If you have earned your self-respect, respect by others is a luxury; if you haven’t, respect by others is a necessity. – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Hail Thyself
Part of the 2022 Advent of Lucifer
First, let’s define what “hailing yourself” means to me, in this context: it is a non-judgmental, full-throated acceptance, endorsement and acknowledgment of exactly who and what you are. In Satanism, hailing something isn’t just a meek, quiet approval. It’s something you shout. It’s something you project! Hail Satan!
Effusive self-praise is kind of like eating ice-cream for dinner; sometimes it’s a necessary morale booster, but it just feels like bad advice to give someone. You’re going to get a temporary boost in your brain chemicals, if you’re lucky, but if you do it all the time and to the exclusion of the things you need to be doing, you’re going to start feeling like shit because you’re not getting the nutrition you need.
When you’re hailing yourself, you aren’t actually addressing anything. It’s not reflective. It doesn’t promote growth. You aren’t challenging yourself, you’re telling yourself you’ve already won.
“Hail Yourself!” is a talisman, but I’ve come to realize that it’s a talisman against two different things for different people.
For the first group of people, it’s a talisman against their own mediocrity. They’re saying, “I don’t need to change. I am fully realized and worthy of praise, even if I have to give it to myself. I am correct in my thoughts and actions. I am my own god.”
That sounds great, but these are often really shitty people! They’re racists and fascists, and other people who (justly) get the shit kicked out of them in what passes for an attempt at social correction in America, and “Hail me!” becomes part of their cognitive dissonance. They probably sought out Satanism in the first place for exactly the kind of toxic, undue self-esteem it can promote.
The second group is people who already have poor self-esteem, who are in no danger of delusions of grandeur. These are people with impostor syndrome. These are people who struggle their whole lives with negative self-talk and trauma that, with every breath they take, reinforces the idea that in some way, they just aren’t good enough.
Those people need to hail themselves. They need to be hailed.
For them, “Hail me!” becomes a talisman shouted against the closing darkness. The oomph becomes not a cudgel with which to bludgeon better people, but an invocation that bolsters their own — often tiny — inner light. It might feel deliriously wrong for them to even say it. The act of saying it might be a blasphemy to their own negative ego stories.
If they repeat their worthiness to themselves enough, even and maybe even especially if they don’t believe it, it is going to begin to carve a furrow, drop by drop, into that old granite of negative self-image. It is going to slowly, slowly carve a space into which better, and even more powerful assurances might fit.
Does it matter if these people are “actually worthy”? Absolutely not. To them, this might be a life saving incantation. They are also not people inflicting themselves and their damage on others and trying to post hoc justify it. These people are often the nicest, most capable people who struggle with being swallowed by their own darkness.
Hailing themselves isn’t enough either. These people need bigger plans, and diverse, adaptable strategies. They need professional and personal support. They need aspiration and actualization. They need to eat their vegetables too.
But if having ice cream for dinner is what keeps them here with us, loving and fighting, then I am definitely going to look the other way.
Fortunately, I think we’ve built a community in which it’s safe to do whatever you need to do in order to move forward into a healthier, more functional version of yourself that you want to see. Our community has a pretty good immune system. We move to uplift people who need it, and we tend to quickly rout the kind of Kruger cases that blithely shout “Hail me!” after saying something racist. Our ability to socially correct is pretty healthy.
So, hail you! If you’re someone who needs that, you’re going to find yourself buoyed and loved and protected no matter what. If you’re an obnoxious asshole, you’re going to get shoved in a locker and shot into space.
Charging the Sigil
Hail Thyself reminds us we deserve to honor our very selves just as much as we honor our gods, and those we love. We are more powerful than we realize, and we must recognize ourselves as being worthy of love – especially self-love. No matter how you may perceive yourself, you are worth being honored. Out of everyone in this world, we walk a difficult path. It takes a strong person to walk beside Lucifer, and we must take care of ourselves in both body, mind, and soul in order to continue growing on this path. While we seek enlightenment and knowledge of the world around us, we must also do the same for ourselves. Hail Thyself is the ultimate knowledge that we, too, are sacred and divine.
As we devote our time this month to honoring Lucifer, charging our sigil encourages a deeper connection. If this is your first time charging a symbol like this, you can think of it like a moodboard – this sigil represents us as a community and religion. What does this sigil mean to you? What can it represent? Take the time to focus and reflect, meditate on what each of our concepts mean to you and how they can apply to our lives.
For our energy workers, you may charge our sigil by visualizing a bright white light surrounding it. Use breath work to guide this energy into the sigil, knowing that it grows in strength as you do so. You can also focus our themed concepts into the sigil using meditation and our affirmations to program this energy. This will serve to strengthen our sigil for later use in our ritual.
The following incantation may be used as part of your sigil charging, or used as an affirmation:
“Honor thyself, thy sacred body and soul.”
Daily Devotion
Hail Thyself asks us to honor ourselves. Meditate, journal, or write a letter to yourself on what you love about you. Forgive yourself and accept you as you are today. You don’t need to judge yourself so harshly.
Listen to your body. Check in to how you’re feeling and acknowledge what you feel and need with acceptance and compassion. Practice some self care today and treat yourself to your favorite things. Look at what you can do to start treating yourself the right way on a daily basis. What habits do you need to change to better honor your divine body and soul?
Further Reading
The following resources may be enjoyed to deepen your connection to today’s concept. Please note that links to reading are not endorsements of every idea contained therein but are intended to offer a more broadly informed view.
Hail Yourself!: A Satanic Monument to Mediocrity
Make Your Own
We encourage you to make your own oracle card for each of our themed days, so that come the end of our Advent, you will have your own Luciferian oracle deck. These cards may be used to give you insight on what you may need to work with in the future.
We recommend using blank playing cards if available, but any kind of art or canvas cards, even lined notecards can be used. Make your drawing or symbol (it doesn’t have to be amazing, only meaningful to you) on one side and on the other write down any key phrases or words or concepts that resonate with the image to you.
If you choose to share your result, which we would love to see, you may use the hashtags #luciferiandominion and #adventoflucifer so that we can find them! If you choose to make your oracle deck part of your #Inktober or #Drawloween events, please feel free to use those hashtags and include them in relevant spaces!
Happy creating during this blessed Advent!
