December 23rd is Satan's personal day. The night before is a very 'holy' night to Satan indeed. One should spend the evening of the 22nd in dedication to Satan, and the 23rd in celebration. Food, family, friends, festivities.(Thanks to Joy of Satan* for this information.)
For those of you who, like me, do not have candles and an altar, and can't afford such things, a good way to dedicate your time to Satan is through deep meditation and offering a prayer of thanks. You will need a room to yourself and alone time for this, so a good time is when everyone is asleep or has gone away for an hour or more. I believe a personalized prayer of thanks, rather than one borrowed from a priestess**, has more meaning, so I am writing my own.
Thanks be to Satan,
My ally, my god, friend of my happiness
The advocate of my liberation
My teacher and muse, the path
To individuality and freedom of thought.
Thanks be to Satan,
Who guides me to my own strength
And encourages me in my talents
And personal endeavors, who
Accepts my body and soul as they are
And for whom the only change that is needed
Is to become better as myself and more true to myself.
Then you might want to begin with Ave Satana, and end with Rege Satana, but I don't honestly know, because I have not been a heavily practicing Satanist***, although I have remained loyal to Satan for seven years now. (I think I may have originally said something different in my introduction.)
Even if you can't do an out-and-out ritual because of lack of materials, it's still a good idea to clean the space in which you'll be meditating, and bathe and groom yourself beforehand, as it shows respect. I also recommend wearing clean, all black clothing for the occasion. It is best if you have clothing set aside specifically for occasions such as this, but if you're like me you may also not be able to afford special clothes, or don't have enough clothes to pick an outfit to set aside for Satanic purposes only.
*I have some reservations about the Joy of Satan website and its practitioners, because they come across as fanatical and dogmatic- however, their website offers some of the best information about holidays and rituals. I advise anyone coming across their site to take the material there with a grain of salt.
**This was actually an assumption I made based on outdated information, hence a following post about me needing to take a break to do research. I do not actually know if most Satanic priestesses prescribe prayers. The entire post is based on assumptions having to do with foggy memories I have of all the reading I did when I first got into Satanism years ago. (June 7, 2011)
***The reasons for this are complicated and ones I'm not willing to go into just yet. Once I start talking about my mental illness it will probably come up. However, even after discarding the label 'theistic' in favor of 'agnostic', I am becoming more enthusiastic about the theistic aspects of my religion.
(June 7, 2011) Seeing as I just came out of the closet about my mental "illness" I don't mind elaborating. Faith in the hands of a neurotypical individual who can safely induce self-hypnosis in order to carry out rituals and conversations with Satan is not dangerous. Faith for me, a diagnosed schizoaffective, can become a delusion or a hallucination when I'm under stress. When I first got into Satanism I would read Joy of Satan and be intimidated by repeated admonishments to "not be afraid" when I very well had a good deal to be cautious about. And this was before I had been diagnosed. I somehow knew, intuitively, that I couldn't handle that kind of Satanism. Joy of Satan's insistence on loyalty and service to Satan also induced guilt feelings in me about not being able to practice or believe full-heartedly without avoiding the pitfalls of my disorder, and that's why, in the end, I stayed away from Satanism for several years, even while I still called myself a Satanist and remained loyal to Satan. Joy of Satan was not a release from the destructive aspects of Christianity I had been escaping from: It was simply a replacement. It is lucky that I found Diane Vera's website.
For those of you who, like me, do not have candles and an altar, and can't afford such things, a good way to dedicate your time to Satan is through deep meditation and offering a prayer of thanks. You will need a room to yourself and alone time for this, so a good time is when everyone is asleep or has gone away for an hour or more. I believe a personalized prayer of thanks, rather than one borrowed from a priestess**, has more meaning, so I am writing my own.
Thanks be to Satan,
My ally, my god, friend of my happiness
The advocate of my liberation
My teacher and muse, the path
To individuality and freedom of thought.
Thanks be to Satan,
Who guides me to my own strength
And encourages me in my talents
And personal endeavors, who
Accepts my body and soul as they are
And for whom the only change that is needed
Is to become better as myself and more true to myself.
Then you might want to begin with Ave Satana, and end with Rege Satana, but I don't honestly know, because I have not been a heavily practicing Satanist***, although I have remained loyal to Satan for seven years now. (I think I may have originally said something different in my introduction.)
Even if you can't do an out-and-out ritual because of lack of materials, it's still a good idea to clean the space in which you'll be meditating, and bathe and groom yourself beforehand, as it shows respect. I also recommend wearing clean, all black clothing for the occasion. It is best if you have clothing set aside specifically for occasions such as this, but if you're like me you may also not be able to afford special clothes, or don't have enough clothes to pick an outfit to set aside for Satanic purposes only.
*I have some reservations about the Joy of Satan website and its practitioners, because they come across as fanatical and dogmatic- however, their website offers some of the best information about holidays and rituals. I advise anyone coming across their site to take the material there with a grain of salt.
**This was actually an assumption I made based on outdated information, hence a following post about me needing to take a break to do research. I do not actually know if most Satanic priestesses prescribe prayers. The entire post is based on assumptions having to do with foggy memories I have of all the reading I did when I first got into Satanism years ago. (June 7, 2011)
***The reasons for this are complicated and ones I'm not willing to go into just yet. Once I start talking about my mental illness it will probably come up. However, even after discarding the label 'theistic' in favor of 'agnostic', I am becoming more enthusiastic about the theistic aspects of my religion.
(June 7, 2011) Seeing as I just came out of the closet about my mental "illness" I don't mind elaborating. Faith in the hands of a neurotypical individual who can safely induce self-hypnosis in order to carry out rituals and conversations with Satan is not dangerous. Faith for me, a diagnosed schizoaffective, can become a delusion or a hallucination when I'm under stress. When I first got into Satanism I would read Joy of Satan and be intimidated by repeated admonishments to "not be afraid" when I very well had a good deal to be cautious about. And this was before I had been diagnosed. I somehow knew, intuitively, that I couldn't handle that kind of Satanism. Joy of Satan's insistence on loyalty and service to Satan also induced guilt feelings in me about not being able to practice or believe full-heartedly without avoiding the pitfalls of my disorder, and that's why, in the end, I stayed away from Satanism for several years, even while I still called myself a Satanist and remained loyal to Satan. Joy of Satan was not a release from the destructive aspects of Christianity I had been escaping from: It was simply a replacement. It is lucky that I found Diane Vera's website.
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