Exploding the Myth,

The Truth about the Pre-1966 Occult Movement



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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