Organizations & Traditions
Global Order of Satan
A nontheistic Satanic organization whose public principles emphasize self-determination, compassion, and responsibility.
Results for “Reading religious primary sources”
History
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
A Renaissance author whose Three Books of Occult Philosophy became a major source for Western magical systems.
History
John Dee
An English scholar whose records of spirit conversations became a major source for later angelic magic.
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.
Texts & Sources
Key of Solomon
The Key of Solomon is a transmitted family of magical texts concerning preparation, ritual, and ceremonial instruments. It should be distinguished from the five-part Lesser Key of Solomon.
Texts & Sources
Book of Giants
The Book of Giants names a fragmentary Jewish Enochic work represented at Qumran and a related Manichaean adaptation. Its surviving witnesses concern the offspring of the Watchers, ominous dreams, Enoch, and impending judgment.
Texts & Sources
The Satanic Bible
Anton LaVey’s 1969 book of Satanic philosophy and ritual, foundational to the Church of Satan.
Devotional Practice
Gnostic Mass
The central public liturgy of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, written by Aleister Crowley as Liber XV.
Texts & Sources
Emerald Tablet
A brief Hermetic text whose images of above and below, sun and moon, and transformation influenced alchemical writing.
History
Éliphas Lévi
A nineteenth-century French occult author associated with ceremonial symbolism and the influential image of Baphomet.
History
Kenneth Grant
A British occult writer associated with the Typhonian current, Thelema, and the work of Austin Osman Spare.
Devotional Practice
Sigils
Sigils are graphic signs used in particular magical systems. Historical spirit seals, ceremonial figures, and modern personal signs should be distinguished.
Demonology & Spirits
Valefor
A Goetic duke whose description combines a lion-like form with a warning about theft and familiar spirits.
Organizations & Traditions
Ordo Templi Orientis
An initiatory organization associated with Thelema and the public celebration of the Gnostic Mass.
History
Rosicrucianism
Traditions associated with the rose and cross, the early modern Rosicrucian manifestos, and later initiatory societies.
Texts & Sources
Ars Almadel
An angelic art in the Lemegeton, using a wax tablet, candles, and a hierarchy of heavenly altitudes.
History
Michael Aquino
A founder and major author of the Temple of Set, associated with the modern Setian interpretation of Xeper.
Texts & Sources
Picatrix
Picatrix is the Latin title associated with an influential Arabic work of astral magic. Its cosmological and ritual framework differs from a catalogue of Goetic spirits.
History
David Myatt
The life and writings of David Myatt, covering his extremist activism, later philosophy, and disputed identification as Anton Long.