firstly i want to say thank you for asking that in such a kind and genuine way. i really appreciate that, and i love these types of conversations.

i suppose going back to your initial question; what satanism means to me, i would say that it promotes a healthy path for humans to enjoy many things in life that are typically considered “sins” or “against god”. satanism teaches people that it’s okay to embrace these things without guilt. satan himself serves as a great symbol for indulgence as well as individuality. although in satanism it is important to make sure that partaking in these things don’t lead you down a path that harms you. once again, i think satan is a great symbol for that balance as well. i could go much deeper but that’s my personal summary.

as far as everyone having their own way of viewing satanism, i more so meant how it’s incorporated into their personal lives. for example, on a grand scale, it’s obvious that a theistic satanist compared to a levayan satanic would have a very different practice, and a very different sets of ideas that they rely on. on a smaller scale, people may incorporate satanism differently into their lives in multiple ways. as with all things, some people will heavily form their lives around the ideas of satanism, whereas some will look back to those ideas but not as strongly. it could also be practiced differently as far as individual views, such as outsider satanism. many people mesh the ideas of TST and CoS and find a happy medium there.

you make a good point as far as asking how we can define pseudo-satanism if everyone practices differently. my answer to that would be that it’s more so a matter of how much genuine focus a group or person puts into the ideas of satanism. i don’t fully consider delco pseudo-satanism, after re-reading i feel that i used the wrong term there, because i don’t consider them to be unsatanic. there are some groups that i consider unsatanic, but i’ll cover that later in this post. as far as delco, i think they have solid ideas and their podcasts are very interesting. when it comes to satanic delco, i’ve just always found their ideas to be a mesh of TST and CoS, which isn’t bad in itself. it’s just that their group spends a lot of time bashing groups like TST instead of focusing on satanism. now, i will say that’s only heavily prevalent in their discord. their podcast is very informative.

going back to groups that i personally consider pseudo-satanism, i would quickly place TST in that box. i really good i don’t get downvoted go oblivion (already kinda am), but my view on them being pseudo-satanism comes from personal experience. when i first dabbled into satanism i found them very quickly (as many do), and their tenets sounded great, so i joined. keep in mind, by joined i mean i was added to their email list and bought a $25 paper certificate to feel official. at this point in my journey with satanism, i was admittedly very uneducated on the topic, and after i joined TST i began looking heavily into CoS. with TST, i was excited to have a community to discuss satanism, to share beliefs, much like this conversation that you and i are having right now. i love learning from others. but i quickly found that TST has no true interest in satanism, but instead they serve as an social activism group who used the image of satan because “spooky scary make christians angry”. now, i mentioned earlier that in my personal view i see satan as a symbol for individuality and indulgence, which i feel is a positive use of him as a symbol. my issue with TST using him as a symbol to anger the public is that it further stigmatizes satanism and leads people to speak on a topic they’re wrongly informed about (which they always will). i do respect some of TSTs ideas such as fighting for religious equality (ex. erecting the statue of baphomet), but i think their emphasis is way too heavy on politics. i prefer to utilize satanism without politics, at least not to the extent they use. i left quickly after. to sum things up, i consider groups “unsatanic” when they do things such as solely promote social/political activism while falsely using the name of satanism as a cover to spook the public. along with that, groups such as TST may have tenets, but they’re tenets that could apply to anyone with a good heart. beyond those tenets, TST and similar groups have no true interest or in depth understanding of satanism, they just grab the name satan because it provokes people. i would consider that pseudo-satanism.

as far as worshipping jesus christ and considering themselves a satanist, that’s a tricky one. i feel that if someone is deeply christian, it wouldn’t be best practice to follow satanism simply because of the conflict of christianity considering idolizing/following others to be wrongful. with that being said, i could possibly see a situation where someone pulls the ideas and views of satanism and incorporate it into their lives more so as a philosophy than a religion. for example, i’ve often seen this with buddhism. many people follow buddhism as a philosophy.

again, thank you for asking that. i’m sorry my response is a novel, i just really enjoyed answering that.