Raven – Satanist in Aotearoa (they/them)

Really hoping we get a Labour-Greens coalition at the end of this year 🤞

I really wish Labour would come out and say:
We will undo all the shitty coalition policies
We will enshrine Te Tiriti
We will not protect abusers and do deal with the criminal Presidents
We will tax wealth
We will look after the voters not the donors.

I will still vote Green.

I guess the advantage of an individualistic religion that is built on the idea of rebellion and that doesn't have a deity, is that we can all keep revolutionising and refining it.

We don't have to be held back by LaVey's views, or Greaves' words, or any specific text.

#satanism

Again, these are my feelings & thoughts while I'm in the early stages of looking into TST. I'm still reading and listening to podcasts and talking to people so I'll be adding to this list someday. But for now, I'm leaning towards concluding that TST has a few good ideas but is largely not for me

And lastly (for now), TST is too inclusive in some ways;if literally anyone is welcome, even if their beliefs or values directly contradict TST's tenets or values, then are those tenets and values meaningful anymore?

I also don't like that TST has been built upon and has connections to racist ideologies and people with rather objectionable worldviews.

Whether a lot of it is just being edgelords for the sake of winding people up or not, I see this as problematic

I don't like how TST keeps very tight control over chapters and groups, even limiting how and when the groups can do community actions, or what movements (e.g. BLM) they are not allowed to align themselves with or support.

And TST seems to regularly bully previous members and breakaway groups.

TST appears to do some good activism...
But at the same time, there is a strong for-profit side to the organization that shouldn't be ignored. TST is not a non-profit like many churches. It's a business with owners.

And there's absolutely no transparency around procurement or use of funds.

It disappoints and worries me to learn that the tenets have been altered/updated with very little transparency around that process and without members being informed in the past.

more is needed (not a criticism; individualism is the heart of Satanism so i think it makes sense that everyone should develop their own individual version of the religion).

I'm still relatively new to Satanism so this is a somewhat hot take and I'll still leave room for developing my opinions/feelings. But for now, this is my early impression of The Satanic Temple:

The 7 tenets are a solid basis.

But they're also rather vague so
...

Satanism isn’t about perpetual discomfort or friction for friction’s sake. It’s about rejecting blind obedience, not rejecting basic decency just because it “feels too Christian.” Decency doesn’t belong to religion. It belongs to those who think for themselves.

What does TST do that isn’t done better by someone else with the added bonus of financial transparency?

No one needs to go to TST for food. Or for an abortion. You don’t need to slap a pentagram on those services.

And the NDAs! Even the somewhat-cult-like sect of Christianity I was once involved in didn't have NDAs!

I want to do more investigating but, at this point, I really dislike how disingenuous the leadership of TST seems to be?
Presenting as a religious org but that org has OWNERS?
The tight control the org and it's owners try to maintain over chapters and groups.
The way they go after previous members

Doug Misicko

When directly asked if he was Jewish himself, Misicko also replied, “I’m an Aryan king!”"
the.satanic.wiki/index.php/Do...

“Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish and they wear a stupid fucking frisbee on their head and walk around thinking they’re God’s chosen people.”
Misicko then clarified that it’s not okay to hate non-practicing Jews who only have “Jewish blood”, however...

* " In response to a listener's comment about the Nazis ruining the idea of Social Darwinism and eugenics in popular culture... Misicko would infamously say:
“Threw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. It’s just like, ‘antisemitic’ to me isn’t a bad word. It just depends.

Ok so... Lucien Greaves seems to be an asshole?

• seems to be on board with Might Is Right, even illustrating the newest edition
• appears to be anti-Semitic* or at least hates followers of Judaism
• keeps terrible company; people like David Silverman & Shane Bugbee

Am I assessing this correctly?

Thank you! I'll check out those 3 things you've linked and then reach out

Also, it's often the people/groups who have broken away and are being discredited or sued are the most trustworthy. So definitely not dismissing anything @queersatanic.bsky.social or other critics have to say

I haven't got around to reading and watching the two links you included earlier but I will later today. I'd also appreciate any more sources you can recommend for me to get a better handle on the actual truth behind the history of TST ✌️🫶

I've heard of TST's history of going after groups or breakaways that don't conform to their tight control. That's disappointing but not surprising.
...

I haven't looked into TST a lot yet but I've already got the impression that they are not the squeaky clean org they try to portray themselves as.
And I'm always wary of any large organization because, with scale, comes issues (often corruption and dishonesty).
...

Sorry if this came across as dismissive or antagonistic. I was using the word bias in a way that doesn't have such a negative bias. Everyone has bias and it's impossible to get past that so I'm just trying to figure out where the bias lies and how to balance things. I hope that makes sense.
...

Thank you, I'll check these out.

In the interests of fairness, am I correct in thinking Queer Satanic has a strong bias against TST?

Just listened to the episode of the Hail Satan podcast that's an interview with @josephlaycock.bsky.social, author of Speak Of The Devil: How The Satanic Temple Is Changing The Way We Talk About Religion, and now I'm looking forward to reading his book even more!

#Satanism #SpeakOfTheDevil

How often do we (humans) observe or learn about something that we cannot comprehend and instead of being honest and saying "I don't know how this works", we credit a deity as the force behind it?
Far too often.

*a more common symbol is a fire triangle on a cross of earth