Anton Szandor LaVey (1930 - 1997)

Anton LaVey was the founder of the Church of Satan and its leader for the first thirty-one years of its existence.   Though he was definitely heterosexual, LaVey often voiced an admiration for gay men due to their ability to jump wholeheartedly into "raw, animal sex," and to be truly sexually liberated.   He also stated his belief, long before the opinion was adopted by most members of the psychiatric community, that homosexuality was not a disease and gays could not and should not be changed.   Homosexuality was never considered a sin by LaVey or the Church of Satan, and indeed, for gays to attempt to be what they were not would be to engage in self-deceit  and herd conformity, which were among the practices LaVey did consider as sins, with the greatest of all sins being stupidity.  Homosexual men and women were welcomed into the Church of Satan from its earliest days. Anton LaVey was born Howard Stanton LaVey in Chicago and moved with his parents to San Francisco, where he grew up.   After pursuing various careers which, according to his personal resume, included oboist, lion tamer, carnival organist, and crime scene photographer, LaVey pursued his interest in magic and the occult with earnest.   He formed a magic circle, whose members met regularly in LaVey's home to discuss and attend lectures on the occult, spiritualism, magic, hypnosis, and the supernatural.   LaVey's circle in time included Crowley disciple and film producer Kenneth Anger, author and early actvist Gavin Arthur,  horror film historian and coiner of the term "sci-fi" Forrest J. Ackerman, and Robert Fuest, creator of the popular Avengers television series.   Fuest later based the flamboyant, organ-playing title character in the Vincent Price film, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, in part on the flamboyant, organ-playing LaVey. Inspired by legendary accounts of witchcraft and the activities of groups like the eighteenth-century Hellfire Club (of which Benjamin Franklin was a member), as well as the philosophies of Neitzche, "Ragnar Redbeard" (later theorized by LaVey to be a pseudonym for Jack London), and Ayn Rand, LaVey sought to create a new philosophy and religion which would stand in opposition to the dominant culture of the last two thousand years, and especially to the hypocritical social and sexual moraes upon which it was based.   Because that culture was predominantly Christian in origin, LaVey decided to build his new system around the symbol which was most in opposition to and most likely to outrage that culture - Satan.   On 30 April, 1966, LaVey shaved his head in the tradition of medieval executioners and declared that the new Satanic Age and the Church of Satan had begun. One should make note of several points regarding LaVey's Satanism.  Firstly, it was not centered around the worship of the literal Christian Satan, or of  any other anthropomorphic deity.  Rather, LaVey's religion was actually atheistic in nature, regarding Satan as both the Dark Force in Nature, the active principle, as well as a symbol for the indulgence, individualism, rebellion, and liberty which had been branded as "evil" by those in power.  God, at most, was the balancing factor, largely indifferent to human prayers or suffering.  Indeed, Satanists were to consider the only god that could save or damn them as being their own selves.  In contrast to the abstinence, "spiritual pipe dreams," "self-deciet," selflessness, pacifism, and self-sacfrice emphasized by "traditional" religions, LaVey advocated a life dedicated to indulgence, "vital existence," "undefiled wisdom," "kindness to those who deserve it," vengeance, and "responsibility for the responsible," together with individuality, aesthetics, intelligence, and kick-ass self-assertiveness.   Most importantly, LaVey did not endorse and in fact emphatically opposed the sacrifice or torture of children or animals, considering both to be sacred embodiments of the natural carnality, death defiance, and joie de vivre that most adult humans had too long suppressed within themselves. The initial growth of the Church of Satan was explosive, helped in no small part by the social upheavel of the 1960s and the hedonism of the 1970s, as well as movies like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.   Headquartered in LaVey's own San Francisco home, dubbed "The Black House," branches of the CoS, or grottoes, sprung up in cities across the US and then around the world.   In addition to the members of LaVey's magic circle,  those who became members of the CoS over the years included  Jayne Mansfield, Sammy Davis, Jr.,  Lola Falana, Keenan Wynn, Steven Leyba, and rock musician Marilyn Manson, who recounted his 1992 meeting with LaVey as one of the greatest moments in his life.  Anton LaVey wrote prolifically on the subject of Satanism and for a time was readily available for interviews and as a consultant on movies and television programs.   He first formalized the philosophy and rituals of his church in The Satanic Bible, first published in 1969 and in print ever since, followed by The Satanic Rituals. The Satanic Witch was a guide for women on how to get what they wanted out of life, but contained principles of magic and self-empowerment of use to both men and women.   Essays written by LaVey on such varied topics as misanthropy, the Religious Right, and the decline of American culture were collected in The Devil's Notebook and Satan Speaks.  A biography of LaVey, The Devil's Avenger, was written by Burton H. Wolfe, the journalist who helped get LaVey and the CoS their first serious public exposure.   LaVey appeared in and was the consultant for the 1975 horror film, The Devil's Rain, directed by Robert Fuest and starring Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, and William Shatner, and featuring a then unknown John Travolta.   He recorded albums of  rituals and his performances on the organ, including his original composition, "Battle Hymn of the Apocalypse." The 1980s saw the rise of the Religious Right and a wave of  "Satanic Panic" in which stories of a Satanic underground and ritual abuse of children were circulated by televangelists and yellow journalism talk-shows like that hosted by Geraldo Rivera.   (Investigations by the FBI proved that neither the underground nor the ritual abuse existed.)   LaVey also became the target of a vindictive divorce suit by his first wife and had a falling out with his oldest daughter Zeena, who tried, unsuccessfully, to run her own organization.  However, the CoS remained an active and growing organization.  Anton LaVey found love once more in the person of Blanche Barton, who became the mother of his son and heir, Xerxes, and later wrote her own books on LaVey, The Secret Life of a Satanist and The Church of Satan.   Suffering for a number of years from a pulmonary condition, LaVey died on 29 October, 1997.  Almost immediately, leaders of rival organizations began spreading malicious stories about LaVey, attacking his character and the legitimacy of his organization and philosophy.  However, these stories were invariably reported by the muck-raking variety of journalists and started by persons kicked out of the Church of Satan for disruptive and unethical behavior, and therefore suspect.  Despite these charges, Anton LaVey remains an admired and influential figure among not only  Satanists but also many others in the individualist,  libertarian, and counter-culture segments of society, and rightly so. Links: The Church of Satan Anton Szandor LaVey: A Biographical Sketch Anton LaVey Tribute Page Sifting the Ashes of Anton LaVey Anton LaVey - RIP Anton LaVey Interview - Velvet Magazine Satanism FAQ Washington Post Interview with LaVey MF Magazine Interview with LaVey The Homosexual Warlock KeywordTitleAuthor