To his credit, LaVey did try to purge his church of those whom he considered weak, delusional, or undesirable, much to the dismay of some of the members who were forced out.
LaVey also addresses the notion of human sacrifice in his bible, citing that since man is god, then to sacrifice a man would be akin to killing a god, and thus, the self; “Inasmuch as gods are always created in man’s own image—and the average man hates what he sees in himself—the inevitable must occur: the sacrifice of the god who represents himself. The Satanist does not hate himself, nor the gods he might choose, and has no desire to destroy himself or anything for which he stands! It is for this reason he could never willfully harm an animal or a child.”30 He also points out that the practitioner who would engage in human sacrifice is probably not so disinhibited as to masturbate in front of his devotees in order to achieve the same kind of magical energy. While LaVey generally deems human sacrifice unnecessary, he does add, “The only time a Satanist would perform a human sacrifice would be if it were to serve a twofold purpose; that being to release the magician’s wrath in the throwing of a curse, and, more important, to dispose of a totally obnoxious and deserving individual.”31 It is in this area where LaVey shows some hypocrisy; he states to the media that he finds the satanic sacrifice of humans that have been conducted as “damned sickening,” yet believes that it is justified if the sacrificial person has done wrong to the magician. Therefore, his requirements concerning when it is necessary or appropriate for a Satanist to perform a human sacrifice is entirely subjective. By his own standards regarding choice of sacrifice, those whom he found “damn sickening” may have been following his very instructions (although it should be noted that the murders he was referring to were conducted in the folkloric Satanism paradigm). It appears that LaVey simultaneously approves and disapproves of human sacrifice; and despite his outline for what makes human sacrifice acceptable in his philosophy, those requirements are highly subjective and, therefore, could extend to nearly every adult.
In spite of some of the more shocking and dangerous aspects of his philosophy, under LaVey’s guidance, the Church of Satan, while surely arousing attention during instances of supposed satanic murders, could probably have avoided any direct influence in some of the criminal and disturbing instances in U.S. history, had his Satanic Bible not been published for the masses. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but, as indicated before, in the wrong hands it can be a dangerous tract. Similar to Levi’s experience with the priest seeking the Grimoire of Honorius, LaVey’s own grimoire fueled the evil and dark intentions of some very disturbed individuals.
Today the Church of Satan is still active and growing. Its current leader, Peter Gilmore, has been interviewed on the History Channel, which did a documentary on the Church of Satan. It has numerous magazine publications, including adult magazines, and many musicians, artists, book publishers, and paranormal research groups listed as members and affiliates. The church, however, has largely been quiet in modern days and has spawned several offshoot organizations such as the Temple of Set, which was founded by LaVey’s own daughter. As in any religion, there are fractures and denominations, but nearly every form of Satanism considers LaVey’s Satanic Bible required reading.
The founding of the Church of Satan can be seen as an important cultural moment in the history of the United States, and while the History Channel did do a documentary on the church, its influence will probably go largely unrecognized. The birth of the Church of Satan was, as Christian evangelists like to say, a sign of the times. It was the counterculture revolution, and San Francisco was the focal point of a new era that would begin with peace and love and end with death and hypocrisy. The “freedom” of the hippie culture eventually devolved into the Manson murders and gave way to a darker, more sinister side of the cultural revolution. LaVey and the Church of Satan were essentially ahead of the curve. Recognizing the gathering darkness, LaVey sought to tap the well and codify a belief system around it. The hippie generation eventually came to symbolize nothing more than self-indulgence to the point of self-destruction and hypocrisy. LaVey, however, sought to avoid those pitfalls through establishment of a religion that embodied the darker recesses where the baby boomer generation would eventually find themselves. The emergence of LaVey and the Church of Satan was, if anything, prophetic of the direction that the nation was heading. As LaVey wrote in the prologue to The Satanic Bible, “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!”32
THEISTIC OR SPIRITUAL SATANISM
Theistic Satanism, unlike LaVey’s Satanism, believes in an actual deity known as Satan. Similar to LaVeyan Satanism, however, Theistic Satanism belief has spawned a number of different doctrines with varying beliefs, similar to the Christian church’s fractioning into Catholicism, Protestantism, and the various subsets thereof that may choose a different style of worship or focus of belief. Theistic Satanism, as indicated before, believes in Satan as a god among many gods. It does not deny the Christian God’s existence, but feels that God is merely one of many who has cunningly coopted his worship the world over in an effort to glorify himself. The Church of Azazel, based out of New York City and largely centered around Diane Vera and her extensive webpage devoted to Theistic Satanism, writes,
The workings of Nature do not suggest a cosmic God who is interested in any kind of personal relationship with us humans. Therefore, a god who does want lots of human attention is unlikely to be the cosmic God. For this reason, the Christian god—a self-described “jealous God” who wants to be worshipped by everyone in the world—is unlikely to be the true cosmic Creator, or a true cosmic anything. Yahweh seems to be, most likely, a spirit (or perhaps a cluster of spirits rather than a single spirit) who was once just a local tribal war god of the Israelites, but who then got greedy and started demanding the attention of more and more people.33
Satan, on the other hand, has not had the same thirst for attention, but has, in fact, been the liberator of mankind. Followers of Theistic Satanism, as defined by the Church of Azazel, celebrate the gods that have brought mankind knowledge and freedom, as they are truly the ones who love humanity and desire it to advance. They celebrate these gods that have brought knowledge and understanding to humanity, even at great cost to themselves. Some of their spiritual deities include: Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man; Lilith, Adam’s first wife who refused to submit to Adam’s will and was, therefore, banished from the Garden of Eden; Ishtar, whose descent into the underworld caused all sexual activity on earth to cease, but whose return heralded the return of sexuality; Pan, god of nature whose image was coopted by Christianity as the devil—half goat, half man, and representative of the natural desires of the flesh; and Lucifer-of-Sophia, whom the church believes is the muse of enlightened spirituality. Together, these five are called the Rising Gods of the Modern West.
However, it was Satan who ultimately convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, namely, that of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the Christian tradition, this is seen as man’s downfall, which culminated in his being cast out of paradise. However, the Theistic Satanist takes a paradoxical view. Firstly, the fruit of the tree was the fruit of Life and of Knowledge of both good and evil; these are essentially what make us human, give us free will, and enable us to become more divine through our action and knowledge. While Adam and Eve may have led untroubled lives of leisure under the graces of God until they took of that fruit, theirs was essentially a life of ignorant slavery bound to God’s favor. It was not un
til they partook of the forbidden fruit that they truly became human and distinct from God. When they were cast out of paradise, Adam and Eve became truly human—subject to mortality, morality, free will, and strife. The taking of the forbidden fruit essentially enabled man to become divine in his own right; it enabled him to harness nature, to grow in intelligence, and to determine his or her own path, something that was impossible in the Garden of Eden. The Garden was, essentially, a fool’s paradise.
In essence the gods of the Church of Azazel represent the gods that would have aided mankind on his journey after being cast out of Eden. Nature had to be domesticated for food and shelter; man had to reproduce to ensure population growth; technology was necessary to ensure man’s dominance over nature and development; and women had to take their rightful place as independent heads of clans and cultures. The development of spirituality throughout the world was a way to organize civilizations and pass on knowledge. However, it was Satan who first freed man from Eden and who is, therefore, the focus of worship in the Church of Azazel.
Conversely, it is the Christian or Abrahamic God who seeks to restrain and enslave humanity to a life of devotion and worship and restraint from the very freedoms that make man a somewhat divine being—freedoms such as sexuality, technology, science, and spirituality. The Church of Azazel cites the story of the Temple of Babel as an example of God’s thwarting of man’s technological achievement. As mankind sought to build a tower to reach heaven, God confused their languages so that they could not complete the work. The Bible itself states that God is a jealous god, and the tower of Babel is representative of God preventing mankind from attaining god-like power and stature. Thus, the Church of Azazel worships and gives thanks to the muses of civilization, the gods that have enabled man to grow and truly develop, and rejects the Christian God as petty, jealous, and guilty of atrocities against those for whom his altruistic love did not extend, for example, the enemies of the Israelites in the Old Testament.
Diane Vera is the founder of the Church of Azazel, which she operates mostly online from her home in New York City. She also organizes the NYC Satanists, Luciferians, Dark Pagans, and LHP Occultists, which meet in person once a month. Diane is, at once, both a very public and very private individual. Her writings regarding her satanic beliefs are extensive, to say the least. A quick search of her name will bring up various interconnected websites devoted to polytheistic Satanism and the beliefs thereof, as well as links to her own Church of Azazel website and various other satanic organizations and chat rooms. However, simultaneously she is a very private individual; her beliefs are there for the world to see, but not her face. There are no pictures of her available on any of her many social networking sites; rather, her image is always represented by a satanic symbol such as a pentagram or the Church of Azazel symbol. There is virtually no personal information about her, and the route to obtaining an interview with her requires that you contact her through chat rooms or social networking sites, which (for me, at least) have been largely unsuccessful. It is fairly simple to understand her unwillingness to make herself available to the public, as Satanists of all types are routinely derided and verbally attacked by the Christian right and politicians. It could also draw the attention of those who seek to practice a much more sinister form of Satanism. While Vera has worked over the years to set up an actual church building in the New York City area, she has been unsuccessful due to a lack of attendees, as her audience is largely diffuse and spread throughout the country. On her website in a written history of the Church of Azazel, she recounts an attempt at forming a meeting of Church of Azazel members in 2009:
The January 2010 meeting of the Church of Azazel proto-congregation was attended by a total of 12 people—the largest number of people ever to attend any of Diane Vera’s Meetup group meetings up to that point. However, among those people in the NYC metro area who had a strong interest in the Church of Azazel (and who also had the necessary background to appreciate the Church of Azazel paradigm), too many had difficulty attending meetings regularly. In some cases, this was because they lived outside the city and had to travel two or more hours to get to meetings.34
She also attempted a meeting of Lilith devotees, which had only 15 people who were able to attend.
The Church of Azazel has been an online phenomenon, a fact that Vera cites as the main reason that Theistic Satanism has become recognized in the satanic community. Until the advent of the Internet, it was primarily LaVey’s Church of Satan and Satanic Bible that held sway over those interested in the occult and Satanism in general, while those who did, in fact, believe in a god known as Satan were relegated to the outskirts of the community. “When this website first went online in fall 2002 C.E., we Theistic Satanists were still a despised minority within the public Satanist scene. But we have grown rapidly and now seem to be the majority—at least in online forums, though we still have some catching up to do in terms of real-world organization and in terms of being noticed by scholars of new religions.”35 In essence, Theistic Satanism provided believers with the spiritual and supernatural qualities of traditional religion combined with the rejection of Christianity and the humanism of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. While LaVey’s Satanism and magical practices were designed to elevate man to god-like status and enable man to create change in the world, Theistic Satanism acknowledges that there are gods that supersede humanity and can influence humanity to their desires, thus satisfying man’s (seemingly instinctual) desire for the supernatural and mysterious. Theistic Satanism draws upon pagan magical traditions, Western mythology, and Christianity in order to understand history and religion in a new way. They have, in essence, reached back into the building blocks of Western civilization to find their gods and assert that Christianity became the dominant Western religion only through force and the systematic takeover of pagan traditions. Their supernatural beliefs appear quite similar to those of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a famed group of pagan worshippers who made headlines in the early 1900s, and whose most infamous member, Aleister Crowley, went on to be dubbed “the wickedest man alive.”
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn believed in a pantheon of different gods or supernatural forces that were at work in the world and that these gods could be called upon through ritual and magic. At the height of its popularity, the Golden Dawn boasted such influential members as authors W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen, and Algernon Blackwood, all of whom became classic authors; Yeats was considered to be quite possibly the greatest poet of the twentieth century. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was highly influential in the occult world and celebrated similar gods as Theistic Satanists, such as the nature god, Pan. However, Golden Dawn never explicitly acknowledged Satan as a god. The Church of Azazel, while recognizing and revering several gods, shows its devotion to Satan as the ultimate deity.
An interesting side note to the Church of Azazel is its political beliefs, which Vera lists as being inherent to membership in the church. The Church of Azazel is a politically left-wing organization, devoted to keeping the Christian fundamentalist right as far out of politics as possible in order to ensure that any and all religions are allowed to practice their faith unimpeded by paranoid religious fanatics that associate any form of Satanism with folkloric Satanism. This is an interesting facet of Theistic Satanism as opposed to LaVeyan Satanism, which has been coopted by far right-wing and neo-Nazi organizations, and largely advocates for a military state.
The Internet has been a boon for many belief systems, and Theistic Satanism and those who believe in it have taken full advantage of this ability to reach a wide variety of people across the globe. Their reach has been fairly extensive, although “churches” still remain just online communities, chat rooms, blogs, and videos, for the most part.
A much more visible individual in the Theistic Satanist community is Melissa Hudson, or, as she is more commonly known online, Venus Satanas. Venus is a Theistic or Spiritual Satanist who began her immersion into satanic beliefs
in 1992 at the age of thirteen when she read The Church of Satan by Blanche Barton. “I realised that there are people out there that worship Satan, and Satanism seemed like the path for me. I was attracted to it for its self-empowering qualities, and how Satanism lets you live your life the way you want.” Raised by her grandparents, she had never been indoctrinated into any traditional religion. “We were sent to nice schools and we got a decent education, but they never forced Christianity on us, so when I found Satanism, it wasn’t out of rebellion.” Her grandmother actually encouraged her to research the subject and helped Venus write a letter to an organization in Florida, who then referred her to a group that accepted teenage members, known as the Order of the White Wolf. She sent them some of her artwork, and they hired her to design the cover of their magazine, though they could only pay her in music CDs by bands dedicated to Satanism. “I used those recordings in a private ritual that I made, so that I could create a pact with Satan and dedicate myself to the path of Satanism.”
She has since become a frequent and popular online presence in the satanic community and a highly motivated entrepreneur who seemingly understands the value of spectacle and showmanship that LaVey advocated and Vera avoids. She has over 15,000 fans and followers of her blogs, videos, and chat rooms. There are numerous online videos of her discussing the merits and particulars of Theistic Satanism; she has an attractive and enchanting video presence that she utilizes quite well and probably attracts a number of male followers. She has come to occupy a niche in the satanic community; she is a leader and professor of Spiritual Satanism with a flare for marketing. Her online website enables individuals to enjoy a live, intimate striptease pole dance from Venus to the music of Valgud, a satanic band that operates out of Texas; it also enables people to talk with her and other members of the community. Spiritualsatanist.com offers both free and premium memberships that come with a variety of perks, though it should be noted that the site is primarily geared toward Satanists. Venus, as Melissa, is also a talented artist who focuses on nature portraits and sells her work and prints online. Interestingly enough, her artist profile lists her art career as having begun in 1992, the same year that she became a Satanist.
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