Accused v. identified

Definitions of Satanism are complicated by the fact that the Satanists whose Satanism is being defined include

• figures and groups accused of worshipping Satan and in the process committing horrible crimes (in the middle ages, during the 1980–1994 Satanic ritual abuse moral panic, etc.) but who do not appear to have actually existed; but also
• figures and groups who identify as Satanists (Romantic Satanists, hellfire clubs and modern Satanists).

Not surprisingly, the two sides have very different views on who or what Satan was/is and represented. The accusers usually follow the Christian idea of Satan as an irredeemably evil fallen angel who seeks the destruction of both God and humanity, but who (along with his followers) is doomed to fail and to suffer eternal punishment.^[5] While the self-identified Satanists often do not believe that Satan actually exists as a being (they believe he is a symbol and a "Promethean figure",^[9] "an esoteric symbol of a vital force that permeates the universe"),^[10] let along is trying to destroy all human beings. Hense, "Satanism as something others do is very different from Satanism as a self-designation" (Jesper Aa. Petersen).^[11]

Joseph P. Laycock emphasizes that definitions of Satanism should not be reserved for Satanists and Satanic groups that actually exist, as this would probably exclude most of the history of Satanism.^[12]

But this is exactly what some definitions offered/suggested by scholars do:

• the worship or veneration of the figure from Christian belief known as Satan, the Devil or Lucifer (Ethan Doyle White);^[1]
• the “intentional, religiously motivated veneration of Satan” (Religion scholar Ruben van Luijk);^[13][14]
• the simultaneous presence of

"1) the worship of the character identified with the name of Satan or Lucifer in the Bible,
2) by organized groups with at least a minimal organization and hierarchy,
3) through ritual or liturgical practices [...]
it does not matter how each Satanist group perceives Satan, as personal or impersonal, real or symbolic". (Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne writing in 1994).^[15]

Other definitions/descriptions would include the "satanism" of heresy crusades and moral panics

• an invention of Christianity, relying on a character deriving from Christian mythology, i.e. Satan, (another description of Satanism by Ruben van Luijk).^[16]
• “a system in which Satan is celebrated in a prominent position," (Satanism scholar Per Faxneld).^[17] This definition has the advantage of avoiding "assumptions about the nature of religion" .^[12]

In their study of Satanism, the religious studies scholars Asbjørn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Aa. Petersen stated that the term Satanism "has a history of being a designation made by people against those whom they dislike; it is a term used for 'othering'".^[18]

Eugene Gallagher noted that, as commonly used, Satanism was usually "a polemical, not a descriptive term".^[19]

Heresy

Another complication is that just as Christian denominations accuse each other of heresy, different satanic groups -- the Church of Satan (CoS), the Temple of Set (ToS), the Order of Nine Angles (ONA), and The Satanic Temple (TST) -- often accuse one another of being fraudulent Satanists or ignorant of true Satanism.^[5]

Related terms

Because the original concept of Satan come from the Judeo-Christian heritage, and because Satanists, almost by definition, oppose the teachings of those religions, people drawn to Satanism will often move on to “post-Satanism”, i.e. to a religion that does not declare itself Satanic but includes elements of Satanism (e.g. Temple of Set). Others may regards themselves as Satanists but promote mythological figures and traditions outside of Christianity (or Judaism) .^[20] These religions are sometimes called Satanic and sometimes post-Satanic. ^{[Note 2]}

Etymology

The term "Satan" has evolved from a Hebrew term for "adversary" or "to oppose", into the Christian figure of a fallen angel who temps mortals into sin. The word "Satan" was not originally a proper name, but rather an ordinary noun that means "adversary". In this context, it appears at several points in the Old Testament.^[21] For instance, in the Book of Samuel, David is presented as the satan ("adversary") of the Philistines, while in the Book of Numbers, the term appears as a verb, when Jehovah sent an angel to satan ("to oppose") Balaam.^[22] Prior to the composition of the New Testament, the idea developed within Jewish communities that Satan was the name of an angel who had rebelled against Jehovah and had been cast out of Heaven along with his followers; this account would be incorporated into contemporary texts like the Book of Enoch.^[23] This Satan was then featured in parts of the New Testament, where he was presented as a figure who tempted humans to commit sin; in the Book of Matthew and the Book of Luke, he attempted to tempt Jesus of Nazareth as the latter fasted in the wilderness.^[24]

The word "Satanism" was adopted into English from the French satanisme.^[25] The terms "Satanism" and "Satanist" are first recorded as appearing in the English and French languages during the sixteenth century, when they were used by Christian groups to attack other, rival Christian groups.^[26] In a Roman Catholic tract of 1565, the author condemns the "heresies, blasphemies, and sathanismes [sic]" of the Protestants.^[25] In an Anglican work of 1559, Anabaptists and other Protestant sects are condemned as "swarmes of Satanistes [sic]".^[25] As used in this manner, the term "Satanism" was not used to claim that people literally worshipped Satan, but rather, it claimed that the accused was deviating from true Christianity, and thus serving the will of Satan. ^[14] During the nineteenth century, the term "Satanism" began to be used to describe those considered to lead a broadly immoral lifestyle,^[14] and it was only in the late nineteenth century that it came to be applied in English to individuals who were believed to consciously and deliberately venerate Satan.^[14] This latter meaning had appeared earlier in the Swedish language; the Lutheran Bishop Laurentius Paulinus Gothus had described devil-worshipping sorcerers as Sathanister in his Ethica Christiana, produced between 1615 and 1630.^[27]

Medieval and Early Modern Christendom

Title illustration of Johannes Praetorius (writer) Blocksbergs Verrichtung (1668) showing many traditional features of the medieval Witches' Sabbath

As Christianity expanded throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, it came into contact with a variety of other religions, which it regarded as "pagan". Christian theologians claimed that the gods and goddesses venerated by these "pagans" were not genuine divinities but were actually demons.^[39] However, they did not believe that "pagans" were deliberately devil-worshippers, instead claiming that they were simply misguided.^[40] In Christian iconography, the Devil and demons were given the physical traits of figures from classical mythology, such as the god Pan, fauns, and satyrs.^[40]

Those Christian groups regarded as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church were treated differently, with theologians arguing that they were deliberately worshipping the Devil.^[41] This was accompanied by claims that such individuals engaged in acts of evil – incestuous sexual orgies, the murder of infants, and cannibalism – all stock accusations that had previously been leveled at Christians themselves in the Roman Empire.^[42]

The first recorded example of such an accusation being made within Western Christianity took place in Toulouse in 1022, when two clerics were tried for allegedly venerating a demon.^[43] Throughout the Middle Ages, this accusation would be applied to a wide range of Christian heretical groups, including the Paulicians, Bogomils, Cathars, Waldensians, and the Hussites.^[44] The Knights Templar were accused of worshipping an idol known as Baphomet, with Lucifer having appeared at their meetings in the form of a cat.^[45] As well as these Christian groups, these claims were also made about Europe's Jewish community.^[46] In the thirteenth century, there were also references made to a group of "Luciferians" led by a woman named Lucardis which hoped to see Satan rule in Heaven. References to this group continued into the fourteenth century, although historians studying the allegations concur that these Luciferians were likely a fictitious invention.^[47]

Within Christian thought, the idea developed that certain individuals could make a pact with Satan.^[48] This may have emerged after observing that pacts with gods and goddesses played a role in various pre-Christian belief systems, or that such pacts were also made as part of the Christian cult of saints.^[49] Another possibility is that it derives from a misunderstanding of Augustine of Hippo's condemnation of augury in his On Christian Doctrine, written in the late fourth century. Here, he stated that people who consulted augurs were entering "quasi pacts" (covenants) with demons.^[50] The idea of the diabolical pact made with demons was popularized across Europe in the story of Faust, likely based in part on the real life Johann Georg Faust.^[51]

The Obscene Kiss, an illustration of witches kissing the Devil's anus from Francesco Maria Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum (1608)

As the late medieval gave way to the early modern period, European Christendom experienced a schism between the established Roman Catholic Church and the breakaway Protestant movement. In the ensuing Reformation and Counter-Reformation, both Catholics and Protestants accused each other of deliberately being in league with Satan.^[52] It was in this context that the terms "Satanist" and "Satanism" emerged.^[26]

18th- to 20th-century Christendom

Stanislas de Guaita drew the original goat pentagram, which first appeared in the book La Clef de la Magie Noire in 1897. This symbol would later become synonymous with Baphomet, and is commonly referred to as the Sabbatic Goat.

During the eighteenth century, gentleman's social clubs became increasingly prominent in Britain and Ireland, among the most secretive of which were the Hellfire Clubs, which were first reported in the 1720s.^[59] The most famous of these groups was the Order of the Knights of Saint Francis, which was founded circa 1750 by the aristocrat Sir Francis Dashwood and which assembled first at his estate at West Wycombe and later in Medmenham Abbey.^[60] A number of contemporary press sources portrayed these as gatherings of atheist rakes where Christianity was mocked, and toasts were made to the Devil.^[61] Beyond these sensationalist accounts, which may not be accurate portrayals of actual events, little is known about the activities of the Hellfire Clubs.^[61] Introvigne suggested that they may have engaged in a form of "playful Satanism" in which Satan was invoked "to show a daring contempt for conventional morality" by individuals who neither believed in his literal existence nor wanted to pay homage to him.^[62]

The French Revolution of 1789 dealt a blow to the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church in parts of Europe, and soon a number of Catholic authors began making claims that it had been masterminded by a conspiratorial group of Satanists.^[63] Among the first to do so was French Catholic priest Jean-Baptiste Fiard, who publicly claimed that a wide range of individuals, from the Jacobins to tarot card readers, were part of a Satanic conspiracy.^[64] Fiard's ideas were furthered by Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym (1765–1851), who devoted a lengthy book to this conspiracy theory; he claimed that Satanists had supernatural powers allowing them to curse people and to shapeshift into both cats and fleas.^[65] Although most of his contemporaries regarded Berbiguier as suffering from mental illness,^[66] his ideas gained credence among many occultists, including Stanislas de Guaita, a Cabalist who used them for the basis of his book, The Temple of Satan.^[67]

In the 1890s France saw the Taxil hoax, where an anti-clerical writer Léo Taxil (aka Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès), publicly converted to Catholicism and the published several works alleging to expose the Satanic doings of Freemasons. In 1897, Taxil called a press conference promising to introduce a key character of his stories but instead announced that his revelations about the Freemasons were made up, and thanked the Catholic clergy for helping to publicize his stories.^[68] Nine years later he told an American magazine that at first he thought readers would recognize his tales as obvious nonsense, "amusement pure and simple", but when he realized they believed his stories and that there was "lots of money" to be made in publishing them, he continued to perpetrate the hoax.^[69] Around the same time, another convert to Catholicism Joris-Karl Huysmans, also helped promote the concept of active Satanist groups in his 1891 work Là-bas (Down There). Huysmans "helped to cement" the idea the black mass as Satanic rite and inversion of the Roman Catholic mass, with a naked woman for an altar.^[1] (Unlike Taxil, his conversion was apparently genuine and his book was published as fiction.)

In the early 20th century, the British novelist Dennis Wheatley produced a range of influential novels in which his protagonists battled Satanic groups.^[70] At the same time, non-fiction authors like Montague Summers and Rollo Ahmed published books claiming that Satanic groups practicing black magic were still active across the world, although they provided no evidence that this was the case.^[71] During the 1950s, various British tabloid newspapers repeated such claims, largely basing their accounts on the allegations of one woman, Sarah Jackson, who claimed to have been a member of such a group.^[72] In 1973, the British Christian Doreen Irvine published From Witchcraft to Christ, in which she claimed to have been a member of a Satanic group that gave her supernatural powers, such as the ability to levitate, before she escaped and embraced Christianity.^[73]

In the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, various Christian preachers—the most famous being Mike Warnke in his 1972 book The Satan-Seller—claimed that they had been members of Satanic groups who carried out sex rituals and animal sacrifices before discovering Christianity.^[74] According to Gareth Medway in his historical examination of Satanism, these stories were "a series of inventions by insecure people and hack writers, each one based on a previous story, exaggerated a little more each time".^[75]

Other publications made allegations of Satanism against historical figures. The 1970s saw the publication of the Romanian Protestant preacher Richard Wurmbrand's book in which he argued—without corroborating evidence—that the socio-political theorist Karl Marx had been a Satanist.^[76]

Ritual abuse hysteria

At the end of the twentieth century, a moral panic arose from claims that a Devil-worshipping cult was committing sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism in its rituals, and including children among the victims of its rites.^[77] Initially, the alleged perpetrators of such crimes were labeled "witches", although the term "Satanist" was soon adopted as a favored alternative,^[77] and the phenomenon itself came to be called "the Satanism Scare".^[78] Those active in the scare alleged that there was a conspiracy of organized Satanists who occupied prominent positions throughout society, from the police to politicians, and that they had been powerful enough to cover up their crimes.^[79]

One of the primary sources for the scare was Michelle Remembers, a 1980 book by the Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder in which he detailed what he claimed were the repressed memories of his patient (and wife) Michelle Smith. Smith had claimed that as a child she had been abused by her family in Satanic rituals in which babies were sacrificed and Satan himself appeared.^[81][82] In 1983, allegations were made that the McMartin family—owners of a preschool in California—were guilty of sexually abusing the children in their care during Satanic rituals. The allegations resulted in a lengthy and expensive trial, in which all of the accused would eventually be cleared.^[83][84] The publicity generated by the case resulted in similar allegations being made in various other parts of the United States.^[85]

A key claim by the "anti-Satanists" of the Satanic Scare was that any child's claim about Satanic ritual abuse must be true, because children do not lie.^[86] Although some involved in the anti-Satanism movement were from Jewish and secular backgrounds,^[87] a central part was played by fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, in particular Pentecostalist Christians, with Christian groups holding conferences and producing books and videotapes to promote belief in the conspiracy.^[78] Various figures in law enforcement also came to be promoters of the conspiracy theory, with such "cult cops" holding various conferences to promote it.^[88] The scare was later imported to the United Kingdom through visiting evangelicals and became popular among some of the country's social workers,^[89] resulting in a range of accusations and trials across Britain.^[90]

In the late 1980s, the Satanic Scare had lost its impetus following increasing skepticism about such allegations,^[91] and a number of those who had been convicted of perpetrating Satanic ritual abuse saw their convictions overturned.^[92] In 1990, an agent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ken Lanning, revealed that he had investigated 300 allegations of Satanic ritual abuse and found no evidence for Satanism or ritualistic activity in any of them.^[92] In the UK, the Department of Health commissioned the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine to examine the allegations of SRA.^[93] She noted that while approximately half did reveal evidence of genuine sexual abuse of children, none revealed any evidence that Satanist groups had been involved or that any murders had taken place.^[94] She noted three examples in which lone individuals engaged in child molestation had created a ritual performance to facilitate their sexual acts, with the intent of frightening their victims and justifying their actions, but that none of these child molesters were involved in wider Satanist groups.^[95]

By 1994, the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria had died down in the US and UK,^[80] and by the 21st century, hysteria about Satanism has waned in most Western countries, although allegations of Satanic ritual abuse continued to surface in parts of continental Europe and Latin America.^[96] In the United States SRA ideas persisted among much of the public even as law enforcement had grown tired of false leads. A 1994 survey for the women’s magazine Redbook reported In 1994,

• 70 percent of those polled "believe that at least some people who claim that they were abused by satanic cults as children, but repressed the memories for years, are telling the truth" ^[97][98]
• 32 percent agreed with the statement, “The FBI and the police ignore evidence because they don’t want to admit the cults exist,”^[98][99] and
• 22 percent agreed that cult leaders use brainwashing to ensure that the victims would not tell.^[98]

QAnon

By 2017, another Satanic conspiracy theory arose in the United States.^[100] It also alleged that organized Devil-worshippers in prominent positions were committing sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism, but was not a grassroots movement leading to the uncovering of repressed childhood memories, arrests and prosecutions of pre-school administrators, or courtroom testimony of children coached by adults. Instead it was a far-right political movement based on claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q", which were relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Specifically, its core claim was that a global child sex trafficking ring made up of Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts,^[101] were kidnapping, sexually abusing and eating children, but that their enemy, President (at the time) Donald Trump would put a stop to this by rounding up the cabal and bring them to justice in a climactic event known to supporters as "the storm".^{[102][103][104][105]} With the lack of any evidence of child abuse or harm, and failure of the prophesized "storm" to appear before the inauguration of a new president, the conspiracy was said to have waned but not "disappeared entirely".^[106]

Precursers

The Sabbatic Goat, also known as the Goat of Mendes or Baphomet, as illustrated by Éliphas Lévi, has become one of the most common symbols of Satanism.^[107]

Though obscure and minimal in influence, according to Laycock, a number of figures or movements preceding Anton Levey and the Church of Satan in an expression of Satanism.^[12] Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen, however, insist these figures' influence was nil.^[108]

In seventeenth-century Sweden, a number of highway robbers and other outlaws living in the forests informed judges that they venerated Satan because he provided more practical assistance than Jehovah.^[109] Introvigne regarded these practices as "folkloric Satanism".^[27]

The figure of "Lucifer" was taken up by the French ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi (1810–1875), who has been described as a "Romantic Satanist",^[110] who shocked convention by turning the traditional figure of evil into a brave rebel against tyranny.^[111] The "Romantic Satanists" formed no organizations and did not worship Satan, but did make a crucial break away from the traditional Christian figure of the "Lord of Darkness" doomed to failure and punishment for his wickedness.^[12] They reimagined Satan as an enemy of God the powerful, but not of the weak and mortal human race. In other words, a figure it was possible for humans to sympathize with.^[12]

During his younger days, Lévi used "Lucifer" in the same positive symbolic manner as the literary Romantics.^[112] As he moved toward political conservatism in later life, he retained the use of the term, but instead applied it to what he believed was a morally neutral facet of "the absolute".^[110][112]

Lévi was not the only occultist who used the term "Lucifer" without adopting the term "Satan" in a similar way.^[112] The early Theosophical Society believed that "Lucifer" was a force that aided humanity's awakening to its own spiritual nature.^[113] In keeping with this belief, the Society began production of the journal Lucifer in 1887.^[114]

Some historians have claimed English writers Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley to be among the first Satanists^[115][116] but others believe they simply portrayed him positively without actually venerating him.^[117] The first person to promote an explicitly "Satanic" philosophy was the Polish writer Stanisław Przybyszewski, who based his ideology on Social Darwinism of the 1890s.^[118]

Danish occultist Carl William Hansen (1872–1936), who used the pen name "Ben Kadosh" told the listed "Luciferian" as his religious affiliation in answer to the Danish national census (his wife and children were listed as Lutheran),^[114] making him one of "the first self-declared Satanists".^[10] Hansen sought to spread a cult of Satan/Lucifer.^[10] Lucifer" also figured within the esoteric system propounded by the Hansen was involved in a variety of esoteric groups, including Martinism, Freemasonry, and the Ordo Templi Orientis, drawing on their ideas to establish his own philosophy.^[114] He provided a Luciferian interpretation of Freemasonry in a 1906 pamphlet,^[119] though his work had little influence outside of Denmark.^[119][120]

Stanislaw Przybyszewski (1868–1927), a “decadent Bohemian writer” who was born in Poland, was “the earliest known individual to describe himself as a Satanist”, according to Joseph Laycock. He is said to have “hinted” that he attended black masses in Paris but “there is little evidence he engaged in any sort of satanic ritual, either alone or with others”.^[10]

Aleister Crowley was not a Satanist, but used rhetoric and imagery considered satanic.

Both during his life and after it, the British occultist Aleister Crowley has been widely described as a Satanist, usually by detractors. Crowley stated he did not consider himself a Satanist, nor did he worship Satan, as he did not accept the Christian world view in which Satan was believed to exist.^[121] He nevertheless used imagery considered satanic, for instance by describing himself as "the Beast 666" and referring to the Whore of Babylon in his work, while in later life he sent "Antichristmas cards" to his friends.^[122] Dyrendel, Lewis, and Petersen noted that despite the fact that Crowley was not a Satanist, he "in many ways embodies the pre-Satanist esoteric discourse on Satan and Satanism through his lifestyle and his philosophy", with his "image and thought" becoming an "important influence" on the later development of religious Satanism.^[119] Laycock points out that both Crowley and Church of Satan's LaVey "cultivated a sinister public image and sported shaved heads".

In 1928, the Fraternitas Saturni (FS) was established in Germany; its founder, Eugen Grosche, published Satanische Magie ("Satanic Magic") that same year.^[123] The group connected Satan to Saturn, claiming that the planet related to the Sun in the same manner that Lucifer relates to the human world.^[123]

In 1932, an esoteric group known as the Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow was established in Paris, France, by Maria de Naglowska, a Russian occultist who had fled to France following the Russian Revolution.^[124][125] She promoted a theology centered on what she called the Third Term of the Trinity consisting of Father, Son, and Sex, the last of which she deemed to be most important.^[124] Her early disciples, who underwent what she called "Satanic Initiations", included models and art students recruited from bohemian circles.^[124] The Golden Arrow disbanded after Naglowska abandoned it in 1936.^[126] According to Introvigne, hers was "a quite complicated Satanism, built on a complex philosophical vision of the world, of which little would survive its initiator".^[127]

In 1969, a Satanic group based in Toledo, Ohio, part of the United States, came to public attention. Called the Our Lady of Endor Coven, it was led by a man named Herbert Sloane, who described his Satanic tradition as the Ophite Cultus Sathanas and alleged that it had been established in the 1940s.^[128][129] The group had a Gnostic doctrine about the world, in which the Judeo-Christian creator god is regarded as evil, and the Biblical serpent is presented as a force for good, who had delivered salvation to humanity in the Garden of Eden.^[128][130] Sloane's claims that his group had a 1940s origin remain unproven; it may be that he falsely claimed older origins for his group to make it appear older than Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, which had been established in 1966.^[131][129]

Atheistic Satanism

Church of Satan

Main articles: LaVeyan Satanism and Church of Satan

The Sigil of Baphomet, the official insignia of the Church of Satan and LaVeyan Satanism

Satanism as "a self-declared religion" is said (by most scholars of Satanism) to have "truly" begun in 1966 in San Francisco with the founding of the Church of Satan (CoS) by Anton Szandor LaVey. Aside from being the "oldest satanic religion in continual existence", it has been the most influential, inspiring "numerous imitator and breakaway groups".^{[140][Note 3]} The church itself is dismissive of other Satanist groups as deviant or unimportant, insisting Satanism has been "codified" as "a religion and philosophy" by LaVey and the church.^[142] The Church of Satan rejects the legitimacy of any other organizations who claim to be Satanists, dubbing them reverse-Christians, pseudo-Satanists or Devil worshipers, atheistic or otherwise,^[143] and maintains a purist approach to Satanism as expounded by LaVey.^[144]

LaVey's ideas have been said (by scholar Joseph Laycock) to weave "together an eclectic range of thinkers and tropes",^[145] combining "humanism, hedonism, aspects of pop psychology and the human potential movement", along with "a lot of showmanship",^[140] but also to be "contradictory".^[145] Sociologist of religion James R. Lewis has described LaVeyan Satanism as "a blend of Epicureanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy, flavored with a pinch of ritual magic",^[146] and LaVey himself has called his Satanism "just Ayn Rand's philosophy with ceremony and ritual added".^[147] He was also influenced by the ideas and writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Desmond.

Founded in an era when there was much public interest in the occult, witchcraft and Satanism, the church enjoyed a heyday for several years after its founding. Celebrities attended LaVey's satanic parties and "The Father of Satanism" (as he was dubbed),^[148] was invited on talk shows, and his 1969 Satanic Bible sold nearly a million copies.^[140][149]

LaVey used Christianity as a negative mirror for his new faith,^[150] rejecting the basic principles and theology of Christian belief.^[151] along with other major religions, and philosophies such as humanism and liberal democracy – as a largely negative force on humanity. LaVeyan Satanists perceive Christianity as a lie which promotes idealism, self-denigration, herd behavior, and irrationality.^[152] LaVeyans view their religion as a force for redressing this balance by encouraging materialism, egoism, stratification, carnality, atheism, and social Darwinism.^[152] LaVey's Satanism was particularly critical of what it understands as Christianity's denial of humanity's animal nature, and it instead calls for the celebration of, and indulgence in, these desires.^[151] In doing so, it places an emphasis on the carnal rather than the spiritual.^[153] He praised the human ego for encouraging an individual's pride, self-respect, and self-realization and accordingly believed in satisfying the ego's desires.^[154] He stated that self-indulgence was a desirable trait,^[155] and that hate, and aggression were not wrong or undesirable emotions but that they were necessary and advantageous for survival.^[156] Accordingly, he praised the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth), as virtues beneficial for the individual.^[157] The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine highlighted an article that appeared in The Black Flame, in which one writer described "a true Satanic society" as one in which the population consists of "free-spirited, well-armed, fully-conscious, self-disciplined individuals, who will neither need nor tolerate any external entity 'protecting' them or telling them what they can and cannot do."^[158]

The core values of LaVeyan's church are the enjoyment of physical existence, and undiluted naturalism that sees mankind as animals that exist in an amoral universe. His teachings promoted "indulgence", "vital existence", "undefiled wisdom", "kindness to those who deserve it", "responsibility to the responsible", and an "eye for an eye" code of ethics, while shunning "abstinence" based on guilt, "spirituality", "unconditional love", "pacifism", "equality", "herd mentality", and "scapegoating". LaVey envisioned a Satanist as a carnal, physical, and pragmatic being.

LaVey believed that the ideal Satanist should be individualistic and non-conformist, rejecting what he called the "colorless existence" that mainstream society sought to impose on those living within it.^[159]

The sociologist James R. Lewis noted that "LaVey was directly responsible for the genesis of Satanism as a serious religious (as opposed to a purely literary) movement".^[160] Scholars agree that there is no reliably documented case of Satanic continuity prior to the founding of the Church of Satan.^[161] It was the first organized church in modern times to be devoted to the figure of Satan,^[144] and according to Faxneld and Petersen, the Church represented "the first public, highly visible, and long-lasting organization which propounded a coherent satanic discourse".^[162] LaVey's book, The Satanic Bible, has been described as the most important document to influence contemporary Satanism.^[163] The book contains the core principles of Satanism and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma.^[164] Petersen noted that it is "in many ways the central text of the Satanic milieu",^[165] with Lap similarly testifying to its dominant position within the wider Satanic movement.^[166] David G. Bromley calls it "iconoclastic" and "the best-known and most influential statement of Satanic theology."^[167] Eugene V. Gallagher says that Satanists use LaVey's writings "as lenses through which they view themselves, their group, and the cosmos." He also states: "With a clear-eyed appreciation of true human nature, a love of ritual and pageantry, and a flair for mockery, LaVey's Satanic Bible promulgated a gospel of self-indulgence that, he argued, anyone who dispassionately considered the facts would embrace."^[168]

A number of religious studies scholars have described LaVey's Satanism as a form of "self-religion" or "self-spirituality",^[169] with religious studies scholar Amina Olander Lap arguing that it should be seen as being both part of the "prosperity wing" of the self-spirituality New Age movement and a form of the Human Potential Movement.^[170] The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine described it as having "both elitist and anarchist elements", also citing one occult bookshop owner who referred to the Church's approach as "anarchistic hedonism".^[151] In The Invention of Satanism, Dyrendal and Petersen theorized that LaVey viewed his religion as "an antinomian self-religion for productive misfits, with a cynically carnivalesque take on life, and no supernaturalism".^[171] The sociologist of religion James R. Lewis even described LaVeyan Satanism as "a blend of Epicureanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy, flavored with a pinch of ritual magic."^[146] The historian of religion Mattias Gardell described LaVey's as "a rational ideology of egoistic hedonism and self-preservation",^[172] while Nevill Drury characterized LaVeyan Satanism as "a religion of self-indulgence".^[173] It has also been described as an "institutionalism of Machiavellian self-interest".^[174]

Prominent Church leader Blanche Barton described Satanism as "an alignment, a lifestyle".^[175] LaVey and the Church stated that "Satanists are born, not made";^[176] that they are outsiders by their nature, living as they see fit,^[159] who are self-realized in a religion which appeals to the would-be Satanist's nature, leading them to realize they are Satanists through finding a belief system that is in line with their own perspective and lifestyle.^[177] Adherents to the philosophy have described Satanism as a non-spiritual religion of the flesh, or "...the world's first carnal religion".^[178]

Practitioners do not believe that Satan literally exists and do not worship him.^[6] Instead, Satan is viewed as a positive archetype embracing the Hebrew root of the word "Satan" as "adversary", who represents pride, carnality, and enlightenment, and of a cosmos which Satanists perceive to be motivated by a "dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things".^[179] The Devil is embraced as a symbol of defiance against the Abrahamic faiths which LaVey criticized for what he saw as the suppression of humanity's natural instincts. Moreover, Satan also serves as a metaphorical external projection of the individual's godhood. LaVey stated that "god" is a creation of man, rather than man being a creation of "god". In his book, The Satanic Bible, the Satanist's concept of a god is described as the Satanist's true "self"— a projection of his or her own personality, not an external deity.^[180] Satan is used as a representation of personal liberty and individualism.^[181]

LaVey explained that the gods worshipped by other religions are also projections of man's true self. He argues that man's unwillingness to accept his own ego has caused him to externalize these gods so as to avoid the feeling of narcissism that would accompany self-worship.^[182] The current high priest of the Church of Satan, Peter H. Gilmore, further expounds that "...Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates [...] Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will.^[183] The Church of Satan has chosen Satan as its primary symbol because in Hebrew it means adversary, opposer, one to accuse or question. We see ourselves as being these Satans; the adversaries, opposers and accusers of all spiritual belief systems that would try to hamper enjoyment of our life as a human being."^[184] The term "theistic Satanism" has been described as "oxymoronic" by the church and its High Priest.^[185]

Theistic Satanism

Theistic Satanism (also known as traditional Satanism, Spiritual Satanism or Devil worship) is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity or force to revere or worship.^[6][205] Other characteristics of theistic Satanism may include a belief in magic, which is manipulated through ritual, although that is not a defining criterion, and theistic Satanists may focus solely on devotion.

The "sinister tradition" and the Order of Nine Angles

Main article: Order of Nine Angles

One of the principal symbols of the O9A

During the 1990s, the idea that groups like Church of Satan and Temple of Satan were "too benevolent and law-abiding" to be true Satanists grew, particularly among musicians and fans in extreme heavy metal music, where being more extreme meant being more authentic.^[9] These antinomian and amoral Satanic (or post-Satanic) groups are sometimes called the "sinister tradition" of Satanism.^[9]

The Order of Nine Angles has been called "the ur-type that defines the sinister tradition"^[9] and is connected to multiple killings, rapes, and cases of child abuse and right-wing terrorism.^[218] According to the group's own claims, the Order of Nine Angles (O9A or ONA) was established in Shropshire, England, during the late 1960s, when a Grand Mistress united a number of ancient pagan groups active in the area.^[219] This account states that when the Order's Grand Mistress migrated to Australia, a man known as "Anton Long" took over as the new Grand Master.^[219] From 1976 onward, he authored an array of texts for the tradition, codifying and extending its teachings, mythos, and structure.^[220] Various academics have argued that Long is the pseudonym of British National Socialist Movement activist David Myatt,^[221] (Myatt denies it but Religion scholar Jacob Senholt "copies of ONA documents from 1978 with Myatt’s name on them" have been found and "early ONA texts were published" by a press that "Myatt owned").^[222][223] The O9A arose to public attention in the early 1980s,^[224] spreading its message through magazine articles over the following two decades.^[225] In 2000, it established a presence on the internet,^[225] later adopting social media to promote its message.^[226]

O9A consists largely of secretive,^[227] autonomous cells known as "nexions",^[228] operating as a network of allied Satanic practitioners, which it terms the "kollective".^[228] The majority of these are located in Britain, Ireland, and Germany, although others are located elsewhere in Europe, and in Russia, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and the United States. In recent decades up to 2023, O9A has caught the attention of “white supremacist groups and troubled young men” through its material online, and as of 2013 2,000 people “may be associated with the ONA in one form or another.” according to one estimate. ^[229][9]

The O9A describe their occultism as "Traditional Satanism".^[230] The O9A's writings not only encourage human sacrifice,^[231] but insist it is required in Satanism,^[9] referring to their victims as opfers.^[232] According to the Order's teachings, such opfers must demonstrate character faults that mark them out as being worthy of death.^[233][234] No O9A cell has admitted to carrying out a sacrifice in a ritualized manner, but rather, Order members have joined the police and military in order to carry out such killings.^[235] Faxneld described the Order as "a dangerous and extreme form of Satanism",^[236] while religious studies scholar Graham Harvey wrote that the O9A fit the stereotype of the Satanist "better than other groups" by embracing "deeply shocking" and illegal acts.^[237] Several British politicians, including the Labour Party's Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee,^[218] have pushed for the group to be banned as a terror organization, and according to the BBC News, "the authorities are concerned by the number of paedophiles associated with the ONA". Additionally, there are various followers of the O9A paradigm who are (or were) also members of banned militant national-socialist groups, namely the Atomwaffen Division, Combat 18, and Nordic Resistance Movement, the first of which even openly aims to perpetrate terror attacks.^{[238][239][240]}

Luciferianism

A version of the symbol of Lucifer, used by some modern Satanists

Main article: Luciferianism

Luciferians reportedly revere Lucifer not as the devil, but as a destroyer, guardian, liberator,^[254] light bringer, and/or guiding spirit to darkness,^[255] or even as the true god, as opposed to Jehovah.^[254] The Greater Church of Lucifer of Houston lost its place of worship in 2017 after vandalism death threats to its landlord caused him to refuse to renew the church's lease.^[256]

2021 Canadian census

The 2021 Canadian census states that 5,890 Canadians identify as Satanist, representing 0.02% of the population.^[286]

Compared to the general population, Satanists are more likely to be male, aged in their 20s or 30s, and not a member of any recognized minority group, although the Japanese are an exception (with the Japanese comprising 0.3% of both Satanists and the population as a whole).

Literature

Satan in Paradise Lost, as illustrated by Gustave Doré

From the late 1600s through to the 1800s, the character of Satan was increasingly rendered unimportant in western philosophy, and ignored in Christian theology, while in folklore he came to be seen as a foolish rather than a menacing figure.^[296] The development of new values in the Age of Enlightenment (in particular, those of reason and individualism) contributed to a shift in many Europeans' concept of Satan.^[296] In this context, a number of individuals took Satan out of the traditional Christian narrative and reread and reinterpreted him in light of their own time and their own interests, in turn generating new and different portraits of Satan.^[297]

The shifting concept of Satan owes many of its origins to John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), in which Satan features as the protagonist.^[298] Milton was a Puritan and had never intended for his depiction of Satan to be a sympathetic one.^[299] However, in portraying Satan as a victim of his own pride who rebelled against the Judeo-Christian god, Milton humanized him and also allowed him to be interpreted as a rebel against tyranny.^[300] In this vein, the nineteenth century saw the emergence of what has been termed "literary Satanism" or "romantic Satanism",^[301] where in poetry, plays, and novels, God is portrayed not as benevolent but using His omnipotent power for tyranny. Whereas in Christian doctrine Satan was an enemy of not only god but humanity, in the romantic portrayal he was a brave, noble, rebel against tyranny, a friend to other victims of the all powerful bully, i.e. humans. These writers saw Satan as a metaphor to criticize the power of churches and state and to champion the values of reason and liberty.^[111]

This was how Milton's Satan was understood by John Dryden^[302] and later readers like the publisher Joseph Johnson,^[303] and the anarchist philosopher William Godwin, who reflected it in his 1793 book Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.^[300] Paradise Lost gained a wide readership in the eighteenth century, both in Britain and in continental Europe, where it had been translated into French by Voltaire.^[304] Milton thus became "a central character in rewriting Satanism" and would be viewed by many later religious Satanists as a "de facto Satanist".^[297]

According to Ruben van Luijk, this cannot be seen as a "coherent movement with a single voice, but rather as a post factum identified group of sometimes widely divergent authors among whom a similar theme is found".^[305] For the literary Satanists, Satan was depicted as a benevolent and sometimes heroic figure,^[306] with these more sympathetic portrayals proliferating in the art and poetry of many romanticist and decadent figures.^[297] For these individuals, Satanism was not a religious belief or ritual activity, but rather a "strategic use of a symbol and a character as part of artistic and political expression".^[307]

Among the romanticist poets to adopt this concept of Satan was the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had been influenced by Milton.^[308] In his poem Laon and Cythna, Shelley praised the "serpent", a reference to Satan, as a force for good in the universe.^[309] Another was Shelley's fellow British poet Lord Byron, who included Satanic themes in his 1821 play Cain, which was a dramatization of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.^[301] These more positive portrayals also developed in France; one example was the 1823 work Eloa by Alfred de Vigny.^[310] Satan was also adopted by the French poet Victor Hugo, who made the character's fall from Heaven a central aspect of his La Fin de Satan, in which he outlined his own cosmogony.^[311] Although the likes of Shelley and Byron promoted a positive image of Satan in their work, there is no evidence that any of them performed religious rites to venerate him, and thus they cannot be considered to be religious Satanists.^[305]

Radical left-wing political ideas had been spread by the American Revolution of 1775–83 and the French Revolution of 1789–99. The figure of Satan, who was seen as having rebelled against the tyranny imposed by Jehovah, was appealing to many of the radical leftists of the period.^[312] For them, Satan was "a symbol for the struggle against tyranny, injustice, and oppression... a mythical figure of rebellion for an age of revolutions, a larger-than-life individual for an age of individualism, a free thinker in an age struggling for free thought".^[307] The French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who was a staunch critic of Christianity, embraced Satan as a symbol of liberty in several of his writings.^[313] Another prominent 19th century anarchist, the Russian Mikhail Bakunin, similarly described the figure of Satan as "the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds" in his book God and the State.^[314] These ideas likely inspired the American feminist activist Moses Harman to name his anarchist periodical Lucifer the Lightbearer.^[315] The idea of this "Leftist Satan" declined during the twentieth century,^[315] although it was used on occasion by authorities within the Soviet Union, who portrayed Satan as a symbol of freedom and equality.^[316]

Metal and rock music

Heavy metal singer King Diamond is a member of the Church of Satan.

During the 1960s and 1970s, several rock bands— namely the American band Coven and the British band Black Widow, employed the imagery of Satanism and witchcraft in their work.^[317] References to Satan also appeared in the work of those rock bands which were pioneering the heavy metal genre in Britain during the 1970s.^[318] For example, the band Black Sabbath made mention of Satan in their lyrics, although some of the band's members were practicing Christians, and other lyrics affirmed the power of the Christian god over Satan.^[319] In the 1980s, greater use of Satanic imagery was made by heavy metal bands like Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction.^[320] Bands active in the subgenre of death metal— among them Deicide, Morbid Angel, and Entombed, also adopted Satanic imagery, combining it with other morbid and dark imagery, such as that of zombies and serial killers.^[321]

Satanism would come to be more closely associated with the subgenre of black metal,^[318] in which it was foregrounded over the other themes that had been used in death metal.^[322] A number of black metal performers incorporated self-injury into their act, framing this as a manifestation of Satanic devotion.^[322] The first black metal band, Venom, proclaimed themselves to be Satanists, although this was more an act of provocation than an expression of genuine devotion to the Devil.^[323] Satanic themes were also used by the black metal bands Bathory and Hellhammer.^[324] However, the first black metal act to more seriously adopt Satanism was Mercyful Fate, whose vocalist, King Diamond, joined the Church of Satan.^[325] More often than not musicians associating themselves with black metal say they do not believe in legitimate Satanic ideology and often profess to being atheists, agnostics, or religious skeptics.^[326]

In contrast to King Diamond, various black metal Satanists sought to distance themselves from LaVeyan Satanism, for instance by referring to their beliefs as "devil worship".^[327] These individuals regarded Satan as a literal entity,^[328] and in contrast to Anton LaVey, they associated Satanism with criminality, suicide, and terror.^[327] For them, Christianity was regarded as a plague which required eradication.^[329] Many of these individuals, most prominently Varg Vikernes and Euronymous, were involved in the early Norwegian black metal scene.^[330][331] Between 1992 and 1996, such people destroyed around fifty Norwegian churches in arson attacks.^[332] Within the black metal scene, a number of musicians later replaced Satanic themes with those deriving from Heathenry, a form of modern Paganism.^[333]

Notes

Footnotes

Sources