History
Witchcraft
How witchcraft has meant an accusation, a magical practice, and a modern identity, with examples from museums and trial records.
Results for “witchcraft history”
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…
Theology & Cosmology
Satan
Satan is a figure whose meaning has changed substantially across Jewish, Christian, Islamic, literary, esoteric, and modern Satanic contexts. In contemporary theistic Satanism, Satan may be understood as a real deity, spirit, adversary, initiator, or metaphysical intelligence. Those modern interpretations draw on, but are not identical with, the much older history of the word and character.
Texts & Sources
Grigoripedia
Grigoripedia is the official online encyclopedia of Satano-Grigorism, maintained by members of the Grigorist Temple of Satanael. Launched in June 2026 according to its About page, it documents the religion’s beliefs, deities, scriptures, history, holidays, and terminology from a Satano-Grigorist perspective.
Theology & Cosmology
Wicca
Modern Pagan religious witchcraft, its Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, ritual practice, and relationship to Satanism.
Culture & Ethics
Baphomet
Baphomet is an occult figure whose history connects the medieval trial of the Knights Templar, nineteenth-century ceremonial symbolism, twentieth-century Satanic iconography, and the modern public imagery of The Satanic Temple. The familiar goat-headed, winged, androgynous figure is not a medieval portrait of a secret Templar god. It was created in the nineteenth century by the French occultist Éliphas…
Texts & Sources
Grimoires
A grimoire is a book or manuscript containing magical knowledge, ritual procedures, charms, conjurations, talismans, spirit catalogues, astrological instructions, prayers, or other techniques intended to produce supernatural or occult effects. The term is most strongly associated with European magic, but scholars use it within a much wider history of magical books and written ritual technologies.
Demonology & Spirits
Lilith
Lilith is a figure whose history spans ancient Near Eastern demonology, Jewish folklore, medieval protective magic, Kabbalah, literature, feminist reinterpretation, modern occultism, and contemporary Satanic or Luciferian religion. She is often introduced today as “Adam’s first wife,” but that familiar story is medieval rather than biblical. Earlier sources describe beings called lilith or lilin in…
Culture & Ethics
Tarot
Tarot developed as playing cards before becoming an influential tool of occult interpretation. The history of the cards differs from later claims about their hidden origins.
History
Witch trials and Devil worship accusations
Witch trials produced records of accusations about harmful magic and the Devil. Those records require attention to how testimony was obtained and to the purposes of judges and writers.
Texts & Sources
Serpent in Genesis
The serpent in Genesis 3 persuades the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge. The chapter does not name Satan. Later texts and interpretations connect the serpent with the Devil, adding to the history of the Eden story.
Culture & Ethics
The Devil (tarot card)
The Devil is a tarot trump commonly numbered XV. Its imagery and interpretation vary between decks and writers. Waite and Papus connect it with material constraint, fatality, and occult forces, while tarot’s history begins in the world of playing cards.
History
Johann Weyer
The physician and author whose Pseudomonarchia daemonum supplied an important source for later spirit catalogues.
History
Alchemy
Alchemy concerns historical approaches to material transformation and the interpretation of nature. Spiritual readings form part of its reception but should not replace the material history.
Devotional Practice
Offerings
Offerings are objects, substances, actions, or works intentionally presented to a deity, spirit, sacred power, or religious community. Across religious history offerings have included food, drink, incense, flowers, animal sacrifice, money, vows, music, labor, art, and acts of service. In theistic Satanism, offerings are commonly used to express devotion, gratitude, hospitality, dedication, or…
Texts & Sources
Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum is a Latin treatise associated with the inquisitor Heinrich Kramer. It combined demonological argument with proposals for prosecuting alleged witches. Its allegations, treatment of women, and influence require critical historical reading.
Culture & Ethics
Ouija board
The patented talking-board game, its pointer and commercial history, and research on ideomotor movement and implicit memory.
Culture & Ethics
Halloween
The public holiday of 31 October, including lanterns, visiting customs, disguise, and its Celtic and Christian histories.
History
Salem witch trials
The Massachusetts prosecutions of 1692-1693, the spread of accusations, spectral evidence, and the surviving court archive.
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.