practically all women ought to be chloroformed at 35…they’re all whores, anyhow”
—Aleister Crowley; diary entry, January 3 & 4, 1931 AD
Yet, I am more interested in the Satanic PR than the women’s study angle. Smith notes that “Satanism is a individualistic non-theistic religion, and according to the leaders of the Church of Satan and their founding texts Satanism supports an equal view of both sexes.” Again that might be the case but toward what end? For example, all occultism—by any name—ultimately comes down to blood and sex and Satanism offers both, see “On the Choice of a Human Sacrifice” – Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible.
Also, in A Witches’ Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook LaVey does specify the following to woman, “being a woman you are different from a man and that very difference must be exploited.” In fact, Smith notes that within that book “one can’t help but notice a misogynistic tone.” Smith also tells us that “feminists that have a negative idea of the treatment of women within the Church of Satan. For example ritual S&M has been used in satanic gatherings for various reasons, and founder Anton LaVey is photographed in ritual with nude women in submissive positions which suggests their subordinate position.”
Satanic High Priestess Peggy Nadramia is quoted thusly, “First, necessarily, I love myself. I am my own God after all, and I put no Gods before me.” Interestingly, she noted that loving herself is “First, necessarily” and terms her essay “My Dark, Satanic Love” thus, she believes in and loves Satan even if she is defining Satan as herself and/or self-love as Satanic.
Again, Smith cannot help a Christophobic pop-shot, “By honoring one’s self as their supreme deity, and practicing this intense kind of self-love practitioners are thought to break many of the social constructs formed by living in a Christianized civilization.” Well, that may be the case and is why today groups such as the Satanic Temple not only argue in favor of human child sacrifice in the form of abortion but argue against laws meant to treat the dismembered corpses of beautiful, healthy, innocent and defenseless babies with any dignity after Planned Parenthood is done selling parts of their mutilated bodies for money—see, Why does the Satanic Temple oppose Texas abortion burial laws?—again, sex and blood. Barton noted that “Satanic women are fierce; fierce defenders…of their children” but apparently are also in favor of Satanic and non-Satanic women murdering their children. The Satanic Temple’s Mission Statement promulgates, “benevolence and empathy among all people” but when you can simply define “people” out of existence, such a human babies in the womb, they benevolence is abandoned and malevolence is publically praised.
But then again, we are told that “to the Satanist who is non-theistic. There is no belief in God or the Devil, and therefore no duality between good and evil” and so murder or not is a mere subjective personal choice: which is exactly that which Anton LaVey wrote in his Satanic Bible.
Satanist Blanche Barton notes that “Satanism provides us with both…Identity and stimulation.” So it is from Satanism that they derive their identify—this is why so very many Satanists look the same, dress the same, use the same symbols, get the same tattoos, etc.—but recall the PR-line that “Satanism is a individualistic…religion” which is virtually a contradiction in terms.
This point is driven home time and again, “All Satanists are fiercely individualistic” in which case, by the way, you could not actually made any blanket statements about Satanists including that they do not worship the devil, are non- theistic, etc.
For example, we are told “Satanists do not call upon the devil for aid or make pacts with him in the Medieval Christian sense” but since Satanism is individualistic—and that is a Satanic dogma, by the way—then if any Satanists do indeed call upon the devil for aid and make pacts with him in the Medieval Christian sense then they are free to do so. Smith notes that these ultimate in individuality adhere to “In addition to the founding text The Satanic Bible…various other written works that could be considered Church doctrine. For example the Nine Satanic Statements, Eleven Rules of the Earth, and Nine Satanic Sins” all of which are Satanic dogma—and if it is not then we cannot take their word for it when they claim that Satanism is individualistic, non-theistic, does not worship the devil, etc., etc., etc. Also, “In Satanism, authority rests with the individual. However, there are titles of High Priest and High Priestess.”
Well, my grade of Coby Michael Smith’s contribution to the women in religion class is an F-.
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