Secret Lineages and de Facto Satanists

In this article, I will investigate how Anton Szandor LaVey (1930–97), who founded the Church of Satan in 1966, constructed a Satanic tradition in his texts, and to what use he put it. ¹ James R. Lewis has discussed how Satanists in the Church of Satan, after LaVey’s death, make reference to tradition. ² In that context, tradition is basically understood as the teaching established by their founder. What I shall look at here, however, is rather how LaVey himself makes ambiguous references to a supposed pre-existing Satanic tradition. I will present an interpretation of this based on LaVey’s overall ontology, and his view of religious and esoteric phenomena.