As founding High Priest of the Church of Satan, Anton Szandor LaVey was one of the most remarkable voices in late 20th century religion, and "The Satanic Rituals" is a key text in his body of work. This volume, which is an ideal companion to LaVey's "Satanic Bible," makes available some rituals for practicing Satanists.LaVey's rituals have an eclectic, even multicultural, flavor. According to him, the rites in this book have French, German, Russian, and Middle Eastern roots. He also includes rituals inspired by the fictional mythology created by H.P. Lovecraft, a writer of distinctive horror fiction. Although mostly geared towards group activities, many of the texts in this book could be adapted to solitary use.
The book is not without flaws and inconsistencies. Whereas some of the rituals appear in bilingual format, others contain untranslated foreign language elements. And although bibliographic references are scattered throughout the text, the book as a whole lacks a comprehensive bibliography. Also, some of the rituals seem a bit impractical. The introduction to the "elektrischen Vorspiele," for example, warns the practitioner of "the danger of serious injury or electrocution"!
Despite these drawbacks, this is an intriguing book. Both the rituals and the introductory essays are fascinating. LaVey even suggests appropriate musical accompaniment for these dark rituals. Rites in the book include a version of the legendary Black Mass, the Ceremony of the Stifling Air (inspired by the history of the Knights Templar), and Satanic baptismal rites (both child and adult). If you have a taste for the blasphemous, you'll want a copy of "The Satanic Rituals."
_The Satanic Rituals_, like its 1969 predecessor _Satanic Bible_ [cf. my Amazon.com review], is most accurately seen in the 1972 context of its creation: to supplement the _SB_'s Black Magical theory. Just as the _SB_ grew out of a series of handouts provided to members of the 1968-70 Church, so the _SR_ was originally a looseleaf collection of ritual texts restricted to its Priesthood during that same period.The _SB_ contained three elementary *operative* Black Magical workings, but none of the *illustrative* type that Anton LaVey felt equally significant. Illustrative rituals possess no independent power; they are "mind mirrors", enabling the magician to see his will articulated and displayed before him, so that he may adjust and refine it.
In his introductory essay "Concerning the Rituals", Anton further differentiates rituals and ceremonies: A *ritual* affects the practitioner; i.e. it executes a "mind mirror" function. A *ceremony*, on the other hand, is merely a pageant or a play for psychodramatic illustration of a favored belief or philosophy.
The _SR_ is a book in three "layers". The first is that of *literal truth*, which the book purports to be. The second is that of *deception*, which much of the book actually is. The third layer is that of *underlying magical instruction*, which transcends mundane conventions of truth and falsehood.
A person who applies the principles in the book by actually performing the rituals and ceremonies will discover that they *work*. Should he discover the factual flaws in the essays and texts, he will be somewhat confused as to *why* they work. Only then will he begin to realize the truth underlying the art and science of magic: that the powers to create and to define are *functions of the will*. Thus he reaches the _SR_'s third and final layer.
The series of rituals begins with the traditional Black Mass, said to derive from 19th century France's Society of Lucifer. Actually it is a "censored" version of the _Missa Solemnis_ composed by Priest Wayne West (cf. my _Church of Satan_), which in turn drew heavily from J.K. Huysmans' _La-Bas_, the famous classic of French Satanism.
Anton states that the original Knights Templar developed the "Stifling Air" after their 13th century visit to the Yezidis. There is no evidence of such visit, nor does "SA" reflect actual Yezidi theology. He then suggests that the "Stifling Air", as a 6th Degree of the Knights Templar, is designed to follow a rite of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine wherein they travel beyond the "Devil's Pass". In the actual AAONMS ritual text, however, the candidate does *not* enter the pass. "SA" defaults to Anton's own creation, adapted from Raynouard's 1806 drama _Les Templiers_ and James Thomson's 1880 poem _The City of Dreadful Night_.
"Das Tierdrama", again a variation of the original Church of Satan version (_COS_), is adapted exclusively from H.G. Wells' _The Island of Dr. Moreau_.
"Die Elektrischen Vorspiele"'s theme of the "Hounds of Tindalos" derives from Frank Belknap Long's famous 1929 story. It has no Nazi-SS ancestry at all.
"The Homage to Tchort" is supposedly from Russian mythology. But the Khlysty sect was scarcely Satanic in doctrine; its adherents practiced fasting and self-scourging to drive out devils of the flesh, which unsurprisingly evolved into wild sexual orgies.
Confusion over "Melek Taus" arose from the secrecy of the Yezidis' two sacred books, and persists in _SR_, which interchanges their names. The _al-Jalwa_ is properly translated as _The Book of the Revelation_, while it is the *other* Yezidi book - _Mashaf-a Resh_ - that is entitled _The Black Scripture_ (cf. _COS_).
The most blasphemous second-layer deception in _SR_ consisted of my own introductory essay on H.P. Lovecraft, my "Ceremony of the Nine Angles", and my "Call to Cthulhu" (cf. _COS_). In 1971 Anton visited me at the U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Knox, insisting that the _SR_ would just not be complete without them.
The two Satanic Baptismal ceremonies - one for adult Satanists and the other for children who were not actually members of the Church - were both original to the Church of Satan. (I authored the Oath contained in the adult Baptism.)
"The Unknown Known" touches obliquely on Hans Hoerbiger's _Welteislehre_, or Doctrine of Eternal Ice, in which the history of the universe consists of alternating cycles of fire and ice. The "Wel" gained popularity in Nazi Germany because of Adolf Hitler's enthusiasm for Hoerbiger, whom he called "the German Copernicus". Anton, however, creatively interprets the theory in a social, not a cosmological context.
Anton concluded the original dedication page with my name, immediately preceding it with that of my Army boss at the time, Brigadier General George S. Patton III. And I'll leave that a "final mystery" of this exotic, fearsome, and dangerous little book!
