Theology & Cosmology
Thelema
The religious and philosophical tradition associated with Aleister Crowley and The Book of the Law.
Results for “The Devil”
Texts & Sources
The Book of the Law
The three-chapter revelatory text at the center of Thelema, also titled Liber AL vel Legis.
Texts & Sources
Ars Theurgia-Goetia
The second part of the Lemegeton, arranging aerial spirits through princes, directions, and wandering hierarchies.
Theology & Cosmology
Monotheism and dualism
Monotheism and religious dualism concern different questions about ultimate reality. The presence of an adversary does not automatically establish two equal divine principles.
Texts & Sources
Isaiah 14 and the morning star
Isaiah 14 addresses the downfall of a ruler through an image of a fallen morning star. Later religious interpretations connect the passage with Lucifer and Satan.
Texts & Sources
Temptation of Jesus
The temptation of Jesus is an encounter with Satan in the wilderness narrated by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Its differing forms connect hunger, divine sonship, scriptural argument, worldly rule, and worship.
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.
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.
Organizations & Traditions
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
A late nineteenth-century British initiatory order that shaped modern ceremonial magic, Tarot, and Hermetic Qabalah.
Organizations & Traditions
Theosophical Society
A modern esoteric society with stated aims of fraternity, comparative study, and investigation of nature and human capacities.
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…
Theology & Cosmology
Fallen angels
Fallen angels are heavenly beings portrayed as losing their place or proper condition through transgression. Enochic descent, Satan’s refusal to honor Adam, and the war in Revelation are distinct accounts that later interpretation can bring together.
Theology & Cosmology
Iblis
Iblis is the figure who refuses God’s command to bow to Adam in the Qur’an. Islamic commentary and Sufi literature explore his pride, his relationship to the jinn, his role as a tempter, and the meaning of his disobedience.
History
Salem witch trials
The Massachusetts prosecutions of 1692-1693, the spread of accusations, spectral evidence, and the surviving court archive.
Demonology & Spirits
Leviathan
Leviathan appears in biblical poetry and later religious symbolism. The vivid descriptions belong to different literary contexts and should be interpreted accordingly.
Culture & Ethics
Halloween
The public holiday of 31 October, including lanterns, visiting customs, disguise, and its Celtic and Christian histories.
Organizations & Traditions
Church of Satan
The Church of Satan is the organization founded by Anton LaVey in 1966. Its official account describes Satanism as atheistic and gives Satan a symbolic role.
History
Johann Weyer
The physician and author whose Pseudomonarchia daemonum supplied an important source for later spirit catalogues.
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…
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…