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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds,alt.religion.wicca
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Subject: DVera: LaVey, the Black Mass, & "Satanic" political views
Date: 20 Nov 1995 12:16:54 -0800
[from alt.satanism: dvera@necronomi.com (Diane Vera)]
Following is an excerpt from my Spring 1993 _Abrasax_ column.
LAVEY AND THE BLACK MASS
In the Mabon 1991 issue of the neo-Pagan magazine _Green_Egg_
(issue #94), one of the responses to Isaac Bonewits' infamous anti-
Satanist article "The Enemies of Our Enemies" was a letter from
Tarostar, proprietor of The Occult Shop in Toronto, Ontario. Among
other things, Tarostar wrote:
To be a good Satanist, one must first be a fallen-away
liturgical Xtian, as only such would be interested in the
magic of the Catholic Mass to be able to pervert it in correct
Satanic ceremony. Converts to Satanism from non-
liturgical/ceremonial Christianity do not understand the
symbology.
Hmmmm .... Just what we always needed: yet _another_ person
making pronouncements on who is or isn't a true Satanist.
Being of non-liturgical Protestant background, I obviously disagree
with Tarostar's opinion. But I did find it intriguing --
especially since Tarostar has been around longer than the Church of
Satan. Tarostar has been in the occult shop business for thirty
years and evidently remembers a time when Satanism was very
different from what it is now.
Tarostar's unstated assumption is that the only "correct Satanic
ceremony" is the Black Mass -- which would indeed be fully
meaningful only to a "fallen-away liturgical Xtian".
Most modern Satanists don't do Black Masses anymore, at least not
on a regular basis. This is probably because many Satanists today
are of non-liturgical Protestant background.
Anton LaVey is from a nonreligious background, according to Blanche
Barton in _The_Secret_Life_of_a_Satanist_ (p.15). The Church of
Satan performed Black Masses regularly during the first year of its
existence, but soon got tired of "simply mocking Christianity"
(Blanche Barton, _The_Church_of_Satan_, p.16). LaVey and other CoS
members then created new rituals which can be found in LaVey's
books _The_Satanic_Bible_ and _The_Satanic_Rituals_.
In the chapter on "The Black Mass" in _The_Satanic_Bible_, LaVey
says: "A black mass is _not_ the magical ceremony practiced by
Satanists. The Satanist would only employ the use of a black mass
as a form of psychodrama."
_The_Satanic_Rituals_ contains a version of the Black Mass which,
according to LaVey, "maintains the degree of blasphemy necessary to
make it effective psychodrama," but "does not dwell on inversion
purely for the sake of blasphemy, but elevates the concepts of
Satanism to a noble and rational degree" (p.34). LaVey also says:
The Black Mass which follows is the version performed by the
Societ des Luciferiens in late nineteenth and early twentieth
century France. Obviously taken from prior Messes Noir, it
also derives from the texts of the Holy Bible, the Missale
Romanum, the work of Charles Baudelaire and Charles Marie-
George Huysmans, and the records of Georges Legu.
Does anyone know where more information can be obtained about the
Societ des Luciferiens?
It's interesting to note that this particular Black Mass expresses
a political attitude very different from LaVey's. In the
"Repudiation and Denunciation", the priest says regarding Jesus:
Thou hast forgotten the poverty thou didst preach, vassal
enamored of banquets! Thou hast seen the weak crushed beneath
the press of profit while standing by and preaching servility!
Oh, the hypocrisy! That man should accept such woe unto
himself is testimony to his blindness -- that very affliction
thou didst credit thyself to cure. (_The_Satanic_Rituals_,
p.49.)
Christianity is blamed _not_ for being too "egalitarian", but for
discouraging the poor from fighting back.
My own opinion is that there's no such thing as a "Satanic"
political philosophy. It is "Satanic" to support _whatever_
political cause you believe is in your own best interests, whether
left-wing or right-wing. There is no political philosophy which is
"Satanic" in and of itself.
Diane Vera
Please CC public responses to E-mail
dvera@nycmetro.com or diane.vera@innonyc.com
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