The Rituals

The rituals contained herein represent a degree of candor
not usually found in a magical curriculum. They all have one
thing in common-homage to the elements truly representative
of the other side.
The Devil and his works have long assumed many forms.
Until recently, to Catholics, Protestants were devils. To Protestants,
Catholics were devils. To both, Jews were devils. To the
Oriental, the Westerner was a devil. To the American setder of
the Old West, the Red Man was a devil. Man's ugly habit of
elevating himself by defaming others is an unfortunate phenomenon,
yet apparently necessary to his emotional well-being.
Though these precepts are diminishing in power, to virtually
everyone some group represents evil incarnate. Yet if a human
being ever thinks that someone else considers him wrong, or evil,
or expendable in the affairs of the world, that thought is quickly
banished. Few wish to carry the stigma of villain.
But wait We are experiencing one of those unique periods
in history when the villain consistently becomes heroic. The cult
of the anti-hero has exalted the rebel and the malefactor.
Because man does little in moderation, selective acceptance
of new and revolutionary themes is nonexistent. Consequently
all is chaos, and anything goes, however irrational, that is against
established policy. Causes are a dime a dozen. Rebellion for
rebellion's sake often takes precedent over genuine need for
change. The opposite has become desirable, hence this becomes the
Age of Satan.
Dire as this appears, yet when the dust of the battles
settles what truly needed changing will have been changed. The
sacrifices will have been offered, human and otherwise, so that
long-range development might continue, and stability return.
Such is the odyssey of the twentieth century. The acceleration
of man's development has reached an epic point of change. The
evasive theologies of the immediate past were necessary to
sustain the human race while the higher man developed his
dreams and materialized his plans, until the frozen sperm of
his magical child could be born upon the earth. The child has
emerged in the form of Satan-the opposite.
The cold and hungry of the past produced offspring to till
the fields and work the mills. Their cold will stop and their
hunger shall end, but they will produce fewer children, for the
by-product of the magician's frozen seed which has been born
upon the earth will perform the tasks of the human offspring
of the past. Now it is the higher man's role to produce the
children of the future. Quality is now more important than
quantity. One cherished child who can create will be more
important than ten who can produce-or fifty who can believe!
The existence of the man-god will be apparent to even the
simplest, who will see the miracles of his creativity. The old
belief that a supreme being created man and man's thinking
brain will be recognized as an illogical sham.
It is altogether too easy to dismiss Satanism as a total
invention of the Christian Church. It is said that the principles
of Satanism did not exist before sectarian propaganda invented
Satan. Historically, the word Satan did not have a villainous
meaning before Christianity.
The "safe" schools of witchcraft, with their strict adherence
to their horned-god-fertility-symbol syndrome, consider the
words Devil and Satan anathema. They disclaim any association.
They wish no comparisons to be drawn linking their Murrayite-Gardnerian-"neo-pagan"-"traditional"
beliefs with
Diabolism. They have expunged Devil arid Satan from their
vocabulary, and have waged a tireless campaign to give dignity
to the word witch, though that has always been synonymous
with nefarious activity, whether as witch, or hexe, or venifica, or
other. They wholeheartedly accept the Christian evaluation of
the word Satan at face value, and ignore the fact that the term
became synonymous with evil simply because it was (a) of
Hebrew origin, and anything Jewish was of the Devil, and
(b) because it meant adversary or opposite.
With all the debate over the origin of the word witch,
and the clear origins of the word Satan one would think that
logic would rule, and Satan would be accepted as a more
sensibly explained label.\* Even if one recognizes the character
inversion employed in changing Pan (the good guy) into Satan
(the bad guy), why reject an old friend just because he bears
a new name and unjustified stigma? Why do so many still feel
it mandatory to disavow any connection with what might be
classed as Satanic, yet increasingly use each and every one of
the arts that were for centuries considered Satan's? Why does
the scientist, whose academic and laboratory forebears suffered
from accusations of heresy, mouth platitudes of Christian
righteousness in one breath, while dismissing the concept of
\*Controversy over the origin of the English word witch is valid when
one considers the etymology of the term in other languages: venifica
(Latin), hexe (German), streghe (Italian), etc. Only in its English form
has the word assumed a benign origin: wicca, purportedly meaning "wise."
Any debate must center on recent claims that advance a positive and
socially acceptable meaning for a term that has in all ages and most
languages, meant "poisoner," "frightener," "enchanter,'' "spell-caster," or
"evil woman."
Anthropologists have shown that even in primitive societies notably the
Azande, the definition of witch carries malevolent connotations. Therefore,
are we to assume that the only "good" witchet in the world were English
witches? This, however, becomes difficult to accept when one considers the
term wizard, which stems from the Middle English wysard = wise, versus
the Old English wican = to bend, from whence witch is supposedly derived.
All in all, it seems to be an unsuccessful attempt to legitimatize a
word that probably originated by onomatopoeia-the formation of a word
that sounds like what it is intended to mean!
Satan in the next, when the man of science owes his heritage to
what had for hundreds of years been relegated to Devildom?
The answers to these questions can be reduced to a single
bitter charge: they cannot afford to admit to an affinity with
anything that bears the name of Satan, for to do so would
necessitate turning in their good-guy badges. What is even
worse, the followers of the "Witchcraft-NOT-Satanism!" school
harbor the same need to elevate themselves by denigrating others
as do their Christian brethren, from whom they claim emancipation.
The rites in this book call the names of devils-devils of all
shapes, sizes and inclinations. The names are used with deliberate
and appreciative awareness, for if one can pull aside the
curtain of fear and enter the Kingdom of Shadows, the eyes
will soon become accustomed and many strange and wonderful
truths will be seen.
If one is truly good inside he can call the names of the
Gods of the Abyss with freedom from guilt and immunity from
harm. The resultant feeling will be most gratifying. But there is
no turning back. Here are the Rites of Lucifer ... for those
who dare remove their mantles of self-righteousness.

This page is part of the The Satanic Rituals book made by Anton Szandor LaVey.