The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore
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Book Reviews of The Satanic Scriptures
Book Review: Lavey Articulated
Summary: 4 Stars
A long overdue release from the CoS! Many of the essays can be found in The Black FLame or on the CoS website. When compiled together in this relevant and readable sequence of relevance they become an indelible mark in the CoS's evolution. The words of The Satanic Bible resonated deeply for me in the beginnings of my adolecsence and to this day retains the basis for my Lesser Black Magic(k)al workings. The outright refutation of the more esoteric and still LHP aspects of the western Left Hand Path tradition by Gilmore is disappointing but not surprising... leaving no abundance of fertile ground for real personal development aside from epicurean materialism and psychodrama. The rest is capitalist atheism. The world's indigenous LHP traditions are worth more attention than the CoS is willing to acknoweledge. So don't expect anything arcane or of an insight in to what's REALLY possible for the aspiring Black Magician. At least THIS functioning High Priest actually WROTE both halves of his bible (or scriptures, as it were)!Book Review: Fiendishly Intelligent
Summary: 4 Stars
Gilmore includes a good selection of essays from the third perspective for three quarters of the book. The final bit includes the rituals for a marriage; funeral and one called the Rite of Ragnarok. While I agree with Mr. Gilmore's selections of Classical music I was also introduced to a few composers to which I've not had the pleasure of listening. What should be of interest here to the historian would be the articles related to the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's and the Reaction to 9/11/2001.Book Review: Not as illuminating as other books on Satanism..
Summary: 3 Stars
The first half of this book is very good, but mostly due it being based on older writings that were previously published in various Church of Satan outlets. It slowly degenerates into things that most people have no concern about such as Gilmore's musical tastes and opinion and his doctrine of elitism. The ultimate mark of elitism is not having any need to identify yourself as such for your actions speak. I can't tell you of anything personally that Gilmore does other than run the CoS and write this book. Some of the text is outright militant towards you if you happen to favor a flavor of Satanism that doesn't meet his definition if your beliefs are deist, spiritual, or non-alien elitist. At best, one could view this as an attempt to copy "The Devils Notebook" or "Satan Speaks!" without the entertainment value.
You cannot be so naive as to believe that just because someone believes in some cosmic dark force that they aren't a Satanist as The Satanic Bible professes more of a life philosophy than a religion and the text therein is compatible with many Left Hand Path followers. It just doesn't address the issue other than to balk at herd conformity in other organizations which you don't need to participate in to have such beliefs. If a Satanist is just truly and atheist why waste your time with rituals and calling yourself Satanic? If you don't believe in the forces which you intend to utilize it really doesn't come off as being something worth your time and it seems more that you are running a Vampire: The Masquerade troop where people can wear fangs and look cool saying silly stuff like "Hail Satan!" I'm sure you guys could put on a fabulous rendition of The Rockey Horror picture show as well if that is what you really are into. I can shop at Hot Topic too!
Possibly the most retarded chapter in the book is "The Myth of "The Satanic Community"" where Gilmore spends an entire chapter railing people that don't agree personally with him and his definition of Satanism and that if anyone starts some "other" group then they couldn't possibly be genuine. History has told us that many new ways have been thinking have been built upon the ashes of preceding lines of thought, and old lines of thought have been summarily destroyed in the process. Anton's work in the late '60s and early '70s is simply the gold standard, but nothing else of note has risen from the Church of Satan since that time so I hardly feel you can do more than say that you are riding these coat tails very well. Other groups and individuals have sought to improve on Satanism and Left Hand Path lines of thought since that time so don't seem too shocked when they refuse to agree with you as they have been evolving their structure while your organization has been doing its best to remain stagnant.
I'm giving this book 3 stars mostly due to the fact of the first half, and the rituals are interesting. I'm not a member of any of these organizations, but I'm not afraid to disagree where required. Take my advice as coming from a true follower from the path who doesn't give a crap about the politics of these organizations who would like to steer his good friends in the right direction.
Book Review: The new High Priest speaks and...(shrug)
Summary: 3 Stars
First I want to say that I didn't particularly like this book, but I gave it three stars anyway for a couple reasons:
1. It is an incredible piece of publishing. The book is beautiful, and of truly superior quality. In this regard alone it lives up to its satanic idealism.
2. The Satanic Wedding is included in the book. This is a piece of work that I've long been interested in reading. It stood out in its absence in the "Satanic Rituals," so I'm glad to have finally had an opportunity to read it.
3. It isn't terrible. In fact, if I hadn't read Lavey, I'd probably think more highly of this work.
But now for the negatives:
1. Editing. I was very disappointed to find typos and spelling errors in this book. It really detracted from the value of the book as a piece of art. This may sound nit-picky, but Satanists pride themselves on the superior quality of their work, and in this respect the High Priest failed to live up to the ideals of his Church.
2. Content. I understand that satanists don't like the rest of the world in general, but come on, the High Priest is the highest ranking official in the Church, and it seems to me, for an individualist, a self-proclaimed egoist, he spends far too long complaining about the stupidity of other people. All of the pieces did not re-hash this tired subject, but unfortunately, most of them did.
3. Content. In the second respect, I found it surprising that so much of the book was spent defining what a satanist "is," or believes. Satanists are individuals, why do they need another book telling them what they are? I understand the necessity of Lavey's codification of satanism because he was the first to do it, the original black-pope, and so he had to bring satanism to the awareness of the world at large in order to reach those select few he desired to welcome into his life and his Church. But those books have been written, and I don't see that the new High Priest really added much of value to Lavey's work. This in itself would not be a bad thing, except I continually felt like I was reading someone who was trying to fill Lavey's shoes rather than making his own mark on the Church and it's literature.
Having said that, however, there were some pieces that stood out, pieces that really did make an impression. These were the instances where Mr. Gilmore was being Mr. Gilmore. When he wrote about things he loved, and about issues that did need and up-to-date comment from the High Priest of the Church of Satan. In these instances, Gilmore shined. But sadly they were few and far between.
But I believe that the work deserves it's three stars, even if there were typos (shame on you Mr. Gilmore). And I don't have a more beautiful book on my shelves, I can assure you of that.
Book Review: Real Life Satanism
Summary: 3 Stars
Well I got a cloth hardcover with the baphomet 80 percent on ther front cover with some pictures, including Lavey and Gilmore. I just wanted to comment I'm really glad the Church of Satan is finally starting to move forward instead of going retro stuck in the ignorance of the 1960s and contributing their own original thought insteading of simply kissing up to LaVey. This is real life satanism- dealing with essays on topics like same sex marriage, 9/11, music, Columbine shooting and alienation. They got rid of anything supernatural from Satanism, the Church of Satan is the most publicized, getting a lot of press in its 60s formation stage and a slight comeback in the 90s amongst heavy metal fans. While Marilyn Manson at his worst is still heavier than Metallica in their prime, as a born again Christian Stryper is more menacing than the Electric Hellfire Club. The whole idea is so you're not dependant upon mom, as the old Quaker rationale is. This is at the college level, and Gilmore doesn't come across as the quack that LaVey was. The Church of Satan codified Satanism into a religion perhaps thousands and thousands of people adhere to, even copyrighting its works. The main issue was haphazrdly the copyrighhting of religous material, they've been going that since the days of Martin Luther and the King James Bible in the 1500s. A successful man can have any woman they want, wake up. It's family noriented they're after.