Dictionary:

Satanism

  (sāt'n-ĭz'əm)

1. The worship of Satan characterized by a travesty of the Christian rites.
2. satanism Profound wickedness.

For more information on satanism, visit Britannica.com.

The worship of Satan, the Christian devil. The idea that such a parody of Christian worship could and did exist emerged in several stages. Central to Satanism was the idea of magic and that extraordinary miracles, if not performed by God in answer to the prayer of one of his servants (i.e., a Christian), had to be accomplished by the devil in cooperation with someone who had made a pact with the devil. Once the idea of the pact became commonplace, it was but a short step to the notion of an organized community of devil-worshippers. Some substance was provided by the small pockets of paganism that had not succumbed to the church's evangelical efforts.

Before the fifteenth century, the magic practices (i.e, witchcraft) associated with paganism had been defined as unreal and pagan belief as disbelief. However, for several centuries the Roman Catholic Church had been engaged in a struggle to eliminate heresy, especially in southern France. That successful effort had left it with a large and efficient organization, the Inquisition, essentially bereft of a job. Thus the redefinition of witchcraft as Satanism served the purpose of providing work for those conducting the Inquisition. It transferred witchcraft from the realm of doubt to that of heresy and apostasy, and thus the concern of the Inquisition. Satanism implies the acceptance of Christianity and the subsequent transfer of allegiance to the Christian anti-God.

Immediately after the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, issued in 1484, which unleashed the Inquisition, two German Dominicans, Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, wrote a massive text, Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer), which became the textbook for witch-hunters in understanding the evil of witchcraft and in locating and identifying witches. Witches were accused of sacrificing infants and of having sexual intercourse with the devil (most witches were women). Since the Bible affirmed the existence of witchcraft, to believe it did not exist was to be considered in itself a heresy, according to the inquisitors.

Thus was initiated the era of the great witch-hunts. In spite of the Reformation, which split the church and commanded so much attention in the sixteenth century, the crusade against witches continued and was pursued by Protestants and Catholics alike. Confessions were obtained by torture and tended to conform to the image expected by the inquisitors after having read the Malleus Maleficarum.

There is no real evidence that a devil cult existed. Its description in the Malleus Maleficarum was the result of the imaginings of a group of people who had never seen what they described. The confessions were extracted from people informed as to the nature and content of what the inquisitor sought. Such has remained the case to the present. Even though some groups of Satanists emerged, they were always adult converts and created the organization de novo each generation. There was no Satanic organization to carry the tradition from generation to generation. Thus the imagination of Christian clergymen was necessary to inform each new group of Satanists as to the beliefs and activities of Satanism. Without the writings of Christian anti-Satanists, Satanism could not exist.

The anti-Satanist literature defined the practices proper to any self-respecting Satanist, including the Black Mass (a parody of the Roman Catholic Mass), the saying of the Lord's Prayer backwards, the destruction/profanation of sacred objects, the sacrifice of an infant, and the invocation of Satan for the purpose of working malevolent magic (sorcery). It was not until the late seventeenth century that something similar to the Satanism described in the Malleus Maleficarum came into being.

The Affair La Voisin

In the year 1679, King Louis XIV set up a secret court to deal with several cases of poisoning of the French nobility. The investigations and findings of the court centered around the activities of Catherine Deshayes, better known as La Voisin. La Voisin operated as an adviser and fortune-teller to ladies at the court. She supplied them with love potions, charms, and occasionally, poison. However, things turned in a more sinister direction in 1667.

In that year La Voisin was consulted by the Marquise de Montespan, Françoise-Athenais, who was ambitious in the extreme. She wanted to become the queen of France. Her goal was, through magic, to alienate Louis from both the queen and his current mistress. Reportedly, following a mass during which two doves were killed, she became Louis's mistress. Further masses were said to secure her position. Then in 1673, with the Abbé Guibourg officiating, a mass was said over Montespan's nude body, during which an infant was sacrificed and the blood used to create a host that was then added to the king's food.

These later masses seemed to have no effect, and Louis was perceived to be changing his affections to another. Finally, in 1879, she had a mass for the dead said for Louis, followed by an attempt to poison him. The plot was discovered. La Voisin was arrested and Montespan distanced from the king (though for the sake of appearances she was never publicly accused). The affair, as the extent of La Voisin's activities became known, threatened to bring down the monarchy if made public. It was handled with the utmost discretion. La Voisin was executed, but most of the people involved were merely banished.

Since the era of the affair, sporadic incidents of Satanism and ephemeral Satanic magic groups have appeared. Among the more renowned were those described in a fictionalized account in J. K. Huysman's novel La Bas in 1891. The groups that appeared were largely made of young people using Satanism as an expression of their youthful rebellion. They came and went with little sign of their existence except a desecrated graveyard or church. A few were discovered during a ceremony or soon afterward. The number of such groups seemed to rise in the years after World War II, though that may have been a result of better reporting and the correlation of the scattered accounts facilitated by improved communications. However, a new thrust developed in the 1960s.

The Church of Satan

A new era began on Walpurgis Night (May Eve), 1966. Anton LaVey announced the first day of the year of Satan (anno Satanas) marked by the founding of the Church of Satan. The very affront of such an organization in an ostensibly Christian nation was newsworthy, but LaVey, an old carnival performer, was able to make good use of publicity events—the first Satanic wedding and the first funeral—to have his picture on the front page of newspapers across the United States.

To some, the very appearance of the Church of Satan was all they needed to project it as a symbol of all that was wrong with contemporary society and to associate the new organization with every occult-related crime that was uncovered. The reality was more mundane. The Church of Satan was, in fact, a fairly small group (never more than a few thousand members), which affirmed some of the values that LaVey saw as dominant in secular society but counter to traditional values. People were trapped in a value system that affirmed mutually contradictory goals. He advocated indulgence of the senses, individual responsibility, selfishness, life in the present, and ego strength and assertion. He specifically denounced love for ingrates, turning the other cheek, and obscurantism.

The main holiday in the church was an individual's birthday. The primary ritual was the Black Mass, which served as a psychodrama for people, allowing them to overcome inhibitions and move ahead with their lives. He specifically eschewed any illegal activities and told members to pursue their goals, but to do so without harming others.

The Church of Satan gave Satanism a new respectability. Its scripture, The Satanic Bible, became a steady seller at newsstands, and LaVey attracted some celebrities to his organization. During the early 1970s, however, the church went through a period of turmoil and a number of splinter groups emerged. The most substantive of these (and the only one to survive the decade) was the Temple of Set. Founded by Michael Aquino and Lilith Sinclair, two prominent leaders in the Church of Satan, the temple became the home of a sophisticated Satanic theology developed from Egyptian thought.

Satanism in the 1980s

Satanism had plainly declined by the end of the 1970s; however, in the mid 1980s reports that it had merely gone underground began to surface. Claims of the existence of a massive Satanic underground emerged around a set of reports concerning ritual child abuse. Amid the heightened concern for child abuse generated during the era, children began to tell horrendous stories of having been abused as part of forced participation in Satanic rituals, both in homes and in day care centers. These stories were soon joined by an increasing number of stories of women, and a few men, mostly in their thirties, who told stories of having been abused as children and youth, and then having suppressed the memories until they were recalled twenty years later in sessions with counselors.

These two types of reports generated much attention in the press, a heated debate among psychological professionals, and a variety of court cases. In the end, little substance concerning Satanic activity emerged, though a core of childhood trauma was discovered at the heart of many of the reports. Some cases were discovered to be lies told to reclaim custody of children lost in a divorce settlement, and many were generated by psychological counselors using unprofessional techniques and practices. As the cases were investigated and no supporting evidence was discovered, the stories became increasingly conspiracy oriented. By the 1990s little support remained for the veracity of the accounts of widespread Satanism.

Sources:

Kelly, Henry Ansgar. The Devil, Demonology, and Witchcraft. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974.

LaVey, Anton. The Satanic Bible. New York: Avon, 1969.

Lyons, Arthur. Satan Wants You. London: Rupert Hart-Davies, 1970.

Richardson, James T., Joel Best, and David G. Bromley. The Satanism Scare. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991.

Robbins, Rossell Hope. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1959.

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Satanism can refer to a number of belief systems depending on the user and contexts. Common use of the word generally refers to "worship of Satan or the powers of evil"^[1]. Among LaVeyan Satanists, one of the more organized and visible Satanic groups, it indicates "the first carnal religion in human history"^[2]. Careful use of the word, according to one widely-respected source, refers to "a very small religious group that is unrelated to any other faith, and whose members feel free to satisfy their urges responsibly, exhibit kindness to their friends, and attack their enemies"^[3]. By this definition, according to the same source, "There are perhaps ten thousand Satanists in North America. By far the largest Satanic organization is the Church of Satan. Accurate membership numbers are quite impossible to estimate." In general, it is believed that Satanism derives from the early occult teachings of Anne Grady.

Varieties of Satanism range from belief in and worship of an actual spiritual being (Theistic Satanism) to belief in the Christian devil; from the practice of an ancient but misunderstood religion (e.g. Setianism associated with the Egyptian god Set who is conflated by some with the Biblical Satan), to the atheist^[4] exaltation of hedonistic recreation and the celebration of self-interest and pleasure as rational practices

Satanists do not worship satan, they use satan as merly a concept to explain their purpose. They call them self satanists, because they opose all other religions. The satanist religion falls into the occult. it has many ideas and believes of witch craft. The occult goes into many other religions aside from satanism, religions such as............ wicca and druidism. and goes into many practices such as astrology alchemy astral travle and spiritialism.

PRACTICES: 1 Astrology, is the belief that stars and constalations can predic the future. 2 Alchemy, is a medieval form of chemestry, a philosophy of turning metals into gold, and finding universal cures for diseases. 3 Astral travle, or out of body experiences, to travle to higher spiritial plains through meditation 4 spiritialism, a pagan practice of christianity, that you can talk to spirits and the dead.

^[5].

Notes

1. ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satanism
2. ^ http://web.satanism101.com/satfaq.html
3. ^ http://www.religioustolerance.org/satanis2.htm
4. ^ http://www.dpjs.co.uk/serpent.html#SINR
5. ^ http://www.dpjs.co.uk/serpent.html#Happiness

See also

• Hellfire Club
• LaVeyan Satanism
• Luciferianism
• Setianism
• Theistic Satanism

Religious Organizations

• The Church of Satan
• Temple of Set
• First Church of Satan {"Astra" or "Allee Shadow Tradition"}
• First Satanic Church

Books on the history of Satanism

• Michelet, Jules (1862). Satanism and Witchcraft: The Classic Study of Medieval Superstition. ISBN 978-0806500591.  Considered the first modern work to discuss Satanism.

• Cavendish, Richard (1967). The Black Arts: An Absorbing Account of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages. ISBN 978-0399500350.  Summary of the history of Witchcraft, Satanism, and Devil Worship in the last part of the book.

• Zacharias, Gerhard (1980). The Satanic Cult.  Translated from the German by Christine Trollope

• Medway, Gareth (2001). Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism. ISBN 978-0814756454. 

References

1. ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satanism
2. ^ http://web.satanism101.com/satfaq.html
3. ^ http://www.religioustolerance.org/satanis2.htm
4. ^ http://www.dpjs.co.uk/serpent.html#SINR
5. ^ http://www.dpjs.co.uk/serpent.html#Happiness

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Satanism

• Official Church of Satan website
• Official First Satanic Church website
• Religious Tolerance page on Satanism
• Official Church of Satan from Romaniabar:Satanismus

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - satanisme

Nederlands (Dutch)
duivelsverering

Français (French)
n. - satanisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Satanismus, Satanskult

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σατανισμός, λατρεία του Σατανά

Italiano (Italian)
satanismo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - satanismo (m)

Русский (Russian)
культ сатаны, сатанизм

Español (Spanish)
n. - satanismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - satanism, satankult, djävulsdyrkan, sataniskhet, djävulskhet

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
恶魔崇拜, 恶魔般之性格

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 惡魔崇拜, 惡魔般之性格

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 악마주의, 극악, 악마 숭배

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 悪魔教, 悪魔崇拝, 悪魔主義, 悪魔的行為

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألشيطانيه, ألنزوع ألفطري ألى ألشر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮פולחן השטן‬

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