#41896 - 08/13/10 06:54 PM
_Letters From the Devil_
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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A fellow Setian just called my attention to this collection of Anton LaVey's tabloid columns from the 1960s, and I thought the 600C might be interested in a thread to discuss same.
I've just ordered a copy, so will comment once it arrives if I can add any background. Anton was writing these columns at about the time I joined the Church (1969), and I have some of the original clippings he sent me, but I was basically tangled up in southeast Asia around that time, so this should be a treat. He was in his element with good-humored rants!
_________________________
Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#41936 - 08/14/10 02:24 PM
Re: _Letters From the Devil_
[Re: TheInsane]
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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I would love a paper copy of The Church of Satan and The Temple of Set. I find myself going back to both from time to time but especially the first one mentioned. But its just not the same thing flipping through electronic pages as it is to hold a real paper copy. Maybe it could be done in two volumes - one with the main book and one with all the extra stuff?
Up through its 2nd Edition COS was a nonprofit hardcover item: 2-sided photocopy on high-quality paper, bound in black [faux] elephant-hide with the Baphomet in embossed silver on the cover. Back in those early-80s they were made to order at $100/copy, and still pop up occasionally on eBay.
What happened was that costs continued to grow, plus by the 5th Edition it was substantially longer. The same kind of production, if the whole thing could still fit in one volume, would have gone to about $200. My intent was to make it as easily available to everyone as possible, hence the $0 .pdf/ebook route. Assumed that anyone who wanted could print out a copy & have it privately bound, as some have done.
Recently the Internet has spawned several print-on-demand services, and I am going to look into those as an option. At least one of them who contacted me does really elegant custom binding too, so that's also an option. If/when any of these are available, it will be mentioned on my webpage, so just check there occasionally.
One of my other thoughts is to a similar, annotated version of the Satanic Bible. It would also be 8.5x11 size, premium paper & binding, with meticulously refined & annotated/footnoted text, and including both the original SB & SR contents. As you can glimpse from those COS chapters, there is a wealth of source & backstory information about those books which needs to be documented, not to mention that those paperbacks with their worn-out printing and progressively excised contents (such as the disappearance of the crucial Dedications pages) are inadequate.
I have already done some work on this, and continue to tinker with it. If/when it's done, I'll look into the © aspects, but I don't think that would be much of a problem in light of the questionable current © ownership, rampant unenforced Internet reproduction of the books, and bona-fide religious/educational nature of such an edition. But we'll see.
Right now TOS remains my priority work-in-progress, and is far more of a task than COS ever was because the Temple and its Initiates have such a vast & multifaceted history. A similar, comprehensive history like COS is quite impossible; I am just trying for a sort of summary/profile.
_________________________
Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#41941 - 08/14/10 03:03 PM
Re: _Letters From the Devil_
[Re: Michael A.Aquino]
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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Today looked through my files to see if I could find a sample of those columns to reprint here, but just got MEGO-overwhelmed in all the clippings & articles about Anton & the Church back then - Time, Newsweek, Look, Hustler, Oui, and an avalanche of newspaper & misc. magazine stuff. [Some of these are reproduced in the text & appendices of COS, but there are buckets more.] Even United Airlines' Mainliner magazine.
Much of the tabloid stuff focused on "the Jayne Mansfield curse!", usually accompanied by a glowering photo of Anton and a tit shot of JM. Is this a great country or what?
I remember him saying that some of the tabloid questions were from readers, while others he came up with on his own when he had a choice rant in mind. I said [and he agreed] that his only serious competitor was Lucy van Pelt and her "Psychiatric Help 5¢" stand. Her usual diagnosis was "Snap out of it," which more or less reflected his attitude towards the life-challenged. This collection should be a fun read.
_________________________
Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#41948 - 08/14/10 06:06 PM
Re: _Letters From the Devil_
[Re: felixgarnet]
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Michael A.Aquino
veteran member
Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 1247
Loc: San Francisco, CA, USA
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Dr Aquino, is there a copy, please available on line of the Book Of Coming Forth By Night? Is the communication in its entirety the one included in your draft of The Temple Of Set or is this a condensed version of the work?
It is complete in the current (Draft #11) Temple of Set as Appendix #2, with my Analysis following as Appendix #3.
_________________________
Michael A. Aquino
[On Ignore: Dan_Dread, 6Satan6Archist6, Caladrius, MindFux]
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#42241 - 08/22/10 05:26 PM
Re: _Letters From the Devil_
[Re: TheInsane]
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Duende
pledge
Registered: 03/25/10
Posts: 75
Loc: USA
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I decided to order _Letters from the Devil_ after all, and was pleasantly surprised by the contents.
LFTD is published in a magazine format which is very reminiscent of Glimore's _The Black Flame_. Nearly every page is jam packed with Dr.LaVey's intelligent essays and responses to all sorts of questions, from the sincere to the ridiculous, arising from an under informed public. While most of the "letters" submitted to Dr.LaVey are not of the highest quality, his insightful responses are always informative and sincere. Topics such as Greater Magic are addressed.
Each of Dr.LaVey's articles is printed in its original context, flanked by unrelated articles, cartoons, and ads. This additional material, besides being entertaining, serves to firmly establish these article in that special period of time known as the seventies.
My only complaint is that the print is very small, and those of us that are getting up there in years are going to have to squint very hard or wear those unpleasant magnification glasses. 
LFTD may only be seventy two pages long, but you may find the content of those pages to pack quite a punch. This slim volume is one you can refer to again and again.
This magazine was compiled by Kevin I. Slaughter.
If you order it right now from lulu.com, you get free shipping.
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#44208 - 11/18/10 10:16 PM
Re: _Letters From the Devil_
[Re: Michael A.Aquino]
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MatthewJ1
member
Registered: 10/28/09
Posts: 529
Loc: Australia
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I have bought and am reading Letters from the Devil.
I wanted to thank Dr. Aquino for bringing this book to my attention. It took me a little while to get my butt over to Amazon and get the thing Dr., but there was no way I was going to miss out.
I have really enjoyed reading this book for a number of reasons and I just wanted to take some time to talk about those reasons.
In regards to Dr. LaVey
LaVey was obviously well read and had a deep appreciation and understanding of the psychology of the human animal. He must have been a keen observer of behaviour with an ability to understand the meaning and purpose behind behaviour. He wears his learning lightly, and doesn’t give this reader the impression that he is a walking and talking textbook without any practical experience to draw on.
He could, however, bring a great deal of information and historical material to bear when it was required to labour a point, or build a context or history for an answer he was providing to a specific question/s.
LaVey was primarily answering questions provided by his readers and the types of questions he was asked varied widely and yet he was able to give useful and original answers to pretty much all of them I think. One can read and get advice from LaVey on how to make voodoo dolls and love potions, perform Greater and Lesser Magic and acquire the title of Magician, deal with relationship questions, explain the Church of Satan and its degree system, deal out some reality to the kooks, and more generally present a Satanist’s viewpoint to the common questions people have.
What comes across is a picture of a man who treated sincere enquiries thoughtfully and with great care, but who had no problem with giving insincere, or hostile people the bums rush, or a well articulated blast of venom.
He seemed to have a gift for grasping what sort of person he was dealing with, from rather short and often imperfect letters, and then making suggestions which would be the most beneficial. He encouraged people to explore and accept their sexual fetishes, provided nobody was involved who didn’t want to be involved, and provided nobody was being hurt who didn’t want to be hurt. He liked to repeat and reinforce the idea that some people enjoyed indulging in misery and if that was their indulgence then they should be given ample opportunity to indulge, by being given all the misery they could handle.
I could feel the anger bubbling away inside LaVey when he came to discuss questions related to Christianity and life denying religions generally, with their concepts of guilt and the afterlife, and how these concepts were used to control and deny and hence make people unhappy and unhealthy. I could feel his anger at the self-deception and hypocrisy people could engage in.
LaVey seems to me to have developed a line of thinking which perfectly balanced individualism and freedom with responsibility, pragmatism and realism; and this balance was explained, on a case by case basis, through his answers to the particular questions he received.
In Regards to Satanism and the Time Frame of Letters from the Devil
At times I am quite attracted to the origins of certain types of thinking and acting and I tend to regard origins as somehow pristine, unique, or as representing an ideal time when thinking and action was unclouded or uncorrupted by time.
The letters and answers provided in Letters from the Devil take place during the period just prior to and just after the publication of The Satanic Bible, so it is the 1969-1970 period.
I am trying to imagine what this period of time was like. I am talking about San Francisco in 1969-1970, just a few years after Haight Ashbury, where contemporary events are assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King, Manson, Altamont, and Kent State. I don’t think LaVey appreciated the more egalitarian focus of the anti-war demonstrators and the counterculture, along with the rather alien aesthetics of that particular culture.
I wonder, though, whether LaVey and the Church of Satan’s early success in drawing attention to themselves and gaining a measure of popularity could have been possible anywhere else in the country, besides San Francisco, and at any earlier time (or even later time). I also wonder whether the increased interest/appeal of Satan and the darker side of humanity could have been possible without the rather dark contemporary events of 1968-1970 in U.S culture.
The letters and the answers in Letters from the Devil are quite remarkable I think. The Church of Satan and its clergy still get interviewed nowadays and they publish etc., but do any of them do a question and answer column in any form of newspaper or magazine: I wonder how much public teaching about Satanism gets done nowadays and has this changed all that much since 1970.
I recommend this book to members not only because LaVey answers specific questions, but also because it is an interesting historical piece. I have nothing really against the current hierarchy of the Church of Satan and agree with Jake when he says it is what it is and it was what it was.
I do, however, think that if you want to read some really kick ass stuff about what Satanism is and what it means, in one context or another, then check out the stuff that LaVey, Aquino and Ferro etc. were saying in the late 1960’s and early to mid 1970’s. I think things may have been more straightforward then.
I would be interested in any comments anybody wanted to make about this book.
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