For as long as I’ve been a nontheist and someone who does not believe in the supernatural, I’ve been hesitant to retire the word “God” from my vocabulary.
Continue reading “The Nontheistic Experience of God”The Nontheistic Experience of God
Tag: meditation
Sacred Tension: Addiction, Meditation, and Healthy Satanism | Elder Mahakala
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by Minister of Satan and empowered Buddhist teacher Elder Mahakala to talk about his journey through addiction, the power of meditation, and finding a healthy, balanced Satanism.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Addiction, Meditation, and Healthy Satanism | Elder Mahakala”Sacred Tension: The Headless Way with Richard Lang
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Richard Lang about the Headless Way, which is a meditation method pioneered by Douglas Harding. We discuss the fundamental nature of consciousness, how the Headless Way expands empathy, how Headlessness might connect with Satanic practice, and much more.
Find the Headless Way here: https://headless.org/
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: The Headless Way with Richard Lang”A Satanism of Mastery
Everyone’s Satanism is different. For some, Satanism will be a religion of hedonism and reclaiming physical pleasure from the clutches of repressive religion. For others, it will be based in centering outsiders or embracing outsider status. All of these are valid expressions of Satanism, and I share many of them myself.
As I’ve contemplated my Satanic path, I’ve come to realize that my own Satanism is one of mastery. In the myth, Satan rejects the tyranny of God and sets out on a path of self-deification. In my view, the icon of Satan as the eternal rebel, the triumphant iconoclast, and the unbowed will is the ultimate symbol of mastery.
Continue reading “A Satanism of Mastery”There is Only Consciousness: On Minority Experience and Universal Humanity
Several months ago, I had a meditation experience the likes of which I’d never had before. The instructor advised me to take note of the feeling of being a subject looking at an object. He then said, “look for the one who is looking. Turn awareness upon itself, and look for the subject who is perceiving the object.”
Continue reading “There is Only Consciousness: On Minority Experience and Universal Humanity”Meditation as Uncreation
Growing up in the evangelical world, a central lesson I learned about reality was that there were necessary and normative divisions. These divisions began at the moment of creation itself: God separating light from dark, land from water, sky from earth, and, most relevant to me, woman from man. The first 27 verses of the book of Genesis describe this process of creation by way of division, from an earth “formless and void.”
As a gay child, I was raised to believe that the sin of my homosexuality blurred these foundational distinctions established at the dawn of time. Homosexuality, by its very nature, violated the metaphysics of man and woman. It was therefore understood as an act of Uncreation: a terrifying unraveling of the created order, a returning to an earth formless and void.
Continue reading “Meditation as Uncreation”Satanism, Meditation, and the Tyranny of the Self
Several days ago, I was meditating with Sam Harris’s Waking Up app. During the meditation Harris instructed me, quite simply, to find the “I” who is doing the meditating and to look for the self within consciousness. I did as instructed and, just like that, my sense of self was obliterated. As simply as a candle being blown out, my feeling of being a self within my head was extinguished, and all that remained was the vast sky of consciousness.
Continue reading “Satanism, Meditation, and the Tyranny of the Self”On Solitary Satanism
I’m intensely social in the Satanic community, mostly online. I have an active Discord server, I regularly interview members of the Satanic Temple community, and I serve on Ordination Council for Satanic Ministry. I do a lot of very social Sataning.
As someone who’s been burned again and again by religious community, this does cause some anxiety. There is trepidation in giving my heart over to fellow fallible, neurotic, and disorganized human beings. It’s inevitable that someone within the Satanic community will leave me feeling deeply wounded, and I will have to confront the difficult emotional challenge of navigating how much of that hurt has to do with Satanism itself or just specific individuals within Satanism.
As I’ve reflected on this dynamic I’ve come to realize that a paradox lies at the heart of my Satanism: I’m able to engage publicly in Satanism because, at its most fundamental root, my Satanism is solitary.
Continue reading “On Solitary Satanism”Daily Godless Invocations
I’ve been absolutely delighted by the reception of my recent article On Creating a Personal Satanic Root Document. I initially worried that people wouldn’t get it, but instead I’ve received numerous emails and messages from enthusiastic Satanists and non-Satanists alike who are trying their hand at developing a Root Document.
Continue reading “Daily Godless Invocations”Tarot, Journaling, and Meditation
I have several not-so-secret ambitions in life; one is de-stigmatize the use of Tarot as a meditative and creative practice. I’ve already written at length on Tarot: on how I can be a Christian who practices it, my personal method for reading it, and a meditation on the first Major Arcanum, the Magician. This article will explore the method of Tarot meditation I use most regularly.
Before we get into the meditation technique, however, we need to talk briefly about why Tarot is so effective as a Meditation practice.
Stephen Bradford Long 