This week: our first-ever recommendation from our own Citizen Maxwell: The Invention of Satanism, by Asbjorn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis, and Jasper AA. Petersen. Please read chapter 9, Children of the Black Goat, pages 198-217.
Citizen Maxwell’s comments on the text:
Friends, compas, fellow mutants,
It gives me pleasure to present to you The Invention of Satanism.
A few grains of salt over my shoulder first.
Disclosure: I’m a member of the Church of Satan, my papers are in order.
There is no contradiction between Thelema & LaVey’s systems of magic. LaVey went to great lengths to differentiate his organization from Thelema. They are superficially hella different, but similar in substance if ya squint. One is complex, arcane, British, posh, etc. The other is simple, contemporary, American, middle-class, etc. LaVay was friends for decades with Thelemite, film-maker & author Kenneth Anger. Also friends with Thelemite, song-writer, drug enjoyer, & trans icon Genesis P-Orridge. Both faiths stress individual will & personal accomplishment. Also making oneself a new archetype. There are other similarities, but what’s the fun in making them explicit?
In the 1980s several people tried to attach reactionary, martial politics to the CoS. Politics, philosophy & religion are three different things. Related, but separate. Between that & the Satanic panic, the ‘80s were a dangerous time. The West Memphis 3 are the most high-profile example of that danger. I think individualist anarchism is a better match for the Satanic ethos than the leadership principle & a cult of personality.
The Satanic Temple is currently trying to attach liberalism to Satanism. I don’t wanna knock anyone’s hustle, but TST be using their status as a religious org to not pay taxes on income. Like a proper cult of personality they be dropping local groups. In a couple years they’ll be forgotten.
A constant phrase that ones hears in critical biographies of LaVey is that he was merely a showman. This is echoed for me in a letter to the editor describing the owner of a local bookstore as merely a book peddler. The implication being that one who sells books is illiterate. The association with smut peddler is also present. I feel that a magician and a showman can exist side-by-side within one individual. Further, showmanship is an aspect necessary to be an effective magician.
To brag, I intended to be a book peddler until my injury reordered my priorities. I have approximately 7000 books in storage. I have read approximately 30% of them. The Introduction to all of them, and some the whole book. I take personal umbrage at the implication that book peddlers are equivalent to illiterate people. Similarly, I take umbrage to the idea that a showman and a magician cannot exist within one individual.
LaVey abused big cats by keeping them as pets in SF. Not Tiger King level, but pobody’s nerfect.
I’ve made friends for life & opponents with undeniable accomplishments in the CoS. I attended the 40th anniversary celebration in LA & will attend their 60th anniversary celebration in NY.
SINcerely,
Citizen Maxwell