There are few things that drive me as crazy as someone who is incapable of driving home a point on their own. You can either communicate your own thoughts or you cannot. If the audience you are speaking to doesn’t find your voice to be authoritative, you probably shouldn’t be speaking in the first place. When you pull a quote and use it out of context it looks lazy and reveals your hand.
There isn’t a Satanist who doesn’t truly appreciate Anton Szandor LaVey’s writings. After all, he penned The Satanic Bible, and many tomes of Satanic literature following it. In addition to appreciating his thoughts, I have yet to meet a Satanist who isn’t enraptured with the individual that is The Doktor. From his incredible life, to his ‘Addams Family’ aesthetic and his inspired musicianship–he truly is the personification of the organization he created and the religion he codified. But therein lies the problem.
Most Satanists, hell most humans have a hard time differentiating the man from his creations. Frankenstein was the scientist, but his creature became synonymous with him–even taking his name after his creation–so it may be an inevitable reaction. However inevitable or not, it is not the case. LaVey was the man who created the organization the Church of Satan and codified the religion of Satanism, he is not the totality of either, nor they of him. The Church of Satan has a mandate to define and defend the religion of Satanism, the religion of Satanism simply exists for us to discover and connect with or not, and The Doktor has no responsibility to be anything but the founder (High Priest and representative before his death.). This means that his passionate expressions of sociology, politics, literature, art and music may be inherently Satanic, they are not necessarily representations of the Church of Satan or Satanism itself. I insist on driving this point home because there are Satanists and non-Satanists alike who believe every syllable written or spoken by The Doktor is Satanic scripture. The danger with this is that you are putting the man in a position of godliness–of worship rather than recognizing him as the flawed human he was. More dangerous than that, you are worshiping a god outside of yourself, sound familiar?
Satanists do not worship anything outside themselves. We are our own gods!
If there is any fundamental truth I have learned about Anton Szandor LaVey, it’s that he was an enigma. He would share ideas that are seemingly in contrast to one another, entertain friendships with those of differing, sometimes radical viewpoints that he did not share, and personify a bold showman appearance, while his disdain and refusal to entertain the media near the end grew. He was a man, not a god. He was the founder of Satanism, not Satanism itself. This means that he had interests and passions that were informed by his religion, but were not of his religion. He explored ideas that were filtered through his Third Side Perspective, that were not Satanic at all.
This reveals that there is a responsibility on those who enjoy quoting him to present his quote in context and not simply rely on some tangential connection to the point they are trying to make. Why would anyone quote The Doktor in the first place? To present their point with the full authority of the Church of Satan, Satanism and the man himself, that’s why. They are stating that this is the most Satanic stance to take, because Satanism declares it, see? Here is a quote from LaVey proving it! Do you believe this is what The Doktor intended–his essay’s, interviews and thoughts to be used to prove someone else’s socio-political opinion? I have a hard time believing so, simply because his insistence on this religion was on the individual, not herd thinking. And yes, there are Satanists who collect in like-minded herds, creating their own echo chambers.
The point of this essay is not to shame anyone for quoting The Doktor, or to discourage them from doing so, but to instead remind Satanists to consider what they are doing. From the outside, there is no difference between the individual Satanist, the organization the Church of Satan and the religion of Satanism–which means we must be consistent in clarifying that differentiation when referencing them. To not do so continues to confuse the religion, the meaning behind its members’ expressions and the role of the organization itself. For as we conflate our founder with the organization and religion, others do so with us! And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any individual Satanist being the public representation of Satanism outside the administration and agents of the Church of Satan, when speaking in those capacities.
Anytime a Satanist creates a brand associated with Satanism, and are an outspoken Satanist or active member of the Church of Satan, it is natural for any audience to connect their thoughts with the religion and/or organization. When they hide the individual behind that brand they are doing a disservice to the organization and religion by continuing to conflate them. And no matter how much they write out explanations to the contrary, their presentation speaks the opposite. This is either done intentionally or ignorantly but it needs to be called out for what it is, lazy and disingenuous! If you cannot stand on your own as an individual Satanist and have your own thoughts respected without leaning on our founder, organization or religion, you shouldn’t have a platform in the first place. However, the responsibility doesn’t lie solely with the presenter. It also lies with the audience. As Satanists we are supposed to be discriminating. We are supposed to study and question and champion individualism, not celebrate herd behavior.
I will forever celebrate the sharing of differing viewpoints, even those in stark contrast to my own, but they must be through the lens of the individual. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We need to act like Satanists.
Hail Satan!