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LaVeyan Satanism is a Left Hand Path philosophy and new religious movement founded in 1966 by American author and occultist, Anton Szandor LaVey. The religion's teachings are codified in ''The Satanic Bible'' and overseen by the Church of Satan. Its core philosophy is based concepts of individualism, egoism, epicureanism, self-deification and self-preservation, and propagates a worldview of natural law, materialism, Lex Talionis, and mankind as animals in an amoral universe. Adherents to the philosophy have described Satanism as a non-spiritual religion of the flesh, or "...the world's first carnal religion". The religion is atheistic, rejecting the existence of gods and other supernatural beings. Practitioners do not believe that the character of Satan literally exists and do not worship him. Instead, Satan is viewed as a positive archetype who represents pride, carnality, liberty, enlightenment, undefiled wisdom, and of a cosmos which Satanists perceive to be motivated by a "dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things". He also serves as a conceptual framework and an external metaphorical projection of (Satanists ) highest personal potential. Satan (Hebrew: שָּׂטָן ''satan'', meaning "adversary") is seen as a symbol of defiance to the conservatism of mainstream philosophical and religious currents, mainly the Abrahamic religions, that see this character as their antithesis.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=An Introduction to LaVeyan Satanism and the Church of Satan )〕 Additionally, Satanism involves the practice of magic, which encompasses two distinct forms; greater and lesser magic. Greater magic is a form of ritual practice and is meant as a self-transformational psychodrama to focus one's emotional energy for a specific purpose. Lesser magic is based on the laws of attraction and consists of using one's natural abilities to manipulate others. LaVey wrote extensively on the subject of magic and ritual in his works The Satanic Rituals and The Satanic Witch. Anton Lavey established LaVeyan Satanism in the U.S. state of California through the founding of his Church of Satan in 1966. The Church grew under LaVey's leadership, with regional groups, or ''grottos'', being founded across the United States. A number of these ceded from the Church to form independent Satanic organizations during the early 1970s. In 1975, LaVey abolished the grotto system, after which point Satanism became a far less organized movement, although remained greatly influenced by LaVey's writings. ==Definition== Scholars of religious studies have referred to LaVeyan Satanism as ''Modern Satanism'', and as ''Rational Satanism''. Scholars have characterized LaVeyan Satanism as a new religious movement. A number of religious studies scholar have also described it as a form of "self-religion" or "self-spirituality", with religious studies scholar Amina Olander Lap arguing that it should be seen as being both part of the "prosperity wing" of the self-spirituality New Age movement and a Human Potential Movement group. The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine described it as having "both elitist and anarchist elements", also citing one occult bookshop owner who referred to the Church's approach as "anarchistic hedonism". Prominent Church leader Blanche Barton described Satanism as "an alignment, a lifestyle". As a symbol of his Satanic church, LaVey adopted the upturned five-pointed pentagram. This image had previously been used by the French occultist Eliphas Lévi, and had been adopted by his disciple, Stanislas de Guiata, who merged it with a goat's head in his 1897 book, ''Key of Black Magic''. LaVey learned of this symbol after it had been reproduced in Maurice Bessy's coffee table book, ''Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural''. The prefixes such as "LaVeyan" were never used by Anton LaVey or by the Church of Satan, nor does the term appear in any of its literature. Critics and scholars have attributed a number of qualifiers to LaVey's Satanism, including atheistic, modern, rational and orthodox. The church has stated its contention that they are the first formally organized religion to adopt the term "Satanism" and asserts that Satanism and the "worship of Satan" are not congruent.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Church of Satan )〕 The term "Theistic Satanism" has been described as "oxymoronic" by the church and its High Priest.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=F.A.Q. Fundamental Beliefs )〕 The Church of Satan rejects the legitimacy of any other organizations who claim to be Satanists, dubbing them reverse-Christians, pseudo-Satanists or Devil worshipers.〔Wikinews:Satanism: An interview with Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore〕 Today, the Church of Satan promotes itself as the only authentic representation of Satanism, and it routinely publishes materials underscoring this contention.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rebels Without Cause )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LaVeyan Satanism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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