Aloha,

>On 3/15/2007 at 11:00 PM jason winslade wrote:

>From what I understand, with the original Anton LaVey style of Satanism, 
>Satanists didn't worship 'Satan' like a god. He didn't believe in Satan or
God. 
>But he used Satan as an archetypal concept for rebelling against
pre-digested 
>methods of control that take away our will to think (Christianity was only

>considered one of these things). The funny costumes were just theatrics - 
>Satanism was more of a philosophy.

LaVey linked up with some influential San Francisco media personalities 
early on (mostly newspaper types), and the Church of Satan did grow fairly 
quickly because of the media attention. To some extent, the Church of Satan

was portrayed as what we have come to think of as *pranking.* LaVey was 
portrayed as a fabulous character in a city with a history of fabulous
characters 
going back to Emperor Norton. 

Like a number of other movements or interests developing during the same 
period in the SF Bay Area, the Church of Satan helped sort out popular
culture 
orientation. The question had more to do with *getting the joke.* Or not. 

Let me add that I think the *joke* had less to do with the content of the 
Church of Satan than with the ability of the local SF Bay Area popular
culture 
to include such a seemingly outrageous activity. 

During the 50s and 60s the SF Bay Area supported a strong oppositional 
subculture in the arts, literature, politics, spirituality, and occulture.
I 
think that the Church of Satan was at one edge of this oppositional
subculture, 
not so much because of its apparent anti-Christianity as because of its 
overall conservative outlook. Most of the SF Bay Area oppositional
subculture 
was progressive and avant-garde. 

Let me add that I'm talking about the period which ended distinctive
local/regional 
subcultures in the US. Shortly after, the proliferation of national media
and 
national marketing homogenized these subcultures and locality of a
movement's origin 
became far less important in understanding its development. It made far
less sense 
to say *only in San Francisco...* 

Musing SF Was Going *Topless* In The Early 60s! Rose,

Pitch