"Anton Szandor LaVey - The Satanic Bible" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaVey Anton Szandor)

College of San Fransisco. That led to his first conformist job, photographer for
the San Fransisco Police Department. As it worked out, that job had as much to
do as any other with his development of Satanism as a way of life.

"I saw the bloodiest, grimiest side of human nature," LaVey recounted in a
session dealing with his past life. "People shot by nuts, knifed by their
friends; little kids splattered in the gutter by hit-and-run drivers. It was
disgusting and depressing. I asked myself: 'Where is God?' I came to detest the
sanctimonious attitude of people toward violence, always saying 'it's God's
will'."

So he quit in disgust after three years of being a crime photographer and
returned to playing organ, this time in nightclubs and theaters to earn a living
while he continued his studies into his life's passion: the black arts. Once a
week he held classes on arcane topics: hauntings, E.S.P., dreams, vampires,
werewolves, divination, ceremonial magic, etc. They attracted many people who
were, or have since become, well known in the arts and sciences, and the
business world. Eventually a "Magic Circle" evolved from this group.

The major purpose of the Circle was to meet for the performance of magical
rituals LaVey had discovered or devised. He had accumulated a library of works
that descibed the Black Mass and other infamous ceremonies conducted by groups
such as the Knights Templar in fourteenth-century France, the Hell-Fire club and
the Golden Dawn in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. The intent of
some of these secret orders was to blaspheme, lampoon the Christian church, and
address themselves to the Devil as an anthropomorphic deity that represented the
reverse of God. In LaVey's view, the Devil was not that, but rather a dark,
hidden force in nature responsible for the workings of earthly affairs, a force
for which neither science nor religion had any explanation. LaVey's Satan is
"the spirit of progress, the inspirer of all great movements that contribute to
the development of civilization and the advancement of mankind. He is the spirit
of revolt that leads to freedom, the embodiment of all heresies that liberate."

On the last night of April 1966 - Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival in
the lore of magic and witchcraft - LaVey ritualistically shaved his head in
accordance with magical tradition and announced the formation of the Church of
Satan. For proper identification as its minister, he put on the clerical collar.
Up to that collar he looked almost holy. But his Genghis Khan-like shaven head,
his Mephistophelian beard, and his narrow eyes gave him the necessary demonic
look for his priesthood of the Devil's church on earth.

"For one thing," LaVey explained himself, "calling it a church enabled me to
follow the magic formula of one part outrage to nine parts social respectability
that is needed for success. But the main purpose was to gather a group of
like-minded individuals together for the use of their combined energies in
calling up the dark force in nature that is called Satan."

As LaVey pointed out, all other churches are based on worship of the spirit and
denial of the flesh and the intellect. He saw the need for a church that would
recapture man's mind and carnal desires as objects of celebration. Rational