Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that only death and taxes are certain. But times change, and with the advent of LaVeyan Satanism, a third absolute was added to Mr. Franklin’s list: Anton LaVey is always right. No revision of his works is required or even asked for, no misunderstandings are possible, and no criticism is permitted. His writings are to be considered holy, and his words to be gospel. Such is the doctrine of The Church of Satan, although generally denied or phrased differently.
This may strike some as religious fanaticism and founder cultism, but The Church of Satan allows for some pragmaticism. Disagreements with LaVey are tolerable under three conditions that must all be met: firstly, the disagreements must concern minor issues. Secondly, specificity is prohibited; one may admit to “some disagreements” but not which ones. Thirdly, one must leave no doubt that the disagreement is a personal flaw; for example, one is not perfect or is in an unfortunate situation, forcing some level of deviation from the teachings.
It is best to remain discrete, however. Anton LaVey’s introduction to The Satanic Bible explains that one will find truth and fiction in the book, and as The Church of Satan will gladly inform you, a true Satanist can tell the difference, and therefore, so should you, with a thinly veiled implied “unless” concerning your demonic talent. Hence, each time Anton LaVey has uttered an atrociously uninformed opinion or statement or written an outrageously obvious falsehood, one is a poor Satanist for even doubting if it is truth or fiction and should not embarrass oneself by asking. Besides, one should realize that if a statement in the book is true, it is valid content, and if it is fiction, it is also valid content, and thus should not ask at all.
For example, Anton LaVey makes the asinine claims in The Satanic Bible that the Yazidis are a cult of Devil worshipers and that the positions of the moon and the fixed stars cause equinoxes on Earth. A true Satanist who reads it is expected to conclude that these passages were intentional fiction from an author who liked to speak with his tongue in his cheek, not the results of Lavey having uncritically swallowed Christian propaganda and lacking basic education.
It is sometimes impossible to pretend that a section with objectionable or poorly aged content was a designed fantasy. To circumvent doctrinal criticism of these portions, The Church of Satan has popularized the “personal opinion” cop-out in which everything is doctrine except the offending passage, which is assigned a third category playing a role almost identical to the ostensibly intentional fiction. For example, when LaVey repeatedly turns far-right extremist opinions into Satanic dogma in other of his canonized works, The Church of Satan thus avoids ideological accountability by labeling them his personal opinion and, again, instead of discussing what comprises the distinction between ideological tenet and personal sentiment in his writings, claims that a true Satanist knows the difference.
Yet, Satan thinks some of the contents cannot be that easily dismissed as the reader’s failure to comprehend as an adept Satanist. In particular, Anton LaVey uses the word “magic” around a hundred times in The Satanic Bible, and the practice of magic for power is arguably the most consistent theme in the book, competing for first place with LaVey’s personal variant of Christian theology. While largely nebulous in his explanations, LaVey writes sufficiently explicitly and frequently that he believes that magic is the ability to direct “psychic energy”—literally a transmittable force produced by strong “emotional energy”—into the minds of other people and other natural phenomena. Satan has already explained for those readers who lack historical insight into early psychology that this misconstruction has been dismissed as pseudo-science since about the same time as Anton LaVey decided to put this already braindead hypothesis on unwarranted occult life support.
Satan thinks the average reader may have been excused for believing in LaVey’s false conviction during the first or even two decades following the 1969 release of The Satanic Bible. These early readers “knew” that the belief in how magic worked, why it worked, and how to wield it belonged to the truthful sections of The Satanic Bible, whereas most details of the rituals, together with the Enochian calls, remained equally important fiction to be employed to produce the “energy” that fuels the contrastingly truthful magic.
However, the following decades of research decisively reassigned that truth to the realm of fiction. There is no excuse but ignorance to believe in such “magic” today. This left the modern Church of Satan in a pickle: nobody in their right mind living in the twenty-first century would pretend that LaVeyan magic works, but admitting so would contradict Anton LaVey on a principal pillar of his ideology, breaking the indisputable maxim that Anton LaVey is always right.
The Church of Satan solves this catch-22 by resorting to Orwellian double-think, where members are collectively deputized to thought-policing that conflicting beliefs are all simultaneously accepted as truth. In the case of magic, it both works and does not; only one cannot say either. “Magic” thus becomes “just psychodrama” in Peter Gilmore’s introduction to The Satanic Bible, and all readers must agree, despite finding LaVey writing many chapters later that magic is not just psychodrama.
Members of The Church of Satan from the days of Anton LaVey who have attempted to conserve the original doctrines have found themselves becoming “unpersoned.” More recent members who have joined after LaVey’s passing explain that magic works because it is just psychodrama that allegedly changes the minds and attitudes of the practitioners through releasing pent-up emotions, despite the latter reliance on emotional tension remaining the pseudoscientific nucleus of LaVeyan magic. If, for some reason, the “magic” incurs other worldly changes, then that is just a bonus, they say. Hence, although in the realm of science, all magically directed energy has dissipated from the now inert core of LaVeyan magic, the belief persists but is simultaneously denied. The Church of Satan sciencewashes the LaVeyan abracadabra to preserve the pipe dream that Anton LaVey’s original doctrine remains relevant in modern society or ever even worked in his days.
Unimpressed minds might suggest that The Church of Satan unconsciously reacts to the menace of cognitive dissonance, but Satan would never write His followers off as such ignoranuses (i.e., ignorant assholes) who compensate for their mental mediocrity with bogus parapsychological superiority. Satan prefers to think it was a deliberate, strategic choice.
Satan therefore thinks that if His church truthfully believes in its founder’s gospel, it has all the motivation in the world to wield its magic. Instead of finding its devoted members fighting a Sisyphean battle against detractors, non-Satanists, wannabes, pseudo-Satanists, and other people except Christians) who disregard The Church of Satan, the Devil thinks it would be a clean use of magic to smash that illusionary granite obstacle and finally make it to the pinnacle. Satan thinks that whenever churchgoers find themselves frustrated or irritated by people on social media, they should consult The Satanic Bible for the solution: they must retreat to their ritual chambers and perform a destruction ritual. Satan could even tell them which Enochian key to use, as Anton LaVey forgot to disclose such secrets in his book. Once freed of their emotional build-up and (perhaps) destroying their online foes, they would be ready to meet the world with renewed vigor and no longer use their same tired (and poor) arguments on the same social media platforms against the same people. Satan thinks they should perform their rituals and be content that their enemies are thus gone and no more energy be wasted.
Satan thinks that if His followers in The Church of Satan believe that magic is real and works, they should, therefore, apply it and prove themselves right. In fact, Satan thinks that if His church planned and executed a coordinated effort—contingent on acquiring some basic leadership skills—the ensuing mass destruction of its contestants would make a long-lasting impression on its few remaining perceived enemies. Satan can barely imagine the magical influence exerted by the timed effort of thousands (or a few dozen, but it is the thought that counts) of black-clad angry white males riling up anger at imagined enemies in their homes by waving a scimitar and reading a text aloud to put their minds at ease.
His Diabolical Lordship hopes His followers are not intimidated by LaVey’s reminder that a successful destruction ritual should purge one’s thoughts of the enemy and the implication that subsequent rumination means the enemy was the better magician. Hopefully, His followers cannot all be so incompetent that they only worsen matters; even a few rotten magicians should not spoil the entire barrel. Satan thinks that if His followers believe that magic is real, they should perform a destruction ritual and prove it works by leaving everyone alone.