The Church of Satan

LaVey once said, "the first 90 years are the hardest."  Well, his notorious Church of Satan will be celebrating fifty years in existence on Walpurgisnacht of 2016, and surely that has to be something.  While many people predicted and hoped that it would fail, it has managed to stand the test of time, which I think is something quite worth bragging about.  Public opinion about the Church of Satan has become much more open-minded in more recent years, and the philosophy has certainly become absorbed into the mainstream consciousness to a degree I personally never dreamed of---in fact, to the degree that a self-professed LaVeyan Satanist is a main character on Mike Judge's new show Silicon Valley and an episode of the show Morel Orel a few years ago on Adult Swim featured an episode satirical---although at least partially accurate---of LaVeyan Satanism.
Anyways, I thought I'd sort of celebrate the CoS's fifty years a little early, by featuring a sort of then-and-now in video form, by showing you the videos of the only two major public "Satanic events" that the Church of Satan has ever organized.  I'd venture to say they'll probably cook up something fun and devilish to celebrate the fifty year landmark, although its early yet and nothing has been mentioned at this time.

Then: The 8/8/88 rally at the Strand Theater.

 

 

Now: The 6/6/06 live ritual performance.

 

Personally, I can't wait to see what more they will do as the years go on.  I found the 8/8/88 rally to be well-meaning but perhaps its a bit heavy-handed looking back on it from the perspective of more self-aware Satanism of today.  I personally love Boyd Rice and I thought that Zeena LaVey was great until she went utterly batshit (as of very recently she has yet again undergone a mysterious transformation, this time abandoning the "Setianism" she so long defended in favor of Buddhism; go figure!)  I never really understood the Nazi obsession, at least not for those like Nikolas Schreck who took it very seriously whereas Boyd Rice was simply a "shock-monger" using it for imagery and mood---for the most part, at least.  The 6/6/06 ritual performance, I think, is a much better practical visual introduction to Satanism and Satanic ritual, and by 2006 the Church of Satan seems to have largely distanced itself from its "fascist chic" period.

I'm pretty sure I already posted the 8/8/88 rally before, but for this particular instance, I'll post it again.

Above: Then

Below: Now

 

Apparently, a documentation of a Satanic ritual performed by LaVeyan Satanists was filmed by one Joshua P. Warren, titled Inside the Church of Satan and is available only from the website devoted to the film, although an upload on Youtube is featured below.  If I can confirm its authenticity, I will mention it in an update, but I find it suspicious since I do not recall the Church of Satan itself ever mentioning or promoting this video.  However, of what I saw in the previews, the purported rituals does look very LaVeyan and true to the Church of Satan's aesthetic style.  The documentarian seems a bit more afraid of his subject matter than is needed and the presentation is a bit sensationalistic, but its always nice to see more of this kind of footage. I see nothing inherently inaccurate or particularly unfavorable being presented, other than the decidedly low point where the documentarian goes aside to try to conjure Satan, acting very much like a douche while doing so.  Though he refers to himself in the video as "basically an agnostic," he is decidedly superstitious and even paranoid at moments, expressing worries of ending up tied to an upside-down cross with his throat slit if he goes through with participating in the ritual, and also worrying that he may discover them sacrificing babies or something like that.  Not the brightest guy, but the best parts of the film are when he simply shuts up about his personal opinions or worries and presents the cold-hard facts.  Be prepared to make some popcorn and sit back and relax, because it is a whopping two-and-a-half hours long.  Anyway, here it is:

Inside the Church of Satan documentary, 2008.

 

Buy "Letters from the Devil: The Lost Writings of Anton LaVey" on Amazon

 

 

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