On April 30, 1966, exactly on Walpurgis Night, no one slept in the Black House of San Francisco. The host invited guests, shaved his head and announced the creation of the Church of Satan, the most controversial, frightening and curious organization. Since then, its ranks have consisted of different people: mafiosi and Hollywood movie stars, famous singers and directors, ordinary people and rich people, tired of the monotony of a well-fed life. Each of them contributed to the history of this community, but the role of its founder, Anton LaVey, is especially great.
MAGIC CIRCLE
The Black House was once a common mansion among many of San Francisco's Victorian buildings. Anton LaVey bought this unremarkable building and painted it black first. And in order to create a bad name for the home, he began to claim right and left that it used to be a brothel, opened by a certain Madame Mammy Pleasant. But this eccentric owner did not seem to be enough, and he got a tarantula, a boa constrictor, a black leopard and a Nubian lion named Tolgar. At night, Anton's like-minded people gathered in the Black House every week and held conversations on various occult topics, such as Kabbalah, vampirism, werewolf, spiritualism, astronomy and others. There were so many people in San Francisco wanting to learn about esotericism that LaVey began selling tickets for $ 2.5 off the nose for thosewho wanted to become a member of the extravagant Magic Circle Club.
Following the announcement of the creation of the Church of Satan, LaVey and his associates participated in a series of "experiments." One of them was an act of cannibalism, during which they ate a man's thigh taken from a hospital. The most important Satanist and his associates liked sexual orgies (group sex, sadomasochism and other perversions). Anton LaVey believed that the incitement of animal passion and the emancipation of man appeal to the strongest - basic - instinct, and, succumbing to it, people are freed from habitual stereotypes of behavior and more believe in everything supernatural. The circle practiced black masses with black candles, inverted crucifixes, curses and sacrifices. Anton LaVey performed baptism rituals (including for his daughter Zina), funerals and weddings dedicated to the devil. Among those who participated in these events,were the "Baroness" Karin de Plessen, who grew up in the Royal Palace of Denmark, Dr. Cecil Nixon, an eccentric magician and inventor, Kenneth Anger, the creator of underground films, Russell Volven, a famous lawyer in the city, Donald Werby, a major realtor, anthropologist Michael Harner, the writer Shana Alexander and many other celebrities. Anton LaVey invited to the Black House those who achieved significant success in life, and got rid of losers. By the time of the founding of his church, the Satanist had studied human nature well and knew firsthand that influential people would create the best advertisement for his brainchild.anthropologist Michael Harner; writer Shana Alexander; and many other celebrities. Anton LaVey invited to the Black House those who achieved significant success in life, and got rid of losers. By the time of the founding of his church, the Satanist had studied human nature well and knew firsthand that influential people would create the best advertisement for his brainchild.anthropologist Michael Harner; writer Shana Alexander; and many other celebrities. Anton LaVey invited to the Black House those who achieved significant success in life, and got rid of losers. By the time of the founding of his church, the Satanist had studied human nature well and knew firsthand that influential people would create the best advertisement for his brainchild.
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STORM BIOGRAPHY
Anton Sandor LaVey was born in Chicago on April 11, 1930, but the family soon moved to California, where he spent his entire life. His grandmother, a native of Hungary, knew a lot of superstitions, legends, fairy tales and willingly shared them with her grandson. Gradually, Anton's appetite flared up, he became interested in classic "black" literature, like the novels about Dracula and Frankenstein. He also did not disdain "tabloid" magazines, which published stories of authors who were only destined to become classics of horror and science fiction. LaVey read the works of Jack London, he was fascinated by the biographies of such historical figures as Cagliostro, Rasputin and Vasily Zakharoff. The books on occultism popular at that time did not make an impression on the future creator of Satanism: they seemed too "white and fluffy" to him. Much more attracted to his works on hypnosis,psychoanalysis. Most of all, the works of Aleister Crowley, an English occultist and tarologist, have sunk into the soul.
As a child, LaVey showed a talent for music. He liked to play keyboards. He could rehearse for hours, and later this passion would keep him from starving to death as he earned his bread by playing the calliope at carnivals and the organ in bars and nightclubs. During the performance of musical works, Anton watched how music affects the human psyche.
At 16, the guy dropped out of school and ran away from home. Because of his strange addictions, he was a black sheep and had no friends. In the circus, to which he nailed, Anton felt much better. At first he served there as a handyman, and then as a musician. There he picked up the basics of animal training.
From the circus, the young man moved to the nightclubs and burlesques of Los Angeles. In one of them, 18-year-old Anton met 22-year-old Marilyn Monroe, who at that time was making a living striptease. They had a short romance, which did not make much impression on LaVey. According to him, Marilyn liked not so much to have sex as to receive praise from men who were not indifferent to her. By the way, most of Monroe's biographers agree with his assessment.
After a while, LaVey appeared in San Francisco and got a job in the police as a photographer. During this time, he met his future wife, 15-year-old Carol Lansing. In 1952, they had a daughter, Clara.
To avoid being drafted into the Korean war, he went to college where he majored in forensics. The work helped him to better understand the dark sides of the human soul. He talked to victims of rape, saw murders, car accidents. Subsequently, he confessed that it was then that he denied God.
I AM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
LaVey said many times that if it were not for him, there would have been someone else who would have invented the Church of Satan. In the United States, the ideology of individualism and personal freedom was preached with might and main. The thirst for profit, which was bashfully called the "American miracle", has become firmly established in the public consciousness as a true blessing for everyone. Anton LaVey caught these moods and played them skillfully. He created the image of Satan as a symbol of personal freedom and selfishness. Unlike the founders of other religions, who usually refer to the illumination given to them by some supernatural entities, LaVey did not play the fool, but simply admitted that he used concepts he developed himself to create Satanism, mainly taken from his own ideas about the animal part of man and works of various materialists and individualists. His views formed the basis of the program document of the new religion - the Bible of the Satanist. LaVey proclaimed extreme individualism, a rebellion against human spirituality and the need for a person to keep in touch with the surrounding and shaping society, called on his followers to confront everything else, primarily the Christian world.
On February 1, 1967, Anton LaVey held an open satanic wedding ceremony for radical journalist John Raymond and Judith Cays, which attracted media attention to the Church. Photos of Satan's wedding have been featured in several popular publications.
An equally important event in December 1967 was the holding of an open satanic funeral for a member of the Church of Satan, naval officer Edward Olson, at the request of his wife.
The death in a car accident of actress Jane Mansfield, according to LaVey, who had an intimate relationship with him and is a priestess of the Church of Satan, also played into the hands of the new organization. Later this information was denied, but LaVey achieved his goal - he drew attention to the community. As a result, the Church of Satan was officially registered in the register of religious organizations.
Everybody started talking about Satanists. They were featured in many books, magazines and newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1970, the full-length documentary Satanis was released. Anton LaVey starred in Kenneth Anger's The Awakening of My Demonic Brother, and was a technical consultant for The Devil's Rain.
But not all the cat is Shrovetide. The 1980s saw a new wave of mass hysteria, criminal conspiracy theories and fear of Satanism, started by Protestant fundamentalists, some doctors and the media. LaVey and his henchmen had a lot to make excuses. And although his business was still going well, the Church of Satan had already stepped over its peak of popularity.
Anton LaVey passed away on October 29, 1997. Irony of fate: before his death, a devoted Satanist had to be sent to the Catholic Hospital named after St. Mary - the closest to his home. The cause of Anton's death was pulmonary edema. LaVey's body was cremated, and the ashes were divided among the followers (among them were numerous of LaVey's wives), who after his death arranged such a division and fight for the inheritance that even its most faithful supporters turned away from the Church of Satan.
Lyubov DYAKOVA