-Caveat Lector-
An article from:
Gnosis , No.50, Winter 1999
Lumen Foudation
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Many other interesting articles in this issue.
Om
K
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Has the Church of Satan Gone to Hell?
THE RISE AND FALL OF ONE OF THE MOST FEARED - AND ONE OF THE MOST ENTERTAINING
- RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD.
Banners hang from either side of the stage. They read "666." Five guys appear
in the blackness, to the taped strains of the piano theme from the '70s film
The Exorcist. Somebody cues the smoke machine. The lights blaze up to reveal
an almost comically sinister guitar assault, as the band furiously plunges
into riffs built around a single chord and the singer screams throaty,
unintelligible lyrics. Every member of the band wears at least one spiked
wristband. The group is called Infestation. They radiate pure evil.
There are perhaps 30 people in the bar. A handful of heads twitch to
the
speed metal rhythms. A young bottle-blonde stands by herself in tank top and
tennis shoes, head bobbing, eyes fixed on the musicians. Every-body seems to
wear a band logo � Altamont, Nausea, Iron Maiden, Metallica, King Diamond.
After one song chugs to a halt, the drummer gives the devil horns to the
assembled. Somebody yells, "Rock on with a violent fury!"
"Fuck you!" answers the lead singer, and the band roars into another song.
John Corbett has been producing the Tuesday night club called "Lucifer's
Hammer" at a San Francisco venue known as the Covered Wagon for a few months.
Recently, Corbett says, he threw a signing release party for the new book
Lords of Chaos, by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind, a compendium of the
satanic black metal music scene in Scandinavia. That night, he says, the
Covered Wagon was packed with 300 sweaty kids wearing satanic Baphomet symbols
and pentagrams.
But if Satan seems well-represented in this sardine pit, across the fog-
shrouded city, in a paint-peeling black Victorian, Lucifer's reign is in
question.
There, at the home of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, the future rides
confusion on the flock. A year after LaVey died of heart failure, the
organization he started in 1966 stands, so to speak, at a fork in the road.
A protracted, nasty divorce settlement has left LaVey's scions little in the
way of a legacy. LaVey's daughter and his longtime companion are wrestling
each other in a San Francisco courtroom for the remnants of his estate. The
infamous black house � the headquarters for world Satanism � is for sale and
could be demolished.
And down in the flaming bowels of the netherworld, as he toasts the arrival of
Anton LaVey, Satan himself is no doubt wondering what in the hell happened to
the first public church in history to bear his name.
While a fair portion of America's youth migrated to the Haight-Ashbury in the
mid- and late-1960s to seek enlightenment from a tab of acid, other young
people were making a very different pilgrimage to the living room of a home on
California Street. On April 30, 1966, Anton Szandor LaVey signed away his soul
forever and became leader of the most feared � and perhaps the most
entertaining � religion in the world.
The news media quickly accepted LaVey into the pantheon of great San Francisco
characters, at least in part because of the background he claimed. Before
founding the Church, LaVey asserted, he had worked as a psychic investigator,
a police photographer, a burlesque organist, and a lion tamer for the Clyde
Beatty Circus. He was, he said, briefly a lover of Marilyn Monroe's. As a
child, the legend went, he played oboe with the San Francisco Ballet Symphony.
And for a long time, there was no one who questioned the legend.
In the late '50s and early '60s, LaVey gave weekly lectures at his home on
eccentric topics, among them vampires, cannibalism, and lycanthropy (humans
who take the form of wolves). The building itself, he claimed, was once a
brothel operated by Barbary Coast madam Mammy Pleasant. Regulars called
themselves the "Magic Circle." The group included aging socialites, sci-fi
writer Forrest J. Ackerman, filmmaker Kenneth Anger, realtor Donald Werby and
his wife Willy, who was heiress to the Chock Full o' Nuts coffee fortune, and
a dildo manufacturer. Members of the group claimed to have once sampled
portions of a human leg, prepared by LaVey's wife, Diane, and obtained from a
doctor acquaintance.
During the first year of the Church, LaVey conducted a satanic wedding, a
satanic funeral on Treasure Island (in cooperation with the U.S. Navy), and a
satanic baptism of his young daughter, Zeena. His pet lion Togare appeared
regularly in Herb Caen's gossip column. He ran ads in newspapers for a
Witches' Workshop that taught women how to manipulate the opposite sex. To
boost the ranks, Church members scattered phony dollar bills around the city,
with an invitation to join the Infernal Empire
printed on the reverse sides.
The Church was brazenly and publicly devoted to selfish hedonism. In 1968,
LaVey opened up his home to a documentary film crew. Satanic rituals were
staged for the cameras, with a nude woman serving as the altar. LaVey sat in
his lair, cocktail clinking in one hand, and announced slyly:
"It occurred to me for many, many years that there was a large gray area
between psychiatry and religion that was untapped. And no religion had ever
been based on man's carnal needs or his fleshly pursuits. All religions are
based on abstinence rather than indulgence. And all religions therefore have
to be based on fear. Well, we don't feel that fear is necessary to base a
religion on."
In 1969, The Satanic Bible, LaVey's collection of Nietzschean common-sense
philosophies, was published; it has gone on to sell nearly a million copies.
(Sales remain steady, with a noticeable rise every Halloween, according to an
Avon Books publicist.) The Satanic Rituals appeared the next year, followed by
The Compleat Witch, both of which also remain in print. (A copy of The Satanic
Bible is exhibited under glass in Moscow's Russian Museum of Atheism.)
Celebrities � from Sammy Davis Jr. to Lawrence Harvey and Jayne Mansfield
-joined the fun. LaVey consulted on Hollywood horror films. Supposedly he
owned a fleet of automobiles, luxurious estates in Italy, Bavaria, and
Switzerland, and three oceangoing salvage, ships.
The Church eventually expanded into a network of grottoes across the United
States, but LaVey � believing that members were treating the organization as a
meeting lodge rather than living their lives according to satanic principles �
shut the entire system down. Several followers left to form the rival Temple
of Set, and LaVey went into seclusion for many years.
He resurfaced in the 1990s, granting media interviews and hosting young
cognoscenti at his home for late-night discussions. To them he was known
simply as "Doctor." This next generation of the curious would gobble up the
new releases of his books and albums, on which he plays organ.
After years of heart problems, LaVey died on Oct. 30, 1997, leaving unfinished
projects ranging from a collection of essays to a novel and another album of
organ music. His obituary was carried in newspapers worldwide.
Three months and a day after Anton LaVey died, his daughter Karla filed a
petition for probate, seeking to administer his estate, such as it was.
Despite all the talk of mansions and ships, at his death the total value of
Anton LaVey's holdings � the legacy of the Black
Pope, the most evil and materialistic man in the world � came to $60,000,
adjusted for annual book royalties. Several years of divorce proceedings and
an ensuing bankruptcy had cleaned him out.
Less than two weeks later, LaVey's longtime lover, Blanche Barton, his
biographer and mother of his young child, filed an objection to Karla's
petition, providing the court with a copy of a handwritten will signed with
LaVey's distinctive forked-tail signature. Dated 1995, the one-paragraph
document appointed Barton as executor of the estate, and designated their
toddler son, Xerxes, as sole beneficiary.
Karla LaVey filed an objection to Barton's objection. Karla claimed,
essentially, that the alleged will was a fraud. Karla's filing noted that the
will was dated a few days after Anton LaVey left the hospital, where he had
lain in a coma for three days. She suggested Barton had falsely informed LaVey
that his daughter had abandoned him. Karla's filing also alleged that Barton
had exerted undue pressure on LaVey to make the will, which, she asserted,
contradicted her father's long-stated opposition to the very notion of wills.
Barton denied all of Karla's allegations. The case is pending. So is the
furor over the future of the Church of Satan.
Anton LaVey's church has long been besieged by bickering former adherents who
insist that he was a fraud and that his institution does not worship the devil
properly. With LaVey's passing, these quarrels have become a playground
shoving match that could be seen as a fight over the future direction of
Satanism. A key element of the ongoing spat seems to involve the complete
discrediting of Anton LaVey,
The people who seek to debunk LaVey have their own reasons for doing so, but
all agree with these basic conclusions:
1. The Church had its heyday in the late '60s and early '70s, and has been
going downhill ever since.
2. Anton LaVey fabricated much of his supposedly colorful past.
3. The Church of Satan has been in financial straits for years.
4. The future of LaVey's Church is very much in question.
Michael Aquino began corresponding with LaVey while a psychological operative
for the U.S. Army stationed in the jungles of Vietnam. Aquino returned to the
United States and was soon a high-ranking priest and editor of the Church's
Cloven Hoof newsletter. His distinctive appearance � he had a prominent
widow's peak and darkly accented eyebrows � was further enhanced by a small
"666" tattooed on his scalp.
As the years passed, Aquino grew more and more frustrated by LaVey's
administrative policies. In Aquino's eyes, LaVey had
always refused to believe in Satan as an actual supernatural being. Now the
high priest was selling priesthoods in the
Church for cold cash. This undermined the true purpose of Satanism, Aquino
thought, and reinforced the ongoing reputation
of the Church as a farcical sideshow.
In 1975, Aquino left with many Church members and priests (some say 28, he
claims 100) to form the Temple of Set, a, tightly organized religion that
revolved around an Egyptian deity on whom the Hebraic Satan was supposedly
based.
Church of Satan members snort at Aquino's accusations, and describe the
detail-oriented Aquino as emblematic of the type of person Anton LaVey was
more than happy to get rid of. Oregon painter and sculptor Rex Church is one
of the oldest and highest-ranking officials in the Church of Satan. To him,
Aquino is inconsequential.
"This guy's greatest curse was that Anton LaVey completely ignored him,"
Church maintains. "And he couldn't stand that. Even to this day."
While declaring the Church of Satan extinct, Aquino has kept an abnormally
keen interest in the life of Anton LaVey. His own biographical history of
LaVey and the Church, which he mails out to interested parties, runs to more
than 800 pages.
"My estrangement from Anton LaVey caused me intense personal pain," writes
Aquino. "For six years I had regarded him as a friend, mentor, and ultimately
'Devil-father'� bond of affection and respect clearly as profound and
meaningful to him as to me. That an impasse of principles should have brought
about the destruction of this bond, replacing it with an almost pathological
hatred on his part and an impatient exasperation on mine, seemed the harshest
of ironies."
He has gone out of his way to make public court documents that reflect
negatively on LaVey's personal life, in cluding restraining orders, divorce
proceedings, and LaVey's bankruptcy filing. (In response, ex-Set members and
LaVey supporters post unflattering documents on the Internet about Aquino's
own courtroom appearances, related to a 1987 child molestation scandal. Aquino
was investigated twice but never charged.)
Peter Gilmore, the Church of Satan's highest-ranking priest and editor of its
Black Flame magazine, says that the Temple of Set is in no way pertinent to
the future of Satanism. As Gilmore remembers the situation, LaVey kept Aquino
at a distance, uninterested in providing him such a father figure, but Aquino
was obsessed.
"The behavior of Aquino over the years," Gilmore says, "has been the classic
'woman spurned' kind of behavior, this weird, bitchy, obsessive attacking of
[LaVey]."
Anton LaVey's youngest daughter, Zeena, is sultry and erudite and, like her
father, stubborn as a mule. She is also his cruelest critic.
The platinum blonde had an unusual childhood, to say the least. She was
baptized in a satanic ceremony and gave birth to a son before she was old
enough to drive. In the mid-1980s, when she was in her early twenties, she
began acting as high priestess and spokesperson for the Church, appearing on
many talk shows and contributing a new introduction for a reprint of her
father's book The Satanic Witch. She considered a career in Hollywood. It
seemed she might succeed her father as leader of the religion, but in 1990 she
renounced all association with the Church of Satan and LaVey.
"While I have no regrets in my battle with the forces of ignorance, and my own
unswerving dedication of my religion has only grown," she wrote in a letter to
Michael Aquino, "I could no longer defend such an ungrateful and unworthy
individual as the so-called Black Pope.... The cosmic cards are stacked
against him."
After her father's death, Zeena and her husband, Nikolas Schreck, now both
priests in the Temple of Set, prepared a volatile document called "Anton
LaVey: Legend and Reality." The document is most persuasive when it refers to
the research of Lawrence Wright, a veteran reporter for Texas Monthly and The
New Yorker who investigated LaVey's life in 1991.
Wright specialized in writing about American religions. On assignment for
Rolling Stone to profile LaVey, Wright discovered a host of inconsistencies in
the legend LaVey had woven around himself.
Wright was unable to confirm, among other claims, Anton LaVey's rendezvous
with Marilyn Monroe, his Clyde Beatty circus affiliation, his job as a San
Francisco police photographer, or the existence of any ballet symphony that
LaVey might have played for. (Other sources claim that they have in fact seen
a Clyde Beatty circus program, an orchestra brochure, and police photographs
that bear LaVey's name. They also confirm the existence of love letters
between LaVey and Monroe and Mansfield.)
Wright did manage to document that LaVey was born Howard Stanton Levey (on
April 11, 1930, according to Blanche Barton). His parents were Mike and
Gertrude, who moved from Chicago to the Bay Area, where his father worked as a
liquor distributor. And he was definitely not wealthy. According to 1962
divorce paperwork, Anton LaVey's sole income at that time was the $29.91 a
week he earned playing organ at the Lost Weekend club in San Francisco's
Sunset District.
Speaking from his home in Texas, Wright says he found LaVey very intriguing,
but was stunned at the blatant embellishments.
"Being such a conspicuous and widely hated figure as he was, it surprised the
hell out of me that nobody'd ever checked up on him," Wright says." He had
gotten very careless. When I met him, he had been essentially gulling
journalists for years, without any consequences."
Wright recalls that the Church of Satan appeared to be largely finished as an
organization even by 1991. "Whatever it had been in the past, it certainly
wasn't when I went to meet him," Wright says. "I think he was very glad to
meet my expense account."
LaVey's daughter Zeena combines Wright's conclusions with Aquino's findings
and her own investigations to list some blistering allegations about her
father.
For instance, she says, the black house on California Street � the infamous
headquarters of the Church of Satan � was not a former Mammy Pleasant brothel
at all, but merely the home of LaVey's parents, who transferred ownership to
him and his wife Diane in 1971.
According to "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality," the founding of the Church was
not a flash of satanic destiny, but a business and publicity vehicle designed
by LaVey and a publicist friend.
The myth-busting continues The Satanic Bible was conceived by Avon Books to
cash in on the occult faddism of the 1960s, and LaVey paraphrased much of it
from books by Aleister Crowley and Ayn Rand and an obscure writing from 1896.
According to an interview with the original producer of the film Rosemary's
Baby, LaVey was not technical adviser, as he claimed, and not a single member
of the cast or crew has ever mentioned LaVey's involvement. The Church's boast
of having hundreds of thousands of members was wildly exaggerated; membership
was never more than 300. According to family members, LaVey was not a
millionaire possessing many homes and cars, but had relied on the generosity
of friends and relatives since the mid-1970s. LaVey's supposed affair with
Jayne Mansfield was a stunt arranged by publicists.
When it comes to debunking her father, Zeena spares not a single grisly
detail. She insists that he forced many of his female disciples into
prostitution. She even attempts to discredit his reputation as an animal
lover, describing one night from her childhood when she woke to discover LaVey
beating the bloodied face of her German shepherd puppy with a board.
And as a final antitribute to her father, the day after his death Zeena
Schreck appeared on Bob Larson's radio program, a daily religious broadcast
synicated nationwide from Denver, Colorado.
The red-haired Larson figures into the Church of Satan in an odd way. For
years, he has boosted his ratings by inviting Church members onto his
programs. In 1995, he even hosted a "Satanic Summit," flying several priests
to Denver for a series of one-on-one television interviews. Larson's debates
with Satanists have served both to scare his Christian audience and to promote
the Church of Satan, which tapes the same programs and distributes copies for
its own use.
Zeena had been a frequent guest on Larson's show. On the day after her father
died, she took to the air once again, this time giving Larson's listeners a
startling bit of information: she had performed a ritual and put a death curse
on her father, and it had finally killed him.
Despite the legal wrangling over the LaVey estate and the almost ritualistic
attacks of detractors, the Church of Satan's governing Council of Nine remains
supremely confident of the organization's future. They are also supremely
dismissive of his daughter Zeena.
"She's an ass," declares Jeff Nagy, a Stockton businessman and Church of Satan
priest. Like many in the church, Nagy believes Zeena turned on LaVey in hopes
of making herself famous. "He was definitely saddened by it, don't let anybody
kid you. That's flesh and blood."
Peter Gilmore says Zeena and Schreck were Church spokespeople at one time, and
anticipated taking over its reins, but when LaVey decided not to hand it over
to them, "They left in a huff."
According to Church members, it will take more than negative publicity and the
death of the founder to derail the 32-year momentum of Anton LaVey. "We are
just as focused now as we have ever been on reaching the goals of the Church
of Satan as put forth," says Rex Church. "We're also realists. It's the idea
that we are left behind for other men to pick up and use as tools for forging
the future. That all sounds probably fascist and magnanimous, but that's what
we really feel."
Los Angeles rock poster artist Chris "Coop" Cooper, himself a priest in the
Church, insists that as long as LaVey's books are still in print, the religion
will never die.
"All that 'Who's gonna take over?' Honestly, who cares? I really don't think
that's important. It's a portable feast, man. All you have to do is to go to
B. Dalton's and buy The Satanic Bible. It's all there. If that loser Jesus
could keep a church going for 2000 years, I think Doctor can certainly fucking
compete with that!"
Gilmore insists the Church has been vigorously working on improving its
hierarchy and recruiting quality people for the priesthood. The absence of the
founding leader will not create a problem, he says.
"Everyone has renewed their commitment to an even stronger degree than when
Anton LaVey was here, because they now know that they can't turn to him for
the final thing. That it's on all of our shoulders. I'm so proud of everybody
for this, that they're willing to pick up the burden and take it even further.
That to me is just beautiful."
But simple realities � financial and otherwise � suggest the Church of Satan
may be headed south, so to speak.
"There's no future for that church," journalist Lawrence Wright says. "Unless
some other person comes along who can spin out the same kind of charisma that
LaVey was able to do." That someone, many Church officials hope, will be
LaVey's companion and biographer, Blanche Barton.
The black Victorian stands out as if it were the Addams Family mansion, a rude
interruption in the rows of pastelcolored homes that are its neighbors. An
eight-foot-tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, intended to
discourage vandals, seals the house from the sidewalk. The windows are
completely shuttered.
Since 1993 the home has been owned by hotelier Donald Werby, coowner of
Grosvenor Properties and a longtime LaVey friend from the old days of the
Magic Circle. Werby paid $240,000 for the building as part of Anton LaVey's
bankruptcy arrangement; the money was used to satisfy a divorce settlement of
nearly a half-million dollars.
In a city that cherishes its eccentric tradition, the structure may have value
as a historical landmark. Rumors have circulated that shock-rocker and Church
priest Marilyn Manson might purchase the building to preserve its legacy, but
they remain unconfirmed. To Church members, the black house constitutes a
shrine, the site of the world's first satanic wedding, a monument of ultimate
religious rebellion.
On the local real estate market, though, the black house is just a dump. The
chain-link fence could be uprooted, the secret panels could be nailed shut,
and the devil-themed wall murals could be painted over � but according to
court documents, the 1905 building has deteriorated beyond repair. It has no
heat. All plumbing and electrical wiring is original and substandard. A
representative from Grosvenor informs potential buyers the property is
definitely for sale � but renovation is out of the question. From Grosvenor's
point of view, it's more cost-effective to demolish the black house and build
something new.
But the black house is not history yet. On a recent Friday evening, Blanche
Barton answers the door and ushers me into the former living room, long since
converted into a satanic ritual chamber. Under a blood-red ceiling are pieces
of antique furniture, including a grand piano, a church organ, a human coffin,
and a rocking chair that supposedly belonged to Rasputin. The brick fireplace
altar, upon which nude women once reclined, now displays a small photograph of
Anton LaVey. It seems a shame that the black walls, with the strange energy
that emanates from them, could soon be leveled.
Blanche offers a sofa and sits in a chair, reportedly once owned by Ben
Franklin. Blonde and in her mid-30s, wearing a small Baphomet pin on her white
blouse, she appears as relaxed as any mother of an energetic four-year-old can
be.
She says she discovered The Satanic Bible as a teenager living in San Diego,
and kept it in mind through college. She met Anton LaVey while vacationing in
the Bay Area with her family in 1984, and, she says, has been with him and the
Church ever since.
Court documents list Karla LaVey as a resident of the house, but Blanche says
Karla recently moved Out, and she would rather not discuss it any further.
On the efforts of Michael Aquino and Zeena Schreck to discredit LaVey, Blanche
can only chuckle: "They have to let go! All you can really do is laugh at
them. It's what the Doctor used to call 'satanic dismay'."
In most families, a curse meant to kill a loved one would be cause for
concern, but Blanche doesn't raise an eyebrow in response to Zeena's final
ritual.
"He lived his life in broad strokes," she shrugs. If one lives a life of high
drama, she suggests, one must be prepared to receive back what one has offered
up.
As conversation shifts from philosophers to literature and film noir,
Blanche's demeanor is pleasant, but it includes a confidence that hearkens
back to the carnival midway. No matter how long it's been since LaVey died, or
what happens to the black house, Blanche Barton says, the Church of Satan will
always be around.
She has, after all, learned from the best. Perhaps she does deserve to be his
successor.
On the way out the door, Xerxes the toddler, who is playing on the steps with
a Dr. Seuss-character hand puppet, looks up and exclaims cheerfully, "My mom
and I have a humongous house." o
Jack Boulware is the author of Sex American Style: An Illustrated Romp through
the Golden Age of Heterosexuality (Feral House) and the forthcoming SF Bizarro
(St. Martin's Press). He is a staff writer for the San Francisco paper SF
Weekly from which this article is reprinted with permission.
=====
Planet of Lost Souls
Thirty-Two Years of Satan in Popular Culture
1966
On April 30 � the occult holiday of Walpurgisnacht the Church of Satan is
formally organized at Anton LaVey's home in San Francisco's Richmond District.
1967
The world's press descends upon: (1) a satanic wedding at the LaVey home,
uniting journalist John Raymond and New York socialite Judith Case; (2) a
satanic funeral of Navy machinist-repairman third class Edward Olsen at
Treasure Island; LaVey recites the eulogy, a Navy musician plays "Taps", (3) a
satanic baptism for LaVey's three-year-old daughter Zeena, who chews gum
throughout.
Hollywood bombshell and Church of Satan priestess Jayne Mansfield dies in a
car accident along with boyfriend Sam Brody, with Mansfield almost completely
decapitated. Anton LaVey feels guilty; he had put a curse on Brody.
1968
Release of Rosemary's Baby by Roman Polanski, starring John Cassavetes, Ruth
Gordon, and Mia Farrow, who gets impregnated by, and delivers a child of,
Satan. LaVey claims he plays the Devil (available evidence suggests he had no
role in the film) and says it is "the best paid commercial for Satanism since
the Inquisition." At the San Francisco premiere, LaVey, witches, and warlocks
arrive in a late-model black hearse.
Hippie girl Susan Atkins performs in a Witches' Workshop in North Beach,
conducted by Anton LaVey. Tripping heavily on LSD, she can't emerge from her
coffin; opening curtain is delayed fifteen minutes. (Atkins eventually joins
the Manson Family, is convicted of stabbing actress Sharon Tate and her unborn
baby to death, and later publishes a confessional, Child of Satan, Child of
God.)
Alleged beginnings of the heavy metal devil hand sign, with extended pinkie
and index finger. Claimed Spinal Tap member Nigel Tufnel: "It didn't mean
anything then. It was just like a little pantomime show. Like working with a
hand puppet and it falls off � that's what you've got, two little fingers
sticking up in the air, right? Then other people started making it into the
devil."
1969
With friend in tow, socialite Pat Montandon knocks on the door of LaVey's
house, asking for a love potion. According to Montandon's book The Intruders,
LaVey provides a recipe for "Lovey Sauce," a combination of instant coffee,
vodka, vanilla bean, and mandrake root. He shows the women a human skeleton.
Spooked, they leave.
The Satanic Bible is published; it includes the legendary "Nine Satanic
Statements," which LaVey later says he wrote out in 20 minutes while listening
to Chopin.
During a Rolling Stones performance of "Sympathy for the Devil" at a concert
in Altamont, California, a Hell's Angels biker stabs an audience member to
death, and the murder is captured on camera. Freaked-out Mick Jagger takes to
wearing a crucifix around his neck.
Anton LaVey appears on Johnny Carson's seventh-anniversary "Tonight Show."
Performs satanic ritual to summon success for coming year.
1970
British heavy metal band Black Sabbath releases first two albums, with
frequent mentions of Lucifer and other unholy topics. The first song on the
first album opens with rainstorm and church bell sounds, setting the standard
for all future pseudo-evil headbangers.
1971
Release of fourth album by Led Zeppelin; originally untitled, later called IV.
When "Stairway to Heaven" is played backward, Robert Plant's voice supposedly
says, "It's my sweet Satan ... Oh I will sing because I live with Satan."
1972
Michael Aquino and Karla LaVey attend a Sammy Davis Jr. performance in San
Carlos, California. Davis is presented with a second-degree certificate,
medallion, and membership card for the Church of Satan; that night he wears
his Baphomet onstage for the entire show.
Last episode of ABCs prime-time sitcom "Bewitched," about a young, married
witch named Samantha and a bevy of her witch and warlock relatives.
1973
Release of The Exorcist, the X-rated, Oscar-winning adaptation of the William
Peter Blatty novel. Linda Blair is possessed by the devil. Green pea soup.
Three-hundred-sixty-degree head-spinning. "Your mother sucks cocks in hell."
1975
Release of The Devil's Rain, story of a cult of devil worshippers starring
Ernest Borgnine, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, and John Travolta. Anton LaVey
is on-set technical adviser.
Michael Aquino leaves Church of Satan and forms the Temple of Set. San
Francisco Yellow Pages now features two listings under heading of "Churches �
Satanic."
1976
Rumors run wild that the Eagles are promoting Satanism through the song "Hotel
California." The song and album are supposedly so named because Church of
Satan headquarters is a "hotel" on California Street. Lyrical evidence: "So I
called up the Captain [Anton LaVey], and said please bring me my wine [satanic
sacrament]; he said we haven't had that spirit here since 1969 [the year The
Satanic Bible was published]." Also the album's photo of a hotel lobby
features a bald figure on a balcony, rumored to be LaVey.
1978
Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 165-13, US. Army Handbook for Chaplains,
includes an entry for the Church of Satan: "Dietary Laws or Restrictions:
None." Church is called "essentially a human potential movement."
Rumors circulate that the name of the band Kiss is actually an acronym for
"Kids in Service to Satan."
1980
Rumors surface that the Procter & Gamble moon and stars logo incorporates
satanic imagery. Company spends several years battling false link to devil,
eventually changes its logo.
Publication of Michelle Remembers, the story of a woman who, while in
psychotherapy, recalled hideous childhood memories of satanic rituals, sexual
abuse, and the slaughter and eating of babies.
1983
Charges filed against staff of the McMartin Preschool in
Manhattan Beach, responding to complaints of sexual molestation. Investigation
turns up stories of satanic rituals, filming of kiddie porn, and the cooking
and eating of babies. The case is the longest U.S. criminal trial in history,
and costs the state of California $15 million. No convictions have ever been
obtained.
1986
Name of U.S. Senate bill changed from 666 to 649, supposedly because of
legislator concern.
An Ohio evangelist proclaims that the "A Horse Is a Horse" theme from the
"Mister Ed" TV series, when played backward, becomes "Someone sung this song
for Satan." Seventy-five teenagers stage a burning of "Mister Ed" records.
1987
Tipper Gore, congressional wife and author of Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated
Society, gets tough on the satanic heavy metal bands: "This childhood
fascination with the occult has led to one of the most sickening marketing
gimmicks in history."
1990
The Chicago Tribune reports that a woman in Villa Park, Illinois, is
campaigning against Halloween, insisting that the holiday leads children into
Satanism. (According to reporter Eric Zorn, the woman is " considered an idiot
by many of her neighbors.")
1992
Publication of LaVey's book The Devil's Notebook, his first new writings in
over twenty years. Publisher Feral House reports a significant increase in
mail from people in the military
Beginning of arson attacks on Norwegian churches; according to the 1998 book
Lords of Chaos, at least 45 attacks occurred. Roughly a third are connected to
the black metal satanic music scene.
1993
Publication of Selling Satan, written by two Christian journalists, exposing
fraudulent claims of seminar leader Mike Warnke, "America's Number One
Christian Comedian." Instrumental in creating the nation's "Satanic Panic,"
Warnke had often appeared on talk shows professing his previous life as
satanic high priest with six-inch fingernails.
1994
While on tour in San Francisco, shock-rocker Marilyn Manson gets an invitation
to meet with Anton LaVey at his house. At end of visit, Manson is made a
priest in the Church of Satan; he poses for a photo with LaVey in front of a
large Baphomet. (Photo is later reprinted in Manson's 1998 autobiography The
Long Hard Road Out of Hell; the New York Times best-seller is dedicated to the
memory of Anton LaVey)
1998
Publication of posthumous LaVey essay collection, Satan Speaks! Introduction
by Marilyn Manson.
�J.B.
pp. 24-33
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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