Posts Tagged ‘religion’

01
Aug
2020

In which I read and mull throwing my hat in…

categories: books, personal; word count: 390 words

I’m continuing to make progress reading Satanic literature, although my focus on ritual reading is being narrowed to reading that has been published or written by members of The Satanic Temple. I’m also thinking of writing manuscripts for NaNoWriMo this year, never having thrown my hat in the ring — there have been several years where I have wanted to, but have either never had the time or haven’t had a clear idea what I wanted to write, but am now considering planning out months in advance what I would like to write (especially if we are still quarantining, or otherwise limited, in some fashion before then), and if maximally successful, letting a whole bunch of completed manuscripts start to pile up, beginning to edit them after each year’s NaNoWriMo, and go from there depending on what each of them are about. I’m thinking that I may start out with nonfiction works since those have always been what I have been the best at. I mean, no wonder, I did get a two-year STEM degree, didn’t I? APA is in my blood. This is what I do. Maybe I can try…

After all, NaNoWriMo doesn’t historically start until November. This gives me plenty of months to mull it over.

However, given that I may one day want to publish something, I do have to go into NaNoWriMo with that in mind, which is exactly what I’m going to do, both in the “write for the sake of a word count” phase (the actual month of November) and the actual editing phase, which I’ve heard are historically the months of January, February, and so on. IF I’m going to write about Satanism in any capacity and attach my name to it, which I have no problem doing at this time, I need to be careful how I go about doing that. I’ve also considered using a pen name (Meg Masters from Supernatural would be a nice pen name), but if I want Satanism to be taken more seriously and to be something that future generations can speak out about without apprehension or fear, I feel like I need to put some of that leg work in myself during this generation.

So what I’m saying here is that I need to be careful enough to be taken seriously, but not foolish and reckless.

25
Jul
2020

*Farnsworth voice* Happy Unveiling Day!

categories: personal; word count: 75 words

A centerpiece of our religious movement and icon of modern Satanism, the Baphomet with Children statue was commissioned by The Satanic Temple in 2014 and created by Mark Porter with “respect for diversity and religious minorities” in mind. We observe this milestone in Satanic history by celebrating Unveiling Day.

— Holidays, The Satanic Temple

I didn’t want to mention referencing this one here in my blog!

Today we celebrate religious plurality and the shedding of archaic superstition.

22
Jul
2020

Say it ain’t so. Or say it isn’t so? Or something?

categories: books; word count: 333 words

In my spare time, I’ve been reading some of LaVey’s books since he is considered the modern “father of Satanism”, having founded the first registered Satanic religion. Even though I am a proud member of The Satanic Temple and do not see myself ever wanting to “switch affiliations”, perfectly content with where I am at, I thought that I would give “the other side” a read, have finished The Devil’s Notebook over the course of several evenings — I also read it while my computer was taking awhile to update on several instances — and am reading Satan Speaks! as well, which for some reason I like a bit more. I’m not sure why. I’m speculating that The Devil’s Notebook might have been compiled earlier in his life. I try to be the Satanist that doesn’t mock “the other side”, having a few friends who are registered members of the Church of Satan, although if asked and in this blog I will be open about why I decided to affiliate with The Satanic Temple.

I’ve also gotten into the habit of marking books as read in Goodreads before I finish reading some of them, that way I don’t forget to mark them as read, which is something that… sometimes happens. It also inspires me to actually finish the book, let alone faster. I’ve also come to enjoy compilations of essays more than I thought I would, too. At some point I also intend to read some compilations about why some people converted to Catholicism, just to say that I did. I’d like to see a book compiled by Satanists about why they became Satanists for no more of a reason than to say than we successfully “broke the market”, and to begin to normalize Satanism. We haven’t quite gotten to that point yet. I’d like to see us do so while I’m still here.

In the interim, I need to continue to come up with better subject lines. Short, to the point, but… better ones.

19
Jul
2020

Well, I waved at them, and they waved back at me!

categories: personal, RPGs; word count: 206 words

I waved at The Satanic Temple (the closest chapter to me) on Twitter, and they waved back.

They also know that I put in an application for that chapter, so hopefully I hear something back soon!

All of this has made me extremely thankful not to be raised religiously, though… and it’s reinforced my desire not to raise my kids religiously, and to step in when someone attempts to raise my kids religiously. Let them make those decisions from themselves. As a matter of fact, let them make those decisions for themselves when I don’t have to consent to anything, and I’ll be the happiest. That ameliorates a lot of the “drama” from it (since the most drama comes from the fact that I refuse to consent to Bub’s baptism). As it already is, I’ve come to feel increasingly more uncomfortable making a decision like that for my kids, especially when they can’t “walk back” that decision of their own will by formally leaving the religion, as I’ve already mentioned.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here wishing that Final Fantasy XIII had a New Game+ like so many other games do. For such an impressive game, the amount that you can’t do post-game is actually comparatively really sad.

1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 15