The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey

Introduction by Michael A. Aquino

This introduction appeared in the hardcover Satanic Bible from its first release in 1972 throughout its existence, and in the Avon paperback edition from 1972 to 1976

Introduction
By Michael A. Aquinto

Each successive era of man's cultural and ethical development has upraised its literary manifesto - an argument challenging existing norms and proposing a novel approach to the enduring issues of civilization. It has not infrequently been the case that the realities of political nationalism have been blended with the idealisms of extranational emphasis to produce what we now cautiously term existentialism. Pertinent works might include the Republic of Plato, the Politics of Aristotle, Machiavelli's Prince, and the writings of Nietzsche, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, and Sartre. This is the book of our era. The dawn of the Satanic Age was celebrated on April 30, 1966 - the Year One. On that date Anton Szandor LaVey consecrated the Church of Satan in the city of San Francisco and assumed office as its first High Priest. What had begun several years earlier as an intellectual forum dedicated to the investigation and application of the Black Arts has since expanded into an international philosophical movement of the first magnitude. Satanism, once the isolate province of furtive outcasts and radical eccentrics, has now become a serious alternative to the doctrines of theism and materialism. In its championship of indulgence instead of abstinence, the Church of Satan rejects the notion that man's progress is contingent upon his acceptance of a self-imposed morality. Sound judgment derives from the comparison and resolution of opposites, Satanists maintain, and one cannot presume to justice by honoring a single standard of behavior. An empirical approach to morality is not a recent innovation; such theorists as Pythagoras, Hegel, Spencer, and Compte advanced the original propositions for man's intellectual independence from the natural order. And, though this concept has invariably provoked adverse reaction from society-oriented institutions, it is not an insubstantial viewpoint. One need only consider the spasmodic cataclysms of history to see how inadequately Homosapiens cooperates with his fellows. By itself, however, all theory is inconsequential. Until now the only advocates of a subjective morality were professorial abstractionists and -occasionally -the scattered and disorganized devotees of the traditional "White" witchcraft. Indeed the latter have enjoyed some notoriety of late, as their supposed proclamation of a liberal morality tempered by social correctness appeals to the bored but timid dilettante. Such aficionados of the occult profess a righteous horror of Black Magic or Satanism, which they denounce as a maleficent, degenerate creature of moral and carnal abuse. The Satanist, on the other hand, regards traditional witchcraft as merely a neurotic reaction against the established religions of the parent culture. The worship of any deity or deities - under any guise whatsoever - is repulsive to the Black Magician, who considers all protestations of faith or trust in a supernatural protectorate to be humiliating demonstrations of cowardice and emotional insecurity. Satanism has been frequently misrepresented as "devil worship", when in fact it constitutes a clear rejection of all forms of worship as a desirable component of the personality. It is not so much an anti-religion - a simple rebuttal of any one belief - as it is an un-religion, an uncompromising dismissal of all insubstantial mysticism. As such it represents a far more serious threat to organized theologies than do the archaic customs of the old daemonologies. Ritual and fantasy play a very real part in the activities of the Satanic Church, on the assumption that the experience and control of mental and metaphysical irrationality are necessary for the strengthening of the psyche. Thus a distinct effort is made to avoid what was perhaps the Achilles' heel of the Gurdjieff-Ouspensky school of subjective psychological evolution; earlier disciples of self-determined transcendentalism postulated that all non-materialistic sensations were a danger to the coherence of the student. Crucial to the concept of Satanic ritual is an appreciation of its illustrative and inspirational qualities without necessarily regarding it as inflexible reality. Satanism is more accurately identified as a disposition than as a religion, as it is actively concerned with all the facets of human existence, not with only the so-called spiritual aspects. Yet those who proclaim it to be a danger to justice and cooperative order have missed the point entirely. Satanism advocates unrestricted freedom, but only to the extent that one's preferences do not impinge upon another's. It should also be noted that Satanism is a philosophy of the individual, not of the mass. There are no collective policy statements save the famous Crowley admonition: "Self- deceit is the gravest of all 'sins'." While the majority of the populace may instinctively incline to a de facto Satanism, the Church cautions that its propositions are not for the irresponsible. There are no Satanic missionaries, and to affiliate one must meet exacting standards. Inexperience is not dishonored, but pretentiousness, hypocrisy, and pomposity are treated with the scorn that they deserve. Satanism is no less an art than it is a science, and there is "no standard of measurement deified". Dr. LaVey is uniquely prepared to author the new Diabolism. An American of Georgian, Alsatian, and Romanian Gypsy descent, he was quick to display the characteristic restlessness of his nomadic ancestors and an unusual empathy for their earthy, arcane lore. An early preoccupation with the military sciences led him to read the various logistical publications of the World War II era, only to discover that the proud visions of martial glory entertained in the first world war had given way to a detached, mercenary realism in the second. His experiences as a student did nothing to dispel this first taste of human cynicism, and LaVey's growing impatience with the sterile regimentation of conventional education drove him to seek the strange, surrealistic enchantments of the circus. He assisted Clyde Beatty as a wild-animal trainer, and he soon developed a strong affinity for the cats which was to mark his personality in a most curious manner. All animate creatures are basically bestial, he reasoned, and even the most refined social orders achieve at best only a flimsy suppression of this innate savagery. From the circus he proceeded to a carnival, where the glitter of the performing arts was tinged with the ever-present struggle for daily subsistence. Here LaVey worked in a pathetic but quietly dignified world of misfits, sideshow freaks, and human oddities; and here he was to learn the craft of the stage magician, whose success depends upon the contrived distraction of the audience's attention. With a certain grimness he noted the fascination with which the "normal" man regards his deformed comrades - a gloating satisfaction over the visiting of misfortune upon another instead of oneself. Becoming increasingly interested in this cruel, lycanthropic attribute of human nature, he studied criminology in college and eventually worked with the San Francisco Police Department as a photographer. As a circus professional he had seen carnal man at his most artistic; now he was to view him at his most vicious. Three years of the gore, brutality, and abject misery that permeate the criminal subculture left him sickened, disillusioned, and angered with the rampant hypocrisy of polite society. He turned to the pipe organ as a means of living and devoted the greater part of his efforts to what was to become his life's work - Black Magic. LaVey had long since rejected the stereotypical tracts on ceremonial sorcery as the hysterical products of medieval imaginations. The "Old Craft" with its superstitions, affected mannerisms, and infantile parlor games was not for him; what he sought was a metaphysical psychology that would approach the intellectual man only after giving due consideration to his brutal, animalistic origins. And so he came at last to the Goat of Mendes. Satan is easily the most enigmatic figure in classical literature. Possessed of every conceivable wealth, and the most powerful of the Archangels, he spurned his exalted allegiance to proclaim his independence from all that his Heavenly patron personified. Although condemned to the most hideous of domains, a Hell totally shunned by the divinity, he embraced such privations as the burden of his intellectual prerogative. In his Infernal Empire one might indulge even the most extraordinary tastes with impunity, yet amidst such wanton licentiousness the Devil maintained a peculiar nobility. It was this elusive quality which Anton LaVey determined to identify. After long years of research and experiment, he pronounced the guiding principle of Satanism: that the ultimate consequence of man lies not in unity but in duality. It is only synthesis that decides values; adherence to a single order is arbitrary and therefore insignificant. LaVey's disturbing theories and bizarre operations of ceremonial Black Magic eventually attracted a following of similarly minded individuals. From this first small circle the Church of Satan was to emerge, attuned to its founder's contention that its messages would be presented most effectively through "nine parts social respectability to one part of the most blatant outrage". The social impact and spectacular growth of the Church were to become something of a legend in themselves, but it was an essential part of LaVey's convictions that the formal institution's role was principally that of a catalyst. Contemporary civilization has proved too interdependent to permit the luxury of monastic isolationism. Satanism must accordingly assume a stance comprehensible to the average intellect. It was with such intent that the Satanic Bible was conceived. The Satanic Bible is a most insidious document. One is strongly tempted to compare it with that obscure, malefic mythology The King in Yellow, a psychopolitical work that supposedly drove its readers to madness and damnation. As candid and conversational as the Satanic Bible might seem at first glance, it is not a volume to be gently dismissed. It is very much the product of our time, not only because such a book -together with its author -would more than likely have been destroyed in an earlier era, but because its creation was an evolutionary inevitability. You, the reader, are about to be impaled upon the sharp horns of a Satanic dilemma. If you accept the propositions of this book, you condemn your most cherished sanctuaries to annihilation. In return you will awaken - but only to the most fiery of Hells. Should you reject the argument, you resign yourself to a cancerous disintegration of your previously subconscious sense of identity. Small wonder that the Archfiend's legacy has won him so many bitter enemies! Whatever your decision, it can be avoided no longer. The Satanic Bible finally articulates what man has instinctively dreaded to proclaim: that he himself is potentially divine.