If it’s any consolation, LaVey, usually when drunk, would let it slip that he was a just in it for the money “and benefits”, as it were, from the endless parade of naive suckers who went out of their way to hang out with him.
Not being a fool himself, as well as a former carny (carnival worker), he was always careful to carry a gun. Much of his philosophy was borrowed from disparate and often conflicting sources, generally secular, but he was also skilled in psychic fakery, like fortune telling. By all accounts he was well read and a good orator.
Perhaps his best talent was in not overdoing things that could get him in trouble. I don’t think he was ever arrested for anything, did not play politics, so that even when politicians expressed interest in Satanism, he kept it at the cocktail party level.
The saddist photo I’ve seen is of a Marine honor guard standing over the coffin of a Marine killed in Vietnam, while LaVey, in his robes and getup was shaking some short of rattle over the coffin.
It appeared the Marine had claimed to be a satanist on his tags.
I recall that he would get asked about the supposed satanic heavy metal bands of the 80s and he would laugh and tell the person that the real satanic music was something elevator muzak.
FReegards