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A review by calarco
Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor LaVey
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.