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

his church members. He had gotten in touch with the last living remnants of the
prewar occult fraternities of Europe, was busily acquiring their philosophies
and secret rituals left over from the pre-Hitler era, and needed time to study,
write and work out new principles. He had long been experimenting with and
applying the principles of geometric spacial concepts in what he terms "The Law
of the Trapezoid". (He scoffs at current faddists who are "barking up the wrong
pyramids".) He was also becoming widely sought as speaker, guest on radio and
television programs, and production and/or technical adviser to scores of
television producers and moviemakers turning out Satanic chillers. Sometimes he
was also an actor. As sociologist Clinton R. Sanders points out: "...no
occultist has had as direct an impact upon formulaic cinematic presentations of
Satanism as has Anton Szandor LaVey. Ritual and esoteric symbolism are central
elements in LaVey's church and the films in which he has had a hand contain
detailed portrayals of Satanic rites and are filled with traditional occult
symbols. The emphasis upon ritual in the Church of Satan is 'intended to focus
the emotional powers within each individual'. Similarly, the ornate ritualism
that is central to LaVey's films may reasonably be seen as a mechanism to
involve and focus the emotional experience of the cinema audience."

At last LaVey decided to transfer rituals and other organized activities to
Church of Satan grottos around the world, and devote himself to writing,
lecturing, teaching - and to his family: wife Diane, the blonde beauty who
serves as High Priestess of the Church; raven-haired daughter Karla, now in her
early twenties, a criminology major like her father before, spending much of her
time lecturing on Satanism at universities in many parts of the country; and
finally Zeena, remembered by people who saw the famous photo of the Satanic
Church baptism as a tiny tot, but now a gorgeously developed teenager attracting
a growing pack of wolves, human male variety.

Out of LaVey's relatively quiescent period came his widely read, pioneering
books: First, The Satanic Bible, which at this writing is in its twelfth edition
(and this is my second, revised introduction, after having written the original
introduction to the first edition). Second, The Satanic Rituals, which covers
more of the somber, complex material LaVey unearthed from his increasing
sources. And third, The Compleat Witch, a bestseller in Italy, but, sadly,
allowed by its American publisher to go out of print with its potential
unfulfilled.

LaVey's spreading out from organized church activities to writing books for
worldwide distribution has, of course, greatly expanded Church of Satan
membership. Satanism's growing popularity has naturally been accompanied by
scare stories from religious groups complaining that The Satanic Bible now
outsells the Christian Bible on college campuses and is a leading causative
factor in youngsters' turning away from God. And certainly one suspects that
Pope Paul had LaVey in mind when he issued his worldwide proclamation two years
ago that the Devil is "alive" and "a person", a living, fire-breathing character
spreading evil over the earth. LaVey, maintaining that "evil" is "live" spelled
backward and should be indulged in and enjoyed, answers the pope and the
religious scare groups this way: