Documentary on the Church of Satan from 1970
Gareth Branwyn conjured up this fun 1970 documentary on the Church of Satan and its founder Anton Szandor LaVey. According to many friends of mine who knew LaVey, the "black pope" was, er, wicked smart, insightful, witty, and had the charisma of a great showman. Which of course he was. He also played a mean organ. I wish I'd met him! Satanis: The Devil's Mass
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I read the first of his books when I was 15. It was the best book I could have read at the time. I think it was titled "Devil's Avengers". I know it was out of print, at the time in the early 80s.
That book had more insights into human behavior than anything I had read previously. I loved it. I wasn't religious, nor was I a satanist, but Anton Levay's basic ideas helped an awkward alienated girl to get through her teens. There was a good mix of humor, too.
I always wanted to tell him thank you.
I never met Anton, but I knew his son Joey LaVey back in 1972. Boy, did that kid have some spooky stories to tell!
I had a Satanic Bible. It was pure reactionism- an inversion of Catholocism. Up-side-down crosses, black candles (made from human baby fat, as I recall), and the anticipation that when the Great War between Heaven and hell occurs, Satan's armies will prevail. Yeah, good luck with that.
They do seem to have all the best albums.
I just love how he uses the term naughty, wasn't expecting that! such a coquette!
Like imake1tgirl, I too read his work (The Satanic Bible) as an awkward, alienated girl (whoops, I mean boy), and I found it's questioning of everything as a great way to come to my own conclusions about things.
I would never consider myself a "satinist," nor did I pick it up out of anything more than curiousity, but I did read it from front to back and thought about what I read - at the time, that was unusual for me, I wasn't a reader. In fact, the only books I read on my own up until then were "The Great Brain" series of books, while I was in 5th/6th grade - I read "The Satanic Bible" in high school (9th grade?).
To quote Bud Bundy: "Oh, Satan--Yay, Satan! Satan, I'm your squeeze!"
#3, I believe you are gravely mistaken.
There is no mention of candles made from babies fat, nor a war between heaven and hell.
LaVey Satanists don't believe in god nor satan, it's pretty much all about power of self.
Nice try at sensationalism, however.
I too read the Satanic Bible in my mid teens, and I rather enjoyed his fresh and theatrical perspectives on materialism, and the way he played with mythology with the pretense that it was just a mental game. LaVey really shook up the seriousness of Ayn Rand and Crowley for me. Then I found Robert Anton Wilson and took a deep breath, for I felt I had passed chapel perilous.
-L
I started reading parts of the Satanic bible, then got bored and read some overviews of the basic tenets. I have to say that when you boil it down to its basics, it sounds eerily close to what Oprah espouses on a daily basis and much less like the "kill a baby and eat it's soul" mentality that the greater world assumes it is.
not sure if that speaks more to how we view Oprah or how misinformed we are about what exactly Satanism is.
@troofseeker
You've gotten the satanic bible mixed up with 80's satanism-moral-panic sillyness.
LaVeyan satanism mostly involves the rejection of traditional christian morality. The rituals and symbols are largely there for the same reason they exist in most other religions - they foster community and reinforce the teachings.
I read it way back in highschool - and I wasn't particularly alienated in highschool. I just thought it would be interesting. I read the Necronomicon on the same day - both during class.
I usually laugh at people who spend to much time worrying about labels and images.
But you really have to recommend a king-size reality check to self-proclaimed "Satanists who don't believe in God nor Satan".
I mean, if the established connotations with the name "Satan" are pointless to you, why bother to employ that term at all?
Why not just as well call it "Custard" or "Flamingo"?
Lots of people in the modern occult scene toss the word "evil" around in a similar fashion; "evil" means whatever they want it to mean at the moment, regardless if it renders them incomprehensible to everyone outside their own narrow cliches.
I think that if your main objective is just to alienate other people while projecting a sense of moral superiority, bringing Satan into it is akinda redundant move. Regular Cristian sects allready have that behavior down. And many of them provide orgies too.
"and much less like the "kill a baby and eat it's soul" mentality that the greater world assumes it is."
Hahahaha. Whew! Well that's a relief! I guess I got Satanism all wrong. They hardly ever kill babies and consume their souls.
It amazing how they managed to keep a straight face during that "ritual"; I was expecting them to break down laughing at any moment, saying "oh man, this IS a load of bullshit, hahaha!"
But then again, I expect that from any religion or cult :)
Well, isn't that special?
Roach & Demon,
My mistake, and my apologies. '72 was a long time ago, and I'm probably confusing the Satanic Bible with some other satanic document.
Roach, you said "...LaVey Satanists don't believe in god nor satan, it's pretty much all about power of self."
Did you watch the video? Are you suggesting that their religion and practices are a BS joke?
What better way to challenge the hypocrisy and silly rituals of organized religion than by organizing your own religion. With silly rituals. And hypocrisy.
Mr. Show's take:
Catholics and Satanists United
Hail Satan Network
Brainspore: FTW!
All dogmas enslave (including this one.) ;D
Roach, you say "LaVey Satanists don't believe in god nor satan..."
But on their webpage we find:
"...we who exist by flowing naturally with the dread Prince of Darkness. It is for this reason that individuals who resonate with Satan have always been an alien elite..."
Are they resonating with something they don't believe in? Maybe we both need to dig a little deeper.
Satan's okay for parties and hootenannies. He's a little much the rest of the time. J.R. "Bob" Dobbs is close pals with the Horned One and I'm told they DJ together at various clubs in Brazil.
Daemon, was that the Simon Necronomicon, the Petrus de Dacia one, Duriac, Robert Turner, Tyson, or the Abdul Alhazred Necronomicon? Because, ya know, they are all fake.
When, as a curious teenager, I looked into what "Satanism" was all about, I came to the conclusion that it was basically Ayn Rand + magic spells. I acknowledge that I didn't and don't really know what I'm talking about, but it was enough to make me lose interest.
according to the son of l. ron hubbard, anton la vey was a good friend and frequent guest of l. ron's, and that the only religion he ever remembers his father practicing was satanism.
It's unfortunate the oldest stereotype in the book is that following God is based on fear and following rules. The bible is a love letter from God to us offering us a life of FREEDOM from the world's values and our own selfish nature by giving us something better to live for! These people didn't seem very happy to me which I think speaks for itself.
Founding a "religion" based on self indulgence is ultimately self defeating, which is why you don't see the church of satan on every corner.
I for one would never trust anyone who doesn't keep up his yard. It shows a distinct lack of moral character.
@22: You know more than you think. LaVey essentially said exactly the same thing. Of course, he not only ripped off Rand, but Mencken, "Ragnar Redbeard," Nietzsche and the rest of the usual suspects.
If you want to read up on satanism, LaVays biography "Secret life of a Satanist" is a far more interesting read than "The Satanic Bible", and still gets the main points of the philosophy across.
"The Devils Notebook" is a fun read too, but avoid the posthumous "Satan speaks" - most of it is very sub-par, and I don't believe any of it would have seen print if LaVay had been around to pull the plug.
To hear Satan speak, I thought all we had to do is play Stairway To Heaven backwards...
Lavey stated in interviews that he really did not believe strongly in anything. He did state that he thought ritual magic worked.
I have no real idea what he really believed though.
More importantly, Lavey style satanism does not REQUIRE belief in any deity, including satan.
Pretty much a dweeb.
I recall finding this page an interesting tidbit, purportedly a compilation of facts and fallacies from official sources and relatives. It suggests that Lavey was not much different than any other 'pop guru' of the 1970's. He really knew how to spin a tale, and throw a party. If you remove the dark and mysterious trappings, Lavey and the Church of Satan are pretty lightweight compared to some other cult figures of the 1970s.
http://www.churchofsatan.org/aslv.html
that was the link i was talking about sorry..
LaVeyan Satanists don't worship the devil. The reason they refer to themselves as "Satanists" is two-fold - 1. Satan is often translated from Hebrew-to-English as "adversary" and they are the adversary of Christianity; and 2. They like to piss off Christians.
The only thing about the CoS that sometimes bothers me is that a number of its members appear to be fascists or psuedo-fascists with only a few members appearing to be vocal anti-fascists (namely Jeff DeBoo, Andre Schlesinger, and if I remember correctly Gavin Baddeley). But I'm not a member, so maybe it just seems that way on the surface.
In the end I'll stick with reading RAW and Tim Leary. That said I can't help but love Satanic model Szandora LaVey and her crazy hula hoopin' ways.
I just want to address the misconception that Anton was some sort of organ virtuoso. He certainly played the organ, but anyone who has heard his records can probably tell that he wasn't that great at it. His own claims as being the "official organist" of the Civic Auditorium were wildly exaggerated, like many of his stories, but he did make some money as a part time musician at local bars.
Black pope is usually a name given to The Superior General of the Society of Jesus i.e. the leader of the jesuits. It is a nickname used mostly by protestants and has been used for at least 200 years. LaVey has sometimes been called the Black Pope by sensationalist reporters in the past. It's at best a confusing choice of words for this piece.
I read his auto biography and because my curiosity was piqued I read a lot of other stuff about him too. The thing about Satanism is that it was really a kind of elaborate joke ON Christianity. LaVey no more "believed" in Satan any more than he believed in Santa Claus. He came up with the Church of Satan for shock value, to tweek a Christian culture, and get people to think outside of their or at least challenge their religious prejudices. Though there was a serious philosophy behind Satanism, as a philosophy it's sort of in the same realm as Libertarianism and Naturalism. Where Satan was merely representative of the idea of rejecting the mainstream. LaVey was fully aware of the irony of claiming not to believe in a God while still worshiping it's anti-god.
Also I don't think he never bragged about being a great organist, but he did brag a lot about being one of the only calliope players left in the world before he died. A calliope is a huge steam powered pipe organ played at Circuses.
LaVey was at his core a showman. He grew up in Circus sideshows and carnivals which, no doubt gave him a very particular about American culture and what made it tick. He was a musician, and animal trainer and a magician. A truly independent thinker. Someone should make a movie about him.
I think Streeter nailed it- carny/philosopher. Shock value. Sick of Christian dogma. Sideshow.
I wanna see the movie.
Hey Phikus @ 29:
"Here's to my sweet satan. It's gonna snoooow."
The Necronomicon was an invention of H. P. Lovecraft in one of his books.
It was a tough gig - but somebody had to do it.