Time for a Synthesis

What is your position on the clock?

A great deal of you have already asked yourself that question upon reading Anton LaVey's The Compleat Witch or the second edition, entitled The Satanic Witch. when LaVey presented his so-called “LaVey Personality Synthesizer work.”

It is also fair to assume that most of you were surprised or even offended at first by the observations and techniques presented by Anton LaVey. For most of you, the surprise or offense quickly wore off, however, and the contents of The Satanic Witch were soon accepted as either fact or interesting fiction. The witches (according to the definition in the book) among you who did not just read the book and agreed with it but also realized and applied the suggested principles can acknowledge the profound effects of utilizing the tools of lesser magic.

But, despite its usefulness, The Satanic Witch leaves a question unanswered. The answer to the unanswered—and unasked—question will reveal that The Satanic Witch addresses a much larger scope than the apparent question of “how do I get laid,” which some readers think is the main teaching of the book. The question is: “why does the LaVey Personality Synthesizer work?”

If you happen to belong to those witches who know their positions on the clock and fiercely maintain that this is how they have always been, then the answer will be quite unpleasant; therefore, I urge you to remember that you were likely surprised or offended on your first read-through of The Satanic Witch. In particular, the answer will not please the many Satanists who envision themselves as twelve-o'clock supermen and master race.

Firstly, recall that the Anton LaVey uses the LaVey Personality Synthesizer to systemize the large variety of personalities found in the Western world by projecting the personality characteristics onto a clock face. There are four main classifications of personalities: the twelve-o'clock personality is the aggressive-male character and the six-o'clock his opposite, the passive-feminine character; the nine-o'clock is the bodily-oriented, obsessive type and the three-o'clock his opposite, the nerd. Anton LaVey subdivides the personalities characteristics further so that we have, e.g., four-o'clock persons that represent a middle way between the passive-feminine six-o'clock and the analytical three-o'clock, leaning towards the three-o'clock type. This subdivision is a sufficient granularity in most cases.

Secondly, revisiting briefly The Satanic Bible, also by Anton LaVey, remember that in the mind-sets of the inhabitants of Western societies, the Devil is considered the adversary. While only few people still believe in a literal Devil, the Devil is archetypically encoded in their minds: it is the concept of some adversary or some opposition that threatens one's being and which one must defend oneself against. By successfully defending oneself against the adversary (be that an existing adversary or not), one feels reinforced. This is essentially what the ninth Statement of The Satanic Bible says, and it also describes the way a person's personality is built up in the Western part of the world.

Every individual has natural drives, instincts, that ideally guide her or him through life. These instincts represent the core personality of a person, according to psychologist Wilhelm Reich, who first suggested the basic principle behind the LaVey Personality Synthesizer. If the core drives were allowed to flow unhindered through the person and manifest themselves in the person's actions, the human animal would display the same fashion as we observe in the realm of non-human, non-domesticated animals.

Unfortunately, centuries of oppression of man's natural drives has conditioned man to disallow the core personality to become manifest: analogously with the traditional conception of the Devil, a person's core self represents the person's “inner adversary” that he unconsciously attempts to defeat. Thus, on top of the core self there exists a mechanism that continuously attempts to defeat the core impulses. The outer layer, the apparent self, which is mapped onto a clock face, is therefore not a reflection of the core personality, but rather the manifest of a defense against the person's core personality. A person's apparent self is therefore but the person's visible armor against this inner adversary. The demonic self is the mechanism that builds the apparent self by attempting to destroy the core impulses.

This explanation of the defensive behavior is not obvious and can be illustrated by the following simplified, Freudian view; and because Freudian teachings have now been rendered obsolete by better explanations, the example only serves to illustrate the mechanism of defense against oneself which has not necessarily changed: consider a male child who, due to ill treatment, has developed an unconscious desire to eliminate his father's power. Since the desire to destroy his father means that his father becomes a dangerous enemy, the child's aggression is frightening to the child; also, the child would lose his father's protection. (Per the child's view, the father stands as both an enemy and a protector). As a defensive measure against this aggression which (if practiced) would only destroy the child (because the father is much stronger, and because the child is dependent on the father), the child becomes afraid of any authority that appears as a potential destroyer (as well as a protector), not just his father. However, fearing to be destroyed requires that the child fight back, and as he grows older he develops an aggressive attitude against authorities (usually teachers, priests, police, or politicians). Unfortunately, this doesn't help the child, because now he has even more enemies, and their immense combined power gives the child an inferiority complex. The child's defense against his feeling inferior is a craving for power.

The lesson to be learned from the above, simplified example is that the child's aggressive apparent self becomes manifest through a series of defensive counter-measures. The similarity between the defensive counter-measure and the traditional rejection of the Devil should now be evident: both are a person's attempt to deny his own, carnal feelings. Ironically, it is in the very rejection of the Devil in the form of natural urges that the demonic self is formed as a personality that displays the characteristics (destructiveness, sadism, etc.) that are usually attributed to the Devil! Anton LaVey is therefore eminently correct in designating the defensive counter-measure a person's demonic self, even if a person's demonic self is not a personality per se.

It is important to note that not only does a person develop an armor that wards off the feelings originating within himself; the armor also protects the core self from any external events that might stimulate the core self and cause it to become consciously known. The demonic self thus exists as a literal barrier, or split, between the core self and apparent self, which in other animals are united.

Thus, for example, a twelve-o'clock, authoritarian personality may be a reaction against the person's feeling inferior. Or, a two-o'clock, cynical personality may be an ultimate result of the person being frightened of having sexual intercourse rather than, as the two-o'clock would prefer to use as an excuse, that “he just doesn't need that sort of thing.”

In short, the LaVey Personality Synthesizer determines how individuals' neuroses manifest themselves. By noticing how straight-forward it is to pinpoint the positions of a large selection of the Western world's population on the clock, this is also to say that most of the Western civilization suffers from more or less severe neuroses. This will be a bitter pill to swallow for the witches who have recognized their positions on the clock.

It is worth noting for those who have been introduced to Freud's model that in The Satanic Witch Anton LaVey uses a later model that solves a number of problems in the model that Freud originally proposed. However, Anton LaVey does not address the causes of neuroses but rather discusses the results and how to take advantage of them; the knowledge that, e.g., a particular neurosis began in a person's “anal stage” is not interesting for such purposes. Thus, generally speaking, The Satanic Witch does not contradict Freud's original model, essentially because such a discussion is beyond the scope of the book.

I do not intend to imply that, say, all male authorities have developed their authority due to a castration anxiety. Indeed, different persons ward off their core feelings in different ways depending on a variety of conditions such as the environment in which they were raised, their physical make-up, etc. The fact remains, however, that everyone wards off their core feelings somehow, and that the ultimate result can be projected onto the clock face of the LaVey Personality Synthesizer. One who does not suffer from neuroses does not fit well on the LaVey Personality Synthesizer. Since such a person does not have inhibitions that prevent her from choosing—versus unconsciously forcing herself into—any position she pleases, she may choose to adopt a stereotypical personality, depending on what kind of persons she intends to interact with.

If a person meets someone who represents his opposite personality in terms of the LaVey Personality Synthesizer, he will meet a full-blown representation of that which he seeks to avoid. That might imply that he would be repelled by the person of opposite personality, but only to a certain degree. The problem is that these people are repelled by the opposite, but also attracted.

The reason is that familiarity breeds contempt for most of these neurotic people. What people hate most in their own friends (not just lovers) is the ego projection of themselves, that very unconscious self that they do not even realize they have. If a person meets his opposite personality in terms of the LaVey Personality Synthesizer, there is little familiarity and the ego projection will reveal an image of himself that is less terrifying than if the person had seen someone similar to himself. Thus, in meeting his opposite personality, his ego projection does not reveal himself, and he is therefore more likely to choose a person with an opposite personality as a friend or lover than someone with his own personality. Simply put, what people see in their opposites is an ego projection that they hate less than they hate themselves and their likes.

For example, a male with an abstaining personality will be attracted to a woman with a “promiscuous” personality. With his abstaining, “virtuous” apparent self, he intellectually dislikes her for her promiscuous appearance. However, in his ego projection onto her, he does not directly see himself and in that sense does not get repelled by her. Also, his demonic self, which contrasts his apparent self as a lascivious beast, desires her. (This is why many “romantic” relationships in the West are often referred to as “love/hate” relationships.) I am, of course, not implying here that two attractions outweigh one repulsion. I am rather stating that people get less repelled by opposite personalities than by similar personalities.

Other than clinging to a person that represents the personality opposite to himself, a person will cling to his fetish. The fetish can represent something in which the person does not see himself and therefore is something that the person fears less than most other things. Alternatively, the fetish can represent something that the neurotic person likes and can seek a refuge with, and which does not threaten his personality with a rigidified armor to follow. (As often as not, neurotic individuals tend to have a collection mania. John Fowles' masterpiece The Collector comes to mind.) In both cases, a person's fetish represents something that essentially sums up his entire neurosis and which does not require the person to ward off his impulses, strengthening his armor. (The fetish, to this person, is safe sex.)

Two persons forming an opposite-positions couple are exposed to a personality in whom they do not easily recognize themselves in their ego projections, and they will initially each feel well in the other's presence. For two neurotic persons, this would be a combination that initially is successful per society's standards. A witch may apply the principle to find herself a man, but, over time, he would eventually prefer to spend his time with her friends rather than with her. For non-neurotic persons, the idea that one should seek out one's diametrical opposite as one's boyfriend may therefore not be correct. Furthermore, being able to categorize oneself by use of the LaVey Personality Synthesizer indicates that one suffers from a neurosis.

Peter Gilmore, the current High Prist of the Church of Satan, reminded me that Anton LaVey had suggested that instead of considering the neurosis a “hang-up,” one could transform it into a “hang-on” and enjoy it, as per of the original philosophy of Anton LaVey's organization. While this is an option, I would tend to disagree: I have seen my share of members of his organization assuming the label “Satanist” only as an excuse to continue those of their practices that had been warped during their upbringing: to them, the Church of Satan represents freedom, but only to practice what they learned in a prison.

People do hang on to their neuroses, but not because they really want to. They do it because they are terrified to face their real, inner feelings, to dig deep into their own hearts and see and remember what caused the split between their core and apparent selves. As such, they retreat into the Church of Satan, where they feel they can hang on to the very thing that represents their own broken nature—they are still clinging to their fetish (refer to Anton LaVey's article, The Fetish Fetish, in issue 128 of The Cloven Hoof). The armor they put on, the apparent self, is the opposite of what they really are. They try to convince themselves that they really are their apparent selves, but their evasions prove that somehow they know their true nature and are terrified by the thought that someone—a witch—can see through them as if they had no armor on. Christians often talk of coats of armor, spiritual armor or physical armor. But well-developed human beings do not need such armor, although they can pretend so it they must manipulate another person. Witches do not need coats of armor, although of old they would have done well to have had some weapons against their murderers!

It is compelling (especially to those who can use it as a defense) to argue that the personality is determined by other aspects than mental composition. For example, the nine-o'clock personality is characterized by a “Teddy bear”-like statute. This is a true, but not a contradictory, statement. Someone may indeed be assumed to have developed his mental state due to his bodily composition, but over some generations the offspring's physical make-up will be the result of inherited physical and mental states. The crux of the matter is simply that body and mind are inseparable, as Wilhelm Reich was one of the first psychologists to realize.

With the above study in mind, the principles of spellcasting operate as follows. When the witch casts a spell on a person by means of lesser magic, she first charms her quarry by “polishing” his armor. More specifically, the process of charming consists of living up to all his ideals of the imperfect, displaying interest in his fetish, etc., so that he will not be afraid to see his ego projection onto her reveal himself. This has been described in detail in The Satanic Witch and needs no elaboration. The effect on the quarry is that by stimulating the person's apparent self or armor and ultimately being the person's armor, the quarry feels comfortable: he does not need to defend himself, and his defensive armor is momentarily softened.

At the moment when the quarry is most vulnerable to penetrations of his armor, as Anton LaVey describes, the witch delivers her load. Whatever the witch's intent, she will be speaking directly to the quarry's core self that the quarry normally attempts to reject. Since his personality is formed by his demonic self as described above, it follows that by speaking directly to his core self (which is impossible unless his armor is penetrated), his future personality will be altered as a direct consequence of his demonic self having to counteract the recently exposed core.

When the quarry is later removed from the comforting company of the witch, he will be his “good old” self again. By spellbinding one's quarry, one does not change his fundamental personality—the core personality remains mostly the same. The six-o'clock male, for example, will still be the same obedient, conscientious work-horse as he was before. But, when the witch has cast a spell, the person will reveal a slight change. The core self, which is usually protected by the quarry's demonic self, has been temporarily been exposed to the quarry. The quarry will now persistently (or even increasingly) unconsciously attempt to “patch” the armor, not knowing that by his very attempts to cancel your spell, he will eventually carry it out.

What used to be simple, carnal instincts have been negated by culture and religious teaching to a degree that has caused a mass neurosis. But, at the same time, it has enabled the use of the very art they are trying to resist: genuine witchcraft!

Another question remains, however. In this article, I have attempted to explain why one can be a complete witch according to LaVey's definition, but The Satanic Witch was written almost forty years ago when women could only accomplish something if they could coerce men to do it for them. Thus, by controlling men, women would ultimately be in control. The means of control was sex: expecting sex as a reward, men would obey the witches.
But times are changing, and even if human nature can't keep up with cultural development, social necessities change: young women are entering colleges to learn, not to find themselves a male who will feed them in return for sex. Women work in society and can earn their own living. Only in terms of children are women still partly at men's will, but that is only as long as states does not provide sufficient child care. Women are finally capable of earning their own education and their own living; they do not need a male to survive any longer. Women now have other choices than to become either a wife or a prostitute.

Witches of 1970 when the book was written had to draw on men's power by means of sexual suggestions. Witches of today have that power. Witches of today have no reason to let men demand sex as payment for services that the witches themselves are fully capable of providing. Women can now have sex for their own pleasure. Men are merely tools for that pleasure. If a tool cannot perform well enough, then replace the tool with a better one: you do not owe it your life any more. In fact, there is no excuse for witches of today to rely on men to help.

Moreover, using sex as payment for a share of men's power does not remove men from their respective positions of authority; in fact, by continuing to play their game, there is a foundation for them to stay in power. If women extended their liberation into sexual liberation, sex would no longer be valid as payment. Since the patriarchal society, with its male authorities, is founded—and survives—on sexually suppressed female slaves, such a sexual revolution would mean the total collapse of the patriarchal society. This greater sexual magic is already being practiced by women who never read The Satanic Witch or even heard of the Church of Satan. Maybe it is about time that also the compleat witches finally get rid of the spelling error and become complete witches.