Theology & Cosmology
Religious syncretism
Religious syncretism concerns the combination of ideas, figures, and practices from different traditions. Similarity of names or imagery alone does not establish identity or historical continuity.
Results for “new religious movements”
History
Modern theistic Satanism
Modern theistic Satanism refers to contemporary religious currents in which Satan is understood as an independently real deity, spirit, intelligence, or metaphysical presence and is approached through devotion, ritual, prayer, magic, contemplation, or other religious practices. It is part of the wider field of modern Satanism but differs from explicitly non-theistic movements that use Satan primarily as…
Culture & Ethics
Religious freedom
Freedom of religion and belief in international human rights texts, including minority religions, nonbelief, and religious expression.
Devotional Practice
Religious experience and discernment
Religious discernment concerns how experiences are interpreted and assessed. An immediate event, a theological explanation, and a claim about another person require different kinds of evidence.
History
Gnosticism
A modern umbrella term for several ancient religious movements and texts concerned with saving knowledge and divine origins.
Texts & Sources
Reading religious primary sources
Primary sources provide direct evidence for a text, community, or historical setting. Reading them well requires context, precise citations, and comparison with other evidence.
Culture & Ethics
Ethics in theistic Satanism
Ethics in theistic Satanism concerns the moral principles, responsibilities, virtues, prohibitions, and methods of judgement developed by Satanists who regard Satan or related beings as real rather than purely symbolic. There is no universal Satanic ethical code. Theistic Satanism is decentralized, and its practitioners may draw on personal conscience, religious devotion, philosophical individualism,…
Theology & Cosmology
Religious Satanism
Religions that give Satan a central symbolic or divine role, with substantial differences in belief and practice.
Devotional Practice
Ritual in theistic Satanism
Ritual is patterned action given special religious, symbolic, social, or transformative significance. Ritual can mark time, establish sacred space, communicate with a deity, express commitment, create community, memorialize the dead, enact a transition, or focus attention on a chosen purpose. In theistic Satanism, ritual commonly includes devotional action directed toward Satan or other spirits…
Culture & Ethics
Left-hand path
The left-hand path is a modern esoteric category used for religious and magical currents that emphasize themes such as individual self-direction, antinomianism, self-deification, initiatory transformation, or deliberate engagement with symbols rejected by dominant religious culture. It overlaps with some forms of Satanism, Luciferianism, Setianism, and modern occultism, but the terms are not synonymous.
High Satanic Church
The High Satanic Church
The High Satanic Church is an independent theistic Satanist religious organization and online congregation centered on the worship of Satan as a real deity. Its public website describes the Church as theistic, devotional, and unaffiliated with both the Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple. The organization maintains public material on beliefs and practice as well as member accounts, lodges, writings,…
Theistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism is a family of religious positions in which Satan is understood as an actually existing spiritual being, deity, intelligence, or metaphysical presence, rather than only a literary symbol or political metaphor. It is not a single church or creed. The term is best used as an umbrella for practitioners and groups whose beliefs differ on the nature of Satan, the status of other spirits,…
Theology & Cosmology
Lucifer
Lucifer is a name whose religious meaning developed from an ancient expression for the morning star into one of the best-known names associated with the Devil, fallen angels, occult illumination, and modern Luciferian religion. The word itself is Latin: lūcifer means “light-bringer” or “light-bearer” and was used for the planet Venus when it appeared before sunrise. The later equation “Lucifer = Satan”…
History
Occultism and Western esotericism
Occultism and Western esotericism provide an important historical and intellectual background for many forms of modern Satanism, but neither term is a synonym for Satanism. Western esotericism is an academic field encompassing currents such as Renaissance Hermetism, alchemy, astrology, Christian theosophy, Kabbalistic reception, Rosicrucianism, ceremonial magic, spiritualism, occultism, and later…
History
Solomon in magical literature
Solomon’s name supplies authority to several magical and religious works. Attribution to the king must be distinguished from the date and authorship of the surviving text.
Theology & Cosmology
Spiritualism
A religious movement centered on mediumship and continued personal identity after death, with church teachings and spirit photography.
Devotional Practice
Altar
An altar is a designated place or surface used for religious devotion, ritual, offerings, sacred objects, or symbolic focus. Altars occur in many religious traditions, but their forms and meanings vary widely. In modern theistic Satanism an altar may function as a place for Prayer, Ritual, Offerings, meditation, spirit work, or the display of symbols connected with Satan and other beings.
Demonology & Spirits
Demonology
Demonology is the study, classification, and interpretation of demons and related spirits. In Western religious history it has included theological arguments about the nature and powers of demons, lists of named spirits, explanations of possession and temptation, magical techniques for summoning or constraining spirits, and folklore about dangerous supernatural beings. Modern theistic Satanists and…
Devotional Practice
Invocation and evocation
Invocation and evocation are terms used for related but differently framed religious or magical actions. Their definitions vary between authors and practice systems.
Texts & Sources
Satan in Zechariah
Zechariah 3 presents Satan accusing Joshua the high priest within a vision of judgment and restoration. The scene has a specific religious and literary purpose.