Church of Satan

The Church of Satan (CoS) is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of Satanism as defined by Anton Szandor LaVey. Founded in San Francisco in 1966, by LaVey, it is considered the "oldest satanic religion in continual existence", and inspired "numerous imitator and breakaway groups".|group=Note According to the Church, Satanism has been "codified" as "a religion and philosophy" by LaVey and his church. Founded in an era when there was much public interest in the occult, witchcraft and Satanism, the church enjoyed a heyday for several years after its founding. Celebrities attended LaVey's satanic parties and he was invited on talk shows. His Satanic Bible sold nearly a million copies.

LaVey was the church's High Priest until his death in 1997. Instead, Satan is viewed as a positive archetype embracing the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "adversary", who represents pride, carnality, and enlightenment, humanity's natural instincts which Abrahamic faiths have wrongly suppressed. According to High Priest Peter H. Gilmore, Satan is "a name for the reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will". In LaVey's book, The Satanic Bible, the Satanist's concept of a God is described as the Satanist's true "self"— a projection of their own personality, not an external deity. Satan is used as a representation of personal liberty and individualism.

The Church dismisses the idea of a "Satanic Community" and does not share membership lists with its members, arguing members are "radical individualists" who "may share very little in common beyond" being Satanists. The Church rejects the legitimacy of any other organizations who claim to be Satanists. Scholars agree that there is no reliably documented case of Satanic continuity prior to the founding of the Church of Satan. It was the first organized church in modern times to be devoted to the figure of Satan, and according to Faxneld and Petersen, the Church represented "the first public, highly visible, and long-lasting organization which propounded a coherent satanic discourse".

Beliefs

LaVey described his religion as "just Ayn Rand's philosophy with ceremony and ritual added"; similarly, sociologist of religion James R. Lewis described it as "a blend of Epicureanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy, flavored with a pinch of ritual magic." There is no belief in nor worship of the Devil or a Christian notion of Satan. High priest Peter Gilmore describes its members as "skeptical atheists", indicating the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "adversary" or "opposer." According to LaVey, it is not enough for satanists to merely be atheistic. Gilmore rejects the legitimacy of theistic Satanists, who believe Satan to be a supernatural being or force that may be contacted or supplicated to, dubbing them "devil worshipers". According to Gilmore,

LaVey also often talked of a "Satanic magical formula" of "nine parts respectability to one part outrageousness", Satanism requiring some element of sinisterness, but not so much as to put off potential congregants. The "Rules of the Earth" in LaVey's Satanic Bible specifically prohibited unwanted sexual advances and harming animals or children, but the Church also "often featured a nude woman serving as an altar" in its black masses.

Though not emphasizing social or political causes, like Ayn Rand, LaVey explicitly opposed egalitarianism and supported social stratification, calling for the end of the "myth of 'equality'", which only "supports the weak at the expense of the strong". But he also suggested that in loving themselves, hedonists developed the ability to love others. He was quoted as saying, "If Satanists didn't care, they wouldn't be so dark and pessimistic." According to the Church of Satan historiography, other LaVey associates from this time include noted science fiction and horror writers Anthony Boucher, August Derleth, Robert Barbour Johnson, Reginald Bretnor, Emil Petaja, Stuart Palmer, Clark Ashton Smith, Forrest J. Ackerman, and Fritz Leiber Jr.

The Church of Satan was established at the Black House in San Francisco, California, on Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966, by LaVey, who was the church's High Priest until his death in 1997. A Satanic funeral for naval machinist-repairman, third-class Edward Olsen, was performed at the request of his wife, complete with an honor guard.

The Church of Satan was the subject of a number of books, magazine and newspaper articles during the 1960s and 1970s. It is also the subject of a documentary, Satanis (1970). LaVey appeared in Kenneth Anger's film Invocation of My Demon Brother, acted as technical adviser on The Devil's Rain, which starred Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, and introduced John Travolta. The Church of Satan was also featured in a segment of Luigi Scattini's film Angeli Bianchi, Angeli Neri, released in the United States as Witchcraft '70.

One attempt to establish the church abroad was done in connection with Maarten Lamers of the Netherlands who read The Satanic Bible and in 1971 flew to San Francisco to meet LaVey. Back in Amsterdam, Lamers established the first CoS grotto outside the U.S. -- the Magistralis Grotto or the Kerk van Satan. The "Kerk" was in the Red Light District and connected to a club called Walpurga Abbey where customers could pay by the minute to observe "monastic sisters" of the Abbey masturbate on stage. Lamers insisted that since the sisters were "performing religious acts of sexual magic", Walpurga Abbey was tax-exempt. The Dutch government disagreed and in 1987, "after a decade of police raids and legal battles", Lamers was compelled to pay 10 million guilders in back taxes.

Schisms

Starting in the early 1970s, the Church faced internal dissent and a series of schisms. The first breakaway was by the Babylonian Grotto and its leader Wayne West, who LaVey excommunicated. A bigger schism happened with the excommunication of the Stygian Grotto, whose leader established the Church of Satanic Brotherhood in 1973 with units in Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, New York City, and St. Petersburg (FL). From the Church's Belphegor Grotto, another splinter group created the Order of the Black Goat, which was allegedly neo-Nazi in orientation, led by Michael Grumbowski. A later, more resilient offshoot was the World Church of Satanic Liberation, which ran from 1986 to 2011.

In 1975, the Church of Satan underwent a significant fracture. Michael Archy Aquino, the editor of the church newsletter and a fairly high level leader in the church, who disagreed with LaVey's changes, left to found the Temple of Set, taking a significant portion of the CoS leadership with him. This schism involved the largest Church branch, the Nineveh Grotto in NJ, and the Lilith Grotto in NY, among others. The Temple of Set reportedly had more than 500 members at its founding, although Anton LaVey claimed that only 29 people left.

LaVey announced that the Temple of Set schism was not a setback but "Phase V" of his master plan,

The same year LaVey painted the Black House beige to lessen unwanted attention and "largely retired from public life". (In 1986, the Black House was repainted black.) According to at least one critic, James R. Lewis, LaVey was not instituting "a Master Plan" but demonstrating that he "was not up to making the necessary personal sacrifices that being a founding prophet and leader required" because his motives for founding the Church were personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement, not spreading some religious truth.

1980s, early 1990s, and "Satanic Panic"

In the 1980s a phenomenon that became known as the "Satanic Panic" arose and the media reported concerns of criminal conspiracies by the Church of Satan. According to a report released in 2020, LaVey indicated to FBI agents who interviewed him on October 31, 1980 that he had lost interest in the Church.

to both educate about the Church and to debunk Satanic ritual abuse and any connection between those allegations and true Satanism (specifically the Church of Satan). She also became the High Priestess of the Church during this time and in 1988 married Nikolas Schreck. Shortly after leaving the church, Zeena testified against LaVey in support of her mother's (Diane Hegarty) palimony lawsuit against LaVey. The court awarded Hegarty half of LaVey's property, forcing him to sell the Black House and bankrupting him.

In 1994, Kenneth Lanning, an FBI expert in investigating child sexual abuse, produced a report on Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) aimed at child protection authorities, which stated that despite hundreds of investigations, no corroboration of SRA had been found. Following this report, several convictions based on SRA allegations were overturned and the defendants released.

After LaVey

thumb|[[Karla LaVey during a "Black X-Mass" celebration in 2012|left|270x270px]]

After Anton Szandor LaVey's death on October 29, 1997, the role of High Priest was empty for some time. On November 7, 1997 Karla LaVey made a press release about continuing the church with fellow high priestess Blanche Barton. Barton eventually received ownership of the organization, which she held for 4 years. Karla LaVey ultimately left the Church of Satan and founded First Satanic Church. On October 16, 2001, the Black House, the original home of the Church, was demolished after a fundraising effort failed to raise enough to buy it. (In 1992, LaVey had sold the house to a real estate developer to raise money to settle a divorce but the developer allowed LaVey to continue to live in the house for free.)

6/6/06 High Mass

On June 6, 2006, the Church of Satan held the first public ritual Satanic Mass in 40 years at the Steve Allen Theater in the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. The date corresponds to the number of the Beast, 666, from the biblical Book of Revelation. The ritual, based on the rites outlined in The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals, was conducted by Reverend Bryan Moore and Priestess Heather Saenz.

The event was by invitation only, and over one hundred members of the Church of Satan from around the world filled the theatre to capacity. Many members of the Church of Satan were interviewed by the BBC with permission. The music for the mass was created and performed by Lustmord and was subsequently released on his album Rising.

Example of law abidingness

In December 2007 the Associated Press reported on a story concerning the Church of Satan, in which a teenager had sent an email to High Priest Gilmore stating he wanted to "kill in the name of our unholy lord Satan". Gilmore then reported the message to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who informed local police, who arrested the teenager.

Realm of Satan documentary

In January 2024, the film Realm of Satan was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is similar to a documentary, though it consists primarily of scenes staged with members of the Church of Satan. One reviewer described it as "an 80-minute art installation in which Satanists are rendered—and deliberately render themselves—performative characters in a diabolical play of their own making." The film is directed by Scott Cummings and it shows a variety of satanic rituals, which may have been performed for the film alone.

Membership

The Church of Satan claims they do not solicit memberships nor proselytize. Individuals seeking membership must be legally defined as adults in their nation of residence. As of at least January 2023, no one "under the legal age of consent" may join the Church of Satan, with the exception those whose "parents or legal guardians are already members in good standing".

Active Members begin at the First Degree. One must apply and be approved for an Active Membership, and this is subject to one's answers to a lengthy series of questions. One cannot apply for higher Degrees, and the requirements for each degree are not open to the public. Promotion to a higher degree is by invitation only. Members of the Third through Fifth degrees constitute the Priesthood and may be addressed as "Reverend" (although the titles of "Magister/Magistra" and "Magus/Maga" are more often used when referring to members of the Fourth and Fifth Degrees, respectively). Members of the Fifth degree may also be known as "Doctor", although "The Doctor" usually refers to LaVey. Memberships may be terminated at the discretion of the ruling body of the Church of Satan consisting of the High Priest, the High Priestess and the Council of Nine.

The church emphasizes that one does not have to join the organization to consider themselves a Satanist, and that one only needs to recognize themselves in The Satanic Bible and live according to the tenets outlined therein.

As the Church of Satan does not publicly release membership information, it is not known how many members belong to the Church. However, according to an interview with the Church of Satan, "interest in the Church of Satan and Satanism is growing all the time if our mailboxes, answering and fax machines, and e-mail is any indication." Another source (The Washington Post) states the church claimed to have "hundreds of thousands" of members.

Hierarchy

The church follows a formulated system of degrees based on meritocracy. These degrees are not open to application or to request and are only awarded to those who demonstrate excellence in the understanding and communication of Satanic Theory coupled with personal achievements in the outside world.

These degrees are:

Registered Member (no degree)
Active Member/Satanist (first degree)
Witch/Warlock (second degree)
Priestess/Priest (third degree)
Magistra/Magister (fourth degree)
Maga/Magus (fifth degree)

Agents of the Church of Satan are individuals who have been trained to serve as contacts for local media and other interested parties. the current High Priestess is Peggy Nadramia.

The Church of Satan evaluates active members for the Priesthood by their accomplishment in society—mastered skills and peer recognition within a profession—rather than by mastery of irrelevant occult trivia. While expected to be experts in communicating the Satanic philosophy, members of the Priesthood are not required to speak on behalf of the Church of Satan and may even choose to keep their affiliation and rank secret in order to better serve their personal goals, as well as those of the organization. Membership in the Priesthood is by invitation only.

The Grotto System

Within Satanism, a Grotto is a clandestine association or gathering of Satanists within geographical proximity for means of social, ritual, and special interest activities. The Church of Satan no longer formally recognizes or charters grottos.

References

Notes

Citations

Works cited

External links

Interview with Anton LaVey by Michelle Carr and Elvia Lahman for Velvet Hammer souvenir programme, September 1997.
Interview with Magus Peter H. Gilmore by CBC program The Hour.
Interview with Zeena Schreck by Annette Lamothe-Ramos at Vice magazine, April 2012