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As everyone knows, Aleister Crowley, the BEAST 666, recieved Liber Al vel Legis, the Book of the Law, holy text of his religion Thelema, in 1904 while in Egypt. He claimed that it was dictated to him by a disembodied spirit called Aiwass (Aiwaz.) Now, people have said over and over and over that Crowley was not a Satanist and that the label Satanist was applied to him only by those ignorant of his religion of Thelema. Well, this is bullshit. Check out these quotes from Crowley himself, and read them carefully:

“THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ — the solar-phallic-hermetic “Lucifer” is His own Holy Guardian Angel, and “The Devil” SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade “Know Thyself!” and taught Initiation. He is “the Devil” of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection. The number of His Atu is XV, which is Yod He, the Monogram of the Eternal, the Father one with the Mother, the Virgin Seed one with all-containing Space. He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye; he is Light, and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty."

"Satan, the Old Serpent, in the Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur, is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life, Lord of Infinite Space that flames with His Consuming Energy, and is also that throned Light whose Spirit is suffused throughout the City of Jewels."

“Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry
aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my Father, O Satan, O Sun!
Thou self-caused, self-determined, exalted, Most High!”

"Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten, is a name of Ayin, the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes. He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore also the Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the BEAST."

"Nu is connected with North, while Had is Sad, Set, Satan, Sat (equals "Being" in Sanskrit), South. He is then the Sun, one point concentring Space, as also is any other star. The word ABRAHADABRA is from Abrasax, Father Sun, which adds to 365. "

"The lust and The Might and Worthiness. The "Holy Ghost" worship of the of Hadit within men; or "Satan" indwelling."

"This “Devil” is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime. Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc. The most serious charge against him is that he is the Sun in the South."

So, as you can see, to Crowley, Aiwaz IS the "Devil" of the Christian Bible, the same one that goes by Lucifer and Satan. The same one whose emblem is Baphomet. And by the way, Crowley used Baphomet as a magical name, but some critics have claimed that this was not intended to be a Satanic reference on Crowley's part. Well, the above quotes show that Crowley considered Baphomet to be the emblem of Satan. If anyone wants to check the sources of these quotes I have presented, then by all means read through Magick in Theory and Practice and read Crowley's commentary on Liber Al vel Legis. The point is, Thelema is for all intents and purposes a form of Satanism shrouded in Egyptian terminology, and in fact Satanism today would not be what it is without the influence from Crowley's teachings.

Makes sense. Those quotes sound pretty damn cool.

A Satanist must consider himself a Satanist in order to be one. If they do not, the term is merely a pejorative, and a use of the word we really want to avoid using. Crowley was the founder of Thelema, and effectively a Thelemite. While he did have opinions on a Satan or Shaitan or what have you, that does not necessarily make him a Satanist.

So in order to be a Satanist you must proclaim yourself as one. Then what did Crowley proclaim?

See bolded.