Satanism and Satanists
Accusations of groups engaged in “devil worship” have echoed throughout much of Christian history. During the Middle Ages, the Inquisition led by the Catholic Church alleged that various heretical Christian sects and groups, such as the Knights Templar and the Cathars, performed secret Satanic rituals.
In the subsequent Early Modern period, belief in a widespread Satanic conspiracy of witches resulted in the trials and executions of tens of thousands of alleged witches across Europe and the North American colonies, peaking between 1560–1630 CE.
The terms “Satanist” and “Satanism” emerged during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation (1517–1700 CE), as both Catholics and Protestants accused each other of intentionally being in league with Satan. Accusations of Satanism made during the 18th to 20th centuries include being the cause of the French Revolution of 1789, the evil force behind Freemasonry, and during the 1980s and 1990s in the United States and the United Kingdom, the regular sexual abuse and murder of large numbers of children in their diabolical rites.
No evidence was found for this kind of organized abuse – though there are certainly many cases of the mentally unwell perpetrating crime citing Satan as their inspiration; as well as Christ, God, and any other charismatic movement or set of ideas.
Many renaissance and post-renaissance artists and writers have dealt with themes that Satanism has embraced or examined; such as Eliphaz Levi, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Stanisław Przybyszewski. Some of these often declared themselves as Satanists or Luciferians for part of their lives, however none of these individuals formulated any consistent or thoughtful idealogue of Satanism as a religious philosophy in their ideas.
Satanism as a cohesive religion, and as a title embraced rather than a slur levied, began in 1966 CE in San Francisco U.S.A when Anton Szandor LaVey founded The Church of Satan after some years of work and study with an informal special interest group that was called The Order of the Trapezoid.
The religion’s doctrines differ from the still pervasive popular image of Satanism as the worship of an evil supernatural entity. Adherents do not consider Satan to be a literal being or entity, but a positive archetype representing pride, carnality, and enlightenment. They embrace him as a symbol of defiance against people and organizations who believe in a literal god or gods and who Satanists criticize for suppressing humanity’s natural instincts and for encouraging irrationality. Church of Satan doctrines are based on materialism and philosophical naturalism, rejecting the existence of a divide between body and soul, life after death, the view that mankind are above animals, and the humans exist in an moral universe. It promotes a philosophy based on individualism and a healthy ego, often coupled with non-nonsense ideas about social contract, Darwinism and anti-egalitarianism. LaVey valued success, “not evil for its own sake”.
The figure of Satan-Lucifer represents the Western face of a set of archetypes almost universally present in every human culture. Satan-Lucifer is meaningful to Satanists who live in a post-Abrahamic society – however the adversarial principles of Satanism extend to the philosophical opposition to any religion or any other kind of group with similar principles to what Satanists perceive of as antithetical to their values. As such Satanism considers the embracing of any cultures “Other”, or for that matter any fictional anti-hero as symbolically valid.
Since this time multiple movements and organizations have sprung up in the name of Satan and other cultural and folklore devils that loosely share the same values and goals of personal empowerment, rational self-interest, and the freedom of the individual. Though there is much debate on whose differences are valid, it remains a fact the The Church of Satan was the first religion to codify and embody a Satanic Religion.
Non-Satanist membership
and related movements & organizations
Satanic New Zealand admits people who are not Satanists, but share many of our goals and values. SNZ is a group created for practical purposes.
Some such groups wish to distance themselves from the archetype of “The Bad (Other) Guy,” or strongly reject the nomenclature of Abrahamism, or try to distance themselves from the color of religion altogether (as many religions do).
Although the ideas and themes of Satanism sprung up in prehistory, Satanism as a cohesive religious or philosophical category is a modern phenomenon – and many of these groups arose a long time before 1966. Some of these groups share an intersection with Satanism in that their members are Satanists and also members of their non-Satanist group.
While the main philosophical groups that SNZ represents see Satan as a symbol or archetype (or even just a mascot) – some closely related groups believe there is a conscious non-animal or “higher” force in the universe they can interact with. Other groups want nothing to do with anything that gives them a sense of (what they see as) religion.
Some individuals do not like to label themselves, just as some Satanists value individuality to the point they avoid joining any group (to the extent that they’re able).
…in fact, many of these groups actively work to distance themselves from Satanism.
We don’t care.
We say: “A person is their own..” – and so long as these folk get something sincere and mutually productive out of it; we admit them anyway.
The Society of Satan New Zealand has gladly welcomed the contributions of members who are constituents of the following movements, organizations, or schools of thought who do not identify as being Satanists;
Some of these are mentioned in the drop-down parts of the Menu.