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e_money_the_cat's review
3.0
Needed something fun after some heavier reads.
Cheesy, as others point out. But definitely not meant to be taken too seriously.
The introduction gives a little info about Lavay’s philosophy of opposites or whatever. Probably the best part. You can tell he has read Nietzsche as his targeting of Christianity as life-denying is quite evident. Unlike Nietzsche though, Lavay attempts to create a new cultural and moral system while the former wanted to go back to a “Roman morality”. By not tying itself solely to same mythologized past, Lavay creates something new that can borrow from so many past cultures without being at all tied to any one of them either.
Thinkin a fluffy 6 cats outta 10 on this one.
Cheesy, as others point out. But definitely not meant to be taken too seriously.
The introduction gives a little info about Lavay’s philosophy of opposites or whatever. Probably the best part. You can tell he has read Nietzsche as his targeting of Christianity as life-denying is quite evident. Unlike Nietzsche though, Lavay attempts to create a new cultural and moral system while the former wanted to go back to a “Roman morality”. By not tying itself solely to same mythologized past, Lavay creates something new that can borrow from so many past cultures without being at all tied to any one of them either.
Thinkin a fluffy 6 cats outta 10 on this one.
glanecia's review
3.0
I'm thinking 2.5. This isn't the first time I've read the book, but it is the first time I read it and researched all of Anton LaVey's references. I think that overall, I'm disappointed in his "research" because although it can be very interesting to pull ideas from other cultures, he didn't adequately cite all of his sources, nor did he accurately represent other cultures very well. For example, he claims that the Yezidis are a Satanic group of people. It is true that Christian groups and Muslim groups call the Yezidis "Satanic", but the Yezidis do not call themselves Satanic. It's like how some Catholics or Protestants might call Mormonism "anti-Christian" or a "cult", or how they might call Wiccans "devil-worshippers", but they really aren't - not if you go to the source and ask the people what they believe. I appreciate how Anton LaVey wants to bring attention to the fact that all of these groups of people, such as the Yezidis have been demonized, and I can appreciate how he can identify with that - but there's an obvious difference between Satanism and Yezidism. Satanists will "hail Satan" and Yezidis won't even utter the name (Shaitan), because they believe it would put him on equal grounds with God. I did enjoy the read. It led me down quite the rabbit hole, and that was fun.
mbas's review
1.0
One of these rituals was lifted word for word from H.G. Well's Island of Doctor Moreau .
calarco's review
1.0
So this book was given to me as a (gag) xmas gift from my sister's (non-practicing) Jewish boyfriend, because he heard I was reading the Christian bible. True story. So I read it as unbiased as humanly possible, and it was a pretty terrible hot mess.
I suppose in its defense, "The Satanic Rituals" does set out to denounce how organized religion can be manipulated to create unhealthy dichotomies of 'us' versus 'them.' In response to these socially-derived rifts, much of the ethos of this volume is dedicated to embracing the 'other.' In the opening thesis, LaVey establishes how entities contrary to established thought tends to get vilified on principle, and as a direct response Satanic beliefs contrarily embrace these dark elements.
LaVey also dedicates this volume to the active process of ritual as a means of using magic to invoke intense feelings of liberation. Rituals function as events instilling socially recognized changes within participating individuals. The participant enters into the ritual, undergoes a state of liminality, and then reemerges into society as a newly changed person. I believe the goal here is to achieve some semblance of existential freedom.
So here is where things go terribly wrong with "The Satanic Rituals" - these rituals are dumb, so so dumb. So profoundly stupid.
The source material used for the spoken word components of these "rituals" are gathered from other (better) traditions and authors, mostly H.P. Lovecraft. To say that LaVey is a totally rabid fanboy would be an understatement. By drawing references from "history" (a term used loosely) and other revered authors, LaVey does his best to legitimize some weird, niche larping.
But wait! The content is not just weird, the prose is also god-awful (har har). It is all delivered with heavy handed pseudo-intellectualism and needlessly represents chants in both English and their (alleged) originating languages including French, German, and (poorly) romanized Russian. This use of multiple languages is obviously a ploy to up the page count to fill out a bound volume resembling a book. However, the use of languages also reveals something abhorrently apparent: it is super hypocritical.
Until the 1960's, Roman Catholic masses were conduced in Latin with the priest facing the alter and his back to the actual people. This created a rift in terms of who had direct access to information, with the religious institutions monopolizing the power to distill knowledge and interpretation of scripture to the people. The (poor) use of other languages in the "The Satanic Rituals" tries to legitimize itself the same way the church did 60 years ago. You cannot criticize an institution and then turn around and use a component of what you are criticizing to legitimize your own schlock. So dumb.
Perhaps the gravest cardinal sin that this volume commits though, is that it was mind-numbingly boring. I thought it would at least be ironically funny, but no, it disappointed at every turn. H.P. Lovecraft could not have wanted this.
I suppose in its defense, "The Satanic Rituals" does set out to denounce how organized religion can be manipulated to create unhealthy dichotomies of 'us' versus 'them.' In response to these socially-derived rifts, much of the ethos of this volume is dedicated to embracing the 'other.' In the opening thesis, LaVey establishes how entities contrary to established thought tends to get vilified on principle, and as a direct response Satanic beliefs contrarily embrace these dark elements.
LaVey also dedicates this volume to the active process of ritual as a means of using magic to invoke intense feelings of liberation. Rituals function as events instilling socially recognized changes within participating individuals. The participant enters into the ritual, undergoes a state of liminality, and then reemerges into society as a newly changed person. I believe the goal here is to achieve some semblance of existential freedom.
So here is where things go terribly wrong with "The Satanic Rituals" - these rituals are dumb, so so dumb. So profoundly stupid.
The source material used for the spoken word components of these "rituals" are gathered from other (better) traditions and authors, mostly H.P. Lovecraft. To say that LaVey is a totally rabid fanboy would be an understatement. By drawing references from "history" (a term used loosely) and other revered authors, LaVey does his best to legitimize some weird, niche larping.
But wait! The content is not just weird, the prose is also god-awful (har har). It is all delivered with heavy handed pseudo-intellectualism and needlessly represents chants in both English and their (alleged) originating languages including French, German, and (poorly) romanized Russian. This use of multiple languages is obviously a ploy to up the page count to fill out a bound volume resembling a book. However, the use of languages also reveals something abhorrently apparent: it is super hypocritical.
Until the 1960's, Roman Catholic masses were conduced in Latin with the priest facing the alter and his back to the actual people. This created a rift in terms of who had direct access to information, with the religious institutions monopolizing the power to distill knowledge and interpretation of scripture to the people. The (poor) use of other languages in the "The Satanic Rituals" tries to legitimize itself the same way the church did 60 years ago. You cannot criticize an institution and then turn around and use a component of what you are criticizing to legitimize your own schlock. So dumb.
Perhaps the gravest cardinal sin that this volume commits though, is that it was mind-numbingly boring. I thought it would at least be ironically funny, but no, it disappointed at every turn. H.P. Lovecraft could not have wanted this.
sarahconnor89757's review
4.0
A fine book, yadda yadda, my only comment is...I see rituals for the Call of Cthulhu all the time, but why never a Call of Barbie ritual? Cthulhu hasn't been able to help me with my hair nor catch a boyfriend.
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