I read this sentiment a few years ago. Not a believer in satan but the temple truly is on the nutty side. It has mellowed a bit since they removed the throat and bowel slashing but it is still nuts. An omniscient god would not need to have secret signs and passwords to discern who was who.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=986

You should enjoy this link then. ;)

http://vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/2868256_48e24c7685.jpg

having been in the temple tons of times and also having studied satanism a good deal, the lds church has little in common with satanism, c'mon...

the inverted pentagram, yes is a part of the satanic repertoire, that's about it.

satanism is about being an individual, controlling your own life and not letting others have power over you. the exact opposite of the lds church =)

compare the 9 (laveyan) satanic statements with the lds church and decide for yourself:
1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates!
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek!
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!

source: http://churchofsatan.com/Pages/NineStatements.html

then read the 11 (laveyan) satanic rules of the earth:
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

source: http://churchofsatan.com/Pages/Eleven.html

and the 9 (laveyan) satanic sins:
1. Stupidity
2. Pretentiousness
3. Solipsism
4. Self-deceit
5. Herd Conformity
6. Lack of Perspective
7. Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies
8. Counterproductive Pride
9. Lack of Aesthetics

source: http://churchofsatan.com/Pages/Sins.html

there are some similarities, but MOSTLY dissimilarities =)

this was hilarious though =):
"
You might know that one of the most basic ways to analyze a work of art is through the relation between light and shadow. Well in this setting, the Christus figure is actually casting a shadow on planet Earth. Isn’t Jesus considered the “Light of World”? Casting a shadow on something symbolically means that is it keeping it in darkness and ignorance. If this figure of Jesus isn’t the source of light, what is then?
"

but I suppressed my alarm. To me this says that religion is of Satin created to keep them away from God.


ADAM: I am looking for messengers (I guess from God)

LUCIFER: Oh, you want someone to preach to you. You want religion, do you? I will have preachers here presently. There will be many willing to preach to you the philosophies of men mingled with scripture.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2010 06:50AM by Nick Humphrey.

in the Garden of Eden. Examples:

God: Adam, where are you? (all-knowing creator of Universe can't find human hiding behind bush?)

Adam: Here I am. I hid because I was naked. (Man saying he can hide from all-knowing creator of Universe?)

The Church of Satan sounds just like the ethics practiced by the god of the old testament.

"I am a jealous god....chosen people...destroy those who irritate you...etc"


Anagrammy

I've held it off because it didn't seem necessary yet. But if it comes right down to it, I want to ask:

At the Temple, did you *really* feel like you were in the presence of a loving Heavenly Father when you drew your thumb across your throat?

Or if in person (like the SP excomm office) ask it while making that sign.


That is clearly not Heavenly or Holy, but is plainly the works of darkness. I mean, seriously... bloody oaths of death in the House of the Lord?

The Church of Satan was formed in 1966. It is unlikely that Mormonism copied the Church of Satan on anything. The inverted pentagram dates back to the Greeks, and was used in a number of ways. Eliphas Levi is credited with being the first to link it with the occult around 1840. It had been in use by the Freemasons for years, taking on two connotations. The inverted pentagram is a symbol for the "Eastern Star" - the ladies aid society. It is also the symbol for the "Five Points of Fellowship." The "All Seeing Eye" is also a Masonic symbol. Here is some research I did on the inverted pentagram several years ago.



This is a review of early Christian art featuring inverted pentagrams and hexagrams.

http://www.thevesselofgod.com/sacredgeometry.html

The US Medal of Honour is an inverted pentagram.

The inverted pentagram being evil is derived from a claim made by Éliphas Lévi that the direction of the rays of the pentagram determine if it represents the good or evil principle: one point up representing order and light, two points up representing disorder and darkness. Lévi gives no justification or citation for this arbitrary distinction and goes on to arbitrarily equate the pentagram as a symbol for the Baphomet or goat headed god. This ignores, or distorts, the pentagram’s inclusion, one point down, in Constantine’s seal, the later mediaeval depiction of it as a medical symbol of health, and its Christian representation as a symbol of the Transfiguration of Christ.

No known graphical illustration associating the pentagram with evil appears until Lévi in the nineteenth century. The Inquisition of the early 1300s does not appear to have made a connection between the pentagram and the Knights Templar’s alleged worship of the Baphomet. Neither the Rule of the Order, the eleven charges against the Knights Templar, nor the eight Papal Bulls promulgated against them make any mention of the pentagram or its association with the Baphomet. Claims that the pentagram was significant to the Templars appear to be unfounded.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/pentagram.html

The ancient Pythagorean pentagram was drawn with two points up and represented the doctrine of Pentemychos. Pentemychos means "five recesses" or "five chambers", also known as the pentagonas — the five-angle, and was the title of a work written by Pythagoras' teacher and friend Pherecydes of Syros.[1] It was also the "place" where the first pre-cosmic offspring had to be put in order for the ordered cosmos to appear. The pentemychos is in Tartaros.
http://www.answers.com/topic/pentagram-2

The pentagram, when inverted (single point down, double points up), has been used as a symbolic depiction of the Horned God. In occult symbolism, this is akin to the Spirit of God taking on physical form in the world of matter. Interestingly, this corresponds in basic symbolism to the Christian cross, which is made up of the vertical line of Spirit descending into the horizontal line of the material world. The longer length of the vertical line below the horizontal one indicates the Spirit's entrapment in matter-Christ on the cross.
http://www.starcraftsob.com/craft/pentagram.shtml

In the 19th century, Eliphas Levi, a magician and magical philosopher, created an inverted pentagram to signify the god Baphomet, a goat-headed god of Evil. In the Middle Ages the upright pentagram represented summer, while the inverted was a representation of Winter. Levi formed two illustrations of the pentagram - the first, orientated to God, featured the five points of a man within the points of the Pentagram. This is called the microcosmic man and represents the four elements (earth, wind, fire, water) as the mans limbs with his head representing the spirit. Next to the Microcosmic Man, he drew the inverted pentagram as the goats head or Baphomet. In so doing, he formed for the first time a differentiation between good and evil symbolised by the pentagram. The Baphomet sign or simply Baphomet has become the official symbol of The Church Of Satan, which was started by Anton Szabdor La in 1966. By the way, this symbol isn’t used only by Satanists. For example, Order of Eastern Star, international humanitarian organisation, formed by wives of advanced masons, use an inverted pentagram as their symbol. Movement of rosincrucianists, which unifies Christian mystics, in their rituals use magic stick, sword, cup and pentagram – here pentagram symbolises “earth, material and stability”. Order of masons relates five points of pentagram to five points of fellowship. Some bands of heavy metal use pentagram as their symbol.
http://www.sociumas.lt/Eng/Nr15/simboliai.asp

The association of the Pentagram
with non-Christian belief,
and its modern "elemental" analysis,
was introduced during
the revival of occultism
in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The distinction between the point-upwards
and point-downwards Pentagram
forms became accentuated in the minds of Pagans
During this same time frame.
http://paganandproud.bravepages.com/The%20Pentagram%20its%20real%20history.html

Inverted Pentagram marks the grave of a civil war soldier.
http://www.mtoliveweekly.com/NC/0/288.html

The Rosicrucian movement consists of groups of Christian mystics. They frequently use
The Rosicrucian movement consists of groups of Christian mystics. They frequently use a wand, sword, cup and pentagram as tools during their rituals. The pentagram represents "earth, matter and stability."

Some religious and spiritual groups have used the inverted pentacle.
During the 20th century, Satanists inverted the upright pentacle and adopted it as their own symbol

http://spiritsofthelight.tripod.com/id14.html

In the temple, Satan tells you that if you do not live up to EVERY covenant in the temple that you make in this temple this day, you will be in his power. You make a covenant in the temple to obey the law of consecration. Outside of the temple, the church does not ask you to obey the law of consecration. By not requiring you to live the law of consecration, the church has put you in Satan's power.

Misfit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the temple, Satan tells you that if you do not
> live up to EVERY covenant in the temple that you
> make in this temple this day, you will be in his
> power. You make a covenant in the temple to obey
> the law of consecration. Outside of the temple,
> the church does not ask you to obey the law of
> consecration. By not requiring you to live the
> law of consecration, the church has put you in
> Satan's power.


Interesting that since I parted ways with TSCC, Satan never crosses my radar screen.

Just sayin'...

Ron

Ever since their arrival in ancient Sumer Satan/God, Enki/Enlil have been pretty much interchangeable, though from a human point of view Enki seems to be somewhat preferable to Enlil. http://www.truveo.com/the-truth-about-the-war-of-the-gods-enki-enlil/id/3089346004

I went to the temple several times, when the old blood oaths were required of us.

Understand that I am not a hysterical type of person--I don't really believe in Satan--but I clearly felt the presence of evil in the temple! Maybe this is the same dark, frightening feeling that others describe as "creepy," but it was much stronger than that. I had never felt that impression of evil before or since, except maybe in a few nightmares.

"To listen to the heart is the truest wisdom"--Leo Tolstoy. My Mormon family and friends told me that it was IMPOSSIBLE for Satan to enter a dedicated temple. Well, I was told a lot of other lies....

The first time I went to the temple was to receive my endowments and get married--all at once. Satan--or Whoever--was right! My new temple husband changed immediately after the wedding ceremony (this is common with woman-haters), and began being verbally abusive and obnoxious at the reception. A few weeks later he began beating me. The evil presence I felt on my wedding day and a few weeks after was not in hindsight. I recorded it in my diary. After I divorced my abusive ex, and went to various temples with friends or family, I still felt those same dark, scary feelings in there, so I stopped going.

I went to a temple dedication as a teen-ager, because my GA relative was involved, and during the dedicatory prayer, I was overwhelmed by an intense feeling of fear and hatred--feelings that were not familiar to me at all, then. As soon as the prayer was over, the feeling went away. Other people in the room said that during the prayer, "The ceiling opened up, and we could see into the heavens." Maybe it was mass hysteria on their part, but I know that I felt something really horrible and negative that day.

--Since Ron mentioned it, I don't ever think about Satan anymore, either, since leaving TSCC. I think that is significant!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2010 11:45AM by forestpal.

in the (Laveyan) Church of Satan!!

It sounds very much like he was fed up with the fake, hypocritical "christians" of his day, and decided to follow an exactly opposite set of beliefs.

P.S. Whoo forestpal, Spooky! I'm glad we are out of that stupid cult. Bastards! I hope they wonder sadly every day "Why do smart people laugh at us?"

I think it's important to note he was a Frenchman and JS would not have been exposed to his work at any point in his lifetime.