likethedickens

[likethedickens]

I've been a lurker since April of last year. I think I found the site when it was linked from a livejournal community. I've been almost moved to comment several times over the years, but I didn't have time to 1) register, 2) comment, and 3) introduce myself, so now that I have a spare minute I figured I'd get steps 1 and 3 out of the way.

I'm a law student in America who is interested in family law cases, but definitely not interested in practicing family law, if that makes any sense. I am interested in bankruptcy and corporate governance, which are much more interesting than they probably sound.

I've also been a little shy of posting because of my religion, but I was moved by something Tapati said (slightly paraphrased): 'If they got out there and met us, they'd find that we're rather nice'. She was talking about pagans, but I believe the same applies to me.

I'm an occult magician of the left hand path. I know that's a mouthful, but any shorthand would give my organizational affiliation away. A layman might call it 'satanism', but I'm not affiliated with the Church of Satan, and its a little like calling a large evangelical Christian family 'Quiverful'... its easy to see how a normal-sized brush might paint both groups, but its not really an accurate descriptor. And just like such a family might find some useful ideas and spiritual guidance from Quiverful sources, if that family recognizes that those good ideas are taken to unhealthy extremes, I have gotten some mileage out of 'satanic' sources.

I decided to share this because the topics on this forum stray into religious areas quite often, so my religion is highly relevant. In my day to day life, its not a secret, just an unpublicized fact, mostly because I'd rather not worry about people judging me based on urban legends before they got to know me.

I look forward to getting to know all of you, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

[Vyckie D. Garrison]

Welcome ~ and thanks for the intro. Sorry to make it a bit of a hassle to join the forums ~ but it does save me a lot of work moderating comments and dealing with spam.

I look forward to your participation here on the forums ~ can't wait to learn more about you ~ you told just enough about your religious beliefs to make me quite curious!

[sargassosea]

Welcome!

[jemand]

welcome!

don't worry, I'll stick up for satanists! I think there are plenty of unconventional religious believers (and non-believers) on the forum.

[likethedickens]

Actually one of the reasons I registered was I saw someone sticking up for the 'satanists' and I thought, 'why should she have to do that?'

It's not that I don't appreciate it, you did a fine job, but there's a big difference between someone who's just read about a philosophy and someone who's actually put it into practice.

[tapati]

Welcome, likethedickens!

I'm glad something I said inspired you to join.

Even all satanists don't come in one flavor, there's the group that view Satan as a metaphor, then others that view him as a misunderstood deity, and I can imagine many other versions.

For me what's more important than the actual content of the belief-system is whether someone is choosing to create or destroy, coexist or convert.

[xara]

Welcome. There are many here from various paths. And some of us know people on even more paths. Respect and caring for each other are the key ingredients here.