NOTE The Satanic Bible is available in four editions: premium black & white paperback $18, hardcover black & white $30, premium full-color paperback $75, and full-color Kindle ebook $6.66. The paperbacks and Kindle are options here; for the hardcover is a Lulu publication.
USE "LOOK INSIDE" OF THE KINDLE EDITION FOR THE COMPLETE PREFACE & TABLE OF CONTENTS.
When Anton Szandor LaVey published his original Satanic Bible fifty yers ago, it was an angry book - and it had plenty to be angry about: It confronted a humanity which for more than two thousand years had been taught to hate itself, fear God, and hide from a threatening, very un-Edenic universe around it. Even worse, humans were told they were not only originally-sinful and imperfect, but imperfectible - except, perhaps, through the intercession of an Islamic Mohammed or Christian Jesus, demanding absolute abasement and obedience.
With men and women reduced to naked, shamed animals, therefore, Anton saw and argued in his Bible that the only solution was to be the strongest, craftiest, and most hedonistic animal "in the valley". It was a prescription of power and vengeance to delight an Ayn Rand or Orwellian O'Brien.
But then, in the 10-year exoteric crucible of the Church of Satan, followed by the 40-year esoteric one of the Temple of Set, we discovered that humans not only had nothing to be inherently ashamed or guilty about, but that indeed we are self-perfectible; and that Black Magic enables us not just to decipher and harmonize with the Objective Universe without, but to discover the Subjective Universe of divine immortality within.
So this is not an angry Satanic Bible. It is one of excitement, exuberance, the delight of virtue and nobility for their own sake. The cosmology it reveals and the Black Magic it teaches are not weapons to hurt but tools of divine enlightenment and transformation. Your eternity begins now.
About the Author: Michael A. Aquino was the only member of the original Church of Satan to attain the Second Level of the Fourth Degree (Magister Templi IV°-II') prior to the Church's 1975 termination. He was a member of its governing Council of Nine and its Order of the Trapezoid 1970-75. He served as Editor of the Church's Cloven Hoof_ newsletter 1971-75.
In secular life he is a Lt. Colonel, Psychological Operations, U.S. Army (Ret.). He is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University; Defense Intelligence College, Defense Intelligence Agency; Foreign Service Institute, Department of State; U.S. Army Special Warfare Center (Special Forces ("Green Beret")/Psychological Operations/Civil Affairs/Foreign Area Officer); U.S. Army Command & General Staff College; U.S. Army Intelligence School, and U.S. Army Space Institute.
Decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal (3 awards), Special Forces Tab, Parachutist Badge, USAF Space & Missile Badge, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, Psychological Warfare Medal (First Class), & Air Service Medal (Honor Grade).
Academic credentials include the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the M.P.A. in Public Administration from George Washington University. He has taught as Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Golden Gate University.
He is a past National Commander of the Eagle Scout Honor Society and recipient of its Knight Eagle Distinguished Service Award, as well as of the Vigil Honor of the Order of the Arrow and the Distinguished Service Key of Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity.
In 2006, following his retirement as a U.S. government officer, he was recognized by Scotland's Lord Lyon King of Arms as the 13th Baron of Rachane, Argyllshire. He is a member of Clan Campbell.
