Jahanzaib Haque
14 Feb. 2002
Comm. 252
 

The devil has been a common entity within civilizations for thousands of years, ranging from Bast, the Egyptian goddess of pleasure to Marduk, dark god of the city of Babylon ('Speak of the Devil'). Throughout history, man has had a representation of the 'evil' within society and nature. Subsequently, a minority of individuals attracted to this left-hand path began to worship this force in nature, formulating their own rituals and traditions, such as the Hellfire Club founded by Sir Francis Dashwood (1708-1781) in Britain (Howard). Yet their numbers remained significantly small until the flourishing 1960's subculture movements allowed Satanism to reach the masses.

Anton Szandor Lavey along with other famous personalities of the 60's such as Timothy Leary and Charles Manson, gained notoriety during this age of social experiment as the High Priest of The Church of Satan. This radical religious organization began preaching individuality and creativity, incorporating numerous aspects inherent among subcultures of that era.

In a bid to capture a larger audience, The Satanic Bible was released in 1969 by Anton Lavey with the help of paperback publisher Avon Books to put forward the first codified book of Satanism and its teachings (Barton 46).

The Satanic Bible has had a profound effect within society. Its success at capturing a market ranging from Italy to Japan, with sales running into millions of copies worldwide (Feral House) proved that subcultures can be a powerful and commercially successful force within the social structure. Though The Church of Satan never gained more than a few hundred formal members (Lavey Zeena) at the height of its popularity (1969-1984), The Satanic Bible's appeal has lasted to this day. Its popularity can be seen as a result of three vital factors; its criticism of existing, established churches; its appeal to contemporary values and its author's flamboyant image.

Anton Lavey's writing attacked traditional churches and conservative values to lengthy extents, going so far as to declare the seven deadly sins of Christian tradition to be attempts to control natural human desires. A true Satanist would indulge in each of these sins as they all lead to physical, mental or emotional gratification.

Established churches are also shown to be robbing the individual of natural human feelings. Lavey particularly attacks the Christian church, carefully outlining its hypocrisy and outdated ideology.

Satanism was shown to be a belief system with the individual holding prime importance; man being in charge of his own destiny, behaving accordingly by enjoying himself and taking responsibility for his own actions (Todd). The devil of traditional churches was seen as merely a character to be admired for following the satanic beliefs in his challenging God's authority and standing up for what he believed in.

The Satanic Bible goes to great lengths to disassociate itself from Christianity. It outlines, 'good and evil' as relative terms which are a construct of society, further condemning the Christian church for persecuting religious minorities and destroying youth by labeling things under these terms.

In the wake of this surfacing satanic movement, the Christian church had already issued a number of warnings on this, 'growing menace' in particular the Church focused on occult-related killings and its corrupting influence on children (Humphrey). Graphic descriptions of ritual animal sacrifice and torture were preached through the media and within Christian churches. Evangelical Christian authors even went as far as to claim that Satanic dungeons exist where young women are kept continually pregnant so that their infants can be taken and sacrificed (much of this source material can be traced back to texts used by Renaissance witch hunters such as the Malleus Maleficarum) (Robinson).

The Satanic Bible also served to allay this projected image by explicitly refuting these claims, stating 'under NO circumstances would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby!' The few rituals specified within the book dealt with strengthening the individual towards cherishing and reveling in true individuality and creativity.

The single-most important factor in the success of the Satanic Bible rests upon Anton Szandor Lavey's persona. Lavey constructed an elaborate self-image that incorporated all aspects of Satanism and its teachings, which he proceeded to broadcast through the mass media. Since his initial appearance in the Los Angeles Times in 1967, Lavey unveiled himself to be a, 'truly satanic' individual (Burns). Lavey's physical appearance (bald head and pointed beard) and dress sense (all black, flowing cloaks) presented an image his audience would adhere to.

In numerous articles and documentaries, Lavey disclosed false information regarding his past; claiming to be descended from Gypsy parents, having worked as a lion tamer in the Clyde Beatty Circus and worked as a San Francisco police photographer in the early 50's (Lavey Zeena). This bizarre characterization of Satanism's High priest gained great media attention, boosting sales of The Satanic Bible at its release in 1969. Nearly two decades later in 1991, Lavey revealed his personal mythology to be false, stating in an interview with Lawrence Wright for Rolling Stone Magazine, "I don't want the legend to disappear. There is a danger you will disenchant a lot of young people who use me as a role model."

The Satanic Bible remains in print to this day, testifying to the enduring quality of Anton Lavey's work among a wide audience. His curious balance between true satanic principles and deceptive, melodramatic propaganda make his work a modern-day specimen of communicative prowess.

Works Cited:

Barton, Blanche. The Secret Life of a Satanist. Los Angeles: Feral House 1994.

Burns, Alex. 'Anton Lavey: Disinformation." Disinformation (r). 8 pars. 8 Feb. 2002. http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id134/pg1.html

"Feral House Publishing." Feral House. 2001: 7 Feb. 2002. http://www.feralhouse.com

Howard, Mike. "The Hellfire Club". Satanism - UK. 21 pars. 12 Feb. 2002. http://mygenie.co.uk/hwmes/hellfire.htm

Humphrey, Don. "Devil Worship - A Growing menace in the 90's." Webminister.com. 11 pars. 9 Feb. 2002. http://webminister.com/growth01/poso1c.shtml

Lavey, Anton S. The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969.

Lavey, Zeena and Nikolas Schreck. "Anton Lavey: Legend and Reality." First Church of Satan. 30 pars. 2 Feb. 2002. http://www.churchofsatan.org/aslv.html

Robinson, B. A. "Satanism, Gothic Satanism, Satanic Dabbling." Religious Tolerance. 36 pars. 7 Feb. 2002. http://www.religioustolerance.org/satanism.htm

"Speak of the Devil". Dir. Nick Bougas. 1988. Videocassette. Los Angeles: Feral House, 1992.

Todd, Tammy. "Satanism: The truth behind the hype." Alternative Religions. 7 pars. 7 Feb. 2002.http://www.altreligion.com/

Wright, Lawrence. "Sympathy for the Devil". Rolling Stone #612. Feb-March 1991: 12.