History of satanic rock 3

The counterculture was a polymorphus thing; it
branched off into many avenues; it never was a
single shared thing except as a huge
demographic, but rather thousands of vaguely
anti-establishment pastimes to hardcore
radicalism to weird drug scenes to a proliferation
of cults. Many in the counterculture were political,
as the anti-war and pro-civil rights movements
gathered steam. Some were holistic, or
environmental, or mind-and-body related. Young
people began exploring new realms of
spiritualism. Some were drawn to Eastern
religions like Buddhism and Krishna. Others were
drawn to other disciplines like yoga. And still
others developed a new-age curiousity about
astrology, ESP, and ultimately, Satanism.
The time was ripe; Satanism had become cool. In
1966, one Anton LaVey established the 'official'
Church of Satan, based on his book "The Satanic
Bible". In the nutshell, LaVey promoted a lifestyle
of self-indulgance; desires were meant to be
fulfilled. He favored rituals that involved bodily
fluids which were deemed sacred; as a result,
some looked upon his church as some kind of
sex cult. He didn't refer to the devil in the Christian
sense, rather, he saw Satanism as a means of
harnassing supernatural energy that circulates in
the ambient universe. For a brief spell, he
attracted trendy followers to his church, among
them wannabee starlets and musicians and the
like.
It was during the psychedelic-satanic 60's that
rock music first began to explicitly reference
modern Satanic imagery and references.
Sgt. Pepper and Crowley
So in 1967, the Beatles, who were almost
universally considered "good", included a picture
of the British-born father of the modern Satanic
movement, Aleister Crowley, among the
collected faces on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, perhaps the very first
nod to Satanism in rock. The same year, the
Rolling Stones released Their Satanic Majesty's
Request, which was delayed for release until the
title was changed from Her Satanic Majesty's
Request.
Also in 1967, Kenneth Anger, a former
Hollywood child actor and underground
filmmaker, who had involvement with the
Process Church, another Satanic group that
apparently included Charles Manson among its
part-time members for a brief spell, filmed Lucifer
Rising, a 40-minute movie with psychedelic
trappings that was based on Satanic ritual, and
starred a young actor and musician named
Bobby Beausoleil who also recorded the score.
Beausoleil, who had briefly been a member of an
early lineup of the band Love, would become one
of Charles Manson's first male followers; he's still
serving time for the bizarre 1969 murder of Gary
Hinman.