Copyright ©1969 by Anton Szandor LaVey - All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this material or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law.
2
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 - LaVey 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..."
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INDEX
- INTRODUCTION by Burton H.Wolfe ............................................................................... 5
- PREFACE ......................................................................................................................... 11
- PROLOGUE ..................................................................................................................... 12
- THE NINE SATANIC STATEMENTS .............................................................................13
(FIRE)
BOOK OF SATAN
- The Infernal Diatribe -
(I, II, II, IV, V) .......................................................................................................... 14
(AIR)
BOOK OF LUCIFER
- The Enlightenment - ..................................................................................................... 21
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 BELIAL
- The Mastery of the Earth - ........................................................................................... 59
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:
1. Desire
2. Timing
3. Imagery
4. Direction
5. The Balance Factor
4
V. The Satanic Ritual:
1. Some Notes Wich are to be Observed Before Beginning Ritual
2. The Thirteen Steps
3. Deviced Used in Satanic Ritual
(WATER)
BOOK OF LEVIATHAN
- The Raging Sea - ................................................................................................... 81
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):
The First Key (Enochian - English)
The Second Key (Enochian - English)
The Third Key (Enochian - English)
The Fourth Key (Enochian - English)
The Fifth Key (Enochian - English)
The Sixth Key (Enochian - English)
The Seventh Key (Enochian - English)
The Eighth Key (Enochian - English)
The Nineth Key (Enochian - English)
The Tenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Eleventh Key (Enochian - English)
The Twelfth Key (Enochian - English)
The Thirteenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Fourteenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Fifteenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Sixteenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Seventeenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Eighteenth Key (Enochian - English)
The Nineteenth Key (Enochian - English)
AFTERWORD by “The Webmaster” ..................................................................................107
5
INTRODUCTION
Burton H. Wolfe
On a winter's evening in 1967, I drove crosstown in San Fransisco 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 I 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
6
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 Pryamid 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 inhereted 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 Fransisco 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 halfnaked
girls dancing at the carnival, and on Sunday morning when I was playing organ for tentshow
evaneglists at the other end of the carnival lot, I would see these same men sitting in the
7
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 Fransisco. That led to his first
conformist job, photographer for the San Fransisco 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 hitand-
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 descibed the Black Mass and
other infamous ceremonies conducted by groups such as the Knights Templar in fourteenthcentury
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 - LaVey 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.
8
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 inhibitations 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 phenominal. By 1967 the newspapers that were sending
reporters to write about the Church of Satan extended from San Fransisco 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-growm
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 spacial 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
9
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 throwm 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,
10
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 FRANSISCO
December 25, 1976 (XI Anno Satanas)
11
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 brittle 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 rule the earth, and who, from their Hellish thrones, laugh
with noisome mirth.
The flames of Hell burn 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 Fransisco, Walpurgisnacht 1968
12
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 millennium 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!
13
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!
14
(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 burn fierce... and purify! Read on and learn the Law.
15
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 stern invasion the standard of the strong!
10. I 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!
11. I blast out the ghastly contents of philosophically whited sepulchers and laugh with
sardonic wrath!
16
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 beginning 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 lie 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.
11. 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 lie - the
lie 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 lie that is known to be a lie is half eradicated, but the lie that even intelligent persons
accept as fact - the lie that has been inculcated in a little child at its mother's knee - is more
dangerous to contend against than a creeping pestilence!
17
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. Exterminate them
root and branch. Annihilate them, or they will us!
18
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.
19
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 body?"
20
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!
11. 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!
21
(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
tightly 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!
22
- W A N T E D ! -
GOD
DEAD OR ALIVE
IT is a popular misconception that the Satanist does not believe in God. The concept
of "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 thinks 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 whould 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 thinking 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 honestly 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
exactly 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.
23
There are many diferent 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 greatly.
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 Chrisitans 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!
24
THE GOD YOU SAVE
MAY BE YOURSELF
ALL 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,
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 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 ideapower
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
cacklings 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!"
25
SOME EVIDENCE OF
A NEW SATANIC AGE
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
all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
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
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 little 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 lie in bed long enough
you may find yourself commiting 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 all they 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
26
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 revelled
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
27
"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