Tradition
Church of Satan
An atheistic religious organisation founded by Anton LaVey in 1966 that uses the figure of Satan as a symbol of carnal nature, individualism, and rejection of conformity. It is not a theistic religion and does not worship a literal devil.
The Church of Satan is a religious organisation founded in San Francisco in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey. It is explicitly atheistic: Satan is treated as a symbol of carnal existence, self-determination, and resistance to conformity rather than as a literal supernatural being. The Church does not advocate worship of any deity, theistic or otherwise.
Its doctrines are set out principally in The Satanic Bible (1969). The organisation is hierarchical, with a priesthood and a system of degrees, and is led by a Magus — a position held by LaVey from 1966 until his death in 1997, by Blanche Barton until 2001, and since then by Peter H. Gilmore.
