T
TheBigQ
Guest
One man , in my opinion at least, who was truly “evil” and who did a lot of damage to peoples’ faith, including my own at one time, was this Anton Szandor LaVey. (Real name: Howard Stanton Levy, a Jewish-born atheist / anti-theist).
In or around 1966 he penned the book “The Satanic Bible”. His brand of “Satanism”, when actually studied closely, was really not much more than a quasi-philosophical mishmash of ideas gleaned from sources as diverse as Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Scottish occultist Aleister Crowley, the secret rites of Freemasonry, and many other root sources. Basically it’s more of a life philosophy, antithetical to Christianity’s basic philosophies no doubt , wherein one places oneself first and foremost above everything and everyone else (except those very few in one’s life whom one might choose to actually care about , & with whom the caring is mutual ), and one sheds entirely anything like the so-called “Judeo-Christian guilt”. The actual “Church of Satan” membership numbers are unknown, and it’s probably greatly dissipated since LaVey / Levy’s death in '97, but I don’t think it’s fallen apart altogether. The real members occasionally organize top-secret “covens” or “grottos” in various areas , urban and suburban ; you might be surprised at where you could find actual “practicing Satanists”, or at least practicing LaVeyan Satanists, and what they might actually be like ; take my word, I have met some. Think “Rosemary’s Baby”. Very strange folks indeed, but never what you’d expect to be “Satanists”. ( I stress the word “LaVeyan” before the word “Satanists” because other so-called “self-styled” Satanists tend to be the types who do the really nasty sick/ stupid types of things like harming small animals, vandalizing Christian cemeteries or churches, etc, etc, thinking that they’re being really “evil”). In all fairness to the “LaVeyans” , real LaVeyan Satanists are not supposed to actually physically harm anything or anyone, * or * themselves.
To my mind however, LaVey was really “evil” , much more so than the stereotypical pot-smoking heavy metal-jamming moron who “sacrifices” a squirrel in the forest preserve, in that LaVey, as I said, did alot to derail the faith of alot of people, and probably mostly people who were at vulnerable ages, or “stages”, at the time when they came into contact with his writings. And his writings are still on the shelfs at Borders, Barnes & Nobles, etc etc, still out there to catch the occasional (or who knows, maybe not so occasional; they do seem to sell fast at my local bookstore) “lost soul”.
I am basically of the opinion that the man was much more a charlatan than anything else, who “peaked” during the late 60’s , early 70’s, primarily in and around SanFrancisco, and from there cruised straight downhill until his main body of “parishioners”, or at least “followers”, usually ended up consisting mostly of drug-addled and / or in some cases seriously mentally-ill teenagers and young adults. Those were usually the ones who addressed the Devil , in the rituals described in LaVey’s books for example, as though they were actually supposed to be praying literally to a horned hooved trident-holding demonic deity who resided in a literal Hell and would grant them “special powers” if they paid homage to him here on Earth. LaVey himself, and the “true” LaVeyan Satanists who really “got” LaVey’s thinking, so to speak, were in all actuality really just atheists / anti-theists, as I said, believing no more in a (literal) Satan than in a (literal) God. They perform(ed) their “rituals”, when they do / did so, more as an elaborate form of “psychodrama”, per se, as opposed to a literal 17th or 18th century style “black Mass” for instance.
In any case, whichever way one slices it, this was , in my opinion truly an “evil” man. Not because he tried so hard to consciously cultivate that image, but because he , at least I believe, led so many other people, and often (as I said) so many quite vulnerable people, deliberately astray from any kind of legitimate religous faith and gave them nothing of equal value in return to fill the void that remained (in some cases probably still does remain ) in their lives.
In or around 1966 he penned the book “The Satanic Bible”. His brand of “Satanism”, when actually studied closely, was really not much more than a quasi-philosophical mishmash of ideas gleaned from sources as diverse as Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Scottish occultist Aleister Crowley, the secret rites of Freemasonry, and many other root sources. Basically it’s more of a life philosophy, antithetical to Christianity’s basic philosophies no doubt , wherein one places oneself first and foremost above everything and everyone else (except those very few in one’s life whom one might choose to actually care about , & with whom the caring is mutual ), and one sheds entirely anything like the so-called “Judeo-Christian guilt”. The actual “Church of Satan” membership numbers are unknown, and it’s probably greatly dissipated since LaVey / Levy’s death in '97, but I don’t think it’s fallen apart altogether. The real members occasionally organize top-secret “covens” or “grottos” in various areas , urban and suburban ; you might be surprised at where you could find actual “practicing Satanists”, or at least practicing LaVeyan Satanists, and what they might actually be like ; take my word, I have met some. Think “Rosemary’s Baby”. Very strange folks indeed, but never what you’d expect to be “Satanists”. ( I stress the word “LaVeyan” before the word “Satanists” because other so-called “self-styled” Satanists tend to be the types who do the really nasty sick/ stupid types of things like harming small animals, vandalizing Christian cemeteries or churches, etc, etc, thinking that they’re being really “evil”). In all fairness to the “LaVeyans” , real LaVeyan Satanists are not supposed to actually physically harm anything or anyone, * or * themselves.
To my mind however, LaVey was really “evil” , much more so than the stereotypical pot-smoking heavy metal-jamming moron who “sacrifices” a squirrel in the forest preserve, in that LaVey, as I said, did alot to derail the faith of alot of people, and probably mostly people who were at vulnerable ages, or “stages”, at the time when they came into contact with his writings. And his writings are still on the shelfs at Borders, Barnes & Nobles, etc etc, still out there to catch the occasional (or who knows, maybe not so occasional; they do seem to sell fast at my local bookstore) “lost soul”.
I am basically of the opinion that the man was much more a charlatan than anything else, who “peaked” during the late 60’s , early 70’s, primarily in and around SanFrancisco, and from there cruised straight downhill until his main body of “parishioners”, or at least “followers”, usually ended up consisting mostly of drug-addled and / or in some cases seriously mentally-ill teenagers and young adults. Those were usually the ones who addressed the Devil , in the rituals described in LaVey’s books for example, as though they were actually supposed to be praying literally to a horned hooved trident-holding demonic deity who resided in a literal Hell and would grant them “special powers” if they paid homage to him here on Earth. LaVey himself, and the “true” LaVeyan Satanists who really “got” LaVey’s thinking, so to speak, were in all actuality really just atheists / anti-theists, as I said, believing no more in a (literal) Satan than in a (literal) God. They perform(ed) their “rituals”, when they do / did so, more as an elaborate form of “psychodrama”, per se, as opposed to a literal 17th or 18th century style “black Mass” for instance.
In any case, whichever way one slices it, this was , in my opinion truly an “evil” man. Not because he tried so hard to consciously cultivate that image, but because he , at least I believe, led so many other people, and often (as I said) so many quite vulnerable people, deliberately astray from any kind of legitimate religous faith and gave them nothing of equal value in return to fill the void that remained (in some cases probably still does remain ) in their lives.