Blanche Barton

Blanche Barton (born Sharon Leigh Densely; October 1, 1961) is an American religious leader who is Magistra Templi Rex within the Church of Satan, and is addressed by Satanists as Magistra Barton.

Barton was raised in San Diego, a self-described Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Redlands College with a degree in journalism and literature. She met church leader Anton LaVey the day after Diane Hegarty, the original high priestess, left the Black House. After LaVey and Hegarty's daughter Zeena LaVey (High Priestess 1985–1990) abdicated her position in 1990, the position was vacant until Barton assumed the role of High Priestess upon Anton LaVey's death on October 29, 1997.

On November 7, 1997 LaVey's eldest daughter, Karla LaVey, held a press conference to announce the death of Anton LaVey. It was at this time that Barton and Karla LaVey announced that they would run the Church of Satan as co-High Priestesses.

Several days later Barton produced a hand written will claiming that LaVey had left all of his belongings, property, writings, and royalties, including the Church of Satan to be put in a trust, exclusively for Barton's son Satan Xerxes Carnacki LaVey, managed by Barton. Karla contested this will which was later found to be invalid.

A settlement was later reached in which Anton LaVey’s belongings, writings, and royalties would be split among his three children, Karla, Zeena and Satan, and that Barton would receive the “corporation known as Church of Satan.”

In 1999 Barton led an unsuccessful campaign to raise $400,000 with which to repurchase the Black House, where many of the church's notorious rites were performed.

Barton remained High Priestess until April 30, 2002, when she appointed Peggy Nadramia as High Priestess and assumed Nadramia's previous role of chairmistress of the Council of Nine.

Barton wrote The Church of Satan: A History of the World's Most Notorious Religion (1990) and The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey (1990).