This striking image of Anton LaVey appeared alongside “The Witches Are Coming!”, an article by journalist Nat Freedland examining the growing fascination with witchcraft and the occult around the turn of the 1970s. Freedland became deeply involved in documenting the era’s occult revival, interviewing LaVey and other prominent figures for his 1972 book The Occult Explosion and its accompanying recordings. The photograph, with LaVey looming beside a human skull, perfectly captures the theatrical public image he cultivated during the Church of Satan’s early years in San Francisco. It likely dates from around 1970–72, although the original photographer and the precise magazine issue in which this particular page appeared remain to be confirmed.
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Anton LaVey at the doorway of the Church of Satan, San Francisco, March 4, 1967. Bettmann Archive. It’s a great early image because it catches LaVey right as the carefully constructed visual identity of the Church of Satan was entering mainstream American media.
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Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology is a wonderfully sinister relic of the 1970s occult boom, published by Octopus Books in 1974 with an introduction by paranormal author Hans Holzer. This heavily illustrated reference book explores witchcraft, demons, sorcery, possession, folklore and supernatural beliefs, drawing on centuries of occult history while presenting it with the dramatic flair typical of the period. Its striking black cover, blood-red lettering, pentagram and pierced human skull perfectly capture an era when witchcraft, Satanism and demonology were moving out of obscure esoteric circles and onto mainstream bookshelves. It may have been sold as an encyclopedia, but that cover was clearly designed to make sure your mother didn’t want it in the house.
ANTON SZANDOR LAVEY, c. 1992
Photographed by Jay Blakesberg
From or associated with the fashion photography session commissioned by The Nose magazine for its “Full Devil Jacket!” Anton LaVey feature, No. 18.
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THE DEVIL’S BIBLE
The Codex Gigas, better known as the Devil’s Bible, is the largest surviving medieval manuscript in the world. Created in Bohemia during the early 13th century, the enormous book stands around 92 centimetres tall, weighs approximately 75 kilograms and contains the complete Latin Bible alongside historical chronicles, medical writings, magical formulas and exorcisms.
Its most infamous feature is a full-page portrait of the Devil, positioned opposite an image of the Heavenly City. According to legend, a condemned monk promised to complete the manuscript in a single night and called upon the Devil when he realised the task was impossible. In reality, its remarkably consistent handwriting suggests it was created by one scribe over several decades.
The Codex Gigas is now preserved at the National Library of Sweden. Despite its sinister nickname and unsettling imagery, it is not a Satanic scripture. It remains one of the strangest and most extraordinary books to survive from the medieval world.
#CodexGigas #TheDevilsBible #OccultHistory #MedievalHistory #DarkHistory AncientManuscripts TheDevil HellfireCoven
After Limited Theatrical Release, Scott Cummings’ ‘Realm of Satan’ Gets TVOD Release on Sept. 2
Monument Releasing has announced a Sept. 2 home release date for Scott Cummings’ Realm of Satan, with the festival favorite becoming available on that date for purchase or rent across most major digital platforms.
The film premiered at the Sundance Festival and went on to have a strong festival run, opening MoMA’s Doc Fortnight and CPH:DOX, Visions du Reel, Sitges, Thessaloniki Doc, Munich, BAFICI, Rooftop Films, Overlook, and Festival du Nouveau Cinema de Montreal, among others. The film began its theatrical run on July 17 in Philadelphia and will come to New York Aug. 13-17 at the Nitehawk (Prospect Park) and Metrograph cinemas.
Realm of Satan is a ritualistic documentary that depicts Satanists in both the everyday and the extraordinary. Working in collaboration with members of the Church of Satan, director Cummings stages discrete moments capturing the labors and pleasures of modern Satanists. His technique foregrounds the esoteric as much as the ordinary, presenting an illuminating, wryly comic, and at times deadly serious portrait of a religion that is often veiled in secrecy or distorted by misunderstanding.
The film stars Peter Gilmore, Blanche Barton, and Peggy Nadramia. It was produced by Pacho Velez, Caitlin Mae Burke and Molly Gandour.
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This striking mid-20th-century magic poster advertises P. C. Sorcar (1913–1971), the celebrated Indian illusionist who became internationally known as the “Maharaja of Magic” and took his spectacular Ind-Dra-Jal stage productions around the world during the 1950s and 1960s. The poster, bearing the wonderfully dramatic promise “On the Stage, In Person: Sorcar’s Magic, Coming Shortly,” was produced as a colour lithograph by V. M. Town Press of Calcutta, with the design credited to B. Dutta, whose signature appears at the lower right. Surviving examples measure roughly 30 × 20 inches (76 × 51 cm). Its enormous horned devil, with Sorcar’s name emerging from its open mouth, belongs to a long tradition of theatrical magic advertising that used devils, demons and occult imagery to suggest forbidden knowledge, danger and seemingly supernatural powers. Sorcar himself became one of the twentieth century’s most famous stage magicians, particularly remembered in Britain for a sensational 1956 BBC television appearance involving his buzz-saw illusion. Rather than suggesting Sorcar actually practised the occult, the poster uses the Devil as irresistible theatrical imagery, making it a superb example of the historic relationship between magic, supernatural imagery and popular entertainment.
Anton LaVey’s Satanic altar inside the Black House at 6114 California Street, San Francisco. The stone fireplace formed the centrepiece of the house’s main ritual chamber, beneath the imposing Sigil of Baphomet that became synonymous with the Church of Satan. Surrounded by black candles, ceremonial vessels, a skull, sword and other ritual objects, the altar embodied LaVey’s distinctive mixture of Satanic symbolism, theatrical presentation and ritual psychodrama. With the Black House demolished in 2001, photographs such as this remain valuable records of the physical environment in which modern Church of Satan ritual culture first developed.
Original image sourced from antonlaveymusuem.com
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Born of hellfire!
The Hellfire Coven!
Hail Satan!
Anton LaVey in the Purple Room of the Black House, San Francisco. Surrounded by books and the macabre curiosities that made 6114 California Street legendary, LaVey stands beside the glass cabinet containing the human skeleton known as “Reuben.” The Purple Room served as the Black House’s reception parlour and library, where generations of journalists, artists, occultists and curious visitors waited to meet the founder of the Church of Satan. With its purple walls, concealed passages, unusual furnishings and carefully assembled collection of the macabre, the room embodied LaVey’s distinctive mixture of scholarship, theatre, humour and cultivated menace.
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Taken in San Francisco in January 1971 by French photojournalist Jack Garofalo for Paris Match, this striking portrait captures Anton LaVey at the height of the Church of Satan’s early notoriety. LaVey stands elevated on a platform, dressed in black and opening his cape, while two Church of Satan priests flank him with their arms crossed, deliberately posed as guards. The low camera angle and stark black setting give LaVey an imposing, almost ceremonial presence, reflecting the carefully constructed visual identity that surrounded the Church during this period. Garofalo photographed an extensive series with LaVey during the same visit, including scenes around the satanic altar and portraits in which LaVey’s cape is clearly described as black with a red satin lining.
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John Stevens Kerr, The Mystery and Magic of the Occult. Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1971. Paperback, 152 pages. A period survey of the contemporary occult revival, written from the perspective of a sympathetic Christian observer and featuring Éliphas Lévi’s Baphomet prominently on the cover.
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