In 1966, American Satanist Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco, California, at his “Black House.” In addition, he authored “The Satanic Bible,” the foundational book of his brand-new religion, LaVeyan Satanism. He also wrote “The Satanic Rituals,” “The Satanic Witch,” “The Devil’s Notebook,” and “Satan Speaks!” among other works. He released the albums “The Satanic Mass,” “Satan Takes a Holiday,” and “Strange Music,” being a musician at heart. He played supporting roles in the feature film “The Devil’s Rain,” played a supporting technical role in the short film “Invocation of My Demon Brother,” and narrated the mondo film “Death Scenes.” Additionally, he has had appearances on talk shows like “The Joe Pyne Show,” “The Phil Donahue Show,” and “The Tonight Show,” as well as in publications like “Look,” “McCall’s,” “Newsweek,” and “Time.” Documentaries like “Satanis” and “Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey” and biographical books like “The Devil’s Avenger” and “The Secret Life of a Satanist” have recorded his life.
Early Childhood & Life
The liquor merchant Michael Joseph Levey and Gertrude Augusta Coultron gave birth to Howard Stanton Levey on April 11, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. His maternal grandparents, born in Russia, arrived in Ohio in 1893 and were naturalized citizens of the United States in 1900.
His parents fully encouraged his enthusiasm for learning different musical instruments as a child, including the pipe organ and the calliope. He was raised in the Californian San Francisco Bay Area and attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley until he dropped out at age 16 to join the circus.
Earlier Years of Anton LaVey
According to Anton LaVey, he worked as a roustabout, a cage boy in an act with huge cats, and as a musician playing the calliope during his time in the circus and afterward in carnivals. He also said that seeing churchgoers at bawdy Saturday night acts gave him a jaded perspective of religion; however, journalist Lawrence Wright’s research revealed no proof that he had ever worked for a circus.
He briefly worked as an organist in pubs, lounges, and nightclubs using his musical abilities, which reportedly led to a brief relationship with Marilyn Monroe before she became an actor. Hegarty, his accomplice, eventually acknowledged forging the inscription that said “Monroe” that he had claimed as proof.
He asserted to have spent three years as a photographer for the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), during which time he also investigated 800 calls as a psychic. Later biographers, however, deny this assertion as well because they could find no proof that he had ever collaborated with the SFPD.
Nevertheless, his paranormal studies and live musical performances caught the interest of several prominent local figures. Michael Harner, Chester A. Arthur III, Forrest J. Ackerman, Fritz Leiber, and Kenneth Anger were frequent attendees at his gatherings, and he was pals with the writers of weird fiction Robert Barbour Johnson and Clark Ashton Smith.
Religion of Satan
In the 1950s, Anton LaVey founded a club called the “Order of the Trapezoid” and started holding weekly satanic rituals with followers at his San Francisco, California, home, the “Black House.” On April 30, 1966, LaVey and his longtime partner Diane Hegarty co-founded the organization, which later developed into the Church of Satan’s ruling body.
He formally proclaimed 1966 to be “The Year One” or “Anno Satanas,” the start of the “Age of Satan.” He was called “The Black Pope” by the media after his first well-reported ritual, the Satanic wedding of socialite Judith Case and journalist John Raymond on February 1st, 1967.
Soon after, he devoted his three-year-old younger daughter Zeena to Satan and the Left-Hand Path and performed the first Satanic baptism in human history. The funeral of navy machinist-repairman Edward Olsen, during which a chrome-helmeted honor guard carried his casket, was among other publicly known Satanic rites.
He issued the vinyl LP “The Satanic Mass” in 1968 on his own label, Murgenstrumm, with the audio recording of his daughter Zeena’s baptism on side one. The Satanic Bible, which was still unpublished at the time, was the subject of his performance on the opposite side of the record, which also featured music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and John Philip Sousa.
The Church was then created in various grottos, including the Lilith Grotto in New York City, the Stygian Grotto in Dayton, and the Babylon Grotto in Detroit. The new religion was discussed throughout the decade in books, periodicals, and newspaper stories as well as in the 1970 documentary “Satanis,” which brought famous people like Sammy Davis Jr. and Jayne Mansfield to his congregation.
He portrayed “His Satanic Majesty” in the 1969 Kenneth Anger movie “Invocation of My Demon Brother,” which ran for 11 minutes. The Satanic Bible, a compilation of writings, observations, and rituals that are regarded as the core religious scripture of LaVeyan Satanism, was released by him the same year.
He destroyed the Grottos to consolidate power after several regional church leaders left to found their own brotherhoods in the early 1970s. He then instituted a donation system, which further sparked a major exodus, with members joining the Michael Aquino-founded Temple of Set in 1975.
In the 1980s, ‘Satanic Panic’ was sparked by media allegations of criminal conspiracies inside the Church of Satan. Zeena, his daughter, frequently appeared in the media on his behalf during the decade to deny accusations of criminal behavior.
Bigger Works of Anton LaVey
The Church of Satan was founded by Anton LaVey, best known for creating it. It was “the first public, highly visible, and long-lasting organization which propounded a coherent Satanic discourse.”
Personal Legacy & Life
Soon after they first met in 1950, Anton LaVey started dating Carole Lansing; they eventually were hitched the following year. Their daughter Karla LaVey, who was born in 1952, founded the First Satanic Church in San Francisco in 1999. Karla LaVey was a founder member and High Priestess of the Church of Satan.
After getting acquainted with Diane Hegarty, with whom he had his second daughter, Zeena Schreck, who later grew apart from him, he divorced Lansing in 1960. Despite spending 25 years together without getting married, LaVey filed a palimony claim when they split up.
After Hegarty left the Black House, he ran across Blanche Barton, and they soon started dating. On November 1st, 1993, she gave birth to their son, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey.
In 1990, Zeena, his daughter, renounced LaVeyan’s Satanism and resigned as the High Priestess of the Church of Satan after realizing that “most of her father’s self-created legend was based on lies.” Even going so far as to say that LaVey had put her life in peril out of jealousy and hate.
On October 29, 1997, in San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Medical Center, LaVey passed away from pulmonary edema. He had a private, by invitation only, Satanic funeral before his body was burnt in Colma.
Anton LaVey’s Net Worth
One of the wealthiest religious leaders and one of the most well-liked religious leaders is Anton. In accordance with our research, Anton LaVey is worth $5 million according to Forbes, Wikipedia, and Business Insider.
Trivia
When he founded the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey claimed to have shaved his head as part of a rite following the custom of ancient executioners, but he actually did it after losing a bet.