If you’re asking why a Satanist would want you to believe any particular thing, I think a significant majority of Satanists would agree: nobody wants you to believe anything in particular. Proselytism is something Satanists probably tend to hate about other religions.
But if you’re wondering why Satanists believe it (or at least why the Satanists who believe it believe it – though I expect that’s a very popular belief among Satanists)…
It’s kindof the whole deal with the left-hand path. The way left-hand path sort of folks will describe it to you, the right-hand path is about trying to get “closer to god” by being more “holy” to get more in god’s good graces. The left-hand path is about becoming (a) god (or perhaps to recover from the right-hand-path-originated delusion that you’re not a god already). To claim/own power oneself rather than to supplicate to another being. (Mind you, there are left-hand path practices centered around working with entities, but even those have as their goal to request the assistance of said entities in order to be(come) a god oneself.)
Honestly, if there’s one belief more widespread among folks who identify with the “left-hand path” label than that they either are or ought to become a god, I’m not sure what it would be.
Oh, one more thing I’ll say. It’s probable, at least in my estimation, that a certain fairly sizeable percentage of Satanists out there may “believe” the statement “I am a god” more as an affirmation, goal, self-fulfilling prophesy, or some such than as a tenet.
Honestly, if there’s one belief more widespread among folks who identify with the “left-hand path” label than that they either are or ought to become a god, I’m not sure what it would be.
Sincere question: as someone who worships Lilith, surrendered to ego dissolution before Her greatness and therefore isn’t able to visualize myself as a deity (I’m way too infinitesimal before Her), would I be considered as a practitioner of a left-hand path or a right-hand path?
I ask this because, on the one hand, I’m used to refer to myself as a practitioner of a left-hand path due to how Lilith (and by extension Lucifer/Samael, who I also follow to a certain extent) represent the independence from the demiurge “God”, but on the other hand, the aspect of “being God” is practically absent from my specific practice (except for the fact that the ego dissolution involves being dissolved by Mother’s Darkness, indirectly becoming one with Her), so I’m legit confused now that I saw your comment. [email protected]
To be fair, what I presented, while I think probably very popular among those who identify with the left-hand path, is only one definition of “left-hand path”. And I think a lot of left-hand path sort of folks would agree that it shouldn’t be up to someone else whether what you specifically do qualifies as left-hand path (or “Satanism” or “demonolatry” or “demonosophy” or “dark magic” or whatever else any particular person might identify with). I suspect a lot of such people would say it ought to be up to “you” (the practitioner) what qualifies under your chosen labels. But that might actually derive from the whole “self-deification mindset” thing. (Like, I think a lot of left-hand path folks would respond to “you’re not actually left-hand path” with “fuck you motherfucker I’m fuckin’ left-hand path because I say so and letting you tell me I’m not would be the least left-hand path thing I could do.”) In your case, maybe it makes more sense to ask Lilith whether you’re left-hand path or not? (Just a suggestion.)
If you’re asking in order to determine whether you meet someone else’s (say, my) definition of “left-hand path”, a few questions I’d ask to get a sense of it are:
Do you believe Lilith (or any other entities you worship or work with) was once a “mere mortal” like yourself?
Do you believe it possible for you to become similarly as powerful as entities such as Lilith (even if, say, you don’t care to) through your own doing? (Perhaps the same way Lilith did, if you answer “yes” to the first one.)
Do you want more power yourself than you have today?
If you have a problem, do you supplicate to Lilith (or other entities)?
If so, and if you believe doing so can lead to a resolution of said problem(s), by whose doing does that occur?
(And if you don’t wish to share that much information or believe Lilith wouldn’t want you to, then the most “left-hand path” ways I’d say you could answer (by the definition of “left-hand path” I tend to think in terms of) so you can get answers without sharing would be “yes”, “yes”, “yes”, “no” (but “yes” wouldn’t be incompatible with a LHP way of interpreting all of this), “by my own power”/“it’s on me to take responsibility for that”/“She expects/demands that I resolve it”. The least would be “no”, “no”, “no, she wants me to worship her to the point of denying myself and I want that too”/“she wants me to surrender my power to her and I want that too”, “yes”, “Hers”.)
(And feel free to substitute “Lilith told me” for “I believe” if you like. And to substitute “responsibility” for “power”. And otherwise make any other substitutions you like to make the above fit better into your practice and your relationship with Lilith and/or any other entities. And feel free to ask Lilith or other deities before settling on any particular answers.)
And finally, again, what I presented, while (I think) popular among those who identify with the left-hand path, is one definition thereof and if you and/or Lilith reject that definition, far be it from me to gatekeep.
The way I’ve heard it used it’s “I’m in charge of my own life”, not “I have super powers”.
LaVey’s Big Idea was this: people make their gods in their own image. What you hate, God hates. What you love, God also loves. You’re basically worshiping an image of yourself already, so why not just replace the godhead with yourself and be done with it? Of course, there are people who are tormented by God, too, but LaVey would probably just call those people masochists.
![Self love [artist unknown]](https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/6eb53509-ade6-46a7-a504-a5e85485cbff.jpeg){kind=link}
If you’re asking why a Satanist would want you to believe any particular thing, I think a significant majority of Satanists would agree: nobody wants you to believe anything in particular. Proselytism is something Satanists probably tend to hate about other religions.
But if you’re wondering why Satanists believe it (or at least why the Satanists who believe it believe it – though I expect that’s a very popular belief among Satanists)…
It’s kindof the whole deal with the left-hand path. The way left-hand path sort of folks will describe it to you, the right-hand path is about trying to get “closer to god” by being more “holy” to get more in god’s good graces. The left-hand path is about becoming (a) god (or perhaps to recover from the right-hand-path-originated delusion that you’re not a god already). To claim/own power oneself rather than to supplicate to another being. (Mind you, there are left-hand path practices centered around working with entities, but even those have as their goal to request the assistance of said entities in order to be(come) a god oneself.)
Honestly, if there’s one belief more widespread among folks who identify with the “left-hand path” label than that they either are or ought to become a god, I’m not sure what it would be.
Oh, one more thing I’ll say. It’s probable, at least in my estimation, that a certain fairly sizeable percentage of Satanists out there may “believe” the statement “I am a god” more as an affirmation, goal, self-fulfilling prophesy, or some such than as a tenet.
Sincere question: as someone who worships Lilith, surrendered to ego dissolution before Her greatness and therefore isn’t able to visualize myself as a deity (I’m way too infinitesimal before Her), would I be considered as a practitioner of a left-hand path or a right-hand path?
I ask this because, on the one hand, I’m used to refer to myself as a practitioner of a left-hand path due to how Lilith (and by extension Lucifer/Samael, who I also follow to a certain extent) represent the independence from the demiurge “God”, but on the other hand, the aspect of “being God” is practically absent from my specific practice (except for the fact that the ego dissolution involves being dissolved by Mother’s Darkness, indirectly becoming one with Her), so I’m legit confused now that I saw your comment.
[email protected]
To be fair, what I presented, while I think probably very popular among those who identify with the left-hand path, is only one definition of “left-hand path”. And I think a lot of left-hand path sort of folks would agree that it shouldn’t be up to someone else whether what you specifically do qualifies as left-hand path (or “Satanism” or “demonolatry” or “demonosophy” or “dark magic” or whatever else any particular person might identify with). I suspect a lot of such people would say it ought to be up to “you” (the practitioner) what qualifies under your chosen labels. But that might actually derive from the whole “self-deification mindset” thing. (Like, I think a lot of left-hand path folks would respond to “you’re not actually left-hand path” with “fuck you motherfucker I’m fuckin’ left-hand path because I say so and letting you tell me I’m not would be the least left-hand path thing I could do.”) In your case, maybe it makes more sense to ask Lilith whether you’re left-hand path or not? (Just a suggestion.)
If you’re asking in order to determine whether you meet someone else’s (say, my) definition of “left-hand path”, a few questions I’d ask to get a sense of it are:
(And if you don’t wish to share that much information or believe Lilith wouldn’t want you to, then the most “left-hand path” ways I’d say you could answer (by the definition of “left-hand path” I tend to think in terms of) so you can get answers without sharing would be “yes”, “yes”, “yes”, “no” (but “yes” wouldn’t be incompatible with a LHP way of interpreting all of this), “by my own power”/“it’s on me to take responsibility for that”/“She expects/demands that I resolve it”. The least would be “no”, “no”, “no, she wants me to worship her to the point of denying myself and I want that too”/“she wants me to surrender my power to her and I want that too”, “yes”, “Hers”.)
(And feel free to substitute “Lilith told me” for “I believe” if you like. And to substitute “responsibility” for “power”. And otherwise make any other substitutions you like to make the above fit better into your practice and your relationship with Lilith and/or any other entities. And feel free to ask Lilith or other deities before settling on any particular answers.)
And finally, again, what I presented, while (I think) popular among those who identify with the left-hand path, is one definition thereof and if you and/or Lilith reject that definition, far be it from me to gatekeep.
The way I’ve heard it used it’s “I’m in charge of my own life”, not “I have super powers”.
LaVey’s Big Idea was this: people make their gods in their own image. What you hate, God hates. What you love, God also loves. You’re basically worshiping an image of yourself already, so why not just replace the godhead with yourself and be done with it? Of course, there are people who are tormented by God, too, but LaVey would probably just call those people masochists.