Satanism

The history of satanism

The worship of Satan, or the devil(velnias), the god of evil in

christianity, during the renaissance, witches(ragana), along with heretics,

were accused (kaltinami)of worshiping (garbinimas)the devil. Many

confessed(pripazista) to it, probably coerced [κ?υ??:σ] v (pri)versti by

torture. In popular lore(moksle), witches are still believed to have

worshiped the devil. (In modern neo-paganism and witchcraft(raganyste), or

wicca(burtai,kerai), as it is often called, there is no belief nor worship

of the devil.) Satanism has been far less common (daznai

paplites)throughout history than many would believe. The Inquisitors aand

witch hunters of earlier centuries tried to persuade (itikinti)the populace

that devil worshipers were everywhere and posed (nustatyti,pastatyti)a

serious threat (gresme)to their well being. For about 250 years, from the

mid-15th century to the early 18th century, the height of the witch hunts,

that argument worked. It is possible that some devil worship may have

actually existed in those times, as an act of defiance(ignoravimas) among

those who opposed (lygina)the authority (valdžia)of the christian

church.Satanism as an organized activity did not exist much before the 17th

century. As eearly as the 17th century, however, the catholic

katalikiškas)church was condemning (pasmerkti)priests who subverted

(nuversti)the magical(magiskas) powers of the holy mass(sventos misios) for

evil(blogio) purposes.(tikslu) The Grimoire of Honorious, a magical

textbook first printed in the 17th century (but perhaps older), gave

instructions for saying mmasses(misias) to conjour (susijungti)[κ?ν?δ???ν]

demons. In the 17th century, satanic activities were conducted

(vadovaujamas)by christians who indulged(isitraukti,medautis)in the

magical/sexual rites(apeigos) of the black mass, presided (prizaid

vadovauti)over by defrocked(atimtu kunigyste) or unscrupulous(nesaziningas)

priests. The most notorious(zinomas) of these escapades(issisokimas) took

place in France during the reign(rein-karaliavimas) of Louis XIV,

engineered by the kings mistress, Madamme de Montespan, and led

(vadovavo)by an occultist(okeltizm okultizmas) named La Voisin and a 67

year old libertine (libertyn-laisvamanis)priest, the Abbé Guiborg.There is

no reliable evidence(požymiu) of satanic activity in the 18th century. In

England, the Hellfire club, a society founded by Sir Francis Dashwood (1708-

1781), has often been described as satanic, but in actuality it was little

more than a club for adolescent(edelnest-paauglys)-like men to

indule(isitraukti) in drinking, sexual play with woman called

„nuns“(vienuoles) and outrageous(siaubingas) behavior(elgesys). The

Hellfire club, oor the „Medmenham monks“ as they called themselves, met

regularly between 1750 and 1762 in Dashwood’s home, Medmenham Abbey. The

members were said to conduct(vadovauti) black masses, but it is

doubtful(abejotinas) that these were serious satanic activities. Similar

groups were the brimstone(siera)boys and blue blazers(trumpasSvarkelis) of

Ireland.Perhaps the most famous Satanist in the 19th century was the Abbé

Boullan of France, who became the head of an offshoot(atsaka) of the church

of Carmel and allegedly(tariamai) practiced black magic and infant(kudikiu)

sacrifice(aukojimas). The church of Carmel was formed by EEugene Vintras,

the foreman (meistras)of a cardboard (karotono)box factory Tillysur-

Seulles. In 1839 Vintras said he received a letter from the archangel

Michael, followed by visions, of the archangel, the holy ghost, St.Joseph

and the virgin Mary. He was informed that he was the

reincarnated(ryinkarneit-persikuniti) prophet(pranasas) Elijah, and he was

to found a new religious order and proclaim(paskelbti) the coming of the

age of the holy(sventas) ghost. The true king of France, he was told, was

one Charles Naundorf.Vintras went about the countryside

preaching(sakytipamoksla) this news and acquiring(isigyti) followers,

including priests. Masses were celebrated that included visions of empty

chalices(tselis-taure) filled with blood stapins(deme) on the

Eucharist.(komunija) By 1848 the church of Carmel, as the movement was

known, was condemned(pasmerktasMirti) by the pope(popiezius). In 1851

Vintras was accused(kaltinamas) by a former disciple(sekėjas) of

conducting(vadovavimas) black masses in the nude(njud-nuoga), homosexuality

and masturbating while praying at the alter.Shortly before his death in

1875, Vintras befriended(draugiskas) Boullan, who formed a

splinter(skeveldra) group of the church of Carmel upon Vintras death. He

ran the group for 18 years, until his death, outwardly maintaining pious

practices but secretly conducting satanic rituals.Boullan seems to have

been obsessed(persekioti) with Satanism and evel since the age of 29, when

he took a nun (vienuole)named Adele Chevalier as his mistress. Chevalier

left her convent(vienuolynas), bore (nuobodus)two bastard (išpera)children

and founded with Boullan TThe Society for the Reparation of Souls. Boullan

specialized in exorcising (piktujuDvasiuIsvarymas)demons by

unconventional(nesuvarzytas) means, such as feeding possessed

(apimtas)viltims(aukos) a mixture of human excrement and the Eucharist. He

also performed(ivykdyti)black masses. On January 8, 1860, he had Chevalier

reportedly conducted a black mass in which they sacrificed one of their

children.By the time Boullan met Vintras, Boullan was claiming to be the

reincarnated (persikunyti)St.John the Baptist. He taught his followers

sexual techniques and said the original sin(nuodėme) of Adam and Eve could

be redeemed(išpirkti) by sex with incubi (veisti)and succubi. he and his

followers were said to copulate(poruotis) with the spirits of the dead,

including Anthony the great.Boullan’s group was infiltrated (iflirtuoti)by

two Rosicrucians, Oswald Wirth and Stanislasde Guaita, who wrote an

exposé,(atidengti) The Temple of Satan. Boullan and de Guaita

supposedly(manoma) engaged(manomas) in magical warfare. Boullan and his

friend, the novelist J.K. Huysmans, claimed to be attacked by demons. When

Boullan collapsed and died of a heart attack on January 3, 1893, Huysmans

believed it was due to an evil spell cast by de Guaita, and said so in

print. De Guaita challenged him to a duel, but Huysmans declined and

apologized.In his novel, La-bas, Huysmans included a black mass, which he

said was based on his observations of one conducted by a satanic group in

Paris, operating in tthe late 19th century. He said the mass was recited

backwards, the crucifix was upside down, the Eucharist was defiled and the

rite ended in a sexual orgy.By the early 20th century, Aleister Crowley

(known as the black pope) was linked to Satanism. Although he called

himself „the beast“, used the words „life“ „love“ and „light“ to describe

Satan and once baptized and crucified a toad as Jesus, he was not a

Satanist but a magician and occultist.

 Modern Satanism

The Largest movement of modern Satanism began in the 1960’s in the United

States, led by Anton Szandor LaVey, a shrewd(izvalgaus) intelligent man

with a charismatic (zavus)persona and an imposing(ispudingas)

appearance.(pasirodymas) LaVey founded the church of Satan in San Francisco

in 1966, the activities of which became the object of great media

attention.Born April 11, 1930, in Chicago, LaVey claimed an ancestory

(protevis)of Alsatian, Georgian and Romanian blood, including a gypsy

(čigonas)grandmother from Transylvania. As a child he studied music and

became interested in the occult(slaptas)okultizmas. He learned to play the

piano at age 10, and at 15 became an oboist for the San Francisco Ballet

Symphony Orchestra. He dropped out of high school in his junior year and

joined the Clyde Beatty Circus as a cage(kalejimo) boy. He had a gift

(dovana)for working with the large cats and became

assistant trainer. It

was in the circus, working with lions, he later said, that he learned about

inner power and magic. On the side he investigated haunted houses. At 18,

he left the circus and joined a carnival as a magician’s assistant and a

calliope player. In 1948 he met Marilyn Monroe and played as her

accompanist.He married his first wife, Carole, in 1951; they had one

daughter, Karla. He studied criminology at City College in San Francisco,

and spent 3 years as a crime photographer with tthe San Francisco police

department. Disgusted with the violence that he had seen, he quit and

returned to playing the organ at local night clubs and theatres.He began

holding(turėjimas) classes on occult subjects. From these classes

evolved(plėtotis) a magic circle, which met to perform rituals LaVey had

devised or re-created from historical sources on the Knights Templar , The

Hellfire Club, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley.

LaVey apparently (aiskiai)enjoyed the theatrics of the rituals; he dressed

in a scarlet lined cape and kept(raudonaapsiausta) sskulls (kaukole)and

other odd (keistas)objects about. Magic-circle members included

actress(artiste) Jayne Mansfield and film maker Kenneth Anger.LaVey

divorced Carole in 1960 and married Dianne, a 17 year old who worked as a

usherette at his friday night occult sessions. The had a daughter, Zeena.

From 11960 to 1966 he developed his elitist satanic philosophy. He viewed

the devil as a dark force hidden in nature, ruling earthly

affairs.(reikalas) Mans true nature, he claimed , is one of lust, pride,

hedonism and willfulness, attributes that enable the advancement of

civilization. Flesh should not be denied but celebrated. Individuals who

stand in the way of achieving (pasiekti)what one wants should be

cursed(prakeiktas).On Walpurgisnacht (April 30) in 1966, LaVey shaved his

head and announced(paskelbe) the founding of the Church of Satan. He

shrewdly(apgalvotas) recognized the shock value of using the term church

for worshiping the devil and recognized peoples innate (igimtas)for ritual,

ceremony and pageantry(iškilmingumas) He performed satanic

baptisms,(krikstas) weddings and funerals, all of which received widespread

(placiaipaplites)media coverage.(nusvietimasSpaudoje) He used a nude woman

(partially covered by a leopard skin) as aan alter.(perdirbti) His wife,

Dianne became high priestess of the Church. He baptized (pakrikštyta)Zeena.

Karla began giving lectures on Satanism at universities and colleges.LaVey

preached antiestablishmentarianism, self indulgence and all forms of

gratification and vengeance. Enemies were to be hated and smashed. Sex was

exalted. He opposed the use of drugs, saying they were escapist(vengiantys

tikroves) and unnecessary to achieving natural highs. He also

deplored(apgaileti) the use of black magic in criminal activity. He did not

include the Black Mass in his rituals because he believed the Black MMass to

be out of date. The Church of Satan organized into grottoes. A reversed

pentacle(atvirksciai penkiakampe) containing a goats headOzio, called the

baphomet(apskritakazkas), was chosen as the symbol. LaVey used Enochian as

the magical language for rituals and espoused(palaikyti) the Enochian keys

used by Crowley.The Church attracted an international following. Most were

middle-class and included occultists, thrill seekers(jauduliuieskotojai),

the curious9smalsus), racists(rasistas) and political right-wingers. At its

peak, it was said to have about 25,000 members (years later, ex-members

said the figures were exaggerated). Followers included celebrities, among

them Jayne Mansfield, who became an active member.Mansfield’s involvement

with LaVey deeply disturbed Sam Brody, Mansfield’s attorney(įgaliotinis)

and lover. Brody feared word would break out to the press and that she

would be damaged by negative publicity. In 1967 Brody attempted to scare

off LaVey by threatening(grasinimas) to publish stories about him that

would label him a fraud(apgaule). LaVey responded by putting a

curse(keikimasis) on the lawyer, who suffered a minor car accident shortly

thereafter. LaVey also warned Mansfield that she should sever her

relationship with Brody.In June 1967 LaVey reportedly told Mansfield that

he had a premonition that Brody would have another car accident, and if

Jayne were with him, she might be injured. She dismissed the warning. On

June 29 she was riding with Brody in his car when it collided wwith a truck.

Both she and Brody were killed, Mansfield by decapitation.Film director

Roman Polanski hired LaVey for his film version of Ira Levin’s Devil-

worshipers, Rosemary’s baby, released in 1968. LaVey portrayed

(aprase)Satan and advised Polanski on Satanic ritual details.LaVey turned

much of his organizational activities over to others in the church and

began writing books. The Satanic Bible was published in 1969, followed by

The Satanic Rituals in 1972. A third book The Compleat Witch, was published

in Europe.In 1975 the Church suffered a serious loss of members, who left

to form a new Satanic organization, The Temple of Set. In the mid-1970’s

the Church of Satan reorganized as a secret society and dissolved into

grottoes. The headquarters remain in San Francisco. LaVey is no longer

active, for he passed away a little while ago. Membership began to rise

again in the 1980’s.The Temple of Set also is based in San Francisco and

had several hundred members as of the mid 1980’s. Key founders were Michael

A. Aquino, Lilith Sinclair (Aquinos wife) and Betty Ford (not the former

first lady, wife of president Gerold Ford). It is an initiatory society

devoted to the Egyptian God Set (also known as Seth), whom members do not

consider evil but merely the prototype of Satan. According to the temple,

Set hhas, over the millennia, altered human genetics in order to create

people of superior intelligence for the next level of evolution. Three

major phases have occured(atsitikti) the first in 1904, when Crowley

recieved the book of the law; the second in 1966 when the Church of Satan

was formed; and the third in 1975, when the Temple of Set was formed.In his

witings,(samojis) Aquino has prophesied an apocolypse in which only the

„elect“ or members of the Temple of Set, will survive. Aquino, a liutenant

colonal in the U.S. army reserves, has an interest in Nazi pagan rituals

practised during World War II but says he does not sympathize Nazi

polotics.A number of other Satanic groups formed in the united states in

the 1970’s were defunct (ismire)by the 1980’s. Nevertheless, Satanic

activities remain widespread on both sides of the Atlantic; some experts

say they were on the rise as of the 1980’s. The extent of Satanism is

impossible to gauge, because of the great secrecy of many orgonizations.

There is evidence of small „family traditions“ of Satanism, passed down

from one generation to another. Some Satanists are associated with Neo-Nazi

organizations or sex magic orders. Some Satanic cults are alleged to be

involved in drug, prostitution and pornography trade and to have real

estate holdings. Members are said

to include white-collar professionals.

These do not pertain(priklausyti) to the modern day

Satanists(LaVeyan)Michelle Remembers (1980), by Michelle Smith and Lawrence

Pazder, M.D., recounts the terrors Smith experienced as a child of five in

Satanic rituals in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1954-55. She said her

mother yielded (derlius)her to devil worshipers, who used her as a living

pointer in rituals. She witnessed (liudytojas)the ritual killings of

animals and infants and was shut in coffins that were put into graves and

into which were thrown dead animals. She also watched tthe cult members

attempt to bring life to a white statue of a man with horns. She said she

was tricked (negrazus pokstai)into defacating (sugadinta)on the cross and

was asked to renounce(atsisakyti) the christian god. Smith descibes

instances in which during the rituals, she witnessed the devil

emerge(pasirodyti) from the fire, a man animal with a whipping(plakimas),

snake-like tail that struck her on the neck and seared her

flesh(susilpnintiJosKuna). Fire shot from his finger tips and filled his

mouth. He had clawlike(nagas)hands, steaming nostrils(garuojanti

nosiarykle) and odd(keista) nostrils. His sshape constantly changed, and he

appeared to be apart of the fire. Smith was able to purge (išvalymas)her

memories in psychiatric therapy at age 28.Perhaps most dangerous of all are

small cults whose members call themselves Satanists and practise ritual

murder and animal mutilation. SSuch groups are said to kidnap(pagrobimas)

runaway children and the homeless and use them as sacrificial

viltims(aukos), this is known as devil worship by LaVeyan followers. Ex-

Satanic cult members have reported gruesome rituals in which hearts are cut

out of living victims. Others report that victims are sexually abused

(piknaudziaujama)before being killed; then their blood is drunk and their

flesh is eaten. Women „breeders“ (augintojos)produce babies for the

„ultimate“ and „ideal“ human sacrifice. Former breeders report witnessing

their babies being skinned alive, eaten, burned, poured in concrete and cut

up and thrown in the ocean. Ritual tools are made from their bones.In 1985

a ten year old boy in Bakersfield, Califonia, said that he and about two

dozen other children were taken to a bad church by some 40 adults, wwho took

off their clothes while chanting prayers(monotoniskasMaldavimas) to Satan.

The children were forced to throw knives (peilius)at a living baby, which

was killed and dissmembered(pasmeigtas). The children were then forced to

drink its blood. Then the boy said that the adults molested(izaginti) the

children. Similar cases were reported throughout California, but the

authorities found little evidence to support the claims. In 1987 a report

issued by the Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police suggested that Satanism

might be related to unsolved cases of missing children. Satanists where

also believed tto be responsable for some grave desecrations and

robbings.Satanism has been linked to certain oppresive heavy matal rock

bands and teenage suicides (sjusaid-savizudybe)and murders. Some troubled

teens apparently turn to Satanism when they feel powerless and

abandone(paliktas) by thier families, the world and the christian god. They

join cults that encourage(padrasinti), or require, them to carry out acts

of violence to prove thier homage to Satan. Drug abuse is common. The

ritual violence gives them a sence of power.Author Maury Terry, in the

Ultimate Evil (1987), asserts that David Berkowitz, the convicted „Son of

Sam“ killer who terrorized New York neighborhoodsin the late 1970’s, was a

member of a Satanic cult that operates in Westchester County and planned

the Son of Sam murders. Terry states the cult is linked to a network of

cults across the country, with a primary headquarters near Los Angeles, and

that Charles Manson may have been involved with it. The cult is reportedly

an offshoot of a Satanic group in England.LaVeyan Satanists, Neo-pagan

Witches and neo-pagans are wrongly blamed for devil worship activities.

Several organizations carry on public relations and education programs for

the media and members of the law-enforcement community to counteract such

accusationsSatanic religious organizations, such as the Church of Satan and

Temple of Set, DO NOT condone the violent blood sacfifices oof the cults and

are not associated with them in any way. According to Aquino, the Temple of

Set emphasizes „rational self interest“ and taking responsibility for one’s

own intellectual and ethical decisions.