Black Goat Cabal > Email group



Black-Goat email group
moderated by Diane Vera, et al.



The Black-Goat email group, on Yahoo, is the relatively most public of the three private online forums of the Black Goat Cabal. The Black-Goat forum welcomes Satanists of all kinds who reject dogma-based definitions of "Satanism," plus a select few non-Satanist Pagans and occultists who are sympathetic to our aims, excluding those who practice or advocate violent criminal activity in the name of any religion or god.

The aims of the Black Goat Cabal are as follows:

  1. To oppose all dogma-based definitions of the word "Satanism." While we respect the right of individual Satanist groups to define themselves in terms of dogmas, we oppose all attempts to define "Satanism" as a whole in terms of any specific ideology. To us, a "Satanism" is any favorable view of Satan and need not be anything more specific than that.

  2. To advance the public visibility of those forms of Satanism that are neither primarily LaVey-based nor purely or close-to-purely reverse-Christian, both online and in the real world. We aim especially to advance the public visibility of theistic Satanism (also known as traditional Satanism) and some non-LaVeyan forms of symbolic Satanism, both within the alternative religion scene and in the world at large. (Although we reject all specific dogma-based criteria, we will, other factors being equal, give preference to advancing the public visibility of those Satanisms that seem to us to be the best-developed in terms of either intellectual substance or occult practice or both, and we are interested in advancing the public visibility of only those Satanisms that are law-abiding, or which at least do not practice or advocate violent criminal activity in the name of Satan.)

  3. To help revitalize the alternative religion subculture itself and to help build needed organizations within it, as a counterbalance to the growth of Abrahamic fundamentalism/traditionalism.

  4. To call attention to the dangers posed by the recent resurgence of Satanic panics and by the growth and increasing political power of fanatical forms of the Abrahamic religions.

  5. To help Satanism become a more philosophically sophisticated subculture. To encourage Satanists to THINK about their beliefs, whatever they may be, and to study a variety of religions, mythologies, occult systems, and world views.

The Black Goat Cabal welcomes theistic/"traditional" Satanists of many different kinds, including those who identify as "Devil worshipers." (We reject the use of the term "Devil worshiper" as a scapegoat category.) We also welcome non-LaVeyan atheistic/symbolic Satanists and a few select non-Satanist but Satanist-friendly Pagans and occultists who share our aims.

The semi-private Black-Goat forum does not require its members to be publicly active in support of our goals, whereas our more-private Black-Goat-Cabal forum does require at least some verifiable public or semi-public activity on the part of its members.

But even the Black-Goat forum does aim to create a sense of fellowship based on our common goals. To that end, even the Black-Goat forum has a screening requirement and a minimum participation requirement.


What we talk about

Topics in the Black-Goat forum include (1) various Satanisms themselves (especially theistic/"traditional" Satanisms and non-LaVey-based symbolic Satanisms) and closely related topics, such as magick and demonology; (2) the alternative religion scene, attitudes toward Satanism within it, and our attempts to change those attitudes; (3) strategies for educating the general public about Satanism; and (4) a wide range of practical matters pertaining to being a public Satanist, including how to find or organize a coven/grotto/whatever, how to come out of the closet to your friends and family if you choose to do so, and website design.

The Black-Goat forum encourages (but does not require) its members to perform occasional rituals (or meditation, or whatever) in support of our goals. The rituals are performed individually by members at agreed-upon times. For each common ritual time, there is an agreed-upon common focus, but the format and content of the ritual are otherwise up to the individual. (For example, different people may call on different gods.) Discussion about our various approaches to ritual is welcome in the forum as long as it doesn't lead to acrimony about our differences.

The Black-Goat forum is also a place to share news and practical ideas pertaining to our common aims.

Since we encourage (though we do not require) our members to have personal websites, one topic that is welcome is technical questions about HTML and web design. However, all such posts should have a word or phrase such as "HTML" or "web design" "technical" in the subject line, so that those not interested can easily skip over them.

The Black-Goat forum is NOT intended as a place to ask newbie questions about Satanism, Paganism, or occultism. For this purpose, we recommend our public Theistic-Satanism forums and our semi-private forum Theistic-Satanism-questions.


How to join

Although Black-Goat is the most public of the Black Goat Cabal's forums, the Black-Goat forum too has a restricted membership policy. To be eligible to join the Black-Goat forum, you must first join at least one and preferably two of our public moderated forums (preferably including both Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics and either the main Theistic-Satanism forum or Theistic-Satanists-and-others), and participate in at least a few rounds of discussion there. (If you are a symbolic Satanist or a Satanist-friendly Pagan or occultist, please join us in either Theistic-Satanists-and-others or Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics, preferably both, but not the main Theistic-Satanism forum.) Your introductory post in one of our public Theistic Satanism forums should mention your interest in joining the Black-Goat forum (but should also say A LOT more than just something like "I'm a traditional Satanist and I'd like to join Black-Goat"). To discuss your views on definitions of Satanism, please join Theistic-Satanism-ethics-and-politics, because debate about the definition of Satanism is not allowed in either the main Theistic-Satanism forum or Theistic-Satanists-and-others.

Please participate, at least briefly, in at least a few rounds of dialogue in one or more of our public forums. Then, to apply to join the Black-Goat forum itself, click here, then click "Join this group" and follow subsequent instructions. So that we will know who you are, please apply to join Black-Goat using the same email address, Yahoo ID, and Yahoo profile that you used in our public Theistic Satanism forums.

Before you apply to join Black-Goat, please also read the following rules:


Rules for the Black-Goat email group

To help maintain privacy and a sense of fellowship, lurkers will be deleted periodically. Both the semi-private Black-Goat forum and the private Black-Goat-Cabal forum have minimum participation requirements, as follows:

Participation requirements are less for Black-Goat-Cabal members than for other Black-Goat members because Black-Goat-Cabal members are also working on their own relevant projects.

In both Black-Goat and Black-Goat-Cabal, participation requirements may be waived for members who have close friends who are also members and can vouch for them. However, members who vouch for non-participating members must themselves participate at least three times the minima, and must themselves have been members for at least six months.

All discussion here should be kept confidential. Posts in the Black-Goat 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, another semi-private forum. (2) Posts in the semi-private Black-Goat forum may be quoted in other, more private forums of the Black Goat Cabal, or in the private Theistic Satanism forums, or in the private moderators' forum.)

IMPORTANT:  See also the Rules for the Theistic Satanism forums. All these rules apply to Black-Goat group as well.



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