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{{Short description|Religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs based on Satan}}
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{{Redirect|Satanist|other uses|Satanism (disambiguation)|and|Satanist (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Pentagram4.svg|thumb|The inverted [[pentagram]] is a widespread symbol of Satanism.{{Sfn|Petersen|2004|pp=444–446}}]]

'''Satanism''' refers to a group of [[Religion|religious]], [[Ideology|ideological]], or [[Philosophy|philosophical]] beliefs based on [[Satan]]—particularly his [[worship]] or [[veneration]].<ref name="Britannica-White">{{Britannica URL|topic/Satanism|Satanism|author=White, Ethan Doyle|access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref> Because of the ties to the historical [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic religious]] figure, Satanism—as well as other religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs that align with Satanism—is considered a [[Counterculture|countercultural]] Abrahamic religion.

The phenomenon of Satanism shares "historical connections and family resemblances" with the [[Left Hand Path]] milieu of other [[occult]] figures such as [[Asmodeus]], [[Beelzebub]], [[Hecate]], [[Lilith]], [[Lucifer]], [[Mephistopheles]], [[Pan (god)|Pan]], [[Prometheus]], [[Samael]], and [[Set (deity)|Set]].<ref name="Britannica-White" /> Self-identified Satanism is a relatively modern phenomenon, largely attributed to the 1966 founding of the [[Church of Satan]] by [[Anton LaVey]] in the United States—an [[Atheism|atheistic]] group that does not believe in a supernatural Satan.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.1">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: section 1. What Is Satan?</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=LaVey |first1=Anton|title=The Devil's Notebook |date=2000 |publisher=Feral House |isbn=9780922915118 |page=85 |quote=As Satanists..it has never been enough for us to be atheistic...}}</ref>

Accusations of groups engaged in "[[Theistic Satanism|devil worship]]" have echoed throughout much of Christian history. During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Inquisition]] led by the [[Catholic Church]] alleged that various [[heretical Christian]] sects and groups, such as the [[Knights Templar]] and the [[Cathars]], performed secret Satanic rituals. In the subsequent [[Early Modern period]], belief in a widespread Satanic conspiracy of witches resulted in [[Witch trials in the early modern period|the trials and executions of tens of thousands of alleged witches]] across Europe and the North American colonies, peaking between 1560 and 1630.<ref name="Thurston 2001 Page 79">[[#Thu01|Thurston 2001]]. p. 79.</ref><ref name="Levack-2006">{{Cite book |last=Levack |first=Brian P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8yqDKcSgSUC |title=The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe |date=2006 |publisher=Pearson Longman |isbn=978-0-582-41901-8 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 7}}</ref> The terms ''Satanist'' and ''Satanism'' emerged during the [[Reformation]] and [[Counter-Reformation]] (1517–1700),{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=257 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=2}} as both Catholics and Protestants accused each other of intentionally being in league with Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=35}}

Since the 19th century various small religious groups have emerged that identify as Satanist or use Satanic iconography. While the groups that appeared after the 1960s differed greatly, they can be broadly divided into [[Satanism#Nontheistic Satanism|nontheistic Satanism]] and [[theistic Satanism]].<ref name="Satanism-Introduction">{{cite web |author-last=Abrams |author-first=Joe |editor-last=Wyman |editor-first=Kelly |date=Spring 2006 |title=The Religious Movements Homepage Project – Satanism: An Introduction |url=http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/intro.html#atheistic/theistic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829152745/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/intro.html#atheistic/theistic |archive-date=29 August 2006 |website=virginia.edu |publisher=[[University of Virginia]] |access-date=1 January 2021}}</ref> Those venerating Satan as a supernatural [[deity]] are unlikely to ascribe [[omnipotence]], instead relating to Satan as a [[patriarch]]. Nontheistic Satanists regard Satan as a symbol of certain human traits, a useful [[metaphor]] without ontological reality.<ref name="Point of Inquiry Interview">{{cite web|last=Gilmore|first=Peter|title=Science and Satanism|work=Point of Inquiry Interview |date=10 August 2007 |url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/peter_h_gilmore_science_and_satanism/|access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref> Contemporary religious Satanism is predominantly an American phenomenon, although the rise of globalization and the Internet have seen these ideas spread to other parts of the world.{{sfn|Petersen|2009a}}

== Etymology and definitions ==

===Etymology===
[[File:Alexandre Cabanel - Fallen Angel.jpg|thumb|[[The Fallen Angel (painting)|''The Fallen Angel'']] (1847) by [[Alexandre Cabanel]]]]
The term ''Satan'' has evolved from a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] term for "adversary" or "to oppose", into the Christian figure of a fallen angel who tempts 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]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=51 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=19}} 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]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=51}}

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 such as the [[Book of Enoch]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=52}} This Satan was then featured in parts of the New Testament, where he was presented as a figure who tempts 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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=53}}

While the early Christian idea of the Devil was not well developed, it gradually adapted and expanded through the creation of folklore, art, theological treatises, and morality tales, thus providing the character with a range of extra-Biblical associations.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=21–22}}  Beginning in the early middle ages, the concept developed in Christianity of the devil as "archrepresentative of evil", and  of the Satanist "as malign mirror image of the good Christian".{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|at=Chapter 1. The Christian Invention of Satanism }}

The word ''Satanism'' was adopted into English from the French ''satanisme''.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=9}} The terms ''Satanism'' and ''Satanist'' are first recorded as appearing in the English and French languages during the 16th century, when they were used by Christian groups to attack other, rival Christian groups.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=257 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=2}} In a [[Roman Catholic]] tract of 1565, the author condemns the "heresies, blasphemies, and sathanismes [sic]" of the [[Protestants]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=9}} In an [[Anglican]] work of 1559, [[Anabaptists]] and other Protestant sects are condemned as "swarmes of Satanistes [sic]".{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=9}} As used in this manner, the term ''Satanism'' was not used to claim that people literally worshipped Satan, but instead that they deviated from true Christianity, and thus were serving the will of Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=2}} During the 19th century, the term ''Satanism'' began to be used to describe those considered to lead a broadly immoral lifestyle,{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=2}} and it was only in the late 19th century that it came to be applied in English to individuals who were believed to consciously and deliberately venerate Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=2}} 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.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=44}}

=== Definitions ===
Some definitions of Satanism:
 
* the worship or veneration of the figure from Christian belief known as Satan, the Devil or Lucifer<ref name="Britannica-White" />
* the "intentional, religiously motivated veneration of Satan"{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=5}}{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=2}}
*  "a system in which Satan is celebrated in a prominent position"<ref>{{cite book |first=P. |last=Faxneld |title=Satanic Feminism: Lucifer As the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |page=25}}</ref> This definition has the advantage of avoiding "assumptions about the nature of religion".<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention" />
*the simultaneous presence of three characteristics:
::1) the worship of the character in the Bible whose name is Satan or Lucifer,
::2) the organization of these "Satanists" into a group with at least some kind of organization and hierarchy, and ...
::3) and has some kind of ritual or liturgical practices [...]
:whether the group with these characteristics perceives Satan as personal or impersonal, real or symbolic, does not matter.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=3}}

But these definitions of Satanism are limited to 
* figures and groups who ''identify'' as Satanists or at least  admirers of Satan (Romantic Satanists, hellfire clubs and modern Satanists).
... excluding 
* figures and groups ''accused'' of worshipping Satan and in the process committing horrible crimes (in the middle ages, during the 1980–1994 [[Satanic panic|Satanic ritual abuse moral panic]], etc.) but who either appear to have not been satanists or to not  have actually existed.
According to Laycock, excluding the second group, you leave out most of the history of Satanism.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: section 1. What Is Satanism? Anton LaVey and the Invention of Satanism</ref>

If you ''do'' include both groups, you have two sides with 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.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.1" /> While the self-identified Satanists often do not believe that Satan actually exists as a being (they believe he is a symbol and a "[[Prometheus|Promethean]] figure",<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-Amoral-O9A" /> "an esoteric symbol of a vital force that permeates the universe"),<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.3-Esotericism">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: section 3 Satanic Sympathizers.  Satan and Esotericism</ref> let alone is trying to destroy humanity.

Definitions that would include the "satanism" of heresy crusades and moral panics is:
*  an invention of Christianity, relying on a character deriving from [[Christian mythology]], i.e.  Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=16}}

In their study of Satanism, the [[religious studies]] scholars Asbjørn Dyrendal, [[James R. Lewis (scholar)|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]]'".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=7}} 
 
Eugene Gallagher noted that Satanism was usually "a [[polemical]], not a descriptive term".{{sfn|Gallagher|2006|p=151}}

Similar to the way certain Christian denominations accuse each other of heresy, different satanic groups—mainly 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 and/or ignorant of true Satanism.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.1" />

===Related terms===
Because the original concept of Satan came from Judaism and was embraced by Christianity, 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.<ref name="Granholm-2012">{{cite book |last1=Granholm |first1=Kennet |editor1-last=Petersen |editor1-first=Jesper Aa. |editor2-last=Faxneld |editor2-first=Per |title=The Devil's Party: Satanism in Modernity |date=November 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=209–228 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/11601/chapter-abstract/160464629?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=6 January 2024 |chapter=10. The Left-Hand Path and Post-Satanism: The Temple of Set and the Evolution of Satanism |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199779239.003.0010 |isbn=978-0-19-977923-9 }}</ref> These religions are sometimes called Satanic and sometimes post-Satanic.{{#tag:ref|For example the [[Temple of Set]], despite being a splinter group of the Church of Satan, venerates the deity Set, considering ''Set'' to be the true name of Satan.|group=Note}}

Diane E. Taub and Lawrence D. Nelson complain that Satanism "is frequently defined either too broadly or too narrowly", with accusers sometimes including non-satanic groups such as [[Santeria]], [[Witchcraft]], Eastern religions as well as [[Freemasonry]]; and academics (for example Carlson and Larue){{sfn|Carlson|Larue|1989|p=11}} and others sometimes restricting its definition to "recognized Satanic churches and their members", excluding those who "believes in a literal Satan". Taub and Nelson define Satanism as "the literal or symbolic worship of Satan, the enemy of the Judeo-Christian God".{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=525}}

==Devil in society==

[[File:Mask Diabo of Portugal used on folk fest and rituals.jpg|thumb|upright|Devil mask from Portugal]]
Historical and anthropological research suggests that nearly all societies have developed the idea of a sinister and anti-human force that can hide itself within society.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=13–14}} This commonly involves a belief in [[witches]], a group of individuals who invert the norms of their society and seek to harm their community, for instance by engaging in [[incest]], [[murder]], and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=14}} Allegations of witchcraft may have different causes and serve different functions within a society.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=16}} For instance, they may serve to uphold social norms,{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=15}} to heighten the tension in existing conflicts between individuals,{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=15}} or to scapegoat certain individuals for various social problems.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=16}}

Another contributing factor to the idea of Satanism is the concept that there is an agent of misfortune and evil who operates on a cosmic scale,{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=19}} something usually associated with a strong form of ethical dualism that divides the world clearly into forces of good and forces of evil.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=20}} The earliest such entity known is [[Angra Mainyu]], a figure that appears in the Persian religion of [[Zoroastrianism]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=19}}{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=18}} This concept was also embraced by Judaism and early Christianity, and although it was soon marginalized within Jewish thought, it gained increasing importance within early Christian understandings of the cosmos.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=21}}

The [[Native American religions|Native South American]] terrible god [[Tiw (god)|Tiw]] is traditionally honored with the syncretic dance and parade ''[[Diablada]]'' ('Dance of the Devils') that was opposed to the Catholic Church in origin.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gruszczyńska-Ziółkowska, Anna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmq4bGIh9jgC |title=El poder del sonido: el papel de las crónicas españolas en la etnomusicología andina |publisher=Ediciones Abya-Yala |year=1995 |isbn=9978-04-147-8 |place=Ecuador |page=107 |language=es}}</ref>

==Accusations of Satanism==
<!-- Groups or individuals alleged to have practiced Satanism before the appearance of modern Satanism in the 1960s -->
According to author [[Arthur Lyons (writer)|Arthur Lyons]], "Satanic religions are as old as monotheism and have their origins in Persia of the sixth century",{{#tag:ref|An abstract of Lyon's book appeared on US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs web page.<ref name="Lyons-1988">{{cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=Arthur. |title=Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Worship in America |date=1988 |publisher=Mysterious Press |url=https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/satan-wants-you-cult-devil-worship-america |access-date=16 January 2024}}</ref> |group=Note}}
and Joe Carter of the conservative ecumenical journal ''[[First Things]]'' writes that "real satanism has been around since the beginning of history, selling an appealing message: Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God."<ref name="Carter-2011-fountainhead">{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=Joe |title=THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF SATANISM |journal=First Things |date=8 June 2011 |url=https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/06/the-fountainhead-of-satanism |access-date=16 January 2024}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|In the 19th century, Charles Baudelaire (and others with variations of the wording) was quoted saying, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."<ref name="QI-trick-2018">{{cite web |title=The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn't Exist |url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/03/20/devil/ |website=Quote Investigator |access-date=16 January 2024 |date=20 March 2018}}</ref>|group=Note}}

On the other hand, religious scholar Joseph Laycock writes that the "available evidence suggests" that Satanism began as "an imaginary religion Christians invented to demonize their opponents".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/>
Confessions of worship of Satan came only after torture or other forms of coercion in early modern Europe.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/> While early stories of satanic activity have been commonly labeled and regarded as propaganda based on falsehood, they also partially shaped the beliefs of what would become modern religious Satanism. Those who absorbed and accepted the tales sometimes began to imitate them (celebrating Black Masses for example), a process known to folklorists as "[[ostension (folklore)|ostension]]".<ref>{{cite book |first=B. |last=Ellis |title=Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live |location=Jackson |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2003}}</ref>

===Medieval and Early Modern Christendom===
{{See also|European witchcraft|Maleficium (sorcery)|Witch-cult hypothesis}}
[[File:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Witches' Sabbath - WGA10007.jpg|thumb|[[Francisco de Goya]]'s ''[[Witches' Sabbath (1789)|Witches' Sabbath]]'' (1789), which depicts [[the Devil]] flanked by Satanic witches. The witch-cult hypothesis states that such stories are based upon a real-life pagan cult that revered a horned god.]]
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]]". Christianity  being a monotheist religion, Christian theologians believed that since there was only one God (the God of Christianity) the gods and goddesses with supernatural powers venerated by these "pagans" could not be genuine divinities but must actually be demons.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=23}} However, they did not believe that "pagans" were deliberately worshipping [[Devil|devils]], but were instead simply misguided and unaware of the "true" God.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=24}}

Those Christian groups regarded as [[Heresy in Christianity|heretics]] by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were treated differently, with theologians arguing that they were deliberately worshipping the Devil.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=24–26}} This was accompanied by claims that such individuals engaged in acts of evil—incestuous sexual orgies, the murder of infants, and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]—all stock accusations that had previously been leveled at Christians themselves in the [[Roman Empire]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=25–26}} In Christian iconography, the Devil and demons were given the physical traits of figures from [[classical mythology]], such as the god [[Pan (god)|Pan]], [[faun]]s, and [[satyr]]s.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=24}}

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.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=25}} 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]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=28}} The [[Knights Templar]] were accused of worshipping an [[Cult image|idol]] known as [[Baphomet]], with Lucifer having appeared at their meetings in the form of a cat.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=126}} As well as these Christian groups, these claims were also made about Europe's Jewish community.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=28–29}} In the 13th 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 14th century, although historians studying the allegations concur that these Luciferians were probably a fictitious invention.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=29–31}}

Within Christian thought, the idea developed that certain individuals could make [[Deal with the Devil|a pact with Satan]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=57}} 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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=58}} 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 4th century. Here, he stated that people who consulted augurs were entering ''quasi pacts'' (covenants) with demons.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=57–58}} The idea of the diabolical pact made with demons was popularized across Europe in the story of [[Faust]], probably based in part on the real life [[Johann Georg Faust]].{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=60–63}}

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]] (1517–1700 CE), both Catholics and Protestants accused each other of deliberately being in league with Satan.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=35}} It was in this context that the terms ''Satanist'' and ''Satanism'' emerged.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=257 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=2}}

====Witch trials====

[[File:Wickiana4.jpg|thumb|The [[torture]] used against [[Witch trials in the early modern period|accused witches]], 1577. Estimates of the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe vary between 40,000 and 60,000.]]
The early modern period also saw fear of Satanists reach its "historical apogee" in the form of the [[Witch trials in the early modern period|witch trials of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries]],{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}} when between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe.<ref name=":22">{{Cite news |title=Why did Germany burn so many witches? The brutal force of economic competition |url=https://qz.com/1183992/why-europe-was-overrun-by-witch-hunts-in-early-modern-history/ |access-date=24 August 2018 |work=Quartz |language=en-US}}</ref> This came about as the accusations which had been leveled at medieval heretics, among them that of devil-worship, were applied to the pre-existing idea of [[European witchcraft|the witch]], or practitioner of malevolent [[magic (paranormal)|magic]].{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=133 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=37}} The idea of a conspiracy of Satanic witches was developed by educated elites, although the concept of malevolent witchcraft was a widespread part of popular belief, and [[folkloric]] ideas about the night witch, the [[wild hunt]], and the dance of the fairies were incorporated into it.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=38}} The earliest trials took place in Northern Italy and France, before spreading it out to other areas of Europe and to Britain's North American colonies, being carried out by the legal authorities in both Catholic and Protestant regions.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=36}}

Most historians agree that the majority of those persecuted in these witch trials were innocent of any involvement in Devil worship.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=70}} Historian Darren Eldridge writes that claims that there actually was a cult of devil-worshippers being pursued by witch hunters "have not survived the scrutiny of surviving trial records" done by historians from 1962 to 2012.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-39>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=39 |year=2012}}</ref>
However, in their summary of the evidence for the trials, the historians Geoffrey Scarre and John Callow thought it "without doubt" that some of those accused in the trials had been guilty of employing magic in an attempt to harm their enemies and were thus genuinely guilty of witchcraft.{{sfn|Scarre|Callow|2001|p=2}}

====Affair of the Poisons====
{{main|Affair of the Poisons}}
In a scandal starting with the poisoning of three people, prominent members of the French aristocracy, including members of the king's inner circle, were implicated and sentenced on charges of poisoning and witchcraft. Between 1677 and 1682, during the reign of King [[Louis XIV]], 36 people were executed in Satanic panic known to history as the [[Affair of the Poisons]].<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.2-Poisons/> At least  some of the accusers were implicated others under torture and in hopes of saving their lives. These highly unreliable reports include what "may be the first report of a satanic mass using a woman as an altar".<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.2-Poisons>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: Chapter 2, Imagining the Black Mass. The Affair of the Poisons</ref>

===18th- to 20th-century Christendom===

[[File:Seal of Baphomet.svg|thumb|Stanislas de Guaita drew the original goat pentagram, which first appeared in the book ''La Clef de la Magie Noire'' in 1897. Adaptations of this inverted pentagram would later become synonymous with [[Baphomet]].]]

The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and [[Scientific Revolution]] changed humanity's understanding of the world. The mathematics of [[Isaac Newton]] and psychology of [[John Locke]] "left little space for the intervention of supernatural beings".<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-41>{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=41 |year=2012}}</ref> [[Charles Darwin]]'s theory of [[evolution]] undermined the doctrine of the Fall in the Garden of Eden and the role of the diabolical [[Serpents in the Bible|serpent]], while also providing an "alternative account of human evil" in the form of "a residual effect of our animal nature".<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67">{{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |page=43 |year=2012}}</ref> The [[Industrial Revolution]] and urbanization disturbed traditional social relations and folk ideas to undermine belief in witchcraft and the devil.<ref name=devil-oldridge-2012-67/> Understanding of disorders of the mind undercut demonic possession.<ref name="devil-oldridge-2012-67"/>   But while the hunting and killing of alleged witches waned, belief in Satan did not disappear.

During the 18th century, gentleman's social clubs became increasingly prominent in Britain and Ireland, among the most secretive of which were the [[Hellfire Club]]s, which were first reported in the 1720s.{{sfnm|1a1=Introvigne|1y=2016|1pp=58–59 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=66}} 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]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=66–67}} A number of contemporary press sources portrayed these as gatherings of [[atheist]] [[Rake (character)|rakes]] where Christianity was mocked, and toasts were made to the Devil.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} Beyond these sensationalist accounts, which may not be accurate portrayals of actual events, little is known about the activities of the Hellfire Clubs.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=66}} 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" rather than to pay homage  to him.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=60–61}}

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.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=71}} 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|tarot card readers]], were part of a Satanic conspiracy.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=71–73}} 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.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=74–78}} Although most of his contemporaries regarded Berbiguier as suffering from mental illness,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=84–85}} his ideas gained credence among many occultists, including [[Stanislas de Guaita]], a [[Christian Kabbalah|Cabalist]] who used them for the basis of his book, ''The Temple of Satan''.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=85–86}}

A reaction to this was the [[Taxil hoax]] in 1890s France, where an anti-clerical writer [[Léo Taxil]] (aka Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès), publicly converted to Catholicism and then published several works alleging to expose the  Satanic doings of [[Anti-Masonry|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.<ref name=Confession>{{cite web
|url= https://www.learnreligions.com/alternative-religion-4684831
|accessdate= 25 October 2007
|title= The Confession of Leo Taxil
|date= 25 April 1897
|archive-date= 2008-05-13
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080513164148/http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_confessiontaxil.htm
|url-status= dead
}}</ref> 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.<ref name="National Magazine, 1906">''National Magazine, an Illustrated American Monthly'', Volume XXIV: April – September 1906, pages 228 and 229</ref> 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.<ref name="Britannica-White"/> (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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=266–267}} At the same time, non-fiction authors such as [[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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=141–142}} 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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=143–149}} 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 [[levitation (paranormal)|levitate]], before she escaped and embraced Christianity.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=159–161}}

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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=164–170}} 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".{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=161}}

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.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=262–263 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=66}}

===Ritual abuse hysteria===
{{main|Satanic panic}}
At the end of the 20th 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.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=13}} Initially, the alleged perpetrators of such crimes were labeled "witches", although the term ''Satanist'' was soon adopted as a favored alternative,{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=13}} and the phenomenon itself came to be called "the Satanism Scare".{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=15}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=La Fontaine|1y=2016|1p=13 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=381}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=Preceded by some significant but isolated episodes in the 1970s, a great Satanism scare exploded in the 1980s in the United States and Canada and was subsequently exported towards England, Australia, and other countries. It was unprecedented in history. It surpassed even the results of [[Taxil]]'s propaganda, and has been compared with the most virulent periods of witch hunting. The scare started in 1980 and declined slowly between 1990... and 1994, when official British and American reports denied the real existence of ritual satanic crimes. Particularly outside the U.S. and U.K., however, its consequences are still felt today.|source=Sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne, 2016{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=372}} }}

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.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=175–177 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2pp=374–376}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=115–116}} 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 [[McMartin preschool trial|lengthy and expensive trial]], in which all of the accused would eventually be cleared.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1pp=178–183 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2pp=405–406}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=116–120}} The publicity generated by the case resulted in similar allegations being made in various other parts of the United States.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=183}}

A key claim by the "anti-Satanists"{{attribution needed|date=July 2025}} of the Satanic Scare was that any child's claim about Satanic ritual abuse must be true, because children do not lie.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=16}} Although some involved in the anti-Satanism movement were from Jewish and secular backgrounds,{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=369 |2a1=La Fontaine|2y=2016|2p=15}} a central part was played by fundamentalist{{contentious label inline|date=July 2025}} and evangelical Christians, in particular [[Pentecostal]] Christians, with Christian groups holding conferences and producing books and videotapes to promote belief in the conspiracy.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|p=15}} Various figures in law enforcement also came to be promoters of the conspiracy theory, with such "cult cops"{{attribution needed|date=July 2025}} holding various conferences to promote it.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=191–195}} The scare was later imported to the United Kingdom through visiting evangelicals and became popular among some of the country's social workers,{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=220–221}} resulting in a range of accusations and trials across Britain.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=234–248}}

In the late 1980s, the Satanic Scare had lost its impetus following increasing skepticism about such allegations,{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=210–211}} and a number of those who had been convicted of perpetrating Satanic ritual abuse saw their convictions overturned.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=213}} 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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=213}} In the UK, the [[Department of Health (United Kingdom)|Department of Health]] commissioned the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine to examine the allegations of SRA.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=249}} 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.{{sfn|La Fontaine|2016|pp=13–14}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Medway|1y=2001|1p=118 |2a1=La Fontaine|2y=2016|2p=14}}

By 1994, the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria{{contentious label inline|date=July 2025}} had died down in the US and UK,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=372}} 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.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=456}} 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"<ref>Ross, A. 1994. "Blame it on the Devil". ''Redbook'' June 1994, p.88</ref><ref name=Footnote213/>
*32 percent agreed with the statement, "The FBI and the police ignore evidence because they don't want to admit the cults exist",<ref name=Footnote213/><ref>Ross, A. 1994. "Blame it on the Devil". Redbook June: 86–89. 110, 114, 1</ref> and
*22 percent agreed that cult leaders use brainwashing to ensure that the victims would not tell.<ref name=Footnote213>213 W. Kaminer, ''Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety'' (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), p. 193.</ref>

===QAnon===
{{main|QAnon}}
Another Satanic conspiracy theory arose in the United States by 2017,<ref name="nymag">{{Cite news |last=Martineau |first=Paris |date=19 December 2017 |title=The Storm Is the New Pizzagate – Only Worse |work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |url=https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-explained.html |access-date=26 March 2018 |issn=0028-7369}}</ref> with unsubstantiated allegations of organized Devil-worshippers in prominent positions committing sexual abuse, murder, and cannibalism. The source of such claims began within a far-right political movement, made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q", which were relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. The central QAnon claim purports that a global child [[sex trafficking]] ring made up of Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts,{{sfn|Rothschild|2021|p=21}} were kidnapping, sexually abusing and eating children, but that (then-President) [[Donald Trump]] would round up the cabal and bring them to justice in a climactic event known to supporters as "the storm".{{sfn|Rothschild|2021|pp=9, 28, 175}}<ref name="far-right conspiracy theory">{{cite journal |last1=Guglielmi |first1=Giorgia |title=The next-generation bots interfering with the US election |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=28 October 2020 |volume=587 |issue=7832 |page=21 |doi=10.1038/d41586-020-03034-5 |pmid=33116324 |bibcode=2020Natur.587...21G |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Bracewell">{{cite journal |last=Bracewell |first=Lorna |date=21 January 2021 |title=Gender, Populism, and the QAnon Conspiracy Movement |journal=[[Frontiers in Sociology]] |publisher=[[Frontiers Media]] |location=Cardiff, England|volume=5 |article-number=615727 |doi=10.3389/fsoc.2020.615727 |doi-access=free |issn=2297-7775 |pmc=8022489 |pmid=33869533 |s2cid=231654586}}</ref><ref name="Crossley">{{cite journal |last=Crossley |first=James |date=September 2021 |title=The Apocalypse and Political Discourse in an Age of COVID |journal=[[Journal for the Study of the New Testament]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |location=Thousand Oaks, California |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=93–111 |doi=10.1177/0142064X211025464 |doi-access=free |issn=1745-5294 |s2cid=237329082}}</ref> 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 has waned but not entirely disappeared.<ref name="Dickey-Qanon-16-8-23">{{cite news |last1=Dickey |first1=Colin |title=From Sound of Freedom to Ron DeSantis: how QAnon's crazy conspiracy theories went mainstream |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/16/qanon-conspiracy-theory-sound-of-freedom-trump-desantis |access-date=2 January 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=16 August 2023}}</ref>

==Precursors of modern Satanism==

=== Literary ===

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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=29}} 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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=29}} 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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}}

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.{{sfnm|1a1=Dyrendal|1a2=Lewis|1a3=Petersen|1y=2016|1p=28 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=70}} Milton was a [[Puritan]] and had never intended for his depiction of Satan to be a sympathetic one.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=28, 30}} 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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=30}} In this vein, the 19th century saw the emergence of what has been termed ''literary Satanism'' or ''romantic Satanism'',{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=73}} 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.<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.1-Invention>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: chapter 1. What Is Satanism? Anton LaVey and the Invention of Satanism</ref>

This was how Milton's Satan was understood by [[John Dryden]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kk1AQAAIAAJ&q=%22but+he+is+a+satanist+only%22+%22dryden%22 |title=Seventeenth-century Critics and Biographers of Milton – M. Manuel – Google Books |date=23 July 2010 |accessdate=2022-10-08|last1=Manuel |first1=M. }}</ref> and later readers such as the publisher [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]],{{sfnm|1a1=Dyrendal|1a2=Lewis|1a3=Petersen|1y=2016|1pp=28, 30 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2pp=69–70}} and the anarchist philosopher [[William Godwin]], who reflected it in his 1793 book ''[[Enquiry Concerning Political Justice]]''.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=30}} ''Paradise Lost'' gained a wide readership in the 18th century, both in Britain and in continental Europe, where it had been translated into French by [[Voltaire]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=70}} Milton thus became "a central character in rewriting Satanism" and would be viewed by many later religious Satanists as a "''de facto'' Satanist".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}}

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".{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=108}} For the literary Satanists, Satan was depicted as a benevolent and sometimes heroic figure,{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=69}} with these more sympathetic portrayals proliferating in the art and poetry of many [[romanticist]] and [[Decadent movement|decadent]] figures.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=28}} 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".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=31}}

[[File:Lucifer Liege Luc Viatour new.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Guillaume Geefs]], ''[[Le génie du mal]]'', 1848]]
Among the romanticist poets to adopt this concept of Satan was the English poet [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], who had been influenced by Milton.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=71–72}} In his poem ''[[Laon and Cythna]]'', Shelley praised the "serpent", a reference to Satan, as a force for good in the universe.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=97–98}}
Another was Shelley's fellow British poet [[Lord Byron]], who included Satanic themes in his 1821 play ''[[Cain (play)|Cain]]'', which was a dramatization of the Biblical story of [[Cain and Abel]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=73}} These more positive portrayals also developed in France; one example was the 1823 work ''Eloa'' by [[Alfred de Vigny]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=74–75}} 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]].{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=105–107}}
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.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=108}}

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.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=77–79}} 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".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=31}} 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.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=117–119}} 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]]''.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|pp=119–120}} These ideas probably inspired the American [[feminist]] activist [[Moses Harman]] to name his anarchist periodical ''[[Lucifer the Lightbearer]]''.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=120}} The idea of this "Leftist Satan" declined during the 20th century.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=120}}

=== Occult ===

[[File:Baphomet by Éliphas Lévi.jpg|thumb|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.{{sfn|Petersen|2005|pages=444–446}}]]
In 17th-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,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=44–45}} practices now regarded as "folkloric Satanism".{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=44}}

The figure of "Lucifer" was taken up by the French [[ceremonial magic]]ian [[Éliphas Lévi]] (1810–1875), who shocked convention by turning the traditional figure of evil into a brave rebel against tyranny.<ref name=JPLS2023:chpt.1-Invention/> Lévi has been described as a "Romantic Satanist",{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=107}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=37}} a [[Romanticism|Romantic]] literary movement that 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.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/> They reimagined Satan as an enemy of God the powerful, but not of the weak and mortal human race. In other words, a figure humans could sympathize with.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1-Invention/>
As Lévi 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".{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=107}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=37}}

Lévi was not the only occultist who used the term ''Lucifer'' without adopting the term ''Satan'' in a similar way.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=37}} The early [[Theosophical Society]] believed that "Lucifer" was a force that aided humanity's awakening to its own spiritual nature;{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=37–38}} the Society began publishing the [[Lucifer (magazine)|journal ''Lucifer'']] in 1887.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=38}}

The first person to promote an explicitly "Satanic" philosophy was the Polish writer [[Stanisław Przybyszewski]] (1868–1927), a "[[Bohemianism|decadent Bohemian]]" who based his ideology on [[Social Darwinism]] of the 1890s,{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=36}} publishing ''[[The Synagogue of Satan]]'' in 1897.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.3-Esotericism/>

Danish occultist [[Carl William Hansen]] (1872–1936), who used the pen name Ben Kadosh, listed "Luciferian" as his religious affiliation in answer to the Danish national census (his wife and children were listed as Lutheran),{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=38}} making him among the earliest "self-declared Satanists".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.3-Esotericism/> 
Hansen sought to spread a cult of Satan/Lucifer,<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.3-Esotericism/> and was involved in a variety of esoteric groups, including [[Martinism]], [[Freemasonry]], and [[Ordo Templi Orientis]], drawing on their ideas to establish his own philosophy.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=38}} He provided a Luciferian interpretation of Freemasonry in a 1906 pamphlet, although his work had little influence outside of Denmark.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=39}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=227}}

Throughout his life British occultist [[Aleister Crowley]] (1875–1947) was widely described as a Satanist, usually by detractors.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lk8_ARNz-dYC&dq=%22the+first+satanist%22&pg=PA641 |title=The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions – Google Books |date= March 2001|isbn=9781615927388 |accessdate=2022-09-14|last1=Lewis |first1=James R. |publisher=Prometheus Books |ref=none}}</ref> Crowley 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1999|1p=175 |2a1=Dyrendal|2y=2012|2pp=369–370}} He nevertheless used imagery considered satanic, for instance, describing himself as "the Beast 666" and referring to the [[Whore of Babylon]] in his work, sending "[[Christmas cards|Antichristmas cards]]" to his friends later in life.{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=175}} Crowley "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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=39}} Both Crowley and [[Anton LaVey|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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=42}} 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.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=42}}

[[Maria de Naglowska]], a Russian occultist who had fled to France following the [[Russian Revolution]], established the esoteric group Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow in Paris in 1932.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=18}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=43–44}} 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.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=18}} Her early disciples, who underwent what she called "Satanic Initiations", included models and art students recruited from [[bohemianism|bohemian]] circles.{{sfn|Medway|2001|p=18}} The Golden Arrow disbanded after Naglowska abandoned it in 1936.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=45}} Hers was "a quite complicated Satanism, built on a complex philosophical vision of the world, of which little would survive its initiator".{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=277}}

Herbert Sloane claims [[Our Lady of Endor Coven]], a Satanic group based in [[Toledo, Ohio]], was founded in 1948. Describing his Satanic tradition as the Ophite Cultus Sathanas, the group first came to public attention in 1969.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=278}} The group had a Gnostic doctrine about the world, in which the Judeo-Christian creator god is regarded as evil, and the [[serpents in the Bible|Biblical serpent]] is presented as a force for good, who had delivered salvation to humanity in the [[Garden of Eden]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=280}} Sloane's claim of a 1940s origin remain unproven: potentially fabricated to make his group appear older than the (1966) establishment of the Church of Satan.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=50}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=278}}

==Contemporary tendencies and groups==
"The intentional, religiously motivated veneration of Satan" is the "working definition" of Satanism of historian of religion Ruben van Luijk,{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=2}} comes in different forms. Satanism has been called a  "[[new religious movement]]",{{sfnm|1a1=Dyrendal|1a2=Lewis|1a3=Petersen|1y=2016|1p=3 |2a1=Introvigne|2y=2016|2p=517}} and other times judged too diffuse to merit that description and been called instead a "[[milieu]]" (Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen),{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=4}} united by "[[family resemblance]]",{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=7}} and the fact that most of them were [[self religion]]s.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=4}} Some of the resemblances in this Satanic milieu are:  
* the positive use of the term ''Satanist'' as a designation, 
* an emphasis on individualism, 
* a genealogy that connects them to other Satanic groups, 
* a transgressive and [[antinomian]] stance, 
* a self-perception as an elite, and 
* an embrace of values such as pride, self-reliance, and productive non-conformity.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=7–9}} 
A minority of Satanists have some type of association with the political far-right.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/nazi-satanists-promoting-extreme-violence-and-terrorism/|title=The Nazi Satanists promoting extreme violence and terrorism|website=openDemocracy}}</ref>

Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen argue that the groups within the Satanic milieu can be divided into three groups: reactive Satanists, rationalist Satanists, and esoteric Satanists.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=5}} 
*'''Reactive Satanism''' (they believe) encompass "popular Satanism, inverted Christianity, and symbolic rebellion" and situates itself in opposition to society while at the same time conforming to society's perspective of evil.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=5}} 
*'''Rationalist Satanism''' is used to describe the trend in the Satanic milieu which is [[atheistic]], [[scientific skepticism|skeptical]], [[materialist]]ic, and [[epicurean]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=6}} According to Joseph Laycock, "most contemporary Satanists" are nontheistic.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.1/> 
*'''Esoteric Satanism'''  applied to those forms which are [[theistic]] and draw upon ideas from other forms of [[Western esotericism]], [[Modern paganism|neopaganism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Hinduism]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=6}}

Diane E. Taub and Lawrence D. Nelson (publishing in 1993, at the end of the "Satanic panic") divide Satanism into two: 
* '''"Establishment" Satanism''', or the "respectable" form of Satanism that is "usually highly visible and structured",{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=525}} and emphasizes its law-abiding nature. (This may include both Rationalist Satanism and Esoteric Satanism.) An example of "Establishment Satanism" is the [[Church of Satan]], which "officially condemns illegal activity".{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=528}} (Other Establishment Satanists are the Church of Satanic Brotherhood or the Temple of Set.){{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=535}} It is the variety of Satanism  most studied by academic sociologists,{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=523}} who also represent Satanism in their "discourse" as "harmless, law-abiding alternative religions",{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=523}} ignoring the second type of Satanism ...
* '''"Underground" Satanism''', the Satanism of "reputed criminal elements", and the variety that lay groups and the media tend to focus on (especially during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s).{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=536}}{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=523, 525}} (Satanic Underground may be similar to Reactive Satanism.)  Information on the underground is often less than reliable, as reports are sensational and the Satanists themselves are secretive.{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=531}}{{sfn|Carlson|Larue|1989}}<ref name="Hicks 1991 a">Hicks, Robert D., 1991. ''In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult'', Buffalo: Prometheus Book.</ref><ref name="J. Richardson 1991">Richardson, James T.,  "Satanism in the Courts: From Murder to Heavy Metal." pp. 205–217 in ''The  Satanism Scare'', edited by James T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. Bromley. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.</ref> Establishment and Underground Satanism conflict, the first wanting to preserve its social acceptance and tax-exempt status that the sensational crimes or alleged crimes of the underground put in jeopardy. How much cause and effect there is a between Underground Satanism and crime comes into question because according to at least one report, "nearly worshipping criminal has had a history of anti-social behavior ... long before taking up occult trappings.")<ref>Carlson, Shawn and Gerald Larue. 1989. ''Satanism in America: How the Devil Got Much More  Than His Due''. El Cerrito, CA: Gaia, p.v. Quoted in ...</ref>{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=532}} On the other hand, evidence of personality disorders does not mean the disorder sufferer does not have sincere Satanic beliefs.{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993}}{{sfn|Carlson|Larue|1989}}

Contemporary religious Satanism is predominantly an American phenomenon but has spread elsewhere via globalization and the Internet,{{sfn|Petersen|2009a}} allowing for intra-group communication and creation of a forum for Satanist disputes.{{sfn|Petersen|2009a}} Satanism started to reach [[Central and Eastern Europe]] in the 1990s—in time with the fall of the [[Communist Bloc]]—and most noticeably in [[Poland]] and [[Lithuania]], predominantly Roman Catholic countries.{{sfn|Alisauskiene|2009}}<ref>{{cite news |title =Satanism stalks Poland |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/778438.stm |work= BBC News |date= 5 June 2000}}</ref>

=== Nontheistic Satanism ===
{{anchor|Atheistic Satanism}} <!-- Needed for redirect from lead section -->

====LaVeyan Satanism and Church of Satan====
{{Main|LaVeyan Satanism|Church of Satan}}
[[File:Baphosimb.svg|thumb|right|The [[sigil of Baphomet]], official insignia of the Church of Satan and LaVeyan Satanism]]
Satanism as "a self-declared religion" began in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan (CoS) by [[Anton LaVey|Anton Szandor LaVey]]. Religious scholars have called the Church not only the oldest, continuous satanic organization<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4/>{{sfn|Lewis|2001|p=5}}{{sfn|Asprem|Granholm|2014|p=75}}{{sfn|Faxneld|Petersen|2013|p=81}} but the most influential, with "numerous imitator and breakaway groups".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4/><ref name=Footnote9>R. van Luijk, Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 305.</ref>

The church was founded in San Francisco, California, in an era when there was much public interest in the [[occult]], [[witchcraft]], and Satanism. A "gigantic media circus"<ref name="Andrade-Girardian-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Andrade |first1=Gabriel |title=A Girardian Approach to LaVeyan Satanism: Theological Perspectives |journal=Irish Theological Quarterly |date=23 December 2020 |volume=86 |issue=1  |pages=50–62 |doi=10.1177/0021140020977656 |s2cid=232040703 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021140020977656 |access-date=12 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref> developed around Anton LaVey, "the Father of Satanism" and his Satanic aesthetics. LaVey shaved his head, wore a goatee, performed [[Black Mass]]es with nude women serving as altars.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4-Magic>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: section 4. The Church of Satan. From the Magic Circle to the Church of Satan</ref> He was invited on national talk shows and mingled with celebrities attending his satanic parties.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: section 4 The Church of Satan. LaVey's Satanism</ref>{{sfn|Petersen|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1ovVPyL6AmwC&pg=PA91 91]}} As an entrepreneur, he saw an opening for a new religion in the spiritual void of a secularizing post-Christian West.<ref name="Andrade-Girardian -2020">{{cite journal |last1=Andrade |first1=Gabriel |title=A Girardian Approach to LaVeyan Satanism: Theological Perspectives. Satan according to LaVey |journal=Irish Theological Quarterly |date=23 December 2020 |volume=86 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/0021140020977656 |s2cid=232040703 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021140020977656 |access-date=19 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

But LaVey also promoted his ideas and his 1969 ''[[Satanic Bible]]'' as "the best-known and most influential statement of Satanic theology".{{sfn|Bromley|2005|pp=8127–8128}} It sold nearly a million copies.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4/> These had "very little" connection with "either Satan or the worship of Satan",<ref name="WELTON-Airship-2014">{{cite web |last1=WELTON |first1=BENJAMIN |title=Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand's Influence on Satanism |url=http://airshipdaily.com/blog/10152014-friedrich-nietzsche-ayn-rand-satanism |website=The Airship |access-date=20 January 2024 |date=15 October 2014 }}</ref> but were based on the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] literary concept of Satan, not as a symbol of evil, but as a rebel anti-hero, defying God’s tyranny with charisma and bravery.<ref name="Andrade-Girardian-LaVey-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Andrade |first1=Gabriel |title=A Girardian Approach to LaVeyan Satanism: Theological Perspectives. Satan according to LaVey  |journal=Irish Theological Quarterly |date=23 December 2020 |volume=86 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/0021140020977656 |s2cid=232040703 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021140020977656 |access-date=12 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Together with the romanticism, "humanism, hedonism, aspects of pop psychology and the human potential movement" were woven together by LaVey,<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's"/> and publicized with "a lot of showmanship".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: section 4 The Church of Satan.</ref> Philosopher [[Ayn Rand]], who argued that [[The Virtue of Selfishness|"selfishness" is a virtue]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rand |first1=Ayn |title=The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism |date=1964 |publisher=New American Library |location=New York}}</ref> in that "unfettered self-interest is good and altruism is destructive",<ref name="Cummins-Rand-PBS-2016">{{cite web |last1=Cummins |first1=Denise |title=Column: This is what happens when you take Ayn Rand seriously |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-this-is-what-happens-when-you-take-ayn-rand-seriously |website=PBS News Hour |access-date=18 January 2024 |date=16 February 2016}}</ref> was a major influence. According to both LaVey{{sfnm|1a1=Lewis|1y=2001a|1p=18 |2a1=Lewis|2y=2002|2p=9}} and sociologist of religion [[James R. Lewis (scholar)|James R. Lewis]],{{sfn|Lewis|2002|p=2}} [[Ayn Rand#Philosophy|Ayn Rand's thought]] was a cornerstone of his philosophy, along with "ceremony and ritual" or "ritual magic".

Other influences were [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], who celebrated the [[Ubermensch]], proclaimed "God is dead", and preached against the 'slave's morality' of mercy, charity, and helping the weak;<ref name="WELTON-Airship-2014"/><ref name="Andrade-Girardian-2020-57">{{cite journal |last1=Andrade |first1=Gabriel |title=A Girardian Approach to LaVeyan Satanism: Theological Perspectives |journal=Irish Theological Quarterly |date=23 December 2020 |volume=86 |issue=1 |page=57 |doi=10.1177/0021140020977656 |s2cid=232040703 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021140020977656 |access-date=12 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref> English occultist [[Aleister Crowley]], famous for the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the [moral] Law"; and [[Arthur Desmond]], who strongly associated with [[Social Darwinism]] and the expression "the [[survival of the fittest]]".<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4-Magic/>

LaVey used Christianity as a "negative mirror" for his new faith,{{sfn|Schipper|2010|p=109}} rejecting the basic principles, theology and values of Christian belief,{{sfn|La Fontaine|1999|p=96}} along with other major religions and philosophies such as humanitarianism and [[liberal democracy]]—which he saw as negative forces. Instead of idealism, humility, abstinence, self-denigration, obedience, herd behavior, spirituality, and irrationality;{{sfn|Faxneld|Petersen|2013|p=80}} he praised the [[seven deadly sins]] (i.e. [[Hubris|pride]], [[greed]], [[wrath]], [[envy]], [[lust]],  [[Gluttony#Christianity|gluttony]] and [[sloth (deadly sin)|sloth]]), as virtues, not vices.{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=2003|1p=288 |2a1=Schipper|2y=2010|2p=107}}<ref>LaVey, Anton |''Satanic Bible'',  
–BOOK OF LUCIFER–, chapter III, "Some Evidence of a New Satanic Age"</ref> LaVey went beyond discouraging sexual inhibitions and feelings of guilt and shame over fetishes,{{sfn|Lap|2013|p=91}}{{sfn|Faxneld|Petersen|2014|p=169}} calling for a celebration of, and indulgence in, humanity's animal nature and its desires, which Christianity sought to suppress.{{sfn|La Fontaine|1999|p=96}} Human beings should seek out the carnal rather than the spiritual;{{sfn|Lewis|2001b|p=50}} satisfying the ego's desires enhanced an individual's pride, self-respect, and self-realization.{{sfn|Lap|2013|p=92}}  Hate, and aggression were  necessary and advantageous for survival,{{sfn|Lap|2013|p=94}} victims should not "turn the other cheek"<ref>[[Gospel of Matthew]] [[Matthew 5|chapter 5]], the [[Sermon on the Mount]] in the [[New Testament]]</ref> but take an "eye for an eye".{{sfn|Gardell|2003|p=289}}

Satanists should be individualistic, non-conformist, contemptuous of "colorless" mainstream society.{{sfn|Dyrendal|2013|p=129}} LaVey saw Satanism as something like a personality type as much as a belief, since Satanists "are outsiders by their nature",{{sfn|Dyrendal|2013|p=129}} and "born, not made".{{sfn|Petersen|2009a|p=9}} Since gods are actually a creation of man and not the other way around, LaVey asked, "'Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself'....  every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one."<ref>''Satanic Bible'' by LaVey, p.96, quoted in ...</ref>{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=525}} Not everyone would measure up to being a god however. Human social equality was a "myth", leading to "mediocrity" and support of the weak at the expense of the strong.{{sfnm|1a1=Gardell|1y=2003|1p=289 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=366}}{{sfnm|1a1=La Fontaine|1y=1999|1p=97 |2a1=Lap|2y=2013|2p=95 |3a1=van Luijk|3y=2016|3p=367}} "Social stratification" was part of LaVey and the Church's "Five Point Program".{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=366}}<ref name="Pentagonal Revisionism-1988">{{cite web |last1=LaVey |first1=Anton Szandor |title=Pentagonal Revisionism: A Five-Point Program by Anton Szandor LaVey |url=https://www.churchofsatan.com/pentagonal-revisionism/ |website=Church of Satan |access-date=22 January 2024 |date=1988}}</ref>

A "true Satanic society" was described in Lavey's church's periodical ''The Black Flame'' and highlighted by anthropologist [[Jean La Fontaine]]; it would be 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".{{sfn|La Fontaine|1999|p=97}} Another version of the Satanic society envisioned by LaVey was the breeding of an elite people "superior" in their creativity and nonconformity.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=376}} These would live apart from the rest of the human "herd"—who would be relegated into ghettoes, ideally "space ghettoes" located on other planets.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=375}}

LaVey's ideas were also said to "seem contradictory".<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's"/> According to CoS priest Gavin Baddeley, LaVey's church combined "a love of life garbed in the symbols of death and fear",<ref>G. Baddeley, ‘’Lucifer Rising’’ (London: Plexus, 1999),  p. 67</ref><ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's"/> and while LaVey himself pontificated on personal freedom, he "micromanaged the lives of his followers".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Andrade |first=Gabriel |title=Anton Lavey's Satanic Philosophy: An Analysis |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=imwjournal |journal=Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies |publication-date=2018 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=34}}</ref> Some doubted his atheist naturalism.<ref name="Greaves-CoS-v-TST">{{cite web |last1=Greaves |first1=Lucien |title=Church of Satan vs. Satanic Temple |url=https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/church-of-satan-vs-satanic-temple |website=The Satanic Temple |access-date=11 January 2024 |date=c. 2019}}</ref> LaVey insisted the church scoffed at the supernatural, but also told an interviewer he considered "curses and hexes" against enemies a form of human sacrifice "by proxy".{{sfn|Taub|Nelson|1993|p=529}}

Contradictions in his thought have been explained by his wanting it to have as wide appeal as possible,<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's"/> balancing, in his words, "nine parts" of "respectability" to "one part" of  "outrageousness".<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.4-LaVey's"/><ref>R. H. Alfred, "The Church of Satan." in J. R. Lewis and J. A. Petersen (eds.), The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of Satanism (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2008), pp. 478–502 (p. 485).</ref> If Satanism was to be Satanic, it required some outrageous/anti-social elements, but if it was going to be a viable organization, these could not be allowed to frighten off potential congregants and attract unwanted attention.

One "outrageous" issue that LaVey was criticized for was his "ambivalent relationship" with far-right groups ([[United Klans of America]], [[National Renaissance Party (United States)|National Renaissance Party]], and the [[American Nazi Party]]) that he neither endorsed nor rejected.<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4-Rise>[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: section 4. The Church of Satan. The Rise and Fall of Anton LaVey</ref><ref name=Footnote-110>"Evil, Anyone?" ''Newsweek'' (16 August 1971), p. 56.</ref>

LaVey died in 1997, but the church maintains a purist approach to his thought,{{sfn|Lewis|2002|p=5}} insisting he and the church have "codified" Satanism as "a religion and philosophy",<ref name="CoS-TST-FS">{{cite web |last1=Ethan |first1=Joel |title=The Satanic Temple Fact Sheet |url=https://www.churchofsatan.com/the-satanic-temple-fact-sheet/ |website=Church of Satan |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref> and dismisses other Satanist groups (atheistic or otherwise), as reverse-Christians, pseudo-Satanists or Devil worshipers.<ref name=Stop>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2014/11/07/the-church-of-satan-wants-you-to-stop-calling-these-devil-worshipping-alleged-murderers-satanists/|title=The Church of Satan wants you to stop calling these 'devil worshiping' alleged murderers Satanists |date=7 November 2014 |newspaper=The Washington Post |last=Ohlheiser |first=Abby |access-date=2015-11-19}}</ref>

==== First Satanic Church ====
{{Main|First Satanic Church}}

After LaVey's death in 1997, the Church of Satan was taken over by a new administration and its headquarters were moved to New York City. LaVey's daughter, the High Priestess [[Karla LaVey]] re-founded The First Satanic Church on 1999 in San Francisco. This church has been called "a lot more exclusive" than the original and as of late 2023 was known for producing a "Black X-Mass concert" in San Francisco "every year for the last couple decades".<ref name="Font-2023">{{cite news |last1=Font |first1=Amanda |date=20 October 2023 |title=How the Church of Satan Was Born in San Francisco |url=https://www.kqed.org/news/11964949/how-the-church-of-satan-was-born-in-san-francisco |access-date=5 January 2024 |work=KQED}}</ref>
==== Satanic Reds ====
{{Main|Satanic Reds}}
Differing from other Satanic organizations, the [[Satanic Reds]], founded in 1997 by Tani Jantsang, is a unique organization blending [[Marxism|Marxist]]-[[Communism|communist]] politics with [[Lovecraftian horror|Lovecraftian]] occultism mixed with elements of [[Central Asia#Culture|Central Asian folklore]] and the advocacy of [[social welfare]];{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pages=523–525}} the group became notable mainly for their [[Internet activism|online activism]] and usage of [[Communist symbolism|communist symbols]] merged with Satanist ones. However, the Satanic Reds claim to belong to the left-hand path but do not identify as theistic Satanists in the manner of believing in Satan as a god with a personality, since they conceive it as ''Sat'' and ''Tan'', "Being and Becoming", similarly to the fictional deity of chaos [[Nyarlathotep]] from Lovecraft's [[Cthulhu Mythos]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pages=523–525}}

==== The Satanic Temple ====
{{main|The Satanic Temple}}

[[File:The Satanic Temple, Salem, MA 2023-02-23 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The headquarters of [[the Satanic Temple]] and Salem Art Gallery at [[Salem, Massachusetts]]]]
The Satanic Temple (TST), has been called the "most prominent" satanic organization "in terms of both size and public activity" (as of late 2023).<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.7" /> Based in [[Salem, Massachusetts]] and active since 2012,<ref>{{Cite web |last=TST |title=New milestone: over 700,000 members! |url=https://thesatanictemple.com/blogs/news/new-milestone-over-700-000-members |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=TST |language=en |archive-date=January 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123035620/https://thesatanictemple.com/blogs/news/new-milestone-over-700-000-members |url-status=dead }}</ref> it claims 700,000 members worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Romero |first1=Dennis |title=SatanCon, poking at religion and government, opens this weekend in Boston |url=https://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/satancon-poking-religion-government-opens-weekend-boston-rcna81275 |website=NBC News |date=25 April 2023 |publisher=NBC UNIVERSAL |access-date=25 April 2023}}</ref>   Like the older Church of Satan, its congregants do not believe in a supernatural Satan, but if the CoS saw Satanism as a "negative mirror" of Christianity, reversing Christian principles of altruism (helping the downtrodden and community-mindedness) to selfishness, the Christian principles TST wants to reverse are  politically conservative activist/fundamentalist ones—the elimination of the right to abortion, of the teaching of evolution, of the separation of church and state, etc. This "left-wing",<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.7" /> "socially engaged Satanism",<ref>J. P. Laycock, ''Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple Is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)</ref> involves activism,<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.7">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: 7 Contemporary Developments in Satanism</ref>  rather than the individualism and right-wing-oriented,{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=326}} "getting what you want for yourself",<ref name="CoSPoP" /> of the CoS.{{#tag:ref|"The Church of Satan's Policy on Politics"<ref name=CoSPoP/> is that the Church has no  "'official' political position". "Politics are up to each individual member", and those members embrace all sorts of different ideologies (it then lists every conceivable ideology including Communism and Socialism), but most  members will "support political candidates and movements whose goals reflect their own practical needs and desires".<ref name=CoSPoP/> It also describes "the emotional drive to 'change the world'" as a "common stage of early adult development typically beginning around age 16 and lasting until around age 24".<ref name=CoSPoP>{{cite web |title=The Church of Satan's Policy on Politics|
url=https://www.churchofsatan.com/policy-on-politics/ |website=Church of Satan|access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref>
Elsewhere however, Church writings argue for things not at all consistent with any leftward or even centrist politics. According to Ruben van Luijk and Amina Lap,  LaVey thought eugenics could and should be part of the human future, leading to the breeding of an elite reflecting LaVey's "Satanic" principles,{{sfnm|1a1=Lap|1y=2013|1p=95 |2a1=van Luijk|2y=2016|2p=376}} who would come to power, and then hopefully relegate the rest of the human "herd" into ghettoes, ideally "space ghettoes" located on other planets.{{sfn|van Luijk|2016|p=375}}  
|group=Note}}

They have been called "rationalist, political pranksters" (by Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen),{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=219}} with pranks designed to highlight religious hypocrisy and advance the cause of [[secularism]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=220}} One such prank was performing a "Pink Mass" over the grave of the mother of the evangelical Christian and prominent anti-LGBTQ preacher [[Fred Phelps]] and claiming that the mass converted the spirit of Phelps' mother into a lesbian.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=219}} The "Seven Fundamental" tenets of the temple on its website mention compassion, justice, freedom, inviolability of the human body, conforming to scientific understanding, human fallibility—but say nothing about Satan.<ref name="TST">{{cite web |title=There are Seven FUNDAMENTAL TENETS |url=https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us |website=THE SATANIC TEMPLE |access-date=5 January 2024}}</ref><ref name="JPLS2023:sect.7-temple">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 2023]]: 7. Contemporary Developments in Satanism. The Satanic Temple.</ref><ref name="Oppenheimer">{{Cite news |last=Oppenheimer |first=Mark |date=10 July 2015 |title=A Mischievous Thorn in the Side of Conservative Christianity |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/a-mischievious-thorn-in-the-side-of-conservative-christianity.html |access-date=2015-07-11 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The Temple has been described as using the [[Devil in popular culture#Literature|literary Satan]] as metaphor to  promote pragmatic skepticism, rational reciprocity, personal autonomy, and curiosity;<ref name="Oppenheimer" /> and as a symbol to represent "the eternal rebel" against arbitrary authority and social norms.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |title=FAQ |language=en-US |newspaper=TST |url=http://thesatanictemple.com/faq |access-date=2015-12-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=What does Satan mean to the Satanic Temple? – CNN |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/30/satanic-temple-lisa-ling-orig.cnn |access-date=2015-12-02}}</ref>

The temple has also demanded the privileges the government affords Christians, such as giving prayers before city council meetings, erecting (satanic) statues on government property, and distributing its materials in public schools. As the movement became bigger, its congregations volunteered to clean highways and help the homeless, at least in part to demonstrate they were civic minded and not evil.<ref>{{cite web |author=Massoud Hayoun |date=8 December 2013 |title=Group aims to put 'Satanist' monument near Oklahoma capitol &#124; Al Jazeera America |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/8/satanists-aim-tobuildamonumentonthebiblebelt.html |access-date=2014-03-25 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=9 December 2013 |title=Satanists petition to build monument on Oklahoma state capitol grounds &#124; Washington Times Communities |url=http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/dec/9/satanists-petition-build-monument-oklahoma-state-c/ |access-date=2014-03-25 |work=The Washington Times}}</ref> It has made efforts at [[lobbying]],<ref name="greaves">{{cite web |last=Bugbee |first=Shane |date=30 July 2013 |title=Unmasking Lucien Greaves, Leader of the Satanic Temple |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/unmasking-lucien-greaves-aka-doug-mesner-leader-of-the-satanic-temple/ |access-date=2014-03-25 |publisher=Vice.com}}</ref> with a focus on the separation of church and state and using satire against [[Christian Church|Christian groups]] that it believes interfere with personal freedom.<ref name="greaves" />

[[Lucien Greaves]] has described the Satanic Temple as being a progressive and updated version of [[LaVeyan Satanism|LaVey's Satanism]],{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=220}} posted a fairly detailed refutation of LaVey's doctrines,<ref name="Greaves-CoS-v-TST" /> accusing the CoS of fetishizing authoritarianism,<ref name="greaves" /><ref name="AfterSchoolSatan">{{cite web |title=FAQ |url=https://afterschoolsatan.com/educatin-with-satan/faq/ |website=After School Satan |access-date=29 November 2018 |archive-date=16 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116170111/https://afterschoolsatan.com/educatin-with-satan/faq/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and explaining how elements of [[Social Darwinism]] and [[Nietzscheanism]] within LaVeyan Satanism are incongruent with [[game theory]], [[reciprocal altruism]], and [[cognitive science]].<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://davidpakman.com/interviews/douglas-mesner/ |title=Satanic Temple Founder Talks Atheistic Religion |work=[[The David Pakman Show]] |date=9 October 2014 |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref> The Church of Satan, on the other hand, has declared the TST members as only "masquerading" as Satanists,<ref name="COS1">{{cite news |title=Third Side Intelligence: Missouri Abortions |website=Church of Satan|url=https://www.churchofsatan.com/third-side-intelligence-missouri-abortions-the/ |date=10 October 2017 |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/satans-lawyers-try-christian-right-tactics-to-erect-winged-goat|title=Satanists Go to Court Seeking Right to Pray at City Meetings|website=Bloomberg Law|last1=Larson|first1=Erik|date=22 March 2021|accessdate=28 March 2021}}</ref> being in violation of the "five decades of a clearly defined belief system called Satanism expounded by a worldwide organization" (i.e. [[LaVeyan Satanism]]).<ref name="CoS-TST-FS" />

=== Theistic Satanism ===
{{Main|Theistic Satanism}}
Theistic Satanism, otherwise referred to as spiritual Satanism, or devil worship,<ref name="Satanism-Introduction2">{{cite web |author-last=Abrams |author-first=Joe |date=Spring 2006 |editor-last=Wyman |editor-first=Kelly |title=The Religious Movements Homepage Project – Satanism: An Introduction |url=http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/intro.html#atheistic/theistic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829152745/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/satanism/intro.html#atheistic/theistic |archive-date=29 August 2006 |access-date=30 December 2020 |website=virginia.edu |publisher=[[University of Virginia]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Moh |first=Catharina |date=2 October 2014 |title=Cerro Rico: Devil worship on the man-eating mountain |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29448079 |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=BBC News}}</ref> is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual [[deity]] or force to revere or worship.<ref name="Satanism-Introduction" /><ref name="autogenerated6">{{cite book |last=Partridge |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Partridge |year=2004 |title=The Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g05THJPH5xUC&pg=PA82 |volume=1 |publisher=[[T&T Clark]] |location=London |page=82 |isbn=0-567-08269-5}}</ref> Other characteristics of theistic Satanism may include a belief in [[Magic (paranormal)|magic]], which is manipulated through [[ritual]], although that is not a defining criterion, and theistic Satanists may focus solely on devotion.

==== First Church of Satan ====
The First Church of Satan (FCoS), a splinter group that separated from LaVey's Church of Satan during the 1970s,{{sfn|Lewis|2001a|page=91}} attempts to rediscover the teachings of Aleister Crowley and believe that [[Anton LaVey]] actually was a ''[[Magic (supernatural)|magus]]'' in the early days of the Church of Satan but gradually renounced his powers, became isolated and embittered.{{sfn|Lewis|2001a|page=91}} Furthermore, the First Church of Satan strongly criticizes the current Church of Satan as a pale shadow of its former self, and they strive to "maintain a Satanic organization that is not hostile or manipulative toward its own members".{{sfn|Lewis|2001a|page=91}}

==== Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences ====
{{Main|Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences}}

[[Pekka Siitoin]] founded the satanist group called the Turku Society for the Spiritual Sciences (Turun Hengentieteen Seura) on September 1, 1971. The society stated its founding principles as "promot[ing] nationalist patriotic activity [and] development of Aryan spirituality". The society also stated opposition to capitalism, communism and "the Jewish religion based on Jehovah's tyranny."<ref name="Häkkinen">Häkkinen, Perttu; Iitti, Vesa (2022). Lightbringers of the North: Secrets of the Occult Tradition of Finland. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-64411-464-3. p. 133</ref> Siitoin believed in [[neo-Gnosticism]] and [[Theosophy]] and combined these with antisemitism and satanism. The society allegedly performed satanic orgies which researcher of religion Pekka Iitti opined might not be "far off from the truth".<ref>Häkkinen, Iitti 2022 pp.142</ref> Several of the perpetrators of the [[Kursiivi printing house arson]] in November 1977 were members of the society.<ref>{{cite web |date=4 May 2015 |title=Pekka Siitoin Was the New Face of Neo-Fascism in Finland [in Finnish] |url=https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2015/05/04/pekka-siitoin-oli-uusfasismin-kasvot-suomessa |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150506042418/http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2015/05/04/pekka-siitoin-oli-uusfasismin-kasvot-suomessa |archivedate=6 May 2015 |accessdate=24 July 2017 |publisher=[[Yle|Finnish Broadcasting Company]]}}</ref><ref>Häkkinen, Iitti 2022 p. 137, 142</ref>

==== Order of Nine Angles ====
{{Main|Order of Nine Angles|Timeline of crimes involving the Order of Nine Angles}}
[[File:Flag of the Order of Nine Angles.svg|thumb|Flag of the O9A]]
The Order of Nine Angles, claiming to have been established in the 1960s, rose to public recognition in the early 1980. This movement expressed the idea that groups like Church of Satan were "too benevolent and law-abiding" to be true Satanists. This notion grew, particularly among musicians and fans of extreme heavy metal music, where being more extreme meant being more authentic.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-Amoral-O9A">[[#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: 5 The Temple of Set and Esoteric Satanism.Amoral Groups and the Order of Nine Angles</ref> These antinomian and amoral Satanic (or post-Satanic) groups are sometimes called the "sinister tradition" of Satanism.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-Amoral-O9A" />

The O9A describe their occultism as "Traditional Satanism".{{sfnm|1a1=Faxneld|1y=2013|1p=207|2a1=Faxneld|2y=2014|2p=88|3a1=Senholt|3y=2013|3p=250|4a1=Sieg|4y=2013|4p=252}} The O9A's writings not only  encourage human sacrifice,{{sfnm|1a1=Goodrick-Clarke|1y=2003|1pp=218–219|2a1=Baddeley|2y=2010|2p=155}} but insist it is required in Satanism,<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-Amoral-O9A" /> referring to their victims as ''opfers''.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2003|p=219}} According to the Order's teachings, such opfers must demonstrate character faults that mark them out as being worthy of death.{{sfnm|1a1=Kaplan|1y=2000|1p=237|2a1=Ryan|2y=2003|2p=54}}{{sfnm|1a1=Harvey|1y=1995|1p=292|2a1=Kaplan|2y=2000|2p=237}} No O9A cell has admitted to carrying out a sacrifice in a ritualized manner, but rather, Order members have joined the police and military to carry out such killings.{{sfn|Monette|2013|p=114}}

==== Temple of Set ====
{{Main|Temple of Set}}

The Temple of Set is an [[occult]] [[left-hand path]] religious organization. It was founded in 1975 when [[Michael A. Aquino|Michael Aquino]], the founder of a Church of Satan Grotto in Louisville, Kentucky, and editor of the Church's newsletter, ''The Cloven Hoof'', left the church, taking 28 members with him.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aquino |first=Michael |url=http://www.xeper.org/maquino/nm/COS.pdf |title=Church of Satan |publisher=Temple of Set |year=2002 |location=San Francisco |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712000522/http://www.xeper.org/maquino/nm/COS.pdf |archive-date=12 July 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Boulware, "A Devil of a Time"; Lyons, Satan Wants You, p. 126.</ref> Aquino's anger that LaVey had devalued his high level grade of "magister" in the church may have initiated his break, but Aquino also disagreed with LaVey's materialist philosophy, arguing that while the church might publicly be materialist, Satan as symbol was "only part of the truth". Aquino held a ritual to ask Satan "where to lead" his CoS defectors and, on the night of 21–22 June 1975, Satan allegedly told him to "Reconsecrate my Temple and my Order in the true name of Set. No longer will I accept the bastard title of a Hebrew fiend." Thus Aquino came to believe that the name ''Satan'' was a corruption of the name ''Set'', the  Egyptian god of darkness.<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-ToS">[[Satanism#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: 5 The Temple of Set and Esoteric Satanism.The Temple of Set</ref>{{sfn|Gardell|2003|p=390}} The philosophy of the Temple of Set may be summed up as "enlightened individualism"—enhancement and improvement of oneself by personal education, experiment, and initiation. This process is necessarily different and distinctive for each individual. The members do not agree on whether Set is real or symbolic, and they're not expected to.{{sfn|Harvey|2009}}

==== Temple of the Black Light ====
{{Main|Temple of the Black Light}}
The Temple of the Black Light, formerly known as the Misanthropic Luciferian Order, is a Satanic occult order founded in Sweden in 1995. The group espouses a philosophy known as "Chaosophy". Chaosophy asserts that the world that mankind lives in, and the universe that it lives in, all exist within the realm known as Cosmos. Cosmos is made of three spatial dimensions and one linear time dimension. Cosmos rarely ever changes and is a materialistic realm. Another realm that exists is known as Chaos. Chaos exists outside of the Cosmos and is made of infinite dimensions and unlike the Cosmos, it is always changing. Members of the TotBL believe that the realm of Chaos is ruled over by 11 dark gods, the highest of them being Satan, and all of said gods are considered manifestations of a higher being. This higher being is known as Azerate, the Dragon Mother, and is all of the 11 gods united as one. The TotBL believes that Azerate will resurrect one day and destroy the Cosmos and let Chaos consume everything. The group has been connected to the Swedish [[Black metal|black]]/[[death metal]] band [[Dissection (band)|Dissection]], particularly its front man [[Jon Nödtveidt]].<ref name="mlo_interview">{{cite web |title=Interview_MLO |url=https://www.angelfire.com/extreme/slayermagazine/interview_mlo2.html |access-date=30 November 2011 |publisher=Angelfire.com}}</ref> Nödtveidt was introduced to the group "at an early stage".<ref>{{cite web |title=Dissection. Interview with Jon Nödtveidt. June 2003 |url=http://www.metalcentre.com/webzine.php?p=interviews&lang=eng&nr=123 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714075021/http://www.metalcentre.com/webzine.php?p=interviews&lang=eng&nr=123 |archive-date=14 July 2011 |access-date=30 November 2011 |publisher=Metal Centre}}</ref> The lyrics on the band's third album, ''[[Reinkaos]]'', are all about beliefs of the Temple of the Black Light.<ref>{{cite web |title=Official Dissection Website :: Reinkaos |url=http://www.dissection.nu/disc/reinkaos.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080208150021/http://www.dissection.nu/disc/reinkaos.htm |archive-date=8 February 2008 |publisher=Dissection.nu}}</ref> Nödtveidt committed suicide in 2006.<ref name="Metal Storm">{{cite web |date=18 August 2006 |title=Dissection Frontman Jon Nödtveidt Commits Suicide |url=http://www.metalstorm.ee/events/news_comments.php?news_id=3051 |access-date=30 November 2011 |publisher=Metal Storm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=23 August 2006 |title=Dissection Guitarist: Jon Nödtveidt Didn't Have Copy of 'The Satanic Bible' at Suicide Scene |url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=56947 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927002214/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=56947 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |access-date=30 November 2011 |publisher=Blabbermouth}}</ref>

==== Temple of Zeus ====
{{Main|Temple of Zeus (organization)}}

The Temple of Zeus is a [[Western esotericism|western esoteric]] [[occult]] organization that combines Satanism, the [[Ancient astronauts|ancient alien astronaut "hypothesis"]], and [[antisemitism]].<ref name="JPLS2023:sect.5-Other">[[Satanism#JPLS2023|Laycock, ''Satanism'', 1981]]: 5 The Temple of Set and Esoteric Satanism. Other Esoteric Groups</ref> It was originally founded as the Joy of Satan Ministries in the early 2000s by Maxine Dietrich (pseudonym of Andrea Maxine Dietrich),{{sfn|Asprem|Granholm|2014|pp=144–146}}<ref name=":4">{{cite web |last=Petersen |first=Jesper |date=27–29 August 2012 |title=Bracketing Beelzebub: Satanism studies and/as boundary work |url=https://contern.org/cyberproceedings/papers-from-the-1st-international-conference-on-contemporary-esotericism/jesper-aa-petersen-bracketing-beelzebub-satanism-studies-andas-boundary-work/ |access-date=25 January 2021 |website=ContERN}}</ref> wife of the [[National Socialist Movement (United States)|National Socialist Movement]] of the United States' co-founder and former leader Clifford Herrington.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=370–371}} With its inception, spiritual Satanism was born—a current that until recently was regarded only as "theist", but then defined into "Spiritual Satanism" by theistic Satanists who concluded that the term ''spiritual'' in Satanism represented the best answer to the world,<ref name=":5">{{cite web |last=Twilight |first=Jennifer |date=25 January 2021 |title=Analysis on the Joy of Satan |url=https://www.unionesatanistiitaliani.it/index.php/analisi-del-progetto-joy-of-satan |access-date=25 January 2021 |website=Italian Satanist Union}}</ref> considering it a "moral slap" toward the earlier carnal and materialistic LaVeyan Satanism, and instead focusing its attention upon [[spiritual evolution]].<ref name=":5" /> Temple of Zeus presents a unique synthesis of theistic Satanism, [[Nazism]], [[Gnosticism]], [[Modern paganism|neopaganism]], [[Western esotericism]], [[UFO conspiracy theory|UFO conspiracy theories]], and extraterrestrial hypotheses similar to those popularized by [[Zecharia Sitchin]] and [[David Icke]].<ref name=":4" />

=== Luciferianism ===
{{Main|Luciferianism}}
[[File:Sigil_of_Lucifer.svg|thumb|The sigil of Lucifer]]
Luciferians reportedly revere [[Lucifer]] not as the devil, but as a destroyer, guardian, liberator,<ref name="Spence, L. 1993">{{cite book |author=Spence, L. |title=An Encyclopedia of Occultism |date=1993 |publisher=Carol Publishing}}</ref> light bringer, and/or guiding spirit to darkness,<ref>{{cite book |author=Michelle Belanger |author-link=Michelle Belanger |title=Vampires in Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices |date=2007 |publisher=[[Llewellyn Worldwide]] |isbn=978-0-7387-1220-8 |page=175}}</ref> or even as the true god, as opposed to [[Jehovah]].<ref name="Spence, L. 1993" />

== Personal Satanism ==

In contrast to the organized and doctrinal Satanist groups is the personal Satanism of individuals, who identify as Satanists due to their affinity for the general idea of Satan, including such characteristics as viciousness and/or subversion.

Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen used the term ''reactive Satanism'' to describe one form of modern Satanism. They described this as an adolescent and [[anti-social behaviour|anti-social]] means of rebelling in a Christian society, by which an individual transgresses cultural boundaries.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=5}} which tends to fall into two tendencies: 
*"Satanic tourism"—characterized by the brief period of time in which an individual was involved; 
*"Satanic quest"—typified by a longer and deeper involvement.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=6}}

The researcher Gareth Medway noted that in 1995 he encountered a British woman who stated that she had been a practicing Satanist during her teenage years. She had grown up in a small mining village and had come to believe that she had [[psychic]] powers. After hearing about Satanism in some library books, she declared herself a Satanist and formulated a belief that Satan was the true god. After her teenage years she abandoned Satanism and became a [[chaos magic]]kian.{{sfn|Medway|2001|pp=362–365}}

Some personal Satanists are teenagers or mentally disturbed individuals who have engaged in criminal activities.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=130}} During the 1980s and 1990s, several groups of teenagers were apprehended after sacrificing animals and vandalizing both churches and graveyards with Satanic imagery.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=445}} Introvigne stated that these incidents were "more a product of juvenile deviance and marginalization than Satanism".{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=445}} In a few cases, the crimes of these personal Satanists have included murder. 
*In 1970, two separate groups of teenagers—one led by Stanley Baker in [[Big Sur]], and the other by Steven Hurd in Los Angeles, killed a total of three people and consumed parts of their corpses in what they later claimed were sacrifices devoted to Satan.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=446}} 
*The American serial killer [[Richard Ramirez]] claimed that he was a theistic Satanist; during his 1980s killing spree he left an inverted pentagram at the scene of each murder and at his trial called out "Hail Satan!".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=122}} 
*In 1984 on Long Island, a group allegedly called the Knights of the Black Circle killed one of its own members, Gary Lauwers, over a disagreement regarding the group's illegal drug dealing; group members later related that Lauwers' death was a sacrifice to Satan.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=446}} In particular, self-declared Satanist and alleged member of the Knights of the Black Circle, [[Ricky Kasso|Ricky "the Acid King" Kasso]], became notorious for torturing and murdering Lauwers while attempting to force Lauwers to declare "I love Satan" during the murder.<ref name="kasso">{{cite news |last1=Breskin |first1=David |title=Cult Killing: Kids in the Dark |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-island-devil-cult-murder-ricky-kasso-david-breskin-901069/ |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=22 November 1984}}</ref> 
*Nikolai Ogolobyak, who confessed to being a member of a Satanic cult, was sentenced to 20 years in 2010 for the ritual killing of four teenagers in Russia's Yaroslavl region.<ref>{{cite news |title=Russian Satanist Jailed for Ritual Murders Released After Fighting in Ukraine |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/21/russian-satanist-jailed-for-ritual-murders-released-after-fighting-in-ukraine-a83172 |work=[[The Moscow Times]] |date=21 November 2023}}</ref>

==Demographics==
A survey in the Encyclopedia of Satanism found that people became involved with Satanism in many diverse ways and were found in many countries. The survey found that more Satanists were raised as Protestant Christians than Catholic.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEPuBgAAQBAJ&dq=encyclopedia+satanism+raised+protestant&pg=PA328 |title=Encyclopedia of Satanism |isbn=9781312360211 |last1=Lewis |first1=James|publisher=Lulu.com }}</ref>

{{Quote box|width=21em|align=right|quote=Beginning in the late 1960s, organized Satanism emerged out of the [[occult]] [[subculture]] with the formation of the [[Church of Satan]]. It was not long, however, before Satanism had expanded well beyond the Church of Satan. The decentralization of the Satanist movement was considerably accelerated when [[Anton LaVey]] disbanded the grotto system in the mid-1970s. At present, religious Satanism exists primarily as a decentralized subculture [...] Unlike traditional religions, and even unlike the early Satanist bodies such as the Church of Satan and the [[Temple of Set]], contemporary Satanism is, for the most part, a decentralized movement. In the past, this movement has been propagated through the medium of certain popular books, especially LaVey's ''[[Satanic Bible]]''. In more recent years, the internet has come to play a significant role in reaching potential "converts", particularly among disaffected young people. |source=— Religion scholar and researcher of new religious movements [[James R. Lewis (scholar)|James R. Lewis]]<ref name="Lewis 2001b">{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=James R. |author-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |date=August 2001b |title=Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/3748/3565 |journal=[[Marburg Journal of Religion]] |publisher=[[University of Marburg]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.17192/mjr.2001.6.3748 |issn=1612-2941 |access-date=30 December 2020}}</ref> }}

Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen observed that from surveys of Satanists conducted in the early 21st century, it was clear that the Satanic milieu was "heavily dominated by young males".{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=138}} They nevertheless noted that census data from New Zealand suggested that there may be a growing proportion of women becoming Satanists.{{update inline|date=May 2024}}{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=138}} In comprising more men than women, Satanism differs from most other religious communities, including most new religious communities.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=158}} Most Satanists came to their religion through reading, either online or books, rather than through being introduced to it through personal contacts.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=146}} Many practitioners do not claim that they converted to Satanism, but rather state that they were born that way, and only later in life confirmed that Satanism served as an appropriate label for their pre-existing worldviews.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=142}} Others have stated that they had experiences with [[supernatural]] phenomena that led them to embracing Satanism.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=143}}

The surveys revealed that atheistic Satanists appeared to be in the majority, although the numbers of theistic Satanists appeared to grow over time.<ref name="Lewis 2001b"/>{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=179–180}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pages=525–527}} Beliefs in the afterlife varied, although the most common beliefs about the afterlife were [[reincarnation]] and the idea that consciousness survives bodily death.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=181–182}} The surveys also demonstrated that most recorded Satanists practiced [[magic (supernatural)|magic]],{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=183}} although there were differing opinions as to whether magical acts operated according to etheric laws or whether the effect of magic was purely psychological.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=209}} A number of Satanists described performing [[curse|cursing]], in most cases as a form of vigilante justice.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=210–212}} Most practitioners conduct their religious observances in a solitary manner, and never or rarely meet fellow Satanists for rituals.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|pp=151, 153}} Rather, the primary interaction that takes place between Satanists is online, on websites or via email.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=153}} From their survey data, Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen noted that the average length of involvement in the Satanic milieu was seven years.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=157}} A Satanist's involvement in the movement tends to peak in their early twenties and drops off sharply in their thirties.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=159}} A small proportion retain their allegiance to the religion into their elder years.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=160}} When asked about their ideology, the largest proportion of Satanists identified as apolitical or non-aligned, while only a small percentage identified as conservative.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=171}} A small minority of Satanists expressed support for [[Nazism]]; conversely, over two-thirds expressed opposition or strong opposition to it.{{sfn|Dyrendal|Lewis|Petersen|2016|p=143}}

=== 2021 Canadian census ===
The [[2021 Canadian census]] states that 5,890 Canadians identify as Satanist, representing 0.02% of the population.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Statistics Canada |date=26 October 2022 |title=Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810034201 |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=www150.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref>

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).
{| class="wikitable"
|+Comparison of Satanists in Canada against the general population<ref name=":0" />
! colspan="2" |
!General population
!Satanists
|-
! colspan="2" |Total population
|36,328,480
|5,890
|-
! rowspan="2" |Gender
!Male
|17,937,165 (49.4%)
|3,430 (58.2%)
|-
!Female
|18,391,315 (50.6%)
|2,460 (41.8%)
|-
! rowspan="8" |Age
!0 to 14
|5,992,555 (16.5%)
|175 (3%)
|-
!15 to 19
|2,003,200 (5.5%)
|210 (3.6%)
|-
!20 to 24
|2,177,860 (6%)
|810 (13.8%)
|-
!25 to 34
|4,898,625 (13.5%)
|2,755 (46.8%)
|-
!35 to 44
|4,872,425 (13.4%)
|1,250 (21.2%)
|-
!45 to 54
|4,634,850 (12.8%)
|470 (8%)
|-
!55 to 64
|5,162,365 (14.2%)
|165 (2.8%)
|-
!65 and over
|6,586,600 (18.1%)
|60 (1%)
|-
! rowspan="13" |Racial background 
!White
|26,689,275 (73.5%)
|5,480 (93%)
|-
!South Asian
|2,571,400 (7%)
|40 (0.7%)
|-
!Chinese
|1,715,770 (4.7%)
|50 (0.9%)
|-
!Black
|1,547,870 (4.3%)
|100 (1.7%)
|-
!Filipino
|957,355 (2.6%)
|35 (0.6%)
|-
!Arab
|694,015 (1.9%)
|25 (0.4%)
|-
!Latin American
|580,235 (1.6%)
|55 (0.9%)
|-
!Southeast Asian
|390,340 (1.1%)
|20 (0.3%)
|-
!West Asian
|360,495 (1%)
|0 (0%)
|-
!Korean
|218,140 (0.6%)
|0 (0%)
|-
!Japanese
|98,890 (0.3%)
|15 (0.3%)
|-
!Other
|172,885 (0.5%)
|20 (0.3%)
|-
!Multi-ethnic 
|331,805 (0.9%)
|50 (0.8%)
|}

==Legal recognition==

In 2004, it was claimed that Satanism was allowed in the [[Royal Navy]] of the [[British Armed Forces]], despite opposition from Christians.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/10/24/uk.devilworship/index.html Royal Navy to allow devil worship] [[CNN]]</ref><ref>Carter, Helen. [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/oct/25/military.religion The devil and the deep blue sea: Navy gives blessing to sailor Satanist]. ''[[The Guardian]]''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-10-24 |title=Navy approves first ever Satanist |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/3948329.stm |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2016, under a [[Freedom of information in the United Kingdom|Freedom of Information]] request, the [[Navy Command Headquarters]] stated that, "we do not recognise satanism as a formal religion, and will not grant facilities or make specific time available for individual 'worship'."<ref>Ministry of Defence [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/505180/20160222_-_2015-11679_Redacted.pdf Request for Information]. Navy Command FOI Section, 7 January 2016.</ref>

In 2005, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] debated in the case of ''[[Cutter v. Wilkinson]]'' over protecting minority [[religious rights]] of prison inmates after a lawsuit challenging the issue was filed to them.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/politics/22religion.html?pagewanted=print&position=|title=Inmates Who Follow Satanism and Wicca Find Unlikely Ally|author=Linda Greenhouse|work=The New York Times|date=22 March 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0321/p03s02-usju.html|title=Before high court: law that allows for religious rights|journal=The Christian Science Monitor|date=21 March 2005}}</ref> The court ruled that facilities that accept federal funds cannot deny prisoners accommodations that are necessary to engage in activities for the practice of their own religious beliefs.<ref>{{cite web | last=Johnson | first=M. Alex | date=31 May 2005 | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8047388 | title=Court upholds prisoners' religious rights | work=[[MSNBC]] | access-date=26 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Cutter v. Wilkinson 544 U.S. 709 (2005)|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2004/2004_03_9877|publisher=Oyez|access-date=7 October 2013}}</ref>

In 2019, The Satanic Temple was granted religious [[501(c)(3) organization|IRS 501(c)(3)]] status.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Satanic Temple is a real religion, says IRS |url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/04/25/satanic-temple-is-real/ |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=The Salt Lake Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Metal and rock music ==
[[File:Tuska 20130628 - King Diamond - 32.jpg|thumb|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 (band)|Coven]] and the British band [[Black Widow (band)|Black Widow]], employed the imagery of Satanism and witchcraft in their work.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=462–463}} References to Satan also appeared in the work of those rock bands which were pioneering the [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]] genre in Britain during the 1970s.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=467}} 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.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=467–468}} In the 1980s, greater use of Satanic imagery was made by heavy metal bands such as [[Slayer]], [[Kreator]], [[Sodom (band)|Sodom]], and [[Destruction (band)|Destruction]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=468}} Bands active in the subgenre of [[death metal]]—among them [[Morbid Angel]] and [[Entombed (band)|Entombed]], also adopted Satanic imagery, combining it with other morbid and dark imagery, such as that of [[zombie]]s and [[serial killer]]s.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=468–469}}

Satanism would come to be more closely associated with the subgenre of [[black metal]],{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=467}} in which it was foregrounded over the other themes that had been used in death metal.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=469}} A number of black metal performers incorporated self-injury into their act, framing this as a manifestation of Satanic devotion.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=469}} The first black metal band, [[Venom (band)|Venom]], proclaimed themselves to be Satanists, although this was more an act of provocation than an expression of genuine devotion to the Devil.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=470}} Satanic themes were also used by the black metal bands [[Bathory (band)|Bathory]] and [[Hellhammer]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=472–473}} However, the first black metal act to more seriously adopt Satanism was [[Mercyful Fate]], whose vocalist, [[King Diamond]], joined the [[Church of Satan]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=471}} 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 skeptic]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/death-to-false-satanism/|title=Death to False Satanism|website=NOISEY|date=29 October 2014 |access-date=2016-03-08}}</ref>

In contrast to King Diamond, various black metal Satanists sought to distance themselves from LaVeyan Satanism, for instance by referring to their beliefs as "[[Theistic Satanism|devil worship]]".{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=480}} These individuals regarded Satan as a literal entity,{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=479}} and in contrast to Anton LaVey, they associated Satanism with criminality, suicide, and terror.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=480}} For them, Christianity was regarded as a plague which required eradication.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=482}} Many of these individuals, most prominently [[Varg Vikernes]] and [[Euronymous]], were involved in the [[early Norwegian black metal scene]].{{sfn|Dyrendal|2016|pp=481–488}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=479–481}} Between 1992 and 1996, such people destroyed around fifty Norwegian churches in arson attacks.{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|p=481}} Within the black metal scene, a number of musicians later replaced Satanic themes with those deriving from [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathenry]], a form of [[Modern paganism|neopaganism]].{{sfn|Introvigne|2016|pp=503–504}}

== See also ==

{{Portal|Religion|Philosophy}}
* ''[[Contemporary Religious Satanism]]''
* [[Deal with the Devil]]
* [[Demonology]]
* [[Luciferianism]]

== References ==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=Note}}

=== Footnotes ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===

{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
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* {{cite book|last=Lewis|first=James R.|author-mask1={{long dash}}|title=Legitimating New Religions |year=2003|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, NJ|isbn=978-0-8135-3534-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hdYSdts1udcC}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Lewis |editor-first1=James R. |editor-last2=Bogdan |editor-first2=Henrik |title=Sexuality and New Religious Movements |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |year=2014 |isbn=978-1137409621}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Lewis |editor-first1=James R. |editor-mask1={{long dash}} |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard |title=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-515683-6}}
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Lewis |editor-first1=James R. |editor-mask1={{long dash}} |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard |editor-mask2={{long dash}} |title=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-931530-7 |edition=2nd}}
* {{cite book |last=Maxwell-Stuart |first=P. G. |title=Satan: A Biography |publisher=Amberley |location=Stroud |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4456-0575-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Medway |first=Gareth J. |title=Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |location=London and New York |year=2001 |isbn=9780814756454 }}
* {{cite book| last=Monette |first=Connell |title=Mysticism in the 21st Century |year=2013 |publisher=Sirius Academic Press |location=[[Wilsonville, Oregon]] |isbn=978-1-940964-00-3 }}
* {{cite book|title=The Devil, a Very Short Introduction| last1=Oldridge| first1=Darren| publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012}}
* {{cite book |last=Petersen |first=Jesper Aagaard |title=Controversial New Religions |title-link=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515682-9 |doi=10.1093/019515682X.003.0019 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=1st |location=New York |language=en |chapter=Modern Satanism: Dark Doctrines and Black Flames |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard}}
* {{harvc |last=Petersen |first=Jesper Aagaard |c=Modern Satanism: Dark Doctrines and Black Flames|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |year=2005 |in1=Lewis |in2=Petersen |pages=423–458 }}
* {{harvc |last=Petersen |first=Jesper Aagaard |author-mask={{long dash}} |anchor-year=2009a |c=Introduction: Embracing Satan |in=Petersen |year=2009}}
* {{harvc |last=Petersen |first=Jesper Aagaard |author-mask={{long dash}} |c=From Book to Bit: Enacting Satanism Online |in1=Asprem |in2=Granholm |year=2013 |pages=134–158}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Petersen |editor-first=Jesper Aagaard |editor-mask={{long dash}} |title=Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology |year=2009 |location=[[Farnham]] |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7546-5286-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ovVPyL6AmwC}}
*{{cite book |last1=Rothschild |first1=Mike |title=The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything |year= 2021 |publisher=Melville House |isbn=978-1612199306}}
* {{cite book |last=Ryan |first=Nick |title=Homeland: Into a World of Hate |year=2003 |publisher=[[Mainstream Publishing]] |location=[[Edinburgh]] and London |isbn=978-1-84018-465-5 }}
* {{cite book |title=Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe |last1=Scarre |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Callow |first2=John |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=[[Basingstoke]] |year=2001 |edition=second |isbn=9780333920824 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Schipper |first=Bernd U. |title=From Milton to Modern Satanism: The History of the Devil and the Dynamics between Religion and Literature |journal=Journal of Religion in Europe |volume=3 |issue=1 |year=2010 |pages=103–124 |doi=10.1163/187489210X12597396698744}}
* {{harvc |last=Senholt |first=Jacob C. |c=Secret Identities in the Sinister Tradition: Political Esotericism and the Convergence of Radical Islam, Satanism, and National Socialism in the Order of Nine Angles |in1=Faxneld |in2=Petersen |year=2013 |pages=250–274}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sieg |first=George |title=Angular Momentum: From Traditional to Progressive Satanism in the Order of Nine Angles |journal=International Journal for the Study of New Religions |volume=4 |number=2 |year=2013 |doi=10.1558/ijsnr.v4i2.251 |pages=251–283 }}
* {{cite journal|last1=Taub|first1=Diane E.|last2=Nelson|first2=Lawrence D.|title=Satanism in Contemporary America: Establishment or Underground?|journal=The Sociological Quarterly|date=August 1993|volume=34|issue=3 |pages=523–541 |doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1993.tb00124.x}}
*{{cite book |title=Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America |year=2001 |last=Thurston |first=Robert W. |author-link=Robert W. Thurston |publisher=Longman |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0582438064 }}
* {{cite book |first=Ruben |last=van Luijk |year=2016 |title=Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780190275105 | doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190275105.001.0001}}
*{{cite book| authorlink=Jay Wexler |last=Wexler |first=Jay |title=Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life |isbn=9780804798990 |publisher=Redwood Press, imprint of [[Stanford University Press]]|year=2019 }}
* {{cite book|last=Wright|first=Lawrence|title=Saints & Sinners|year=1993|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York|isbn=0-394-57924-0|author-link=Lawrence Wright |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bwDrFdnNcsC}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |author1-last=Holt |author1-first=Cimminnee |author2-last=Petersen |author2-first=Jesper Aagaard |year=2016 |orig-year=2008 |chapter=Modern Religious Satanism: A Negotiation of Tensions |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-JZHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA441 |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=James R. |editor1-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |editor2-last=Tøllefsen |editor2-first=Inga |title=The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Volume 2 |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=2nd |pages=441–452 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466176.013.33 |isbn=978-0-19-046617-6}}
* {{cite web |last=Introvigne |first=Massimo |author-link=Massimo Introvigne |date=13 April 2017 |title=Satan the Prophet: A History of Modern Satanism |url=https://www.cesnur.org/2017/satanism.pdf |website=[[CESNUR]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628231853/https://www.cesnur.org/2017/satanism.pdf |archive-date=28 June 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=28 December 2020}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Satanism}}
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* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20220720194256/https://www.religioustolerance.org/satanism.htm Religious Tolerance page on Satanism]}}
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{{Satan}}
{{New Religious Movements}}
{{New Religious Movements in the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Satanism| ]]
[[Category:Left-Hand Path]]