Satanism! It's not what you think!
Debunking 4 myths about Satanists, plus curious facts re: Baphomet, devil horns, the Satanic Panic, would-be president Victoria Woodhull, a 17th century poisoning scandal, and more
The Cauldron is a reader-supported publication featuring curious occult history and mythology. Visit pick-your-potions.com to learn more about witchy author, teacher, and mixologist Lindsay Merbaum.
Why Satan matters
There’s a common misconception that all “serious” religious organizations are anti-choice. In fact, abortion is not against Jewish values, or the tenets of Nature-based spirituality. Likewise, the Satanic Temple (not to be confused with the Church of Satan, more on that below) fiercely advocates for reproductive and religious freedom.
As always, valuing, understanding, and creating space for diversity makes for a more equitable society.
Myth #1: There is and always has been one “Satan”
In Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar, Robert Lebling describes the inspirational, pre-Christian demons as “natural spirits, inhabiting high places and the upper air, neither good nor evil in their essence.” Socrates credited a personal demon for his inspiration. It was Christian theologians, Lebling claims, who cast all demon spirits as evil.
There is no distinct figure known as Satan anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. Rather, as author and Satanist La Carmina explains in The Little Book of Satanism:
Satan makes his debut in the texts that ended up forming the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, which was written approximately between 1200 and 165 BCE. (The Christian Old Testament contains nearly the same materials but arranged in different order.) In these early works, he is not the powerful ruler of Hell but merely an angelic servant of Yahweh, the God of Israel and Judah. Satan’s name is derived from the Hebrew root śtn, which refers to one who acts as an adversary or accuser. Rather than describing an individual named Satan, the Hebrew Bible used the noun hassatan (“the satan”) to mean an adversary, as well as to describe any angel in an oppositional role.
The “satan” the Tanakh is talking about is, of course, Job’s tormentor.
The Greeks usually translated the Hebrew śtn as diabolos, meaning accuser or slanderer, which became “devil” in English.
In Islam, there are many types of djinn, with three classes of evil djinn: fallen angels or “satans”; djinn who do not accept Islam; and pagan deities.
Satan as a proper name later appears in the New Testament. Things get more complicated when the figure of Lucifer takes the stage around the 1st century, his story elaborated from a mention of the fall of a Babylonian king in the book of Isaiah.
During the medieval period, Lucifer was sometimes treated as a separate being from Satan. Gradually, though, the two more or less merged. Satan also acquired all sorts of monikers borrowed from ancient Mesopotamia, like Beelzebub.
Marianne Faithfull gave Mick Jagger a copy of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov—one of my favorite novels! an absurdist romp through Stalinist Moscow, where the devil is on the loose. The book inspired the song “Sympathy for the Devil.”
Myth #2: Satanists worship evil
There are two very different schools of Satanism. Spoiler alert! Neither one is devoted to evil.
The Church of Satan
Founded in the 1960s by Anton Szandor LaVey, the Church of Satan promotes atheistic and humanistic values. LaVey recorded church teachings in The Satanic Bible, published in 1969.
Anton LaVey dated Marilyn Monroe, before she got famous.
With Kenneth Anger, he made the 1972 film Lucifer Rising, along with members of the Rolling Stones. Marianne Faithfull played Lilith.
At the center of the Church is the self.
The Church of Satan clearly states, “Satanists are atheists. We see the universe as being indifferent to us, and so all morals and values are subjective human constructions.” The Church goes on to say:
“Satan to us is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. We do not believe in Satan as a being or person.”
LaVey designed rituals that would encourage participants to let go of their egos and challenge taboos against the profane. He created an inverted ceremonial black mass, with a naked woman standing in for an altar.
In TCS, the highest holiday of the year is your own birthday! Self-indulgence is highly encouraged. (I’m definitely here for that.)
The Satirical Satan, aka the Satanic Temple
The Satanic Temple’s official headquarters (with an art gallery) are located in Salem, Massachusetts, close to Harvard, where TST was founded by two faculty members. These educators decided to form a Satanic organization as a way of advocating for religious freedom. The following year, the Satanic duo hosted a satirical rally in Florida, after governor Rick Scott passed a bill permitting school prayer. Speakers praised Rick Scott—now their children could pray to Satan in school! They displayed signs saying, “Hail Satan! Hail Rick Scott!” Unsurprisingly, the event got a lot of press.
TST members are also known for ordering “Hail, Satan!” cakes from homophobic bakers who refuse to bake for queer wedding. The protections of religious freedom obligate the bakers to fill the orders. Hail, Satan!
Additionally, TST hosts Sober Faction: a non-dogmatic, peer-supported alternative to twelve-step programs. FYI Sober Faction is a legally available option in the case of court-mandated substance abuse meetings.
And ‘Menstruatin’ with Satan’ strives to make period products readily available to all those who need them.
Currently, TST has plans to open a second Satanic abortion clinic. Donate here.
Join the fun! Some TST holidays
Lupercalia - February 15
A day to “hail yourself,” based on the ancient Roman festival.
Hexennacht - April 30
TST members honor those persecuted by witch hunts, the Satanic Panic, and other acts of injustice.
Unveiling Day - July 25
The day TST’s Baphomet statue was unveiled.
Halloween - October 31
Face your fears! And eat candy!
Sol Invictus - December 25
Some celebrate a Satanic Christmas with black decorations and pentagrams galore. Ugly sweaters featuring images of Baphomet (more on that below) are quite popular.
Three cases represent peak-Satanic Panic:
1) In Kern County, CA, 36 people were convicted and most of them imprisoned for running a “satanic pedophile sex ring.” 34 of the 36 convictions were overturned, though two of the accused died in prison.
2) In Manhattan Beach, CA, four family members and three daycare teachers were accused of abusing children. The children themselves provided testimony, claiming they saw witches fly. After six long, expensive years, the case was finally dismissed.
3) “The West Memphis Three” of Arkansas were three teens prosecuted for “satanically” sexually assaulting and murdering three boys. Two were given life sentences, the third was sentenced to death. Plea deals were entered, but the accused were technically never exonerated.
Myth #3: Satanists are witches
Certainly some Satanists are witches, but most witches are not Satanists. Witches revere a myriad of gods, or none at all. There are Catholic witches, Jewish witches, Buddhist witches, and more.
Speaking of witches…
Famed feminist Victoria Woodhull—a Spiritualist, medium, and the first woman to run for US president—was known by her detractors as “Mrs Satan.” Her political platform included consensual free love (she saw marriage as institutionalized slavery), paid sex work, communism, and the end of the corset. Alas, Woodhull was ahead of her time; her campaign wasn’t taken very seriously.
Suffragists eventually denounced VW as “too radical,” though the witchy Spiritualists, members of a movement that centered women as sources of occult power, stood by her, up until the group’s dissolution.
A Poison Affair: La Voisin, aka Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin
Here’s another tale of a notorious lady. A fortune teller known as “La Voisin” became the prime suspect in a 17th century French scandal, the “Affair of the Poisons.”
Catherine Deshayes Monvoisin peddled love potions and poisons to the upper classes—sometimes very “upper class.” La Voisin told the police she’d served Louis XIV’s mistress. She also gave the names of about 400 others, many of whom allegedly sought poisons. The police claimed La Voisin was the head of a group of satanic abortionists. Her trial ended in execution: she was burned at the stake in 1680.
Judy Chicago’s famed piece The Dinner Party features La Voisin’s name.
Myth #4: Horns are a symbol of evil
Horns abound in the ancient world. Goats pull Thor’s chariot. Zeus is nursed by a goat, whose horn he accidentally breaks off in some versions. This is where your Thanksgiving cornucopia—the horn of plenty—comes from! Opa! Meanwhile, goats in the Ancient Near East were symbols of fertility, intelligence, and craftiness.
Though no one can say exactly how those horns got grafted onto the devil’s head, it’s a widely held belief that the move away from Nature-based religion/Christian conversion triggered the shift in Satan’s appearance from “unknown” to horned AF.
In the 1920’s, jazz was known as “the Devil’s own orchestra.”
A symbol of the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple, Baphomet is a goat-headed god figure, with horns and wings, and both male and female sexual characteristics. Many neopagans also revere Baphomet as an embodiment of binary opposites—”as above, so below.”
La Carmina recounts the fate of the Knights Templar, many of whom were burned at the stake during the Inquisition. Under torture, the Knights confessed to worshipping a two- or three-faced idol called Baphomet, probably a misspelling of Mahomet, which is in turn a French adaptation of Mohammad.
In 1856, esoteric French poet and occultist Éliphas Lévi depicted Baphomet as a “Sabbatic Goat,” a reference to the persecution of the Knights Templar. This is how Baphomet became a sacred Satanic symbol, a potent reminder of the threats of small-mindedness, theocracy, and authoritarian power grabs.
All belief has origin, and origin is found in history. In other words, fear not the horny reaches of your own mind.