COVEN 13 VOL. 1 NO. 1 (PART 1)

"From that time early in his life his path was clear. Finally, on the last night of April, 1966-

Walpurgisnacht, the most important festival of the believers in witchcraft-La Vey shaved his head in the tradition of ancient executioners and announced the formation of The Church Of Satan. He had seen the need for a church that would recapture man's body and his carnal desires as objects of celebration. "Since worship of fleshly things produces pleasure," he said, "there would then be a  temple of glorious indulgence." - The Satanic Bible

COVEN 13
Vol. 1 No. 1
September 1969
Camelot Publishing Company
Editor: Arthur H. Landis
Cover: William Stout
Pages: 148
Cover price: 60 cents

CONTENTS
Alan Caillou - Olile
Jack G. Levine - In Markham Town
Richard Flanagan - The Postman Always
Lenore Betker - Of Brides And Brimstone
Joseph Harris - Potlatch
Jean W. Cirrito - I'll Come To You By Moonlight
G. Kissinger - A Spell Of Desperation
James R. Keaveny - Let There Be Magick (Part 1)

Editor's Cauldron
Poetry Corner
Reader's Section

Among many other things, the 1960's gave us an occult revival. Along with renewed interest in astrology, the tarot and other agents of prophesy, the New Occult Renaissance was also fueled by a darker flame with the 1969 publication of The Satanic Bible, written by self-proclaimed circus performer turned magician, Anton Szandor LaVey. "The Black Pope" was part mystic and all showman, lording -- and pontificating about the "virtues" of Satanism" -- from his house in San Francisco, which doubled as the Church of Satan. All manner of fan, fringe follower, and true-believer made the pilgrimage. Even Hollywood luminaries got caught up in the act, including Sammy Davis Junior and, most famously, Jayne Mansfield. LaVey became so popular that he was soon being compared to the former "Wickedest Man in the World", Aleister Crowley. His message was certainly suffused (or tainted, if you prefer) with the embodiment of Crowley's subversive counterculture doctrines. Crowley had his pronouncement, "Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law", from his Book of the Law, and  LaVey had his own "Nine Satanic Statements" from The Satanic Bible, the first proclamation stating: "Indulgence, instead of abstinence!"

One only needs to take a look at the panoply of acknowledgements given by LaVey in The Satanic Bible to figure out from where he drew his inspiration as well as his audacity. Oddly, authors Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard were mentioned (but, to be fair, so were Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain, Howard Hughes and architect Hans Poelzig "who knew all the angles"). For some mysterious reason, the somewhat voluminous list of dedications disappeared from later editions.

As a testimony to its unique and seductive nature, The Satanic Bible has had such an impression on generations of curious readers that it has never gone out of print.

Just a few months later, the magazine COVEN 13 made its (albeit scanty) appearance on newsstands. Editor and author Arthur H. Landis was a fan of the pulp digest and attempted to combined the wit of the defunct Unknown with the contemporary themes of fantasy and the occult. The result was a mixed bag of middling to mediocre tales with a few gems here and there. He began the serialization of his own novel in this issue, "Let There Be Magick" written under his pen name of James R. Keaveny with the title, "A World Called Camelot".