The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor Lavey Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Satanic Bible
Book Review: A classic book for free spirits
Summary: 5 Stars
I would highly recommend this book to intelligent people who choose not to follow the herd. This book has great commentary on the nature of humans, society, religion, and the self-imposed oppression of modern man. Strong,confident, women might really enjoy LaVey's writings (in any of his books) on feminism and sexuality. However, if you don't have the mental capasity to look at different philosophies in an objective manor, or if you want to hurt animals or children in some sort of sick tribute to Ozzy, this book is not for you. Occult students who can't laugh off a little bit of cheese now and then should probably save themselves the pain this book causes on the terminally hip.
Book Review: A complete Satanic Resource
Summary: 5 Stars
I was SO pleased to finally add "The Satanic Bible" to my library. Its clear, concise, frill-free, no-nonsense approach is refreshing as well as deeply enlightening.
Now, if only everyone would read it... so the misconceptions surrounding Satanism and it's belief system would cease!
Book Review: A conjurer/circus clown turned philosopher
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this book expecting a rational explanation of Satanism and the "Left Hand Path". What I got instead was a messy, shoddily written, badly researched piece of junk that wasn't worth the paper it was written on. When LaVey isn't talking about how great Satanism and he is, he's just resorting to taking cheap potshots at religions (the one redeeming feature of the book I must say, that makes it worth the one star). A good chunk of the book is just filled with mumbo-jumbo spells that occupy three lines in a whole page. It seems like LaVey had run out of stuff to write so he just padded the rest of it with gobbledegook to make a decent sized pocketbook.
The problem with LaVey's work is it would be a better book had he focussed on giving a rational defence of Satanism instead of alternating between badly researched info on religions (he gets the names of some Indian gods wrong, interprets meanings that no scholar will agree with), diatribes against clergymen, and self aggrandization without providing any depth of material. It reads like a ten year old ranting against broccoli and the benefits of chocolate.
Save your money and buy a couple of beers with it.
Incidentally, I looked up the CoS website and true enough there was enough glorification of LaVey to make it appear almost cultish. Any point of contention was immediately referred to the "Satanic Bible" for clarification thus effectively nulling out the alleged intense individualism of Satanists. So while LaVey asserts so strongly the greatness of the ego, his followers don't seem to be doing a good job of it.
The other redeeming feature of this book is, it is more interesting to read than the Bible.
Book Review: A damnably good laugh
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm often accused of being a Satanist just because I've read this book and like to annoy Christians by the occasional quote from it. As it is I neither believe in God nor Satan but after getting a lifelong earful from the woolly-minded sheep of God I was curious as to what their official opposition had to say.And it's quite interesting. Christianity gets the predictable (but no less well-deserved) pasting that's long overdue from an author who seems remarkably level-headed and dispenses common sense and reason in amounts that make the real Bible look quite miserly. I love his description of Jesus as "pallid incompetence hanging on a tree" and "thou art not and thou never wert" the saviour of mankind. All true, after all we're still waiting and this after Jesus promised to come back within the lifetime of those present who followed Him.
To all those Christians who say that their faith is beyond empirical proof I say we should put it to the test and conjure up a few demons to inflict some misery on them. Let me know, anyone who's contested me, if something terrible has happened to you because I might have to reconsider my position vis-a-vis this God thing. Also Sons of Adam, do yourselves a favour and read this you might find Satan more worthy of your affection than Jehovah who in the Old Testament has inflicted more misery on mankind for no good reason. Satan by comparison in the Bible has done virtually nothing. Christians are down on him for what he's supposed to do (Revelations) but you wouldn't get a conviction in court for a crime not yet committed now would you ?
Book Review: A dangerously clever book by a dangerously clever man
Summary: 5 Stars
The Satanic Bible doesn't read like religious text. It might as well be called The Satanic Brainstorm. Although I don't agree with everything in it, this book makes more sense than anything I've ever read. By the end of it, the reader is left wanting to read everything LaVey's ever written. The one and only criticism I have is the constant restatement and emphasis on the hypocracy of Judeo-Christian ethics. To even understand this book, one most likely is already aware of these contradictions. Make that two criticisms; LaVey has his own occasional hypocracy, although it's very hard to pinpoint or even realize. Because so much of this book is shrouded with sarcasm, these seemingly hypocritical ideas may be intentional. All in all, this is the finest philosophical work I could have ever imagined. It puts all of your own ideas, that you were too blind or scared to realize, down on paper in a clear and frighteningly clever way. This book is the bible for the thinking man. Young impressionable teenagers shouldn't read it. I know a 16 year old who read it and got the totally wrong idea. One needs to already have a mature idea of what one believes before reading this. The sarcasm needs to be recognized for what it is.