Culture & Ethics
Satanism and heavy metal
How Black Sabbath and Venom used dark or Satanic imagery, and why a song, stage character, and religious affiliation are different evidence.
Results for “3 enoch”
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,…
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…
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…
Theistic Satanism
Symbolic and theistic Satanism
Symbolic and theistic Satanism are broad labels used to distinguish Satanist traditions according to how they understand Satan’s reality. In theistic Satanism, Satan is ordinarily regarded as a real deity, spirit, intelligence, or independently existing being. In symbolic or non-theistic Satanism, Satan is understood primarily as a symbol, literary figure, archetype, cultural adversary, or name for a…
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.
Culture & Ethics
Myth and literal belief
A religious myth can organize meaning while also receiving literal belief. Literary form, personal interpretation, and historical evidence should be discussed as related but distinct questions.
History
The Devil
The Devil is the principal personification of evil in much of Christian tradition and a major source for later Western images of Satan. The term is not identical with every historical use of Satan, nor does it describe one unchanging character across the Bible, theology, folklore, literature, art, and modern religion. In contemporary speech “the Devil” often functions as a proper name for Satan, but…
Demonology & Spirits
Samael
Samael appears in Jewish interpretive literature in roles that vary between texts. His relationship with Satan, the serpent, and other figures should be described source by source.
Demonology & Spirits
Asmodeus
Asmodeus appears in the narrative of Tobit and in later magical and demonological literature. His different roles reflect the purposes of those texts.
Demonology & Spirits
Astaroth
Astaroth appears in early modern spirit catalogues and later illustrated demonology. Source editions matter when comparing the figure’s rank, appearance, and supposed knowledge.
Demonology & Spirits
Buer
Buer is a spirit associated in magical catalogues with learning and healing. The well-known radial illustration belongs to later printed demonology.
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.
Texts & Sources
Corpus Hermeticum
The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of philosophical religious dialogues concerning mind, the divine, the cosmos, and human knowledge. It should be distinguished from later works marketed as Hermetic teaching.
Texts & Sources
Revelation and the dragon
Revelation 12 identifies its dragon with the Devil and Satan. The chapter’s imagery should be read in its apocalyptic narrative before being used to interpret other passages.
History
Romantic Satanism
Romantic Satanism concerns literary and political readings that give Satan a positive role in opposition to tyranny or conventional authority. It should be distinguished from membership in a religious organization.
Texts & Sources
Satan in 1 Chronicles
In 1 Chronicles 21, Satan or an adversary incites David to count Israel. Comparison with 2 Samuel 24 raises questions about divine agency, translation, and the development of the adversary figure.
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.
Theology & Cosmology
Wicca
Modern Pagan religious witchcraft, its Gardnerian and Alexandrian traditions, ritual practice, and relationship to Satanism.
Theology & Cosmology
Modern Paganism
An introduction to contemporary Pagan traditions, including Wicca, Druidry, and Heathenry, and their different uses of older sources.