Apr 24, 2018 The Satanic Bible By Anton Szandor LaVey Full text The Satanic Bible Anton Szandor LaVey Called "The Black Pope" by many of his followers, Anton LaVey began the road to High Priesthood of the Church of Satan when he was only 16 years old and an organ player in a carnival: "On Saturday night I would see men lusting after half -naked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing the organ for tent- show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at the carnival or some other place of indulgence. "I knew then that the Christian Church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man 's carnal nature will out!" From that time early in his life his path was clear. Finally, on the last night of April, 1966- Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival of the believers in witchcraft-La Vey shaved his head in the tradition of ancient executioners and announced the formation of The Church Of Satan. He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence. . ." The Satanic Bible Anton Szandor LaVey For Diane To: Bernadino Logara, who knew the value of money Karl Haushofer, a teacher without a classroom Rasputin, who knew the magic of a child Sir Basil Zaharoff, a gentleman Cagliostro, a rogue Barnabas Saul, the link with Mount Lalesh Ragnar Redbeard, whose might is right William Mortensen, who looked . . . and saw Hans Brick, who knows the law Max Reinhardt, a builder of dreams Orrin Klapp, the walking man Fritz Lang, who made moving blueprints Friedrich Nietzsche, a realist William Claude Dukinfield, who saved me a journey to Tibet Phineas Taylor Barnum, another great guru Hans Poelzig, who knew all the angles Reginald Marsh, a great artist Wilhelm Reich, who knew more than cabinet-making Mark Twain, a very brave man And to: Howard Hughes, James Moody, Marcello Truzzi, Adrian-Claude Frazier, Marilyn Monroe, Wesley Mather, William Lindsay Gresham, Hugo Zacchini, Jayne Mansfield, Frederick Goerner, C.Huntley, Nathaniel West, Horatio Alger, Robert Ervin Howard, George Orwell, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Tuesday Weld, H.G. Wells, Sister Marie Koven, Harry Houdini, Togare, and the Nine Unknown Men. INTRODUCTION I (1969-1972) by Burton H. Wolfe INTRODUCTION II (1972-1976) by Michael A. Aquino INTRODUCTION III (1976-2005) by Burton H. Wolfe INTRODUCTION IV (2005-) by Peter H. Gilmore PREFACE PROLOGUE THE NINE SATANIC STATEMENTS (FIRE) -BOOK OF SATAN- The Infernal Diatribe (AIR) -BOOK OF LUCIFER- The Enlightenment I Wanted!: God - Dead or Alive II The God You SAVE May Be Yourself III Some Evidence of a New Satanic Age IV Hell, the Devil, and How to Sell Your Soul V Love and Hate VI Satanic Sex VII Not all Vampires Suck Blood VIII Indulgence... NOT Compulsion IX On the Choice of a Human Sacrifice X Life After Death Through Fulfillment of the Ego XI Religious Holidays XII The Black Mass (EARTH) -BOOK OF BEL1AL- The Mastery of the Earth I Theory and Practice of Satanic Magic: (Definition and Purpose of Lesser and Greater Magic) II The Three Types of Satanic Ritual III The Ritual, or "Intellectual Decompression," Chamber IV The Ingredients Used in the Performance of Satanic Magic: A. Desire B. Timing C. Imagery D. Direction E. The Balance Factor V The Satanic Ritual: A. Some Notes Which are to be Observed Before Beginning Ritual B. The Thirteen Steps C. Devices Used in Satanic Ritual (WATER) -BOOK OF LEVIATHAN- The Raging Sea I Invocation to Satan II The Infernal Names III Invocation Employed Towards the Conjuration of Lust IV Invocation Employed Towards the Conjuration of Destruction V Invocation Employed Towards the Conjuration of Compassion VI The Enochian Keys and The Enochian Language (The nineteen Keys will be listed here in chronological order) Underground Edition Extras The Satanic Bible INTRODUCTION by Burton H. Wolfe This is the original introduction, used in the 1969 first edition through 1972 INTRODUCTION by Burton H. Wolfe* In the summer of 1966, a few newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area began to take notice of a body of Devil- worshippers headed by a former circus and carnival lion handler and organist, Anton Szandor LaVey. Their practice of the black arts was nothing new in the world. It had traces in voodoo cults, a Hell-Fire Club that existed in 18th-Century England, a Satanic circle led by Aleister Crowley in England a century later, and the Black Order of Germany in the 1920' s and 1930's. But two aspects of the San Francisco group made them different from their predecessors: they were blasphemously organized into a church, the First Church of Satan, instead of the usual coven Satanism and witchcraft lore; and they carried on their black magic openly instead of underground. Wedding, baptism, and funeral ceremonies dedicated to the Devil were held in the Church of Satan, with the press invited. Rituals in the tradition of the black arts were staged at midnight in the old dark Victorian house of LaVey, an incongruous building among all the white and yellow stucco houses in the San Francisco neighborhood a short way from the cliffs along the Golden Gate. Occasionally the roar of a full-grown lion that lived in the black house with the LaVey family (Anton, 39; wife Diane, 26; and daughters Karla, 17, and Zeena, 6) reverberated through the night, spooking the neighbors, who were already upset about living so close to Hell. Somehow it was all terribly provocative. Besides, the Devil has always made "good copy," as they say on the city desk. By 1967, the newspapers that were sending reporters to write about the Church of Satan extended from San Francisco across the Pacific to Tokyo and across the Atlantic to Paris. When a wedding or funeral was held, with a naked woman serving as altar to Satan, the Associated Press and other wire Services were on hand to transmit the story and the scandalous photographs to thousands of periodicals. Groups affiliated with the Church of Satan were organized in other parts of America and in England, France, Germany, Africa, and Australia. In existence less than a year, the Church of Satan had already proved one of its cardinal messages: the Devil is alive highly popular with a great many people. Anton LaVey, called "The Black Pope" by some of his followers, realized that two decades ago when he was playing organ for carnival sideshows. "On Saturday night," he recalls, "I would see men lusting after half-naked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing the organ for tent-show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at the carnival or some other place of indulgence. I knew then that the Christian church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out no matter how much it is purged or scourged by any white light religion." Although LaVey did not realize it then — he was only eighteen — he was on his way toward formulating a religion that would serve as the antithesis to Christianity and its Judaic heritage. It was an old religion, older than Christianity or Judaism. But it had never been formalized, arranged into a body of thought and ritual. That was to be LaVey' s role in 20 th -Century civilization. All of LaVey' s background seemed to prepare him for that role. He is the descendant of Georgian, Roumanian, and Alsatian grandparents, including a gypsy grandma who passed on to him the legends of vampires and witches in her native Transylvania. As early as the age of five, LaVey was delving into Weird-Tales magazines, and books such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker' s Dracula. He felt different from other children, and yet he became a ringleader, glorying in the organization of mock military orders. * Author of The Hippies and the forthcoming book, The Satanists. An article by Wolfe called "The Church That Worships Satan," the first complete study of the modern Satanic Church, appeared in the September 1968 issue of Knight magazine (Vol. 6, No. 8). Publishers Service, Inc., the producer of Knight, has graciously permitted portions of the article to appear in this introduction. In 1942, when he was twelve years old, LaVey's fascination with toy soldiers branched off to concern about the world war. He delved into military manuals and discovered that arsenals for the equipment of armies and navies could be bought like groceries in a supermarket and used to conquer masses of people. The idea took shape in his head that contrary to what the Bible said, the earth would not be inherited by the meek, but by the strong and mighty. After entering High School, LaVey became something of an offbeat child prodigy. He did most of his studying outside the school, delving into music, metaphysics, and secrets of the occult. At sixteen he became second oboist in the San Francisco Ballet Symphony Orchestra. Bored with high school classes, he dropped out in his junior year, left home, and joined the Clyde Beatty Circus as a cage boy, watering and feeding the lions and tigers. Animal trainer Beatty noticed that LaVey was comfortable working with the big cats and made him an assistant trainer. One day the circus calliope player became drunk. LaVey had taught himself to play the piano by ear and thought he could handle the organ keyboard well enough to provide some music for the performance that evening. It turned out that he played better and knew more music than the regular player, so Beatty kept him on the calliope. He accompanied the "Human Cannonball," Hugo Zachinni, and the Wallendas' high wire acts, among others. When he was eighteen, LaVey left the circus and joined a carnival. He became assistant to a magician, learned hypnosis, and studied more about the occult. This was a curious combination. On the one side, he was working in an atmosphere of life at its rawest level — of earthy music; the smell of wild animals; acts in which a second of missed timing meant accident; performances that demanded youth and strength, and shed those who grew old like last year's clothes; a world of physical excitement that had magical attractions. On the other side, he was working with the magic in the dark side of the human mind. After he married, LaVey abandoned the wondrous world of the carnival to settle into a career better suited for a home life. He enrolled as a criminology major at the City College of San Francisco. That led to his first conformist job — photographer for the San Francisco Police Department. As it worked out, that job had as much to do as any other with leading him toward Satanism. "I saw the bloodiest, grimiest side of human nature," he recalls. "People shot by nuts, knifed by friends, little kids splattered in the gutter by hit and run drivers. It was disgusting and depressing. I asked myself: 'Where is God?' I came to detest the sanctimonious attitude of people toward violence, always saying it's God's will." He quit in disgust after three years and went back to playing the organ, this time in nightclubs, to earn a living while he continued his studies into his life's fascination: the black arts. Once a week he held classes in ritual magic at his home. They attracted many who were, or have since become well known in the arts and sciences and business world. Eventually a "Magic Circle" evolved from this group. The major purpose of the Circle was to meet for the performance of black rituals that LaVey had discovered. He had accumulated a library of works that described the Black Mass and other pagan ceremonies conducted by groups such as the Knights Templar in 14th-Century France and the Golden Dawn in 19th-century England. The original intent of these black orders was to blaspheme, mock the Christian church, and address themselves to the Devil as an anthropomorphic deity that represented the reverse of God. In LaVey's view, the Devil was much more than that. Satan represented a dark, hidden force in nature that was responsible for the workings of earthly affairs for which science and religion had no explanation and no control. "At first I detected this force in small ways," LaVey explains. "It might be the discovery of an individual whose powers of wishing were so great that he could win horse races. In my case, I found I could conjure up parking places at the last minute in front of theaters, when none should have been there. I also discovered an ability through magic to bring reversals to enemies and gain advantage for myself. I realized I had stumbled onto something, and I would have gone on doing it on my own without any Magic Circle. But I also realized that for some things private magic was weaker than mass ritual magic." Hence, on the last night of April 1966 — Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival in the lore of magic and witchcraft — LaVey shaved his head in the tradition of ancient strongmen and announced the formation of the Church of Satan. For proper identification as its minister, he put on the clerical collar. Up to that collar, he almost looked holy. But the Genghis Khan shaved head, his Mephistophelian beard, and his narrow eyes gave him the necessary demonic look for his priesthood of the Devil's church. "For one thing," LaVey explains, "calling it a church enabled me to follow the magic formula of nine parts outrage to one part social respectability that is needed for success. But the main purpose was to gather a group of like-minded individuals together for the use of their combined energies in calling up the dark force in nature that is called Satan." As LaVey correctly perceived, all other churches are based on worship of the spirit and denial of the flesh. He saw the need for a church that would recapture man's body and carnal desires as objects of celebration. "And," he adds, "since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure, there would then be a temple of glorious indulgence that would be fun for people. All the other churches are places of abstinence with services that people want to have over as soon as possible so they can get out and start enjoying life again." In the Church of Satan, LaVey initiated clever psychodramas that would enable a group of flesh-worshippers to overcome the repressions and inhibitions fostered by the Judaeo-Christian tradition. He knew that the old concept of a Black Mass to satirize Christian services was outmoded. There was a revolution in the Christian church itself against orthodox rites and traditions. It was popular to declare that "God is dead." So, the rites that he worked out, while still maintaining the trappings of the ancient Black Mass, were changed from a negative mockery to positive forms of celebrations: Satanic weddings, funerals devoid of sanctimonious platitudes, lust rituals to help individuals attain their sex desires, destruction rituals to enable members of the Satanic Church to triumph over enemies and win their goals in life. There is no altruism or love-thy-neighbor concept in the Satanic religion, except in the sense of helping other adherents of the Black Path to gain their desires by group energy. Satanism is a blatantly selfish, brutal religion. It is based on the belief that man is inherently a selfish, violent creature, that life is a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest, that the earth will be ruled by those who fight to win the ceaseless competition that exists in all jungles — including that of urban societies. On that score, the Church of Satan may be justly criticized, although even its critics will have to admit that its philosophy is based on logic and real conditions that exist in the world. On the other hand, the great contribution to civilized thought made by the Church of Satan is its celebration of the complete human being instead of the spirit alone. The signs are everywhere that humanity is striving to burst the restrictive bonds of religion. It was predicted in the Bible, for that matter, in symbolic passages that dealt with Satan chained for a thousand years, after which he would break free and foment deviltry on the earth. Now it is happening. Sex is exploding in movies and literature, on the streets, and in the home. People are dancing topless and bottomless. Youths are throwing off restrictions that deny pleasure in mind and body. There is a ceaseless quest for entertainment, gourmet foods and wines, adventure, enjoyment of the here and now. Man is no longer willing to wait for any afterlife that promises to reward the clean, pure — translate: ascetic, drab — spirit. There is a mood of neo-paganism and hedonism, and from it have emerged a wide variety of intelligent individuals — doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, actors, stockbrokers, clerks, printers, nurses (to cite just a few categories of Satanic Church members) — who are interested in carrying the liberation of the flesh all the way to a formal religion. In the Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey explains the philosophy of Satanism better than any of his ancestors in the Kingdom of Darkness, and describes the various rituals and trappings that have been devised to create a true church of flesh-worshippers. It is clear, from the interest in Satanism that erupted in 1968 along with the fascination directed toward Ira Levin's book Rosemary's Baby, that there are many people who would like to know how to start Satanic cults and ritualize black magic. This book shows them how to go about it and fills that need. It is also clear that there is a place for the formulation of teachings that constitute the antithesis to the repressive, inhibiting, anti- material dogma of Christianity and other antiquated religions. The Satanic Bible also fills that need. Perhaps the most important social value of this book is its challenge to other religions: Deal with carnal desire and the flesh in a logical, rational manner or lose the struggle not only for men's bodies, but also their souls. INTRODUCTION by Michael A. Aquino This introduction appeared in the hardcover Satanic Bible from its first release in 1972 throughout its existence, and in the Avon paperback edition from 1972 to 1976 Each successive era of man's cultural and ethical development has upraised its literary manifesto - an argument challenging existing norms and proposing a novel approach to the enduring issues of civilization. It has not infrequently been the case that the realities of political nationalism have been blended with the idealisms of extranational emphasis to produce what we now cautiously term existentialism. Pertinent works might include the Republic of Plato, the Politics of Aristotle, Machiavelli's Prince, and the writings of Nietzsche, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, and Sartre. This is the book of our era. The dawn of the Satanic Age was celebrated on April 30, 1966 - the Year One. On that date Anton Szandor LaVey consecrated the Church of Satan in the city of San Francisco and assumed office as its first High Priest. What had begun several years earlier as an intellectual forum dedicated to the investigation and application of the Black Arts has since expanded into an international philosophical movement of the first magnitude. Satanism, once the isolate province of furtive outcasts and radical eccentrics, has now become a serious alternative to the doctrines of theism and materialism. In its championship of indulgence instead of abstinence, the Church of Satan rejects the notion that man's progress is contingent upon his acceptance of a self-imposed morality. Sound judgment derives from the comparison and resolution of opposites, Satanists maintain, and one cannot presume to justice by honoring a single standard of behavior. An empirical approach to morality is not a recent innovation; such theorists as Pythagoras, Hegel, Spencer, and Compte advanced the original propositions for man's intellectual independence from the natural order. And, though this concept has invariably provoked adverse reaction from society-oriented institutions, it is not an insubstantial viewpoint. One need only consider the spasmodic cataclysms of history to see how inadequately Homo sapiens cooperates with his fellows. By itself, however, all theory is inconsequential. Until now the only advocates of a subjective morality were professorial abstractionists and -occasionally -the scattered and disorganized devotees of the traditional "White" witchcraft. Indeed the latter have enjoyed some notoriety of late, as their supposed proclamation of a liberal morality tempered by social correctness appeals to the bored but timid dilettante. Such aficionados of the occult profess a righteous horror of Black Magic or Satanism, which they denounce as a maleficent, degenerate creature of moral and carnal abuse. The Satanist, on the other hand, regards traditional witchcraft as merely a neurotic reaction against the established religions of the parent culture. The worship of any deity or deities - under any guise whatsoever - is repulsive to the Black Magician, who considers all protestations of faith or trust in a supernatural protectorate to be humiliating demonstrations of cowardice and emotional insecurity. Satanism has been frequently misrepresented as "devil worship", when in fact it constitutes a clear rejection of all forms of worship as a desirable component of the personality. It is not so much an anti-religion - a simple rebuttal of any one belief - as it is an un-religion, an uncompromising dismissal of all insubstantial mysticism. As such it represents a far more serious threat to organized theologies than do the archaic customs of the old daemonologies. Ritual and fantasy play a very real part in the activities of the Satanic Church, on the assumption that the experience and control of mental and metaphysical irrationality are necessary for the strengthening of the psyche. Thus a distinct effort is made to avoid what was perhaps the Achilles' heel of the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky school of subjective psychological evolution; earlier disciples of self-determined transcendentalism postulated that all non-materialistic sensations were a danger to the coherence of the student. Crucial to the concept of Satanic ritual is an appreciation of its illustrative and inspirational qualities without necessarily regarding it as inflexible reality. Satanism is more accurately identified as a disposition than as a religion, as it is actively concerned with all the facets of human existence, not with only the so-called spiritual aspects. Yet those who proclaim it to be a danger to justice and cooperative order have missed the point entirely. Satanism advocates unrestricted freedom, but only to the extent that one's preferences do not impinge upon another's. It should also be noted that Satanism is a philosophy of the individual, not of the mass. There are no collective policy statements save the famous Crowley admonition: "Self- deceit is the gravest of all 'sins'." While the majority of the populace may instinctively incline to a de facto Satanism, the Church cautions that its propositions are not for the irresponsible. There are no Satanic missionaries, and to affiliate one must meet exacting standards. Inexperience is not dishonored, but pretentiousness, hypocrisy, and pomposity are treated with the scorn that they deserve. Satanism is no less an art than it is a science, and there is "no standard of measurement deified". Dr. LaVey is uniquely prepared to author the new Diabolism. An American of Georgian, Alsatian, and Romanian Gypsy descent, he was quick to display the characteristic restlessness of his nomadic ancestors and an unusual empathy for their earthy, arcane lore. An early preoccupation with the military sciences led him to read the various logistical publications of the World War II era, only to discover that the proud visions of martial glory entertained in the first world war had given way to a detached, mercenary realism in the second. His experiences as a student did nothing to dispel this first taste of human cynicism, and LaVey's growing impatience with the sterile regimentation of conventional education drove him to seek the strange, surrealistic enchantments of the circus. He assisted Clyde Beatty as a wild-animal trainer, and he soon developed a strong affinity for the cats which was to mark his personality in a most curious manner. All animate creatures are basically bestial, he reasoned, and even the most refined social orders achieve at best only a flimsy suppression of this innate savagery. From the circus he proceeded to a carnival, where the glitter of the performing arts was tinged with the ever-present struggle for daily subsistence. Here LaVey worked in a pathetic but quietly dignified world of misfits, sideshow freaks, and human oddities; and here he was to learn the craft of the stage magician, whose success depends upon the contrived distraction of the audience's attention. With a certain grimness he noted the fascination with which the "normal" man regards his deformed comrades - a gloating satisfaction over the visiting of misfortune upon another instead of oneself. Becoming increasingly interested in this cruel, lycanthropic attribute of human nature, he studied criminology in college and eventually worked with the San Francisco Police Department as a photographer. As a circus professional he had seen carnal man at his most artistic; now he was to view him at his most vicious. Three years of the gore, brutality, and abject misery that permeate the criminal subculture left him sickened, disillusioned, and angered with the rampant hypocrisy of polite society. He turned to the pipe organ as a means of living and devoted the greater part of his efforts to what was to become his life's work - Black Magic. LaVey had long since rejected the stereotypical tracts on ceremonial sorcery as the hysterical products of medieval imaginations. The "Old Craft" with its superstitions, affected mannerisms, and infantile parlor games was not for him; what he sought was a metaphysical psychology that would approach the intellectual man only after giving due consideration to his brutal, animalistic origins. And so he came at last to the Goat of Mendes. Satan is easily the most enigmatic figure in classical literature. Possessed of every conceivable wealth, and the most powerful of the Archangels, he spurned his exalted allegiance to proclaim his independence from all that his Heavenly patron personified. Although condemned to the most hideous of domains, a Hell totally shunned by the divinity, he embraced such privations as the burden of his intellectual prerogative. In his Infernal Empire one might indulge even the most extraordinary tastes with impunity, yet amidst such wanton licentiousness the Devil maintained a peculiar nobility. It was this elusive quality which Anton LaVey determined to identify. After long years of research and experiment, he pronounced the guiding principle of Satanism: that the ultimate consequence of man lies not in unity but in duality. It is only synthesis that decides values; adherence to a single order is arbitrary and therefore insignificant. LaVey's disturbing theories and bizarre operations of ceremonial Black Magic eventually attracted a following of similarly minded individuals. From this first small circle the Church of Satan was to emerge, attuned to its founder's contention that its messages would be presented most effectively through "nine parts social respectability to one part of the most blatant outrage". The social impact and spectacular growth of the Church were to become something of a legend in themselves, but it was an essential part of LaVey's convictions that the formal institution's role was principally that of a catalyst. Contemporary civilization has proved too interdependent to permit the luxury of monastic isolationism. Satanism must accordingly assume a stance comprehensible to the average intellect. It was with such intent that the Satanic Bible was conceived. The Satanic Bible is a most insidious document. One is strongly tempted to compare it with that obscure, malefic mythology The King in Yellow, a psychopolitical work that supposedly drove its readers to madness and damnation. As candid and conversational as the Satanic Bible might seem at first glance, it is not a volume to be gently dismissed. It is very much the product of our time, not only because such a book -together with its author -would more than likely have been destroyed in an earlier era, but because its creation was an evolutionary inevitability. You, the reader, are about to be impaled upon the sharp horns of a Satanic dilemma. If you accept the propositions of this book, you condemn your most cherished sanctuaries to annihilation. In return you will awaken - but only to the most fiery of Hells. Should you reject the argument, you resign yourself to a cancerous disintegration of your previously subconscious sense of identity. Small wonder that the Archfiend's legacy has won him so many bitter enemies! Whatever your decision, it can be avoided no longer. The Satanic Bible finally articulates what man has instinctively dreaded to proclaim: that he himself is potentially divine. INTRODUCTION by Burton H. Wolfe This second introduction by Wolfe was used from 1976 through 2005 On a winter's evening in 1967, 1 drove crosstown in San Francisco to hear Anton Szandor LaVey lecture at an open meeting of the Sexual Freedom League. I was attracted by newspaper articles describing him as "the Black Pope" of a Satanic church in which baptism, wedding, and funeral ceremonies were dedicated to the Devil. I was a free-lance magazine writer, and I felt there might be a story in LaVey and his contemporary pagans; for the Devil has always made "good copy," as they say on the city desk. It was not the practice of the black arts itself that I considered to be the story, because that is nothing new in the world. There were Devil-worshipping sects and voodoo cults before there were Christians. In eighteenth-century England a Hell-Fire Club, with connections to the American colonies through Benjamin Franklin, gained some brief notoriety. During the early part of the twentieth century, the press publicized Aleister Crowley as the "wickedest man in the world." And there were hints in the 1920s and '30s of a "black order" in Germany. To this seemingly old story LaVey and his organization of contemporary Faustians offered two strikingly new chapters. First, they blasphemously represented themselves as a "church," a term previously confined to the branches of Christianity, instead of the traditional coven of Satanism and witchcraft lore. Second, they practiced their black magic openly instead of underground. Rather than arrange a preliminary interview with LaVey for discussion of his heretical innovations, my usual first step in research, I decided to watch and listen to him as an unidentified member of an audience. He was described in some newspapers as a former circus and carnival lion tamer and trickster now representing himself as the Devil's representative on earth, and I wanted to determine first whether he was a true Satanist, a prankster, or a quack. I had already met people in the limelight of the occult business; in fact, Jeane Dixon was my landlady and I had a chance to write about her before Ruth Montgomery did. But I had considered all the occultists phonies, hypocrites, or quacks, and I would never spend five minutes writing about their various forms of hocus-pocus. All the occultists I had met or heard of were white-lighters: alleged seers, prophesiers, and witches wrapping their supposedly mystic powers around God-based, spiritual communication. LaVey, seeming to laugh at them if not spit on them in contempt, emerged from between the lines of newspaper stories as a black magician basing his work on the dark side of nature and the carnal side of humanity. There seemed to be nothing spiritual about his "church". As I listened to LaVey talk that first time, I realized at once there was nothing to connect him with the occult business. He could not even be described as metaphysical. The brutally frank talk he delivered was pragmatic, relativistic, and above all rational. It was unorthodox, to be sure: a blast at established religious worship, repression of humanity's carnal nature, phony pretense at piety in the course of an existence based on dog-eat-dog material pursuits. It was also full of sardonic satire on human folly. But most important of all, the talk was logical. It was not quack magic that LaVey offered his audience. It was common sense philosophy based on the realities of life. After I became convinced of LaVey 's sincerity, I had to convince him that / intended to do some serious research instead of adding to the accumulation of hack articles dealing with the Church of Satan as a new type of freak show. I boned up on Satanism, discussed its history and rationale with LaVey, and attended some midnight rituals in the famous Victorian manse once used as Church of Satan headquarters. Out of all that I produced a serious article, only to find that was not what the publishers of "respectable" magazines wanted. They were interested in only the freak show kind of article. Finally, it was a so-called "girlie" or "man's" magazine, Knight of September 1968, that published the first definitive article on LaVey, the Church of Satan, and LaVey' s synthesis of the old Devil legends and black magic lore into the modern philosophy and practice of Satanism that all followers and imitators now use as their model, their guide, and even their Bible. My magazine article was the beginning, not the end (as it has been with my other writing subjects), of a long and intimate association. Out of it came my biography of LaVey, The Devil's Avenger, published by Pyramid in 1974. After the book was published, I became a card-carrying member and, subsequently, a priest of the Church of Satan, a title I now proudly share with many celebrated persons. The postmidnight philosophical discussions I began with LaVey in 1967 continue today, a decade later, supplemented sometimes these days by a nifty witch or some of our own music, him on organ and me on drums, in a bizarre cabaret populated by superrealistic humanoids of LaVey's creation. All of LaVey's background seemed to prepare him for his role. He is the descendant of Georgian, Roumanian, and Alsatian grandparents, including a gypsy grandmother who passed on to him the legends of vampires and witches in her native Transylvania. As early as the age of five, LaVey was reading Weird-Tales magazines and books such as Mary Shelly' s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Though he was different from other children, they appointed him as leader in marches and maneuvers in mock military orders. In 1942, when LaVey was twelve, his fascination with toy soldiers led to concern over World War II. He delved into military manuals and discovered arsenals for the equipment of armies and navies could be bought like groceries in a supermarket and used to conquer nations. The idea took shape in his head that contrary to what the Christian Bible said, the earth would not be inherited by the meek, but by the mighty. In high school LaVey became something of an offbeat child prodigy. Reserving his most serious studies for outside the school, he delved into music, metaphysics, and secrets of the occult. At fifteen, he became second oboist in the San Francisco Ballet Symphony Orchestra. Bored with high school classes, LaVey dropped out in his Junior year, left home, and joined the Clyde Beatty Circus as a cage boy, watering and feeding the lions and tigers. Animal trainer Beatty noticed that LaVey was comfortable working with the big cats and made him an assistant trainer. Possessed since childhood by a passion for the arts, for culture, LaVey was not content merely with the excitement of training jungle beasts and working with them in the ring as a fill-in for Beatty. By age ten he had taught himself to play the piano by ear. This came in handy when the circus calliope player became drunk before a performance and was unable to go on; LaVey volunteered to replace him, confident he could handle the unfamiliar organ keyboard well enough to provide the necessary background music. It turned out he knew more music and played better than the regular calliopist, so Beatty cashiered the drunk and installed LaVey at the instrument. He accompanied the "Human Cannonball", Hugo Zachinni, and the Wallendas' high-wire acts, among others. When LaVey was eighteen he left the circus and joined a carnival. There he became assistant to a magician, learned hypnosis, and studied more about the occult. It was a curious combination. On the one side he was working in an atmosphere of life at its rawest level - of earthy music; the smell of wild animals and sawdust; acts in which a second of missed timing meant accident or death; performances that demanded youth and strength, and shed those who grew old like last year's clothes; a world of physical excitement that had magical attractions. On the other side, he was working with magic in the dark side of the human brain. Perhaps the strange combination influenced the way he began to view humanity as he played organ for carnival sideshows. "On Saturday night," LaVey recalled in one of our long talks, "I would see men lusting after half-naked girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing organ for tent- show evangelists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the pews with their wives and children, asking God to forgive them and purge them of carnal desires. And the next Saturday night they'd be back at the carnival or some other place of indulgence. I knew then that the Christian church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man's carnal nature will out no matter how much it is purged or scourged by any white-light religion." Though LaVey did not realize it then, he was on his way toward formulating a religion that would serve as the antithesis of Christianity and its Judaic heritage. It was an old religion, older than Christianity or Judaism. But it had never been formalized, arranged into a body of thought and ritual. That was to become LaVey's role in twentieth-century civilization. After LaVey became a married man himself in 1951, at age twenty-one, he abandoned the wondrous world of the carnival to settle into a career better suited for homemaking. He had been enrolled as a criminology major at the City College of San Francisco. That led to his first conformist job, photographer for the San Francisco Police Department. As it worked out, that job had as much to do as any other with his development of Satanism as a way of life. "I saw the bloodiest, grimiest side of human nature," LaVey recounted in a session dealing with his past life. "People shot by nuts, knifed by their friends; little kids splattered in the gutter by hit- and-run drivers. It was disgusting and depressing. I asked myself: 'Where is God?' I came to detest the sanctimonious attitude of people toward violence, always saying 'it's God's will'." So he quit in disgust after three years of being a crime photographer and returned to playing organ, this time in nightclubs and theaters to earn a living while he continued his studies into his life's passion: the black arts. Once a week he held classes on arcane topics: hauntings, E.S.P., dreams, vampires, werewolves, divination, ceremonial magic, etc. They attracted many people who were, or have since become, well known in the arts and sciences, and the business world. Eventually a "Magic Circle" evolved from this group. The major purpose of the Circle was to meet for the performance of magical rituals LaVey had discovered or devised. He had accumulated a library of works that described the Black Mass and other infamous ceremonies conducted by groups such as the Knights Templar in fourteenth-century France, the Hell-Fire club and the Golden Dawn in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. The intent of some of these secret orders was to blaspheme, lampoon the Christian church, and address themselves to the Devil as an anthropomorphic deity that represented the reverse of God. In LaVey's view, the Devil was not that, but rather a dark, hidden force in nature responsible for the workings of earthly affairs, a force for which neither science nor religion had any explanation. LaVey's Satan is "the spirit of progress, the inspirer of all great movements that contribute to the development of civilization and the advancement of mankind. He is the spirit of revolt that leads to freedom, the embodiment of all heresies that liberate." On the last night of April 1966-Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival in the lore of magic and witchcraft-La Vey ritualistically shaved his head in accordance with magical tradition and announced the formation of the Church of Satan. For proper identification as its minister, he put on the clerical collar. Up to that collar he looked almost holy. But his Genghis Khan-like shaven head, his Mephistophelian beard, and his narrow eyes gave him the necessary demonic look for his priesthood of the Devil's church on earth. "For one thing," LaVey explained himself, "calling it a church enabled me to follow the magic formula of one part outrage to nine parts social respectability that is needed for success. But the main purpose was to gather a group of like-minded individuals together for the use of their combined energies in calling up the dark force in nature that is called Satan." As LaVey pointed out, all other churches are based on worship of the spirit and denial of the flesh and the intellect. He saw the need for a church that would recapture man's mind and carnal desires as objects of celebration. Rational self-interest would be encouraged and a healthy ego championed. He began to realize that the old concept of a Black Mass to satirize Christian services was outmoded or, as he put it, "beating a dead horse". In the Church of Satan, LaVey initiated some exhilarating psychodramas, in lieu of Christianity's self-debasing services, thereby exorcising repressions and inhibitions fostered by white-light religions. There was a revolution in the Christian church itself against orthodox rites and traditions. It had become popular to declare that "God is dead". So, the alternative rites that LaVey worked out, while still maintaining some of the trappings of ancient ceremonies, were changed from a negative mockery to positive forms of celebrations and purges: Satanic weddings consecrating the joys of the flesh, funerals devoid of sanctimonious platitudes, lust rituals to help individuals attain their sex desires, destruction rituals to enable members of the Satanic church to triumph over enemies. On special occasions such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals in the name of the Devil, press coverage, though unsolicited, was phenomenal. By 1967 the newspapers that were sending reporters to write about the Church of Satan extended from San Francisco across the Pacific to Tokyo and across the Atlantic to Paris. A photo of a nude woman, half covered by a leopard skin, serving as an altar to Satan in a LaVey-conceived wedding ceremony, was transmitted by major wire services to daily newspapers everywhere: and it showed up on the front page of such bulwarks of the media as the Los Angeles Times. As the result of the publicity, grottos (LaVey's counterpart to covens) affiliated with the Church of Satan spread throughout the world, proving one of LaVey's cardinal messages: the Devil is alive and highly popular with a great many people. Of course LaVey pointed out to anyone who would listen that the Devil to him and his followers was not the stereotyped fellow cloaked in red garb, with horns, tail and pitchfork, but rather the dark forces in nature that human beings are just beginning to fathom. How did LaVey square that explanation with his own appearance at times in black cowl with horns? He replied: "People need ritual, with symbols such as those you find in baseball games or church services or wars, as vehicles for expending emotions they can't release or even understand on their own." Nevertheless, LaVey himself soon tired of the games. There were setbacks. First, some of LaVey 's neighbors began complaining about the full-grown lion he was keeping as a house pet, and eventually the big cat was donated to the local zoo. Next, one of LaVey 's most devoted witches, Jayne Mansfield, died under a curse he had placed on the head of her suitor, lawyer Sam Brody, for a variety of reasons I have explained in The Devil's Avenger; LaVey had persistently warned her away from Brody and felt depressed over her death. It was the second tragic death in the sixties of a Hollywood sex symbol with whom he had been intimately involved; the other was Marilyn Monroe, LaVey' s paramour for a brief but crucial period in 1948 when he had quit the carnival and was playing organ for strippers around the Los Angeles area. On top of all that, LaVey was tired of organizing entertainments and purges for his church members. He had gotten in touch with the last living remnants of the prewar occult fraternities of Europe, was busily acquiring their philosophies and secret rituals left over from the pre-Hitler era, and needed time to study, write and work out new principles. He had long been experimenting with and applying the principles of geometric spatial concepts in what he terms "The Law of the Trapezoid". (He scoffs at current faddists who are "barking up the wrong pyramids".) He was also becoming widely sought as speaker, guest on radio and television programs, and production and/or technical adviser to scores of television producers and moviemakers turning out Satanic chillers. Sometimes he was also an actor. As sociologist Clinton R. Sanders points out: "...no occultist has had as direct an impact upon formulaic cinematic presentations of Satanism as has Anton Szandor LaVey. Ritual and esoteric symbolism are central elements in LaVey 's church and the films in which he has had a hand contain detailed portrayals of Satanic rites and are filled with traditional occult symbols. The emphasis upon ritual in the Church of Satan is 'intended to focus the emotional powers within each individual'. Similarly, the ornate ritualism that is central to LaVey' s films may reasonably be seen as a mechanism to involve and focus the emotional experience of the cinema audience." At last LaVey decided to transfer rituals and other organized activities to Church of Satan grottos around the world, and devote himself to writing, lecturing, teaching - and to his family: wife Diane, the blonde beauty who serves as High Priestess of the Church; raven-haired daughter Karla, now in her early twenties, a criminology major like her father before, spending much of her time lecturing on Satanism at universities in many parts of the country; and finally Zeena, remembered by people who saw the famous photo of the Satanic Church baptism as a tiny tot, but now a gorgeously developed teenager attracting a growing pack of wolves, human male variety. Out of LaVey' s relatively quiescent period came his widely read, pioneering books: First, The Satanic Bible, which at this writing is in its twelfth edition (and this is my second, revised introduction, after having written the original introduction to the first edition). Second, The Satanic Rituals, which covers more of the somber, complex material LaVey unearthed from his increasing sources. And third, The Compleat Witch, a bestseller in Italy, but, sadly, allowed by its American publisher to go out of print with its potential unfulfilled. LaVey 's spreading out from organized church activities to writing books for worldwide distribution has, of course, greatly expanded Church of Satan membership. Satanism' s growing popularity has naturally been accompanied by scare stories from religious groups complaining that The Satanic Bible now outsells the Christian Bible on college campuses and is a leading causative factor in youngsters' turning away from God. And certainly one suspects that Pope Paul had LaVey in mind when he issued his worldwide proclamation two years ago that the Devil is "alive" and "a person", a living, fire-breathing character spreading evil over the earth. LaVey, maintaining that "evil" is "live" spelled backward and should be indulged in and enjoyed, answers the pope and the religious scare groups this way: "People, organizations, nations are making millions of dollars off us. What would they do without us? Without the Church of Satan, they wouldn't have anybody to rage at and to take the blame for all the rotten things happening in the world. If they really feel this way, they shouldn't have blown us out of proportion. What you really have to believe instead is that they are the charlatans, and they're really glad to have us around so they can exploit us. We're an extremely valuable commodity. We've helped business, lifted up the economy, and some of the millions of dollars we have generated have in turn flowed into the Christian church. We have proved many times over the Ninth Satanic Statement that says the church - and countless individuals - cannot exist without the Devil." For that the Christian church must pay a price. The events that LaVey predicted in the first edition of The Satanic Bible have come to pass. Repressed people have burst their bonds. Sex has exploded, the collective libido has been released, in movies and literature, on the streets, and in the home. People are dancing topless and bottomless. Nuns have thrown off their traditional habits, exposed their legs, and danced the "Missa Solemnis Rock" that LaVey thought he was conjuring up as a prank. There is a ceaseless universal quest for entertainment, gourmet foods and wines, adventure, enjoyment of the here and now. Humanity is no longer willing to wait for any afterlife that promises to reward the clean, pure - translate: ascetic, drab - spirit. There is a mood of neopaganism and hedonism, and from it there have emerged a wide variety of brilliant individuals - doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, stockbrokers, real estate developers, actors and actresses, mass communications media people (to cite a few categories of Satanists) - who are interested in formalizing and perpetuating this all-pervading religion and way of life. It is not an easy religion to adopt in a society ruled so long by Puritan ethics. There is no false altruism or mandatory love-thy-neighbor concept in this religion. Satanism is a blatantly selfish, brutal philosophy. It is based on the belief that human beings are inherently selfish, violent creatures, that life is a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest, that only the strong survive and the earth will be ruled by those who fight to win the ceaseless competition that exists in all jungles - including those of urbanized society. Abhor this brutal outlook if you will; it is based, as it has been for centuries, on real conditions that exist in the world we inhabit rather than the mystical lands of milk and honey depicted in the Christian Bible. In The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey has explained the philosophy of Satanism more profoundly than any of his ancestors in the Kingdom of Darkness, while describing in detail the innovative rituals and trappings he has devised to create a church of realists. It has been clear from the first edition that many people want to read this book to learn how to start Satanic groups and ritualize black magic. The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals are the only books that have demonstrated, in a way that is authentic and true to relevant traditions, how all of that can be done. There have been many imitators, never attributing their source, and with good reason; because once the shabbiness and shallowness of the imitators have been compared to LaVey' s pioneering work, there can no longer be any market for the ripoff artists. The evidence is clear to any who are willing to view the record: Anton LaVey brought Satan out of the closet and the Church of Satan is the fountainhead of contemporary Satanism. This book summarizes the message both convey, and remains both challenge and inspiration, as timely today as when it was written. San Francisco December 25, 1976 (XI Anno Satanas) INTRODUCTION by Peter H. Gilmore This introduction was used starting in 2005 Opening the Adamantine Gates An Introduction to The Satanic Bible by Magus Peter H. Gilmore This book has the potential to change your life - it did mine. It is a diabolical work, written with elegance, earthiness, and might, serving quite magically as a mirror. If you look within these pages and see yourself; if you find its principles to be those you've lived by as long as you can remember; if you feel the evocation of an overwhelming sense of homecoming, then you will have discovered that you are a part of a scattered "meta-tribe," and the proper name for what you are is "Satanist." I first encountered Anton Szandor LaVey through The Satanic Bible, at the age of thirteen when I was an avowed atheist. Not being partial to literature promoting faith of any sort, I was pleasantly surprised that this was no rant by someone claiming direct contact with Satan. Instead, I found a common sense, rational, materialist philosophy, along with theatrical ritual techniques meant as self-transformative psychodrama. Here was a tool perfectly suited to my nature as a means for getting the most out of my life. I knew that "atheist" was no longer sufficient as a designation for myself. This book lead me to meet and befriend LaVey, working with him to administer the Church he created, and finally to succeed him as the second High Priest of the Church of Satan. It is one of Anton LaVey 's numerous talents that his written words are vivid, brimming with his distinct personality. His well-wrought phrases give the sense of encountering the man himself, and such an impression is not a delusion. When my wife, Peggy Nadramia, and I met The Doctor" (an affectionate moniker used by those close him), we agreed that here was exactly the man we had dared to expect from reading his books. Unlike the founders of other religions who claimed 'inspiration" delivered through some supernatural entity, LaVey readily acknowledged that he used his own faculties to synthesize Satanism. He based it on both his understanding of the human animal acquired from life experience and the wisdom he'd gained from other advocates of materialism, pragmatism, and individualism. His blasphemously named "Church of Satan" was consciously designed to be an adversary to existing "spiritual' belief systems. It was the first organization promulgating religious philosophy championing Satan as the symbol of liberty and individualism. Concerning his role as founder he said that, "If he didn't do it himself, someone else, per haps less qualified, would have." His perceptive insights thus lead him to give a proper name to a human type that has always been part of our species. LaVey was born in Chicago in 1930, and his parents soon relocated to California, that westernmost gathering place for the brightest and darkest manifestations of that "American Dream." It was a fertile environment for the sensitive child who would eventually mature into a role the press would dub "The Black Pope." From his Eastern European grandmother, young LaVey learned of the superstitions that are still extant in that part of the world. These tales whetted his appetite for the outre, leading him to become absorbed in classic dark literature such as Dracula and Frankenstein. He also became an avid reader of the pulp magazines, which first published tales now deemed classics of the horror and science fiction genres. He later befriended seminal Weird Tales authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Barbour Johnson, and George Has. His fancy was captured by fictional characters found in the works of Jack London and Somerset Maugham, in comic strip characters like Ming the Merciless, as well as by historical figures of a diabolical cast such as Cagliostro, Rasputin, and Basil Zaharoff. More interesting to him than the available occult literature, which he dismissed as being little more than sanctimonious white magic, were books applied obscure knowledge such as Dr. William Wesley Cook's Practical Lessons in Hypnotism, Jane's Fighting Ships, and manuals for handwriting analysis. His musical abilities were noticed early, and he was given free reign by his parents to try his hand at various instruments. LaVey was mainly attracted to the keyboards because of their scope and versatility. He found time to practice and could easily reproduce songs heard by ear without recourse to fake books or sheet music. This talent would prove to be one of his main sources of income for many years, particularly his calliope playing during his carnival days, and later his many stints as an organist in bars, lounges, and nightclubs. These venues gave him the chance to study how various melodic lines and chord progressions swayed the emotions of his audiences, from the spectators at the carnival and spook shows to the individuals seeking solace for the disappointments in their lives in distilled spirits and the smoke-filled taverns for which LaVey's playing provided a moody soundtrack. His odd interests marked him as an outsider, and he did not alleviate this by feeling any compulsion to be "one of the boys." He despised gym class and team sports and often cut classes to follow his own interests. Moving beyond the standard school texts, he absorbed volumes analyzing human behavior on every level, from the impulses of the individual to the dynamics of the herd. He watched films that would later be labeled film noir as well as German expressionist cinema such as M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and the Dr. Mabuse movies. His taste for flashy apparel also served to amplify his alienation from the mainstream. He dropped out of high school to hang around with hoodlum types and gravitated towards working in the circus and carnivals, first as a roustabout and cage boy and later as a musician. His always-active curiosity was rewarded as he "learned the ropes" from the carnies. He worked an act with the big cats-he had an affinity for these powerful predators-and later assisted with the machinations of the spook shows. He became well-versed in the many rackets used to separate the rubes from their money, along with the psychology that lead people to such pursuits. Under the name "The Great Szandor" he played calliope and organ for the bawdy shows on Saturday nights, as well as for tent revivalists on Sunday mornings, seeing many of the same men attending both and noting this telling contradiction. All of these activities provided a firm, earthy background for his evolving cynical worldview. When the carnival season ended, LaVey would earn money by playing organ in Los Angeles area burlesque houses, and he relates that it was during this period that he met and had a brief affair with a then-unknown Marilyn Monroe, after accompanying her "chain-dragging" striptease at the Mayan Burlesque Theater. Moving back to San Francisco, LaVey worked for a while as a photographer for the police department, and, during the Korean War, enrolled in San Francisco City College as a criminology major to avoid the draft. Both his studies and occupation revealed grim insights into human nature and confirmed his rejection of spiritual doctrines. At this time he met and married Carole Lansing, who bore him his first daughter Karla Maritza, in 1952. A few years earlier LaVey had examined the writings of Aleister Crowley, so in 1951 he decided to meet some of the Berkeley Thelemites. He was unimpressed, as they were more mystical and less "wicked" than he supposed they should be for disciples of Crowley's libertine creed. During the 1950s, LaVey supplemented his income as an investigator of alleged supernatural phenomena, handing "nut calls" referred to him by friends in the police department. These experiences proved to him that many people were inclined to seek a bizarre, "otherworldly" explanation for phenomena that had prosaic causes. His rational explanations often disappointed the complainants, so LaVey invented exotic sources to make them feel better, giving him insight as to how belief functions in people's lives. In 1956 he purchased a Victorian house on California Street in San Francisco's Richmond District. It was reputed to have been a speakeasy, and was tricked out with secret passages, possibly to aid in clandestine carnal activities. He painted it black, thus creating a haunted intrusion on an otherwise typical block, matching his own unique presence. It was only natural that it would later become home to the Church of Satan. After his death, the building remained unoccupied, a brooding "shunned house," until it was demolished on October 17 of 2001 by the real estate company that owned the property. LaVey met and became entranced by Diane Hegarty in 1959; he then left Carole in 1960. Hegarty and LaVey never married, but she bore him his second daughter, Zeena Galatea in 1964 and was his companion for many years. Hegarty and LaVey later separated; she sued him for palimony and this was settled out of court. Through his "ghost busting," and his frequent public gigs as an organist, including playing the Wurlitzer at the Lost Weekend cocktail lounge, LaVey became a local celebrity and his holiday parties attracted many San Francisco notables. Guests included Carin de Plessin, called "the Baroness" as she had grown up in the royal palace of Denmark, anthropologist Michael Harner, Chester A. Arthur III (grandson to the U.S. President), Forrest J. Ackerman (later, the publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland and acknowledged expert on science fiction), author Fritz Leiber, local eccentric Dr. Cecil E. Nixon (creator of the musical automaton Isis), and underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger. From this crowd LaVey distilled what he called a "Magic Circle" of associates who shared his interest in the bizarre, the hidden side of what moves the world. As his expertise grew, LaVey began presenting Friday night lectures summarizing the fruits of his research. In 1965, LaVey was featured on the "The Brother Buzz Show", a humorous children's program hosted by marionettes. The focus was on LaVey' s "Addams Family" lifestyle — making a living as a hypnotist, investigator of the paranormal, and organist, as well as on his highly unusual pet Togare, a Nubian lion. In the process of creating his lectures, LaVey noticed many common threads, which he then began weaving into a tenebrous conceptual tapestry. When a member of his Magic Circle suggested that he had the basis for a new religion LaVey agreed and decided to found the Church of Satan as the best means for communicating his ideas. And so, in 1966 on the night of May Eve — the traditional Witches' Sabbath — LaVey declared the founding of the Church of Satan and renumbered 1966 as the year One, Anno Satanas — the first year of the Age of Satan. The attention of the press soon followed, particularly with the wedding of Radical journalist John Raymond to New York socialite Judith Case on February 1st, 1967. Famed photographer Joe Rosenthal was sent by the San Francisco Chronicle to capture an image that went onward to the pages of the Los Angeles Times and other prominent newspapers. LaVey began the mass dissemination of his Philosophy via the release of a record album, The Satanic Mass (Murgenstrumm, 1968). The album featured a cover graphic named by LaVey as the "Sigil of Baphomet": the goat head in a pentagram, circled with the Hebrew word "Leviathan," which has since become the ubiquitous symbol of Satanism. Featured on the album was part of the rite of baptism written for three-year-old Zeena (performed on May 23rd, 1967). In addition to the actual recording of a Satanic ritual, side two of the LP had LaVey reading excerpts from the as-yet- unpublished The Satanic Bible over music by Beethoven, Wagner, and Sousa. His Friday lectures continued and he instituted a series of "Witches' Workshops" to instruct women in the art of attaining their will through glamour, feminine wiles, and the skillful discovery and exploitation of men's fetishes. By the end of 1969, LaVey had taken monographs he had written to explain the philosophy and ritual practices of the Church of Satan and expanded them. His influences included philosophers such as Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, and Mencken, the base wisdom of the carnival folk, the observations of P.T. Barnum, and finally the imagery of the archfiend found in Twain, Milton, Byron, and other romantics. He prefaced these essays and rites with reworked excerpts from Ragnar Redbeard's Might is Right and concluded it with "Satanized" versions of John Dee's Enochian Keys to create The Satanic Bible. It has never gone out of print and remains the main source for the contemporary Satanic movement. The philosophy presented in it is an integrated whole, not a smorgasbord from which one can pick and choose. It is meant only for a select few who are epicurean, pragmatic, worldly, atheistic, fiercely individualistic, materialistic, rational, and darkly poetic. There may be fellow-travelers — atheists, misanthropes, humanists, freethinkers — who see only a partial reflection of themselves in this showstone. Satanism may thus attract these types in some ways, but ultimately it is not for them. If it was only a philosophy, such individualists might be welcome; it is more. Satanism moves into the realm of religion by having an aesthetic component, a system of symbolism, metaphor, and ritual in which Satan is embraced not as some Devil to be worshipped, but as a symbolic external projection of the highest potential of each individual Satanist. The identification Satanists have with Satan is an intentional barrier against those who cannot resonate with this sinister archetype. The Satanic Bible was followed in 1971 by The Compleat Witch (re-released in 1989 as The Satanic Witch), a manual that teaches "Lesser Magic" — the ways and means of reading and manipulating people and their actions toward the fulfillment of one's desired goals. The Satanic Rituals (1972) was printed as a companion volume to The Satanic Bible and contains "Greater Magic" rituals culled from a Satanic tradition identified by LaVey in various world cultures. Two collections of essays, which range from the humorous and insightful to the gleefully sordid, The Devil's Notebook (1992) and Satan Speaks (1998), complete his written canon. Since its founding, LaVey's Church of Satan attracted many varied people who shared an alienation from conventional religions, including celebrities Jayne Mansfield and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as rock stars King Diamond, Marilyn Manson, and Marc Almond who all became, at least for a time, card-carrying members. He numbered among his associates Robert Fuest, director of the Vincent Price "Dr. Phibes" films as well as The Devil's Rain; Jacques Vallee, ufologist and computer scientist, who was used as the basis for the character Lacombe, played by Francois Truffaut, in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and Aime Michel known as a spelunker and publisher of Morning of the Magicians. LaVey's influence spread through articles in the news media throughout the world, popular magazines such as Look, McCalls, Argosy, Newsweek, Time, and later Seconds, The Nose, and Rolling Stone, numerous men's magazines, and via talk shows such as Joe Pyne, Phil Donahue, and Johnny Carson. This publicity left a mark on novels like Rosemary's Baby (completed by Ira Levin during the early days of the Church's high profile media blitz) and Leiber's Our Lady of Darkness, and films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Devil's Rain (1975), The Car (1977), Dr. Dracula (1980), and many of the "Devil Cult" films from the 1970s through today that picked up on symbolism from LaVey's writings. A feature length documentary, Satanis: The Devil's Mass (1969) covered the rituals and philosophy of the Church, while LaVey himself was profiled in Nick Bougas' 1993 video documentary Speak of the Devil. The Doctor's musicianship is preserved on several recordings, primarily Strange Music (1994) and Satan Takes a Holiday (1995). These reflect his penchant for tunes from the 1930s through the 1950s, which range from humorous to doom-laden as well as devil-themed songs. LaVey renders them on a series of self-programmed synthesizers, imitating various instrumental groups. They are impressive, as these are not multi-track recordings, but are done in one take with the sounds of the full instrumental ensemble created through the simultaneous use of numerous synthesizers played by LaVey's dexterous fingers as well as his feet on an organ- style foot pedal keyboard hooked-up via midi. While his relationship with Diane Hegarty crumbled in the late 70s, a new lady would enter his life to become his final companion. Blanche Barton became his helpmate, co-conspirator, High Priestess, lover, and best friend. She bore him his only son, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey on November 1, 1993. As his health deteriorated in the mid-90s, LaVey preferred to spend time only with the people whom he found enriching, gaining him a reputation as a recluse. He died on October 29, 1997, of complications arising from heart disease. There was no deathbed repentance. He went proudly as he lived, as a Satanist, his only regrets being that he was leaving the great party that was life, and that he would miss seeing his young son Xerxes grow to manhood. According to LaVey's wishes, Barton succeeded him as the head of the Church after his death. In 2001, she passed on this position to myself, Peter H. Gilmore, by then a longtime church administrator and member of the Council of Nine. In 2002, Magistra Barton exchanged her position as High Priestess with my wife Magistra Peggy Nadramia, another veteran administrator who was serving as chair of the Council of Nine. Two biographies have been written about LaVey: The Devil's Avenger (1974) by Burton Wolfe and Secret Life of a Satanist (1990) by Blanche Barton. In recent years detractors of LaVey with rather obvious agendas have disputed the authenticity of some of the events chronicled in these books. They accuse him of fabrication and self -promotional exaggeration. LaVey was a skilled showman, a talent he never denied. However, the incidents detailed in both biographies that can be authenticated via photographic, testimonial, and documentary evidence far outweigh the items in dispute. The fact remains that LaVey pursued a course that exposed him to unusual individuals from all strata of society. It climaxed with his founding of the Church of Satan, which lead to international notoriety. He was gifted beyond what is normally considered a standard for excellence, turning his hand to many arts with a deftness usually gained through dedication to only one muse. He lived his life as a true exemplar of all that he extolled — pursuing his pleasures without stinting while producing works only attained through vigorous self-discipline. LaVey succeeded in avoiding the fate of Mrs. Cassan, a character from Charles G. Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, a favored novel of The Doctor. Her doom was to die and be forgotten, for her life produced nothing that was memorable in either a creative or destructive manner. With his thoughts, now presented in multiple languages, continuing to inspire like minds around the globe, Anton Szandor LaVey has won a place in the arena of philosophical and religious discourse. We Satanists owe him our gratitude for symbolically opening the adamantine gates of Hell, by giving form and structure to a philosophy that names us as the Gods of our own subjective universes. His ultimate heresy against the complacent masses was to reject their idolized dictum that all men are equal. Consequently he challenged his comrades to exercise their faculties to judge and be judged in all that they do. He dethroned the seeking of external saviors and championed responsibility for all of one's actions and the resultant consequences. That is perhaps the most frightening principle to a society wherein none are held accountable for their behavior. The Church of Satan remains a world-spanning cabal of those who work to continue human society's momentum along the vector set by LaVey. It shall remain the treasured domain of an imperious few, who live by their own blood and brains, who proudly reject any "good guy badge" and embrace the title of Satanist. There is nothing to fear in The Satanic Bible, for it will not transform you into something that you are not. It cannot convert you, or persuade you in directions not inherent in your nature. Its power lies in its ability to show you what you are through your reaction to its contents. Embrace them, and your life shall gain a new focus, for you will have sharpened your understanding of your self, and you will see more clearly how you differ from those around you. Reject some or all of these hardnosed postulates, and you are free to move on towards whatever other spiritual or conceptual haven that provides you with satisfaction. However, you will no longer be ignorant of what it means to be a Satanist. If you've grasped these fundamentals and have the talent to read people, you might notice that there are such individuals about you, and like LaVey himself, that they are some of the most just and fascinating folks you'll have the pleasure of knowing. Magus Peter H. Gilmore High Priest, Church of Satan PREFACE This book was written because, with very few exceptions, every tract and paper, every "secret" grimoire, all the "great works" on the subject of magic, are nothing more than sanctimonious fraud - guilt- ridden ramblings and esoteric gibberish by chroniclers of magical lore unable or unwilling to present an objective view of the subject. Writer after writer, in efforts to state the principles of "white and black magic", has succeeded instead in clouding the entire issue so badly that the would-be student of sorcery winds up stupidly pushing a planchette over a Ouija board, standing inside a pentagram waiting for a demon to present itself, limply tossing I-Ching yarrow stalks like so many stale pretzels, shuffling pasteboards to foretell a future which has lost any meaning, attending seminars guaranteed to flatten his ego - while doing the same to his wallet - and in general making a blithering fool of himself in the eyes of those who know! The true magus knows that occult bookshelves abound with the brMe relics of frightened minds and sterile bodies, metaphysical journals of self-deceit, and constipated rule -books of Eastern mysticism. Far too long has the subject of Satanic magic and philosophy been written down by wild-eyed journalists of the right-hand path. The old literature is the by-product of brains festering with fear and defeat, written unknowingly for the assistance of those who really mle the earth, and who, from their Hellish thrones, laugh with noisome mirth. The flames of Hell bum brighter for the kindling supplied by these volumes of hoary misinformation and false prophecy. Herein you will find truth - and fantasy. Each is necessary for the other to exist; but each must be recognized for what it is. What you see may not always please you; but you will see! Here is Satanic thought from a truly Satanic point of view. The Church of Satan San Francisco, Walpurgisnacht 1968 PROLOGUE The gods of the right-hand path have bickered and quarreled for an entire age of earth. Each of these deities and their respective priests and ministers have attempted to find wisdom in their own lies. The ice age of religious thought can last but a limited time in this great scheme of human existence. The gods of wisdom- defiled have had their saga, and their millerinium hath become as reality. Each, with his own "divine" path to paradise, hath accused the other of heresies and spiritual indiscretions. The Ring of the Nibelungen doth carry an everlasting curse, but only because those who seek it think in terms of "Good" and "Evil" - themselves being at all times "Good". The gods of the past have become as their own devils in order to live. Feebly, their ministers play the devil's game to fill their tabernacles and pay the mortgages on their temples. Alas, too long have they studied "righteousness", and poor and incompetent devils they make. So they all join hands in "brotherly" unity, and in their desperation go to Valhalla for their last great ecumenical council. "Draweth near in the gloom the twilight of the gods." The ravens of night have flown forth to summon Loki, who hath set Valhalla aflame with the searing trident of the Inferno. The twilight is done. A glow of new light is borne out of the night and Lucifer is risen, once more to proclaim: "This is the age of Satan! Satan Rules the Earth!" The gods of the unjust are dead. This is the morning of magic, and undefiled wisdom. The flesh prevaileth and a great Church shall be builded, consecrated in its name. No longer shall man's salvation be dependent on his self-denial. And it will be known that the world of the flesh and the living shall be the greatest preparation for any and all eternal delights! REGIE SATANAS! AVE SATANAS! HAIL SATAN! THE NINE SATANIC STATEMENTS 1 . Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence! 2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams! 3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit! 4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates! 5 . Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek! 6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires! 7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all- fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development", has become the most vicious animal of all! 8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification! 9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years! (FIRE) THE BOOK OF SATAN THE INFERNAL DIATRIBE The first book of the Satanic Bible is not an attempt to blaspheme as much as it is a statement of what might be termed "diabolical indignation". The Devil has been attacked by the men of God relentlessly and without reservation. Never has there been an opportunity, short of fiction, for the Dark Prince to speak out in the same manner as the spokesmen of the Lord of the Righteous. The pulpit- pounders of the past have been free to define "good" and "evil" as they see fit, and have gladly smashed into oblivion any who disagree with their lies - both verbally and, at times, physically. Their talk of "charity", when applied to His Infernal Majesty, becomes an empty sham - and most unfairly, too, considering the obvious fact that without their Satanic foe their very religions would collapse. How sad, that the allegorical personage most responsible for the success of spiritual religions is shown the least amount of charity and the most consistent abuse - and by those who most unctuously preach the rules of fair play! For all the centuries of shouting- down the Devil has received, he has never shouted back at his detractors. He has remained the gentleman at all times, while those he supports rant and rave. He has shown himself to be a model of deportment, but now he feels it is time to shout back. He has decided it is finally time to receive his due. Now the ponderous rule- books of hypocrisy are no longer needed. In order to relearn the Law of the Jungle, a small, slim diatribe will do. Each verse is an inferno. Each word is a tongue of fire. The flames of Hell bum fierce . . . and purify! Read on and learn the Law. THE BOOK OF SATAN I 1 . In this arid wilderness of steel and stone I raise up my voice that you may hear. To the East and to the West I beckon. To the North and to the South I show a sign proclaiming: Death to the weakling, wealth to the strong! 2. Open your eyes that you may see, Oh men of mildewed minds, and listen to me ye bewildered millions! 3. For I stand forth to challenge the wisdom of the world; to interrogate the "laws" of man and of "God"! 4. I request reason for your golden rule and ask the why and wherefore of your ten commandments. 5. Before none of your printed idols do I bend in acquiescence, and he who saith "thou shalt" to me is my mortal foe! 6. I dip my forefinger in the watery blood of your impotent mad redeemer, and write over his thorn- torn brow: The true prince of evil - the king of slaves! 7. No hoary falsehood shall be a truth to me; no stifling dogma shall encramp my pen! 8. I break away from all conventions that do not lead to my earthly success and happiness. 9. I raise up in stem invasion the standard of the strong! 10. 1 gaze into the glassy eye of your fearsome Jehovah, and pluck him by the beard; I uplift a broad- axe, and split open his worm-eaten skull! 1 1 . 1 blast out the ghastly contents of philosophically whited sepulchers and laugh with sardonic wrath! THE BOOK OF SATAN II 1 . Behold the crucifix; what does it symbolize? Pallid incompetence hanging on a tree. 2. I question all things. As I stand before the festering and varnished facades of your haughtiest moral dogmas, I write thereon in letters of blazing scorn: Lo and behold; all this is fraud! 3. Gather around me, Oh! ye death- defiant, and the earth itself shall be thine, to have and to hold! 4. Too long the dead hand has been permitted to sterilize living thought! 5 . Too long right and wrong, good and evil have been inverted by false prophets ! 6. No creed must be accepted upon authority of a "divine" nature. Religions must be put to the question. No moral dogma must be taken for granted - no standard of measurement deified. There is nothing inherently sacred about moral codes. Like the wooden idols of long ago, they are the work of human hands, and what man has made, man can destroy! 7. He that is slow to believe anything and everything is of great understanding, for belief in one false principle is the begiririing of all unwisdom. 8. The chief duty of every new age is to upraise new men to determine its liberties, to lead it towards material success - to rend the rusty padlocks and chains of dead custom that always prevent healthy expansion. Theories and ideas that may have meant life and hope and freedom for our ancestors may now mean destruction, slavery, and dishonor to us! 9. As environments change, no human ideal standeth sure! 10. Whenever, therefore, a he has built unto itself a throne, let it be assailed without pity and without regret, for under the domination of an inconvenient falsehood, no one can prosper. 1 1 . Let established sophisms be dethroned, rooted out, burnt and destroyed, for they are a standing menace to all true nobility of thought and action! 12. Whatever alleged "truth" is proven by results to be but an empty fiction, let it be unceremoniously flung into the outer darkness, among the dead gods, dead empires, dead philosophies, and other useless lumber and wreckage! 13. The most dangerous of all enthroned lies is the holy, the sanctified, the privileged he - the he everyone believes to be a model truth. It is the fruitful mother of all other popular errors and delusions. It is a hydra-headed tree of unreason with a thousand roots. It is a social cancer! 14. The he that is known to be a he is half eradicated, but the he that even intelligent persons accept as fact - the he that has been inculcated in a hide child at its mother's knee - is more dangerous to contend against than a creeping pestilence! 15. Popular lies have ever been the most potent enemies of personal liberty. There is only one way to deal with them: Cut them out, to the very core, just as cancers. Exteiminate them root and branch. Aririihilate them, or they will us! THE BOOK OF SATAN III 1. "Love one another" it has been said is the supreme law, but what power made it so? Upon what rational authority does the gospel of love rest? Why should I not hate mine enemies - if I "love" them does that not place me at their mercy? 2. Is it natural for enemies to do good unto each other - and what is good? 3 . Can the torn and bloody victim "love" the blood- splashed jaws that rend him limb from limb? 4. Are we not all predatory animals by instinct? If humans ceased wholly from preying upon each other, could they continue to exist? 5. Is not "lust and carnal desire" a more truthful term to describe "love" when applied to the continuance of the race? Is not the "love" of the fawning scriptures simply a euphemism for sexual activity, or was the "great teacher" a glorifier of eunuchs? 6. Love your enemies and do good to them that hate and use you - is this not the despicable philosophy of the spaniel that rolls upon its back when kicked? 7. Hate your enemies with a whole heart, and if a man smite you on one cheek, smash him on the other!; smite him hip and thigh, for self-preservation is the highest law! 8 . He who turns the other cheek is a cowardly dog ! 9. Give blow for blow, scorn for scorn, doom for doom - with compound interest liberally added thereunto! Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, aye four- fold, a hundred- fold! Make yourself a Terror to your adversary, and when he goeth his way, he will possess much additional wisdom to ruminate over. Thus shall you make yourself respected in all the walks of life, and your spirit - your immortal spirit - shall live, not in an intangible paradise, but in the brains and sinews of those whose respect you have gained. THE BOOK OF SATAN IV 1 . Life is the great indulgence - death, the great abstinence. Therefore, make the most of life - HERE AND NOW ! 2. There is no heaven of glory bright, and no hell where sinners roast. Here and now is our day of torment! Here and now is our day of joy! Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no redeemer liveth! 3. Say unto thine own heart, "I am mine own redeemer." 4. Stop the way of them that would persecute you. Let those who devise thine undoing be hurled back to confusion and infamy. Let them be as chaff before the cyclone and after they have fallen rejoice in thine own salvation. 5. Then all thy bones shall say pridefully, "Who is like unto me? Have I not been too strong for mine adversaries? Have I not delivered myself by mine own brain and THE BOOK OF SATAN V 1 . Blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the earth - Cursed are the weak, for they shall inherit the yoke! 2. Blessed are the powerful, for they shall be reverenced among men - Cursed are the feeble, for they shall be blotted out! 3. Blessed are the bold, for they shall be masters of the world - Cursed are the righteously humble, for they shall be trodden under cloven hoofs! 4. Blessed are the victorious, for victory is the basis of right - Cursed are the vanquished, for they shall be vassals forever! 5. Blessed are the iron-handed, for the unfit shall flee before them - Cursed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be spat upon! 6. Blessed are the death- defiant, for their days shall be long in the land - Cursed are the gazers toward a richer life beyond the grave, for they shall perish amidst plenty! 7. Blessed are the destroyers of false hope, for they are the true Messiahs - Cursed are the god- adorers, for they shall be shorn sheep! 8. Blessed are the valiant, for they shall obtain great treasure - Cursed are the believers in good and evil, for they are frightened by shadows! 9. Blessed are those that believe in what is best for them, for never shall their minds be terrorized - Cursed are the "lambs of God", for they shall be bled whiter than snow! 10. Blessed is the man who has a sprinkling of enemies, for they shall make him a hero - Cursed is he who doeth good unto others who sneer upon him in return, for he shall be despised! 1 1 . Blessed are the mighty- minded, for they shall ride the whirlwinds - Cursed are they who teach lies for truth and truth for lies, for they are an abomination! 12. Thrice cursed are the weak whose insecurity makes them vile, for they shall serve and suffer! 13. The angel of self-deceit is camped in the souls of the "righteous" - The eternal flame of power through joy dwelleth within the flesh of the Satanist! (AIR) THE BOOK OF LUCIFER THE ENLIGHTENMENT The Roman god, Lucifer, was the bearer of light, the spirit of the air, the personification of enlightenment. In Christian mythology he became synonymous with evil, which was only to have been expected from a religion whose very existence is perpetuated by clouded definitions and bogus values! It is time to set the record straight. False moralisms and occult inaccuracies must be corrected. Entertaining as they might be, most stories and plays about Devil worship must be recognized as the obsolete absurdities they are. It has been said "the truth will make men free". The truth alone has never set anyone free. It is only doubt which will bring mental emancipation. Without the wonderful element of doubt, the doorway through which truth passes would be tightiy shut, impervious to the most strenuous poundings of a thousand Lucifers. How understandable that Holy Scripture should refer to the Infernal monarch as the "father of lies" - a magnificent example of character inversion. If one is to believe this theological accusation that the Devil represents falsehood, then it surely must be concurred that it was he, not god, that established all spiritual religions and who wrote all of the holy bibles ! When one doubt is followed by another, the bubble, grown large from long accumulated fallacies, threatens to burst. For those who already doubt supposed truths, this book is revelation. Then Lucifer will have risen. Now is the time for doubt! The bubble of falsehood is bursting and its sound is the roar of the world! -WANTED!- GOD DEAD OR ALIVE It is a popular misconception that the Satanist does not believe in God. The concept of f"God", as interpreted by man, has been so varied throughout the ages, that the Satanist simply accepts the definition which suits him best. Man has always created his gods, rather than his gods creating him. God is, to some, benign - to others, terrifying. To the Satanist "God" - by whatever name he is called, or by no name at all - is seen as the balancing factor in nature, and not as being concerned with suffering. This powerful force which permeates and balances the universe is far too impersonal to care about the happiness or misery of flesh- and-blood creatures on this ball of dirt upon which we live. Anyone who tliinks of Satan as evil should consider all the men, women, children, and animals who have died because it was "God's will". Certainly a person grieving the untimely loss of a loved one would much rather have their loved one with them than in God's hands! Instead, they are unctuously consoled by their clergyman who says, "It was God's will, my dear"; or "He is in God's hands now, my son." Such phrases have been a convenient way for religionists to condone or excuse the mercilessness of God. But if God is in complete control and as benign as he is supposed to be, why does He allow these things to happen? Too long have religionists been falling back on their bibles and rulebooks to prove or disprove, justify, condemn, or interpret. The Satanist realizes that man, and the action and reaction of the universe, is responsible for everything, and doesn't mislead himself into thinking that someone cares. No longer will we sit back and accept "fate" without doing anything about it, just because it says so in Chapter such and such, Psalm so and so - and that's that! The Satanist knows that praying does absolutely no good - in fact, it actually lessens the chance of success, for the devoutly religious too often sit back complacently and pray for a situation which, if they were to do something about it on their own, could be accomplished much quicker! The Satanist shuns terms such as "hope" and "prayer" as they are indicative of apprehension. If we hope and pray for something to come about, we will not act in a positive way which will make it happen. The Satanist, realizing that anything he gets is of his own doing, takes command of the situation instead of praying to God for it to happen. Positive minking and positive action add up to results. Just as the Satanist does not pray to God for assistance, he does not pray for forgiveness for his wrong doings. In other religions, when one commits a wrong he either prays to God for forgiveness, or confesses to an intermediary and asks him to pray to God for forgiveness for his sins. The Satanist knows that praying does no good, confessing to another human being, like himself, accomplishes even less - and is, furthermore, degrading. When a Satanist commits a wrong, he realizes that it is natural to make a mistake - and if he is truly sorry about what he has done, he will learn from it and take care not to do the same thing again. If he is not honestiy sorry about what he has done, and knows he will do the same thing over and over, he has no business confessing and asking forgiveness in the first place. But this is exactiy what happens. People confess their sins so that they can clear their consciences - and be free to go out and sin again, usually the same sin. and be free to go out and sin again, usually the same sin. There are many different interpretations of God, in the usual sense of the word, as there are types of people. The images run from a belief in a god who is some vague sort of "universal cosmic mind" to an anthropomorphic deity with a long white beard and sandals who keeps track of every action of each individual. Even within the confines of a given religion, the personal interpretations of God differ greatiy. Some religions actually go so far as to label anyone who belongs to a religious sect other than their own a heretic, even though the overall doctrines and impressions of godliness are nearly the same. For example: The Catholics believe that the Protestants are doomed to Hell simply because they do not belong to the Catholic Church. In the same way, many splinter groups of the Christian faith, such as the evangelical or revivalist churches, believe that the Catholics are heathens who worship graven images. (Christ is depicted in the image that is most psychologically akin to the individual worshipping him, and yet the Christians criticize "heathens" for the worship of graven images.) And the Jews have always been given the Devil's name. Even though the god in all of these religions is basically the same, each regards the way chosen by the others as reprehensible, and to top it all, religionists actually pray for one another! They have scorn for the brothers of the right-hand path because their religions carry different labels, and somehow this animosity must be released. What better way than through "prayer" ! What a simperingly polite way of saying: "I hate your guts," is the thinly disguised device known as praying for your enemy! Praying for one's own enemy is nothing more than bargain-basement anger, and of a decidedly shoddy and inferior quality! If there has been so much violent discrepancy as to the proper way in which to worship God, how many different interpretations of God can there be - and who is right? All devout "white- lighters" are concerned with pleasing God so that they might have the "Pearly Gates" opened for them when they die. Nevertheless, if a man has not lived his life in accordance with the regulations of his faith, he can at the last minute call a clergyman to his deathbed for a final absolution. The priest or minister will then come running on the double, to "make everything right" with God and see to it that his passport to the Heavenly Realm is in order. (The Yezidis, a sect of Devil worshippers, take a different viewpoint. They believe that God is all-powerful, but also all- forgiving, and so accordingly feel that it is the Devil whom they must please, as he is the one who rules their lives while here on earth. They believe so strongly that God will forgive all of their sins once they have been given the last rites, that they feel no need to concern themselves with the opinion God may hold of them while they live.) With all of the contradictions in the Christian scriptures, many people currently cannot rationally accept Christianity the way it has been practiced in the past. Great numbers of people are beginning to doubt the existence of God, in the established Christian sense of the word. So, they have taken to calling themselves "Christian Atheists". True, the Christian Bible is a mass of contradictions; but what could be more contradictory than the term "Christian Atheist"? If prominent leaders of the Christian faith are rejecting the past interpretations of God, how then can their followers be expected to adhere to previous religious tradition? With all the debates about whether or not God is dead, if he isn't he had better have medicare! jSa religions of a spiritual nature are inventions of man. He has created an entire system of gods with nothing more than his carnal brain. Just because he has an ego, Jm and cannot accept it, he has to externalize it into some great spiritual device which he / calls "God". \ God can do all the things man is forbidden to do - such as kill people, perform miracles J to gratify his will, control without any apparent responsibility, etc. If man needs such a god and recognizes that god, then he is worshipping an entity that a human being invented. Therefore, he is worshipping by proxy the man that invented god. Is it not more sensible to worship a god that he, himself, has created, in accordance with his own emotional needs - one that best represents the very carnal and physical being that has the idea- power to invent a god in the first place? If man insists on externalizing his true self in the form of "God", then why fear his true self, in fearing "God", - why praise his true self in praising "God", - why remain externalized from "God" IN ORDER TO ENGAGE IN RITUAL AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONY IN HIS NAME? Man needs ritual and dogma, but no law states that an externalized god is necessary in order to engage in ritual and ceremony performed in a god's name! Could it be that when he closes the gap between himself and his "God" he sees the demon of pride creeping forth - that very embodiment of Lucifer appearing in his midst? He no longer can view himself in two parts, the carnal and the spiritual, but sees them merge as one, and then to his abysmal horror, discovers that they are only the carnal - and always were! Then he either hates himself to death, day by day - or rejoices that he is what he is! If he hates himself, he searches out new and more complex spiritual paths of "enlightenment" in hopes that he may split himself up again in his quest for stronger and more externalized "gods" to scourge his poor miserable shell. If he accepts himself, but recognizes that ritual and ceremony are the important devices that his invented religions have utilized to sustain his faith in a lie, then it is the same form of ritual that will sustain his faith in the truth - the primitive pageantry that will give his awareness of his own majestic being added substance. When all religious faith in lies has waned, it is because man has become closer to himself and farther from "God"; closer to the "Devil." If this is what the devil represents, and a man lives his life in the devil's fane, with the sinews of Satan moving in his flesh, then he either escapes from the cackhngs and carpings of the righteous, or stands proudly in his secret places of the earth and manipulates the folly- ridden masses through his own Satanic might, until that day when he may come forth in splendor proclaiming "i am a satanist! bow down, for i am the highest EMBODIMENT OF HUMAN LIFE!" THE GOD YOU SAVE MAY BE YOURSELF SOME EVIDENCE OF A NEW SATANIC AGE a The seven deadly sins of the Christian Church are: greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony, lust, and sloth. Satanism advocates indulging in each of these "sins" as they W all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification. 9 A Satanist knows there is nothing wrong with being greedy, as it only means that he \ wants more than he already has. Envy means to look with favor upon the possessions J of others, and to be desirous of obtaining similar things for oneself. Envy and greed are the motivating forces of ambition - and without ambition, very lMe of any importance would be accomplished. Gluttony is simply eating more than you need to keep yourself alive. When you have overeaten to the point of obesity, another sin - pride - will motivate you to regain an appearance that will renew your self-respect. Anyone who buys an article of clothing for a purpose other than covering his body and protecting it from the elements is guilty of pride. Satanists often encounter scoffers who maintain that labels are not necessary. It must be pointed out to these destroyers of labels that one or many articles they themselves are wearing are not wearing are not necessary to keep them warm. There is not a person on this earth who is completely devoid of ornamentation. The Satanist points out that any ornamentation of the scoffer's body shows that he, too, is guilty of pride. Regardless of how verbose the cynic may be in his intellectual description of how free he is, he is still wearing the elements of pride. Being reluctant to get up in the morning is to be guilty of sloth, and if you he in bed long enough you may find yourself committing yet another sin - lust. To have the faintest stirring of sexual desire is to be guilty of lust. In order to insure the propagation of humanity, nature made lust the second most powerful instinct, the first being self-preservation. Realizing this, the Christian Church made fornication the "Original Sin". In this way they made sure no one would escape sin. Your very state of being is as a result of sin - the Original sin! The strongest instinct in every living thing is self-preservation, which brings us to the last of the seven deadly sins - anger. Is it not our instinct for self-preservation that is aroused when someone harms us, when we become angry enough to protect ourselves from further attack? A Satanist practices the motto, "If a man smite thee on one cheek, smash him on the other!" Let no wrong go unredressed. Be as a lion in the path - be dangerous even in defeat! Since man's natural instincts lead him to sin, all men are sinners; and all sinners go to hell. If everyone goes to hell, then you will meet all your friends there. Heaven must be populated with some rather strange creatures if they all lived for was to go to a place where they can strum harps for eternity. "Times have changed. Religious leaders no longer preach that all our natural actions are sinful. We no longer think sex is dirty - or that taking pride in ourselves is shameful - or that wanting something someone else has is vicious." Of course not, times have changed! "If you want proof of this, just look at how liberal churches have become. Why, they're practicing all the things that you preach." Satanists hear these, and similar statements, all the time; and they agree wholeheartedly, but, if the world has changed so much, why continue to grasp at the threads of a dying faith? If many religions are denying their own scriptures because they are out of date, and are preaching the philosophies of Satanism, why not call it by its rightful name - Satanism? Certainly it would be far less hypocritical. In recent years there has been an attempt to humanize the spiritual concept of Christianity. This has manifested itself in the most obvious non- spiritual means. Masses which had been said in Latin are now said in native languages - which only succeeds in making the nonsense easier to understand, and at the same time robs the ceremony of the esoteric nature which is consistent with the tenets of the dogma. It is much simpler to obtain an emotional reaction using words and phrases that cannot be understood than it is with statements which even the simplest mind will question when hearing them in an understandable language. If priests and ministers were to have used the devices to fill their churches one hundred years ago that they use today, they would have been charged with heresy, called devils, oft-times persecuted, but certainly excommunicated without hesitation. The religionists wail, "We must keep up with the times," forgetting that, due to limiting factors and deeply engrained laws of white light religions, there can never be sufficient change to meet the needs of man. Past religions have always represented the spiritual nature of man, with little or no concern for his carnal or mundane needs. They have considered this life but transitory, and the flesh merely a shell; physical pleasure trivial, and pain a worthwhile preparation for the "Kingdom of God". How well the utter hypocrisy comes forth when the "righteous" make a change in their religion to keep up with man's natural change! The only way that Christianity can ever completely serve the needs of man is to become as Satanism is now. It has become necessary for a new religion, based on man's natural instincts, to come forth. they have named it. It is called Satanism. It is that power condemned that has caused the religious controversy over birth-control measures - a disgruntled admission that sexual activity, for fun, is here to stay. It is the "Devil" who caused women to show their legs, to titillate men - the same kind of legs, now socially acceptable to gaze upon, which are revealed by young nuns as they walk about in their shortened habits. What a delightful step in the right (or left) direction! Is it possible we will soon see "topless" nuns sensually throwing their bodies about to the "Missa Solemnis Rock"? Satan smiles and says he would like that fine - many nuns are very pretty girls with nice legs. Many churches with some of the largest congregations have the most hand- clapping, sensual music - also Satanically inspired. After all, the Devil has always had the best tunes. Church picnics, despite all of Aunt Martha's talk about the Lord's Bountiful Harvest, are nothing more than a good excuse for Sunday gluttony; and everyone knows that lots more than Bible reading goes on in the bushes. The fund-raising adjunct to many church bazaars is commonly known as a carnival, which used to mean the celebration of the flesh; now a carnival is okay because the money goes to the church so that it can preach against the temptations of the Devil! It will be said that these things are only pagan devices and ceremonies - that the Christians borrowed them. True, but the Pagans reveled in the delights of the flesh, and were condemned by the very same people who celebrate their rituals, but call them by different names. Priests and ministers are in the front lines of peace demonstrations, and lying on railroad tracks in front of trains carrying war materials, with as much dedication as their brothers of the cloth, from the same seminaries, who are blessing the bullets and bombs and fighting men as chaplains in the armed forces. Someone must be wrong, someplace. Could it be that Satan is the one qualified to act as accuser? Certainly they named him that! When a puppy reaches maturity it becomes a dog; when ice melts it is called water; when twelve months have been used up, we get a new calendar with the proper chronological name; when "magic" becomes scientific fact we refer to it as medicine, astronomy, etc. When one name is no longer appropriate for a given thing it is only logical to change it to a new one which better fits the subject. Why, then, do we not follow suit in the area of religion? Why continue to call a religion the same name when the tenets of that religion no longer fit the original one? Or, if religion does preach the same things that it always has, but its followers practice nearly none of its teachings, why do they continue to call themselves by the name given to followers of that religion? If you do not believe in what your religion teaches, why continue to support a belief which is contradictory with your feelings. You would never vote for a person or issue you did not believe in, so why cast your ecclesiastical vote for a religion which is not consistent with your convictions? You have no right to complain about a political situation you have voted for or supported in any way - which includes sitting back and complacently agreeing with neighbors who approve the situation, just because you are too lazy or cowardly to speak your mind. So it is with religious balloting. Even if you cannot be aggressively honest about your opinions because of unfavorable consequences from employers, community leaders, etc., you can, at least, be honest with yourself. In the privacy of your own home and with close friends you must support religion which has your best interests at heart. "Satanism is based on a very sound philosophy," say the emancipated. "But why call it Satanism? Why not call it something like 'Humanism' or a name that would have the connotation of a witchcraft group, something a little more esoteric - something less blatant." There is more than one reason for this. Humanism is not a religion. It is simply a way of life with no ceremony or dogma. Satanism has both ceremony and dogma. Dogma, as will be explained, is necessary. Satanism differs greatly from all other so-called white- light, "white" witchcraft or magical groups in the world today. These self-righteous and supercilious religions protest that their members use the powers of magic only for altruistic purposes. Satanists look with disdain upon "white" witchcraft groups because they feel that altruism is sinning on the lay- away plan. It is unnatural not to have desire to gain things for yourself. Satanism represents a form of controlled selfishness. This does not mean that you never do anything for anyone else. If you do something to make someone for whom you care happy, his happiness will give you a sense of gratification. Satanism advocates practicing a modified form of the Golden Rule. Our interpretation of this rule is: "Do unto others as they do unto you"; because if you "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and they, in turn, treat you badly, it goes against human nature to continue to treat them with consideration. You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but if your courtesy is not returned, they should be treated with the wrath they deserve. White witchcraft groups say that if you curse a person, it will return to you three- fold, come home to roost, or in some way boomerang back to the sender. This is yet another indication of the guilt- ridden philosophy which is held by these neo- Pagan, pseudo- Christian groups. White witches want to delve into witchcraft, but cannot divorce themselves from the stigma attached to it. Therefore, they call themselves white magicians, and base seventy- five per cent of their philosophy on the trite and hackneyed tenets of Christianity. Anyone who pretends to be interested in magic or the occult for reasons other that gaining personal power is the worst kind of hypocrite. The Satanist respects Christianity for, at least, being consistent in its guilt- ridden philosophy, but can only feel contempt for the people who attempt to appear emancipated from guilt by joining a witchcraft group, and then practice the same basic philosophy as Christianity. White magic is supposedly utilized only for good or unselfish purposes, and black magic, we are told, is used only for selfish or "evil" reasons. Satanism draws no such dividing line. Magic is magic, be it used to help or hinder. The Satanist, being the magician, should have the ability to decide what is just, and then apply the powers of magic to attain his goals. During white magical ceremonies, the practitioners stand within a pentagram to protect themselves from the "evil" forces which they call upon for help. To the Satanist, it seems a bit two-faced to call on these forces for help, while at the same time protecting yourself from the very powers you have asked for assistance. The Satanist realizes that only by putting himself in league with these forces can be fully and unhypocritically utilize the Powers of Darkness to his best advantage. In a Satanic magical ceremony, the participants do not: join hands and dance "ring around the rosy" in a circle; bum candles of various colors for various wishes; call out the names of "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" while supposedly practicing Black Arts; pick a "Saint" for their personal guide in obtaining help for their problems; dunk themselves in smelly oils and hope the money comes in; meditate so they can arrive at a "great spiritual awakening"; recite long incantations with the name of Jesus thrown in for good measure, between every few words, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam! because - This is not the way to practice Satanic magic. If you cannot divorce yourself from hypocritical self-deceit, you will never be successful as a magician, much less a Satanist. The Satanic religion has not merely lifted the coin - it has flipped it completely over. Therefore, why should it support the very principles to which it is completely opposed by calling itself anything other than a name which is totally in keeping with the reversed doctrines which make up the Satanic philosophy? Satanism is not a white light religion; it is a religion of the flesh, the mundane, the carnal - all of which are ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand Path. Inevitably, the next question asked is: "Granted, you can't call it humanism because humanism is not a religion; but why even have a religion in the first place if all you do is what comes naturally, anyway? Why not just do it?" Modern man has come a long way; he has become disenchanted with the nonsensical dogmas of past religions. We are living in an enlightened age. Psychiatry has made great strides in enlightening man about his true personality. We are living in an era of intellectual awareness unlike any the world has ever seen. This is all very well and good, but - there is one flaw in this new state of awareness. It is one thing to accept something intellectually, but to accept the same thing emotionally is an entirely different matter. The one need that psychiatry cannot fill is man's inherent need for emotionalizing through dogma. Man needs ceremony and ritual, fantasy and enchantment. Psychiatry, despite all the good it has done, has robbed man of wonder and fantasy which religion, in the past, has provided. Satanism, realizing the current needs of man, fills the large grey void between religion and psychiatry. The Satanic philosophy combines the fundamentals of psychology and good, honest emotionalizing, or dogma. It provides man with his much needed fantasy. There is nothing wrong with dogma, providing it is not based on ideas and actions which go completely against human nature. The quickest way of traveling between two points is in a straight line. If all the guilts that have been built up can be turned into advantages, it ehrninates the need for intellectual purging of the psyche in an attempt to cleanse it from these repressions. Satanism is the only religion known to man that accepts man as he is, and promotes the rationale of turning a bad thing into a good thing rather than bending over backwards to eliminate the bad thing. Therefore, after intellectually evaluating your problems through common sense and drawing on what psychiatry has taught us, if you still cannot emotionally release yourself from unwarranted guilt, and put your theories into action, then you should learn to make your guilt work for you. You should act upon your natural instincts, and then, if you cannot perform without feeling guilty, revel in your guilt. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, but if you will think about it, guilt can often add a fillip to the senses. Adults would do well to take a lesson from children. Children often take great delight in doing something they know they are not supposed to. Yes, times have changed, but man hasn't. The basics of Satanism have always existed. The only thing that is new is the formal organization of a religion based on the universal traits of man. For centuries, magnificent structures of stone, concrete, mortar, and steel have been devoted to man's abstinence. It is high time that human beings stopped fighting themselves, and devoted their time to building temples designed for man's indulgences. Even though times have changed, and always will, man remains basically the same. For two thousand years man has done penance for something he never should have had to feel guilty about in the first place. We are tired of denying ourselves the pleasures of life which we deserve. Today, as always, man needs to enjoy himself here and now, instead of waiting for his rewards in heaven. So, why not have a religion based on indulgence? Certainly, it is consistent with the nature of the beast. We are no longer supplicating weaklings trembling before an unmerciful "God" who cares not whether we live or die. We are self-respe
