How did Anton LaVey's beliefs compare to traditional Satanism?

A man in a hood stands before a naked woman serving as an altar. A black-robed congregation chants in a Victorian house in San Francisco. The year is 1966, and the Church of Satan has just announced itself to the world. What Anton LaVey created that night was not a revival of old Satanism. It was an invention so radical that traditional Satanists — those who had inherited their practices through centuries of folk magic and Christian inversion — would not recognize it as theirs. LaVey’s Satanism rejected the supernatural entirely, while traditional Satanism had always been built on the conviction that the Devil was real and could be summoned.

What Did Traditional Satanism Actually Believe?

Traditional Satanism, as it existed before LaVey, was not a single church with a founder. It was a loose collection of folk practices, heretical Christian inversions, and ceremonial magic that had accumulated over centuries. The earliest documented Satanists were not philosophers. They were villagers who, facing crop failure or illness, accused their neighbors of worshipping the Devil in exchange for power. The witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries produced confessions — often extracted under torture, describing Sabbats where Satan appeared as a black goat or a handsome man, demanding renunciation of Christ and the Eucharist.

By the 19th century, these folk beliefs had been systematized by occultists. The French magician Éliphas Lévi (1810-1875) wrote extensively about the Baphomet, the goat-headed figure he described not as a demon but as a symbol of the absolute. His 1856 drawing of the “Sabbatic Goat” became the most recognizable image of Satan in Western occultism. Lévi was not a Satanist. He was a ceremonial magician who believed that the symbols of evil could be used to access hidden forces.

The actual practice of traditional Satanism, where it existed, was inversion. The Lord’s Prayer recited backward. The cross hung upside down. The Eucharist replaced with a black host made of grave dirt or animal blood. These were not philosophical statements. They were acts of rebellion against a Christian God that the practitioner believed was real and worth defying.

Where Did LaVey’s Beliefs Come From?

Anton Szandor LaVey (1930-1997) grew up in a different world. He was a carnival performer, a police photographer, and a self-taught occultist who had read Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, and the pulp horror magazines of the 1950s. His Satanism was not born in a village where the Devil was a nightly terror. It was born in a living room where the Devil was a costume.

LaVey founded the Church of Satan on Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966. His first public ritual was a wedding performed for the journalist John Raymond and his wife Judith Case, with LaVey officiating in a black hood. The event made national news. Within a year, LaVey had published “The Satanic Bible” (1969), a thin volume that mixed Nietzschean philosophy, LaVey’s own writings, and passages lifted from earlier occult texts like the “Book of the Law” by Aleister Crowley.

The book sold. It has never stopped selling. It is the single most influential text in modern Satanism, and it contains almost nothing that a traditional Satanist would recognize as their own.

The Core Difference: A Literal Devil Versus a Symbolic One

Traditional Satanism, where it was practiced sincerely, assumed a literal Devil. The demonic entities named in grimoires like the “Lesser Key of Solomon” (first compiled in the 17th century) were real spirits with names, ranks, and specific powers. A traditional Satanist summoned Bael or Asmodeus because they believed the demon could grant wealth, love, or revenge. The relationship was transactional. The practitioner offered blood, prayer, or sacrifice. The demon delivered.

LaVey rejected this entirely. In “The Satanic Bible,” he wrote that Satan is not a personified being but a “symbol of man’s carnal nature.” The rituals of the Church of Satan were not meant to summon spirits. They were psychodramas designed to release the practitioner’s own repressed emotions. LaVey called this “lesser magic” and “greater magic”: the manipulation of people through psychological pressure and the release of emotional energy through ritual.

This was not a minor disagreement. It was a fundamental break. A traditional Satanist who summoned a demon was engaging in a supernatural act. A LaVeyan Satanist who performed the same ritual was engaging in a therapeutic one.

How Each Tradition Approached Magic

Traditional Satanism inherited its magical practices from the grimoire tradition of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The “Grimorium Verum” (published in 1517) and the “Grand Grimoire” (circa 1700) contained instructions for summoning demons, making pacts, and creating talismans. These texts assumed a universe populated by spirits, angels, and demons, all of which could be compelled through the correct use of divine names, seals, and sacrifices.

The practitioner’s goal was control. A traditional Satanist did not worship demons in the sense of offering devotion. They commanded them. The relationship was closer to a contract than a prayer. The demon was bound by the names of God and the seals of Solomon. The practitioner offered something in return, often a soul, sometimes a physical sacrifice, and the demon delivered.

LaVey’s magic was psychological. In “The Satanic Bible,” he described ritual as “a cathartic experience” that allowed the practitioner to “release the pent-up emotions that would otherwise be destructive.” The robes, candles, and incantations were props. The real work happened inside the practitioner’s mind. LaVey called this “intellectual decompression,” and he insisted that no demon had ever appeared in a Church of Satan ritual.

This difference explains why LaVeyan Satanism has no tradition of exorcism. If the demon is not real, there is nothing to expel. Traditional Satanism, by contrast, has always existed where demons are real enough to require expulsion, and where the Church’s exorcists are the enemy.

The Ethics: Indulgence Versus Rebellion

Traditional Satanism was defined by its relationship to Christianity. It was inversion. Every value the Church held sacred, the traditional Satanist rejected. Chastity became lust. Poverty became greed. Humility became pride. The traditional Satanist was not making a philosophical argument. They were performing a rebellion against a God they believed existed and hated.

This rebellion often carried real consequences. In the 17th century, a person accused of Satanism could be tortured and executed. The last execution for witchcraft in Europe was in 1782, when Anna Göldi was beheaded in Switzerland. Traditional Satanism was not a lifestyle choice. It was a dangerous act of defiance.

LaVey’s ethics were different. He borrowed heavily from Ayn Rand’s objectivism, arguing that the Satanist should pursue their own desires without guilt. The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth, which LaVey published in 1967, include injunctions like “Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked” and “When walking in open territory, bother no one.” These are not the ethics of rebellion. They are the ethics of a libertarian who wants to be left alone.

The most famous of LaVey’s rules is the ninth: “Do not harm little children.” This would have been meaningless to a traditional Satanist, who lived where the accusation of harming children was the most common charge leveled against them. LaVey was not responding to Christian morality. He was responding to the media panic of the 1980s, when day care centers were accused of Satanic ritual abuse.

The Role of the Individual

Traditional Satanism was hierarchical and secretive. The grimoires assumed a master who taught an apprentice. The rituals required specific knowledge that was not written down but passed orally. A traditional Satanist could not simply buy a book and start practicing. They needed initiation.

LaVey democratized Satanism. Anyone could buy “The Satanic Bible” and declare themselves a Satanist. The Church of Satan had a hierarchy, LaVey was the High Priest, and members could advance through degrees, but the barrier to entry was low. You did not need to be initiated. You needed to read a book and agree with it.

This accessibility was LaVey’s greatest innovation and the source of his lasting influence. Traditional Satanism had always been a small, secretive practice. LaVey turned it into a public identity. By 1970, the Church of Satan claimed thousands of members. By 2023, the Satanic Temple, a political organization that uses Satanic imagery to advocate for secularism, had over 700,000 followers on social media. Neither organization would exist without LaVey.

What Each Tradition Actually Practiced

A traditional Satanist’s practice, where it existed, involved the following:

• Summoning: Using the seals and names from grimoires to call a specific demon into a circle.
• Pacts: A written agreement with the Devil, signed in blood, exchanging the practitioner’s soul for worldly power.
• Inversion: Performing Christian rituals backward or with blasphemous substitutions.
• Sacrifice: Usually animal sacrifice, though accusations of human sacrifice were common in witch trials and almost certainly false in most cases.

A LaVeyan Satanist’s practice, as described in “The Satanic Bible,” involves:

• Greater magic: A ritual performed in a “chamber of the mind” where the practitioner visualizes their goal and releases emotional energy.
• Lesser magic: The manipulation of people through psychological techniques, including the use of “lesser keys” like the “Law of the Forbidden” and the “Law of the Commanded.”
• The Black Mass: A parody of the Catholic Mass, though LaVey himself rarely performed it and discouraged its use.
• The Walpurgisnacht ritual: An annual gathering on April 30, though LaVey’s original rituals were private affairs.

The difference is stark. The traditional Satanist’s practice is supernatural, dangerous, and secret. The LaVeyan’s practice is psychological, safe, and public.

Common Misconceptions

LaVey invented Satanism. He did not. He created a specific version of Satanism that rejected the supernatural elements of earlier traditions. Traditional Satanism existed before LaVey and continues to exist in small, secretive groups.

Traditional Satanists worship the Devil. This is debated even among practitioners. Some traditional Satanists do worship Satan as a literal deity. Others see him as a symbol of rebellion or a force of nature. The term “theistic Satanism” is used to distinguish those who believe in a literal Devil from LaVeyans who do not.

LaVey’s Satanism is the same as the Satanic Temple. It is not. The Satanic Temple was founded in 2013 by Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry. It uses Satanic imagery for political activism, advocating for the separation of church and state. The Church of Satan, under LaVey and his successors, has always been apolitical.

All Satanists perform animal sacrifice. LaVey explicitly forbade animal sacrifice in his rules. Traditional Satanists may have practiced it historically, but modern practitioners almost never do. The accusation of animal sacrifice is a common smear used against Satanists.

FAQ

Did LaVey believe in a literal Devil? No. He described Satan as a symbol of human nature, not a real being. This is the single most important difference between his Satanism and traditional Satanism.

Can a traditional Satanist also be a LaVeyan? No. The two systems are incompatible on the fundamental question of whether the supernatural exists. A traditional Satanist believes in literal demons. A LaVeyan does not.

What happened to traditional Satanism after LaVey? It continued in small, secretive groups, mostly in Europe. The Ordo Templi Orientis and other occult orders preserved some traditional practices, but LaVey’s version became the dominant form of public Satanism.

Is the Satanic Temple traditional Satanism? No. The Satanic Temple is a political organization that uses Satanic imagery for secular activism. It does not practice magic, summon demons, or worship any deity.

The Legacy of Two Satanisms

LaVey’s Satanism won. It is the version most people encounter when they search for information about Satanism. “The Satanic Bible” has sold over a million copies. The Church of Satan continues to operate, though it has split into multiple factions since LaVey’s death in 1997. Traditional Satanism remains a ghost, practiced by a handful of occultists who inherited their grimoires from an older world.

But the ghost has not vanished. The grimoires are still read. The seals are still drawn. The names of the demons are still spoken. Traditional Satanism survives because it offers something LaVey’s version cannot: a relationship with the supernatural. For those who believe the Devil is real, LaVey’s symbolic Satan is a poor substitute.

The two traditions now coexist, each defining itself against the other. The LaVeyan says the traditionalist is superstitious. The traditionalist says the LaVeyan is a poser. Neither is entirely wrong. Neither is entirely right. What matters is that both exist, and both continue to evolve.

For those who want to understand the demons that traditional Satanism summoned, our guide to demonology and Goetia provides the historical context. The glossary of demonic names lists the entities that LaVey rejected and traditionalists still call. And for a deeper look at how LaVey’s philosophy compares to other occult systems, see our comparison of modern Satanic traditions.