The Book of the Circle – K. Whalen

The Book of the Circle – K. Whalen
Self Published – 2006ish

I’ve never been able to accept the atheistic Church of Satan’s incorporation of ritual into their practice. Performing a theatrical black mass as an inversion of Christian ritual is effective as a form of entertainment or parody, but through repetition, it becomes a rite in itself. By codifying and repeating these rituals, the practitioners lose self awareness and become hypocrites. I guess LaVeyan Satanists need this though. Without it they have nothing to suggest that they’re anything but a club of unpleasant losers. This little bit of superfluous mumbo-jumbo makes them a club of mysterious, unpleasant losers.

I thought this when I read The Satanic Bible years ago, and I never bothered reading my copy of The Satanic Rituals for the very same reason. Unfortunately for me, I found myself on the bus on Tuesday morning with nothing to read except a pdf copy of K. Whalen’s Book of the Circle on my phone. I had downloaded it a few weeks earlier with no idea of what it was about.

This book is about the different Satanic Feast Days and their corresponding rituals. It’s specifically LaVeyan Satanism being discussed here; the text repeatedly references La Vey and his work.

I’m not even going to bother writing anything more about this book’s contents. By any standards, this is an absolute load of shit. Who fucking cares about this rubbish? If anyone, it must be a bunch of loser geeks.