Theistic Satanism - Possible History of Theistic Satanism

Possible History of Theistic Satanism

The worship of Satan was a frequent charge against those charged in the witch trials in Early Modern Europe and other witch-hunts such as the Salem witch trials. Worship of Satan was claimed to take place at the witches' sabbat. The charge of Satan worship has also been made against groups or individuals regarded with suspicion, such as the Knights Templar, or minority religions. It is not known to what extent accusations of groups worshiping Satan in the time of the witch trials identified people who did consider themselves Satanists, rather than being the result of religious superstition or mass hysteria, or charges made against individuals suffering from mental illness. Confessions are unreliable, particularly as they were usually obtained under torture. However, scholar Jeffrey Burton Russell, Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, has made extensive arguments in his book Witchcraft in the Middle Ages that not all witch trial records can be dismissed and that there is in fact evidence linking witchcraft to gnostic heresies. Russell comes to this conclusion after having studied the source documents themselves. Individuals involved in the poison affair were accused of Satanism and witchcraft.

Some members of Ordo Flammeus Serpens (OFS), a group that venerates demons, say that they were trained by a traditional family sect, or are generational demonolaters whose religion has been passed down through the family. Claims such as these are unproven. Tani Jantsang of Satanic Reds refers to herself as a generational Satanist, but what she means by that is that her family would have been labelled Satanic by Christianity, although they are in fact “non-Islamic Turko-Tatar”. Theistic Satanists are inspired by incidences they see as evidence of previous followers of their faith. The concept of Satan may incorporate elements from older religions than Judaism. Ha-satan is the role of one of Yahweh's court, whose duties include testing the faith of humanity; the concept may be derived from a judicial function in Israeli court, similar to a prosecuting attorney. The Jewish Encyclopedia says that parts of the Old Testament where Satan is seen to act independently of God may have been influenced by Zoroastrianism; however, the same article states that “The Angelology of the Talmud, moreover, proves that, according to the older view (until about 200 C.E.), punishment was inflicted by angels and not by Satan. In the course of time, however, official Judaism, beginning perhaps with Johanan (d. 279), absorbed the popular concepts of Satan, which doubtless forced their way gradually from the lower classes to the most cultured.” and that according to later Talmudic tradition about Satan “He is the incarnation of all evil, and his thoughts and activities are devoted to the destruction of man; so that Satan, the impulse to evil (‘yeẓer ha-ra’), and the angel of death are one and the same personality. He descends from heaven and leads astray, then ascends and brings accusations against mankind.” Historically, Satanist was a pejorative term for those with opinions that differed from predominant religious or moral beliefs. Paul Tuitean believes the idea of acts of “reverse Christianity” was created by the Inquisition, but George Battaille believes that inversions of Christian rituals such as the Mass may have existed prior to the descriptions of them which were obtained through the witchcraft trials.

In the 18th century various kinds of popular “Satanic” literature began to be produced in France, including some well-known grimoires with instructions for making a pact with the Devil. The Marquis de Sade describes defiling crucifixes and other holy objects, and in Justine gives a fictional account of the Black Mass, although Ronald Hayman has said Sade's need for blasphemy was an emotional reaction and rebellion from which Sade moved on, seeking to develop a more reasoned atheistic philosophy. In the 19th century, Eliphas Levi published his French books of the occult, and in 1855 produced his well-known drawing of the Baphomet which continues to be used by some Satanists today (for example the sigil of Baphomet). Finally, in 1891, Joris-Karl Huysmans published his Satanic novel, Là-bas, which included a detailed description of a Black Mass which he may have known first-hand was being performed in Paris at the time, or the account may have been based on the masses carried out by Étienne Guibourg, rather than by Huysmans attending himself. Quotations from Huysmans' Black Mass are also used in some Satanic rituals to this day since it is one of the few sources that purports to describe the words used in a Black Mass. The type of Satanism described in Là-Bas suggests that prayers are said to the Devil, hosts are stolen from the Catholic Church, and sexual acts are combined with Roman Catholic altar objects and rituals, to produce a variety of Satanism which exalts the Devil and degrades the God of Christianity by inverting Roman Catholic rites. George Bataille claims that Huysman's description of the Black Mass is “indisputably authentic”. Not all theistic Satanists today routinely perform the Black Mass, possibly because the mass is not a part of modern evangelical Christianity in Protestant countries and so not such an unintentional influence on Satanist practices in those countries.

Michael Aquino published a rare 1970 text of a Church of Satan black mass, the Missa Solemnis, in his book The Church of Satan, and Anton LaVey included a different Church of Satan black mass, the Messe Noire, in his 1972 book The Satanic Rituals. LaVey's books on Satanism, which began in the 1960s, were for a long time the few available which advertised themselves as being Satanic, although others detailed the history of witchcraft and Satanism, such as The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish published in 1967 and the classic French work Satanism and Witchcraft, by Jules Michelet. Anton LaVey specifically denounced “devil worshippers” and the idea of praying to Satan.