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Satanism comprises a number of related beliefs and social phenomena. They share the feature of symbolism, veneration or admiration of Satan (or similar figures). Satan first appeared in the Hebrew Bible and was an Angel who challenged the religious faith of humans. In the Book of Job he is called “the Satan” (meaning “the accuser”) and acted as the prosecutor in God’s court. A character named “Satan” was described as the cosmic enemy of the Lord and temptor of Jesus within many of the Gospels of early Christians. It was further developed in scope and power as the bringer of Armageddon and Apocalypse as featured within the Book of Revelation. Religions inspired by these texts (Jews, Christians and Muslims) typically regarded Satan as an adversary or enemy, but extensive popular redactions and recompositions of biblical tales inserted its presence and influence into every aspect of adversarial role back to the Creation and Fall. By Christians and Muslims especially, the figure of Satan was treated variously as a rebellious or jealous competitor to human beings, to Jesus, or to the Lord, and characterized as a fallen angel or demon ruling the penitential Underworld, chained in a deep pit, wandering the planet vying for souls or providing the impetus for all worldly travesty. At points during the development of the Christian religion, Satan became its outspoken enemy, and this served the interests of all those who would use this to their advantage, inclusive of those who fashioned or recomposed the mythos of Satanism. Additionally, particularly after the European Enlightenment, some works, such as Paradise Lost, were taken up by Romantics and described as presenting the Biblical Satan as an allegory representing a crisis of faith, individualism, free will, wisdom and enlightenment. Those works actually featuring Satan as a heroic character are fewer in number but do exist: George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain being two authors whose works include this prior to the pen being taken up by religious Satanists.

Anti-witchcraft laws such as the British Witchcraft Act 1735 (not repealed until 1951), reflected strong public sentiment against witchcraft and Satanism. Religious Satanism began in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan.

Modern Satanist groups (those which appeared after the 1960s) are widely diverse, but two major trends which can be seen are Theistic Satanism and Atheistic Satanism. Theistic Satanists venerate Satan as a supernatural deity. In contrast, Atheistic Satanists consider themselves atheists and regard Satan as merely symbolic of certain human traits. This categorization of Satanism (which could be categorized in other ways, for example “Traditional” versus “Modern”), is not necessarily adopted by Satanists themselves, who usually would not specify which type of Satanism they adhere to. Some Satanists believe in God in the sense of a Prime Mover but, like Atheistic Satanists, still worship themselves, due to the Deist belief that God plays no part in mortal lives.

Each “type” of Satanist will usually refer to themselves only as a “Satanist”.

In the 1950s Anton LaVey formed a group called the Order of the Trapezoid, which later became the governing body of the Church of Satan. The group included: “The Baroness” Carin de Plessen, Dr. Cecil Nixon, Kenneth Anger, City Assessor Russell Wolden, Donald Werby, Michael Harner, and Shana Alexander. Other LaVey associates from this time period include noted Science Fiction and Horror writers Anthony Boucher, August Derleth, Robert Barbour Johnson, Reginald Bretnor, Emil Petaja, Stuart Palmer, Clark Ashton Smith, Forrest J. Ackerman, and Fritz Leiber Jr. The Church of Satan was established in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966, by Anton Szandor LaVey, who was the Church’s High Priest until his death in 1997.

In the first year of its foundation, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan publicly performed a Satanic marriage of Judith Case and journalist John Raymond. The ceremony was attended by Joe Rosenthal. The church also performed a public funeral for Church of Satan member Edward Olson, at the request of his wife.

The Church of Satan has been the subject of books, magazine and newspaper articles during the 1960s and 1970s. It is also the subject of a documentary, Satanis (1970). LaVey appeared in Kenneth Anger’s film Invocation of my Demon Brother, acted as technical adviser on The Devil’s Rain, which starred Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, and introduced John Travolta. The Church of Satan was also featured in a segment of Luigi Scattini’s film Angeli Bianchi, Angeli Neri, released in the United States as “Witchcraft ’70”. According to Peter H. Gilmore, “Satanism begins with atheism. We begin with the universe and say, ‘It’s indifferent. There’s no God, there’s no Devil. No one cares!

In 1975 LaVey phased out the Church’s “Grotto” system and eliminated people he thought were using the Church as a substitute for accomplishment in the outside world. Thereafter, conventional achievement in society would be the criterion for advancement within the Church of Satan. At the same time, LaVey became more selective in granting interviews. This shift to “closed door” activities resulted in some rumors of the Church’s demise, and even rumors of LaVey’s death.

In the 1980s the media reported concerns of criminal conspiracies within the Church of Satan. Members of the Church of Satan, such as Peter H. Gilmore, Peggy Nadramia, Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, Diabolos Rex, and musician King Diamond, were active in media appearances to refute allegations of criminal activity. The FBI would later issue an official report refuting the criminal conspiracy theories of this time. This phenomenon became known as “The Satanic Panic”.

In the 1980s and 1990s the Church of Satan and its members were very active in producing movies, music, films, and magazines devoted to Satanism. Most notably Adam Parfrey’s Feral House publishing, the music of Boyd Rice, and the films of Nick Bougas, including his documentary Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey. The Church of Satan and Anton LaVey were also the subject of numerous magazine and news articles during this time.

After Anton Szandor LaVey’s death, his position as head of the Church of Satan passed on to Blanche Barton. Barton remains involved in the Church; however, in 2001 she ceded her position to long-time members Peter H. Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia, the current High Priest and High Priestess and publishers of The Black Flame, the official magazine of The Church of Satan. The Central Office of the Church of Satan has also moved from San Francisco to New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, where the couple resides. The Church of Satan does not recognize any other organizations as holding legitimate claim to Satanism and its practice, though it does recognize that one need not be a member of the Church of Satan to be a Satanist.

As the Church of Satan does not publicly release membership information, it is not known how many members belong to the Church.

In October 2004 the Royal Navy officially recognised its first registered Satanist, twenty-four year old Chris Cranmer, as a technician on the HMS Cumberland.

On June 6, 2006 The Church of Satan held the first public ritual Satanic Mass in 40 years at the Steve Allen Theater in the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. The ritual, based on the rites outlined in The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals, was conducted by Reverend Bryan Moore and Priestess Heather Saenz.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví meaning Friday, and dekatreís meaning thirteen, attached to phobía meaning fear. The term triskaidekaphobia derives from the Greek words “tris”, meaning ‘three’, “kai”, meaning ‘and’, and “deka”, meaning ‘ten’. the whole word means three and ten. The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953. In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners. Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of good or bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday. This year, in 2009, this applied to the months of February, and March, and now November. The next instance of this three Friday the thirteenths appears on the calendar for the year 2015.

Contrary to the popular opinion that Satanism advocates promiscuous behavior in all individuals, in this essay LaVey actually lambasts the “free love” movement (a movement very much in motion in the 1960s when LaVey wrote The Satanic Bible) as being equally restricting as the white-light view that any unholy sex is wrong.

LaVey’s stance, once again, takes a purely individual approach to sexual matters and ethics. He maintains that while some people are indeed happy with sexual promiscuity, some are, by their nature, happier with much less sexual activity, or perhaps no sex activity at all. LaVey believes that neither of these states are unnatural or deserving of condemnation, but rather that it is a decision for each individual to make concerning their own sexual tastes and activities.

From this basic principle, LaVey then expounds upon this by pointing out exactly what is and is not permissible Satanic sexual activity.

The basic premise of what is permissible is summed up by the maxim:

Satanism encourages any form of sexual expression you may desire, so long as it hurts no one else.

LaVey quickly explains that this does not preclude sexual sadism/masochism, as “so long as it hurts no one else” must be interpreted to mean “who does not wish to be hurt.”

This statement openly condones polyamory, premarital or extramarital sex, sexual games including BDSM, multiple partners, incest, and any other such proclivity, while at the same time not excluding heterosexuality, homosexuality, monogamy, or “traditional” marriage. Satanism views all such activities as entirely equal, and deserving of the same respect. LaVey also specifies asexuality as a valid expression, for one for whom sexual activity is simply not desired. LaVey claims Satanism to be the first religion to openly take this stance.