OK,
I was trying to avoid typing this, but I'm going to - and please people take it
to heart because I'm old, I was there, and I remember this very well from
inside of the Hermetic culture (by schooling, not by ethnicity) and from being
very active in the alternate culture and "RIGHTS" movements.

PRIOR
to LaVey there were various Wiccan groups, and other such things, all kinds of
Hermetic lodges and Gnostic ones - even whole schools such as the grammar
school I went to. Not just the Crowley types, but MANY types not as well known.
I'm talking about the real thing, people who had this in their families, some
people who broadened it for the outside world. Above all, there was DARK
SHADOWS, the most popular soap opera. Remember ANGELIQUE? She was a witch; she
even went to hell and came back from hell. She used to call on the dark forces
all the time - this was so normal that no one flinched a brow over it. She
called on BEELZEBUB to vanquish ghosts! This was out in the open - THAT MUCH.
Most popular soap opera. BACK THEN. Remember the show "Bewitched"?
Even the Witches Anthem had the witches singing "Off we go, into the Dark
Black yonder" and they were always putting evil hexes on Darrin. NO BIG
DEAL. Everyone loved the show. "Adams Family" or the show with
Morticia on it, they do a spell "Come on Satan, We are Waitin." No big
deal. Satan was a name that got dropped here or there, casually, in connection
with ANY magic. Witches were known for MAGIC. Even the Arabian demonology came
into play with the "I dream of Jeannie" show - and on that show there
were also the Djinn (demons, folks!) The Djinn were cool. It was ACCEPTED: that
is the point. They, the occultists who were coming out in the open, did NOT
consider themselves SAINTS more holy than the Christian ones - they were
WITCHES and WARLOCKS. They were NOT reacting to a right-wing intolerant fascist
philosophy of anyone named Anton because he was not on the scene or part of it
back then. Now, there was also DENNIS WHEATLEY and at least one of his movies
became a cult classic ("The Devil's Bride," with Christopher Lee,
based on the short story "The Devil Rides Out") - and Wiccans ALL saw
it. His books predate LaVey by far. Another of his famous books was called
"The Satanist." A whole large novel. There were also MANY OTHER books
about Wiccans, novels, stories, and "real experience" type books -
they did NOT have the horrible knee jerk reaction to the word Satan or anything
dark side at this time AT ALL. In fact, in the tale of Aradia, they have Satan
or Lucifer (interchangeable) as the protector of the Witches and Gypsies. That's
100 years before LaVey at least. Black magic was as natural as white magic.
Even on the "Buffy Vampire Slayer" show, the witch in the gang uses
Darkest Magic to help to fight "Glory - the god from the alien
dimension." Once she even called on Satan in a spell. As with the novels
and shows, these things were naturally MERGED. Hexes were normal. Hexen is a
word that even means "witch." So were love spells. It was no big
deal. MANY ethnics wore the horned hand around their necks as a symbol of good
luck. You hardly see it anymore. EVERYONE knew that the Devil, Satan, was PAN -
everyone KNEW this - like everyone knows that grass is green. Moreover, calling
Pan "Satan" was NO BIG DEAL. It was in novels even - magic was
intricately tied up with the Devil as a popular figure. Carducci's Poem
"Hymn to Satan" way predates LaVey and it's clear there: in every
hearth! His poem has a strongly Wiccan cast to it along with an Enlightenment
cast. He was very much in tune with his times. Michelet's book "Satanism
and Witchcraft" was THE authoritative book on this. Anyone with any doubts
about Michelet's manner of telling the story of "what happened" had
in their possession the book "The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and
Demonology" by R. H. Robbins. This book gives copious and meticulous
detail on the Witches and their trials and what was the in-general norm of the
times back then. Anyone involved in the occult used to read both. Everyone had
these books. Both of these books date way before LaVey. Familiars, demonic
spirits, all that - it was par for the course - like having salt and pepper in
your home. It was no big deal and things were GREAT. The tolerance movement was
afoot at this time and this stuff was not just around, but it was coming out
into the OPEN. Repeat - INTO THE OPEN.
And
there were people who had the Baphomet Sigil, in the star with Hebrew letters
or variations of this ON THEIR WALLS as plaques - and it was KNOWN TO BE
DeMolay's old symbol. KNOWN - it was known so well it was like coffee sugar and
milk. Everyone KNEW this. You can run into some very old timer white haired
Masons that will STILL see that symbol and remark "ah, Demolay's old
thing." STILL. Apparently they are so old that they forgot what happened.
Or what they were told to do - including me personally. DENY DENY DENY DENY -
erase ALL traces of it, annihilate it, get books from libraries and LOSE them -
pay for them - they WONT be replaced - make it VANISH. Bury all traces.
In
addition, the Wiccans then became fanatically obsessed with NOT being
associated with Satan. Or "black" magic. Ptooey.
And
why did this change happen? Because of the STUPID POISONOUS SHIT that Anton
LaVey did - and Bonewitz might have details wrong, but HE WAS THERE, he is a
PROFESSOR and he told the TRUTH, yeah, his details are wrong. Moreover, Aquino
was not there when HE was there. And how did all that Nazi shit, that
suffocating IRON HANDED RULES shit get associated with Satan-ISM? LaVey of
course. You people have no concept of the AMOUNT of DAMAGE LaVey did to people,
to the entire wonderful movement back then and to personal lives of people who
HAD that Baphomet on their walls and had to take it down - when their
neighbor's KIDS remembered seeing it - the trouble that caused for people,
including for KIDS. People wanted to KILL LaVey for this. Anton LaVey was to
the wonderful occult movement what Charlie Manson was to the wonderful
peace/hippie movement: POISON. OK? Take off the rose colored glasses about
this. Anton did NOT bring Satanism out into the open at all. Maybe you think
that because they have claimed this enough times and because everyone ELSE
gives you the backlash - they DENY any connection; and definitely because you
never were in a city, or part of a tradition where it WAS in the open already.
He DESTROYED it; he made it into something dictatorial - demanding that ALL
pagans/Wiccans accept Satan just like Christians demand that you accept Jesus.
It was AWFUL. Dennis Wheatley and other writers, especially Michelet, brought
it into the open in a wonderful way. Louisa Bronte brought it into the open in
a wonderful way. You people are just too young to know ANY of this; you were
not affected by it. The Magus was for sale, the Goetia was for sale, all this
was PART OF every Wiccan library back then - it was NO BIG DEAL. Demonic sigils
could be seen here and there: it was NOT A PROBLEM. Demons were seen by the
Wiccans in the old pagan sense, as daimones. However, the point is, it was NOT
a big deal - there was no BACKLASH that you see today.
It's
like LaVey just TOOK a symbol that people had and used, a symbol he knew
NOTHING about. It was a symbol of triumph, a SECRET symbol of an entire nation
and its founders, it meant liberty, equity and unity and it represented the
BLOOD of countless people who had nothing to gain and everything to lose in
fighting for an IDEA: FREEDOM from religious tyranny, FREEDOM from the Altar
and Throne that existed in Europe. Egalitarianism in that it did not matter who
you were or what you were from - you start from an equal chance for life,
liberty and the pursuit of HAPPINESS. It meant UNITY. However, Anton had no
fucking CLUE it meant this. He just TOOK IT and shit all over it with his
"might is right" "smash the image of Jehova" BULLSHIT. He
knew NOTHING of the FIVE angles or the real tradition at all - he invented FOUR
crown princes in hell to invert the stupid Catholic four angels shit. His
ranting primarily against the "herd" attracted the scum of humanity
99% of the time, failed men, losers, and wannabes. His "alien elite"
bullshit just attracted the garbage out there - and his "mutual
admiration" shit just reinforced the pipe dreams of these idiots. He
CALLED OUT to the scum of the country, the inversionist Christians from lousy
homes, abuse victims, whatever - broken fucked up people. He CALLED OUT to them
99%. The 1% eventually LEFT his organization seeing what was in it. He took
Satanism away from the natural life-affirming reality that it was, the Satan
that Michelet spoke so well about, and he thrust it as "SATAN-ISM"
into ugliness like the Christians made in the dark ages, death pictures and
KINKY fetish over torture and death like the Christians had in the Inquisition,
rigid suffocating rules worse than the Christians have; HE DID this. 1% of it
was the fun loving jokester, the carnival man - but never think he was not
BITTER about it - and that bitterness shined through. In addition, that's what
you have right now - 99% of the people claiming to be Satanists are GARBAGE.
And what are we doing, trying to clean up the image? Metadromos just gets done
at work (with Wiccans) explaining the Vedic concepts, how the Hebrews turned it
around, all that - and along comes a "Satanist" into the shop making
a COMPLETE ARROGANT ASS of himself starting an argument for the sake of
arguing. So what's the use?
What
is it you don't see? The man lived like a miserable monk in a house he allowed
to get so broke down it was beyond repair, so filthy it was impossible to
clean, and talked to fucking dolls (mannequins like in department stores - NOT robots).
The man FORCED his wife (Diane) to wear nylon stocking and garter belts - and
the most pathetic thing is she DID IT. Jesus H. Christ operates. How fucking
UN-satanic can you get? In addition, the rules they invented for Grottos were
as strict, if not STRICTER than anything Christian or Catholic I ever saw. NO
ONE bows down to Catholic Priests or Nuns like that.
You
think he brought Satanism out into the open? IT WAS ALREADY in the open along
with the other magical things, Michelet's book was famous and it's STILL in
print for so long. All LaVey did was create a situation where EVERYONE ELSE
that really knew stuff, or who had real traditions - went out of their way to
SEPARATE themselves from this Satan-ISM that came from LaVey. It created a
situation where anyone from the occult had to be "ON GUARD" against
these fucking cockroaches that came from the COS. EVERYONE had to - INCLUDING
ME. And if and when we saw one of them? Like, at a job? We did ANYTHING AND
EVERYTHING to fuck them over, get rid of them - CLOSE DOORS to them. It was an
action taken and oh yeah, there was a meeting, oaths sworn to FUCK OVER these
people in any way possible, an act no matter how small, FUCK THEM OVER. Usually
we checked the person out for maybe FIVE MINUTES to see first if he or she was
an ASSHOLE. 99% of the time, he/she was - another one of those LaVey shitholes.
Arrogant, ignorant as hell, overbearing assholes. They are SO recognizable - I
even wrote an article for THEM when they show up. They have their little COS buzz
words - very easy to recognize. "Equality and other buzz words" on
the website. They are ARROGANT little ignoramuses - hateful people. STUPID
people. Brendan had the opportunity to read every single Cloven Hoof ever
printed - all at once. Garbage - all of it. The COS was filled with absolute
KNOW NOTHINGS that didn't even know that Ishtar and Easter were related, didn't
even know WHY 4/30 or 10/31 were WITCH holy days. Yeah, WITCH, pagan days. NOT
Hebrew or Christian days. In addition, the rest was filled with the shit that
leads to, and calls out to the Nazi type personality. ALL of it. When you see
it all at once, it's very clear.
He
did not bring ANYTHING into the open. He made people that knew things, people
who were from real traditions involving Satanism, HIDE MORE. He made it so NO
ONE says "Satan" anymore; he made it a suffocating thing that has to
be ON GUARD all the time. THAT is what HE REALLY DID. I used to hear the word
Satan all the time as a kid, in story's about the old days, even in ceremonies.
I still own a plastic kid's toy with DEVIL HEAD on it. I still have DOLL HEADS
from rubber dolls 1950's era of demon babies, horns and all. I STILL HAVE this
stuff. It was no big deal. Then things CHANGED. It was as if the word became
forbidden; it no longer meant what it meant. I don't mean Sat or Tan. I mean
SATAN, like PAN. NO ONE used it anymore. It became the official dogma of
everyone to immediately launch into the speech: "Satanism is a Christian
thing, it's purely Christian. In order to believe in Satan, you have to believe
in the Christian God." That's the official speech, more or less. RECOGNIZE
IT? THAT is what LaVey did. And you think that millions of people reciting this
rehearsed speech can be changed? They do it because of LAVEY. In addition, they
are NOT going to budge on it.
If
there had been no COS, you'd have seen millions of Wiccans today ALSO freely
using Satan and demonic ideas and it would have been proper since Wiccans MOST
DEFINITELY DID ally with the enemy of their persecutors in the middle ages:
SATAN. Just like the Iraq people think the USA and Bush are evil - these
medieval peasants thought Jesus and the church were evil - and since Satan was
their enemy of their enemy - they went for it - like Michelet said. EVERYONE read
Michelet's book. However, since LaVey and his rotten shit had continue to go
on, not quietly, but in a shit-disturbing manner, Michelet's book is hard to
find even in Witch stores now. Even Gnostics, you'd be hard pressed to find a
generational Gnostic group that TELLS YOU that Lucifer is their god now -
because of LAVEY they have SHUT UP and gone into HIDING.
So
enough already. I WAS THERE when this shit happened. I REMEMBER the plaques
coming down off walls. I remember the CHANGE.
The
second stage of LaVey's poison was his DOCTRINAIRE atheism - always a fucking
chore to explain since he had a CHURCH - of SATAN. Yah, atheism, eh? Ha ha.
"Lucifer Rising" has enough to say and document about the final stage
of the LaVey poison: the fascist Nazi shit all in it. And now what is it? Just
a bunch of non-famous people doing "outrageous" things for show? COS
Rev. Leyba cutting himself to ribbons and having a Baphomet cut into his back,
bleeding all over the stage, and then someone pees on him on stage? OH, LIKE THE
INQUISITION? Like the Christian monks that used to flagellate each other? This
is NOT Satanism. Oh, does that make Evil Knieval a Satanist too? How about
people in the X-games? Please.
You
have no concept, no idea of the DAMAGE he did. I DO. I REMEMBER. When two
Masons, 33rd degree asked me to give THEM the Roots stuff, I was furious. I
swore to do it before I knew who was supposed to get it. TO THEM? GIVE IT TO
THEM? Maybe it was an attempt to get something POSITIVE into the only
officially satanic org using the name Satan - because so many kids were getting
into it for the wrong reasons? The TOS was out there, but "Set stuff"
was not attracting the kids and it was not as available as the LaVey shit. The
OTO doesn't dare say Satan: not anymore. However, I REMEMBER when a cult of
Crowley types were very comfortable with the Satan word. Give it to them to try
to give them something real? Something positive? Something with a real
direction? I don't know. That, along with everything else involving the COS, was
a FAILURE. I can't say I didn't HELP IT fail. OH, I did. I HATED them for all
of this stuff that happened.
I
remember a time when free flowing conversations happened with Witches and
Warlocks of all kinds. I remember a club in the village (NYC) when "Morlock
the Warlock" was always to be seen at his table with a black candle - and
along with him where all kinds of witches in white clothing or robes. He was a
"demonolator" and it was 100% accepted. Heartfelt conversation
happened and things were above all: FUN. After LaVey showed up, everything was
STIFLED and SUFFOCATED, everyone was on guard. Morlock no longer had black
candles. He used red ones now. He no longer wore his beautiful magicians robe.
IT SUCKED. OK? That is LaVey's contribution. It's what none of you even realize
happened. I was THERE in the thick of it where things really were happening and
where things set movements going.
I put
out the Dark Tradition - it is the PUREST form of this and it is not some
stupid invention - it's a real tradition - for those of you that wish to KNOW
the Darkness, really know it. The rest can go fuck themselves. The pentacle
tradition, what each line, angle all that means, we sell in an article
"Tantra, Vajrayana and Pythagoreanism." HO, notice I did NOT call it
SATANISM for the title? Heh. But it is; it's explained inside the article. In
that article I explain what the things in the star mean, really mean, always
meant, and I show correspondences with the same IDEAS in other cultures by
giving the words for it all. It's a long article. Those who want to know this -
can buy it. Considering what's in there, it's pretty damned cheap. Considering
how this has been deliberately HIDDEN, made to vanish, covered up - it's worth
every damned penny. Some of it, in very condensed format, is in the free
article "Which KINDS of Satanism" on our website.
For
hell's sakes, even the GNOSTICS had a tradition of calling the Pope the
anti-Christ. Even THEY considered Jehova to be the devil and they worshiped
LUCIFER. But do Gnostics say this TODAY since LaVey reared his ugly head with
his bullshit? I mean real Gnostics. I don't hear them saying ANYTHING anymore.
They were SILENCED. Their words went out the window with Morlock's black
candles.
Yeah,
Gilmore and Barton want to "TM" the name LaVey. But they also want to
"TM" Satan - and they can NOT be allowed to do this. If they are
allowed to do this, then Satan will become for ALL of us, exactly what it
became to the Christians and to the many Wiccans: the deity of a HATE CULT.
Period. This is NOT up for debate. I know what I know and I know it from INSIDE
a real tradition. It's bad enough that the S word is associated with ALL of
that now - and that usually, if a person claiming to be a Satanist shows up,
99% of the time, he's a stupid, arrogant, asshole. It's as if, due to LaVey, a
person claiming to be a Satanist feels that he HAS TO be as arrogant and
malicious as he can be. All of this is due to LaVey's effects. It did NOT used
to be that way - a Warlock was ASSUMED to own Satan and no one thought a thing
of it, including other witches and occultists. That's all gone due to Anton
LaVey. Wiccans today even ignore the superb Michelet due to LaVey.
I
have NO respect for a man who makes a Church....... of Satan..... Because he
hates his own Jewishness, he hates his own looks, and wants to sleep with the
blonde Anglos. NONE. Self-hate never led to ANYTHING good. As you can see now.
Will - it calls out to Will - and the affects of what grows on a barren tree
are here for all to see: ROTTEN FRUIT.
Kaiden
said, "Don't fall for the line that 'one Anton L is as good as another
Anton L.'" Whatever that means. How about this: One Anton L is as BAD as
another. How about NO Anton L. How about MICHELET if you want to go western
tradition. How about the western hermetic tradition on the pentacle? That's
satanic. It used to be OPENLY REFERRED TO as that - before that became a
forbidden thing to say. How about the Goetia if you want to go demonic? At
least that's traditional. And I wish you knew how much openness and FUN there
was back then before LaVey ruined it all.
TJ
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