http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/index.html
Welcome to the official website of the Church of Satan. Founded on April 30, 1966 c.e. by Anton Szandor LaVey, we are the first above-ground organization in history openly dedicated to the acceptance of Man’s true nature—that of a carnal beast, living in a cosmos that is indifferent to our existence. To us, Satan is the symbol that best suits the nature of we who are carnal by birth—people who feel no battles raging between our thoughts and feelings, we who do not embrace the concept of a soul imprisoned in a body. He represents pride, liberty, and individualism—qualities often defined as Evil by those who worship external deities, who feel there is a war between their minds and emotions. As Anton LaVey explained in his classic work The Satanic Bible, Man—using his brain—invented all the Gods, doing so because many of our species cannot accept or control their personal egos, feeling compelled to conjure up one or a multiplicity of characters who can act without hindrance or guilt upon whims and desires. All Gods are thus externalized forms, magnified projections of the true nature of their creators, personifying aspects of the universe or personal temperaments which many of their followers find to be troubling. Worshipping any God is thus worshipping by proxy those who invented that God. Since the Satanist understands that all Gods are fiction, instead of bending a knee in worship to—or seeking friendship or unity with—such mythical entities, he places himself at the center of his own subjective universe as his own highest value. We Satanists are thus our own “Gods,” and as beneficent “deities” we can offer love to those who deserve it and deliver our wrath (within reasonable limits) upon those who seek to cause us—or that which we cherish—harm. Magus Gilmore’s essay “What, The Devil?” from The Satanic Scriptures discusses this in greater detail.
But such self-deification is not for everyone, since it requires total responsibility for one’s choices and actions, and the realization of a social contract which makes for a civilized state of being. So Satanism is not meant to be “The Way” for all people, since we consider it a sad truth that only a small percentage of our species has the intelligence, adherence to reason, and self-discipline to handle our perspective.
Today, we continue to uphold our legacy by building on the solid foundation created by Anton LaVey, and set forth in his writings, recordings, and videos. Since we were the first organization dedicated to Satan, we have had extensive media coverage and have been referred to by several names over the course of over four decades: The First Church of Satan, The Satanic Church, as well as The Satanic Church of America, yet we maintain the simplest and boldest moniker, embodied in the words Church of Satan.
There are others who would try to mislead you into thinking that they are in some way connected to us, have “evolved” from us, or are in some way taking our place. They are liars. At the time of his death on 29 October, 1997 c.e., Anton LaVey left the Church of Satan under the command of Magistra Blanche Barton—his consort, mother of his third child, Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey, and chief administrative officer of the Church for the preceding 15 years and, at that time, the officially appointed High Priestess. Anton LaVey took the preservation of his Church seriously, and thus appointed many individuals to the Priesthood of Mendes to be his Devil’s Advocates, and this Priesthood—along with the Order of the Trapezoid and the Council of Nine—continued working with Magistra Barton to forward the iconoclastic philosophy synthesized by LaVey. On Walpurgisnacht of XXXVI, High Priestess Barton appointed Peter H. Gilmore as High Priest, and Peggy Nadramia as Grand Mistress of the Temple—Magistra Templi Rex. On Walpurgisnacht of XXXVII, Blanche Barton and Peggy Nadramia exchanged positions, so that Magistra Nadramia is the new High Priestess, and Magistra Barton is Magistra Templi Rex, the chairmistress of the Council of Nine.
This site serves as a gateway into our philosophy, a resource for further exploration, a celebration of our past achievements, and a forum for ground-breaking new developments by Satanists who move with fury and grace through this current culture of rampant mediocrity.
