History
Witchcraft
How witchcraft has meant an accusation, a magical practice, and a modern identity, with examples from museums and trial records.
Results for “satanic holidays”
Culture & Ethics
Samhain
The Gaelic beginning-of-winter festival, Irish customs of food and divination, and its place in modern Pagan practice.
Demonology & Spirits
Valac
A Goetic president described as a winged boy on a two-headed dragon, associated with treasure and serpents.
Organizations & Traditions
Fraternitas Saturni
A German magical fraternity whose teaching gives Saturn a central symbolic and initiatory role.
Organizations & Traditions
Builders of the Adytum
A school of the Western mysteries associated with Paul Foster Case, Ann Davies, Tarot, and Qabalistic study.
History
Austin Osman Spare
An English artist and occult author whose treatment of desire and sigils influenced later magical practice.
Demonology & Spirits
Set
An ancient Egyptian deity associated with conflict and disorder, also reinterpreted in modern Setian religion.
Devotional Practice
Banishing rituals
Ceremonies intended to clear, delimit, or reorder a ritual setting, with methods that vary by tradition.
Demonology & Spirits
Beelzebub
Beelzebub and related spellings appear in distinct biblical contexts. Later demonological interpretations should not be retroactively read into each earlier occurrence.
Theology & Cosmology
Hermeticism
Hermeticism names several related traditions associated with Hermes Trismegistus. Philosophical dialogues, alchemical texts, and later occult systems require separate historical treatment.
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.
Organizations & Traditions
Dragon Rouge
An initiatory order whose Draconian system brings together Qliphoth, Goetic magic, alchemy, and other esoteric traditions.
Organizations & Traditions
Ordo Templi Orientis
An initiatory organization associated with Thelema and the public celebration of the Gnostic Mass.
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.
Organizations & Traditions
Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis
A modern Rosicrucian organization, usually called AMORC, that teaches through lessons and local study groups.
Theology & Cosmology
Thelema
The religious and philosophical tradition associated with Aleister Crowley and The Book of the Law.
Texts & Sources
Lesser Key of Solomon
The grimoire compilation known as the Lemegeton, including the Goetia and several angelic arts.
Texts & Sources
Gospel of Judas
An early Christian revelation dialogue preserved in Coptic, known from the manuscript called Codex Tchacos.
History
John Dee
An English scholar whose records of spirit conversations became a major source for later angelic magic.