• Title: The Satanic Bible
• Author: Anton Szandor LaVey
• Genre/Subject: Religion
• Publisher: Avon
• Publication Date: 1969
• Start date: 7/20/24
• Finish date: 9/23/24

Review:

First of all let me state that this book can transform your life, motivate and inspire you. But it cannot, unfortunately, summon demons from the infernal regions.

I began this back in July and made a plan to read a portion of it every day just like any daily bible devotional. I am very pleased that I did as this was an excellent book with a lot of information to digest. I plan on continuing this with the next book by LaVey, The Satanic Rituals.

Anton LaVey was a very interesting man and an intellectually gifted one as well. He began his journey down the left hand path in the 1960s when he was just 16 years old and employed as an organist and calliope player with a traveling carnival. That is so cool all by itself, read Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes if you want more spooky calliope action. In the course of his carnival days he observed that men would lust after (and “hire”) the carnival girls on Saturday night. But he was coincidentally employed as a church organist at the other end of the carnival lot on Sunday mornings. And as you can guess, the same men were to be found at both places. What’s that old Cher song, Thieves thieves, tramps and thieves…? In his own words, “I knew then that the Christian church thrives on hypocrisy, and that man’s carnal nature will out!”

Now that was back in 1966 and of course now the church has changed and… no, erm, no. So to make an interesting and long story short, LaVey saw the need for a church that would recapture the human body and its carnal desires as objects for celebration and joy. Rather than feeling guilty about one’s own natural predispositions LaVey created a church and system of worship that would revere and uplift man as the highest among animals. Side note: LaVey owned a pet Nubian lion. Probably named it Cuddles or Mister Sassypants.

The book itself is divided into four main sections

1. Fire: The Book of Satan
2. Air: The Book of Lucifer
3. Earth: The Book of Belial
4. Water: The Book of Leviathan (including the 19 Enochian Keys)

Each section is worth reading both by themselves and as each relates to a part of the whole. There is a lot of information so I won’t attempt to condense it here in this review but there is one dominant theme throughout worthy of note: individual responsibility. If I make a mistake, that is on me, not on some imaginary deity or evil demon. So, instead of saying the devil made me do it, we have to truthfully admit that we did it, we chose to do it, whatever it was. How many times have we seen a TV evangelist or Republican politician get caught snorting meth off some twink prostitutes wang and then simply say, “I was tempted by the devil and am now forgiven through Je-hee-zus.” Right, sure, and this time you really mean it!

Let me be clear, Satanism is not a license to do whatever the fuck feels good, just the opposite actually. It’s great fun to have sex, but before you engage in this you have to consider the feelings of your partner. You need to get consent, informed consent before even considering it. You are not allowed to steal, or murder, those are things which only destroy society and yourself. These are for most people common decency, but cloaked in the imaginary guise of piety claimed as unique to whichever religion preaches them and then promptly ignores their own admontions. Don’t lie, not to yourself, not to anyone.

One of my favorite parts is where LaVey has rewritten the Beatitudes, for example: Blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the earth or 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.

Be strong, be valiant, be compassionate, seek knowledge always, detest and denounce liars and false truths. This is excellent advice for anyone, and this is an excellent book I recommend for anyone.