LeVey Satanism (Really Hedonism)

Has anyone head or read anything about LeVey Satanism? I was disscussing this topic with a friend of mine and he turned me on to it and now I want to know more. If anyone can tell me where to get any of Anton LeVey's books or has any other info please let me know.

Sizard The Wizard

 

well, to start off, try spellin' his name kerreckly...
& then you could try going to his website r sumthin...
www.churchofsatan.com

whoop-de-do...

 

I've read most of the satanic bible... Should be able to get his books at any Barnes and Noble, or other decent bookseller...

 

Frankly, if I were you, I wouldn't bother.

If you read up on LaVey himself and the church that he founded, you'll find that both he and his church followers either embraced various ideas safely categorized as pseudo-intellectualism, or acted in a way such that his brand of Modern Satanism doesn't deserve much respect (not that any form of Satanism deserves much respect, as it's all rather immature in my eyes).

LaVey basically incorporates Nietzschean philosophy with Objectivism, stirred in a pot with Crowley's magic and a bit of a bad ass attitude that sits back to poke fun at "right-hand path" religions. Never did LaVey provide a defense of his rejection of god, nor for the belief in magic as an actual working method (which he did support. Many say that he simply used magic as a way of expressing emotion - but if you study his writings, it was more than that. Consider his discussions of "dark forces in nature" that conform to the wills of individuals, etc.). His efforts in his books were always acknowledged as being toward developing his religious establishment as however he particularly felt like, rather than contemplating the real truth to anything - and providing defenses for those truths.

One would be more wise to simply hold to Objectivism or recognize Nietzsche as a competent philosopher rather than accept LaVey's nonsense. And despite his rhetoric being airtight, that's certainly what his work amounts to - insignificant nonsense.

- Laz

 

Hehe the guy above has a point... :Rolleyes: It does seem as though the whole thing is just about acting, though that can work... Personaly I found the satanic bible kind of boring, nothing I couldn't have thought of myself...

 

Satanism is alright. I do agree with some things LaVey says but, yeah, the book is boring. I think he's trying to sound too clever and possibly employs locution, the phonology of which most people are ignorant. If you're as thick as me that means he uses big words even though most people reading the book aren't going to understand them. Probably his way of making it sound like a valid philosophy.

 

Thank you Laz. You phrased that way more gracefully than i could have. I was just going to say "satanists are idiots" and leave it at that, but you made a lot more persuasive argument.

 

J Laz has basically hit the nail on the head as far as I can tell. I used to be a LaVey satanist and yes it is, in short, a bunch of Phoney stuff. There is, however, a final vaild point that LaVey made just before he died, though it is not what you might think. He did the whole thing largely as a joke, at least the religious establishment part of it. He wanted to see if he could get people to follow a relgion and a figure head (LaVey himself) that taught "don't follow religions and figure heads". He was trying to make some point about people generally ignoring the teachings of their religion entirely and instead deciding to turn the religion in some kind of private club.

 

I've read two of La vey's books ~ satanic bible and it's companion in order to help treat a patient.
IMHO The first sentence of the satanic bible is the only one worth reading. The rest is lunacy.

 

The Satanic Bible is entertaining, informative and makes a hell of a lot of sense. The Devil's Notebook is just funny as hell and satirical, IMO. I don't get into the rest of it. It is basically a Nietzsche/Rand concept and a lot of it is taken straight from "Might Makes Right" by Ragnar Redbeard.

SHEMHEMFORASH! Yada Yada Yada....HAIL LIBERTINE!

 

I think much of it is meant to be satirical, I doubt he ever meant for followers to take it as seriously as his critics did...