Anton Sandor LaVey
satanic bible
Publishers Preface
We are pleased to finally present the second, revised and expanded edition of Anton Szandor LaVey's immortal creation. We admit that it comes out not only because the first without any promotion became a bestseller, but also because we consider ourselves obliged to correct the mistakes made both through our own and through no fault of ours. Unfortunately, the first edition was done in a terrible hurry, so the translation of individual chapters was entrusted to a person who is far from black magic and the concepts that LaVey operates in his worldview. This resulted in glaring errors, which, unfortunately, were noticed by us only after the publication of the book. We apologize for the unfortunate shortcomings of the first edition and assure you that in the second edition we have done everything in our power to convey to you in an undistorted form the philosophy of the Black Pope. We hope that this will serve to attract even more true followers of the Left Path Movement into our ranks. Simultaneously with the founding work of modern Satanism, we are releasing The Satanic Rituals, the book our magicians have been waiting for. Together with The Devil's Notebook, they form a trilogy of sorts, the legacy of thirty years of experience in the application of Satanic principles. Now this legacy is available to the Russian reader. It remains for him to put it into practice. Good luck in your work. World without end. Ave Satanas!
Moscow
July XXXII Anno Satanas
One winter evening in 1967, I was driving across San Francisco to hear Anton Szandor LaVey lecture at an open meeting of the Sexual Liberties League. I was intrigued by newspaper articles that referred to him as the "Black Pope" of the Satanic Church, in which baptisms, weddings, and funerals are dedicated to the Devil. I was a freelance journalist and felt that LaVey and his pagans could make a good article; in the words of the editors, the Devil "gave circulation."
I decided that main theme articles should not be the practice of the black arts, since there is nothing new in this world for a long time. Devil-worshipping sects and voodoo cults existed long before Christianity. In 18th century England, the Hellfire Club, which through Benjamin Franklin had connections even in the American colonies, gained fleeting fame. In the early twentieth century, the press covered the deeds of Aleister Crowley, "the most unclean man in the world", and in the 20s and 30s, hints of a certain "black order" could be traced in Germany.
To this relatively old story, LaVey and his organization of modern Faustians have added two entirely new chapters. First, in contrast to the traditional Satanic assembly of witchcraft folklore, they blasphemously presented themselves as the Church, a term previously applied only to branches of Christianity. Secondly, they came out of the underground, engaging in the practice of black magic in the open.
Instead of arranging beforehand with LaVey to discuss his heretical innovations, which was usually the first step in my research, I decided to watch and listen to him as an unintroduced member of the public. In some newspapers, he was presented as a former circus and carnival lion tamer and magician, in which the Devil himself was embodied on earth, and therefore, to begin with, I wanted to determine whether he was a real Satanist, a mummer or a charlatan. I have already met people under the footlight of the occult business; Incidentally, I once rented an apartment from Jean Dixon and took the opportunity to write about her before Ruth Montgomery did. But, mindful of all the occult crooks, hypocrites, and charlatans, I wouldn't waste five minutes describing the various forms of their tricks.
All the occultists I have met up to this point, or heard of, have been white-lighters: ostensible clairvoyants, soothsayers and witches, with their supposedly mystical powers rooted in god-oriented spiritualism. LaVey, who seemed to scoff at them, if not to say spit with contempt, appeared between the lines of newspaper stories as a real black magician who based his art on the dark side of nature and the carnal side of human life. There seemed to be nothing spiritual in his "church".
Anton Sandor LaVey
satanic bible
Publishers Preface
We are pleased to finally present the second, revised and expanded edition of Anton Szandor LaVey's immortal creation. We admit that it comes out not only because the first without any promotion became a bestseller, but also because we consider ourselves obliged to correct the mistakes made both through our own and through no fault of ours. Unfortunately, the first edition was done in a terrible hurry, so the translation of individual chapters was entrusted to a person who is far from black magic and the concepts that LaVey operates in his worldview. This resulted in glaring errors, which, unfortunately, were noticed by us only after the publication of the book. We apologize for the unfortunate shortcomings of the first edition and assure you that in the second edition we have done everything in our power to convey to you in an undistorted form the philosophy of the Black Pope. We hope that this will serve to attract even more true followers of the Left Path Movement into our ranks. Simultaneously with the founding work of modern Satanism, we are releasing The Satanic Rituals, the book our magicians have been waiting for. Together with The Devil's Notebook, they form a trilogy of sorts, the legacy of thirty years of experience in the application of Satanic principles. Now this legacy is available to the Russian reader. It remains for him to put it into practice. Good luck in your work. World without end. Ave Satanas!
Moscow
July XXXII Anno Satanas
One winter evening in 1967, I was driving across San Francisco to hear Anton Szandor LaVey lecture at an open meeting of the Sexual Liberties League. I was intrigued by newspaper articles that referred to him as the "Black Pope" of the Satanic Church, in which baptisms, weddings, and funerals are dedicated to the Devil. I was a freelance journalist and felt that LaVey and his pagans could make a good article; in the words of the editors, the Devil "gave circulation."
I decided that the main topic of the article should not be the practice of black arts, since there is nothing new in this world for a long time. Devil-worshipping sects and voodoo cults existed long before Christianity. In 18th century England, the Hellfire Club, which through Benjamin Franklin had connections even in the American colonies, gained fleeting fame. In the early twentieth century, the press covered the deeds of Aleister Crowley, "the most unclean man in the world", and in the 20s and 30s, hints of a certain "black order" could be traced in Germany.
To this relatively old story, LaVey and his organization of modern Faustians have added two entirely new chapters. First, in contrast to the traditional Satanic assembly of witchcraft folklore, they blasphemously presented themselves as the Church, a term previously applied only to branches of Christianity. Secondly, they came out of the underground, engaging in the practice of black magic in the open.
Instead of arranging beforehand with LaVey to discuss his heretical innovations, which was usually the first step in my research, I decided to watch and listen to him as an unintroduced member of the public. In some newspapers, he was presented as a former circus and carnival lion tamer and magician, in which the Devil himself was embodied on earth, and therefore, to begin with, I wanted to determine whether he was a real Satanist, a mummer or a charlatan. I have already met people under the footlight of the occult business; Incidentally, I once rented an apartment from Jean Dixon and took the opportunity to write about her before Ruth Montgomery did. But, mindful of all the occult crooks, hypocrites, and charlatans, I wouldn't waste five minutes describing the various forms of their tricks.
All the occultists I have met up to this point, or heard of, have been white-lighters: ostensible clairvoyants, soothsayers and witches, with their supposedly mystical powers rooted in god-oriented spiritualism. LaVey, who seemed to scoff at them, if not to say spit with contempt, appeared between the lines of newspaper stories as a real black magician who based his art on the dark side of nature and the carnal side of human life. There seemed to be nothing spiritual in his "church".
As soon as I heard LaVey speak, I realized that there was nothing in common between him and the occult business. He could not even be called a metaphysician. The cruel revelations in his mouth were pragmatic, relativistic, and, moreover, rational. It is safe to add that they were unorthodox; they were a blow to generally recognized spiritual principles, to the suppression of the carnal nature of man, to the feigned piety of being, based on material principles like "man is a wolf to man." His speech was full of sardonic sneers at human thoughtlessness, but, most importantly, it was logical. LaVey offered his audience no charlatan magic. It was a philosophy of common sense, based on the realities of life. Once I was convinced of LaVey's sincerity, I had to convince him of my intentions to conduct serious research, and not add my mite to the pile of articles describing the Church of Satan as a new freak show. I studied Satanism, discussed its history and rationale with LaVey, attended midnight rituals at the famous Victorian mansion that was then the headquarters of the Church of Satan. Then I wrote a serious article, but found that it was not at all what "respectable" magazines wanted to see on their pages. Finally, one publication from the “strawberry” or “male” category was found - Knight (Knight), which in September 68 published the first completed article on the Church of Satan, LaVey and his synthesis of ancient legends about the Devil and the folklore of black magic into modern philosophy and the practice of Satanism, which all followers and imitators now use as a model, guide, and even Bible. My article was only the beginning, not the end (as was often the case with other subjects of my attention) of a long and intimate relationship with LaVey. Their fruit was my biography of LaVey, The Devil's Avenger, published by Pyramida Publishing House in 1974. After the publication of this book, I became first an official member and then a priest of the Church of Satan; I proudly bear this title along with many famous personalities. The late-night philosophical discussions I began with LaVey in '67 continue today, a decade later, in a strange cabaret populated by LaVey's surreal humanoids; our meetings are accompanied either by a witty witch, or by music in our own performance: LaVey on the organ, I on the drums.
LaVey's entire previous life seemed to prepare him for his current role. Among his ancestors were Georgians, Romanians and Alsatians, including a grandmother of gypsy blood, who told him legends about vampires and sorcerers from her native Transylvania. From the age of five, young LaVey read magazines such as Weird Tales (Mysterious stories) and books such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Despite the fact that Anton was different from other children, they always chose him as a leader on marches and maneuvers, playing war. In 1942, when LaVey was 12 years old, his fascination with tin soldiers grew into an interest in World War II. He plunged headlong into military benefits and discovered that military equipment and ammunition could be bought as easily as goods in a supermarket and then used to enslave nations. Even then, the idea began to form in his head that, contrary to the statements of the Christian Bible, the Earth would be inherited not by the weak, but by the strong.
By the time he graduated from high school, LaVey had become a strange child prodigy. He devoted his free time from school to the serious study of music, metaphysics and the secrets of the occult. At 15, he was second oboist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Bored with his high school curriculum, LaVey dropped out of his senior year, left home, and joined Clyde Beatty's circus as a cage worker. His duties included watering and feeding the lions and tigers. Beatty, the trainer, noticed that LaVey did not feel fear when working with big cats and made him his assistant.
Passionate about the arts and culture since childhood, LaVey was not satisfied with the excitement of taming the inhabitants of the jungle and working with them in the arena. At the age of 10, he taught himself to play the piano by ear. This skill came in handy when a circus staff musician got drunk before a performance, LaVey volunteered to fill in, confident that he could master the unfamiliar organ keyboard enough to play the background music. However, it turned out that he knows more melodies and plays better than the main organist, so Beatty, having settled with the drunkard, put LaVey at the instrument. He accompanied many of the famous circus performers of the time: Hugo Zacchini in his act of the Cannonball Man, the Wallendas wire acrobats. When LaVey was 18 years old, he left the circus and joined the carnival. There he became an assistant magician, learned hypnosis and began to devote more time to the study of the occult. There was an interesting combination. On the one hand, he worked in the atmosphere of the most carnal life: sensual music, the smell of sawdust and wild animals, numbers in which the slightest delay could lead to death, performances that demanded youth and strength, throwing out the aged like last year's clothes; a world of physical excitement and magical attraction. On the other hand, working with the magic of the dark side of the human brain.
Probably, it was this strange mixture that awakened in him a different point of view on human nature. “Saturday night,” LaVey recalled in one of our long conversations, “I saw men gazing at half-naked dancers at the carnival, and on Sunday morning, when I played the organ at the evangelists’ tents at the other end of the carnival, I saw on the benches the same men with wives and children, and these men asked God to forgive them and cleanse them of carnal desires.And the next Saturday night they were again at the carnival, go somewhere else, indulging their desires.Even then I knew that the Christian church was flourishing on hypocrisy, and human nature found a way out in spite of all the tricks with which the white-light religions burned and cleansed it.
Even then, without even realizing it, LaVey was on the path of crystallization of a religion that served as an antithesis to the Christian and Jewish heritage. It was an ancient religion, older than Christianity and Judaism. But it has never yet been defined and clothed in a ritual form. This task was to become LaVey's role in the civilization of the twentieth century.
After LaVey got married at the age of 21 in 1951, he left the magical world of carnival to devote himself to an occupation more suitable for arranging a roof over his head. He entered the department of criminology at San Francisco City College. He then got his first conformist job as a photographer with the San Francisco Police Department. As it turned out later, this work gave him as much as others in the development of the idea of Satanism as a way of life.
“I saw the bloodiest and darkest side of human nature,” LaVey recalled in one of the conversations, “people shot to death by psychos, stabbed to death by their friends, children smeared in the gutters by drivers who fled the scene. It was disgusting and oppressive, I asked myself: "Where is God?" I began to hate the sanctimonious attitude towards violence on the part of people who repeated: this is the will of God. LaVey left the job in disgust and three years later returned to playing the organ for a living, this time in nightclubs and theaters, while continuing to explore his lifelong passion, the black arts. Once a week he lectured on mystical topics: ghosts, psychics, dreams, vampires, werewolves, divination, ceremonial magic, etc. These lectures attracted many people who were or became famous in art, science and business circles. Gradually, the "Magic Circle" was formed from this group.
The main purpose of the Circle was to meet for the performance of magical rituals unearthed or invented by LaVey. He amassed a library of Black Masses and other famous ceremonies performed by groups such as the Knights Templar in 14th-century France, the Hellfire Club and the Golden Dawn in 18th- and 19th-century England, respectively. The task of these secret orders was blasphemy, ridicule of the Christian church and appeal to the Devil as an anthropomorphic deity, the opposite of God. From LaVey's point of view, the Devil was not like that at all. He, in his opinion, represented a dark, hidden force of nature, responsible for the accomplishment of earthly affairs, to which neither science nor religion gave any explanation. Satan LaVey is "the spirit of progress, the inspirer of all great movements involved in the development of civilization and the progress of mankind. He is the spirit of rebellion, leading to freedom, the embodiment of all liberating heresies"
On the last night of April 1966, Walpurgis Night, the most important festival of magic and witchcraft, LaVey, in accordance with magical tradition, ritually shaved his head and announced the creation of the Church of Satan. In order for everyone to recognize him as a priest, he began to wear a clerical collar. But, his head, shaved in the manner of Genghis Khan, Mephistopheles' beard and narrow eyes gave him a demonic appearance, necessary for the rank of high priest of the Devil's Church on earth.
“On the one hand,” LaVey explained his intentions, “by calling this venture a church, I was able to follow the magical formula for success, consisting of one part of outrage and nine parts of social respectability. But the main goal was to gather like-minded people to use the common energy in the call dark natural force called Satan."
As LaVey noted, other churches based their teaching on the worship of the spirit and the denial of the flesh and intellect. He also realized the need for a church that would again raise the human mind and its carnal desires to the rank of objects of worship. Rational self-interest should be encouraged and a healthy ego should win. He realized that the old concept of the Black Mass, which consisted of a satire of Christian worship, had already outlived its usefulness and had become, in LaVey's words, "the goading of a dead horse." Instead of self-deprecating Christian services, LaVey began to practice hilarious psychodramas, banishing the restrictions and oppression of white light religions.
In the Christian church itself at that time there was a revolution against orthodox rituals and traditions. The statement "God is dead" has become popular. Similarly, the alternative rituals developed by LaVey, while retaining some of the tricks of the ancient rituals, have evolved from negative mockery into positive forms of celebration and purification: Satanic weddings that sanctify the pleasures of the flesh, funerals devoid of prudish banality, lust rituals to help people realize their sexual dreams. , rituals of destruction that allowed members of the Church of Satan to defeat their enemies.
On special occasions, such as initiations, weddings, and funerals in the name of the Devil, the press coverage was phenomenal. In 1967, newspapers that sent reporters to the Church of Satan had to send them not only to San Francisco, but also across the Pacific to Tokyo and across the Atlantic to Paris. The photo of a naked woman, barely covered by a leopard skin, who served as an altar to Satan in LaVey's concocted marriage ceremony, was sent by the wire service to all the daily newspapers and was printed in media bastions such as the Los Angeles Times. As a result, grottoes (instead of traditional sabbats) inspired by the Church of Satan spread throughout the world, thus proving one of the main LaVeyan statements: "The devil is alive and very popular with a large number of people."
Of course, LaVey constantly reminded those who were able to listen that the Devil for him and his followers was not a stereotypical guy dressed in red tights, with horns, a tail and a trident, but was a dark forces natures that human beings have just begun to try to use. But how did he link this with his appearance: a black cassock and horns? He explained it this way: "People need a ritual with symbols like those that adorn baseball teams, church services and wars, symbols that serve as vehicles for the outpouring of emotions that they are unable to release or even understand alone." But be that as it may, LaVey himself soon tired of the games.
There were also problems. At first, some of LaVey's neighbors complained about the adult lion he kept as a "pet", and eventually the animal was donated to the local zoo. Jayne Mansfield died after the curse of LaVey (I described this case in more detail in "The Devil's Avenger") fell on her admirer, lawyer Sam Brody. LaVey constantly dissuaded Jane from ties with Brody and after her death fell into a deep depression. In the sixties, this was the second death of a Hollywood sex symbol in which LaVey was somehow involved. The first was the death of Marilyn Monroe, who was LaVey's lover for a brief but important period in 1948, when he had just retired from carnival and was playing strippers in Los Angeles.
LaVey was tired of organizing entertainment and cleansing for the members of his church. He made contact with the last surviving followers of the pre-war occult brotherhoods of Europe and mastered their philosophy and secret rituals of the pre-Hitler era. He, more than ever, needed time to study, describe and develop new principles. For a long time he experimented and applied the principles of spatial geometric constructions of the Law of the Trapezoid discovered by him. (He pokes fun at today's weirdos who he thinks are "hitting the wrong pyramids.") He has also become widely known as a public speaker, radio and television broadcaster, and production and technical consultant to the filmmakers behind The Satanic Horror Movies. Sometimes he acts as an actor. Kyak wrote sociologist Clinton R. Sanders: there has never been an occultist who has had a greater direct influence on cinematic representations of Satanism. Ritual and esoteric symbolism are central to LaVey's church, and the films he has had a hand in creating contain detailed depictions of Satanic rites and are filled with traditional occult symbols. The main focus of the rituals of the Church of Satan is on "focusing the emotional forces of each individual." Similarly, the lavish ritualism that is central to LaVey's films can be seen as a mechanism for engaging and focusing the emotional sensations of moviegoers."
Ultimately, LaVey decided to place the ritual and other organized activities of the Church in the hands of grottoes around the world and devote himself to writing, lecturing and educational activities, as well as to his family: his wife Diana, a fair-haired beauty who also serves as the Priestess of the Church, daughter Carla, who is now already in her twenties, and who, like her father, studies criminology and devotes most of her time to lectures on Satanism at universities throughout the country, and, finally, her youngest daughter, Zina, who was remembered by many by the famous photo of initiation as an infant, now blossomed into a beautiful teenager, attracting an ever-growing pack of human wolves.
The fruit of this relatively quiet period in LaVey's life has been his widely read, pioneering books: first, The Satanic Bible, which is in its twelfth edition as of this preface. This is followed by The Satanic Rituals, which reveals more complex material drawn by LaVey from his ever-expanding range of sources. And the third book - "Complet Witch" (Complet Witch - so the early editions were called. Now the book comes out as "Satanic Witch" (Satanic Witch) - approx. Transl.), which became a bestseller in Italy. Unfortunately, American publishers let it disappear from bookstores before its full potential was realized. LaVey's transition from ritual activity to writing books expanded the membership of the Church of Satan around the world. Growing popularity was naturally accompanied by horror stories circulated by various religious groups concerned that the Satanic Bible had overtaken the Christian Bible in sales on university campuses and became the main cause of youth rejection of God. And, of course, whom, if not LaVey, did Pope Paul have in mind when he issued his worldwide proclamation two years ago, which states that the Devil is “alive” and “in the form of a man” is spreading evil across the Earth. LaVey, who argued that "evil" is "life" in reverse (in the original evil (evil) and live (life) - approx. Trans.), and therefore should be allowed and, moreover, bring pleasure, answered the Pope and other religious groups like this: "People, organizations and nations earn millions of dollars from us. What would they do without us? Without the Church of Satan, they would have no one left to vent their rage and blame for all the terrible things happening in the world. If they and in fact they believe so, they would not make an elephant out of a fly. What you really need to believe is that in fact they are charlatans and are very glad that we are at hand and can be used. We are a very valuable convenience to them. We helped businesses, got the economy back on its feet, millions of dollars earned by us flowed into the Christian church. We have already proven the Ninth Satanic Commandment many times over. "Neither the church nor the myriad people can exist without the Devil."
For this, the Christian church must pay. The events predicted by LaVey in the first edition of The Satanic Bible are already happening. The oppressed people have broken their bonds. Sex flourished, the collective libido found its outlet in the cinema and literature, on the streets and in the house. People dance naked both to the waist and below. The nuns, forgetting their traditions, opened their legs and danced to Missa Solernnis Rock, which LaVey made up as a joke. There is an endless search for entertainment, fine food and wine, adventure, enjoyment here and now. Mankind no longer wants to wait for a certain life after death, which is promised as a reward to the pure and chaste - read: to the ascetic and dull soul, The spirit of neo-paganism and hedonism reigns everywhere, it is saturated with a wide range of bright individuals - doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, brokers, real estate agents, actors and actresses, people in the media (and this is just a small part of the professions of Satanists) interested in formalizing and perpetuating this increasingly pervasive religion and way of life.
In a society that has for so long been ruled by the Puritan ethic, it is not so easy to accept this religion. There is no false altruism or mandatory concepts like "love thy neighbor" in it. Satanism is an overtly selfish, merciless philosophy. It is based on the belief that human beings are naturally selfish and cruel, that life is Darwinian natural selection, a struggle for survival in which the fittest win, that the Earth will go to those who fight to win in the relentless competition that exists in any jungle, including an urbanized society. You may scorn this cruel prospect, but it exists, as it has existed for centuries, in the real conditions of the world in which we live, and not in the mystical regions of milk and honey depicted in the Christian bible. In The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey explained the philosophy of Satanism in more detail than any of his predecessors from the Kingdom of Darkness, while describing in detail the innovative rituals he created for the Realist Church. Already the first edition showed that there are a huge number of people who want to learn how to organize Satanic groups and engage in ritual black magnesium. The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals are the only books that have shown how this can be done. A great many imitators have also proliferated, not publicizing their sources, and for good reason: when the precariousness and lack of depth of their imitations is compared with LaVey's pioneering work, it becomes clear that the market for plagiarists no longer exists.
Evidence is not required, just look at the facts: LaVey brought Satan into the light and the Church of Satan is now the stronghold of modern Satanism. This book summarizes a message that is as challenging and inspiring, as timely today as it was when it was written.
San Francisco
Foreword
This book is written for the reason that, with few exceptions, all treatises and books, all "secret" grimoires, all great works on the subject of magic, are nothing more than sanctimonious fraud, sinful muttering and esoteric gibberish of chroniclers of magical knowledge, unable or unwilling to provide objective point of view on this issue. Writer after writer, trying to signify the principles of "black and white magic", succeeded only in obscuring the object of consideration so much that a person studying magic on his own spends his studies stupidly standing in a pentagram waiting for a demon to appear, shuffling a deck of cards to predict the future, losing the cards make every sense, and attending seminars that only guarantee the flattening of his ego (and along with his wallet); and, in the end, exposes himself as a complete idiot in the eyes of those who know the truth!
The true magician knows that the occult regiments are bursting with the fragile relics of terrified souls and disembodied bodies, the metaphysical diaries of self-deception and the constipating rulebooks of Eastern mysticism. For too long the issues of Satanic magic and philosophy have been covered by orthodox scribblers with wide-eyed fear.
The old literature is the waste of brains festering with fear and impotence, poured out unconsciously to help those who actually rule the world, chuckling maliciously from their hellish thrones.
The flames of Hell burn brighter thanks to the fuel delivered by these volumes of hoary disinformation and false prophecy.
Anton Sandor LaVey
Church of Satan San Francisco,
Walpurgis Night 1968
The faithful gods have quarreled and thrashed each other throughout the history of the earth. Each of these beings, along with their priests and ministers, tried to find wisdom in their own lies. But the time of the ice age in the great structure of human existence is limited. The gods of tainted wisdom had their own saga and their millennium became a reality. Each with his own "divine path to paradise" accused others of heresy and spiritual imprudence. The Ring of the Nibelungs carries an eternal curse, but only because those who seek it think in terms of "good and evil", while always putting themselves on the side of "good". They turn the gods of the past into devils in order to survive themselves. Their feeble ministers are playing the devil's game to fill the temples and redeem the mortgages of the churches. However, they have studied “orthodoxy” for too long and what poor and ignorant devils they themselves have become, And they close their hands in a “fraternal” union in their desperation to get to Valhalla for their last ecumenical council. "The twilight of the gods is approaching from the darkness." The ravens of the night fly to summon Loki, who lights Valhalla with the flaming trident of Hell. And the twilight of the gods fell. The glow of a new light rises from the night and Lucifer rises to proclaim: "This is the age of Satan! Satan rules the world!" The unrighteous gods are dead. This is the morning of magic and undefiled wisdom. The FLESH will prevail and the great Temple will be built and consecrated to its glory. Man's salvation should no longer depend on his self-denial. And let it be known that the world of flesh and life will be the greatest preparation for any and all eternal pleasures.
REGIE SATANAS!
AVE SATANAS!
LONG LIVE SATAN!
Nine Satanic Commandments
1. Satan represents indulgence, not abstinence!
2. Satan personifies the essence of life instead of pipe spiritual dreams.
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deception!
4. Satan represents mercy to those who deserve it, instead of love spent on flatterers!
5. Satan personifies revenge, and does not turn the other cheek after being hit!
6. Satan represents responsibility for those responsible instead of involvement with spiritual vampires.
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, often worse than those who walk on all fours; an animal that, due to its "divine, spiritual and intellectual development" has become the most dangerous of all animals!
8. Satan represents all so-called sins as they lead to physical, mental and emotional fulfillment!
9. Satan has been the Church's best friend of all time, supporting her business all these years!
(FIRE) THE BOOK OF SATAN
Devil diatribe
The first book of the Satanic Bible is not just an attempt at the greatest blasphemy, but is an exposition of what can be called "diabolical indignation." The devil was attacked by the servants of God ruthlessly and unconditionally. The Prince of Darkness was not given a single opportunity to speak in the manner of orators of the Sovereign of the Faithful. The pulpit-pounding preachers of the past were free to define "good" and "evil" as they pleased, and gladly consigned to oblivion, both in word and deed, those who disagreed with their lies. Their talk of "mercy" becomes an empty pretense as soon as it comes to His Infernal Majesty, and, what is even more unfair, they realize the obvious fact that without their satanic enemy, their religion itself will collapse. How sad that the allegorical figure, to whom the spiritual religions owe their success, is endowed with the LEAST mercy and only deserves constant mockery from those who, among other things, most oilily preach the game by the rules! For all the centuries during which the Devil was shouted, he never once raised his voice, answering his slanderers. He remained a gentleman at all times, in spite of the fact that those whom he supported raged in their speeches. He has shown himself to be a model of good manners, but now, he believes, it's time to shout back. He decided that the time had come to pay tribute. From now on, no more codes of hypocrisy are needed. It only takes a brief diatribe to learn the Law of the Jungle. Where every verse is the underworld. Every word is a tongue of fire. The flames of Hell are burning wildly... and cleansing! Read and study the Law.
Book of Satan
I
1. Out of this barren desert of steel and stone, I raise my voice so that you may hear it. East and West I give a sign. North and South I let know: death to the weak, wealth to the strong!
2. Open your eyes to see, oh people whose minds are moldy; listen to me, perplexed millions!
3. For I rise to challenge the wisdom of the world; put the laws of Man and "God" to the test!
4. I ask for the essence of his Golden Rule and want to know why his ten commandments are needed.
5. Before any of your sad idols I bow down in humility, and whoever said "you must" is my mortal enemy!
6. I plunge my pointing finger into the watery blood of your powerless crazy Savior and write on his excised black body: Here is the TRUE prince of evil - the king of slaves!
7. Not a single gray-haired lie will become true for me, not a single suffocating dogma will constrain my pen!
8. I free myself from all conventions that do not lead to my earthly well-being and happiness.
9. I raise the banner of the strong in relentless encroachment!
10. I stare into the glass eye of your terrible Jehovah and pull him by the beard; I raise my ax and cut open his worm-eaten skull!
11. I throw away the contents of philosophically bleached tombs and laugh with sardonic fury!
II
1. Look at the crucifix - what does it symbolize? Deadly pale infirmity, hanging on a piece of wood.
2. I ask for everything. Standing before the façades of your arrogant moral dogmas, festering inside and varnished outside, I write on them in letters of blazing contempt: "Behold, for all this is a deceit!"
3. Gather around me, O you who despise death; and the earth itself will be yours! - own it and own it!
4. For too long a dead man's hand was allowed to sterilize a living thought!
5. Right and wrong, good and evil have been perverted by false prophets for too long!
6. No creed should be accepted on the basis of its "divine" nature. Religions must be questioned. No moral dogma should be taken for granted, no rule of judgment should be deified. There is no primordial holiness in moral codes. Like wooden idols of the distant past, they are the fruit of the labor of human hands, and what a person created, he can destroy!
7. It is prudent not to hasten to believe in anything and everything, for belief in one false principle is the beginning of all stupidity.
8. The main duty of any new faith is to nurture new people who will determine its freedoms, lead to material success and knock down rusty bolts and chains of dead customs that impede healthy development. Theories and ideas that meant life, hope and freedom for our ancestors can now mean destruction, enslavement and dishonor for us!
9. For as everything around changes, so no human ideal can remain unchanged!
10. Wherever and whenever, a lie enthroned, let it be overthrown without mercy and pity, for no one can flourish under the burden of deceit.
11. Let the well-established sophisms be deprived of the throne, uprooted, burned and destroyed, for they are a constant threat to all the greatness of thought and deed!
12. If any uttered "truth" is certified in fact to be an empty fiction, let it be unceremoniously thrown out into the cosmic darkness to the dead gods, dead empires, dead philosophies and other useless garbage and scum!
13. The most dangerous of all the reigning lies is the holy, sanctified, privileged lie, the lie that is the template of truth for all. It breeds other general errors and delusions. She is the hydroheaded tree of absurdity with a thousand roots. She is the cancer of society!
14. A lie that is known to be a lie is already half eradicated, but with a lie that even a thinking person accepts as the truth, with a lie implanted in a small child on his mother's lap - it is more dangerous to fight with such a lie than with a creeping plague!
15. Common lies are the most powerful enemy of personal freedom. There is only one way to deal with it: cut it to the very core, like a cancerous tumor. Destroy its root and branch. Exterminate her before she does this to us!
III
1. "Love one another" - it is said in the highest law, but what is the meaning of these words? On what rational basis does this verse of love rest? Why should I not hate my enemies; for if I “love” them, will it not put me in their power?
2. Is it natural for enemies to do good to each other, and WHAT IS GOOD?
3. Can a torn and bloodied victim "love" blood-soaked jaws that tear him apart?
4. Are we all instinctively predatory beasts? If people stop preying on each other, can they continue to exist?
5. Are not "lust" and "carnal passion" more appropriate terms for the definition of "love" in relation to the procreation of the human race? Isn't "love" of fawning scriptures a mere euphemism for sexual activity, or was the "great teacher" a praiser of eunuchs?
6. Loving your enemies and doing good to those who hate and use you - is this not the despicable philosophy of a spaniel that rolls on its back when it is kicked?
7. Hate your enemies with all your heart, and if someone slaps you on one cheek, CRUSH your offender on HIS other cheek! Crush his whole side, for self-preservation is the highest law!
8. Turning the other cheek, there is a cowardly dog!
9. Strike for strike, rage for rage, death for death - and all this with the extraction of abundant benefits! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth four times and a hundred times! Become a Terror to your adversary, and in going his own way, he will gain enough experience to ponder over. This will force you to respect yourself in all manifestations of life and your spirit - your immortal spirit will live not in an intangible paradise, but in the brains and tendons of those whose respect you have achieved.
IV
3. Say to your heart: "I am my own master!"
4. Stop on the way those who pursue you. Let the one who plotted to do away with you be thrown into confusion and dishonor. May such people stand like reeds before the cyclone, and may they not be allowed to rejoice in their own salvation.
6. Blessed are those who despise death, and may their days of debt be on earth. Cursed are those who hope for a rich life on the other side of the grave, and may they perish among the many!
7. Blessed are the destroyers of false hopes, for they are the real messiahs. Cursed be the worshipers of God and may they be sheared like sheep!
8. Blessed are the valiant, for their reward is great treasures. Cursed are those who believe in good and evil, for they are frightened by shadows!
9. Blessed are those who believe in their own good, and may never fear enter their minds. Cursed be the "lambs of the Lord", for they will be bled whiter than snow!
10. Blessed is he who has enemies and may they make him a hero. Cursed be the one who does good to him who grins in response to him, for he will be despised!
11. Blessed are the great minds, for they will ride the whirlwinds. Cursed are those who teach that falsehood is truth and truth is falsehood, for they are repulsive.
12. Thrice cursed are the weak, whose insecurity makes them dangerous, and it will be given them to serve and suffer!
13. The angel of self-deception established itself in the souls of the "righteous." Eternal fire through joy dwells in the flesh of a Satanist!
(AIR) THE BOOK OF LUCIFER
Education
The Roman god, Lucifer, was the bearer of light, the spirit of the air, the personification of enlightenment. In Christian mythology, however, it has become a synonym for evil, which, however, is natural to expect from a religion whose very existence is based on vague definitions and imaginary values! It is time to correct the scriptures. False morality and occult inaccuracies must be corrected and changed. As attractive as many stories of devil worship may be, they must be accepted for what they really are - sheer absurdity. They say that "the truth will set people free." However, by itself, the truth will not set anyone free. Only DOUBT brings liberation of thoughts. Without the miraculous element of doubt, the door through which the truth passes would be tightly closed, impervious to the most powerful blows of a thousand Lucifers. It is quite understandable why Scripture refers to the Infernal Monarch as the "Father of Lies" - Another clear example of character inversion. If anyone believes in the theological assertion that the Devil represents deceit, then surely he must also agree that HE, THE DEVIL, NOT GOD, FOUNDED ALL SPIRITUAL RELIGIONS AND WROTE ALL THE HOLY BIBLE! One doubt follows another, and the bubble that has grown out of accumulated delusions is already threatening to burst. For those who begin to doubt the accepted truth, this book is a revelation. And then Lucifer will rise. It's time for doubt! The bubble of deceit explodes and the sound of this explosion echoes around the world!
Wanted god - dead or alive
A very popular misconception is the notion that a Satanist does not believe in God. The concepts of "God" as interpreted by man have changed so much over the centuries that the Satanist simply accepts the one that suits him best. After all, it was Man who always created the gods, and not they him. God is merciful to some, terrible to others. For the Satanist, "God", whatever name he may be called, or even not named at all, is seen as a kind of balancing factor of nature and has nothing to do with suffering. This powerful force that permeates and balances the entire universe is too impersonal to care about the happiness or misfortune of the flesh and blood creatures that live on the ball of mud that is our home.
Anyone who identifies Satan with evil must take into account those men, women, children and animals who died only because it was the "will of God." Without a doubt, a person mourning the untimely death of their loved one would rather be near him than give him into the hands of God! In return, he receives only the unctuous consolations of his priest, who says: "It was the will of God" or "Be comforted, my son, now he is in the hands of the Lord." Such words are a very appropriate way for devouts to put up with or justify a pitiless God. But if God is so omnipotent and so merciful, how can one explain why he allows this to happen? For too long the devout have fallen to their bibles and rulebooks to prove or disprove, judge, accuse and interpret.
Satanists proceed from the fact that man himself, as well as the forces of action and reaction of the Universe, are responsible for everything that happens in nature, and are not mistaken about the fact that someone cares about this. Let us not sit back and accept "fate" without doing something just because it says so in such-and-such a chapter and in such-and-such a psalm; and so be it! The Satanist knows that prayers will not be of any use - in fact, they reduce the chances of success, since devoutly pious people too often complacently do nothing and beg for a situation that, if they had done anything themselves, they could have created much faster!
Satanists avoid such terms as "hope" and "plea" because they indicate suspiciousness. If you pray and hope that something will happen, there will be no time for positive action to make it happen. The Satanist, realizing that everything he gets is the fruit of his own efforts, instead of praying to God, takes the situation into his own hands. Positive thinking and positive action always bring results.
In the same way that a Satanist does not pray to God for help, he does not ask him for forgiveness for his wrong deeds. In other religions, when someone commits a wrong deed, he either prays to God for forgiveness, or confesses to an intermediary and asks him to pray for his sins before God. The Satanist, knowing that prayers are of little use, believes that confession to a person like him achieves even lesser results and, moreover, is degradation. When a Satanist does something wrong, he realizes that it is only natural to make mistakes - and if he is truly sorry for what he did, he will learn from it and not do the same thing again. If he sincerely does not repent of what he has done, and knows that he will continue to do the same thing again and again, he has no need to confess and ask for forgiveness. After all, that's what happens in life. People repent of their sins in order to clear their minds - and commit the sin again, usually the same one.
There are as many interpretations of God in the ordinary sense of the word as there are types of people. Ideas about him vary from belief in some vague "universal cosmic consciousness" to the image of him as an anthropomorphic creature with a long white beard and sandals, following the every deed of every individual.
Even within a given religion, personal interpretations of God vary greatly. Some sects go so far as to declare all who belong to other religious denominations as heretics, although their general doctrines and ideas about the divine are almost the same. For example, Catholics believe that Protestants are doomed to perish in hell just because they do not belong to the Catholic Church. Similarly, many schismatic groups of the Christian faith, such as the evangelical and revivalist churches, believe that Catholics are idol-worshipping pagans. (Christ is portrayed in a guise that is physiologically most akin to the one who worships him, and meanwhile Christians criticize the "pagans" for idolatry). Jews in general have always been compared with the Devil.
Despite the fact that God in all these religions is basically the same, each considers the path chosen by others as reprehensible, and, moreover, to top it all off, the religious also PRAY to each other! They despise their true brethren because their religions carry other labels and somehow this hostility must be released. And the best way to do this is through “prayer”! How hypocritical is the way to say "I hate you to death" through such a thinly disguised means known as praying for your enemy! To pray for one's own enemy is to show cheap anger, and no doubt of the most pretentious and feigned kind!
And if there are such strong disagreements about the ways of serving God, how many different interpretations of God can there be - and which one is correct?
All pious people care only about how to please God, so that he opens the "Pearl Gates" of paradise for them after their death. Although, however, even if a person has lived his life without following the laws of his faith, he can send for a priest in his last hour and perform his last repentance on his deathbed. A priest or a preacher will immediately come running and “settle” with God the issue of a pass to the Kingdom of Heaven, (the Yezidis, a sect of devil worshipers, have their own point of view on this issue. The Devil, because he decides their fate on earth.They believe so deeply that God will forgive all their sins during the funeral ceremonies that they do not consider it necessary to consider how God views their lives). Because of all the contradictions that exist in the Christian scriptures, many people today cannot meaningfully perceive Christianity as it was perceived in the past. An increasing number of people are beginning to doubt the existence of God in the traditional Christian sense.
Accordingly, they call themselves "Christian Atheists". Of course, the Christian Bible is a jumble of contradictions, but what could be more controversial than the term "Christian Atheist"?
If even the eminent leaders of the Christian faith reject their predecessors' interpretations of God, how then can they expect their followers to honor religious traditions? Summing up the debate about whether God is dead or not, we can say that if he is not dead yet, then it would not hurt him to seek MEDICAL ASSISTANCE!
Anton Sandor LaVey
satanic bible
Publishers Preface
We are pleased to finally present the second, revised and expanded edition of Anton Szandor LaVey's immortal creation. We admit that it comes out not only because the first without any promotion became a bestseller, but also because we consider ourselves obliged to correct the mistakes made both through our own and through no fault of ours. Unfortunately, the first edition was done in a terrible hurry, so the translation of individual chapters was entrusted to a person who is far from black magic and the concepts that LaVey operates in his worldview. This resulted in glaring errors, which, unfortunately, were noticed by us only after the publication of the book. We apologize for the unfortunate shortcomings of the first edition and assure you that in the second edition we have done everything in our power to convey to you in an undistorted form the philosophy of the Black Pope. We hope that this will serve to attract even more true followers of the Left Path Movement into our ranks. Simultaneously with the founding work of modern Satanism, we are releasing The Satanic Rituals, the book our magicians have been waiting for. Together with The Devil's Notebook, they form a trilogy of sorts, the legacy of thirty years of experience in the application of Satanic principles. Now this legacy is available to the Russian reader. It remains for him to put it into practice. Good luck in your work. World without end. Ave Satanas!
Moscow
July XXXII Anno Satanas
One winter evening in 1967, I was driving across San Francisco to hear Anton Szandor LaVey lecture at an open meeting of the Sexual Liberties League. I was intrigued by newspaper articles that referred to him as the "Black Pope" of the Satanic Church, in which baptisms, weddings, and funerals are dedicated to the Devil. I was a freelance journalist and felt that LaVey and his pagans could make a good article; in the words of the editors, the Devil "gave circulation."
I decided that the main topic of the article should not be the practice of black arts, since there is nothing new in this world for a long time. Devil-worshipping sects and voodoo cults existed long before Christianity. In 18th century England, the Hellfire Club, which through Benjamin Franklin had connections even in the American colonies, gained fleeting fame. In the early twentieth century, the press covered the deeds of Aleister Crowley, "the most unclean man in the world", and in the 20s and 30s, hints of a certain "black order" could be traced in Germany.
To this relatively old story, LaVey and his organization of modern Faustians have added two entirely new chapters. First, in contrast to the traditional Satanic assembly of witchcraft folklore, they blasphemously presented themselves as the Church, a term previously applied only to branches of Christianity. Secondly, they came out of the underground, engaging in the practice of black magic in the open.
Instead of arranging beforehand with LaVey to discuss his heretical innovations, which was usually the first step in my research, I decided to watch and listen to him as an unintroduced member of the public. In some newspapers, he was presented as a former circus and carnival lion tamer and magician, in which the Devil himself was embodied on earth, and therefore, to begin with, I wanted to determine whether he was a real Satanist, a mummer or a charlatan. I have already met people under the footlight of the occult business; Incidentally, I once rented an apartment from Jean Dixon and took the opportunity to write about her before Ruth Montgomery did. But, mindful of all the occult crooks, hypocrites, and charlatans, I wouldn't waste five minutes describing the various forms of their tricks.
All the occultists I have met up to this point, or heard of, have been white-lighters: ostensible clairvoyants, soothsayers and witches, with their supposedly mystical powers rooted in god-oriented spiritualism. LaVey, who seemed to scoff at them, if not to say spit with contempt, appeared between the lines of newspaper stories as a real black magician who based his art on the dark side of nature and the carnal side of human life. There seemed to be nothing spiritual in his "church".
As soon as I heard LaVey speak, I realized that there was nothing in common between him and the occult business. He could not even be called a metaphysician. The cruel revelations in his mouth were pragmatic, relativistic, and, moreover, rational. It is safe to add that they were unorthodox; they were a blow to generally recognized spiritual principles, to the suppression of the carnal nature of man, to the feigned piety of being, based on material principles like "man is a wolf to man." His speech was full of sardonic sneers at human thoughtlessness, but, most importantly, it was logical. LaVey offered his audience no charlatan magic. It was a philosophy of common sense, based on the realities of life. Once I was convinced of LaVey's sincerity, I had to convince him of my intentions to conduct serious research, and not add my mite to the pile of articles describing the Church of Satan as a new freak show. I studied Satanism, discussed its history and rationale with LaVey, attended midnight rituals at the famous Victorian mansion that was then the headquarters of the Church of Satan. Then I wrote a serious article, but found that it was not at all what "respectable" magazines wanted to see on their pages. Finally, one publication from the “strawberry” or “male” category was found - Knight (Knight), which in September 68 published the first completed article on the Church of Satan, LaVey and his synthesis of ancient legends about the Devil and the folklore of black magic into modern philosophy and the practice of Satanism, which all followers and imitators now use as a model, guide, and even Bible. My article was only the beginning, not the end (as was often the case with other subjects of my attention) of a long and intimate relationship with LaVey. Their fruit was my biography of LaVey, The Devil's Avenger, published by Pyramida Publishing House in 1974. After the publication of this book, I became first an official member and then a priest of the Church of Satan; I proudly bear this title along with many famous personalities. The late-night philosophical discussions I began with LaVey in '67 continue today, a decade later, in a strange cabaret populated by LaVey's surreal humanoids; our meetings are accompanied either by a witty witch, or by music in our own performance: LaVey on the organ, I on the drums.
22.10.2015 26.08.2019 - admin
Devil's Bible also known as the Codex Gigas or The Satanic Bible, is a unique medieval manuscript whose history is surrounded by legends. The Latin name of the manuscript translates as "Giant Book", and it is quite reasonable: today the Devil's Bible is the largest handwritten book in the world. Its weight is about 75 kilograms, and the binding measures 92x50 centimeters.
Of course, this manuscript is unusual not only for its size. The Devil's Bible got its name from the page on which the image of Satan is located, which attracted attention throughout the existence of the book and gave rise to legends. The devil has attributes traditional for medieval symbols: forked tongue, horns, clawed paws. The ermine skin in which he is dressed can symbolize the highest power. On the pages adjacent to the image of the devil, there are strange shadows resembling traces of a flame. Many considered them a symbol of obsession with evil.
The famous depiction of Satan in the Codex Gigas.
There are images of Satan in other medieval books, but none of them is so huge and detailed. Unusually, the author of the manuscript depicted him in a closed cell, while usually the Devil was depicted in hell.
Another notable feature of Codex Gigas is its composition. The book includes the Old and New Testaments, historical and natural science writings, as well as spells designed to exorcise the Devil. Although medieval manuscripts were often heterogeneous in composition, there is no such set of texts in any other manuscript of this period.
The unusual nature of the book gave rise to a legend about its creation. According to legend, a certain monk violated the charter of the monastery and, as punishment for this, he was to be immured alive. To avoid death, he asked to postpone the execution for one night, promising to create a manuscript by morning, which would include all the knowledge known to mankind, and thereby glorify the monastery. When the monk realized that he would not be able to complete the work on time, he turned to Lucifer with a prayer. The devil magically completed the manuscript, but in payment for the work he took the soul of a monk, and added a "devil's page" to the book itself.
History of the manuscript
Indirect evidence, such as mentions in the memorial lists included in the manuscript, of famous historical figures, suggest that the work on the book was completed around 1230. It is believed that the Devil's Bible was created in a monastery in Podlajice (Czech Republic). Some researchers believe that this is unlikely, since no other manuscript has survived from this small and poor monastery.
During the religious wars of the XV century, this monastery was destroyed. In the following decades, the place of storage of the Codex Gigas changed several times, until at the end of the 16th century it became part of the collection of Emperor Rudolf II. After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the book came to Sweden as a war trophy. She remains in this country to this day. In 1697 there was a fire that nearly destroyed the book. She was saved by being thrown out of the window, but several pages were lost forever. In addition, a person who was under the window suffered from a fallen book.
Over the past three centuries, the Devil's Bible has only once left the vaults of the Royal Library in Stockholm. From September 2009 to January 2008 it was put on display in Prague at the Czech National Library.
Modern research
At the beginning of the 2000s, a group of researchers from different countries studied the manuscript in order to establish the true history of its creation. They used the methods of paleography and forensics, studied the author's handwriting, determined the composition of the ink and the characteristics of the material from which the pages were made.
As a rule, scribes themselves prepared ink using one of the technologies known at that time. To establish the composition of the ink, the pages were viewed under the light of an ultraviolet lamp. As a result, it was found that the entire book was written with approximately the same composition of ink.
The design features of the book, including the manner in which the famous image of the Devil is executed, suggest that the author was self-taught and not a professional scribe. Manuscript researcher Christopher de Hamel describes the hypothetical author of the Codex Gigas as being obsessed with an idea: while working on the illustrations, he tried to make them as impressive as possible. He had a certain artistic talent, but was not trained in illustrating books, unlike professional scribes who followed certain canons.
Manuscript page.
Decorative elements on the pages of the manuscript.
According to the researcher, the same impression is created by the handwriting in which the book is written. The fact that the handwriting is the same on all pages of the manuscript is another important argument in favor of the Codex Gigas being the work of one man.
The researchers estimated that it took about an hour to complete one page. It could take about five years to write a book, but only if the scribe worked on it almost around the clock. In addition, preparatory work, for example, lined sheets, took some time. It could take several days to write one decorative letter. At the same time, the author of the book could not help but follow the daily routine established in the monastery. Taking into account these factors, the time required to create a unique manuscript is estimated at 25-30 years.
It is possible that this work was entrusted to the monk as a punishment for some misconduct. In the Middle Ages, there was a belief that a person can cleanse his soul from sins by rewriting sacred books. This may be the reason for the unusual set of texts included in the manuscript. The author of the book wrote the “instructions” for his own salvation, and that is why spells appeared next to the Bible, and the image of Satan itself is adjacent to the page on which the kingdom of heaven is depicted. It is also possible that the Devil is depicted inside a certain building in order to demonstrate the opposition between the "city of God" and the "city of the devil."
Spread of Codex Gigas. Photo: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/)
The “shadows of the flame” were also explained on several pages. Researcher Michael Gullick concluded that the pages adjacent to the image of the Devil attracted more attention from book owners, they were opened more often, and as a result, the parchment darkened when exposed to sunlight. Thus, these "shadows" testify not to the "obsession with evil" of the author of the book, but to the interest that the page with the image of the Devil aroused in its subsequent owners.
The legend about the creation of the book could have arisen from a misreading of one word. Throughout the existence of the book, the word "inclusus" in the name of its author (Hermanus Inclusus) was interpreted as imprisonment, imprisonment, immuring alive as a punishment for some sins. But it also has another meaning - seclusion, hermitage. Then it may testify to the voluntary decision of the monk to leave the world in order to devote himself to working on the manuscript.
Composition of the manuscript
Along with the biblical texts, a significant place in the codex is occupied by historical texts, which contain about 100 sheets. It is noteworthy that these are not only works about world history (“Jewish Antiquities” and “Jewish War” by Josephus Flavius), but also texts dedicated to local realities - “Czech Chronicle” written by Kozma of Prague, a list of the names of the brethren of the monastery, a calendar with a memorial list .
Another 40 sheets are occupied by "Etymologies" by Isidore of Seville. The main purpose of this work is to answer the question of the origin of all human activities and everything that exists in the Universe, through the study of the origin of words. "Etymologies" include a description of many significant events of the secular and.
The texts included in the Devil's Bible are arranged in such a way that they form a single narrative covering the entire world history known at that time - from the Old Testament times to the era in which the author of the book lived. The Old Testament, which tells about the history of the Jewish people, is supplemented by "Jewish Antiquities" and "History of the Jewish War." These books are followed by the "Etymologies" of Isidore of Seville, marking the transition to the history of Christianity. Also included in this part of the book are natural science and medical works. The exposition of sacred history ends with the full text of the New Testament.
After that, the author proceeds to describe the history of specific people - the inhabitants of Bohemia, which is set out in the "Czech Chronicle", starting with the story of the Christianization of the country. The calendar at the end of the book reflects the history of the Catholic Church in general and the local church. It contains the names of the benefactors of the monastery, the deceased monks, as well as famous historical figures of that era. The memorial list was written by the same scribe who wrote the rest of the manuscript. In this it differs significantly from the memorial calendars in other manuscripts, which were created by many scribes over a long period of time.
The Codex Gigas was not just a manuscript that staggered the imagination with its size and unique design, but also a book of extreme importance for religious life monastery. The fact that it was read many times is evidenced by marginal notes made in various handwritings. The medical treatises included in the book could also be of practical value.
Despite the fact that the legendary features of the Devil's Bible received a completely rational explanation, this book remains a unique historical monument. Codex Gigas has no analogues among medieval manuscripts: it is the result of the work of one monk, reflecting the worldview of an entire era.
Anton Sandor LaVey
satanic bible
Publishers Preface
We are pleased to finally present the second, revised and expanded edition of Anton Szandor LaVey's immortal creation. We admit that it comes out not only because the first without any promotion became a bestseller, but also because we consider ourselves obliged to correct the mistakes made both through our own and through no fault of ours. Unfortunately, the first edition was done in a terrible hurry, so the translation of individual chapters was entrusted to a person who is far from black magic and the concepts that LaVey operates in his worldview. This resulted in glaring errors, which, unfortunately, were noticed by us only after the publication of the book. We apologize for the unfortunate shortcomings of the first edition and assure you that in the second edition we have done everything in our power to convey to you in an undistorted form the philosophy of the Black Pope. We hope that this will serve to attract even more true followers of the Left Path Movement into our ranks. Simultaneously with the founding work of modern Satanism, we are releasing The Satanic Rituals, the book our magicians have been waiting for. Together with The Devil's Notebook, they form a trilogy of sorts, the legacy of thirty years of experience in the application of Satanic principles. Now this legacy is available to the Russian reader. It remains for him to put it into practice. Good luck in your work. World without end. Ave Satanas!
July XXXII Anno Satanas
One winter evening in 1967, I was driving across San Francisco to hear Anton Szandor LaVey lecture at an open meeting of the Sexual Liberties League. I was intrigued by newspaper articles that referred to him as the "Black Pope" of the Satanic Church, in which baptisms, weddings, and funerals are dedicated to the Devil. I was a freelance journalist and felt that LaVey and his pagans could make a good article; in the words of the editors, the Devil "gave circulation."
I decided that the main topic of the article should not be the practice of black arts, since there is nothing new in this world for a long time. Devil-worshipping sects and voodoo cults existed long before Christianity. In 18th century England, the Hellfire Club, which through Benjamin Franklin had connections even in the American colonies, gained fleeting fame. In the early twentieth century, the press covered the deeds of Aleister Crowley, "the most unclean man in the world", and in the 20s and 30s, hints of a certain "black order" could be traced in Germany.
To this relatively old story, LaVey and his organization of modern Faustians have added two entirely new chapters. First, in contrast to the traditional Satanic assembly of witchcraft folklore, they blasphemously presented themselves as the Church, a term previously applied only to branches of Christianity. Secondly, they came out of the underground, engaging in the practice of black magic in the open.
Instead of arranging beforehand with LaVey to discuss his heretical innovations, which was usually the first step in my research, I decided to watch and listen to him as an unintroduced member of the public. In some newspapers, he was presented as a former circus and carnival lion tamer and magician, in which the Devil himself was embodied on earth, and therefore, to begin with, I wanted to determine whether he was a real Satanist, a mummer or a charlatan. I have already met people under the footlight of the occult business; Incidentally, I once rented an apartment from Jean Dixon and took the opportunity to write about her before Ruth Montgomery did. But, mindful of all the occult crooks, hypocrites, and charlatans, I wouldn't waste five minutes describing the various forms of their tricks.
All the occultists I have met up to this point, or heard of, have been white-lighters: ostensible clairvoyants, soothsayers and witches, with their supposedly mystical powers rooted in god-oriented spiritualism. LaVey, who seemed to scoff at them, if not to say spit with contempt, appeared between the lines of newspaper stories as a real black magician who based his art on the dark side of nature and the carnal side of human life. There seemed to be nothing spiritual in his "church".
As soon as I heard LaVey speak, I realized that there was nothing in common between him and the occult business. He could not even be called a metaphysician. The cruel revelations in his mouth were pragmatic, relativistic, and, moreover, rational. It is safe to add that they were unorthodox; they were a blow to generally recognized spiritual principles, to the suppression of the carnal nature of man, to the feigned piety of being, based on material principles like "man is a wolf to man." His speech was full of sardonic sneers at human thoughtlessness, but, most importantly, it was logical. LaVey offered his audience no charlatan magic. It was a philosophy of common sense, based on the realities of life. Once I was convinced of LaVey's sincerity, I had to convince him of my intentions to conduct serious research, and not add my mite to the pile of articles describing the Church of Satan as a new freak show. I studied Satanism, discussed its history and rationale with LaVey, attended midnight rituals at the famous Victorian mansion that was then the headquarters of the Church of Satan. Then I wrote a serious article, but found that it was not at all what "respectable" magazines wanted to see on their pages. Finally, one publication from the “strawberry” or “male” category was found - Knight (Knight), which in September 68 published the first completed article on the Church of Satan, LaVey and his synthesis of ancient legends about the Devil and the folklore of black magic into modern philosophy and the practice of Satanism, which all followers and imitators now use as a model, guide, and even Bible. My article was only the beginning, not the end (as was often the case with other subjects of my attention) of a long and intimate relationship with LaVey. Their fruit was my biography of LaVey, The Devil's Avenger, published by Pyramida Publishing House in 1974. After the publication of this book, I became first an official member and then a priest of the Church of Satan; I proudly bear this title along with many famous personalities. The late-night philosophical discussions I began with LaVey in '67 continue today, a decade later, in a strange cabaret populated by LaVey's surreal humanoids; our meetings are accompanied either by a witty witch, or by music in our own performance: LaVey on the organ, I on the drums.
LaVey's entire previous life seemed to prepare him for his current role. Among his ancestors were Georgians, Romanians and Alsatians, including a grandmother of gypsy blood, who told him legends about vampires and sorcerers from her native Transylvania. From the age of five, young LaVey read magazines such as Weird Tales (Mysterious stories) and books such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Despite the fact that Anton was different from other children, they always chose him