GOS International Message To Former TST UK Members

The Global Order of Satan wish to congratulate the members of the former TST UK chapter on their recent decision to disaffiliate from The Satanic Temple. We know from experience such conclusions are not easily reached. It takes fearless introspection to discard dearly held loyalties, and your immediate reward is likely to be revisionism, rejection, and abuse from those who once called themselves your allies. We applaud your courage and integrity, and we offer our solidarity. Our own Order was also emancipated by unanimous vote, after failing to reconcile the actions of Executive Ministry and National Council with the cherished tenets that once united us. Unfortunately, the gulf between those stated ideals and the behaviour of those atop TST’s hierarchy clearly remains vast, and represents nothing less than a wholesale disregard for the ideology they claim to espouse.

We all know former TST members who have been on the receiving end of institutional bullying, gaslighting and legal threats or action in an attempt to censor and suppress. Some have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, others compelled to broadcast scripted apologies. We continue to observe manipulation, abuses of power, strategic harassment, and litigious persecution, levelled disproportionately at women, members of the LGBTQI+ community, and vulnerable individuals struggling with their mental health. We encourage those still within TST to pause and question the reasons why their leaders would engage in this behaviour, or sanction it. Why would a religion that truly valued tolerance, forgiveness, or consent do such things? How does this “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people”, or “oppose injustice”? How do they propose to make a moral stand against “tyrannical authority” while they repeatedly violate their own tenets? It is difficult to see these actions as anything other than the dictatorial, authoritarian cruelty that they represent. This is not Satanism.

Satanism is a religion of individualism, a forthright bellow of challenge to those who suffer under the yoke of hierarchical, doctrine-laden superstitions and are led by unaccountable figureheads. We brook no arbitrary authority and take no vows of service. We do not — we cannot! — stand meekly while orders are issued from the ranks above who scheme in secrecy and fear plots to overthrow them: all while they demand your tithes and your loyalty. To do so would make us no different from the mainstream religions whose influences we strive against: plagued by prejudice, structural inequality and corruption.

The good news is that hard choices yield opportunities for growth, and provide endless possibilities for structural change and the forging of new connections. You now have the autonomy you didn’t before, with nobody to answer to but yourselves. As we write, there are a thriving multitude of Satanic organisations run by former TST members who left after realising the contradictions at TST’s core - all of whom blazing their own autonomous Satanic path and shining all the brighter for it. In time, we hope that the ever-growing void between TST’s stated aims and its public and private behaviour will become obvious to more people. Like many others, we have kept our receipts.

For now, we welcome former TST members to join our Discord server if they wish. We may or may not be the right place for you — but we at least understand how some of you will be feeling.

Non serviam! Hail Satan!