When it comes to “internet Satanism,” there are a few heavy-hitters, as it were. I think the number one heavy-hitter is the Church of Satan. We’re all familiar with them. The other, and the one that is the focus of this page, is Maxine Dietrich’s “Joy of Satan Ministries.” Just why, exactly, am I dedicating a whole page to this Satanic organization (especially given the fact that I do, indeed, include her site in my Links section)? Because, my friend, Joy of Satan Ministries is an intensely, intensely problematic organization. Read on.
It would not be prudent or honest of me to say that Joy of Satan (which I will henceforth abbreviate as JoS) has done nothing for me, personally, as a Satanist, because that would be a bald-faced lie. On JoS, I found a wonderful dedication ritual. I found valuable information concerning meditation from a Satanic point of view. But what I also found there, what has driven me so very far away from JoS is that, lurking beneath its attractive surface of talking about Satan, is seething, boiling Neo-Nazism. More and more of Ms. Dietrich’s followers are referring to themselves as “Aryan Satanists.” Amidst her labyrinthine network of disjointed sites (which all lead back to the JoS main page in the end) are paranoid, racist, anti-Semitic rants virulent and hateful enough that they’d either make Hitler either very proud, or blush. Yes…some of them are just that nasty. One such tirade even included the racial epithet “k*ke.” In their “Teens for Satan” e-group, anti-semitism runs rampant. If someone enters their group, and it is revealed that the newcomer is of Jewish heritage, they are treated to racist rants about how “Jews are evil! Jews want to kill all Gentiles!” and even “The Greys (whatever those are) put Jews among us to destroy us! They weren’t made by Satan, and Satan hates them! We want to make Satan happy by exterminating the Jews,” said newcomer’s dedication to Satanism nonwithstanding.
Yes, friends, that’s right — teenagers indoctrinated into some kind of modern-day Kiddie Schutzstaffel, hailing Satan and exterminating Jews. What grinds my gears down to noting about all of this is the way in which they parade their Neo-Nazism under the banner of Satanism, and roundly decry any denomination other than theirs as “false.” That theirs, and theirs alone, is the only true Satanic way. That, in and of itself, should be enough to make any sensible person look twice, if not roll their eyes a bit. Things pop up all over their multitude of pages like “This is the ONLY way to accomplish [thing].” It utterly undermines the Satanic belief in autonomy — what works for ME may not work for YOU, and vice versa. It’s awfully arrogant to roll in and say “my way or the highway, champ.” (Bear in mind that I am not denying a JoS adherent’s autonomous human right to believe what they want to believe — I am merely exercising my own autonomous human right to call it out as the racist drivel that it is. Your mileage may vary.) Ms. Dietrich preys upon the vulnerability of impressionable youth in a desperate bid to indoctrinate them with hateful rhetoric, and sadly, it appears to be effective. In addition, to the racist and hateful anti-semite who wishes to put up an appearance of Satanism, hers is the most attractive option.
Peppered among the multitudinous websites about kundalini meditation, Demonic sigils, and prayers, you’ll find pages glorifying, extolling, almost deifying Hitler. Again, I make no exaggeration. JoS adherents are, seemingly, entirely comfortable with ending their e-group posts with cries of “Hail Satan, Hail Hitler!” The fact that it is one of the most prolific mass-murdering fascist dictators ever to live that they are elevating right there along the Most High is just utter hogwash. Any Satanist worth their salt should be able to see just how wrong this is. And yet, I come across “Aryanist” Instagram profiles on a daily basis. (I will not even do them the justice of calling them Satanists henceforth.)
With an entirely straight face, these Aryanists will make claims that Hitler and the Nazi party were, yes, Satanists. That Hitler was some sort of benevolent, misunderstood philanthropic leader whose shining reputation has been smeared by Those Mean Ol’ Jews, that the Holocaust didn’t even happen, that the nightmarish death camps such as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen were actually nice places that Hitler so benevolently sequestered the Jews amidst his empire during his bid to conquer the world. This is despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary: mass graves filled with human remains, the ruins of the camps themselves — even quotes from Der Fuhrer himself. Following is a rather lengthy quote of Hitler’s from April, 1922 in which he was countering a political rival, Count Lerchenfield on justification of anti-semitism.
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly, it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people. And when I look on my people I see them work and work and toil and labor, and at the end of the week they have only for their wages wretchedness and misery. When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil, if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom today this poor people are plundered and exposed.”
I had intended on providing several more examples of Hitler’s obvious Christianity, but how can one really top this passage? There is no wiggle room. There are no alternate interpretations. Not one word can be claimed as double-speak or code. What better example can there be of Hitler’s religious ideologies than this? Adolf Hitler was a Christian. Period. Debate over. On second thought, for the sake of thoroughness, I will generously provide several more examples of his Christianity:
“And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God.” -Mein Kampf, pp. 174
“Catholics and Protestants are fighting with one another… while the enemy of Aryan humanity and all Christendom is laughing up his sleeve.” -Mein Kampf, pp. 309
“I am now, as before, a Catholic, and will always remain so.” -Hitler to Gen. Gerhard Engel, 1941
Should any “Satanic” Aryan apologist have a suitable counter to what I feel is irrefutable evidence, I am more than willing to listen! However, what rebuttal can be made in the face of fact? Hitler’s own grand manifesto, Mein Kampf, provides more than enough evidence as to be contrarian to any claims that Hitler held any love for Lord Satan. In fact, I will go so far as to say that, if a modern-day Aryan “Satanist” were able to have a discussion with Hitler, and made the claim to his face that he was a Satanist…well, let’s just say that I can foresee that encounter not ending well for the Aryanist.
So, now that we all can agree that Adolf Hitler was in no way, shape, or form a Satanist, where does that leave JoS? “High Priestess” Dietrich has built her empire upon sand, not bedrock. It should be crumbling into dust. Yet, to the dismay of many a reasonable Satanist, JoS seems to be gaining ground, rather than losing it. Were you to ask me for an eplanation for this phenomenon, I would hang the blame on the current political environment of the world at large. Wherever humans are, so hatred, fear, and ignorance will be, as well. And this is the crux upon which those truly mired in JoS’s doctrines hang. The prevalence of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et al) also contributes to the spread and popularity of any ideology, not just Aryanism.
Do I, myself, personally hold any love for Abrahamic religions? For Judaism, or Christianity, or Islam? For the god of Abraham himself? Of course not. I detest the religious ideologies of the aforementioned. This in no way means that I, myself, personally hold hatred for a Jew, or a Christian, or a Muslim. Such is the way of a sensible human being. You can despise a person’s belief system without despising the person. And so, therein lies the problem of Aryanism and Neo-Nazism. It is a fundamental inability to separate the hatred of a person’s beliefs from the person themself. Ask me if I hate an Aryanist as a person, and I will answer “No, I do not, unless that particular Aryanist has given me just cause to hate them as a person. I hate their ideology. I hate their racism. I hate the way they malign Satanism. I do not hate that person.” Should they give me a reason to hate them, personally — through physical violence towards me or mine, or harassment, or what have you — then I absolutely will detest them as a person. I am, however, pragmatic enough to understand the fundamental difference between what a person believes, and that person as a whole. Beliefs can be changed. Opinions can be changed. “Hate your enemies with a whole heart, and if a man smash you on one cheek, smite him on the other,” the old saying goes…act as my enemy, and I then will hate you. Smite me on one cheek, and I will not smash you on just one cheek, but both. I will not resort to this unless my hand is forced, though.
I could continue on for several more lengthy paragraphs, but by this point, you should have a fundamental understanding of why JoS philosophy and Aryanism truly have no logical place within Satanism of any sort. Regardless of what Aryanists claim to have heard from Satan in meditation, regardless of what their self-appointed High Priestess continually and persistently bleats, there is no room for racism, fascism, anti-semitism, or bigotry of any sort within our Satanic faith. Lord Satan accepts any and all who come to Him, and He does not care if you were a Jew. He does not care if you were a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Thelemite, Pastafarian, atheist, or what have you. The one and only requirement for a person of any racial or religious background to become a true and dedicated Satanist: full, unencumbered faith and belief in Lord Satan Lucifer as the True Creator God of all that is. Bar none.
Should this page reach an Aryanist or JoS adherent, I expect a measure of backlash. Outrage. Earnest calls to decry what I have stated. If that happens, so be it. I am prepared to defend my point of view in the face of a pushback. And if you are an Aryanist and reading this — I ask you to, at minimum, take 20 minutes to think about what I have said here before striking back. Pragmatic consideration, and perhaps a bit of your own research (not from JoS, thank you).
Satan is acceptance and freedom.
Hail Satan.
©2016 Lilith Stark
Hungarian Cultist Nazis - Neo-Nazis & The Joy of Satan Cult 