The man had a literal black house. In the middle of San Francisco, no less. Imagine walking down California Street in the mid-sixties and seeing a guy with a shaved head and a goatee painting his Victorian residence jet black. That was Anton LaVey. He didn't just want to start a religion; he wanted to provoke a reaction. Most people think the founder of the Church of Satan was some kind of basement-dwelling monster or a literal devil worshipper, but the reality is much weirder, more theatrical, and—honestly—a lot more "California" than you’d expect.
He was born Howard Stanton Levey in 1930. He wasn't some ancient occultist from a dusty European manor. He was a guy from Chicago who grew up in California and spent his early years playing the oboe and the organ. He worked at carnivals. He handled lions. He even spent a stint as a photographer for the San Francisco Police Department.
It was this weird mix of "carny" showmanship and the grim reality of crime scenes that shaped his worldview. He saw the worst of humanity—the murders, the hypocrisy, the people who prayed on Sunday and cheated on Monday. That’s what actually sparked the idea. He decided that if the world was going to be selfish and carnal, he might as well build a philosophy that embraced it rather than pretending it didn't exist.
The Night it All Started: Walpurgisnacht 1966
On April 30, 1966, LaVey shaved his head.
That was the ritualistic beginning. He declared it "Year One" of the Age of Satan. It sounds heavy, right? Like a scene out of a horror movie. But if you look at the photos from those early days at the Black House, it looks more like a bizarre cocktail party. There were socialites, drag queens, actors, and curious intellectuals.
LaVey understood something about the human psyche that most "serious" religious leaders missed. People love a good show. He used the imagery of the Devil because it was the ultimate bogeyman, the ultimate symbol of rebellion against the status quo. To the founder of the Church of Satan, "Satan" wasn't a goat-headed man living in a pit of fire. It was a metaphor. It represented the "adversary"—the person who asks "Why?" instead of following the herd.
He called his brand of Satanism "codified indulgence." Basically, he argued that since we’re all animals anyway, we should stop feeling guilty about it. Eat the steak. Have the sex. Seek the vengeance (within the law, of course). It was a philosophy of radical individualism that felt perfectly at home in the 1960s counterculture, even if it was way darker than the "Peace and Love" hippie movement happening just a few miles away in Haight-Ashbury.
Why People Still Confuse Him with a Devil Worshipper
Let’s get one thing straight: LaVey was an atheist.
It’s the biggest misconception out there. He didn't believe in a literal Satan any more than he believed in a literal God. When people hear "Church of Satan," they think of animal sacrifices and dark rituals to summon demons. In reality, the founder of the Church of Satan despised animal cruelty. He actually had a pet lion named Togare. He thought people who actually believed in a literal Devil were just as "delusional" as Christians.
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His Satanism was more like "Ayn Rand with ritual and candles." It was about ego. It was about being your own god.
"Satanism is a religion of the mind. It is a religion of the self. The Devil is merely a symbol of our own carnal nature." — This was the core of his 1969 book, The Satanic Bible.
That book is still in print today. It’s sold over a million copies. If you read it, you won't find instructions on how to curse your neighbors (well, not literally). You’ll find a lot of rants about social Darwinism and the importance of not being a "psychic vampire"—LaVey’s term for people who drain your energy with their problems. He was obsessed with the idea of "stratification," the belief that some people are just naturally more capable or creative than others and shouldn't have to apologize for it.
The Celebrity Connection and the Papal Myth
LaVey was a master of PR. He knew that if he could get famous people involved, the media would do his work for him.
He was tight with Sammy Davis Jr. for a while. Jay Mansfield, the famous blonde bombshell, was a frequent visitor to the Black House. There’s even a persistent rumor that he played the Devil in Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, though that's been debunked a dozen times. He didn't play the Devil in the movie, but he definitely influenced the vibe of that era's occult obsession.
He styled himself as the "Black Pope." He wore a cape. He drove a hearse. He was basically a performance artist who decided to make his art a lifestyle. But this theatricality had a downside. It made it very easy for the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s to use him as a scapegoat. When people started claiming there were underground cults kidnapping kids, they pointed to LaVey’s book. They ignored the fact that his rules explicitly forbade harming children or animals.
The Philosophy vs. The Persona
If you strip away the pentagrams and the organ music, what was he actually teaching?
Honestly, it’s pretty cynical. LaVey believed that most people are "sheep" who want to be led. He thought that "love" was something you should only give to those who deserve it, rather than wasting it on everyone. This flew in the face of the Christian "turn the other cheek" mentality. To him, if someone smites you on one cheek, you should smash them on the other.
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It’s a very "eye for an eye" worldview.
He also had these weirdly specific ideas about aesthetics. He hated what he called "counterfeit" things. He loved the 1940s—the noir films, the big bands, the sense of style. He felt the modern world was becoming plastic and ugly. This is where the founder of the Church of Satan starts to sound less like a dark sorcerer and more like a grumpy old man shouting at clouds, which is actually kind of endearing in a strange way.
The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth
LaVey didn't have "Ten Commandments," but he did write eleven rules. They aren't what you’d expect.
- Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked. (Pretty polite, actually.)
- Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
- When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
- If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy. (A bit harsh, but okay.)
- Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal. (Basically a very early take on enthusiastic consent.)
- Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
- Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
- Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
- Do not harm little children.
- Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
- When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
It’s a mix of "don't be a jerk" and "if you are a jerk to me, I’m going to end you." It’s very much a philosophy for the "lone wolf" type.
The Reality of the "Black House"
People imagined the Black House was full of dungeons. It wasn't. It was a home.
His daughter, Zeena, grew up there. She was famously baptized in the Church of Satan when she was three years old, a photo that made it into Look magazine and horrified the nation. But as she got older, she—like many children of famous figures—rebelled. She eventually left the church and became a Buddhist, even denouncing her father’s legacy.
This brings up an important point about the founder of the Church of Satan: his personal life was complicated. He was a guy who wanted total control over his environment but lived in a world he couldn't control. He struggled with money. He struggled with the IRS. He eventually had to sell the Black House, and it was demolished in 2001.
Why He Still Matters (And Why He Doesn't)
LaVey died in 1997 of pulmonary edema.
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He died in a Catholic hospital, which is a bit of irony he probably would have found hilarious. Since his death, the Church of Satan has continued under the leadership of Peter H. Gilmore. But the world has changed. Today, the most famous "Satanic" group is The Satanic Temple, which is a completely different organization that focuses more on political activism and reproductive rights.
The Satanic Temple often gets confused with LaVey’s group, but they are very different animals. LaVey’s Satanism was about the individual and their own power. The Temple is more about social justice and using Satan as a symbol for rebellion against religious overreach in government.
So, does LaVey still matter?
In a sense, yes. He was the first person to take the "Devil" and turn it into a brand. He understood that in a secular world, people still crave ritual. They still want to feel like they belong to something exclusive. He paved the way for the "Spiritual but not Religious" crowd, even if they’d be terrified to admit it. He showed that you could build a whole world-view based on the idea that you are the most important person in your life.
How to Actually Understand the Legacy
If you’re trying to wrap your head around who this guy really was, stop looking for demons. Look for the carnival barker.
LaVey was a man who saw through the "con" of polite society and decided to run his own "con" in response. He used shock value to get people to think for themselves. He was a provocateur. He was a musician. He was a guy who liked his steak rare and his women powerful.
He was, in many ways, the ultimate American success story: a guy who reinvented himself from a nobody named Howard Levey into a global icon of the "dark side" just by being louder and bolder than everyone else.
Moving Beyond the Shock Value
If you're genuinely interested in the history of counter-religion or the psychology of the "Outsider," you have to look at LaVey’s work with a critical eye. It's not about the spooky stuff. It's about the sociology of the 1960s.
Real Next Steps for the Curious:
- Read The Satanic Bible as a cultural artifact. Don't read it looking for "evil." Read it as a product of 1960s San Francisco. Look at how it mirrors the self-help movements of that time.
- Compare the Church of Satan vs. The Satanic Temple. Understanding the split between "LaVeyan" Satanism (individualist/apolitical) and the Modern Satanic Temple (activist/political) is key to understanding modern religious movements.
- Look into the "Satanic Panic." Study how the media took LaVey’s theatrical imagery and turned it into a national hysteria in the 80s. It’s a fascinating lesson in how urban legends are born.
- Check out the documentary Anton LaVey: Into the Devil's Den. It gives a much better look at the man behind the cape than any 2:00 AM YouTube "conspiracy" video ever will.
The founder of the Church of Satan didn't want you to worship him. He didn't want you to worship anything. He basically just wanted you to wake up, have a drink, and be your own god. Whether you think that’s profound or just peak narcissism is up to you—and honestly, that’s exactly how he would have wanted it.