Speculation on LaVey and Spirituality

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by vepuei

by vepuei

June 5th, 2023

This essay outlines an interaction from within the Church of Satan Facebook group.

My Inquiry: Why would the Satanic Bible contradict itself in saying that a Satanist does not pray while also mentioning twice that a Satanist may have Gods of his choosing?

Member Rebuttal: He said that gods are created by man and asked me to provide the context for Satanists having a choice in Gods.

My Response: True, it does say that man invented Gods. In fact, it's mentioned in the same paragraph I'm about to refer to. He says gods are created in man's own image of self-hatred and that man chooses to sacrifice the Gods, which reflects his self-hatred. LaVey is, of course, referring to the sacrifice of Jesus. He goes on to say, "The Satanist does not hate himself, nor the god he may choose, and has no desire to destroy himself or anything for which he stands!" (The Book of Lucifer; On the Choice of Human Sacrifice; page 89)

I can't seem to find the other time I underlined text with the same message about a Satanist following gods of his choosing, but I distinctly remember underlining it in two cases. Perhaps I'm remembering things wrong or simply found it the first time, forgot to underline, found it again and did so the second time. I'd have to do another cover-to-cover reading to verify.

LaVay's list of infernal includes biblical demons alongside tribal and ancient deities who could in some way be considered "demonic." Now, I can't speak for any of the non-Kemetic deities, but all the Kemetic deities he listed were considered to be Gods of war by the Ancient Egyptians, as most Kemetic Gods were. They were also Gods of different rites, which he pretty much covered. However, Sut(Set) was different from the Ancient Egyptian devil, as Anton misconstrued. He was the God of chaos, the eclipse, and the desert, to name a few. He is often depicted as the bad guy in fairy tales told by people with little knowledge of Egyptology for his slaughter of Aser(Osiris) and rivalry with Heru(Horus). Sut is not the Kemetic deity to be considered a devil by non-Egyptalogists. Rather, Aser, the guardian of the Duat(afterlife), is mistaken as the equivalent of Satan. Anpu(Anubis), who guides the Ka through the trials of going forth by day, is often mistaken as an omen of death. By including such deities in the list of infernal names, he's permitting to recognize and acknowledge those gods.

Anton's description of Kemetic religion is used as an example for his argument elsewhere in his book also shows a gross misunderstanding of Kemetic religion. During my first reading of The Satanic Bible as a Kemetic Pagan, I was enjoying his philosophy a great deal until he gave his interpretation of Kemeticism. I was put off by Anton's philosophy for that reason. However, I took a step back and thought about it for a while. I rationalized that The Satanic Bible was written in the 60s when there was less knowledge about the Kemetic religion than I knew growing up. I forgave him and completed reading his book. I enjoyed every second of the rest of The Satanic Bible after that little slump of error, now approaching my reading with mindfulness that it may be outdated in some parts.

I struggled with my religious identity for a while, agreeing with the philosophy of Satanism and wishing to join the Church of Satan, but I was not willing to let go of my spiritual beliefs in the Kemetic gods who've guided and taught me throughout my life and meant a great deal to me. It put my mind at ease when one of my re-reads led me to discover that a Satanist has a choice in gods.

It's unclear if he's referring to just the ancient Gods by themselves or if YHWA is included in this choice of Gods. He doesn't use YHWA or any other name given to Sky-daddy to distinguish when he's talking about the monotheistic God or when he's talking about Gods in general. That being said, it's hard to imagine that LaVey is saying that a Satanist may follow YHWA after dedicating much of his book to arguing the worship of the monotheistic, fear-mongering God. It's only logical in my mind that he's referring to the more wholesome and peaceful ancient polytheistic Gods who represented the elements of the world while indulging in the pleasures of the flesh themselves (think of Zuse, for example, the biggest slut in all ancient mythology).