A common misconception of Satanists portrays them as gothic teens committing cult murder, arson and sacrificing animals or even young children to the devil. Yet, this is far from the reality of modern Satanism. There is no better time to learn about Satanism as halloween is approaching.

Initially founded by Anothony LaVey on April 30, 1966, the Church of Satan stresses secular, autonomous life through rational and occult notions as well as magic rituals. Lavey also wrote the Satanic Bible, which ecompasses the core values of Satanism, contains some anti-Christian sentiment, and establishes Satan as a symbol rather than a ‘deity’ to be worshipped.

The Satanic Church’s website describes Satan as the characterization of “pride, liberty, and individualism—qualities often defined as Evil by those who worship external deities, who feel there is a war between their minds and emotions.”

The popularity of the Church declined in the 80s and 90s, following the Satanic Panic, a conspiracy alleging that the Church of Satan was using daycare centers to abuse and kidnap children. Yet, many divisions of the Church emerged shortly after. One of the most notable being the Satanic Temple (TST) founded by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry. The Satanic Temple holds a “vehement” distaste for the actions of the Church and TST’s Website deems the Church of Satan “irrelevant and inactive.”

The Temple’’s twitter (@satanic_temple_ ) biography notes, “We are the only federally recognized international (non-theistic) religious Satanic organization.”

The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that preaches advocacy, peaceful protest, equity, and separation of Church and state. TST professes seven fundamental tenets, many of which contain ideology similar to humanism:

Ⅰ. One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
Ⅱ. The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
Ⅲ. One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
Ⅳ. The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.
Ⅴ. Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
Ⅵ. People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
Ⅶ. Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

The Temple has also established instructions for protest: respecting the freedom of others, focusing on specific issues, and following the theory of change. Many of the Temple’s protests, legal battles, and initiatives have been focused on countering Christian agendas in schools and elsewhere.

On two occasions, in Oklahoma and later Arkansas, TST offered to erect statues of Baphomet, a deity often associated with occult religions, after statues of the Ten commandments had been donated and installed outside of government buildings. The Oklahoma Supreme court ruled that by displaying a Christian statue and denying the offer to display baphomet, the state of Oklahoma had committed viewpoint dicriminiation by violating the first amendment right to religious freedom. In Arkansas, the legislature passed a bill to exhibit a statue of the Ten commandments at the State Capitol, but TST’s proposed statue donation failed to gain legislative sponsorship. TST then filed a pending lawsuit against the state of Arkansas.

The Temple created the program “After School Satan” to contest “Good News Clubs,”created by the Child Evangelism Federation as a means to convert children to Christianity with the bible and teach them to convert other Children. Conversely, “After School Satan” clubs do not attempt to convert kids to Satanism, rather this club puts a “focus on free inquiry and rationalism, the scientific basis for which we know what we know about the world around us,” according to the TST website.

Also in schools, students may receive a religious exemption from legal abuse in the form of corporal punishment or other means. Students should notify their schools of their religious affiliation, Satanism in order to take advantage of this privilege. If a student does so and they still undergo processes deemed physiologically and/or physically abusive, TST has pledged to attempt to gain legal counsel, and thus to sue the district for violations of civil rights.
One of the largest advocacy initiatives TST has taken is “Religious Reproductive Rights.” As the Seven Tenents stress body autonomy and accordance with science, a women’s right to choose is important to TST. The Religious Freedom Restoration Acts and the First Amendment, members of TST may avert state laws surrounding abortion which serve no medical purpose. This includes mandatory counseling, waiting periods, withholding of medical information and sonogram viewings. In states Arkansas and Indiana, the law that fetal remains must be buried or cremated may be bypassed, and remains are alternatively disposed of as medical waste. TST’s abortion case agianst the State of Missouri was filed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. This legal battle is crucial in upholding previously established reproductive and religious rights in the United States.

The Satanic Temple acknowledges a number of Holidays, the soonest being Halloween. Although some followers of Chrisian religions believe that malicious, satanic worship occurs on Halloween, it is described as, “a holiday to celebrate indulgence and embracing the darkness and its aesthetic,” according to the TST website. Halloween is, however, unlike other Satanic Holidays as it is not closely related to any of the Seven Tenets.