Original subtitles

(wind whirling)

- America is not a young land.

It is old and dirty and evil.

Before the settlers, before the Indians,

the evil is there waiting.

(soft music)

(patrons chattering)

(drums playing)

- Hail, Satanists!

- [Audience] Hail, Satanists!

- Hail, Witches!

- [Audience] Hail, Witches!

- And Hail, Warlocks!

- [Audience] Hail, Warlocks!

- Hail, Priests!

- [Audience] Hail, Priests!

- And hail, Priestesses!

- [Audience] Hail, Priestesses!

- Hail, Magisters!

- [Audience] Hail, Magisters!

- And Hail, Magistras!

- [Audience] Hail, Magistras!

- Ladies and gentlemen, please rise, as I introduce

the high priest of the Church of Satan,

Magus Peter H. Gilmore.

Hail, Peter H. Gilmore!

- [Audience] Hail, Peter H. Gilmore!

- Tonight, we consider those who came before us.

Primarily we think of Anton Szandor LaVey

our founding Magus and his great achievement

in conceiving of the Church of Satan.

We will thrive much better than simply surviving.

That is our mission, and we shall do it.

And I know you will all will.

(birds chirping)

(orchestral music)

(orchestral music continues)

Satanism is an atheist philosophy that uses Satan

as a symbol of pride, individualism and Liberty.

Anton LaVey called it "the world's first carnal religion."

He looked at mankind and said

that humans are just another animal.

Anton LaVey felt there should be a religion

that dealt with the reality of the human animal.

And hence he decided to call it Satanism.

Satan was the figure who wasn't going to submit to tyranny,

that was going to stand up for himself above all

and make his own way

and not have any illusions or delusions.

If you built a church to Satan

that was certainly going to shake up the world.

It was going to be revolutionary.

He created the Church of Satan, founded it in 1966

on Walpurgisnacht, April 30th,

which is the traditional Witches Sabbath.

And his idea keeps spreading to people all around the globe

regardless of what culture they come from.

- Moloch!

- [Audience] Moloch!

- Hacate!

- [Audience] Hacate.

- Shaitan!

- [Audience] Shaitan!

- Dagon!

- [Audience] Dagon!

- Astaroth!

- [Audience] Astaroth!

- Loki!

- [Audience] Loki!

- Behemoth!

- [Audience] Behemoth!

- Lilith!

- [Audience] Lilith!

- Anton Szandor LaVey!

- [Audience] Anton Szandor LaVey!

(rock and roll music)

- [Peter] There's really a prime misconceptions

about Satanism, and that is that we are devil worshipers.

People think that we must believe in God and the devil

and that we've chosen to go

with the figure of evil and corruption,

and who's the loser in that mythology.

For us, none of that is real.

It is mythology.

Satan to us is a figure that

aside from being considered evil

is often by creative and intelligent people

seen as the adversary, the opposer, the accuser,

sort of a romantic rebellious figure.

Satanism is self-satisfaction.

We celebrate indulgence instead of abstinence.

To us, evil, is that which harms us or hurts the people

and other things that we care for.

- May the whore of Babylon journey forth to the sky

and spread her wings so wide

that all can see her beauty and glory!

(suspenseful music)

- [Aden] I was raised in a very, a multi-religious home.

I went to a Catholic school for the first few years.

My mother's side was Muslim.

My dad's side is Christian.

So I was exposed to a bunch of different points of view,

and none of them really seem to satisfy.

I had this love of fantasy and witches

and horror movies and Halloween.

And so I just started devouring all these occult texts,

of everything from Wicca to Voodoo.

And then I finally came across Anton LaVey.

I own a homoerotic occult magazine, and I write about sex.

And I would say I'm mischievous, a misfit, yeah.

When my parents saw the magazine, (chuckles)

my mother was like "Oh honey, that's so nice.

I'm proud of you." (laughs)

And my dad was like

"can't you do something that I can show my friends?

Just one thing, one thing."

(carnival music)

- [Adam] When I was a little kid

and I clearly remember this.

We were sitting on a back deck in my house

and it was me and my mom.

It was a nice day.

And I remember asking her,

"how do you know that God's not lying,

and the devil's telling the truth?"

And she got really mad.

And that was the moment

that I knew for a fact, it was bullshit.

(people screaming) (roller coaster roaring)

If you have a logical mind

and you read the Bible, you're done.

I was interested in monsters and ghost stories.

And I started reading occult literature.

I got to the Satanic Bible.

I read the book and said, "I'm not alone anymore.

I know there's other people like me."

It's me realizing the universe isn't helping me.

It's all here.

I can shape and create and make things happen.

And it can be whatever I want.

And there's no rules.

I'm totally free.

Living as a Satanist, that's all it is.

You know, one day you're going to die,

live everyday like it's your last.

Shemhamforash!

- [Audience] Shemhamforash!

- Hail Satan!

- [Audience] Hail Satan!

(cymbals clanging)

- "Blessed are the destroyers of false hope,

"for they are the true messiahs!

"Cursed are the God adores

"for they shall be shorn sheep!"

- "Blessed are the Valiant,

"for they shall obtain great treasure.

"Cursed are the believers in good and evil

"for they are frightened by shadows."

(hand slapping)

You're a bad, bad Satanist! - I Sure am!

I first encountered the Satanic Bible when I was 13.

I happened to see it on the shelf

in a just a regular old bookstore.

I was with a friend of mine at the time.

I picked it up.

I started thumbing through it

and he was a religious person.

He said, "Oh, don't touch that.

That's a very dark and evil book."

And so I put it down.

I wouldn't see it again until I was 19.

And I picked it up, I read it.

And literally like so many others just said, "Oh

I'm a Satanist."

"The angel of self-deceit is camped

"in the souls of the righteous.

"The eternal flame of power through joy dwelleth

"within the flesh of the Satanist."

(soft music)

- [Peter] Anton LaVey wrote the Satanic Bible

to concretize the philosophy that he was spreading

in the organization The Church of Satan.

He published it in 1969, towards the end of the year.

- When I read the book

it kind of stirred up a lot of excitement.

I was like, "Oh wow!

This is what I am.

This is who I am."

It finally made sense

- Read it, cover to cover.

Couldn't put it down, recognized myself in every page.

It already fit me.

- I bought the copy and I read it three times in one night.

And I said, "this is me."

- We understand this is one life.

You have a short period of time on this planet

and you have to live it the best

and most pleasurable as you can.

- To some people, to an average person

especially a Christian that might scare them

because it makes you uncomfortable to think,

"wow this is it.

When, I die, there's no more me."

But we're comfortable with that, we're not afraid.

- What I feel is most important to me

about identifying as a Satanist

is the sense of being your own God.

I am in control of my life.

I dictate what happens

- Love to those who love and hate to those who hate.

It's what everybody thinks, but doesn't want to admit.

Satanism is the most sane, religion

and philosophy out there.

- We don't feel we have to love everyone.

You don't.

Like Anton LaVey said,

"If you try to love everybody

you're gonna run out of love very quickly."

- It is good to be discerning to yourself,

to the things you enjoy

and the people that you choose to spend your time with.

- We do discriminate.

And as a black person, when I'm at the Church of Satan,

I can say that discrimination is not racial.

"We have gathered forth our symbols

"and prepared our garnishings of the is-to-be.

"And the image of our creation lurketh

"as an insatiable basilisk awaiting his release."

I did start as a Christian boy.

I felt the hypocrisy was too much.

And when I read the Satanic Bible

I realized that what interested me was the symbolism.

It resonated with me and I bought it.

But when I did, I was a little nervous.

So I bought it with a copy

of the new Testament of the Bible,

just a tiny, very, very inexpensive one

so that they wouldn't look at me too funny at the register.

(acoustic music)

- My personal Journey to Satanism

is different from a lot of people's.

I didn't read the satanic Bible when I was 13.

I didn't read the satanic Bible

until long after I knew Dr. LaVey.

He hands me this envelope and I opened it up.

And "you're the priestess of the church of Satan."

And I'm like, "Dude, okay!"

I'm very vocal and very public about my affiliation.

And it's really enjoyable to me

because I like dispelling myths about Satanists.

I don't have...

I mean, I have a lot of weird junk,

but I don't have a Cape and I don't have any black candles.

(orchestral music)

I can't separate Satanism from myself.

I'm me, and all of my philosophies align

with the satanic philosophies.

Freedom and joy.

Those are the things that are important in my life.

(fire roaring)

It may seem contradictory that our images are all based

on what was traditionally provided by Christians.

The devil, the horns, the red suit.

But I have to say that that's a really attractive image.

(fire roaring)

The devil is fucking awesome!

Magic is making the world as you want it.

And recognizing that you did that.

The world you live in is largely your creation

if not entirely.

(fire roaring)

You don't require a guy in a dress.

You don't require a church.

You don't require a book of what you should do

and shouldn't do to be a human being.

What it is to be a human being is all around you,

if you open your fucking eyes.

(orchestral music)

I wanna live in a meritocracy.

I wanna get credit for what I'm good at.

And I wanna not be asked to do what I'm not good at.

You can't be good at everything.

(suspenseful music)

- [Peter] In Satanism, we believe

that everything is stratified.

Stratification for us means accepting

that the world is not egalitarianism

that everything rises to its own level or falls.

Stratification is a way of being realistic

about a hierarchy of nature.

Anton LaVey said that there was a pyramid structure.

The very small caps down to the pyramid

of people who are creative and innovative.

Then there's a middle sort of larger trapezoid

of people who are productive.

And then there's a much lower

and much larger part of the pyramid

of people who are simply believers.

He felt that, of course we should value people more highly

as they're placed higher on the pyramid.

And I would certainly agree with that.

The church of Satan as a religious organization

was set up in such a way as not to be a nonprofit.

Anton LaVey felt that churches

were robbing society by being tax exempt.

So he felt that we should advocate

the complete taxation of all churches.

And to that end, the Church of Satan

has always paid its taxes and will continue to do so.

(suspenseful music)

- Satanism is a dangerous philosophy.

It puts a lot of responsibility on the individual.

It is a very brutal religion.

Elitism, social Darwinism, a rejection of egalitarianism.

The most important thing to me about Satanism

is being able to empower yourself

to withdraw from mainstream society.

I think Satanism gives you that framework.

It gives you that ability

to analyze situations as they really are.

Being that outsider that looks in

is a very great metaphor for me.

Anton LaVey once wrote that "Satanism is Americanism."

The American values of freedom, individuality,

sovereignty and pride,

that I think made it inevitable

that Satanism would rise in America.

Would be born in America.

- I kind of have a problem with the term modern Satanism,

because prior to 1966 there was no Satanism.

Prior to Anton LaVey codifying Satanism,

and defining it in the Satanic Bible.

Satanism was really just a loose term

that was banded about by Christians

to be used as an insult

against anything that they didn't like.

(Orchestral music) (birds chirping)

- We keep be membership numbers

of the Church of Satan a secret.

I'm the only one who knows how many new members there are.

And even I may not know because we've had members

for a very long time, 50 years now

and not all our records are digital.

So I couldn't tell you exactly even if I wanted to.

But it is in the thousands, you can be sure of that.

And it is in almost every country on the planet.

(orchestral music)

- The Church of Satan is organized

in a hierarchical structure.

People approach us, they pay a one-time fee of

it's $200 at this point, it may go up, (laughs) times change

but they pay a fee to be a member.

And that means they're essentially supporting

the philosophy in the organization.

(orchestral music)

- There are people who approach the Church of Satan

for membership and are rejected.

I mainly reject them because

they haven't read the Satanic Bible

and they don't understand our philosophy.

It's very important to us

that people understand what they're getting into

when they say they're Satanists,

they have to understand what Satanism really is.

- The gamut is amazing with the kind of people

we have in our organization.

We have some of the world's leading environmental activists

as part of the Church of Satan

and people who are involved in artificial intelligence

and virtual reality

and people who are painters and photographers

and chefs who are opening their own restaurants

and getting great reviews.

- Just every walk of life that there is,

you could be sitting next to a Satanist

in your doctor's office or on the bus.

They're everywhere.

(jazz music)

- I wanted to join just to kind of affirm my loyalty

to the principles that yes, I'm serious.

This is my perspective on life.

Gave me a pat on the back saying,

"it's okay to feel this way.

It's okay to wanna tear someone apart.

As long as you don't actually do it.

It's okay to want to screw people.

It's okay to want wild and crazy fetishes.

You can be reasonable and rational and responsible, silly

and sexual and bestial and greedy.

You can be all these things.

And that is the human condition."

(jazz music)

Satanism is a culmination for me.

It's a label I look for desperately.

For me, ritual is to engage in the world as I wish it was.

I can do whatever I want.

If I want pink candles, instead of black, I can do that.

On my altar I have a candle

in the shape of a very large penis

and that's not in the satanic Bible.

But, I like dick.

So it's going to my alter.

In the ritual chamber I didn't have to grow up.

It's my Nevernever land.

It allows me to never forget

that the things you loved as a child, don't have to go away.

"In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi.

"In the name of Satan the Ruler of the Earth,

"the King of the World,

"I command the forces of darkness

"to bestow their infernal power upon me.

"Open wide, the Gates of hell.

"Come forth from the abyss

"and greet me as your brother and friend.

"Grant me the indulgences of which I speak.

"I've taken thy name as a part of myself.

"I live as a beast of the field rejoicing the fleshly life.

"I favor the just and I curse the rotten.

"By all the gods of the pit

"these things of which I speak shall come to pass

"come forth and answer to your names

"by manifesting my desires."

(acoustic music)

Do you guys think I need a bigger dick candle.

(acoustic music continues)

- This is my room where the real magic happens.

The bell and the knife and the chal...

I like this stuff.

I think symbolically it's powerful.

I prefer when I'm doing these things

I hand write a lot of the stuff out.

I prefer that.

It's a form of theater for me and I have it right here.

(soft music)

- Well, I think like a lot of Satanists

I was born not converted to Satanism.

I was born a Satanist.

We all have different paths, but eventually

we find the satanic Bible and then it's a big revelation.

Then you say, "Oh, this is what I've been all my life.

But I didn't know that's what

I was supposed to be calling myself."

(organ playing)

I had been a member of the Church of Satan

for a number of years.

I had recently graduated from college

and I was taking a trip to San Francisco with my mother.

And I just wrote to the church to have a few minutes

with Anton LaVey, just to shake his hand

and thank him for what he's given to me

and so many people as a philosophy,

that's certainly made a big difference in my life.

So I got an answer back that said

"he would be glad to meet with you."

I'd built up a lot of expectations about

who he might be or what he might be like

but we hit it off really well.

He was funny.

He played music for me.

He told jokes.

He had some remembrances.

He was a wonderful, wonderful spirited person.

We corresponded, we talked over the phone and he said

"you will move to San Francisco

and you will be here as part of the organization.

You'll be very helpful around here."

And I said, "okay, I don't have any plans for that.

But if you say it's going to happen, okay."

(organ playing)

He talked a lot about Voltaire

and Oscar Wilde, Jack London, the romantic poets

the existentialist, Nietzsche, Sartre, H.L. Mencken.

So people should understand

when he started the Church of Satan,

he did it out of a general disdain for most people

and in a love of life

and a frustration that people don't live

as fully and completely as they could.

- Satan can take the form of a beautiful woman.

Satan can take the form of a sleek animal.

An automobile can be very Satanic.

- It was such an extension of his personality

that, people could just look at him

and the way he lived his life

and understand what Satanism is about.

(orchestral music)

- Anton LaVey was a really fascinating individual.

When he was young he spent time

in the carnival and circus worlds.

He played Calliope and other things

and even learned some lion taming at a period in history.

So he learned how as a human being,

he could interact with a big, dangerous animal,

which is kind of the way

you have to treat most people around you also.

For a period of time

he was a police photographer, freelance

and he would take pictures of crime scenes

where he'd see like the results

of how people dealt with each other.

- I saw a slice of life

that very few people see on a regular basis.

I saw the effects of mayhem from spouse to spouse,

children splattered by hit-run drivers.

(dramatic music)

- [Peter] He grew up in a culture

that was embodied in filmed noir

where there were very specific male and female archetypes,

where no one was there to help you,

that life was a struggle and you might lose.

And if you won, it might not really be all

that it's cracked up to be.

And by playing music in bars

for people where people drink and tell you their stories

you really got a sense of what the human animal was like.

(orchestral music)

- [Blanche] When the '60's came around,

he was very excited in a sense

that people were getting away from conventional religions

but he saw that a lot of, what they called hippies

were going in a completely wrong direction.

Drugs for many people had become

as harmful as spiritual self delusion.

- And it was disintegrating into like suicides

and self-destruction and misogyny

and attacks on political leaders.

And he's like, "you gotta like deal with your own shit.

I'm gonna blast that door down.

I'm going to steal the fire away from the gods

and I'm gonna give it to you

now what are you going to do with it?"

- To a certain extent

he certainly respected the New Age explorations.

He tried Crowley's group.

He tried other theosophists.

He tried the Rosicrucians.

He knew what he was looking for.

He was looking for real, no bullshit, no nonsense magic.

- That's really what led Anton LaVey

to creating the church of Satan

by examining not only

what Crowley's people were doing, his disciples

but what was happening in the Neo-pagan religions.

As all of that was growing, LaVey sort of said,

"well nothing's out there that satisfies me."

(indistinct)

And at the time there was a whole

occult revolution going on, particularly in California.

So the idea of this kind of spooky

alternative religion caught his eye.

He'd been a carny and he had worked in the spook shows.

So he knew showmanship was really crucial

to get anything launched.

Again, a very American thing.

- The '60's were nuts and people who didn't live

through them don't remember how nuts they were.

He seemed to me like the lone voice of reason.

- I believe that hate is necessary in a controlled way.

Just as much as love is necessary.

- Are you married?

- Oh yes.

- Do you have any little devils?

- Oh yes, I have two.

- Are you gonna raise them as Satanic kids?

- Certainly, but not to go around and chopping people up

or sacrificing human beings.

- He wanted to be an instigator

and he wanted to inspire people

to move towards their passion

and not the flavor of the week

or the celebrity of the moment.

- I think Satanism

in LaVey's terms,

was more about addressing the soul-oriented values of man

and understanding man's real nature, real character.

(orchestral music)

- [Blanche] He had learned a lot from the people

that he worked with in the carnival

especially from the freaks.

They were using what they had

the specialness that they were endowed with.

And they were greatly respected.

Natural freaks were greatly respected within the community.

(orchestral music continues)

He started gathering an eccentric group

of people around him.

A lot of characters, a lot of socialites

a lot of people that were movers and shakers

who had different ideas about religion

and really were very enthused about the supernatural,

the occult, and wanted to explore it more with him.

- [Anton] Most of the people that are in my group

are professional people.

They're business people.

They're people that are from very responsible walks of life.

- [Blanche] He bought the black house,

the original black house.

He started having parties on a regular basis.

He started giving lectures

on the occult on cannibalism, on vampirism.

- I also try to help people

with various problems and enlighten them

on these concepts of magic folklore and offbeat religions.

- [Blanche] He acquired a lion, he got Togare and raised him

and he would take him to the local elementary schools

so that the children could pet a real lion.

He got a reputation as being a San Francisco, eccentric.

Someone that people like to spend time with.

- You realize that this was like the West Coast version

of Andy Warhol's Factory.

Those people were probably the most interesting people

on the West coast.

He's a guy who knew what he wanted

and he knew how to get it.

And he was definitely a showman.

He knew how to market himself,

he knew how to brand himself,

become immediately recognizable,

and his face was associated with a philosophy

that a lot of people still believe in.

- In a lot of ways LaVey was

like the William Blake of the occult.

Was he a charlatan?

Yeah, he was the charlatan to those

he didn't want anything to do with

and that was a way to protect himself.

His whole image was a mirror that he put up to society.

- [Announcer] And with the special participation

of Anton LaVey, High Priest of the Church of Satan.

(beast roaring)

"The Devil's Rain."

(inferno blasting)

- LaVey had a real opportunity

to just be like a figure in Hollywood.

And he knew if he did that, if he moved to LA

he would not have time

for his own music, for his own drawings.

He didn't wanna be a slave to that.

He didn't wanna be a pop slave.

In the '70's, '80's, you saw a lot of creative people

that were inspired and liberated.

And liberated as opposed to liberal.

And those are completely like opposite things now.

- [Anton] My relationships with some of the sex goddesses

of the past have been largely

as a result of luck, more than anything else.

- When I was writing the biography of Anton LaVey

he would start telling me these wonderful stories.

He talked about his time with Marilyn Monroe

or he talked about Jayne Mansfield.

And, he was a high priest of the Church of Satan.

During the time that we were together,

we had an open relationship, let's say.

He had certain responsibilities that he had to fulfill.

And I was enthusiastic with those responsibilities as well.

We're Satanists, we're not prudes.

We enjoy lust and happiness and indulgence

and I think that's why we hit off so well.

- The realization early on that I was part

of this unique family that wasn't like anything else except

for things like "The Munsters" maybe, or things like that

that were of course, totally fictional

that no one actually took seriously as a family dynamic.

But I was living it nonetheless.

By the time I came into the picture,

things had quieted down a little bit.

I used to tell Zeena that,

I wish that I could have some kind of like normal existence

where I could, go bicycling or whatever with my siblings

and have Sunday picnics in the park.

And I mean, it wasn't like that at all.

Anton was very peculiar

in all of his habits and all of his tastes.

And so he wouldn't venture out very much.

And sometimes when he would, he would go out in disguise.

Problems aside, he was just an exceptional, interesting,

sweet, childlike kind of personality.

Coolest grandpa ever possible.

- He, wasn't gonna tell you what to do

but you better fucking do it.

And how many people did it?

How many people are doing it?

How many people are just using the label it's like,

so they can scare their Catholic grandma?

(Steven laughs)

(acoustic music)

- Well, my family,

it's funny 'cause some of them will see this.

My mom knows and doesn't like talking about it.

My father's side of the family are very religious Catholics.

And again, I don't ever talk about it.

Maybe they know and I don't really care if they know.

And if they do know, all right, cool.

I think they'll notice

that I've never tried to convert them.

The best way to raise my children

is for them to be themselves.

Find what you like, what you love and go for it.

And to me, that's the most Satanic thing.

If they identify with Satanism, great,

if they don't, I don't care.

(acoustic music continues)

- I don't know what disturbed my family more.

Me, telling them I was gay.

Me, telling them I was an atheist.

Or me telling them I was a Satanist.

They kept throwing away the books

every time they found them.

So the Satanic Bible I have now, the paperback,

is the fourth one I had to buy.

They just kept throwing out all my copies of Anton LaVey.

But then again, I kept leaving them in the car.

- My father was not entirely comfortable

but since I was responsible, he supported it enough

to Just let me do whatever I was doing.

We used to tease each other.

So I would say, "Oh you're the most Satanic Christian

that I've ever met."

And he would say, that I'm the most Christian Satanist

that he's ever met. (laughs)

- Every family reacts differently.

It depends on how they grew up.

It depends upon what they've been indoctrinated into

what they've seen in the media or what they've heard.

We're brought up in environments

where you want that support.

You want that acceptance from your parents

or from your family.

And unfortunately, a lot of us don't get it.

- I think maybe they thought

it was maybe a phase I was going through.

And as I got older, they were just like,

"okay it's clearly not a phase,

'cause you're here, you are an adult

and you're still identifying as a Satanist."

- My mother actually excommunicated herself

from the Catholic church when I was growing up.

- My family's reaction was pretty neutral

because there are a bunch of Darwinists already

they're not very religious people.

My mother was another person who,

she encouraged me to join, so.

(suspenseful music)

- [Diabolus] I spent my youth in Astoria, Oregon,

at a very lovecraftian type of city.

My parents were children in the '60's.

So they were very interested in the experimental lifestyles

which were very big at that time

that involved psychedelia, involved in the drug world

but also the burgeoning interest in the occult.

Growing up in a family in which that was an important aspect

is how I came to be acquainted

with Satanism and the Satanic Bible.

(waterfall roaring)

I joined the Church of Satan

because I felt that this was unique and different.

(waterfall roaring)

The rest is history.

(suspenseful music)

- We do not believe in an actual,

as I said, in actual entity.

We are atheists.

At least as far as the church of Satan is concerned.

We feel that Satan is polemic,

he is allegorical and he is symbolic.

He represents the forces of nature

that make mankind something unique and individual.

That element that allows us

to perceive ourselves as gods, as opposed

to worshiping a sentient beings outside of ourself.

(suspenseful music)

- [Diabolus] That was a standard Church of Satan party line

which I was willing to use

to help develop the philosophy of the Church of Satan.

Deep down inside every man has his own views

and his own perspectives and his own truth.

And mine was very, very different than that.

(suspenseful music)

"All religions are a joke."

That was one of the things that was stated.

My perspective on that.

I don't believe that what I'm practicing is a joke

even though what I'm practicing is not a religion.

I couldn't hold to that perspective

and still remain true to myself.

It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the people

I was surrounded with

but I couldn't be on board with a sinking ship.

(suspenseful music)

I am a theistic Satanist.

I mean, if you wanna categorize it

in such primitive terms.

The existence of a super-consciousness

or an over consciousness

that's something that I ultimately accept.

So anybody who wants to say,

"well that's just delusional

or that's just fantasy thinking."

It's like, that's fine for you

but either A that's a personal perspective

or B is a claim of omniscience.

And we completely deny that in the Chaos Imperium.

(suspenseful music)

Oh, friend and companion of the night,

thou who delightest in the baying of dogs and spilt blood,

who wanderest in the shades among the tombs,

who longest for blood and bringeth terror to mortals.

Gogro! Mormo!

Thousand-faced moon!

Look favorably upon our sacrifices!

- Diabolus Rex, he was one of those Satanists

I grew up reading his interviews and watching them,

and loving his art.

So, when he left the church I was like,

"Aw, that sucks, but oh, well."

- If there's a time when someone wants to go off

on their own or leave the organization, that's fine.

(piano playing)

- In 1975, we had a split in the Church of Satan.

Michael Aquino started something called The Temple of Set.

And Aquino actually became a very mystical person.

He really felt that Set existed

as an isolate consciousness,

some supernatural intelligence.

And he could communicate with that.

- Temple of Set, very transcendent,

movement towards something greater

and beyond the physical world,

distinct from the highly materialistic aspects

of the Church of Satan,

which only came much later in the Church's Satan's history.

Initially there was something much more acceptable

about the idea that Satan might be some kind of godhead

that actually existed in physical reality

and that the Satanists could contact.

(piano playing)

- That was the most well organized version

of that kind of theistic thinking.

When you're dealing with like a left-hand path philosophy.

It doesn't seem to have a very wide reach

but it's there for the people who it would satisfy.

And in fact, if people approach the Church of Satan

who are really mystical and wanna believe things like that,

we send them off to other people.

(chain clanging) (dog growling)

- It's a common misconception that theistic Satanists

or those who believe in some form of consciousness

of a satanic element somehow

are automatically involved in worship.

You can have a direct connection

with this over consciousness or superconscious

which has nothing to do with worship.

It's more teacher to student and learning

from that position to be able to promote a form

of self-evolution to something greater.

(suspenseful music)

- I knew Diabolus Rex, an accomplished artist.

I don't really know what he's been up to.

(suspenseful music)

- [Diabolus] The Ragnarok Engine is an Escathonic,

experimental and theoretical project.

Escathonic meaning, end of the world.

Ragnarok was the end of the age of the gods.

Well, everybody perceives themselves as the new gods,

so we have to move against that.

The Ragnarok Engine is a way

of being able to create gateways

and bring in the most definitive aspects of evil.

(suspenseful music)

And so I've poured all my resources

and everything that I hold

as a conviction of power into this.

(suspenseful music)

(carnival music)

(Adam whistling)

- Well, Satanism is not for everybody

because it requires extreme responsibility.

It's interesting, 'cause I look at this country,

The United States, and our constitution is the same thing.

The first amendment to me

is the most singular important thing we have.

It's free speech.

You're allowed to say whatever you want,

whether it be hateful or not.

And I think this is really healthy.

What's hate speech?

What does that even mean?

What if I say, I hate people who read comic books?

Is that hate speech?

To me, the only way to have that work is all speech is good.

The second amendment is there for me to protect my property.

It's also there to protect me from an invading army.

And it's also there to protect me from my own government.

People that don't like it,

I quickly point out what happened in Europe,

not that long ago.

Within a minute, people were like

"Oh, shit, there's Nazis everywhere."

Like it just happens.

Our founding fathers, I think when they put it in there

they were like, "this is the safety right here, boom!

People can fight back."

If you have free speech, people will get offended, obviously

if you have guns, people are gonna get shot.

So the question is, do you wanna live somewhere

that's completely no gun violence at all,

but there's laws on regulating speech

or do you wanna live somewhere where it's a little wild?

There's a lot of shit going on

and you have to be responsible, or you're fucked.

I choose that.

That's what I like.

I'll take the gun violence.

I'll take it.

If that's part of the freedom rules, I'd rather that.

- The people who founded our country,

Jefferson, Franklin, Thomas Paine, they were deists.

They were anti theists, anti organized religion.

And they were certainly influenced

by the freedoms of the enlightenment.

And so the way our very country was structured

was much more leaning toward what we now understand

as Satanism than dependence on religion

and God and powers outside yourself.

- [Reporter] Experts say there are

as many as 50 to 60,000 human sacrifices a year,

a result of an estimated 100,000 self-styled Satanists

in this country.

In 1988 Los Angeles had 64 preschools

with report and Satanic activity.

- I absolutely believe it without any doubt.

Based on the information that's been given to me

across the country, by numerous survivors

and by confidential sources and informants.

- Basically from the late '60's, early '70's

there was all these books coming out

"The Exorcist", "Amityville Horror".

Yeah, they're fun movies but they're Christian propaganda.

They made more people go to church than anything else.

It scared people.

So out of that arose this like false pretense

that there's this Satanic underground community

that is breeding babies for sacrifice.

- Oh, the satanic panic.

That was the just, you know, America.

(suspenseful music)

- The satanic panic was essentially launched

by a book called "Michelle Remembers"

where a psychiatrist dealt with a woman

who claimed to have remembered memories of being abused

by a Church of Satan,

which had her do all kinds of heinous things

in the name of the devil.

When the book came out, it was listed as being a true story.

And that started amongst the evangelical Christians

this wildfire of people replicating these tales.

"Michelle Remembers" was followed by Mike Warnke

who was a fellow who came out with a book claiming

that he'd been part of the Satanic cult

that had this amazing reach in the world.

They were involved with invoking actual demons

who would teleport people, places.

It was called "The Satan Seller."

Other people started imitating it because these books sold.

This is a commercial venture.

It was really the commercial success of this literature

of satanic cults that got evangelical Christians

into saying, "this a good deal."

- These symbols of Satanism are turning up everywhere,

on walls, on clothes, on album covers,

and even on bodies of murder victims.

- [Raul] People like Bob Larson who spread this,

and certain therapists and psychiatrists

who were using unethical techniques to implant memories

from their patients then these patients claim

that they were part of these satanic cults.

- We're talking about people in some cases who are coming

to us as patients who were raised in Satanic cults

from the time they were born.

- The various cases where people's lives were thrown apart

because of these allegations that they were abusing children

are part of this great satanic conspiracy.

- The truth is children, lie

and adults encouraged children to lie

to feed into their own bullshit stories.

And that's what the satanic panic was.

If you read the testimony in the McMartin Preschool,

the fact that anybody believed any of them

for a second is just...

You just, you slap your forehead.

It's just insane.

- People were claiming that children

were literally being shown like animals

that you would only see in zoos and being transported

into exotic locations and then somehow returned

to the preschool that they were at.

And you're thinking, "how could this happen?"

And of course the explanation was Satan.

- It would be a whole lot easier if these people wore

or had horns and a Pitchfork and a red suit

but they just don't.

They could be your next-door neighbor.

- Cops for Christ were a big deal then too.

I dealt with people like that.

I was actually set upon by people

who just didn't like the way you looked

or they had a marginalized understanding

of what they thought you represented.

And every day was an adventure.

- It was a real problem.

LaVey felt like he was in danger.

People would drive by and throw shit at the house.

You have to understand that the satanic panic happened

during the Reagan years.

Fundamentalism was the flavor of the month.

Religion and people were gloaming onto that but,

make no mistake, that was a very dangerous time

to be living in America.

- These things don't have to be real at all

but they get passed around.

And suddenly a friend of a friend of a friend said

"I know somebody who was involved in that."

So this whole mythology grew.

- But there were people who believe that

because it helped forge an agenda

for the reorientation of American society.

(rock and roll music)

- During the satanic panic is when I discovered Satanism.

And I remember one of the things

that was being spread around was heavy metal music

and Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games

will expose you to Satanism.

- I believe that Dungeons & Dragons

is a direct quote from the pit of hell,

if you wanna call it that.

It is a mind-bending game, a mind-changing game.

And it's involved with all kinds

of occult and pagan religions.

And Anton LaVey, the writer of the Satanist Bible says,

"there is no such thing as white witchcraft."

- For being a Satan worshiper, he should know.

- Yeah, he should know

- And guess what?

It worked, it worked.

It actually did do that to me.

So whatever they said actually was true.

- All the things you love.

- Whether Satan exists is a matter of belief.

But we are certain that Satanism exists.

To some it's a religion.

To others it's the practice of evil in the devil's name.

- Hail, Satan!

- [Peter] And indeed there were some crazy people

who believed in the devil and worshiped him

we used to call them Geraldo Satanist,

'cause we feel that that's where the inspiration was coming.

Not from any actual other Satanists or any actual Satanism.

- We had some Satanists that were interested

in the Charles Manson phenomenon.

Some Satanists kind of saw him

as a symbol of the end of the '60's.

This kind of rebellion, this counteraction

from the '60's hippie culture, right?

So I think they took that aesthetic

and that kind of mythology and they ran with it.

LaVey himself was actually really annoyed by that.

He wrote several times that

he wished Charles Manson was just shot in the head,

and that was over with.

- LaVey knew Susan Atkins.

She worked as a stripper in his Topless Witches revue.

And he said, "Boyd, this girl

was an accident waiting to happen.

If it hadn't been Charlie Manson

it would've been somebody else."

Like an incredible amount of people cross paths

with Manson, people that you never expect.

And a lot of people ended up going through

well, The Black House as well.

So I just think, it was an odd time.

When the Manson thing originally happened

all the Manson girls wrote letters to Anton LaVey.

- The people that do that nonsense shit,

they're the theistic idiots.

They're the ones that believe in the nonsense.

They're the ones that can't draw the separation

between fantasy and reality.

If they're doing it, it's not Satanism.

When I hear babies being murdered and child molestation,

I think of Christians and Catholics.

- [Carissa] I think a lot of them are (indistinct)

- [Adam] Yeah, they do! They should!

That's real! That can be proven!

- We, for our part during the satanic panic,

Anton LaVey didn't want to dignify

a lot of these journalists

with actually having the High Priest of the Church of Satan

on their shows.

He said, "you know, the philosophy

and the organization have matured

to the point now where I have plenty of people

that I trust to go on these shows

and say, no, we don't sacrifice animals.

And this is what we stand for, and this is what we do.

- We are here.

We're not going away.

And Christianity and the day of the cross are done.

- It was the best story going at the time.

And so there was a need to be able

to defend this opposite position.

- For Anton LaVey, what he was doing was meeting with people

from the Humane Society, from animal protection societies

from cult awareness, places

even Christians who were concerned

about what was going on in Christianity

and these people that were being counselors

and hanging out their shingle as Satan busters.

So he was meeting with the right people to get the word out

defining what Satanism is and what it isn't.

- The FBI and other law enforcement started

to really investigate this

because it had really gotten to be this crazy mythology

with all of these books coming out

and people supporting this.

And they found that it wasn't true. Surprise!

That it was a hysteria.

- Anybody who would bother

to even take the cursory look at our text.

The first thing it says is that we don't harm children

and we don't harm animals.

There are no sacrifices.

That's all shit.

That's Christian shit.

- I went out there and had to sit next to people

who are claiming to be breeding babies

and slaughtering them.

And try to say, I represent this philosophy

which is about reason and about self-satisfaction.

And that is atheist.

When all these people think

that I must be a animal sacrificer and baby-breeder.

I'd be put in green rooms separate

from all the other guests

because they didn't wanna be near me

because of course I must be doing these horrendous things.

And it really took a long time

for that to grind to a halt and roll back.

(suspenseful music)

- Marilyn Manson in that time was getting popular.

And he brought Satanism a new audience

'cause he openly talked about it.

Back then, it wasn't cool.

Like now you can be like, "Oh, I'm a member

of some stupid satanic group" and people are like, "Yeah!"

But back then, it wasn't like that.

It was serious.

You couldn't tell anybody.

The first open member and open Satanist is King Diamond.

He's the first rock and roller to say,

"Hey, you know I'm a Satanist."

I mean, Coven from the '60's, but that's...

It's was very different then.

- [Cartoon] I hear you vomit here.

I can't think of Hank and there's Santa in the backyard.

- [Reporter] "Scooby Doo" cartoon.

- [Interviewee] Our children are being lobotomized

by manipulative psychologist.

- [Announcer] Kids in the occult.

- [Announcer] I wonder where was Satanism when we were kids?

Why didn't we get into it?

- [Reporter] Because of parent concerns

that some Halloween costumes

can be linked to devil worship and satanic cults.

- Joanna.

- Sometimes I don't obey.

- Punish him with a rod severely.

¶ Stand up and sit down ¶

¶ And stand up and sit down ¶

¶ And stand up and sit down ¶

¶ And stand up and sit down ¶

¶ And stand up ¶

- This is why Satanism exists

is so that we can constantly remind people

that whenever you create an enemy

then things can be very dangerous for everyone.

That's why you have to think for yourself.

- I haven't come forth in a great many years

because I didn't want to be relegated

to another guest on a TV talk show.

But I can assure you Satanism is here to stay.

(organ playing)

- During Anton LaVey's last years he had surrounded himself

with people that he grew close to, that he drew energy from.

We had had a son together.

He had heart problems brought about by the rheumatic fever,

sort of weakened him.

And he didn't want to be seen as weak.

So his time became very precious.

He wanted to spend it with people he enjoyed,

who contributed to his life.

He was doing more recording

so that his music would get out there.

But he just wanted to spend the time that he had

with his son and playing his music and writing

- [Anton] I will never die.

- [Joe] You won't?

- [Anton] No, of course not. I've made arrangements.

(audience laughing)

(organ playing)

- He lived every single day.

It was homination his philosophy.

And how many people can say that?

- I loved spending time alone with my grandfather.

It felt like the entire world just disappeared.

- I wish he was around now

because people are afraid to speak their mind.

People are walking on eggshells, and he hated that.

Everyone's walking around with a good guy badge now

'cause they're a victim of this, and a victim of that.

- The Church of Satan today,

I try to maintain as close as possible

as to the vision Anton LaVey set out.

In fact, in our conversations

that was something I promised him

that I would be doing for him as time went on.

I think that the philosophy that he created

is absolutely spot on for recognizing the reality

but with human animal functions

I don't think his philosophy needs to be changed at all.

- [Ruth] Honestly, the thing

that I really like about Satanism is

that it doesn't change because human beings don't change.

- [Adam] So where does this all go for the future?

Well, Satanists are born, not made,

they're being born right now.

And some of them will read that book and say,

"yeah, this is for me."

There's other satanic groups that come and go,

but the Church of Satan has been around now for,

what is this 52 years?

That's pretty good.

- You don't worship anything.

You question everything.

And the power that you have comes from within you

and you don't take anything on faith.

There's no such thing in Satanism as faith.

We challenge, we question,

we challenge ourselves to do better, to achieve more,

that's what's embodied in our principles.

- Because we know as Anton LaVey said,

"the first 99 years are always the toughest."

(audience laughing)

I think the future is assured, the Church of Satan

is thriving and shall be a great black river

that continues to flow into the great future to come.

So thank you all for bringing that into being.

Shemhamforash!

- [Audience] Shemhamforash!

- Hail, Satan!

- [Audience] Hail, Satan!

(cymbals clanging)

- Hail, Satan!

- [Audience] Hail, Satan!

(cymbals clanging)

- Hail, Satan!

- [Audience] Hail, Satan!

(cymbals clanging)

(suspenseful music )

(bell ringing)

(bell ringing)

- I formed the Chaos Imperium to be an alternative idea

to contemporary magical practices and perspectives.

This isn't a psychic order,

it doesn't have a very large group membership,

it is not initiatory, it is not religious.

I'm its only human representative,

though within the group there's 7 other entities

that we have invited through magic to be part of it.

(wind whirling)

(acoustic music)

¶ The Devil is my woman ¶

¶ And she's got a voodoo hair ¶

¶ The Devil is my woman ¶

¶ And she's got a voodoo hair ¶

¶ She missed my blues ¶

¶ She dances to my rare ¶

- She says it's too tight.

¶ But you know she ¶

¶ She missed my blues ¶

¶ She dances to my rare ¶

And watch her shimmy, now.

Then she goes...

¶ The preacherman don't like her ¶

¶ But I've seen him at the back door ¶

¶ The preacherman don't like her ¶

¶ But I've seen him at her front door ¶

¶ The Devil is my woman ¶

¶ The Devil is my woman ¶

¶ The Devil is my woman ¶

¶ And you can't lock her up ¶

(audience cheering)

¶ So you better treat her right ¶

♪ Or she's gonna string you up ♪

(audience applauding)

(acoustic music fading)

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