Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan: Infernal Wisdom from the Devil's Den

After reading several online characterizations of Anton LaVey's life and ideas that seemed superficial and not particularly well-researched, I decided to read Abrahamsson's biography. Abrahamsson was a personal friend and associate of LaVey towards the end of the latter's life. The portrait of LaVey which emerges in Infernal Wisdom is insightful and nuanced; one that never flattens out into hagiography. It is an intellectual history of Anton LaVey's ideas as well as an erudite, yet accessible elaboration of the same. Anyone misled into believing that LaVey was little more than a carny showman who sold a humorless brew of Randian Objectivism, Nietzschean atheism, and heartless selfishness will be surprised and impressed by this beautifully written book. Whether one agrees or not with LaVey's ideas, Abrahamsson succeeds in presenting him as a complex man of wit and intelligence, one whose philosophy remains, in many respects, refreshingly ahead of its time. In addition to letting the man speak through his own words and writings, the book features many fascinating interviews with LaVey's son, legendary filmmaker and collaborator Kenneth Anger, and the men and women currently guiding the Church of Satan . Richly researched and even-handed, Abrahamsson's biography of LaVey and his work should serve a vital role in helping seeker and student alike to have a balanced and accurate understanding of the man's life and work.

Por extraña que parezca, a día de hoy sigue sin haber una biografía independiente de Anton LaVey, el padre del satanismo moderno. La única disponible —The secret life of a Satanist— la escribió su pareja, Blanche Barton. En cambio, sobre Crowley hay varias, con distintos enfoques, pero de autores muy diversos. De momento, el Doktor sigue sin tener biógrafo. Este libro tiene el mismo problema. Aunque es interesante conocer la opinión sobre él de gente como Kenneth Anger, la mayoría de entrevistados son amigos de LaVey y miembros de la Church of Satan. Quizás la intervención más interesante es la de su hijo Xerxes (mucho menos conocido que sus hermanas Karla o Zeena), contando lo que supuso ser el hijo del Papa Negro. Un libro recomendable para los que ya conozcan a LaVey y quieran ir un poco más allá, pero que defraudará a los que busquen una puerta de entrada para conocer la fascinante biografía del Papa Negro.

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_Into the Devil’s Den: Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan_ by Carl Abrahamsson is a book that was crying out to be written for a long time. I find a delicious irony in how, much as the video documentary of the same title complements the two previous documentary films made about Anton LaVey and his “church group”, this book could be considered the third installment in an unholy trilogy that began with the prior biographies by Burton Wolfe and Blanche Barton. Like the documentary, however, this book is unique. It brings together a lot of voices that have never been featured in the same volume before. And while the author certainly gives his own personal impressions of Mr. LaVey, he largely steps aside and lets these other people have the floor. The result is the most comprehensive and honest work about Anton LaVey that I’ve ever come across. Even if it does not fit the conventional criteria of a biography.It opens with a blurb by Mitch Horowitz that brought a smile to my face, not only because it was well-written, but because of a humorous coincidence he relates before going on to explain why he dismissed Anton LaVey for many years, then came to appreciate his value in the history of occultism. Then Abrahamsson takes us on a virtual tour of what it was like to meet LaVey, and explains his reason for writing this, which was pretty straightforward: He wanted to know how other people’s experiences compared with his. It was originally a documentary film, but there was no way to fit all the interesting material into a video format. So he compiled the leftovers for people who wanted to dig deeper. And those interviews make up the bulk of the text.Before we get to those interviews, the author goes into great detail about several aspects of Anton LaVey’s philosophy and lifestyle that I have never seen explored at length before. I was particularly impressed by his exploration of the writers and other influences that LaVey listed on the dedication pages found in early editions of his _Satanic Bible_ and other books. Many people would be surprised to learn that one of LaVey’s favorite authors was W. Somerset Maugham. If you’ve read other books about Anton LaVey and Satanism, I can guarantee you that you’ll find something new here that you didn’t know, or at least a new spin on something you read a long time ago and maybe shelved in the back of your mind. There is even an entire chapter about LaVey’s favorite movies, and what it was like to watch them with him as a guest in his legendary Black House.My criticism is also reserved mainly for the first half of the book, however, because it could have been fleshed out a little better. Abrahamsson’s strength seems to be in compiling other people’s words, and I think maybe that is because he does not give himself enough credit as a writer. One chapter is a reprint of a lecture that was included in his earlier book Occulture. While the lecture is excellent, it mentions that there are so many more aspects of Anton LaVey’s thinking that could be explored, and mentions several specific ideas he would like to explore in the future. And I was slightly dismayed that those were not explored here. The chapter was left as-is, the original lecture, when it could have been expanded. The only other criticism I have is that there were a few people who were conspicuous by their absence in the second half of interviews. One of them, Adam Parfrey, was left out simply because he died a few years ago, before the project got off the ground. He is one of the people this book is dedicated to. I heard the author mention on a podcast that he had not included any conversations with people like Boyd Rice or Stanton LaVey (Anton’s grandson, who also passed away recently, but was still living at the time this book was being compiled), because he didn’t want to kill the mood with people who were going to spend a lot of time bitching about the people now in charge of the Church of Satan. I eventually came to agree with his reasoning.Because the people who were selected as interview subjects are not a group of brown-nosers by any means. Peggy Nadramia, the current High Priestess of the organization, mentions that she and her husband Peter Gilmore (the current High Priest) saw many of Anton LaVey’s flaws during their frequent visits. And she never did quite agree with his views on the issue of abortion. These interviews are full of quirks like that. The person who disagrees with his views the most here may be his own son, Xerxes LaVey, and those disagreements are respectful and well-reasoned. It is the first time he has given an interview. I think he may misunderstand some of his father’s philosophy simply because he comes from a later, much more sensitive era, but his thoughts are fascinating to read. And I agree with him when he muses that Anton would probably be more proud of him for going his own way than if he’d followed in his footsteps in a cookie-cutter way. Jim Morton is another person who mentions this basic idea, how it used to drive him crazy how many people would visit LaVey and think they were being such individuals by trying to look and act exactly like him. Morton never talked to LaVey about Satanism, but they shared a lot of time watching movies and talking about other things, like old carnival magicians Anton had known.Among the people who do express the most unabashed praise for LaVey, it is interesting what a wide range of interpretations they have of his ideas. Ruth Waytz admits that she skipped the section on Enochian magic at the end of his diabolical manifesto, thinking it to be superfluous nonsense. Even while saying how grateful she still feels to have known him. Blanche Barton goes into some detail about just how seriously she and Anton did take ceremonial magic during her relationship with him up to the end of his life. (By the way, her interview alone would have made this worth reading.) Margie Bauer describes a cursing ritual he helped her conduct against some people who had mugged her since her previous visit to his house. This ritual was anything but formal or spooky, but still felt powerful.And these interviews bring out the best sides of everyone. One thing that turned me off from modern Satanism was a certain smugness I sensed in essays by or interviews with a lot of the top-ranking members of the church. And there is none of that here. I gained a new respect for Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia from reading these laid-back, honest conversations with them. The main reason I decided to write this review was because of a video I found by Adam Campbell, a Satanist whose podcasting is second to none. He dismissed this as a “cash grab” and said that the interviews basically rehashed the conversations he’d had with these same people, did not offer anything new. I strongly disagree with that, even though I also appreciate the work Campbell has done. There were others, such as Michael Moynihan and Larry Wessel, that I’d read or heard interviews with before, who came across very differently here. Even the standard list of questions was off the beaten path. The one I found most interesting, for the variety of answers, was whether these people found Anton to be anything more than a materialist.Along the way, a lot of myths are debunked. People who have bought into the dismissal of LaVey as “just Ayn Rand with theater” might find something startling here. Ditto for the people who bought into stories of him abusing his pets or committing incest or domestic violence in his family (or other atrocities I’ve probably forgotten by now, but can live a long time online, even when there is no rational basis for them). I love the way this format gets the truth out there, almost feels like the way of judo, instead of meeting such attacks with a direct counterattack. The personal stories paint a clear picture of what kind of man he really was, not what you’d call a “nice guy”, but definitely someone who was true to his ideals, including his respect for animals and for women he loved. Also including his attitude that everyone’s boundaries deserve some basic respect. One story that stuck with me was how one time, some young people called out to him, asking if he was “that devil dude.” And he just turned around and walked back inside the house. He had all kinds of guns, and he could defend himself if he needed to. If he wanted to put a scare into those people, he could have. But he just decided not to give any fuel to the fire. It does sound like he dealt with more than enough loons. And that all he really wanted was “live and let live”. He didn’t really care if people agreed with him, as long as his ideas were represented accurately.These are stories from the people who knew and loved him best, even if some of them did not share all of his peculiar worldview. A lot of the ones who did share his vision drop many nuggets of wisdom for those of us who feel the ole’ devil stirring as we read such words. There were some newsletters that paid tribute to Dr. LaVey (as his closest associates affectionately nicknamed him, and hey, if Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell deserved that title, I have no problem with Anton LaVey using it) the year he died, but I don’t think there has ever been anything quite like this. Along with the more modern names of interview subjects, we also get to hear from Kenneth Anger, who was there at the very beginning, when the Satanic Church was founded, and Anton LaVey’s ideas were not yet in print. Anger is no longer with us either, and his interview provides the perfect bridge between the early chapters and the interviews. As someone mentioned in those many interviews, it was important to gather these stories while these people were still around to tell them. And as much as LaVey comes across as a misanthrope, the effort he put into creating his own freakish worlds, and to having an influence on the world outside, can restore one’s faith in humanity. He was definitely a paradox, and he definitely did something unique.And so has Carl Abrahamsson, by writing and compiling this book. To wrap it up, he includes some of LaVey’s own words from a short film that was never released before. He gives the most honest, unbiased version of the infamous Jayne Mansfield story that I’ve seen. He includes a transcript of a recorded conversation between Anton LaVey and Genesis P-Orridge. (For those who don’t know, Genesis was one of the pioneers of industrial music, and at least as weird as anyone who came along later. Add him to the list of people mentioned in this book who have “dropped their bodies”, as Genesis would have put it.) And rather than try to interview himself, the author lets his wife, Vanessa Sinclair, ask him about his impressions of Anton LaVey. The whole thing is well-woven together, and far from being a cash grab, or a rehashing of anything, it is a one-of-a-kind labor of love.

A legit biography of a controversial figure in pop culture