The Church of Satan was established by Anton Szandor LaVey on Walpurgisnacht — a Christian feast day linked to the warding off of evil spirits that has roots in pre-Christian pagan practices — in 1966. It is considered the first modern organized church devoted to the figure of Satan and describes itself as the “oldest satanic religion in continual existence.”
The Church grew out of LaVey’s earlier private group, the Order of the Trapezoid, whose participants included figures such as radical filmmaker Kenneth Anger and San Francisco City Assessor Russell Wolden. At the Church’s founding, LaVey proclaimed 1966 as “The Year One,” or “Anno Satanas,” marking what he called the beginning of the Age of Satan.
LaVey was born Howard Stanton Levey on April 11, 1930, in Chicago. He expressed early musical interests, particularly in piano and accordion. LaVey claimed to have left high school at 16 to work for the Clyde Beatty Circus and later for carnivals, first as a roustabout and cage boy and later as a calliope player. He later connected these experiences to his critical views of religion, recounting that he saw the same attendees at both Saturday night entertainment events and Sunday revival meetings. A journalist who investigated his background, however, found no public evidence supporting his accounts of circus employment.
In 1948, LaVey began working as an organist in bars and nightclubs. He married Carole Lansing in 1951, and their daughter Karla was born in 1952. He would later claim to have studied criminology at City College of San Francisco and to have worked for three years as a photographer for the San Francisco Police Department, but there are no records to support either assertion.
His marriage to Lansing ended in 1960 after he became involved with Diane Hegarty, who remained his companion for 24 years and was the mother of his second daughter, Zeena Galatea Schreck, born in 1963. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, LaVey’s local reputation grew through his organ performances, interest in paranormal subjects, and a public persona that included driving a coroner’s van and walking a black leopard named Zoltan.
Following the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966, LaVey became a visible public figure amid growing media attention to occult themes. In 1967, he presided over what was promoted as the first publicly recorded Satanic wedding, uniting Judith Case and journalist John Raymond. Later that year, he conducted the first publicly recorded Satanic baptism for his three-year-old daughter, Zeena, dedicating her to Satan and the Left-Hand Path. He also performed a Satanic funeral for a naval serviceman at the request of the man’s wife. LaVey’s frequent appearances in the media, the presence of public figures at Church events, and his role as the devil in the 1968 Roman Polanski film “Rosemary’s Baby” contributed to the press referring to him as “The Black Pope.”
In 1969, LaVey published The Satanic Bible, which became the Church’s most widely distributed text, eventually selling nearly one million copies. Sociologists have described LaVey’s Satanism as a materialistic philosophy influenced by Epicureanism, Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, and ritual magic, while LaVey himself summarized it as “just Ayn Rand’s philosophy with ceremony and ritual added.” The Church rejects belief in supernatural beings, and its members, who often describe themselves as skeptical atheists, do not view Satan as a literal entity. Instead, Satan is interpreted as a symbolic figure associated with the Hebrew meaning of “adversary” or “opposer,” representing human instincts and perspectives that, in this view, have been suppressed by Abrahamic traditions.
In this framework, the Satanist’s concept of God is understood as an expression of the individual self. Peter Gilmore, who would succeed LaVey as high priest, would later describe Satan as “a name for the reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will.” Rituals in LaVeyan Satanism — such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals — are presented as symbolic psychodramas intended to release emotional energy or focus personal intent rather than invoke supernatural intervention. This ritual system, divided into “greater” and “lesser” magic, is structured to pursue goals categorized as sexual, compassionate, or destructive.
By 1972, LaVey ended weekly public rituals at the Black House, the Church’s San Francisco headquarters, directing that they be carried out by regional chapters known as “grottoes.” In 1974, he discontinued regional organizations entirely and required members and grottoes to report to the Central Grotto in San Francisco, which he designated “Phase IV of his master plan.” During the early 1970s, however, the Church experienced internal disagreements and several schisms, which observers have linked to disputes over authority, doctrine, and the development of alternative groups within the broader counterculture.
The most significant break occurred in 1975 when Michael Aquino, editor of the Church’s newsletter, departed to found the Temple of Set. A large portion of the Church’s leadership joined him, including the Nineveh Grotto in New Jersey, the Church’s largest branch. LaVey stated that only 29 members left, though reports indicated that the Temple of Set had more than 500 members at its founding. LaVey described the schism as “Phase V” of his master plan, intended to remove members he believed misunderstood his philosophy. Some authors, however, have characterized this period as the beginning of a fragmented and loosely organized Satanist landscape.
That same year, LaVey painted the Black House beige and reduced his public activities. The house was repainted black in 1986. During the 1980s, as the United States experienced the “Satanic Panic,” LaVey became less publicly active. Media reports sometimes tied the Church to alleged criminal conspiracies, and LaVey entered what commentators described as a period of limited public engagement.
Beginning in 1985, LaVey’s daughter Zeena represented the Church in public forums, appearing on television and radio to address allegations of Satanic ritual abuse and to clarify the Church’s positions. She became High Priestess during this period. In 1990, she renounced her affiliation with both the Church and her father and testified against him in Diane Hegarty’s palimony lawsuit. The court awarded Hegarty half of LaVey’s property, leading to the sale of the Black House and LaVey’s bankruptcy.
LaVey died on October 29, 1997. His third companion, Blanche Barton, assumed ownership of the Church and held leadership for four years. In 2001, she transferred administration to longtime members Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia, who had been active in running a New York–based group. The Central Office was moved from San Francisco to Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The Black House was demolished on October 16, 2001, after a fundraising effort to preserve it did not meet its goal.
The Church of Satan does not solicit membership or engage in proselytizing. Applicants must be legal adults in their place of residence, or, if younger, must have parents or guardians who are members in good standing. Membership begins with First Degree (Active Membership), which requires an extensive application. Advancement to higher degrees is by invitation, and those in the Third through Fifth degrees form the Priesthood. The organization emphasizes that adopting LaVey’s philosophy and practices does not require formal membership and maintains that its approach represents the only legitimate form of Satanism, rejecting theistic Satanism as inconsistent with its principles.
Key Sources:
Baddeley, G. (1999). Lucifer rising. Plexus Pub.
Barton, B. (1990). The Church of Satan. Hell’s Kitchen Productions Incorporated.
Faxneld, P., & Petersen, J. A. (2013). The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity. Oxford University Press, USA.
Gilmore, P. H. (2007). The Satanic Scriptures.
Harrington, W. (1986, February 23). Anton LaVey, America’s Satanic Master of Devils, Magic, Music, and Madness. The Washington Post Magazine,
LaVey, A. S. (1998). Satan speaks! Feral House.
Lewis, J. R. (September 2002). Diabolical Authority: Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible and the Satanist “Tradition.” Marburg Journal of Religion.
Mathews, C. (2009). Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture. Praeger.
Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 