Anton

In the paranormal realm there are many people who have experienced unexplained things. There are those who have researched phenomena, there are those who have conned people into believing things that weren’t really there. And then there are those that embraced the paranormal, and made a religion out of it. I’m talking about Anton LaVey.

Born in 1930, Anton was born Howard Stanton Levey in Chicago, IL. He attended high school in California, and dropped out at 16 to tour with circuses and carnivals. He worked with the large cats. Noticing that the same men would attend the bawdy Saturday night shows, and then the tent revival meetings the following morning, left Anton with a distaste for organized religion.

Eventually he made his way to San Francisco and met his first wife, Carole Lansing, who gave birth to their daughter, Karla, in 1952. The eventually divorced in 1960, and Anton was in a relationship with Diane Hegarty. The couple would never marry, but they did have a daughter together, Zeena Galatea Schreck. They were together for 24 years before splitting. His final partner was Blanche Barton, and they had a son together in 1993, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey

Becoming a celebrity in San Francisco due to his paranormal research and live performances, Anton eventually formed the Order of the Trapezoid, which became the governing body of the Church of Satan.

Shortly after he started a Friday night lecture on occult and rituals, and he was then encouraged to start a new religion as friends told him his lectures were the basis for him to work from.

According to Anton, on Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966, he shaved his head and declared the “founding of the Church of Satan. 1966 was proclaimed as the “Year One” Anno-Satanas – the first year of the Age of Satan.

As early as 1967, newspapers dubbed him the “Black Pope”. Anton lead marriage ceremonies in the church, and also baptism’s. His 3 year old daughter, Zeena was the first child baptized in the Church of Satan.

The house that formerly stood at 6114 California St, San Francisco, was the home and headquarters for the Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan. Many members of the church were trying to gather funds to buy the house but they were not successful, the house was demolished in 2001, and a duplex now stands there.

The Church of Satan is an organization dedicated to Satan as described in The Satanic Bible, penned by Anton LaVey. The churches headquarters are no longer in San Francisco, but now in Poughkeepsie, New York.

I believe it’s important to state that The Church of Satan does not believe in the Christian nor Islamic notion of Satan and the Devil. The members are described as “skeptical atheists” and embrace the Hebrew root of the word to mean “adversary”.

Satan is a positive archetype and represents, pride, individualism, enlightenment and a symbol of defiance to Abrahamic faiths, that Anton felt were a suppression of humanity’s natural instincts.

Some famous people who have associated with the Church of Satan include: Sammy Davis Jr., Marilyn Manson, Jayne Mansfield, Kenneth Anger, Kind Diamond, Matt Skiba, and even Liberace.

The next time you hear someone is a member of the Church of Satan or is following the church of Anton LaVey, don’t be afraid they are worshiping a dark entity, it could be simply that they are no longer suppressed.

The more you know, the more you understand