Church of Azazel
Internet Congregation
- How to join the Internet Congregation of the Church of Azazel
- How to make a good impression on us while you're a prospective member
- What we will do in the Internet Congregation's private forum
- For those who disagree with us
- How to join the Internet Congregation of the Church of Azazel
The Church-of-Azazel email group, on Yahoo, is a private forum of the online congregation of the Church of Azazel. You cannot join it immediately, but only after getting to know us in one or more of our public moderated Theistic Satanism forums, which are intended for intelligent, low-noise dialogue among theistic Satanists of all kinds, not just members and prospective members of the Church of Azazel.
To become eligible to join the Church of Azazel's Internet congregation, you must first do all of the following, in the following order:
- Join at least two of our public moderated Theistic Satanism forums (Yahoo groups), including at least the following: (1) either the main Theistic-Satanism forum or Theistic-Satanists-and-others (T-S-a-o), or both, and (2) Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics (T-S-eth-pol). In at least one of these forums, post a self-introductory message telling us about your beliefs and background.
- Send a message to the Membership Committee informing us of your interest in joining the Church of Azazel. Please call our attention to your introductory post. So that we will know who you are without any confusion, please write to us from the same email address you're using in our public Theistic Satanism forums. Once we have received and replied to your message, you will be considered a Prospective Member. (If we do not reply within three days, please write to us again - your message might have gotten lost by Yahoo, or something.)
- Over a period of at least two months, during which time you'll be considered a Prospective Member, post at least three or four substantial messages per week in one or more of our public Theistic Satanism forums, for a total of at least thirty (30) substantial posts during the two months.
IMPORTANT: Before you post, be sure to read the rules for the Theistic Satanism forums. All these rules apply to the Church-of-Azazel forum too.
If at any point you decide to change your email address or Yahoo ID, please let us know about this change both in posts to our public Theistic Satanism forums and in at least one separate private message to the Membership Committee. If possible, please let us know about the change in messages from both your old address/ID and your new address/ID; thus it is preferred that you send two separate private messages to the Membership Committee, one from each address/ID.
- After two months, or after you've posted a total of at least thirty (30) substantial messages to our public Theistic Satanism forums, please send another message to the Membership Committee reminding us of your interest in joining the Church of Azazel. Again, so that we will know who you are, please use the same email address you've been using in our public Theistic Satanism forums. (See the above paragraph on what to do if your email address or Yahoo ID has changed.)
- Go to the Church-of-Azazel forum's page on Yahoo, then click "Join this group" and follow all instructions there. If possible, please apply to join Church-of-Azazel using the same email address and Yahoo ID that you use in the other Theistic Satanism forums. (If you need to change your email address and Yahoo ID, please let us know about this before you apply.)
- How to make a good impression on us while you're a prospective member
As a prospective member of the Internet Congregation of the Church of Azazel, the main thing you need to do is just stick around and keep posting regularly in our public forums. However, if you have to take a break for a few weeks, don't worry. Just try to post a total of approximately thirty (30) substantive messages within two or three months.
During your two or more months as prospective member, please post comments on all the pages in the sections of the Church of Azazel website on Our beliefs and principles and our tentative Membership structure and code of conduct. It is suggested that you comment on one article per post. Your comments on matters of theology, mythology, epistemology, and spiritual practice should be posted to either the main Theistic-Satanism forum or Theistic-Satanists-and-others, whereas your comments on ethical, social, and political matters, including the proposed membership structure and code of conduct, should be posted to Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics. (For some articles it might be best to post two messages, one in either the main Theistic-Satanism forum or Theistic-Satanists-and-others, and the other in Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics.)
In your comments, please tell us what you like about the pages and why, but please also tell us what you disagree with. We don't expect anyone to agree 100%, and we prefer people who are upfront about disagreements and who think for themselves rather than kiss our ass. Please also ask questions about anything you don't fully understand. Both your questions and your disagreements will, hopefully, generate some interesting and worthwhile discussion.
During your time as a prospective member, you should also be learning about Satanism in general, and about various forms of occultism and Paganism if you are not already familiar with them. Please keep us informed about your studies. Tell us what you've been reading lately and what you think of it, and feel free to ask questions.
Please read the Recommended practices for new and prospective members of the Church of Azazel. While getting to know us in the Theistic Satanism forums, you should also begin your intellectual and emotional preparation for the two kinds of rituals we suggest for new members, if you are interested in performing those rituals. If and whenever you feel ready to perform either of the two rituals, please give us feedback (either in one of the Theistic Satanism forums or in private email to Diane Vera) on how it went for you. (However, you are NOT required to perform these rituals as a prerequisite to joining the Church of Azazel. Feel free to take your time preparing for them, if you choose to do them at all.)
We are interested primarily in seeing you demonstrate an ability to think deeply and clearly on philosophical questions.
But it would also be appreciated very much if you could compose and post, in one or more of our public forums. one or more devotional prayers which voice your own personal feelings toward Satan and toward one or more of the Rising Gods of the modern West. (We recommend that you copyright your work informally but legally, as follows: (1) Somewhere in your post, include the word "Copyright", followed by the copyright symbol ("©"), followed by the year, followed by your name or a pen name, followed by "All rights reserved." (2) Send a printout to yourself via certified postal mail. (3) When you receive it back in the mail, don't open it. Keep it sealed until such time as you may need to open it in court to prove that you wrote a given work on or before a particular date.)
If you already practice magick of any kind, or are studying it, discussion of magic(k)al technique is welcome too, if you wish to talk about it.
In addition to the required participation in our public Theistic Satanism forums, we also recommend (but do not require) that prospective members of the Church of Azazel participate in one or more of the following semi-private Theistic Satanism forums too, after satisfying their preliminary screening requirements: (1) If you are new to theistic Satanism, please join Theistic-Satanism-questions. (2) If you are from a conservative Christian background or are otherwise deeply familiar with fundamentalist or traditionalist Christianity, please join Theistic-Satanists-ex-hard-Xian. (3) To discuss ways to advance the public visibility of theistic Satanism, both in the alternative religion scene and in the world at large, please join Black-Goat. (NOTE: Please do NOT attempt to join any of these semi-private forums without FIRST following these forums' screening requirements.) If you live surrounded by pesky Christians or other pesky Abrahamics, we also recommend that you join the public Counter-Evangelism forum.
- What we will do in the Internet Congregation's private forum
Once you've been approved as a member after completing all the steps in Part 1, How to join the Internet Congregation of the Church of Azazel, you'll be admitted to the private Church-of-Azazel forum.
In the Church-of-Azazel forum itself, we will coordinate rituals to be performed by us as individuals, but held at common times. We will discuss the rituals and our feelings about them. We also encourage members to compose and post their own rituals and devotional prayers to Satan.
Also in the Church-of-Azazel forum, we will have some discussion about future plans for the CoAz, and we may talk about whatever progress we as individuals have made in any Satanism-related goals of ours. Members-In-Training will be asked to keep us up-to-date about their progress in our training program and will be able to receive advice from other members. We will discuss the further development of the Church of Azazel's paradigm, delving into relevant history and mythology.
Because one of our recommended practices is the study of a variety of different kinds of theistic Satanism, we recommend that our members continue to participate in one or more of the public Theistic Satanism forums as well as the Church-of-Azazel forum. In the other Theistic Satanism forums, you'll hear from many different kinds of theistic Satanists.
Also, from time to time, all members of the Church of Azazel's Internet Congregation will be asked to study and think about particular topics in comparative religion, magick, mythology, history, and philosophy, including some of the writings of various great philosophers. These will, in most cases, be discussed in one of the public Theistic Satanism forums, most likely Theistic-Satanists-and-others (T-S-a-o). Sociopolitical and ethical topics will be discussed in Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics. Members of the Church-of-Azazel forum will be asked to participate in such a discussion primarily in the relevant public forum, but may use the Church-of-Azazel forum for aspects of the discussion that some of us may feel are too personal to share in the more-public forum.
In the Church-of-Azazel forum itself, discussion should focus primarily on matters directly related to the Church of Azazel and its paradigm. Limited discussion of other Satanist paradigms is welcome as a way of letting us know about your background and/or what you've been studying lately. However, detailed or ongoing discussion of other Satanist paradigms will, in most cases, be redirected to one of the public Theistic Satanism forums. (There may be some exceptions. For example, detailed discussion of another Satanist paradigm is welcome in the Church-of-Azazel forum if the focus of the discussion is on how the other paradigm can be blended with the Church of Azazel's paradigm.)
Likewise, any and all files uploaded to the Church-of-Azazel forum should pertain specifically to the Church of Azazel in some way.
Co-requisite membership requirement: So that all Church-of-Azazel forum members can easily follow certain dicussions which will be off-topic in the Church-of-Azazel forum itself but nevertheless a key part of the Church-of-Azazel program, we require that all Church-of-Azazel forum members ALSO continue be members of the following public forums: (1) Theistic-Satanism, (2) Theistic-Satanists-and-others, and (3) Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics. (It is okay if you have "no mail" subscriptions to these other forums and look at them only when certain discussions in these forums are called to your attention in the Church-of-Azazel forum.)
In addition to the required membership in three of our public Theistic Satanism forums, we also recommend (but do not require) that all Church-of-Azazel forum members belong to one or more of the following semi-private forums, after satisfying their preliminary screening requirements: (1) If you are new to theistic Satanism, or if you are willing to answer questions from newbies, please join Theistic-Satanism-questions. (2) If you are from a conservative Christian background or are otherwise deeply familiar with fundamentalist or traditionalist Christianity, please join Theistic-Satanists-ex-hard-Xian. (3) If you are not new to Theistic Satanism, then, to discuss ways to advance the public visibility of theistic Satanism, both in the alternative religion scene and in the world at large, please join Black-Goat. (NOTE: Please do NOT attempt to join any of these semi-private forums without FIRST following these forums' screening requirements.) If you live surrounded by pesky Christians or other pesky Abrahamics, we also recommend that you join the public Counter-Evangelism forum.
Confidentiality: All discussion here in Church-of-Azazel should be kept confidential. Posts in the Church-of-Azazel forum must not be copied or quoted in other forums except with the permission of all persons quoted. (The only exceptions are these: (1) If a quarrel breaks out, some posts may be moved or copied by the moderators to Theistic-Satanism-soap-opera, a semi-private forum. (2) Moderators may occasionally respond to posts in the Church-of-Azazel forum via private email CC'd to the private moderators' forum.)
Participation requirement: To help maintain privacy and a sense of fellowship in the Church-of-Azazel forum, lurkers will be deleted periodically. Each member is required to (1) post at least one substantial message per month in the Church-of-Azazel forum itself and (2) post at least another five substantial messages per month in any combination of the following forums: (a) Church-of-Azazel itself, (b) Theistic-Satanism, (c) Theistic-Satanists-and-others, (d) Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics, (e) Black-Goat, and (f) Counter-Evangelism. (Note: If at least one of these posts is in Black-Goat, then you will have automatically satisfied the participation requirement for the Black-Goat forum as well.) A substantial message is one in which you voice at least somewhat detailed thoughts on some topic of discussion. (A message saying just "Hi! Please don't delete me!" doesn't count.)
The above minimum participation requirement may sometimes be waived for members who can be vouched for by at least one close friend who is a more active member. To be eligible to vouch for a member who posts below the minimum, the more active member must post at least three times the minimum and must have been a member for at least six months.
- For those who disagree with us
If you have strong disagreements with the Church of Azazel's paradigm and wish to debate with us, you are welcome to do so in the appropriate one or more of the public Theistic Satanism forums, which welcome theistic Satanists of all kinds on an equal footing (except those who advocate violent criminal activity in the name of Satanism).
Also, if you have strong disagreements with the Church of Azazel but share our goal of raising the intellectual level of the Satanist scene, then (if you are at least a theistic Satanist) we would strongly encourage you to join the main Theistic-Satanism forum with the eventual aim of joining the private group Theistic-Satanists-philosophical.
Also, if you seek generic theistic Satanist online fellowship in a semi-private setting, please consider joining one or more of the semi-private Theistic Satanism forums after first following their screening requirements (in most cases, some posts to our public forums before you apply to join a semi-private forum).
Please apply to join the Church of Azazel itself only if you are in essential agreement with the Church of Azazel's paradigm and general approach, or who are at least familiar with our paradigm and comfortable working within it. Prospective members of the Church of Azazel are not expected to agree with absolutely everything on the Church of Azazel website. But please apply to join us only if your theological and epistemological views are at least reasonably close to ours, and only if you are at least somewhat philosophical (in the sense of cultivating the art of thinking deeply, clearly, and carefully) in your approach to Satanism.
Nevertheless, in the Theistic Satanism forums, we welcome dialogue with a wide variety of other points of view.
