The NYC Satanists Discussion Group, also known as New York City Satanists, Luciferians, "Dark" Pagans, and "Left Hand Path" Occultists, welcomes Satanists, etc., of all law-abiding kinds who live here in the New York City metropolitan area.

Who is welcome to join

There are many different kinds of Satanism, Luciferianism, Dark Paganism, and "Left Hand Path" occultism.

For our purposes a "Satanist" is anyone with a favorable view of Satan, including both theistic/"traditional" Satanists and atheistic/symbolic Satanists, "Devil worshipers" and "self worshipers," LaVeyan and non-LaVeyan.

Likewise by "Luciferian," we mean anyone with a favorable view of Lucifer, who may or may not be seen as the same entity as Satan.

By "Dark Pagan," we mean any Pagan who is dissatisfied with what one sees as an overly "white-light" image projected by most modern Pagans, and who feels that more "darkness" (whatever one perceives that to mean) is needed at least for balance.

By "Left Hand Path," we mean any occultist who identifies as LHP, which usually refers to forms of occult practice that are both "dark" and highly individualistic.

We welcome all kinds of people in the above categories, excluding only those who practice or advocate violent criminal activity for alleged magical purposes, or in the name of any religion or god.

We also welcome people interested in learning about the many kinds of Satanism, Luciferianism, Dark Paganism, and "Left Hand Path" occultism.

Our meetings

Our meetings include (1) discussion meetings on an announced topic and (2) informal social gatherings.

The NYC Satanists Discussion Group does not hold rituals, nor does it intend to hold rituals, because there is no ritual likely to appeal to all kinds of Satanists, Luciferians, "Dark" Pagans, and "Left Hand Path" Occultists of all law-abiding kinds. The founder, Diane Vera, does aim also to build the Church of Azazel proto-congregation, which will hold rituals, as well as discussion meetings focused specifically on the Church of Azazel paradigm. But the NYC Satanists discussion group itself is not limited to prospective members of the Church of Azazel. It aims to welcome all law-abiding kinds of Satanists, Luciferians, "dark" Pagans, and LHPers on an equal basis.

Occasionally we may hold private members-only meetings as well as our regular open meetings. To become eligible to be considered for full active membership and thus be eligible to attend the private meetings, a person must either (1) attend (and RSVP for) three of our open meetings or (2) be recommended by at least two of our members who have gotten to know the person outside of meetings.

Note that active membership, as defined above, is not the same thing as membership in this Meetup group. Anyone may join this Meetup group. All who wish to attend our open meetings should join this Meetup group and RSVP for the meetings.

Our calendar lists not only our own meetings, but also some other events not sponsored by our group per se but organized by regularly-attending members of our group. (In the past, such events have included music concerts -- see our page To musicians, artists, writers, etc..) The "Featured Meetup" is always our own next event, whereas "Upcoming Meetups" includes other events, some of which might be scheduled sooner than our own next meeting.

Other policies

1) The "Latest activity" feed on the front page of this Meetup site is set up not to display member joins, member greetings, or RSVP's. However, member profiles are displayed in the Members area of this Meetup site. If you want other members to contact you via Meetup, please fill out your profile, which will move automatically to the top of the list every time you visit this Meetup site. If you want to participate in this Meetup group in a manner that will appear on the front page, not just on the Menbers page or on the pages of events that you RSVP for, please participate in discussions on our message board.

2) This group is not a dating service. Please refrain from writing a profile that sounds like a personal ad. However, if one of your aims here is to find a potential spouse, life partner, lover, or playmate, you are welcome to post a G-rated personal ad in the Services for our members -- ads, announcements, and recommendations section of our message board.

3) Lately we've had a lot of non-New Yorkers joining this Meetup group, especially people from Africa. Non-New Yorkers who join us especially are advised to post in either of the following two sections of our message board, as appropriate: Satanists in Africa or Other non-New Yorkers. If you want to be contacted by other people from your locale, it is recommended that the title of your thread include the country and state/province you live in.)

Brief history

This Meetup group was originally founded, by Meetup itself, in 2003. Its original name was "The New York City Satanism Meetup Group." In 2004, Meetup decided to turn its groups over to individual organizers. Diane Vera became the organizer at that time.

It then took several years for this group to get off the ground. For the first two years, Diane was often the only person who showed up.

This began to change only after September 2006, when Diane, took advantage of some then-new Meetup features. She gave the Satanism Meetup group a new name: "NYC Satanists, Luciferians, Dark Pagans, and LHP Occultists," and listed it under the Meetup topics of "Occult," "Magickal," and "Luciferian," as well as its original topic of "Satanism." Seven people attended the October 2006 meeting. For the next two years, attendance continued to be very sporadic, but at least the majority of meetings now began to be attended by at least a few people.

In 2008, a stable core group finally began to emerge.

Many different kinds of Satanists, Luciferians, etc. have attended our meetings.

Until July 2009, we held informal open gatherings only, with no formally defined membership structure. In July 2009, we decided to begin holding occasional private members-only meetings as well as our regular open meetings.

Until 2010, nearly all our open meetings were just informal get-togethers over dinner. Some of our meetings will still be of this kind, but we plan to hold more formal discussion meetings, with announced topics, as well.

About the founder

The organizer, Diane Vera, is a non-LaVeyan theistic Satanist. She is also the founder of the New York City proto-congregation of the Church of Azazel,. If you are interested, please join the separate Meetup group for the Church of Azazel proto-congregation, New York City.

Since 2002, Diane Vera has maintained a major website on Theistic Satanism in general, including a page for theistic Satanists in and near New York City. She also maintains a blog on Google, a blog on WordPress, and a blog on Livejournal. She is also the organizer of New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry, which includes a Committee Against Satanic Panics and has a Meetup site here.