# Church of Satan · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/048-church-of-satan/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
The same words a person sees on this page, nothing more and nothing hidden.
Our own words are free to use under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), naming the Congregation of Tomorrow. Words of others keep their own terms.
Every page of the site, listed: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/ai/pages.json · the whole site in one file: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/llms-full.txt

← The Cult Dossier: all 182
The Cult Dossier · No. 048 · Occult / Esoteric / Satanic
Church of Satan
—
30 April 1966 – present · San Francisco (the Black House, 6114 California Street); now New York
V. THE POSTWAR ERA 1945–1969
Explicitly atheistic — Satan as symbol, not being
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 30 April 1966 Founded on Walpurgisnacht; LaVey declares Year One of the Age of Satan.
- 1967 First public Satanic wedding and, in 1967, a Satanic funeral for a US Navy sailor — heavy press coverage.
- 1969 The Satanic Bible published; it has never gone out of print.
- 1975 Michael Aquino and a large group leave over LaVey's decision to sell priesthoods for money; they found the TEMPLE OF SET, which does believe in a real deity, Set.
- 1980–1995 THE SATANIC PANIC. Michelle Remembers (1980), the McMartin preschool trial (1983–1990 — SIX YEARS FROM PRELIMINARY HEARING TO ACQUITTAL, SEVEN INCLUDING THE INVESTIGATION, AT A COST OF 15 MILLION DOLLARS TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. IT REMAINS THE LONGEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE CRIMINAL TRIAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AND IT PRODUCED NO CONVICTIONS. Only two defendants ever reached trial. Hundreds of children at the Manhattan Beach school described abuse, sometimes during Satanic rites, IN RESPONSE TO SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONING), the West Memphis Three (1993, released 2011), and hundreds of ruined lives. THE FBI'S 1992 LANNING REPORT — CONFIRMED. Drawing on the SEVERAL HUNDRED such cases he had consulted on since 1983, Kenneth Lanning found LITTLE OR NO EVIDENCE for organised ritual crime, and concluded that where satanism or the occult featured at all it was usually secondary, insignificant or nonexistent. The Church of Satan had essentially nothing to do with any of it.
- 29 October 1997 LaVey dies; the death certificate is dated 31 October for effect.
- 2001 Peter Gilmore becomes High Priest; headquarters moves to New York.
### Its people
### Anton Szandor LaVey
Howard Stanton Levey; the Black Pope
Founder, the Church of Satan · 11 April 1930 – 29 October 1997 · active 1966–1997
Before the law. Never charged with anything.
Where things stand. Deceased 1997. The Church of Satan continues under Peter H. Gilmore.
- 30 April 1966 Founds the Church of Satan; declares Year One of the Age of Satan.
- 1967 Performs the first public Satanic wedding and funeral.
- 1969 The Satanic Bible published.
- 1975 Michael Aquino leaves to found the theistic Temple of Set.
- 1980–95 The Satanic Panic; the Church of Satan is largely irrelevant to it.
- 29 October 1997 Dies in San Francisco; the death certificate is falsified to read 31 October.
Checked
The Atlas The Door