We Are Legion

The fifth Core Value, “Community for the creative freedom and betterment of every person,” comes from the Aspect of Leviathan. While the Biblical leviathan was a type of large sea creature, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes used the concept of leviathan to represent the structure of society and legitimate government as a kind of giant creature. Thomas Hobbes’s book, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is one of the earliest and most influential works regarding the use of a social contract.

The United Aspects of Satan recognizes the importance of community for, among other reasons such as basic survival, a means of working with like-minded individuals towards the accomplishment of various goals.

To quote from The Satanic Narratives: A Modern Satanic Bible by Damien Ba’al, “Through communal emergence, you can create a very powerful adversary. One that can bend the world, just a little, to the desire of your will. One that can affect change to a greater extent than any one person. It is the closest thing there is to magic. It’s power is limited only by the community and their combined creative energies.”

There is a belief among some Satanists and some Satanic organizations that community is antithetical to Satanism and that any attempt to create community is to adopt a “herd” mentality. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Consider, in this modern age, how disconnected people are from each other, separated by race, politics, cubicles, and flashing screens. Competition, not cooperation, is rewarded by those who have an interest in keeping the common people from banding together. People give away their power because they have been conditioned to believe that they are unable to make a difference.

It is the Satanist who must decide first and foremost that he or she will not resign to defeatism. He or she must commit to continuous personal growth, to develop new skills and new energy reserves for living life successfully and on his or her own terms. A community of Satanists devoted to this common purpose, who will offer their services to mentor each other in various skills and disciplines, can create the most formidable adversary that the powers that be could ever know.

Then when we go about our lives, witnessing the disconnection and apathy of the common populace, we can say to ourselves, “I am Legion, for the knowledge and skills of my brothers and sisters are with me.”

Hail community! Hail Satan!