ABSTRACT
The status of The Satanic Bible as an authoritative scripture – or, perhaps more accurately, as a kind of quasi-scripture – within the Satanic subculture was initially brought to my attention during my first face-to-face encounter with Satanists in the spring of 2000. Via the internet, I had found a small Satanist group in Portage, Wisconsin, which was about an hour south of where I resided at the time. This group, the Temple of Lylyth, distinguishes itself from Anton LaVey’s brand of Satanism chiefly by its emphasis on the feminine nature of the Dark Power. I arranged to meet with them in Portage on a Friday evening.
