I didn't think much of LaVey when it came to occult matters, spritual practices and magick etc.
However I did find his philosophy intriguing and refreshing in places, I will have to reread the book as well.
LaVey and his daughters Zara LaVey and Zeena LaVey have both stated on TV that they don't believe in a concept of the afterlife, they live for the now.
I would also like to point out that LaVey believes in indulgence and specifically states this is different from compulsion. Compulsion is when the indulgence becomes a need and controls the individual. With indulgence, the person is completely in control.
This is true. I did find the book fascinating, though. La Vey had an interesting view on matters. He even stated that what he was teaching was not spiritual,but rather philosophical, in nature. A bit off-topic, but I actually had a dream that I should re-read this. And then I came to the site and this very topic had come up. Hmm...
He actually scoffed at the concept of religion, as he states due to the hypocrisy he saw around him, Thus La Veyan Satanism is actually more philosophy than religion.
I have a hard time Taking Laveyans seriously seeing as by paradox they claim to be Satanists and athiests at the same time.
When the fact is that before Lavey and the CoS Satanists and satanic groups believed in a literal Satan.
Saying you are a Satanist but do not believe in a literal Satan is like someone claiming to be a Christian but saying they do not believe in a literal Christ!
A good example of a satanic group that believed in a literal Satan is Our Lady of Endor Coven,The Ophite Cultus Satanas" founded by the late Herbert Sloan in 1948 which was a Theistic/Tradrional/Gnostic Satanic order
There are a variety of Satanists. Your Luciferians, LaVey Satanists, Reverse Christian "I'm a rebel and that's cool" Satanists, and Spiritual Satanists. Oh, and then there are the Joy of Satan satanists (let's not go there).
Luciferian satanists and spiritual satanists are pagans that dive into mythology and better themselves with a very independent thinking, choosing those like the "Light Bringer" Lucifer and deity Enki as their role model and patron. They tend to be very ritualistic in their practice, much like any other ceremonial magician.
LaVey Satanism is the "anti-religion" religion. He himself saw his own "religion" as a joke. He laughed his way through life, an awesome way to live really and it caught on. It isn't necessarily athiest, so much as it is against your typical dogma and doctrine. At least it used to be, before LaVey's daughter started changing the Church of Satan, and now I think her father is rolling over in his grave. It's looking like the anti-religion is becoming one itself. Sad really. I haven't kept up with the changes.
Reverse Christians are your typical teen goths driven to do everything and anything that creates a shock factor and gains attention. These are also the ones that typically give real satanists a bad name by running around in the woods in black cloaks sacrificing animals because they can and all your other tacky "devil worshiper" stereotyping.
JOS satanists are the bane of the pagan community for not only teaching horribly bad magick, but also being discriminatory like no other. And no one should ever consider JOS a good source on satanism.
As for what happens when they die, nothing different than when you do. Faith determines what rules you live by and what deities govern you, in my own opinion. So you only have to worry if you are being a hypocrite to your own religion, not someone elses. Be true to yourself and don't worry about what others do. Faith is very personal and should always be respected no matter how different it is to your own.
That was an informative post. Joy of Satan are one of my personal hates, then again any site which promotes neo-nazi beliefs is just plain evil in my opinion.
Luciferians are the brand I can mostly sympathise with and their beliefs are very much in line with my own. I only know one self proclaimed luciferian and they believe they will go to the same afterlife as everyone else, he believes what the Wiccans call the Summerland and the Christians call Heaven are the same place and that if someone wants to call this place Hell it doesn't matter.
I always classed Satanism and Luciferianism as two separate things, but I guess they are linked.
Satanists are like all normal people when they die they become spirit and travel the higher planes or become a Disincarnate, Disincarnates are spirits that do not travel to the higher dimensions and get stuck on the lower plane it all depends on the strength and consciousness of the spirit when dead.
Theistic Satanist here, what I believe is that when a Satanist dies we join our dark lord Satan in the eternal plane known as hell. There we shall be rewarded with for service and live in bliss alongside our allies and friends the demons. I know this all sounds stupid, but to fully comprehend what the satanic afterlife is you must first understand who exactly Satan, Lucifer, and the court of hell is. You can message me if you'd like to learn further, as I could write a book on this.
Well, I'm a polytheistic satanist and I'll just say what I believe. I think that it doesn't matter what or who you worship, or that it even matters at all. People just keep reincarnating till either they have become thoughtless, or they have gained knowledge and have become as a god in virtue. The thoughtless cease to exist entirely (merge into the void), and the knowledgable become gods. I believe that the gods that exist where either present since the beginning or where mortals. Some of the gods are not conscious and do not care for humans and some of the gods do care about our affairs if they are sought after. The only thing they can do is prod us or give favor to us, as well as ruin ourselves. So basically, you reincarnate, become nothing or become a god, but in the end we will all submit to the black haze/the void and we will start the world all over again.
