In Memory of Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey 1930-1997

[Anthony]

First off I'd like to say that I haven't tried shrooms and DON'T plan on it! I've also quit marijuana which I'm very proud of. Now on to the topic of Dr. Anton LaVey. I love Doctor Anton Lavey's Writtings and do my best to stay strict to them which I'm doing very well at and I'm alot happier! Dr. Anton LaVey shed some light for us (LaVeyan) Satanists in the late 1960's when he founded the COS and wrote the Satanic Bible.. Anton LaVey to me is a Legend! There's 2 kind of people in this world theres carnal people and theres spiritual people. Many LIES have been said about the Doctor such as he mistreated his pets and alot of other BS! Anton LaVey is an ICON! I greatly respect the Doctor for what he has created. Anton LaVey worked as a carnie and as well as a detective for the police. Dr. LaVey was great with the keyboard. I'd just like to say that Dr. Anton LaVey will ALLWAYS BE MISSED! Dr. Anton LaVey is in the brains and sinews of those who's respect he has gained! HAIL SATAN! HAIL DR. Anton Szandor LaVey!

[Mister_Six]

This isn't a pissing match dude. It doesn't matter who started which church, or this "new" thing. The fact still remains that you've pigeonholed yourself into a title. It is your job to use it for your advantage out in the world. Satanism is but a tool. It's not about who utilizes that tool, but how they've used it. Leave Ole' Blackwood to his dealings and see to your own.

[Anthony]

I took the blackwood statement down it was uncalled for. Now lets stick to the topic which is Doctor Anton LaVey! Hail Satan! Hail Dr. LaVey! Anton LaVey will allways be missed! Dr. LaVey to me you are a LEGEND!

[Scaris]

I have very little time for La Vey, or anything he "created" - he was a decidedly average paranormalist ( is that a word? hmm) in my opinion. However, I know this, if he could hear you bleating on like a fucking sheep he`d more than likely have you shot - or perhaps fleeced for every dime you own. Now, do as Reven says, and bow down to the new gods!

[Revanchist]

All Hail Lord Revan

[Leo Lane]

In regards to Anton LaVey, as I have said in the past, he did not invent tomatos, he did not invent basil, he did not invent olive oil, nor tomato paste...But he did give us tomato sauce. For that I am grateful to him and his work. However be careful about putting him or anyone else for that matter on a pedestal. He was human and had his share of faults. I'm not judging because we all have human faults and he was certainly no exception. However it is his work we should look to. That is his true legacy.

[SugaCubez 352]

Anton LaVey wasn't the first to codify a "Satanism." This is a myth born out of ignorance and Church of Satan propaganda. There were several people who invented their own brands and schools of Satanism that came before LaVey, like Ben Kadosh, who created a Satanism as early as 1906:

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The strange case of Ben Kadosh: A Luciferian pamphlet from 1906 and its current renaissance Per Faxneld, The Department of the History of Religions, Stockholm University, [e-mail]

It is often claimed there were no systematic attempts at creating a satanic ideology before Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966. However, several such examples can in fact be found, and this paper focuses on one of them: the Danish dairy salesman, alchemist, and luciferic freemason Ben Kadosh (Carl William Hansen, 1872-1936).

Kadosh came from a poor working-class background, but managed to acquire a certain level of education all the same and in his early twenties secured a job as a bookkeeper. A few years later he was initiated in the esoteric group L’Ordre Martiniste, the first of a vast number of occult societies he would join in his life. He would go on to hold around 300 (!) degrees and titles in different Masonic lodges.

In 1906, Kadosh published his pamphlet Den Ny Morgens Gry: Lucifer-Hiram: Verdensbygmesterens Genkomst (NN). This somewhat unstructured and highly eccentric text presents a type of Satanism, which remains both original and confusing to this day. The purpose of the pamphlet is stated to be the rehabilitation and spreading of the cult of Satan/Lucifer. This figure is to Kadosh synonymous with the Greek Pan and the Masonic “master builder” Hiram, the latter sometimes identified with God himself in Masonic lore.

Lucifer is here portrayed as the vessel of God’s divine power, and as the appropriate manifestation for mankind to approach the divinity through. This vessel is a demiurge in the Gnostic sense, but paradoxically still a benevolent entity.

Unlike many others with a sympathy for the Devil around the year 1900, Kadosh was unrelenting, enduring and firm in his convictions: In a national census of 1921, he stated his religious belonging to be “Luciferian”. One of Denmark’s most famous authors, Hans Scherfig, immortalised Kadosh by portraying him in his two novels Idealister (“Idealists”, 1944) and Frydenholm (1962), where a most likely slightly incorrect version of the luciferian’s religious ideas is also given in some detail.

My paper will attempt to show what some of Kadosh’s sources of inspiration were, focusing primarily on the (more or less) scholarly literature of his time concerning the history of Satan and Satanism, for instance the book Satan og Hans Kultus i Vor Tid (“Satan and His Cult in Our Time”, 1902) by Carl Kohl.

In our own time, Kadosh’s writings have enjoyed a small renaissance. A group called Danska Luciferianska Kyrkan?, basing a large part of their system on his ideas, was founded in Denmark in 199, and now has a Swedish chapter as well. The paper will thus also investigate how the teachings of Kadosh are reinterpreted in this new context, discussing how forgotten Satanists from ages past in general can be revived by a young religious milieu looking for predecessors and traditions in order to gain a firmer cultural grounding and increased legitimacy.

***

There is actually nothing original about LaVey's Satanic Bible, and his form of Satanism. LaVey's "Sigil of Baphomet" is not original. It is an exact copy of Mr. Bessy's design. The only difference is that Mr. Bessy's design uses thick lines while LaVey and his CoS used think lines:

***quote wikipedia***

Although versions of the Sigil of Baphomet appear as early as the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire by Stanislas de Guaita, the variant in common use by the Church of Satan is known as the Hell's Kitchen Baphomet, a slightly modified version of an original which appeared on the cover Maurice Bessy's 1964 book A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural. This design created by Bessy was inspired by the Oswald Wirth Baphomet design created in 1930.

***end quote***

We all know that the first part of LaVey's Satanic Bible called the Book of Satan is a near verbatim (word for word) rip off of Redbeard's "Might Is Right."

The Enochian keys LaVey used is a sloppy rip off of the Enochian keys used by the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn took out certain words out of their enochain keys and entered numbers instead, as a security measure, so that only their initiates could decipher the numbers to obtain their genuine meanings. LaVey didn't know how to decipher these coded numbers so he just left them there as is.

Most of his philosophy comes from very unsatanic sources: Ayn Rand's Objectivism; Nietzsche, Bessy, Golden Dawn.

The only thing that may be original are LaVey's 9 Satanic Statements.

The Satanic Bible's Book of Lucifer is not even his own writings; Stanton LaVey (Anton's Grandson) even says that his grandmother Diane put the essays that became the chapters of the book of Lucifer together.

The Satanic Bible, and it's "Satanism" was put together by Avon Books, who used Anton LaVey's charisma, persona and character to capitalize of the the growing counter-hippy subculture during the late 60's. The entire book (TSB) was put together sloppily with a ton of blank pages to take up room. Only mentally lazy people who do not have the capacity to do research will believe that LaVey is a great man who "originated Satanism." Avon Book's The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey from the very beginning was a commercial product meant to be sold to the fringe market to make money off of dumb people, just like they make money selling makeup. C'mon people it's AVON Products incorporated... they sell makeup for god's sake; here's their wiki.

Avon Books deals with fat women's romance novels for the love of god! Get real. Go visit their home page here. Their motto is "We know what women want," LMAO. Sex novels for fat lonely women... Satanic Bibles for the social reject who lack social skills. Don't you guys get it? The Satanic Bible was an Avon product hastily put together with previously existing things to capitalize off the growing counter-hippy culture, and fringe new-age movement. If it were me, I wouldn't be so proud of being a consumer-buyer of a religion a makeup/romance novel company created LOL!

For further unbiased/objective reading on LaVey and the Church of Satan: go here.

[Leo Lane]

Funny you mention Diane Hegarty. I've always wanted to hear her side of the story.
Anywho, love him or hate him, LaVey is to Satanism as Gerald Gardner is to Wicca. It is what it is. As JK noted, Lavey opened the door. Also his following point is crucial. It is the door to our house. So...

[Anthony]

thank you Leo, same here LaVey is to Satanism (LaVeyan). Your absolutely right Leo Dr. LaVey didn't make all the ingrediants but he did have the sauce and that opened a door for Satanists and for that I greatly respect him! Hail Satan!

[FlightOfTheDevil]

sheep sheep sheep sheep Scaris is right. you all should be shot or sheared your bleating is giving me a headache. Lavey was nothing but an showman who knew how to copy paste and borrow shit from others. nothing in the satanic bible is his original work that he could call his own so he should not be put on the pedestal that everyone believes him to be on. Levay and his followers are egotistical, materialistic, and are stuck on one track thinking they are not evolving as humans to eventually become the gods that they are truly meant to be. though if they choose to be stuck in a rut and not advance and just believe in benign trivial bullshit then hey so be it it's no skin off my fucking teeth...SINcerely cassy

[SugaCubez 352]

What amazes me about Moderns/LaVeyans and the CoS is, as you pointed out; their materialism. These Laveyans reject anything supernatural, and now magical. This is in direct antagonism to two of their own Satanic Sins - #6. "Lack of Perspective—Again, this one can lead to a lot of pain for a Satanist. You must never lose sight of who and what you are, and what a threat you can be, by your very existence. We are making history right now, every day. Always keep the wider historical and social picture in mind. That is an important key to both Lesser and Greater Magic. See the patterns and fit things together as you want the pieces to fall into place. Do not be swayed by herd constraints—know that you are working on another level entirely from the rest of the world."

#7." Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies—Be aware that this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting something new and different, when in reality it’s something that was once widely accepted but is now presented in a new package. We are expected to rave about the genius of the creator and forget the original. This makes for a disposable society."

Concerning the Church of Satan's Sigil of Baphomet is a prime example of them breaking there own Satanic Sins and their own hypocrisies. Let me requote a critical portion of sin number 7:

"Be aware that this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting something new and different, when in reality it’s something that was once widely accepted..."

Maurice Bessy's "baphomet" design (it wasn't called a baphomet) was used on the cover of a he wrote several years before Avon Books published The Satanic Bible. The book was called "Magic and the Supernatural." Two things the current Laveyan Satanist and CoS rejects. This book later inspired a whole encyclopedia of the same name (Magic and the Supernatural). This encyclopedia can still be found in some public libraries in the occult section. There are about 30 volumes, and on the back of each volume is Maurice Bessy's "baphomet" design.

It amazes me how the Church of Satan can be not only so unoriginal as to rip off Bessy's symbol which was originally associated with magic and the supernatural, but that the CoS and their materialist goons could also brainwash their own gullible members to believe that they came up with the design and that it has nothing to do with magic and anything supernartual.

The Church of Satan's Sigil of Baphomet is NOT trade marked or owned by them. It is only protected IF you use the symbol along WITH the trade marked name "Church of Satan."

What's worse is that Anton LaVey by using this symbol shows a total lack of esoteric knowledge of the things he was ripping off. He knew and even stated that the Templars were the original group of people who venerated something called a "Baphomet." But he didn't know what the "Baphomet" was. He doesn't even know the meaning of the Hebrew words Levi-Than.

Baphomet is Atbash for the Gnostic Goddess Sophia: http://www.templarhistory.com/atbash.html
In the old days when different sects of Gnostic Christians were around, the Holy Spirit of the Trinity was believed to be a female, named Sophia who was the divine personification of God's Wisdom... the same Wisdom that plays a major role in the Biblical book of Proverbs and other works attributed to King Solomon.

Levi was Jehovah's Priestly tribe. The Levites were the hereditary priests of the Jew's Yahweh cult. As shepherds of God's people they carried around a shepherd's staff which has a curved or crooked top. The word "Than" means something Curved or Crooked.

The word "Shemhameforash" which Anton LaVey incorporates into his "Satanic" magic and rituals is not even "Satanic" in any sense. Shem Ha Meforash is (again) Jew/Hebrew for "The Name That Is Uttered Correctly."

It was religiously forbidden, due to one of their 10 commandments (Do not take the lord's name in vain) to say or use YHVH's name. So the Jews would actually refer to Jehovah God as the "Shemhameforash." Every time a LaVeyan Satanist says Shemhamphorash, he is invoking the very God they hate.

It's an inside Jew joke, for a Jew like LaVey to get goyim (non jews) to venerate their god. If you seriously think the Satanic Bible is "Satanic" I really really suggest comparing it to the Jewish Talmud.

The goat in the Sigil of Baphomet is obviously the sacrificial goat the Jews offered to YHVH. The inverted Pentagram in the Sigil of Baphomet was actually the Royal Seal of the Holy City of Jerusalem during the age of King Solomon's reign. It symbolized Venus in the East as the Eastern Star who marked the Opening of the Day. They got this from the ancient Egyptians whose God Ptah was referred to as the Opener of the Day, who was also associated with the Eastern Star.

Every 40 years the planet Venus traces a 5 pointed pentagram in our sky. Which is why the 5 pointed star is associated with Venus. And this is also why you will see the number 40 reoccur over and over again in the Torah and Tanakh... 40 days and 40 night did it flood... the Jews wondered in the wilderness during the exodus for 40 years, and so on.

There is nothing Satanic or original about Anton LaVey or the so-called "Satanism" he and Avon Books grafted together. Its all Jewish esoterica.

[Mister_Six]

LOL! Touche! LaVey also advocated that people take every possible good thing from every source and assimilate it into our being. Even through tragedy, somethink remarkable can be extracted from it. LaVey may have been a rip off artist, but he as a philosopher had a ton of great things to say.

I'm honestly rather ambivalent on this topic because it doesn't prove anything to anyone. People hear what they want to hear, and understand only what they care to.

[Lucifurry:352]

"People hear what they want to hear, and understand only what they care to."

I agree with you on this one Mr. 6. People in fact do understand, or are open to consider what they care to want to understand.

As far as Anton LaVey goes, lets not just hate the guy; most of us Satanists, did begin our personal Satanic "career" by reading the Satanic Bible. If it weren't for the Satanic Bible, most of use would not even have bothered to study Rand or Nietzsche. He might not have been original, but in a sense, he pioneered or opened the way for a new industry. LaVey might not have been original, but he did help evolve the Dark Current (if we can use that term).

But this Dark Current must continue to move forward and evolve. This is something the Church of Satan is preventing, and as we are seeing, the Dark Current has a way of liberating itself from restrictive institutions, and finding fertile minds that will actually help evolve it.

The Satanic Bible is a good place to start off, but if LaVey's primitive philosophy is all you are capable of understanding of what Satanism is, then you are a follower of LaVey. You haven't learned anything from LaVey, which is thinking for yourself, and being your own person. Which is something LaVey did and expressed in his own life. He organized his private thoughts into his own religion and way of life. He did not follow anyone.

I would say that someone who genuinely has learned something from Satanism will eventually be like Mr. 6 here, who leaves religions and labels behind, and follows himself, rather than another person. If you follow LaVey, you're still a follower, still a sheep, and you have not gotten the essence of what Satanism is.