The Satanic Bible Mass Market Paperback – December 1, 1969

Want a solid foundational understanding of Satanism and all that entails? Buy this book. Want information on rituals and Greater Black Magic... go elsewhere!Anton was a genius and a jester infinitely melded as to form a whole however on occasion one part blots out the other. Without a doubt this book is a pillar of clear thought and really should be required reading for anyone claiming an ounce of clear critical thinking. LaVey runs the gamut of carny, High Priest, and Poet throughout and it's a such a small book a night is required and it is an entertaining mental roller coaster ride. What is perhaps the curiosity of this book is that "Satan" is a dark force in this book whereas in later writings of others associated with the Church of Satan at weakest the view of Satan is presented in Agnostic fashion at worst and occasionally nears outright worshipMichael Aquino who wrote the introduction of this book 1972-1976 splintered off to form the Temple of Set in 1975 with great deal of the original Priesthood of the Church of Satan when it became apparent that LaVey was selling degrees in the organization to the highest bidder possibly to fund himself or the Church. Ranks in the organization now are handed out at the whim of the administrators at this time as they do not signify accomplishment after the post 1975 schism. Also, as Gilmore is the current High Priest the organization reflects more his idea of Satanism than Anton's at this juncture not that Gilmore doesn't have merits but you may find some of Anton's and Gilmore's writings taking different tangents on similar subjects. Gilmore's view seems to be that anyone who believes in a Satan as a deity is not a Satanist, but there are many that beg to differ on that point with many Satanists either believing in "universal dark force", "personally created dark force", or even the idea that the Satanist creates his own conception of these. None of these are issues in the TSB, and that is why it remains a valid starter text for anyone who wishes to know the truth of the matter.The chapters on the fundamental beliefs of Satanist are gold, but deeper in the Rituals are actually a mishmash of Crowley's, Dee and Kelly's, and Golden Dawn work in the ritual department. You perhaps would like to consider the sources before using this information. Anton had the sensibility to remove most of the Christian viewpoint from most of his translation of it, however one could legitimately argue modified Enochian Keys are junk. Curiously enough the tetragrammaton is used in the ritual text and sort of clues you out as to where some of the information as from as it really has little meaning to a proper Satanist.That being all said the first half of this book is a gold mine of personal improvement, quality of life advice, and philosophy that will jump start any proper Satanist in the right direction and is really a required read for all Left Hand Path readers. Let me say that the world lost a great man in LaVey's passing and that there are few people who can think so freely as him living on this rock.

I'm not a Satanist but too many valid points to ignore. Easy to read, hard to put down. This is a case where you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

Anton LaVey was one of the world’s greatest philosophers. Get this book if you want to truly learn about life

The Satanic Bible is the best Bible I have ever read! It makes a lot of sense. And it is certainly far far better than any other Bibles and holy books that I have ever read including the Judeo Christian writings both canonical and uncanonical, Hindu writings, the Quaran, Book of Mormon, and the range of Buddhist writings, and modern apocrypha, New Age occult writings. This book has them all beat. Yes, it has some mumbo jumbo towards the back of it. LaVey did believe very much in sorcery and ritual magic. But the book overall is a very logical piece. It is a lot more honest, too. LaVey never pretends to be what he is not. He does not claim to be some prophet of some god that cannot speak for himself/herself/itself ( or even a prophet of Satan), he just speaks for himself, using his own mouth and his own words. He might have been the Devil in a matter of speaking, but he never claimed to be actually the Devil incarnate or his prophet. In every other holy book and occult writing, you have somebody presuming to speak for a god or supreme power (and the god never speaks for him/her/itself). Even Jesus who was supposed to be God as depicted in the New Testament, never has any of his own writings, it is a collection of writings *about* him and what he said by his disciples. That always bothered me about the sacred writings of traditional religions.A modern example of this same thing is the writings of Jane Roberts Butts, who transcribed writings for an entity named "Seth". Again, this Seth entity never speaks for itself, Jane always spoke for this entity, which though was not a "god" was supposedly some sort of discarnate entity; but you get the idea.This book blows the lid off all that pretense. Here is a book which while it believes very much in magic also believes in natural law, and affirms the self and the validity of the ego.I have a lot of respect for that old carney. He was a showman, and he may have fudged some of the details of his life. (What do you expect from a showman?) But he was far more honest than the writers of most of the stuff found on occult bookshelves and in holy books.Even in the Satanic Bible itself, he clearly states that the book contains both truth and fantasy. How is that for honesty! What book do you know tells you ahead of time that parts of it are illusion or even self imposed delusion?Well, maybe some truth is fantasy. Or fantasy can sometimes become truth.Hmm...something to think about.If the Devil is a liar and the father of lies, he certainly tells a lot of truth. I've come to the conclusion that the real fathers of lies are the founders of the traditional religions and that the god of these traditional religions is the biggest liar of them all.