Texts & Sources
Ars Notoria
A medieval art of prayer and contemplation intended to confer learning, memory, and eloquence.
Results for “Book of Giants”
History
John Dee
An English scholar whose records of spirit conversations became a major source for later angelic magic.
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.
Devotional Practice
Divination
Divination consists of practices that interpret signs as answers, indications, or guidance. Methods differ in their religious assumptions and in the kinds of claims they make.
Organizations & Traditions
The Satanic Temple
The Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religious organization whose public principles and activism differ from those of the Church of Satan and from theistic Satanist devotion.
History
David Myatt
The life and writings of David Myatt, covering his extremist activism, later philosophy, and disputed identification as Anton Long.
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.
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.
Culture & Ethics
Religious freedom
Freedom of religion and belief in international human rights texts, including minority religions, nonbelief, and religious expression.
Culture & Ethics
Satanic holidays
The different holiday calendars published by the Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple, with dates and organizational meanings.
Demonology & Spirits
Naberius
A Goetic marquis associated with rhetoric and the restoration of lost honors.
Demonology & Spirits
Glasya-Labolas
A Goetic spirit combining learned offices with a violent reputation and a winged dog form.