What is a Satanist?

(Large credit is due to religioustolerance.org for this information.) Most names of religions have well-defined meanings, even though they all have branch-off groups. One religion which is really confused, by what would be called "pop-culture presentation", is Satanism. The reason for this is too large to describe without writing a book, but for now, I'll condense it. The number one reason is because of Church, and what could only be described as "cultic brainwashing". When I was raised to be a priest, I used to attend congregational meetings, in which about once every six month, the topic of Satanism would be discussed. I would listen to stories about babies being abducted, bizarre rituals, murders, children in the woods around my hometown getting kidnapped and sacrificed, etc. Well, many years later, I went back and began looking for all these stories. Surely this would have been recorded, right? Wrong. There was not one mention of a human sacrifice, and I went back 25 years into the newspapers. The Police had no recordings of anything remotely close to what I had been told. The reason? It was all bunk.

This type of "Satanism" was invented by the Catholic Church, to spawn massive wars against all kinds of groups, that they called "Satanist" groups. The truth couldn't be any farther from that. If these "groups", composed of pagans, gnostics, and Jews, were "Satanic", and the Church's activities were "Godly", then I want nothing to do with "Godly" religious behavior. The name we use for this type of Satanism is called "Gothic Satanism". It was an imaginary, delusional, and profoundly evil religion, that was contrived during the late Middle Ages. It was really just inversed Catholicism, using such concepts as the ritualistic killing of children (the Catholics did this), selling their soul to the devil (they sold theirs to God, even had tickets to prove it!), breaking crucifixes, (they bashed idols all throughout the land of India), conducting black masses (boring Catholic masses), stealing babies, (like King David did), burning humans alive, (the Catholic Church I think holds the running record for most people put to death by fire), and on it goes. This absurd religion has never existed in the past, and does not exist today. The only place where you can find this religion is in the minds of dim-witted fools and in the movies of our popular culture. There's good reason for that, it sells. Whenever these "Satanistic" warning messages would be presented in Church, that's whenever our Church always had the greatest attendence.

Who's a Satanist?

Some religious fanatics feel that all non-Christian religions, and all Christian denominations other than their own, are forms of Satanism. I came across a few messageboards where I found Baptists and Catholics condemning each other to hell, and I found this to be immensely hilarious. Others condemned people who read the KJV version of the Bible, others still accused those of not using the KJV of 1611, as it is the only "correct" interpretation. These loose and ridiculous definitions would imply that over 95% of the world's population are Satanists! Other religious fanatics feel that all religions other than Judaism or Christianity are inspired by Satan, (were Satan to exist, the Christians must view him as being one extremely busy being,) and are therefore to be considered as a form of Satanism. The average population believes that any form of religion where the use of magic is practiced, would automatically constitute it as a Satanic religion. Such definitions are absolutely ludicrous. The following definitions are actually much closer to the truth, and they describe the four main types of Satanism that are around today.

Symbolic Satanism: This would be the Church of Satan predominately, and the First Church of Satan. As explained here, all the names we have for the "devil", were once considered to be divine gods. Indeed, even the word "genius" comes from Djin (or genie). Genius was used in reference to someone to be under the influence of an intelligence, daemon, or genie. If we traced back all the "infernal" names to their roots, we would find that indeed, the Devil was once considered to be a very devine creature. According to them, their concept of Satan is pre-Christian, and it is derived from the Pagan images that denoted a God of power, virility, and sexuality. To these kinds of Satanists, Satan is a force of nature (carnality), not an anthropomorphic being. Their idea of Satan has nothing to do with the current media's images of Hell, demons, pitchforks, and profound evil.

Concrete Satanism: This faith includes the recognition of Satan, either as a deity or as a principle. The Temple of Set worships "Set", or "Sata", the Egyptian God whom Satan's name is derived from. I have my own opinions about these types of groups, and it's not exactly flattering. They believe there is a "Lord of Evil" and that they must "drive out the foul spirit of Jehovah". They're basically rebellious Christians, still stuck under their same imposing structure. Usually these "rebellious" Christians resemble them in more ways than can be described. A short question sheet can help you determine if you are a rebellious Satanist or not. While you "can" be a Concrete Satanist, and not be a rebellious Christian, the odds are unlikely. I've even seen some (disgusting) ones who inversify the Christian Bible, and call that magic! WHAT?! There's nothing magical about that! You can check out a piece on that here.

Teen Satanism: A syncretistic religion which blend of elements taken from Religious Satanism, Gothic Satanism, ceremonial magick, New Age, and any other useful sources of ritual that they can find. It is practiced by rebellious teenagers or young adults- typically for a short interval. They probably number in the tens or hundreds of thousands at any one time in North America. An exact estimate is impossible to obtain, since they are totally devoid of any central organization. They occasionally engage in minor criminal activities such as vandalizing cemeteries and graffiti involving Satanic symbols. In rare instances, a few have been known to sacrifice animals.

Phony Satanism: Occasionally, serial murderers will claim to be Satanists in order to justify their horrendous activities. Police investigation reveals that they know little about the religion. (An immediate example that comes to mind is "Son of Sam". He was raised to be Christian, had seizures, and beat up children. He claimed he always felt a "dark force" around him, and that one it was Satan calling him. He read the "Satanic Bible" one time. Investigation revealed he knew almost nothing about Satanism, other than the name his Church had supplied him with all throughout his life.)

A small percentage of child molesters will abuse children in a Satanic setting as a means of controlling the victims. The molesters are not actual Satanists; they are simply using the fascade of Satanism to further their criminal acts, and allow them to dominate their victims. This type of crime isn't just akin to Satanism, it has a variety of other roots, and it is usually termed "ritualistic", not "Satanic", by psychologists. The term "ritualistic", in the psychological definition, means, "in a manner that holds significance to the person performing it." Such ritualistic abuse includes cutting the hands of victims, cutting out the eyes, removing sexual organs, etc.

Some heavy metal rock bands pretend to be associated with Satanism. Their main reason is to gain notoriety in order to sell more records. These three groups are pseudo-Satanic groups, and don't serve any purpose outside of media presentation.

Satanist Rituals

Symbolic Satanism involves:

The belief that one should live out their lusts and desires, explore the "seven deadly sins" with enthusiasm. Many beliefs, practices, and cited rules for behavior are in conflict with traditional Christianity, and essentially most other major religions. Indeed, one of the definitions for Satan is "the opposer", and that is what Satanism is supposed to stand for, a defiance of common and accepted logic. A Baphomet symbol is used as an avatar. Here I'll explain a little bit about the Baphomet.

Brief History of the Baphomet

The image of the Baphomet is as varied as the explanations as to its etymology. Below is an illustrative image of the Baphomet by the nineteenth century Occultist, Eliphas Levi, and a listing of some of the more common descriptions of it.

• An idol with a human skull
• A head with two faces
• With a beard
• Without a beard
• With the heads of a cockerel
• With the head of a man
• With the head of a goat and the body of a man but with wings and cloven feet

Levi's illustration to the right shows the more popular appearance of the demon, said to be a symbol of lust, generation, and wisdom.

• The head of the goat
• The upper body of a woman (maternity)
• Cloven feet
• A pair of wings
• A candle on its head a symbol of revelation combining male sexual potency with the four elements and intelligence.

The problem is that people try to connect this to the Templar's. The fact is, the Baphomet of the Templars probably didn't look anything like this. This was more of a connection that Levi made up himself, using it in his infamous diagram of the left-hand versus right-hand paths.

Levi's basic idea in this form of symbology is that the right hand path, (ironically on the left in this picture), defines the World when spiri is above matter, or actually, spirit above Earth. (The top point supposedly representing spirit, but we'll look at that in depth later.) On the right, the left-hand path symbolizes carnality, when the Material World is placed above that of spirituality.

The most famous form of Baphomet is the one that was used by Anton LaVey and registered as a trademark of the Church of Satan, the Sigil of Baphomet ( Latin: sigil = seal).

LaVey explained it as an inverted pentagram, with it's three points pointing downwards mean trinity denied, and two points upwards, representing an attack on heaven. The head of the goat is inside of the pentagram, symbolizing sex, fertility, and wisdom. The Hebrew caligraphs around the pentagram are ( from bottom counter clockwise) Lammed, Vau, Yod, Teth, Nun (end form). What that spells out is LVYTN, and noting that the Hebrews didn't have vowels, we get Leviathan.

The reason it is the God Leviathon is because of his role in the Old Testament, and because of his iconology as a symbol of Satan. The God Leviathon is mentioned in the Old Testament, variously identified as a crocodile, whale, or dolphin. It could also be related to the Phoenician snake-god Lotan, and in the Book of Isaiah, the name Leviathan also symbolizes the mighty Assyrian and Babylonian empires, hence its use to denote anything very large or powerful. Therefore, by that translation, the Seal of the Mighty might be an accurate translation. The Baphomet itself has a large and disarrayed history, so it can't be attributed to one source.

"he Baphomet, The Goat of Mendes, or The Sabbath Goat, (and other forms of it), are sometimes referred to as the Horned God, Cernunos, Thanateros, Great God Pan ,or Abraxas. The Baphomet has a fairly long history. Baphomet, in the form of the horned god, is considered by some to be one of the oldest fertility divinities in history. Some people believe that paintings in the cave in Ariege, France represent one of early forms of Baphomet. Obviously, horns are a recognizeable feature of Baphomet. The supposed founder of Baal worship, (Nimrod was actually a God man turned Human, the same way that Krisna, Jesus Christ, and the Apostle "Thomas" were.)

Nimrod is often represented with a headdress with horns, and Baal worship is where the name, "The Goat of Mendes", comes from. Mendes, or Mendez, is a place in Egypt where the fertility god Baal was worshiped. How Baal, a God represented as a bull, "evolved" into goat is not too clear. Apparently any animal with horns "could pass" as the symbol of fertility and power. Kenneth Grant, leader of Ordo Templi Orientis ( Order of Eastern Templars) says that the name Baphomet comes from "Bapho Mithras", the son of Mithras. Mithras was old Indo-Iranian divinity mentioned as early as 14 century BC, and in approx. 66 BC its cult reached the Roman Empire.

Some believe the Baphomet is a rendition of the Ancient Greek fertility God, Pan. In the tradition of turning other people's Gods to evil, it is believed that Pan was used by the Xtians as a model for the image of Devil in the Middle Ages, (continuing into the 21st century), as a being with horns, a tail, cloven hoofs, and goat legs.

Where did it come from?

Modern Satanism is generally (though mistakenly) regarded as a creation of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). Aleister was in fact a very powerful ceremonial magician, who based his rituals partly upon Judeo-Christian principles. The irony of his life is that the two religions he made up as a joke, (Scientology, Wiccan), and one he didn't invent, (Satanism), have larger numbers than the one he did invent, the O.T.O. He was raised in a Plymouth Brethren family, but developed an early disdain towards organized Christianity. After going to a University, he joined the Order of the Golden Dawn. They practiced ceremonial magic based on a variety of sources, including the Kaballah (or Cabbalah, a Jewish mystical tradition), Rosicrucianism (a mystical blend of alchemy, Judaism, etc.), Freemasonry (a men's fraternal organization), and Theosophy, (a Gnostic tradition believing in a common thread that links all religions).

He resigned from the Golden Dawn, (reportedly, they wouldn't advance him in rank because he was bi-sexual), and he was appointed Chief of the British section of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). The OTO blended, various forms of ceremonial magic, sex magick, and Freemasonry. He later left the OTO and formed a branch off the order. His new branch-off was based upon the Law of Thelema. Crowley's story was picked up by two tabloid newspaper, who called him the "Wickedest Man in the World" and the "Great Beast 666 of Revelation". From these sources, we have many of the rumors that Crowley was responsible for Satanism. People believing these sources came up with all kinds of rumors about him, some are true, some are not. He is alleged to have committed at least one animal sacrifice, experimented with many illegal drugs and engaged in some sexual orgies.

It is not known how much of this actually happened, and how much is imaginary and created to satisfy his insatiable desire for publicity. Nor is it known how much of the time he was serious, and when he was behaving with tongue in cheek. Crowley has been accused of many criminal activities; however, he was never arrested, charged, tried, or convicted of any crime. His prime aim was to contact his Holy Guardian Angel Aiwaz . The religion The Law of Thelema is largely derived from his work. He is known to have practiced a great deal of consentual sex magic with a single partner in private. His goal was to recapture the ancient pagan and Gnostic Christian mysteries of the Middle and Near East, who incorporated sexual activity as part of their religious rituals. He was a prolific writer on magick, a term that he created. Although he did not consider himself a Satanist, many Satanists have incorporated portions of his books into their own rituals. Many authors and TV personalities have stated that Crowley was the first Satanist, even though evidence points to the contrary.

Another reason for this was the fascination that Lavey had with Crowley. LaVey was absolutely convinced that Crowley was the first Satanist. LaVey borrowed very heavily from Crowley's works, although I wouldn't describe him as being near the magician that Crowley was.

The Real Origin of Satanism

Modern Satanism really begins with Anton Szandor LaVey, (or Howard Stanton Levy), b. 1930. On Walpurgisnacht, April 30, 1966, (I Anno Satanas) he created the Church of Satan. Anton drew on his somewhat sardonic personality and previous experiences, and on his readings into psychology, magick, etc., and wrote the Satanic Bible in 1969. Some of these materials were from other books and writers. This was followed by The Complete Witch (1970) (later republished as The Satanic Witch), and The Satanic Rituals (1972). These are essentially the only available books which accurately describe Satanism. There have been enormous numbers of books about Satanism written by various Christian organizations. However, these books are almost always filled with misinformation, primarily derived from the myths during the Witch burning times in Europe (circa 1450-1792 CE), rather than from any present or past factual documentation.

The Beliefs and Magic of Satanism

At the core of the Church of Satan are the nine Satanic Statements, written by Anton LaVey, taken from Ayn Rands “Atlas Shrugged” In abridged form, they state that Satan represents:

• Indulgence, not abstinence
• Vital existence, not spiritual pipe dreams
• undefiled wisdom, not hypocritical self-deceit
• kindness to those deserving of it, not love wasted on ingrates
• vengeance, not turning the other cheek
• responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires
• man as just another animal - the most vicious of all
• gratification of all ones desires
• the best friend that the Christian Church has had as he has kept it in business for centuries

Of course, the one that gets the most criticism is the "Indulgence, not Abstinence". People who open the book and read the 9 statements say, "Wait, if you do anything 'indulgently', it becomes worthless!" These people have failed to read the Chapter, "Indulgence, NOT Compulsion".

Here's the argument.

"Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Anger lead us to physical, mental and emotional gratification."

I would have to disagree with this somewhat... Rational hedonism would dictate that these do not give us pleasure.Anything to excess is not pleasurable. If you like chocolate and you eat 5lbs of the stuff, you get sick and you are not gratified. You savior the taste of just a few in order to experience more pleasure another day. As with these all, they might lead to a short lived emotional gratification but in the long run they will hurt you".

My response:

"Why would you eat 5 lbs. of chocolate? Answer: You haven't eaten it in a long time. You would do the timeless ritual of: Abstinence, (people on a diet), Compulsion (Eating all the food they can), Gratification (enjoying the food), then guilt, (They broke their diet.) This doesn't work, either in dieting or religion. (If you're curious, I'm ISSA (International Sports Science Association) certified in dieting as well.) If your diet allows for you to take occasional breaks, (we call this the Zig-Zag diet), you won't have a need to be compulsive.

The federal government prosecuted Jenny Craig, Slimfast, and all the other diet companies, because they found that 95% of the people who diet gain all the weight back within a year. The reason why is they utilize the cycle listed above. This creates what we call "yo-yo dieting" or in this case, "yo-yo religion". Let's look at it from this from a religious perspective.

You are a Christian. You engage in Abstinence, (don't sin). This leads to a compulsion to wanting to sin, which then causes compulsion, (Sinning). Because of the nature of denial, the sin commited is usually an ugly one by the Christian. This leads to guilt, (running to the church, praying, giving the Pastor lots of money), and back to abstinence. Then it repeats itself, over and over and over again, creating the yo-yo effect.

Churches throughout the centuries have thrived upon this viscious cycle. I've noticed this particular phenomenon among Christians as well. I'd always meet new "converts" in my church, who would run around praising Jesus, preaching the Gospel, etc., swearing to me that, "this is permanent, I swear, I'll never be the same again." Given six months, they'd be back just the same as they were before. It's never failed. I haven't met a convert who stayed a convert, except a few times when I visited Angola. All prisoners are Christians btw. It sounds good in front of the parole board."

Anyway, some of LaVey's more popular philosophical concepts are that:

• People have created Gods in many forms; pick one that might be useful to you.
• Heaven and hell do not exist.
• Satan is unrelated to the modern (post 1400 AD) concept of the Christian devil.
• They look upon him as a God who represents the carnal, earthly, and mundane aspects of life.
• Satan is not a being; he is a force of nature.
• Ritual killing (of humans or animals) are not allowed.
• Blood drawn from a victim is useless in rituals.
• Victims are killed symbolically not actually.
• Human life is held in sacred regard, as is animal life.
• The highest of all Satanic holidays is the birthday of the Satanist.
• You can practice any sexual thing you want, but NOT with partners that cannot express a desire not to, such as children and animals. It must be two consenting adults.

Holidays of lesser importance are

• Walpurgusnacht (evening of April 30) and Halloween (evening of October 31),
• Solstices in June and December
• Equinoxes in March and September
• Satanic Revels are held five to six weeks after each equinox and solstice
• Black Masses (parodies of the Roman Catholic religious service) are not normally performed by Satanists (except perhaps for their entertainment or publicity value)

Dogma and Rituals

LaVey's rituals and ceremonies contain the following concepts:

A variety of the "Infernal names" are used, all from other cultures which had Satan in one form or another in their beliefs Ceremonies are pageants which are used to celebrate a person or element of faith. Magic rituals consist of three types:

1. Sex magic (includes masturbation)
2. Healing or happiness ritual
3. Destruction ritual (may include sticking pins in a doll; drawing a picture or writing a description of the victims death; delivering a soliloquy, describing your hatred towards them, etc).

Destruction rituals are best performed by a group. Male Satanists wear full length black robes, with or without a hood.Young women wear sexually suggestive clothing; older women wear all black All Satanists wear amulets with the symbol of Baphomet, described above Altar: When the Satanic Bible was written (1969) a nude woman was customarily used as an altar, since Satanism is regarded as a religion of the flesh, not of the spirit. She reclined on an altar which was trapezoidal in shape, about 1 m high and 2 m long and placed against the West wall of the room. Her head pointed South. A live altar is now rarely used, and instead the more traditional altars are used.

One white candle is placed to the right of the altar; it symbolizes the belief of Satanists in the hypocrisy of "White Magicians" and Wiccans because of the latter's insistence to do no harm to others. At least one black candle, representing the Powers of Darkness, is placed to the left of the altar, (the Left Hand path). Additional black candles are oriented as needed to provide sufficient illumination.

Tools and Avatars

The following tools are used:

1. A bell is rung nine times at the beginning and end of the ritual;
2. the Satanic priest rotates counter-clockwise as he rings the bell
3. A chalice is ideally made of silver; it may not be formed of gold because that is a metal that Wiccans use, and Satanists want do distance themselves as much as possible from Wicca.
4. Other ritual tools include a gong, sword, elixir (usually wine), phallus, and parchment. They and the chalice and bell are placed on a small table near the altar.
5. The language used during magical ritual is Enochian, whose words variously sounds similar to Arabic, Hebrew, or Latin. It is of ancient and unknown origin, (language of the Angels). Key points are not just to know the words of Enochian, (unfortunately, Lavey didn't), but to harmonize it as well.

Other Noteable Points

• Prayer is useless; it distracts people from useful activity. (I don't completely agree with this, there are some forms of ceremonial prayer that are useful. They require knowledge of other languages, and are great for practicing harmonization. However, mundane prayer is to be avoided.)
• Practice with joy all the seven deadly Christian sins (greed, pride, envy, anger, gluttony, lust, and sloth)
• If a man smites you on one cheek, smash him on the other. If someone tries to display intellectual superiority over you, smash them with knowledge. Let no one who meets you walk away thinking they bested you.
• Do onto others as they do onto you
• Engage in sexual activity freely, in accordance with your needs (which may be best realized through monogamy, or by having sex with many others; through heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality; using sexual fetishes as you wish; by yourself or with one or more people). Sexual activity must be between consenting adults. The ideal is a monogamous relationship based on compatibility and commitment.
• Suicide is frowned upon, unless there are no other alternatives.
• The Satanist needs no elaborate, detailed list of rules of behavior.
• Local groups of Satanists are usually called grottos or temples. They correspond to Christian congregations and Wiccan covens. Satanists feel that Wiccans are hypocrites. because the latter restrict their work to positive, healing activities. Satanists use magic and other rituals to benefit themselves and their friends, but also use these same rituals to harm their enemies. There are some anti-Wiccan elements in their rituals.
• Satanists have been described as being violently anti-Christian in their beliefs and practices. Many authors, almost all fundamental Christians, have described alleged Satanic rituals in which they recite the Lord's Prayer backwards, or desecrate and use the host and wine that they have stolen from a cathedral. This is pure fiction, (or maybe not, apparently, there's a few groups now that are playing to that role), that can be traced back to books written during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. Satanists' attitude towards Christianity and other world religions seems to be more of amusement and ridicule; their attitude towards Christians in particular would either be pity or mock.

Other forms of Satanism

Gothic Satanism: Gothic Satanism was an invention of the Christian Church at the time of the Witch burnings. Christians believe that it existed then and was a great threat to the established order. Many Christians (particularly conservative ones) still believe this today. However, it is an imaginary religion that does not exist in reality, or any documented records.

Throughout the 15th Century, there was a rising hysteria within the Christian Church about the perceived presence of Satan worshipers, who were seen as a destabilizing influence. The Witch burnings (sometimes called the burning times or the female holocaust) began. (It was taken from the passage, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", from the Bible).

Two Dominican priests, Kramer and Sprenger wrote a book circa 1486 The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer) which became the main reference text for the genocide. They wrote that these Gothic Satanists: "Are mostly women because they are more impressionable, more perfidious, more carnal, more vengeful, and (intellectually) more like children than are men.God, being male, has mostly preserved men from heresy. These witches can kill, bewitch and induce plagues in animals; stop cows from giving milk; cause impotence, sterility, abortions and miscarriages; ride at night on broomsticks to sexual orgies; drink the blood of unbaptised infants and devour them, or convert them into soup, or bake them in an oven; their bones are made into ritual instruments; offer their children to demons; kill or place curses on people by simply looking at them, saying a phrase, causing lightning to strike them, by blowing in their face, pushing pins into a wax doll made in the image of the victim, etc; beat, break, stab or step on a crucifix whenever they can."

A second reference text was Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum, which was written about 1620. He described how Satan worshipers do many things, including: ride through the air on the back of a goat or a staff, anoint themselves with magical oil and fly on their own, annoint themselves with a cream or make a certain sign, and immediately vanish; appear to change shape from human to animal and back; can change people and animals from male to female and back; swear homage and obedience to Satan, and had their bodies branded with his mark; rejoice, dance, eat and drink in the presence of Satan who appears at these celebrations in the form of a hideous and deformed black goat; suffocated, pierced and killed their own infants, cut off their extremities and cooked their trunks.

The inquisitors tortured suspects until they were willing to confess to anything in order to end the pain. So, of course, there is abundant testimony available in the court records as evidence. The last European victim of the "Burning Times" was burned at the stake in 1792, although the Church continued to exterminate heretics by burning in South America into the 1830's. (Primarily Jews.) Near the end of the "Burning Times", the concept of the Black Mass was added to the public's beliefs about Satanists. This was allegedly a parody on the Roman Catholic Mass. Urine or dirty water were substituted for wine; moldy bread or turnips were substituted for the host. The Mass was said in the local language (opposite to the Church's use of Latin). Texts were read backwards. The cross would be spat upon and broken. Infants would be sacrificed. Public beliefs about Gothic Satanism merged together to form into a religion which was anti-Christian in every detail.

What this caused was a counter-culture spin-off. Satanism as an organized activity did not exist much before the 17th century. As early as the 17th century, however, the catholic church was condemning priests who subverted the magical powers of the holy mass for evil purposes. The "Grimoire of Honorious", a magical textbook first printed in the 17th century, gave instructions for saying masses to conjour demons. The people who made these texts were PRIESTS from the Catholic church. The Pentagram seen by these people is not the same meaning as the pentacle/pentagram in other religions.

In the other parts of the 17th century, satanic activities were conducted by christians who indulged in the magical/sexual rites of the black mass, presided over by defrocked or unscrupulous priests. The most notorious of these escapades took place in France during the reign of Louis XIV, engineered by the kings mistress, Madamme de Montespan, and led by an occultist named La Voisin and a 67 year old libertine priest, the Abbé Guiborg.

There is no reliable evidence of satanic activity in the 18th century. In England, the Hellfire club, a society founded by Sir Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), has often been described as satanic, but in actuality it was little more than a club for adolescent-like men to indulge in drinking, sexual play with woman called "nuns" and outrageous behavior. The Hellfire club, or the "Medmenham monks" as they called themselves, met regularly between 1750 and 1762 in Dashwood's home, Medmenham Abbey. The members were said to conduct black masses, but it is doubtful that these were serious satanic activities. Similar groups were the brimstone boys and blue blazers of Ireland.

In the 19th century the poetic Satanism was what fascinated the masses, sects, and the actual Black Masses seemed forgotten. The Satanism was rather gnostic, Satan was seen as the bringer of light (Lucifer), as the righteous and pure one. Byron and Baudelaire saw him as a rebel as well, but Satan's defeat was the defeat of a good thing. Not that evil was beat, but god's success was the success of an evil god in an evil world.

The next place we trace Satanism to is Leo Taxil, and his book, "Satan in the Nineteenth Century". This attracted a lot of publicity in the 1890's, and he claimed to be a renegade Freemason, who worshipped Satan. The various clergy and political parties took Taxil serious, and bought his books and attended his meetings. He further asked for donations to rescue a lady named "Helen Vaughan", who was under the threat of human sacrifice from the "Satanic" (the Freemasons are completely un-Satanic) Masons. Well, it turns out he was lying, but his story would be used by other anti-Satanic claims.

Later on though, through a variety of sources, a sort of "revival" of the old Christian paranoia took place.

Gothic Satanism of Today's Times

500 years later, many people believe that Gothic Satanists remain a great threat. In the State of Utah, about 90% of adults believe in the existence of Satanic groups who abuse and kill infants. Satanists are no longer believed to fly through the air on broomsticks or instantaneously vanish. But the baby killing, selling ones soul to Satan, rituals involving a goat, breaking a cross or crucifix, even shape shifting between animal and human has been described by modern Fundamentalist or other Evangelical Christian authors. Many writers and seminar speakers may be completely unaware that most of their source material can be traced back to the texts used by the Renaissance Witch hunters. Outrageous claims have been made of 60,000 ritual killings a year in North America, and of baby breeding prisons where young women are kept continually pregnant so that their infants can be taken and sacrificed. The concept of Gothic Satanism as being thoroughly anti-Christian has remained intact for centuries. (The irony is, without Christianity, none of this would even exist if there was indeed such a thing as Gothic Satanism.)

No criminal investigation in the past 300 years is known to have found hard evidence of Satanic Ritual Abuse (with the possible exception of a case in Greece during 1995). However, the belief that Gothic Satanism exists as a major social threat continues, even without any evidence. There are many indicators that Gothic Satanism does not exist: essentially all beliefs and practices attributed to Gothic Satanism can be traced to Kramer and Sprenger's book, "the Witches Hammer".Many books which are allegedly written by ex-Satanists have been shown to be frauds.

No book by a Gothic Satanist describing their beliefs and rites, etc has ever been written. If Gothic Satanists existed in any numbers, such books would exist and be in print. Baby breeding camps could not be successfully hidden for decades, various government studies, (FBI included) and many hundreds of police investigations have failed to come up with hard evidence of human sacrifices or other Satanic crimes. In rural communities, there are still plenty of myths about this, mostly spawned by "Fire and Brimstone" preachers.

Teen Satanism:

There are tens or hundreds of thousands of rebellious teenagers in North America who briefly dabble in a form of Satanism. Their source material is often the books by LaVey, perhaps supplemented by writings about Gothic Satanism by Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christian authors. Sometimes, teens will also include elements from books on ceremonial magick, Wicca or other Neo-pagan religions in their practices. These teens are responsible for Satanic graffiti, and (rarely) animal sacrifices. Some look upon Satanism as a method of rebelling against their parents' beliefs. Fortunately, it is usually a passing fad that teens quickly outgrow. Teen Satanists have no connection with any of the Symbolic Satanists, outside of maybe loose references to LaVey's work. There is of course no connection between the teens and Gothic Satanists, because the latter do not exist.

Concrete Satanists:

In 1975, one of LaVey's followers, Michael Aquino, left the Church after a disagreement, and organized the Temple of Set. This form of religious Satanism is recognizes a pre-Satanic deity, the Egyptian God Set as an entity which stands separate and apart from the forces of the natural universe. He was typically portrayed as a man with the head of an animal (perhaps a hyena, sometimes an ardvark looking creature.) Set was copied by the Chaldeans who called him Had or Hadit; this later became Shaitan in the Pre-Islamic areas, and still later the Satan of Christianity.

The concrete Satanists beliefs vary from Church to Church, and are hard to describe here. Some recognize Satan as a living diety, but they still hold LaVey's opinion about Satan. Others worship the earlier forms of Satan.

The two main Satanic denominations, and a few small ones, total maybe around 10,000 or so adult followers in North America. If we added all the teen Satanists to the figure, I'd guess maybe around 40,000 or so "Satanists"