From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (NocTifer)
To: wolf@prairienet.org
Subject: Administrative Structure of CoS
Date: Kali Yuga 49950120

|From: "Ken R. Rhoades" <star9@prairienet.org>
|Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 23:54:43 CST
|Reply-To: star9@prairienet.org

Do you really want me to take my questions directly to you?  Or is this
Reply-To address an error?  I'm interested in 'public' responses, really,
and may well be quoting anything you say within my essays concerning the
structure of modern Satanism.


|>|> Who may speak, officially, for the Church as a whole?
  
|>|To me the SB, SR & SW speak officially - and therefor the  Author LaVey
|>|would be the logical head - 

Now that I understand what 'SB/SR/SW' stand for (_The Satanic Bible_, _The
Satanic Rituals_ and _The Satanic Witch_, respectively), it is evident to
me that you mean that Anton LaVey speaks (through his writings) for the
Church as a whole.  As I said, I figured that much.  My question was about
who *else* might be able to do so.


|>|But the Church of Satan is not mono-theo or based on a "messia", 

Hmm?  Like Christianity or Judaism?  Of course it isn't.  I've found
LaVey's writings to be rather anti-Christian, actually.


|>|the title black POPE and HIGH priest are the fantasy of the heard press.  

I've seldom heard of 'Black Pope', though 'High Priest' seems mighty popular.
You even use the term, so apparently it isn't just a 'fantasy of the herd
press'.


|>|We have the levels and athorities and the "purse strings" are in the 
|>|hands of LaVey - 

'The levels and authorities' are what I'm asking about.  Apparently LaVey
has greater authority than any other if he controls the monies of the Church.


|>|I call him my high priest 

Why do you call him your High Priest if you think that this title is a
'fantasy of the herd press'?


|>|For me he speeks as offically as we can have at this point.  

So there are no others who speak officially for the organization?


|> I understand that LaVey would certainly be 'authorized'.  I'm somewhat
|> confused by the rest, however.  Isn't there something called the Council
|> of Nine?  What is the history behind this structure and how is it used
|> within the Church of Satan?

|SB = Satanic Bible
|SR = Satanic Rituals
|SW = Satanic Witch
|--------------
|    I would add to this list; 
|The Devil's Notebook (DN) 
|The Secret life of a Satanist(SL) 
|the Church of Satan(CS)

Of course.  If LaVey is considered the 'authority' of the Church, then his
writings would be an expression of that authority.  This seems somewhat 
obvious.


|    The first two, (SB & SR) are the works that are the basis 
|of the rest of this small fragment of the total satanic library,
|this and a collage level dictionary will do fine.  Any person 
|who could not make it with this list is not a satanist,  or worth 
|the time it would take to explain why.

Is this paragraph your own personal opinion?  I don't see that it is
justified by LaVey's writings (I've read SB, CS, scanned SW and have DN
on my reading list.

Again, I don't really care what you consider to be 'a satanist'.  My queries
are concerning what you know about the administrative structure of the Church
and how authority is distributed (if indeed it is).


|    As for levels - Registered then Active Members. Then AGENT,
|PRIESTHOOD and MAGISTRATE - 

Magistrate - Is this higher than 'Priesthood'?  What powers and 
             responsibilities are incorporated by this level?  Is this
             related to the 'Magister' and 'Magistra' status mentioned
             on p. 122 of CS?

Priesthood -

|the term our High Priest is in reference to LaVey and Barton as and 
|position they have earned.

Does this mean that the 'High Priests' are in charge of the Priesthood level?
What powers and responsibilities are incorporated by this level?  


Agent - I've read about this in CS (p. 129 re: 'qualified contact points').

Registered - It appears that to register one merely sends in one's fee.  Are
             there any powers and responsibilities of the Agent or Registered
             levels not mentioned in CS?


|The order of the Trapezoid (council of nine) is still in operation,

How does this fit into the system of membership level?  How does one become
a member of the Council of Nine?  What powers and responsibilities are part
of the operation of this Council?  What is the history of the Council of Nine
within Satanism?  Why might other nominal Satanist or Setian orgs also find 
it to be of value?


|LaVey is the active head of the Church of Satan.    

This much I figured.  I don't really care much about the identities of the
other members of the Church.  What I'm trying to discern is how the Church
is set up administratively.

NocTifer