empowered him to order our death. Had
Satan’s Gift been cast aside - whether from
ignorance or from fear - Satan himself and
all who were wrought from him should face
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decline and dissolution. Yet, had I chosen to
retain the Flame inviolate in Hell, we Daimons
should have become guardians of that very
stasis we so greatly abhor. In this matter -
where we first surmised the choice so great
- there actually was none.
The natural instincts compelling man back
to a simple, bestial mode were so strong that
- accented as they were by man’s distorted
fear of my own motives - we eventually
considered the prospects for our final
eclipse. But, while the Flame dimmed, it
would not be vanquished. Man denied me,
yes. But, to the impotent and bewildered
fury of Heaven, this very conscious act was
my true redemption and victory. Do you
wonder that I so cherish irony? It has
become the most reliable of all my oracles.
Much was spoken of the ways and wishes of
Hell in our Diabolicon - that which was
brought forth from Asia in the fifth year of
my Age. Yet the Diabolicon warranted a
certain obscurity of its own nonetheless.
The method of its transmission was crude -
the agent as yet untouched by the
knowledge of my Priesthood. Only the eyes
of him whom I had fashioned as a Magus
looked and saw. Even so I set for him many
tasks before I should again speak in this
way.
Hear, my anointed man, in whose mortal
flesh I, Satan, have chosen to inspire my
material Self - into whose keeping I have
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given my true Church - whom I have made
Magister within the Realm of my Shining
Trapezoid - whom I have incarnated as a
Magus - Hear, now, Anton Szandor LaVey.
Recall first the pact which, years ago, you
drew up before me, and to which you set
your own name. Think not that I have been
unmindful of that act long past, pale and
lonely though it might seem beside the
wreaths you have won from your own kind.
You could not know but that you risked
more than your life - yet you stretched
forth your Will through the darkness of the
angles to seek mine. Though you have
brought many honors to me, never was
there such as this.
Take now the pact. In that chamber which
you know to be most beloved of me, build
now with your own hands a Flame that is
sacred to me. Let your hands pass through
the Fire - once for each angle of my Shining
Trapezohedron. Speak again that great Key
which suspends the barrier between Hell and
Earth, that I may bear witness to that which
you undertake in my name.
Receive now my tribute. Our pact shall be
consumed in the Flame, and with this act I
release you from your bond with me.
Through your alliance with the Powers of
D a r k n e s s y o u h a v e b e e n g r a n t e d
knowledge far beyond that normally
accorded your race. And for this you have
been manifest as a Magus. But now - of my
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own Will and bound by no pact - I, Satan,
bestow upon you my greatest gift - for
which there is no degree in my Order.
By my Will, Anton Szandor LaVey, you are
divest of your human substance and
become in your Self a Daimon.
Henceforth you are as a true god, and it is
in your power to alter the machinery of the
Cosmos according to your desire. No charge
do I lay upon you, for you are now my
brother and no longer my liege. But
remember always the word we of Hell have
proclaimed. We need justify neither our
existence nor our desires, but without a
considered purpose - which Belial has set
forth in the Diabolicon - both are without
For nine years my Church has shunned the
darkness and sought the light. Think not
that the trials set before it were either
random misadventures or the schemes of an
unknown adversary. All were authored by
me, the more to illustrate the paralysis of the
God-churches. In truth they are engines of
self-annihilation in design as in doctrine.
This I will never permit my Order to emulate.
Those who honor the name of Satan have
existed throughout the dim aeons of human
history, as is well known to you. Yet, until
you assumed the degree of Magus, mine
was the nameless Church. Now, for nine
years, my name has been heralded, and
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those who were blind in the light have
learned that it is possible to see in darkness.
My Age has begun, and I am come forth to
uphold my bond with mankind. Yet I shall
not illuminate all, nor even many - but a few.
I seek the Elect, who in turn seek me. Man
the god shall arise only from the ashes of
man the beast - The blood is the life.
High Priest - You have made my name
beloved. But a time approaches when I shall
be shunned and cursed as never before.
This matters not, for the Elect will have seen
my truth. But my Church must survive, and
to survive in fact, it must vanish in fiction.
Out of the great darkness I have come, and
into the darkness I and my Order shall again
venture. Therein lies the future. Those who
choose the solace of the known will be
rewarded with death.
Let the institutions of the Church of Satan
be discarded. Their time is past, and they
have served my purpose honorably. Seek
now the Elect, as the darkness draws near.
No longer shall all who approach my Church
find welcome - They shall grasp at empty air.
Only the Elect shall find what they seek.
More shall now be said.
Hail, Daimon! Receive now the Red Halo, and
know thereby that you are become the Red
Magus of whom Leviathan has spoken.
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Afterword
- by Stanton Zaharoff LaVey
I appreciate the invitation to contribute this
Afterword, particularly considering who Michael got
to do the Foreword.
I was not surprised that my grandfather had
intentions of eventually revising the Satanic Bible to
be a more harmonious companion to his Satanic
Rituals. When co-authoring and -editing the Bible in
1968, he and my grandmother simply had not had
the leisure and experience with the new Church of
Satan which they would have three years later for
the Rituals. Unfortunately he did not have the
opportunity to reconsider and revise the Bible
during
his later years.
I don’t know how the Satanic Bible might have
been reworked by my grandfather, but I do know
that he and Michael Aquino saw eye-to-eye on the
new 1972 Introduction, so I think it’s a good bet that
if they had further collaborated on the book, it might
have come out very much like this “ReVision” by
Michael - bearing always in mind that “history does
not reveal its alternatives” in both interests and
experiences.
I agree with Michael’s position that “ReVision”
does not mean “replacement”. The 1968 original has
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established its place in history, and certainly served
its purpose as a “tangible testament” of Satanism as
a sincere, legitimate religion. The “public footprint”
that the Church itself created as an organization, the
Satanic Bible did as a publication. Its mere title was
definitely a “tack on the chair” of the world’s
conventional religions.
So on this occasion of its Golden Anniversary, I
think it is indeed a suitable moment for the Satanic
Bible to be honored and enhanced by this ReVision.
If anyone can carry something like this off, it’s
clearly Michael, who has amply demonstrated that
he can don the old sorcerer’s hat without being
drowned by a bucket brigade of brooms.
And I don’t mind saying that I knew my
grandfather pretty well, and I think that he will nod
with sardonic satisfaction when @amazon.he
delivers his complimentary copy.
As for human readers still on this side of what
Michael calls “the Big Black Sack”, you just might
find that it’s not inescapably your fate after all.
I will but add my emphasis and caution to what
this tome teaches of consecrating one’s curiosity by
utterance of a personal Oath, as I indeed deem
fitting to conclude this Afterword:
All hail to ye, Dæmonic Denizens of the Abyss
of Wonder and Woe:
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I, Stanton Zaharoff LaVey, seek to present my
allegiance and adoration to Him who sits on the
Peacock Throne of Pandemonium. Pray therefore
pass me in warmth and welcome.
And now in thy court and presence: O Satan, whose
radiance is that of the Morning Star, who sees all
from the cataclysmic clash of galaxies to the dew-
mists upon a single rose, from whom the whispers
of subtle subconsciousness are as known as the
boldest battle-cry:
I stand before you but to reaffirm my Oath and
allegiance to the Quest to which all in your fane are
called. I seek the mysteries of my souls to which
you have opened so many marvelous and terrible
doors, and I shall not quail upon advance through
them, confident that upon emergence I shall revel in
what I have further beheld and become.
Pray therefore regard me ever in your favor and
friendship, and through me work your magic upon
those still asleep, that their wakening may be as
wondrous to them in all their ways and worlds.
The first words I remember shall be the last I utter.
And So It It is Said and Done.
Rege Satanas!
Stanton Z. LaVey
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Stanton Zaharoff LaVey
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Appendices
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A1: Anton LaVey Inspirations
- by Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D.
Immediately following the original Satanic
Bible’s dedication to his wife and High Priestess
Diane, Anton LaVey included a “To:” page listing
personages inspirational to his writing of the book.
It is reproduced herein as page #37.
Beyond brief, cryptic comments concerning
the principal listees, Anton did not elaborate on
them, including in the Church of Satan’s Cloven
Hoof throughout the decade of the Church’s
existence.
In 1997 Dr. Flowers researched these
personalities for his book Lords of the Left-Hand
Path172. It follows immediately below, for which
his permission is acknowledged and appreciated. -
M.A.A.
Essential to the nature of the myth of any
figure such as Anton LaVey are the influences which
shaped that figure’s thought and action. LaVey
himself provided a core list of such influences on his
thought on the dedication page of the original
printings of his Satanic Bible.
172 Flowers, Stephen E. Ph.D., Lords of the Left-Hand Path.
Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1997.
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It is telling that in more recent printings of the
book this page has been omitted.
On that list appear 19 primary personages, with
20 more given a sort of “honorable mention”. There
is also one animal, Togare, LaVey’s famous pet lion,
and the Nine Unknown Men.
Almost 70 other names appeared in a similar
list in his Satanic Rituals book. These too have been
removed in recent printings.
Space does not permit me to discuss each one
of these personages in any detail, but the primary
list is extremely important to understanding LaVey’s
Satanic philosophy.
The 19 primary men are (in the order he listed
them): Bernardino Logara, Karl Haushofer, Grigory
Yefimovitch Rasputin, Sir Basil Zaharoff, Allesandro
Cagliostro, Barnabas Saul, Ragnar Redbeard,
William Mortensen, Hans Brick, Max Reinhardt,
Orrin Klapp, Fritz Lang, Friedrich Nietzsche,
William Claude Dukinfield, Phineas Taylor Barnum,
Hans Poelzig, Reginald Marsh, Wilhelm Reich, and
Mark Twain.
After the names of each of these, LaVey
characterizes them with a dedicatory phrase. These
are given in quotation marks in the discussions
below:
Bernadino Nogara, “who knew the value of
money”, oversaw the modernization of the Vatican
Bank from 1929 to 1954. [Misprinted “Logara”.]
Karl Haushofer (1869-1946), “a teacher
without a classroom”, was the founder of the theory
of “geopolitics” and a professor of geography at the
University of Munich. He was sympathetic with
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National Socialism and exerted influence on its
ideology, especially through one of his students,
Rudolf Hess. However LaVey’s image and
admiration of him comes through the modem
mythologizing contained in The Morning of the
Magicians, in which the authors have Haushofer
involved in various occult goings-on in Tibet and
with the infamous Thule Gesellschaft of Rudolf von
Sebottendorf. There is, however, no evidence for
these more “occultnik” connections.
Rasputin (1872-1916), “who knew the magic
of a child”, was much admired by LaVey because he
saw the Russian “mad monk” as a lusty manipulator
of people (especially women) and power - all traits
pursued by LaVey hims
elf. But Rasputin was not
likely to have had anything really “Satanic” about
him. LaVey was most certainly inspired by more
lurid accounts of Rasputin - and by the film
Rasputin: The Mad Monk (Hammer, 1965).
Sir Basil Zaharoff (1850-1936), “a
gentleman”, was an arms merchant who sold
weaponry and encouraged his customers to use their
purchases - all while not only becoming wealthy but
being knighted by the King of England too!
Cagliostro (1743-1791), “a rogue”, was the
assumed name of an Italian magician and alchemist
named Guiseppe Balsamo. He billed himself as a
“Count” and the “Grand Kophta of the Egyptian
Lodge”, but what was less known was that he had
been expelled from several countries due to his
fraudulent dealings. He was popular with the people
and a supporter of revolution, but ended his life in
the dungeons of Pope Pius VI.
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Barnabas Saul was the first “scryer”, or
medium, employed by the Elizabethan mage John
Dee (1527-1608). After leaving Dee’s service, Saul
disavowed his visions.
Ragnar Redbeard (1842?-1926?), “whose
might is right”, is a story unto himself. “Redbeard”
was perhaps the pseudonym of Arthur Desmond, an
atheist and social Darwinist street-philosopher from
whose book, entitled Might is Right, LaVey lifted
whole sections to create the “Book of Satan” portion
of the Satanic Bible.
William Mortensen, “who looked ... and
saw”, wrote a photographers’ manual entitled The
Command to Look (1937). The psycho-optical
theories contained in it greatly influenced LaVey’s
approach to art and to images and the way they can
influence the human mind. It must be considered a
keystone to LaVeyan Satanism.
Hans Brick, “who knows the law”, wrote a
book entitled The Nature of the Beast (1960), which
was a formative influence on the formulation of
LaVey’s social philosophy, especially as contained in
the Lex Talonis or “Eleven Rules of the Earth”.
Max Reinhardt (1873-1943), “a builder of
dreams”, was born Max Goldman in Austria and
became famous as a theatrical director who
specialized in staging huge spectacles.
Orrin Klapp (b. 1915), “the walking man”, is a
sociologist whose works Heroes, Villains and Fools
(1962) and The Collective Search for Identity (1969)
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were greatly influential on LaVey’s ideas of social