Guest Post: Praying a Satanic Rosary

This is a guest post by Ida Carolina. Ida Carolina is a Drag Performer based in Asheville NC. She has performed and represented titles across the country and the southeast. She is also an academic having earned an MLIS and is working on an MALS. She is a devout Satanist in the tradition of the Seven Tenets and a lover of artistic blasphemy. Find Ida Carolina here.

The Argument

Herein will describe both the how and the why of praying a Satanic rosary. “A” satanic rosary because to ascribe it as “the” would be terribly non satanic. The rosary laid out is specifically built on the ideals and texts of the Satanic Temple. If this doesn’t resonate with your practice as a Satanist, either individually or as a member of a different Satanic group, you are invited to take anything you find of use in crafting your own rosary. A lovely thing about being a Satanist is being free from arbitrary hierarchies and being able to take from various traditions and practices what suits us.

Why a Satanic Rosary?

There are many reasons for prayer. As the Satanic Temple is a branch of non-theistic Satanism, the most present reasons for prayer are the psychologically beneficial results of ritual. Taking time to recite words based on Satanic philosophy can benefit as a time of meditation and a time of learning and reaffirmation of the ideas that we hold dear. Prayer beads are used in many cultures and religions for this very reason. The rosary is a Catholic version of this ancient tradition. We adapt the rosary for our Satanic purposes because our symbols are by and large adapted from the Christian tradition. The Satanic rosary should be prayed for the benefit of the Satanist and not the harm of the Catholic. We pray it because we are enraptured by our religion, and we adapt from the practices of another because it is our cultural ancestry.

The Prayers

Hail Myself
(Quoting “Revolt of the Angels” by Anatole France)

Let us not conquer the heavens.
God, conquered, will become Satan;
Satan, conquering, will become God.
May the fates spare us this terrible lot.
Unmake and make.
Hail myself, hail others, hail Satan.

The Luciferian Impulse
(Adapted from the Satanic Temple’s Invocation)

I embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge.
To stand unfettered by doctrines of fear,
to practice justice instead of panic,
to reason with openness and evidence,
to resist threats to personal sovereignty,
and to dissipate my delusions.
That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.
Hail Satan

How to Pray the Satanic Rosary

A rosary is typically a prayer bead necklace with a series of large and small beads. There is a circular chain that forms the necklace as well as a free hanging strand on which you begin that has a charm. On the free hanging strand there is a large bead, three small beads, and another large bead. This strand will attach to the necklace via the second large bead or another charm. As you go around the necklace there are ten small beads, a large bead, a second ten small beads, a second large bead, a third ten small beads, a third large bead, a fourth ten small beads, a fourth large bead, and finally ten more small beads before coming back to the free hanging strand.

You begin on the first large bead with praying the “Luciferian Impulse” and reciting and reflecting on the first tenet of the Satanic Temple. On each of the small beads you pray a “Hail Myself” as you encounter them. On each of the following large beads you pray the “Luciferian Impulse” and recite and reflect on each successive tenet. When you come back around to the bead or charm the free hanging strand is connected to you pray a final “Luciferian Impulse” and recite and reflect on the seventh tenet. This completes the rosary.

There are, of course, many ways to adapt this practice. You could pray a shortened rosary each morning reflecting on one tenet per day, starting with a large bead and “The Luciferian Impulse” and the tenet in question. Then pray ten “Hail Myself” and end with the tenet and a final “Luciferian Impulse.”

Conclusion

Should you decide to include it, may this rosary practice benefit your expression of Satanism. Always remember to use this in whatever way suits you. The ritual is made for you, you are not made for the ritual. Hail Satan.