The Satanic Temple: beliefs, history and sources

History & overview

Non-theistic, and entirely in earnest about it.

The Satanic Temple holds no supernatural belief at all. Satan is taken as a literary figure — the rebel of Paradise Lost — and used as the emblem of a seven-point ethic centred on compassion, bodily autonomy, and the refusal of authority that cannot justify itself. Its method is to demand for itself exactly what other religions are given: a monument beside the Ten Commandments, an after-school club beside the Good News Club, a religious exemption from an abortion waiting period. The Internal Revenue Service recognised it as a church on 25 April 2019, after the Temple spent years refusing tax exemption on principle. It is not the Church of Satan, which is a separate body founded in 1966 and openly hostile to it.

Why it is filed this way

Filed as a movement rather than a parody, and the argument is worth setting out because it is live inside the Temple as well as outside it. It began in provocation — the first rally was staged, and a documentary crew was present — and Greaves has said the Temple can be both satanic and satirical. But the Seven Fundamental Tenets are held sincerely, the organisation has congregations, ordained ministers, life rites and a membership that describes itself as religious, and the IRS recognised it as a church in 2019 after examining exactly this question. A body that has spent a decade litigating on the premise that its beliefs are real is not usefully described as a joke; the honest description is a non-theistic new religious movement that uses satire as a tool.

DeitiesSatan is a symbol, not a being, and no member is asked to believe he exists. The Temple states this plainly and is one of the very few religious bodies whose founding documents contain no supernatural claim.

Founded2013 CE

FounderLucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry

AfterlifeNone. The Temple teaches no afterlife and makes no claim about one.

TextsThe Seven Fundamental Tenets

The map

The Satanic Temple’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →

Core Tenets

2 — a sample of the center, never the sum Enter →

One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone. The third tenet, and the one the Temple has litigated hardest. It is the basis of its religious-liberty claims against abortion waiting periods and mandated ultrasound scripts, and of its exemption campaign against corporal punishment in schools. Go deeper — context & 1 source →

Nothing supernatural is claimed, by anyone, at any point. Satan is a symbol and the Temple says so in its founding documents. This is contested outside it — critics read the whole body as an activist campaign wearing religion as a disguise — and inside it, where members differ on how much of the enterprise remains satire. ⚖ contested within Go deeper — context →

Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Enter →

S Satan, as a figure of speech. The rebel of Paradise Lost and of Anatole France, not the adversary of scripture. The Temple uses him because the argument only works when the applicant is the one nobody wants to accommodate. Domain Rebellion against arbitrary authorityStanding A literary symbol. No member is asked to believe he exists Meet them — context →

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when Enter →

The Unbaptism. A rite that reverses one performed on an infant who could not consent. It is short, public and deliberately mirrors the structure of the sacrament it undoes. When once in a lifetimeWho anyone previously baptised Go deeper — context →

Where next

the museum exit — every door leads deeper in

Hinduism — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Judaism — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Christianity — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Islam — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Branch The Satanic Temple — inherit everything, change what you must The library of ideas — what The Satanic Temple shares with every other faith A faith at random — somewhere you have never been

Sources

2 cited texts

The Satanic Temple, the Seven Fundamental Tenets, III where it is cited →
The Satanic Temple, the Seven Fundamental Tenets, VII where it is cited →

These citations identify texts used in the linked passages. Follow each passage to read its quotation and context. A tradition’s own texts explain its teachings; historical claims may also require independent scholarship. Translations marked (rendered) are our own plain-English wording, not a standard edition; where a passage matters, read it in a full translation.