After the founding of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966, he gained quite a bit of notoriety and even more celebrity friends. Most famously, he is known for “leading” disciples such as Sammy Davis Jr., Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Manson.

It’s at this time of year when thoughts naturally turn to the dark and mysterious. The Halloween season is the perfect time to let your inhibitions go.

Coincidentally, Oct. 29 is also the 10th anniversary of the death of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. In many ways, LaVey lived a dramatic and selfish life. As a teenager, he claims he joined the circus, although this has not been verified.

He was known for his flamboyant personality and gothic style of dress, often wearing black and sporting a shaved head. A great fan of many things occult, he impressed many with his knowledge and abilities.

After the founding of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966, he gained quite a bit of notoriety and even more celebrity friends. Most famously, he is known for “leading” disciples such as Sammy Davis Jr., Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Manson.

But beyond the famous, “Hollywood” parts of his life, it is the claim he made for so-called “alternative religion” in America that is really much more important.

LaVey’s version of Satanism did not involve repressed teenagers chanting in their parents’ basements, or, in fact, the real entity itself. The Church of Satan, while believing in magic and the supernatural, denies the existence of a literal Satan.

Why? According to High Priest LaVey, in his interviews and landmark 1969 work “The Satanic Bible,” Satan is representative of the individual. This “enemy” is really an indicator of all our truest human desires, which have been sequestered in the name of traditional religions and the need to please an external God.

In essence, he believed, Christianity was created to give humanity guilt over natural human instincts and urges that could not be denied. Christianity had created the problem, so it could give us the solution.

His ideas were not new – he borrowed heavily from previous philosophers, such as Aleister Crowley and Friedrich Nietzsche. But, he said it in a way that encompassed the mind and spirit. He recognized the needs people have for ritual, while at the same time promoting a live for today attitude. In short, he created the perfect rock star religion.

Since his death in 1997, lover Blanche Barton took over, but has since scaled back her church activities. The Black House that was the church’s home for many years has been destroyed - the movement no longer enjoys the popularity or press coverage that it once did.

Although he may not have believed in literal immortality, his ideas and personality truly stood apart from the mundane, and LaVey’s name will certainly be among the greatest eccentrics and thinkers of the 20th century.

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