History
Aleister Crowley
The author and religious figure associated with Thelema, The Book of the Law, and a large body of magical instruction.
Results for “Grigorist Temple of Satanael”
History
Anton LaVey
The founder of the Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals.
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,…
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…
Demonology & Spirits
Watchers
The Watchers are heavenly beings whose descent, teachings, and punishment are narrated in 1 Enoch. Their literary identity must be distinguished from later religious interpretations.
Demonology & Spirits
Belial
Belial appears in biblical religious language and later spirit catalogues. These uses should be distinguished rather than treated as one unchanged biography.
Organizations & Traditions
Ordo Templi Orientis
An initiatory organization associated with Thelema and the public celebration of the Gnostic Mass.
Demonology & Spirits
Raziel
Raziel is an angel associated with the revelation of divine secrets, especially the legendary book given to Adam. His name appears in Jewish interpretive and magical literature and later Western esotericism, where Agrippa connects him with Chokmah, or Wisdom.
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.
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
Faust
Faust is the scholar or magician at the center of a European legend about bargaining with the Devil. The 1587 Faust book, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and Goethe’s Faust give the story different treatments of knowledge, desire, damnation, and human striving.
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
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.
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.
Theology & Cosmology
Modern Paganism
An introduction to contemporary Pagan traditions, including Wicca, Druidry, and Heathenry, and their different uses of older sources.
Culture & Ethics
Halloween
The public holiday of 31 October, including lanterns, visiting customs, disguise, and its Celtic and Christian histories.
Culture & Ethics
Samhain
The Gaelic beginning-of-winter festival, Irish customs of food and divination, and its place in modern Pagan practice.
History
Salem witch trials
The Massachusetts prosecutions of 1692-1693, the spread of accusations, spectral evidence, and the surviving court archive.
Devotional Practice
Black Mass
A term for ritual inversion of Christian worship, with Huysmans's literary portrayal and a modern distinction from Satanic Mass.
Demonology & Spirits
Naberius
A Goetic marquis associated with rhetoric and the restoration of lost honors.