>>I think there is a difference between LaVey's rituals and the occult rituals that came before in terms of performance art. Instead oflooking at ritual as a means to call up supernatural entities, LaVey really did see them in terms of psychological effects. Creating a total sensory experience for the participants seems to have been his greatest priority - he went so far as to compose rituals based around fiction that he found particularly evocative.
I don't think anyone should be offended by that - it's what LaVey himself was saying. (And if someone can cite passages to the contrary, please do so.)<<
Hi Dan, I guess its a matter of intent regarding whether previous styles of occult ritual actually got in touch with, or thought they got in touch with, Gods, demons, whatever as compared tot eh Church of Satan who might have thought of things in more modern psychological terms. And maybe it depends on *what * the practitioners thought such entities were? ie/ actual beings, or projections of people's brains. One can have a magickal or religous or mystical experience aided by objects or ideas that are not in themselves of that nature - ie/ modern Goddess worshippers can have religious experiences regarding prehistoric female figurines, despite the fact that there is no evidence that such figurines were intended by their makers to represent a divinity.
La Vey did say many times that Satanism (his brand) was a religion however, so although the Black Mass was a kind of psychodrama I would say that it was still intended to be "religious" in perhaps a non-supernatural way, or maybe a non-transcendant way, an "earth religion" way.
~Caroline.
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