Background

Ethnicity: His father was from Chicago, while his mother was Russian.

Anton Szandor LaVey was born Howard Stanton Levey on April 11, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He was the son of Michael Joseph Levey and Gertrude Augusta Coultron. His family moved to California, where LaVey spent his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Education

Tamalpais was educated at Tamalpais High School till 1946.

Career

Early in his career he played the oboe in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra before joining the Clyde Beatey Circus and other carnivals. While touring with the circus from 1947 to 1955, he worked as a calliope player, stage musician and lion trainer. LaVey later found work as an organ player in Los Angeles burlesque houses. It was during this time period that he had a brief affair with a then-unknown Marilyn Monroe. LaVey then moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a photographer for the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) for three years.

After that period of time, LaVey became friends with seminal Weird Tales authors such as Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Barbour Johnson and George Hass. During the 1950 - 1953 Korean War, LaVey entered in San Francisco City College as a criminology major to avoid the draft.

During the 1950s, LaVey supplemented his income as a “psychic investigator,” helping to investigate “nut calls” referred to him by friends in the police department.

In 1956 he purchased a Victorian house on California Street in San Francisco’s Richmond district. That black house would later become home to the Church of Satan.

Through his “ghost busting,” and his frequent public appearances as an organist, LaVey became a local celebrity and his holiday parties attracted many San Francisco notables. From this crowd, LaVey singled out people which he called a “Magic Circle” of associates who shared his interest in the bizarre, the hidden side of what moves the world. As his expertise grew, LaVey began to organize lectures on Friday's night summarizing the results of his research. In 1965, LaVey was featured on The Brother Buzz Show, a humorous children’s program hosted by marionettes. The focus was on LaVey’s “Addams Family” lifestyle—making a living as a hypnotist, psychic investigator and organist as well as on his unusual pet Togare, a Nubian lion.

Member of his Magic Circle told LaVey that he had the basis for a new religion, so LaVey agreed and decided to found the Church of Satan as the best means for communicating his ideas.

In 1966 LaVey announced the founding of the Church of Satan on the night of May Eve - the traditional Witches’ Sabbath. LaVey also declared 1966 as the year One, Anno Satanas - the first year of the Age of Satan. The mass distribution of LaVey's philosophy began - through the release of the album The Satanic Mass. Featured on the album was part of the rite of baptism written for three-year-old Zeena - Lavey and Diane Hegarty's daughter.

By the end of 1969, LaVey created The Satanic Bible. It explained his philosophy and included ritual practices of the Church of Satan. He then wrote several another books on the study of Satanism, including The Compleat Witch or What to Do When Virtue Fails, The Satanic Rituals, The Devil's Notebook and Satan Speaks. He also recorded “Satan Takes a Holiday.”

After founding the Church of Satan LaVey served as high priest and also worked as a technical adviser to films such as Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and Devil's Daughter. He appeared in films as well, including a role in Invocation of My Demon Brother.

Achievements

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  LaVey is best remembered as a founder of the Church of Satan, which attracted many people, including such celebrities as Jayne Mansfield and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as rock stars King Diamond and Marilyn Manson. The Church has survived his death, and continues to attract new members who see themselves reflected in the philosophy LaVey called Satanism. His The Satanic Bible has never gone out of print and remains the main source for the contemporary Satanic movement.
  
  LaVey’s influence was spread by a great number of articles in the news media throughout the world, popular magazines such as Look, McCalls, Newsweek and Time, men’s magazines, and on talk shows such as Joe Pyne, Phil Donahue, and Johnny Carson.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Devil's Notebook

    (Wisdom, humor, and dark observations by the founder of th...)

    1992
  • The Satanic Rituals

    (The Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor Lavey, published in ...)

    1972
  • Satan Speaks!

    (The last book of essays by Church of Satan founder LaVey....)

    1998
  • The Satanic Bible 1969
  • The Satanic Witch 1989
  • Satan Takes A Holiday

• movie

  • Invocation Of My Demon Brothers
  • The Devil's Rain

• music

  • Devil Speaks
  • The Satanic Mass
  • Answer Me / Honolulu Baby

Religion

As a founder of the Church of Satan and the religion of Satanism, LaVey presented Satanism not as the practice of evil or as the worship of an actual Antichrist but as a kind of ethical egoism. According to LaVey, traditional religions were fundamentally hypocritical and dangerously inhibited the physical tendencies and emotional needs that were vital to human life.

Views

Both LaVey's studies and occupation revealed grim insights into human nature. LaVey supported eugenics and believed that it would be a necessity in the future.

His “psychic investigator” activity during 1950s proved to him that many people were inclined to seek a supernatural explanation for phenomena that had more prosaic causes. His rational explanations often disappointed the complainants, so LaVey invented more exotic causes to make them feel better, giving him insight as to how religion often functions in people’s lives.

Quotations: "Stupidity—The top of the list for Satanic Sins. The Cardinal Sin of Satanism. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that is not only acceptable but laudable. Satanists must learn to see through the tricks and cannot afford to be stupid."

"It has been said, 'the truth will make men free.' The truth alone has never made anyone free. It is only doubt which will bring mental emancipation."

"Love is one of the most intense feelings felt by man; another is hate. Forcing yourself to feel indiscriminate love is very unnatural. If you try to love everyone you only lessen your feelings for those who deserve your love."

"Repressed hatred can lead to many physical and emotional aliments. By learning to release your hatred towards those who deserve it, you cleanse yourself of these malignant emotions and need not take your pent-up hatred out on your loved ones."

"Why should I not hate mine enemies―if I "love" them does that not place me at their mercy?"

"There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised."

"Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!"

"There is nothing inherently sacred about moral codes. Like the wooden idols of long ago, they are the work of human hands, and what man has made, man can destroy!"

"You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can."

"I dont crave companionship. It stands in my way. I live for pleasure. There are few persons who can give me as much pleasure as those acts I perform myself. I would rather create pleasure according to my own whim than be subjected to the whims of others."

Personality

According to Jean La Fontaine, LaVey was a colourful figure of considerable personal magnetism.

LaVey hated rock and metal music, with or without "Satanic" lyrics, and often expressed his distaste for it.

Quotes from others about the person

• "LaVey's always struck me as an ecologist in the same way that people like Tiny Tim are ecologists in that he's preserving important things from a world that is dying, carrying them through this world that is dead, and preserving them for a world to come." - Boyd Rice
  
  "I was surprised by how sad I felt, because he had actually become a father figure to me and I never got the chance to say good-bye or even thank him for his inspiration. But at the same time I knew that even though the world had lost a great philosopher, Hell had gained a new leader." - Marilyn Manson

Connections

LaVey married Carole Lansing in 1951. That marriage produced a child - Karla LaVey – and ended in divorce in 1960. In 1959 LaVey met Diane Hegarty. Hegarty and LaVey never married, but she bore him his second daughter, Zeena Galatea in 1964 and was his companion for many years. Hegarty and LaVey later separated. LaVey’s final partner was Blanche Barton, who bore him his only son, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey on November 1, 1993.

Father:

Michael Joseph LeVey

(1903–1992)

Mother:

Gertrude Augusta Coultron

1-st partner:

Diane Hegarty

She is a co-founder of the Church of Satan.

Wife:

Carole Lansing

Daughter:

Karla LaVey

2-nd partner:

Blanche Barton

She is an American religious leader who is Magistra Templi Rex within the Church of Satan, and is addressed by Satanists as Magistra Barton.

Daughter:

Zeena Galatea LaVey

She is a visual and musical artist, author and the spiritual leader of the Sethian Liberation Movement (SLM), which she founded in 2002.

Son:

Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey

References

• The Devil's Avenger: Eine Biographie von Anton Szandor LaVey
  1974
• The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorised Biography of Anton LaVey This book looks at the life of Anton LaVey, who has been called the most dangerous man in the world, a charlatan and an evil genius. This authorised biography reveals the full and unexpurgated life story of the mysterious and enigmatic founder of the Church of Satan. LaVey's controversial career has taken him from the sleazy world of fairgrounds and burlesque to world fame and society adulation as the foremost authority on Satanic philosophy, involving on the way close relationships with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and other Hollywood stars.
  1990