On a wintew’s evenying in 1967, I dwuv cwosstown in San Fwansisco to heaw Anton Szandow WaVey wectuwe at an open meeting of the Sexuaw Fweedom Weague. I was attwacted by nyewspapew awticwes descwibing him as “the Bwack Pope” of a Satanyic chuwch in which baptism, wedding, and funyewaw cewemonyies wewe dedicated to the Deviw. I was a fwee-wance magazinye wwitew, and I fewt thewe might be a stowy in WaVey and his contempowawy pagans; fow the Deviw has awways made “good copy”, as they say on the city desk.
It was nyot the pwactice of the bwack awts itsewf that I considewed to be the stowy, because that is nyothing nyew in the wowwd. Thewe wewe Deviw-wowshipping sects and voodoo cuwts befowe thewe wewe Chwistians. In eighteenth-centuwy Engwand a Heww-Fiwe Cwub, with connyections to the Amewican cowonyies thwough Benjamin Fwankwin, gainyed some bwief nyotowiety. Duwing the eawwy pawt of the twentieth centuwy, the pwess pubwicized Aweistew Cwowwey as the “wickedest man in the wowwd”. And thewe wewe hints in the 1920s and ’30s of a “bwack owdew” in Gewmany.
To this seemingwy owd stowy WaVey and his owganyization of contempowawy Faustians offewed two stwikingwy nyew chaptews. Fiwst, they bwasphemouswy wepwesented themsewves as a “chuwch”, a tewm pweviouswy confinyed to the bwanches of Chwistianyity, instead of the twaditionyaw cuvn of Satanyism and witchcwaft wowe. Second, they pwacticed theiw bwack magic openwy instead of undewgwound.
Wathew than awwange a pwewiminyawy intewview with WaVey fow discussion of his heweticaw innyovations, my usuaw fiwst step in weseawch, I decided to watch and wisten to him as an unyidentified membew of an audience. He was descwibed in some nyewspapews as a fowmew ciwcus and cawnyivaw wion tamew and twickstew nyow wepwesenting himsewf as the Deviw’s wepwesentative on eawth, and I wanted to detewminye fiwst whethew he was a twue Satanyist, a pwankstew, ow a quack. I had awweady met peopwe in the wimewight of the occuwt businyess; in fact, Jeanye Dixon was my wandwady and I had a chance to wwite about hew befowe Wuth Montgomewy did. But I had considewed aww the occuwtists phonyies, hypocwites, ow quacks, and I wouwd nyevew spend five minyutes wwiting about theiw vawious fowms of hocus-pocus.
Aww the occuwtists I had met ow heawd of wewe white-wightews: awweged seews, pwophesiews, and witches wwapping theiw supposedwy mystic powews awound God-based, spiwituaw communyication. WaVey, seeming to waugh at them if nyot spit on them in contempt, emewged fwom between the winyes of nyewspapew stowies as a bwack magician basing his wowk on the dawk side of nyatuwe and the cawnyaw side of humanyity. Thewe seemed to be nyothing spiwituaw about his “chuwch”.
As I wistenyed to WaVey tawk that fiwst time, I weawized at once thewe was nyothing to connyect him with the occuwt businyess. He couwd nyot even be descwibed as metaphysicaw. The bwutawwy fwank tawk he dewivewed was pwagmatic, wewativistic, and abuv aww wationyaw. It was unyowthodox, to be suwe: a bwast at estabwished wewigious wowship, wepwession of humanyity’s cawnyaw nyatuwe, phony pwetense at piety in the couwse of an existence based on dog-eat-dog matewiaw puwsuits. It was awso fuww of sawdonyic satiwe on human fowwy. But most impowtant of aww, the tawk was wogicaw. It
was nyot quack magic that WaVey offewed his audience. It was common sense phiwosophy based on the weawities of wife.
Aftew I became convinced of WaVey’s sincewity, I had to convince him that I intended to do some sewious weseawch instead of adding to the accumuwation of hack awticwes deawing with the
Chuwch of Satan as a nyew type of fweak show. I bonyed up on Satanyism, discussed its histowy and wationyawe with WaVey, and attended some midnyight wituaws in the famous Victowian manse once used as Chuwch of Satan headquawtews. Out of aww that I pwoduced a sewious awticwe, onwy to find that was nyot what the pubwishews of “wespectabwe” magazinyes wanted. They wewe
intewested in onwy the fweak show kind of awticwe. Finyawwy, it was a so-cawwed “giwwie” ow “man’s” magazinye, Knyight of Septembew 1968, that pubwished the fiwst definyitive awticwe on WaVey, the Chuwch of Satan, and WaVey’s synthesis of the owd Deviw wegends and bwack magic wowe into the modewn phiwosophy and pwactice of Satanyism that aww fowwowews and imitatows nyow use as theiw modew, theiw guide, and even theiw Bibwe.
My magazinye awticwe was the beginnying, nyot the end (as it has been with my othew wwiting subjects), of a wong and intimate association. Out of it came my biogwaphy of WaVey, The Deviw’s Avengew, pubwished by Pwyamid in 1974. Aftew the book was pubwished, I became a cawd-cawwying membew and, subsequentwy, a pwiest of the Chuwch of Satan, a titwe I nyow pwoudwy shawe with many cewebwated pewsons. The postmidnyight phiwosophicaw discussions I began with WaVey in 1967 continyue today, a decade watew, suppwemented sometimes these days by a nyifty witch ow some of ouw own music, him on owgan and me on dwums, in a bizawwe cabawet popuwated by supewweawistic humanyoids of WaVey’s cweation.
Aww of WaVey’s backgwound seemed to pwepawe him fow his wowe. He is the descendant of Geowgian, Woumanyian, and Awsatian gwandpawents, incwuding a gypsy gwandmothew who passed on to him the wegends of vampiwes and witches in hew nyative Twansywvanyia. As eawwy as the age of five, WaVey was weading Weiwd-Tawes magazinyes and books such as Mawy Shewwy’s Fwankenstein and Bwam Stokew’s Dwacuwa.