On this 59th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Satan, we, who are inspired by the pioneering efforts of Anton Szandor LaVey, take this night to celebrate his insights into the beast called Man. While about us is chaos, we stay focused on our goals—becoming the best versions of ourselves we can attain.
A new interview with me has been published on our Dutch language portal, Des Duivelsche Notities, which was conducted in English and translated for this site. You can read both versions here.
The innovative composer Hector Berlioz, in his Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14, 1830), wrote a five movement program symphony based on the concept of an artist, deeply obsessed with his beloved, who overdoses on opium and experiences a wild, extended fever dream. A theme introduced in the first movement (the idée fixe) represents the object of his ardor, and it reappears with variations through the rest of the work. He finally, in his madness, kills her and is then marched to the scaffold and decapitated by a guillotine in the 4th movement, only to find himself in the 5th movement finale at the Witches Sabbath, wherein his beloved appears as a fiendish cackling witch (a shrill parody of the idée fixe played by clarinets), while church bells toll and the funeral chant “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) is proclaimed by the low brass and woodwinds. It is a magnificent, wild ride! Follow this link to hear Sir Roger Norrington, conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, in a performance of the finale that captures the exquisite musical grotesquery that Berlioz’ genius conjured 195 years ago.
Fellow Satanists, join us this night as we proclaim—”Hail Magus Anton Szandor LaVey!”
And “Hail to our extraordinary members who ARE the Church of Satan!”
Shemhamforash! Hail Satan! So it is done!
—Magus Peter H. Gilmore