In a vacuum I am the perfect embodiment of myself. I am the best designer, entertainer, artist, singer, father, husband, lover and man. I am superior to all and all must recognize my abject superiority. That is, until I leave the vacuum of my over-inflated ego and I realize that I’m not any of those things. You can go to any other Satanist and have subjective discussions on who is better at what, and more often than not, and quite possibly in every single case, there is a non-Satanist that is vastly superior in every individual way to everything you claim to be superior in. You see, without competition, there is no actual way to tell if you are superior to anyone else.
I first noticed this idea as a child, as we all should have. I would color the hell out of a coloring book. Superman was my favorite, but I wouldn’t pass up a He-Man or G.I. Joe coloring book if given a chance. Pizza Hut was running a competition to color a page they supplied and the winner would win a free pizza. My sister and I entered it and though she was vastly superior to me in drawing and coloring, I won. I realized then that it was by random selection, not superior talent that most get ahead in this world. Later in middle school, I was a very fast track runner. I beat every boy that stepped up to me, and all but one girl. I knew her from the bus ride on the way to school. She had long dark hair and freckles. She was my secret crush and I knew I could get her to notice me by beating her in the race. We were both on the track team. She was far behind me near the end when she sprinted to the front and beat me. I didn’t care that I was beaten by a girl, I was devastated that I was beaten by the girl I had a crush on, knowing she would never see me as being superior in any way to the other boys when compared to her. I won a second place medal that day, but I didn’t even stay to receive it.
I was shown over and over again that I had talent that put me above many of my peers, but that there was always someone better, no matter the talent. As a child I found it frustrating, and as an adult, I find it liberating and encouraging. Competition breeds effort, it produces the best work and often, the best results. You are noticed if you try your best even if you don’t end up winning. You are alive through the process of training, practicing or creating. Your vitality is cast in your work through blood, sweat and tears, literally at times. And your effort is the culmination of desire, raw ambition and your own will-to-be.
I learned this as a child, over and over again and I am amazed when I run across an adult who discovers this as a new thought. And I have. More often that I would like to admit, and they are often Satanists. Imagine that. A follower of the religion that champions an honest evaluation of oneself so that you can improve on the faults you discover, the religion that cautions against an over inflated ego in the face of reality, the religion that champions meritocracy in life is practiced(?) by whiny, infantile, children in adult bodies who lack that which defines a Satanist, perspective. This is the root of my frustration with some Satanists.
When I started 9sense Podcast, there was a vacuum of Satanic ‘personality’ projects. I created a format that would be emulated to this day. I grew frustrated and resentful when my peers would create their own versions of what I had done, and for some time, it ate at my own flawed sense of superiority. The truth is there was a show that once it found its own legs was quite good and I grew to appreciate it, Raising Hell Podcast. There were others that were rambling in delivery or just dick and fart jokes on a Satanist platform so I felt secure in the competition there. I knew that no matter how many different shows came out, I had something that was different. I had my own style of design in presentation, delivery in thought and perspective, and standard of excellence in production and no one could outdo me. I left it up to the audience to decide. They are the final arbiters of success in a project, and there is no doubt any longer after having created the Patreon account for Speak of the Devil that what I did was worthy of their support.
It was the competition and still is the existing competition that drives me. It forces me to present something that is more concise, more entertaining, more real, honest and adult in its Satanic presentation than anything else that is out there. And this is just my hobby!
I witness others crafting artifacts for friends and they get attacked by someone who created something similar first. They tried to ruin them publicly simply because they now had competition, not in reality—but in their own inferior sense of self. How could anyone dare to compete with them? They are the ONLY ones who could possibly do that casting, carving or molding, right? Wrong. They were simply the only ones that had done it to date in this tiny little Satanic circle online. Imagine what their real life must be like, outside this tiny circle if that one off artifact made them fly into a jealous rage! How small and petty are they? How fragile their sense of self must be. But it is not isolated to a single person, no.
I reached out to my patrons asking them what they would prefer, a T-Shirt or necklace as my way of saying thank you to them for their support. The overwhelming choice of a necklace meant I needed to do something special. I reached out to the Church of Satan administration for their approval in the use of the Sigil of Baphomet and went to design a necklace. I didn’t want to use a metal that would stain skin or cause irritation, or look cheap and in my pricing and manufacturing research I found an award winning company that specialized in stainless steel jewelry. Perfect I thought, durable, warrantied and high quality production. I then set out to design the piece. I would be small, but not too small. Light, but not insubstantial. Polished so it looked like a piece of jewelry. It was unlike any that I had seen before. I presented the piece to my patrons and they loved it. As soon as I had them in my hand and welcomed their orders, I sent them out to a resoundingly happy audience.
What I didn’t expect was the silent backlash. Not from my patrons, the only people with the product—that could even receive the product, but from someone who had blocked me and has historically proven to be not only a bad businessman, but who also has a small, fragile ego that is stunned that someone else would create anything that would be remotely similar to something they, didn’t create mind you, but sold. Despite all the differences in comparison, they threw a tantrum. I do not know the specifics of the tantrum, as I am blocked by this individual, but I am told it was exquisite in its infantile nature. How could anyone offer anything that they are offering? Rather than approaching me about any apparent similarities, they took to social media and talked shit behind my back, Mean Girl style, to as many people as they could. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!
The Church of Satan encourages innovation and is very liberal with licencing their trademarked Sigil of Baphomet. They encourage those who use it to have real differentiating factors between what others are creating and offering so as to minimize direct competition. This does not mean allowing someone to have exclusive rights in form of product, but to be different enough that they are not direct copies of a product. I have since been made aware of a similarity in design when seen as a photograph, but the word I receive from those who have both products that are being compared is clear—they are distinctly different and not remotely the same.
Now, I don’t want to focus on the individuals proving they are children through their reactions in competition. I don’t even want to focus on the differences or reasons why the artifacts in question were even created, proving there was no direct competition in the first place. Nor do I want to focus on the fact that every business should welcome competition and allow it to drive improvements in design and service. No, I would rather focus on the positive side of all of this. The side that is discovered whenever light is shone in a dark room, revealing it is infected with roaches. We have now seen, proven by the roaches own actions that they exist. That they are intolerable, and that they are not Satanic. Look upon these vermin and use them as the litmus test of what not to do as Satanists.
We as Satanists may have pride in what we do, and are encouraged to have realistic pride. Pride in our own best abilities and achievements. But we cannot be blind to the reality that there is always someone better, that though your project may be great, it is not without flaw or beyond competition. You are simply 1 individual among the other 7.5 billion people on this planet that is racing at 67,000 miles per hour around the sun. As special as you think you are or want to be, it is only through your actions that you are proven to be so. Allow your actions to speak louder than those who shout down your projects or passions. Prove that you have a realistic sense of self, but that you are continuously working to improve on the flaws you have seen within yourself. Prove that though it may sting when someone creates something similar to you, you welcome that competition and allow those receiving it to be the final arbiters of your work. Satanism champions meritocracy, so let the cream rise to the top.
Hail Satan!
– Reverend Campbell