I don’t have a problem agreeing with the Satanist in his distaste for organized, dogmatic, hypocritical, and deceitful religions. I have thought similarly of many religions in the past, though now I tend to think there is something that can be learned and salvaged from such ideas that have been made too literal or too fundamental. This has been one of my motivations for this year long project.

I have never had a problem with the Satanist screaming down all the disciplines that posit some empty promise of eternal knowledge or a better life if one abstains from the pursuit of wealth and the physical world. That is, not until I realized the Satanist would be pointing his accusing finger at philosophy as well.

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates decrees that the goodness of a man’s soul is maintained by wisdom and reflection, not by wealth and material gain. What makes a person real and genuine is not his or her appearance or status, but their virtues, which are found only by cultivating wisdom. This is a philosophy that I myself have put some stock in, yet it seems to be under attack by the Satanic philosophy of enjoying everything as much as you can before you die.

So at first I thought my own philosophy of living would go relatively untouched by the Satanist way of life, that I could coast by with indulging every once in a while. I was wrong.

Not only did I indulge in a variety of things and possibilities that I would not normally have considered, I did so with this consideration in mind- that this was the alternative. This is what life is like without any philosophy. With no rules, different virtues and no exceptions. Life with one thing in mind- to get the most out of it.

This kind of lifestyle was never appealing to me. I would much rather spend my time getting to know just one person in a coffee shop for hours on end rather than getting my eardrums kicked around in a club full of pretty, gyrating strangers. I would rather sit down and figure out what the hell Kant, Hegel, or Nietzsche were talking about than be waking up next to someone whose name I couldn’t remember.

Spending a month essentially ignoring this side of me and embracing that which I had previously denied was quite the experience. Being intoxicated on more than one kind of substance, many times over, was fun, and I may have been getting a handle near the end on why people do it all the time. I used to think that people who spent all their time pursuing such pleasures were missing something essential in their lives. I may still hold on to this belief, but periodic indulging has proven to be something I am actually okay with. It will be something I will miss this month, where I will be required to abstain from such enjoyable activities. Apparently they inevitably produce suffering because they never last, and we are seeking something that will always be there, something that will always fulfill us.

Go figure.

But make no mistake, Satanism is not synonymous with anarchism. They advocate questioning the authority of rules and old dogma, not laws and morality entirely. Satanism is not completely against philosophy, just the bits that tell you to abstain from something for the good of your nature or soul. “God forbid that you would enjoy yourself a little, Michael,” teases the Satanist. “Read your books, spend your time studying and meditating. Just don’t forget what you have learned here, that you should not just take someone’s word as the final matter. That you should not just shut yourself away from without trying it out first.”

Satanism is about living, so LIVE!*

*EVIL spelled backwards.