I was going through the list of meet-ups (on Meetup.com) for Glasgow and eventually came upon a Satanists' meetup.
It held my interest because I have been here less than a year in Scotland, where the people are so much more sociable, community-minded, personable -- and talkative, boy are they talkative -- than the English, especially Londoners, and lo and behold, here is a group that stands for none of these things. And it's weirdly thrilling.
Don't get me wrong. I like that I can just talk to the odd stranger more easily than I could in London. I am timid enough that it -- subconsciously -- comes as a major relief that people don't abuse me or ignore me when I reach out. My conversations don't last that long anyway!
But the 'payback' comes when the odd stranger starts talking to me ... and then finally at me, about every last detail and worry and problem in their heads, while I nod and smile and try to 'put myself in their shoes'. Here this happens more often than you would think, and I don't think I'm used to this as yet. When I am the one that doesn't want to engage, it's hard to say 'no'. Perhaps it was this permissive nature that allowed one member of the group to comment that he's "self-less to a fault and [has been] especially susceptible to psychic vampires in the past".
And now I find myself wanting to read Anton LaVey's bio, if not his book .
Whether I want to join the group (of individualists!) … probably not.
Oh hey . . .
2 years ago
I had started reading the Satanic Bible some years ago, I got it in pdf form from somewhere. It was actually a matter of common sense really, treating others how you would want to be treated, nothing as exciting as death to all believers and what not. Its not what all the hype would lead you to believe. Of course my attention span is that of a absentminded bird confronted with a sparkly bauble so I never finished reading it or got that far into it.
ReplyDeleteAlso the Satanist I know are all very decent, caring and garrulous creatures so I think you may be off in thinking them outsiders
i'd be interested to see what the bio of the satanist group is...
ReplyDeletehmmm... oletalk the potential satanist...
it's always a bit shocking when strangers (or even acquaintances) start pouring out their inner most details to me...
Oh no, GirlBlue, didn't mean to imply they were 'outsiders', just unusual -- I didn't expect that Scots could be Satanists (so more fool me ...).
ReplyDeleteWill, based on that, I guess I am a potential Satanist ;-)
I suspect satanism is more a reaction to heavy christianity. The more catholisism nearby, the more that the brand of satanism nearby will have an emphasis on ritual, like the catholics emphasise ritual. If protestantism is the dominant christian tradition then the satanism carries less ritual and more free flowing spirituality kinda stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat makes me sceptical. To me this doesn't sound like a religion or spiritual movement on it's own merits. It's a protest to christianity and established religion.