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Anton LaVey

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Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey
Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey

Anton Szandor LaVey (11 April, 1930 – 29 October, 1997), was the founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan, author of The Satanic Bible, and creator of the religion known as Satanism.

He claimed no supernatural “inspiration” for this religion, but rather synthesized his understanding of human nature and the insights of earlier philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Criticism
3 Books by LaVey

3.1 Books featuring writings by LaVey

4 Books about LaVey
5 Filmography
6 Recordings of Anton LaVey
7 External links

7.1 Writings by LaVey
7.2 Interviews with LaVey
7.3 About LaVey

[edit]

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, as Anton Howard Levy, the son of a liquor distributor, his parents soon relocated to California where LaVey spent most of his life (in the San Francisco Bay Area). His ancestry was a mixture of French, Alsatian, German, Russian, and Romanian stock. His parents were "in no way religious", and supported the development of his musical abilities and he tried his hand at various instruments. Mainly attracted to the keyboards, he could reproduce songs heard by ear.

In his youth, Anton developed an interest in dark literature and legends, from his eastern European grandmother's tales, and classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein. He also read horror and science fiction pulp magazines, the works of Jack London, and became interested in historical figures such as Cagliostro, Rasputin and Basil Zaharoff. He dismissed the available occult literature, seeing white magic as sanctimonious, and focused on hypnotism and manuals for handwriting analysis.

A conscious outsider, LaVey did not desire to be “one of the boys”, despising gym class and team sports he often cut classes to follow his own interests. He watched films and took his role models from the hard-boiled anti-heroes of American film noir, and was impressed with the cinematographic techniques of German expressionist cinema such as M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Hitlerjunge Quex, Morganrot and the Dr. Mabuse films.

LaVey dropped out of high school in his junior year, and ended up working in the circus and carnivals, first as a roustabout and cage boy in an act with the big cats, later as a musician playing the calliope . Seeing many of the same men attending both the bawdy Saturday nights shows as well as the tent revivalists on Sunday mornings provided a background for his cynical view of religion. He later had many stints as an organist in bars, lounges, and nightclubs. While playing organ in Los Angeles area burlesque houses, he related that he had a brief affair with, the then-unknown, Marilyn Monroe.

Eventually, LaVey moved back to San Francisco and worked for awhile as a photographer for the Police Department. He was involved in underground Zionist groups in San Francisco which helped smuggle arms to the Irgun during the Israeli War of Independence. To avoid the draft, during the Korean War, he enrolled in San Francisco City College as a criminology major. He met and married Carole Lansing, who bore him his first daughter, Karla Maritza LaVey, in 1952.

During the 1950s, LaVey worked as a “psychic investigator,” investigating “nut calls” referred to him by the police department. In 1959, LaVey met and became entranced by Diane Hegarty; Carole and he divorced in 1960. Hegarty and LaVey never married, but was his companion for many years, and she bore his second daughter, Zeena Galatea LaVey in 1964. Becoming a local celebrity through his “ghost busting,” and live performances as an organist (including playing the Wurlitzer at the Lost Weekend cocktail lounge), he would attract many many San Francisco notables to his parties. Guests included Carin de Plessin, Michael Harner, Chester A. Arthur III, Forrest J. Ackerman, Fritz Leiber, Dr. Cecil E. Nixon, and Kenneth Anger.

LaVey began presenting Friday night lectures on the occult to what he called a “Magic Circle” of associates who shared his interests. A member of this circle suggested that he had the basis for a new religion. On Walpurgisnacht, 30 April, 1966, he ritualistically shaved his head, declared the founding of the Church of Satan and proclaimed 1966 as the year One, Anno Satanas—the first year of the Age of Satan. Media attention followed the subsequent Satanic wedding ceremony of Radical journalist John Raymond to New York socialite Judith Case on February 1st, 1967 (photographed by Joe Rosenthal). The San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times were among the newspapers that printed articles dubbing him "The Black Pope".

On May 23rd, LaVey performed a rite of Satanic baptism for three-year-old Zeena. In December, 1967, a Satanic funeral was conducted for naval officer Edward Olsen (complete with a chrome-helmeted honor guard in attendance). In 1968, a record album titled The Satanic Mass was released, featuring a cover graphic LaVey named the “Sigil of Baphomet". It featured part of Zeena's rite of baptism, in addition to the LaVey reading excerpts from, the as-yet-unpublished, The Satanic Bible over music by Beethoven, Wagner, and Sousa.

At the end of 1969, LaVey melded philosophical influences from Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, Mencken, and Jack London with the philosophy and ritual practices of the Church of Satan into essays introduced with reworked excerpts from Ragnar Redbeard’s Might is Right and concluded it with “Satanized” versions of John Dee’s Enochian Keys to create The Satanic Bible. It was followed in 1971 by The Compleat Witch (rereleased in 1989 as The Satanic Witch), a manual of “Lesser Magic” (reading and manipulating people) compiling the teachings of his “Witches’ Workshops” (using glamour, feminine wiles, and the exploitation of men’s fetishes). A companion volume to The Satanic Bible called The Satanic Rituals was published in 1972. LaVey was the subject of numerous articles in the news media throughout the world, popular magazines such as Look, McCall's, Newsweek, and TIME, in men’s magazines, and on talk shows such as Joe Pyne, Phil Donahue, and Johnny Carson. LaVey performed rituals and explained the philosophy of the Church in a feature length documentary called Satanis: The Devil’s Mass in 1969. LaVey attracted a number of associates, including celebrities such as Jayne Mansfield, Sammy Davis Jr., King Diamond, Marilyn Manson, Robert Fuest, Jacques Vallee, and Aime Michel.

Hegarty and LaVey separated in the mid-1980s, she sued for palimony and this was settled out of court.

LaVey’s final companion was Blanche Barton, who bore him his only son, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey on November 1, 1993. She succeeded him as the head of the Church after his death.

An eclectic individual, he was fond of music, painting, antique automobiles, firearms, and animals (particularly the big cats). He was an accomplished musician and made recordings of traditional music on which he played all the instruments on his keyboard synthesizers. LaVey also painted as a hobby throughout his life.

He died in St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco of pulmonary edema. His obituary was carried in newspapers around the world.

[edit]

Criticism

In 1998, estranged daughter, Zeena and her husband Nicolas Schreck released a document titled "Anton LaVey: Legend and Reality (http://www.thefirewithin.dk/library/anton.htm)". It claims LaVey deliberately misrepresented a number of the facts of his life. In "The Georges Montalba Mystery (http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/Montalba.html)", LaVey’s biographer, Blanche Barton replies to these accusations.

[edit]

Books by LaVey

[edit]

Books featuring writings by LaVey

[edit]

Books about LaVey

[edit]

Filmography

[edit]

Recordings of Anton LaVey

[edit]

External links

[edit]

Writings by LaVey

[edit]

Interviews with LaVey

[edit]

About LaVey

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