13 Days of Halloween: Satanism

The Nine Satanic Sins

Yep, some people are going to have problems with this post. Sorry. I'm not a satanist, and honestly, I don't know much about it outside of the Hollywood version. In my interesting halloweeny info search, I stumbled across the Nine Satanic Sins, and I just had to post about them.

Anton LaVey is the founder of the Church of Satan in America, which seems to be predominantly concerned with the elevation of the individual's wants and desires specifically in regards to materialism.

On a bookish note, LaVey's satanistic tradition is largely rooted in the realm of the literary. The principles of his religion are based in the works of Ayn Rand, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alastair Crowley, H.L. Mencken, and Jack London (at least according to two reasonably credible websites). LaVey himself wrote four separate books: The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Rituals, Satan Speaks, The Devil's Notebook, and The Compleat Witch, or What To Do When Virtue Fails.

In 1987, LaVey published the Nine Satanic Sins. They are as follows:

Stupidity
Pretentiousness
Solipsism
Self-Defeat
Herd Conformity
Lack of Perspective
Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies
Counterproductive Pride
Lack of Aesthetics

Okay, is it just me or are those kind of right on? I mean, I can totally get behind these being sins, things to avoid. And here I thought sins in satanistic religions would be things like: being nice to others, helping old people across the street, and not eating small children. Forgive me satanists, I have pegged you all wrong. But no, I still don't want to sign up.