Anton LaVey
1930 – 1997 American occultist, founder of the Church of Satan
Founder of the Church of Satan and author of the Satanic Bible, who brought a theatrical, atheistic Satanism into American pop culture.
- Religion
- Founder of LaVeyan Satanism, an atheistic philosophy using Satan as a symbol.
- Affiliations
- The Church of Satan.
Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966 and wrote the Satanic Bible, defining a Satanism that was atheistic and self-focused rather than devil-worshipping. A showman and provocateur, he made the occult a fixture of modern popular culture.
Connections
- influenced Aleister Crowley — Borrowed ceremonial and rhetorical elements from Crowley while rejecting his mysticism.
- influenced Gerald Gardner — Modern Wicca and Gardner's revival helped shape the wider occult scene LaVey later drew on.
In the timeline
- 1966 Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan central figure
- 1966 Church of Satan adopts the inverted pentagram with goat head, the Sigil of Baphomet mentioned