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Anton LaVey and Satan

To: alt.satanism
From: xeper@aol.com (Dr. Michael A. Aquino)
Subject: Anton LaVey and Satan
Date: 01 Mar 2000 03:35:34 GMT

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In article <007b0f84.944a85e4@usw-ex0105-037.
remarq.com>, DarkMagus wrote:

>Anton LaVey, had at one time, in the early beginnings,
>'made a pact with satan'.

Anton personally handwrote a Pact with Satan, which
I happened to see one evening when he brought up a
small strongbox containing it, his personal copy of _The
King in Yellow_, and some other very personal items.

>Aquino said that ...
>Anton later felt that Satan had duped him,.i.e.,had
>not lived up to his part,& betrayed Anton.

I have never made this statement.

>Anton had made this pact on Samhain 1968.

I do not know the date of Anton's Pact, except that
it was obviously before 1972.

To me in our various private conversations and magical
workings, Anton was quite sincere about his belief in and
devotion to Satan as a conscious metaphysical being. He
just as routinely tailored his comments down to the
"metaphor" level when dealing with the public [or with
Church members who could not handle anything beyond
that either intellectually or emotionally]. For such
audiences the Church served its purpose as a recreational
medium to gradually make "Satanism" more acceptable
to ordinary society, which it was well on the way to
doing by the early '70s.

The actual Satan as apprehended by Anton had little
in common with the Judaeo/Christian caricature, and
indeed Anton had scant interest in J/C mythology
other than as a vehicle for ceremonial fireworks or
social satire. The true Satan of the Church of Satan
was an intelligence well beyond all such superficialities,
for whom even the name was an obviously-human
convenience.

Anton felt that through his magical workings he would
gradually come to see and know this being directly:
that his GBM rituals with art, music, speech, action,
etc. were all avenues leading towards this central
focus, so to speak.

After 1975 it is equally clear that he rejected this
interest, commitment, and approach adamantly [and
very publicly]. Thereafter the Church became just an
exotic club in which "Satan" was firmly a metaphor
for the excuse of various eccentricities. And that's
how the "Church" attracted its post-1975
membership, as I think is reasonably evident
from this newsgroup.

As discussed in my _Church of Satan_ history and
elsewhere, Anton's ideas and beliefs in this regard
were important to me because of my own curiosity
concerning the architecture of the Universe, the
principles underlying Black Magic, and the
phenomenon of intelligent humanity. I did not
feel then [nor do I now] that it was anything to
evangelize or argue about. Persons capable of
sensing and apprehending such matters would
do so; those who lacked such capacity [or feared
and repressed/destroyed it in themselves] would
not. That too has come to pass.

The "bottom line" to you, methinks, is not whether
Anton LaVey believed this-or-that at this-or-that
point in his life, nor whether I do, but whether you
yourself feel an inspiration to embark on that same
exploration, seek that same mystery, find that
same Grail. If so, it will be "your first step into a
larger universe": _Xeper_.

If not, then there remain many ways you can
use conventional images of "Satan" for personal
expression, hopefully responsibly and creatively.

Michael A. Aquino
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