As the world moves further away from its moorings in Christianity, growing numbers of today’s youth are turning to a newly created version of Satanism they claim is more about self-actualization and personal fulfillment than worship of the devil. But is this just another diabolical deception?

The UK’s Daily Star is reporting on a story featured in the Sunday Telegraph which documents a dramatic increase in the number of young people who are turning against traditional religions and embracing Satanism.

Chaplain Leopold, 32, who is co-runner of the Global Order of Satan UK, says there has been a 200 percent increase in membership just in the last five years from young people who see traditional religions such as Christianity as “outdated, dogmatic and stuffy.”

“I’d love to be able to claim that we could pat ourselves on the back and say, yes, we’ve done our infernal work here, and we’re successfully declining the number of Christians, but I think it’s a far more complex issue than that,” Leopold told the Telegraph.

The news comes at the same time that the latest UK census claims Britain is no longer majority Christian for the first time in modern history. England and Wales saw the numbers of self-described Christians dropping from 59 percent in 2011 to 46 percent in 2021. The group experiencing the largest gains over this time were “nones” – people who profess no particular religion – which grew from 25 to 37 percent in the latest count.

Leopold believes the increase is due mostly to young people “who don’t want to be identified as part of a prescriptive dogmatic religion and rather want to identify as their own self-beliefs and self-realization – which is what Satanism offers.”

It also offers ritual space for its members, Leopold adds. “…[W]e like to have the ritual space, which is when we don the robes and light the candles and hail Satan and everything else we wish to do.”

His organization gives the same confusing explanation of the new Satanism found amongst other promoters of the brand.

“The foundation of Satanism is built on the self and in carrying out Satan’s work with humanity,” the site claims. “This work is done when we give voice to the voiceless; when we challenge authoritarianism and injustice; in the acts of compassion and the practice of empathy; and is done when we pursue truth and knowledge.”

We can only wonder where they’re getting this information about “Satan’s work” which is far too altruistic for the likes of Lucifer. The last thing he’s concerned with is compassion, the practice of empathy and the pursuit of truth and knowledge, although he is known to play nice when it suits his purposes.

It’s also curious how many young people join Satanism and claim they’re not worshiping the devil. Then why join groups that engage in rituals that “hail Satan” and are dedicated to carrying out his works?

Another example of the prevailing confusion among the new Satanists is a woman named La Carmina, the author of The Little Book of Satanism. A graduate of Columbia College and Yale Law School, she’s peddling her own version of the same sterilized plot line about Satan and bemoaning how “misunderstood” Satanism is among the masses.

“Essentially, Satan is a metaphor. We believe in the historical idea of Lucifer as a light-bringer, a principled rebel angel willing to stand up against arbitrary rules or authority,” Carmina says during an interview with Columbia Magazine.

She obviously got some of this information from Scripture, such as how Satan is a rebel angel whose name means light-bearer. However, instead of telling the rest of the story, such as how Jesus cast out demons in front of thousands of eyewitnesses, she cherry picks Scripture to include just enough facts to support her assertion that Satan is only a metaphor.

“There are many different kinds of Satanists,” she goes on to say, “but most don’t actually believe in Satan and don’t worship him as either a god or as a force of evil. For the most part, Satanists are non-theists and view Satanism as a personal liberation from traditional theistic beliefs,” she insists.

If that’s true, then why use his name at all? What’s the point?

Unfortunately, this newly contrived version of Satanism is luring too many young people into its deceptive grasp, many of whom bear the wounds of dysfunctional family situations and who have been desensitized to the dangers of the occult through modern forms of entertainment that glamorize the dark side. It’s the perfect storm, whipped up by Satan himself, which is seducing the young and the restless who long to fit in and find acceptance somewhere.

Consider the case of Misty Tyers, 32, a successful barber and weight lifter from Vancouver Island who joined the Church of Satan at the age of 27.

“I credit [Satanism] for a lot of the successes in my life,” she tells Huck Magazine. “It’s always encouraging you to push yourself. Some people take that into their career, some people take it intellectually, and some people take it physically – like with my weightlifting…The way it talked about how you see yourself – it doesn’t matter if you’re, say, a slightly larger woman,” she says with a laugh. “It’s about using that to your advantage. It’s about figuring out how you can best present yourself, how you can feel more confident and work things in your favor.”

Not surprisingly, the fact that Satanists use magic, which they admit might “throw off” some people, is buried in paragraph 23.

So they start off gently, with a description of lesser magic which is all about using psychology and guile to manipulate people.

“It’s all about charming people, or presenting yourself in such a way that you win people over,” Tyers explains. “You manipulate the world around you to get what you need. People often think of ‘manipulation’ negatively, but any time you handle something or do something to achieve something specific, that’s manipulation.”

“Greater magic,” on the other hand, resorts to rituals to focus one’s energy on a specific purpose. Some of these rituals call for the use of amulets, for women to dress provocatively in order to inspire lustful feelings among the men, and even the use of nude altars.

But these are not about objectifying women, Tyers insists, and those who think this way “fail to grasp that it’s all consensual. Men have done [nude altars] too. People of every stripe – male or female, all over the LGBT spectrum – have done it… You’re in the position of utmost power. Everybody focuses on you. It almost feels, in a sense, like being a rockstar on stage. It’s not a sexist issue in the slightest.”

Some might call this delusional thinking. Others might point out that this type of activity, such as nude altars, black masses, blood sacrifices, is why Satanism has acquired such a negative stigma over the years.

But not according to the new Satanists. They believe Satanism has gotten such a bad rap because of how it has been depicted by other religions.

Some even point to the Nine Satanic Statements of Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, as proof that they’re not worshiping Satan and their creed is actually very civilized.

However, when one reads the Nine Statements, the first thing noticed is that they all begin with “Satan” and espouse things like indulgence, vengeance, and hating anyone who doesn’t agree with you.

For instance, number eight claims, “Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.” These sins include everything from blasphemy, murder, and disobedience to envy, adultery, and theft.

Who does that sound like?

And doesn’t this fly in the face of a being – excuse me, “metaphor” – who allegedly stands for empathy and compassion? Is this what “personal liberation from theistic beliefs” is all about, regressing from the so-called stuffy, dogmatic norms of a civilized society into the anarchic chaos of individual subjectivism?

The bottom line should be obvious by now. When we take a closer look into the new Satanism and its tenets, we find only confusion, conflicting statements, indecipherable “explanations,” and self-delusion.

But that’s not how the new Satanists see it.

As Carmina says, “We are still living in a society with tremendous theocratic influence, which dictates both laws and culture, and there are still very common misconceptions around Satanism. But modern Satanism is flourishing, with a renewed emphasis on charitable work and activism, and I’m optimistic about its future.”

So is Satan.

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