Question for LaVeyan "Satanists"?

Satanic rituals are about making yourself feel better. Self transformative psychodrama to release negative emotions and use them to express your desires. The point is to feel better and enjoy life which is the point of Satanism. But we have noticed that by focusing on our goals in this way that things do happen in the real world that make these desires happen many times. It is the power of emotions and the mind and real world resutls which I hardly call hogwash

To be perfectly honest (and yeah I've studied it a lot), the whole LaVey church of Satan thing is so...1960's. It was all about presenting free love, sex, and personal empowerment in a 'naughty' format to counter the ethos of 1950's America, and as a direct rejection of organized Christianity as it existed as a cultural force at the time.

All of the Satanic Bible, all of the rituals, all of the BS, is just part of that basic mindset. I'm really amazed that anyone still bothers with it -- I mean, apart from sending in a membership fee and getting the little laminated Membership ID card for the 'look how cool I am' factor.

If you are really curious about the philosophy and reasoning behind magic, read some Robert Anton Wilson, Peter J Carroll, Christopher Hyatt, or Phil Hine. Especially Wilson, he's really fun to read...you'll understand what's going on without the layers of silliness. And yeah, you are getting the gist of magic if I understand you correctly. And the hogwash around magic, simply stated, is a sort of act that you go through to play around with your own subconscious. Again, read some of the authors I mentioned to get a better idea.

I have good friends in the Church of Satan and they say the rituals are theatrical psychodrama's for the mind and emotions and the point is to release bothering emotions over a desire and focus them on what you want and that by doing that it does seem to have a real world effect. But it has nothing to do with the supernatural at all just the powers of the mind

I think it might be due to the fact that Anton LaVey took many of his ideas from other sources and then just tacked on magic to distance itself from more philosophical approaches, thus making it a quasi-religious movement of sorts.

It's sorta like Ayn Rand plus magic equals Satanism.

Don't do it meslies, it ain't worth it, it ain't worth it don't do it.