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Anton LaVey

 
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Anton LaVey
Home > Library > Religion & Spirituality > Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia
(1930-1997)

Founder and high priest of the Church of Satan. Howard Anton Szandor LaVey was born in Chicago on April 11, 1930. As a youth he became interested in magic and the occult. Shortly after World War II, he dropped out of high school and joined the circus, where he trained the big cats and learned stage magic.

In the early 1960s he married his second wife, Diane Hegarty, and they organized late-evening occult meetings, from which the idea for the Church of Satan, and its original members, emerged. The church was formally founded on April 30, 1966. LaVey, with years of performing behind him, brought a flare for the dramatic to his leadership. He shaved his head and donned black ritual garb to announce the first year of "Satan's era." During the first year he conducted the first satanic wedding and funeral, each with a cadre of media representatives present, and played the part of the Devil in the movie version of Rosemary's Baby. In 1969 he completed The Satanic Bible, in which the beliefs and basic rituals of the church are presented. The book has remained in print and its ideas are expanded on in two subsequent volumes, The Compleat Witch (1970) and The Satanic Rituals (1972). LaVey had a most secularized image of Satan and Satanism. On the one hand he saw the power of the image of Satan to invoke fear in Christians and the hold the image retained even over those who had left their Christian beliefs behind. He saw the value that a focus on Satan could have in freeing people from their Christian pasts and turning them into autonomous, modern people. Thus rituals were designed not so much as a means of worshiping or invoking Satan, but as a way of affirming the self and unleashing what LaVey saw as natural human drives (such as for sex and pleasure) that had been suppressed by a culture that branded them as evil. At the same time, the church was particularly vocal about members being involved in anything that suggested they were breaking the law under the guise of following their religion.

LaVey's support was weakened by the defection of many members in the early 1970s who believed in a more literal existence of Satan and were attempting to find a more traditional Satanism. Since that time, LaVey assumed a much lower profile and the church tended to avoid publicity. Its high level of fame, including regular attacks from Christian ministers, supplied it with a steady stream of prospective members. LaVey died on October 29, 1997 of a heart attack in San Francisco, California. Since his death, Blanche Barton has taken over LaVey's Church of Satan.

Sources:

Barton, Blanche. The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey. Los Angeles: Feral House, 1990.

Harrington, Will. "The Devil in Anton LaVey." The Washington Post Magazine (February 23, 1986): 6-9, 12-17.

LaVey, Anton. The Compleat Witch. New York: Lancer Books, 1971.

——. The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books, 1969.

——. The Satanic Rituals. Secaucus, N.J.: University Books, 1972.

Wolfe, Burton H. The Devil's Avenger. New York: Avon Books, 1974.

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Artist: Anton LaVey
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Performed Songs By:

Dietrich vonKroller

Formal Connection With:

Adam Parfrey
  • Born: April 11, 1930
  • Active: '90s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Instrument: Keyboards, Vocals, Main Performer
  • Representative Albums: "Satanic Mass," "Satan Takes a Holiday"

Biography

Who knew that the most notorious living Satanist was also a recording artist? Indeed he is, releasing at least two known records: Satan Takes A Holiday and The Satanic Mass. Anton LaVey was born on April 11, 1930, and is of Georgian and Alsatian ancestry. Musically, he was a child prodigy, learning to play the violin, drums, trombone, oboe, piano, organ, and the calliope (beginning at the young age of 5). When he turned 16, Anton found a job playing oboe with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and eventually went on to become the city's official organist for all civic functions. Besides his musical jobs, he also worked as a cage boy, lion trainer, mitt camp worker, police photographer, criminologist, artist, clinical hypnotist, and psychological researcher. He later declared Satanism as his religion, becoming the head of the Church of Satan. As evidenced on talk shows, LaVey doesn't fit the stereotype of Satan worshippers -- he's not a hyper, insane, drug-crazed lunatic, but a calm and smart man, who says that he conceived Satanism as a system based on rational self-interest. In the liner notes of his Satan Takes a Holiday CD, it says that LaVey "applies his kaleidoscopic vision to conjure forth occult musical treasures, sending them out into the ethers, to haunt and delight us." And like any good horror movie, LaVey and his music do indeed haunt and, for some, delight. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Anton LaVey
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Anton LaVey
Born Howard Stanton Levey
April 11, 1930(1930-04-11)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died October 29, 1997 (aged 67)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Known for LaVeyan Satanism
Religious beliefs Satanism (Church of Satan)
Spouse(s) Carole Lansing (1935-1975) (m. 1951–1960) «start: (1951)–end+1: (1961)»"Marriage: Carole Lansing (1935-1975) to Anton LaVey" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey)
Diane Hegarty
Blanche Barton
Children Karla LaVey (b. 1952)
Zeena LaVey (b. 1963)
Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey (b. 1993)


Anton Szandor LaVey,[1] (April 11, 1930 – October 29, 1997) born Howard Stanton Levey, was the American founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician. He was the author of The Satanic Bible and the founder of LaVeyan Satanism, a synthesized system of his understanding of human nature and the insights of philosophers who advocated materialism and individualism.

Contents

Biography

LaVey was born in Chicago, Illinois to Jewish parents Michael Joseph Levey, a liquor distributor from Omaha, Nebraska, and his wife, Gertrude Augusta Coultron.[2] His family soon moved to California, where he spent most of his early life in the San Francisco Bay Area and later in Globe, Arizona. According to his biography, his ancestry includes French, Russian, Ukrainian[3], Alsatian, German, Georgian, and Romanian stock.[4] His parents supported the development of his musical abilities as he tried his hand at various instruments, his favorite being keyboards such as the pipe organ and the calliope.

LaVey's biography tells of his dropping out of high school in his junior year to join a circus and carnivals, first as a roustabout and cage boy in an act with the big cats, later as a musician playing the calliope. LaVey later noted that seeing many of the same men attending both the bawdy Saturday night shows and the tent revival meetings on Sunday mornings reinforced his increasingly cynical view of religion. He later had many stints as an organist in bars, lounges, and nightclubs. While playing organ in Los Angeles burlesque houses, he reportedly had a brief affair with the then-unknown Marilyn Monroe as she was dancing at the Mayan Theater. This claim has been challenged by those who knew Monroe at the time, as well as the manager of the Mayan, Paul Valentine, who stated that she had never been one of his dancers, nor had the theater ever been used as a burlesque house or for "bump and grind" shows.[5]

According to his biography, LaVey moved back to San Francisco where he worked for 3 years as a photographer for the police department. He also dabbled as a psychic investigator, looking into "800 calls" referred to him by the police department. Later biographers have questioned whether LaVey ever worked with the police, as there are no surviving records substantiating the claim.

LaVey met (in 1950) and married (1951) Carole Lansing (1935 or 1936 - 1975), with whom he had his first daughter, Karla LaVey, in 1952. They divorced in 1960 after LaVey became entranced by Diane Hegarty. Hegarty and LaVey never married, but she was his companion for many years, and bore his second daughter, Zeena Galatea LaVey in 1963.[6] At the end of their relationship Diane Hegarty sued for palimony.[7][8]

Becoming a local celebrity through his paranormal research and live performances as an organist (including playing the Wurlitzer at the Lost Weekend cocktail lounge), he attracted 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 in the tradition of ancient executioners, 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 1, 1967 (photographed by Joe Rosenthal). The Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle were among the newspapers that printed articles dubbing him "The Black Pope." LaVey performed Satanic baptisms (including one for Zeena) and Satanic funerals (including one for naval machinist-repairman third-class Edward Olsen, complete with a chrome-helmeted honor guard), and released a record album entitled The Satanic Mass.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, LaVey melded ideological influences from Ayn Rand,[9] Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley,[10] H.L. Mencken, and Jack London with the ideology and ritual practices of the Church of Satan. He wrote essays introduced with reworked excerpts from Ragnar Redbeard’s Might is Right and concluded with “Satanized” versions of John Dee’s Enochian Keys to create books such as The Satanic Bible, The Compleat Witch (re-released in 1989 as The Satanic Witch), and The Satanic Rituals.

Due to increasing visibility through his books, LaVey was the subject of numerous articles in the news media throughout the world, including popular magazines such as Look, McCall's, Newsweek, and TIME, and men’s magazines. He also appeared on talk shows such as Joe Pyne, Phil Donahue, and Johnny Carson, and in a feature length documentary called Satanis: The Devil's Mass in 1970.

LaVey’s next and final companion was Blanche Barton. Barton and LaVey are the parents of Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey, born November 1, 1993. She succeeded herself as the head of the Church after his death, but has since stepped down from that role.

Anton LaVey died on October 29, 1997, in St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco of pulmonary edema.[11] He was taken to St. Mary's, a Catholic hospital, because it was the closest available. For reasons open to speculation, the time and date of his death was incorrectly (by two days) listed as the morning of Halloween on his death certificate. His daughter Zeena Schreck claimed responsibility for LaVey's death through putting a ritual curse on him. A secret Satanic funeral, attended by invitation only, was held in Colma. LaVey's body was cremated, with his ashes eventually divided amongst his heirs as part of a settlement, on the assumption that they possess occult potency, and can be used for acts of Satanic ritual magic.


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LaVey related books

Books by LaVey

Books featuring writings by LaVey

Books about LaVey

Recordings of Anton LaVey

  • The Satanic Mass, LP (Murgenstrumm Records, 1968; re-released on CD with one bonus track, "Hymn of the Satanic Empire, or The Battle Hymn of the Apocalypse", by Amarillo Records, 1994; Mephisto Media, 2001)
  • Answer Me/Honolulu Baby, 7" single (Amarillo Records, 1993)
  • Strange Music, 10" EP (Amarillo Records, 1994; now available through Reptilian Records)
  • Satan Takes A Holiday, CD (Amarillo Records, 1995; now available through Reptilian Records)
Preceded by
Church established		 High Priest of the Church of Satan
1966-1997		 Succeeded by
Peter H. Gilmore after vacancy

See also

References

  1. ^ Wright, Lawrence - "It’s Not Easy Being Evil in a World That’s Gone to Hell", Rolling Stone, September 5, 1991: 63-68, 105-16.
  2. ^ Ancestry of Anton LaVey
  3. ^ Ancestry of Anton LaVey
  4. ^ Barton, Blanche The Secret Life of a Satanist
  5. ^ The Church of Satan by Michael Aquino p. 17-19, detailing information from Harry Lipton, Monroe's agent, Paul Valentine and Edward Webber"
  6. ^ "Satan's Den in Great Disrepair". San Francisco Chronicle. January 25, 1999. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F1999%2F01%2F25%2FMN77329.DTL. Retrieved 2009-09-16. "Both Karla LaVey [sic] and Schreck were the product of LaVey's common-law marriage to Diane Hegarty from 1962 to 1986. One of the highlights of that unholy union was Schreck's 1967 satanic baptism at the Black House, when she was 3 years old." 
  7. ^ "Palimony Suit Rests on Bed of Nails". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. September 11, 1988. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB328CE29A0D936&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-09-16. "On paper, the agreement seemed friendly enough: She got the 1967 Jaguar. He got the 1936 Cord, the 1972 Datsun 280 and the 1976 Cadillac limousine. Still to be decided were the medieval torture implements, the crystal ball, the devil bust, the bed of nails and the classic wooden coffin. But now, the whole thing has become a devil of an issue in San Francisco Superior Court, as the nation's first prince and princess of darkness square off in legal proceedings." 
  8. ^ "The End is Near". Chicago Tribune. September 13, 1988. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/24828128.html?dids=24828128:24828128&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+13%2C+1988&author=Richard+Phillips&pub=Chicago+Tribune+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=THE+END+IS+NEAR-AGAIN&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2009-09-16. "Anton Szandor LaVey, high priest of San Francisco's Church of Satan, lived with Diane Hegarty for 22 years. Now they are squaring off in a palimony suit over household property." 
  9. ^ Lewis, James R. "Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile". Marburg Journal of Religion. June 2001.
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ "Anton LaVey; Founded the Church of Satan". Los Angeles Times. November 8, 1997. "Anton LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan in 1966 and wrote the "Satanic Bible" as a guide for international followers, has died at the age of 67. LaVey was cremated Tuesday after a satanic funeral at Woodlawn Memorial Chapel in Colma. Security concerns led his daughter, Church of Satan High Priestess Karla LaVey, to demand "absolute secrecy from all who knew of LaVey's death and satanic funeral," family spokesman Lee Houskeeper said. ..." 

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Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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