The Satanic Scriptures

The Satanic Scriptures
by Peter H. Gilmore
Scapegoat Publishing, $15.95 (pb), ISBN 13:978-0-9764035-9-3

The content is not what the casual reader might expect from the title and look of the book. Peter Gilmore is no Mocata, providing instructions on sacrificing virgins and summoning up Beelzebub. There would be no point as far as he is concerned because we are our own gods, and despite the theatrical religious trappings, Gilmore propounds a secular creed.
Magus Gilmore is the heir to Anton LaVey, founder of The Church of Satan (CoS), and the Scriptures comprises a collection of essays mostly reprinted from The Black Flame, the news-stand Satanic magazine which Gilmore founded. The result is somewhat unstructured and repetitive, but entertaining.
Many of the essays are devoted to fending off misapprehensions by aspiring Satanists of what the CoS actually is and how one should live the lifestyle. A key topic is whether Satanism is related to Fascism. It is nothing like it (despite using a Fascist-style system numbering years from the foundation of the Church in 1966), because Fascism subordinates the individual to the collective, whereas Satanism is individualistic.
In fact, a herd mentality is anathema to Gilmore. His epicurean philosophy is based on an egotistical view of the world in which “rational self-interest” is the foundation of the Satanist’s actions. Ultimately he is a right-wing libertarian and it is not surprising that Ayn Rand is name-checked. There is a photograph of him with LaVey in leather jackets and sporting guns – Gilmore’s is bigger, oddly – looking like a pair of wannabe survivalists.
However, despite the attitude of fearless non-conformity there is something comfortingly suburban about Gilmore’s doctrine of enhanced self-esteem. He comes over as a nice chap, a musicologist and animal-lover. Clearly there is no biting the heads off chickens in the Gilmore household. He expounds a way of life attractive to teenage boys with large collections of heavy metal CDs and black T-shirts, but no girlfriends. Mums may worry about what is going on upstairs but society is never going to be under threat.