Evil personified. Many followers of the Bible consider Satan to be a real being, a spirit created by God. Satan and the other spirits who followed him rebelled against God. They were cast out from Heaven by their Creator. Theologians might speculate as to why the Almighty did not annihilate the "fallen angels," as He is said to have done to his other creations when they failed to be righteous (save Noah and his family, of course). Satan was allowed to set up his own kingdom in Hell and to send out devils to prowl the earth for converts. The demonic world seems to have been allowed to exist for one purpose only: to tempt humans to turn away from God. Why God would allow Satan to do this is explained in the Book of Job. When Job asks why God let Satan torment him the answer is blunt and final: Hath thou an arm like the Lord? The story of Job is interpreted in many different ways by theologians but my interpretation is that nobody knows why God lets Satan live and torment us. God is God and can do whatever He wants. Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die.
Satan, being a spirit, is neither male nor female. However, like his Creator, Satan is usually referred to as a masculine being. Many believe that Satan, or the Devil as he is often called, can "possess" human beings. Possession is bodily invasion by the devil. The Catholic Church still performs exorcisms on those considered to be possessed. Jesus is said to have cast out demons, i.e., performed exorcisms, and the Church considers itself to have been given this same power by Jesus. Throughout the centuries, many pious religious people have considered those with certain mental or physical illnesses to be possessed.
More frequent than outright possession, however, has been the accusation of being in consort with the devil. Satan is believed to have many powers, among them the power to manifest himself in human or animal form. The consorting has been recorded as often being purely physical and mostly sexual. For most of the history of Christianity there are reports of Satan having sex with humans, either as an incubus (male devil) or succubus (female devil). Witches and sorcerers were thought by many to be the offspring of such unions. They are considered especially pernicious because they inherit some of the devil's powers.
According to Carl Sagan, accounts of diabolical intercourse are common cultural phenomena:
Parallels to incubi include Arabian dhinn, Greek satyrs, Hindu bhuts, Samoan hotua poro, Celtic dusii....[Sagan, p. 124]However, as a child being instructed in the ways of Satan by Dominican sisters, stories of nuns being raped by incubi in a priest's clothing were assuredly not told. The Devil was there to tempt us to sin, pure and simple. He was not there to have sex with us or engage in reproductive experimentation or breed a race of witches and magi. To be sure, his main temptations would be sexual. There was no doubt that He spent a lot of time using girls to tempt boys into impure thoughts and deeds. He would invade our minds continuously during adolescence, planting desires for sexual experiences too evil to be mentioned much less performed. I suppose, to be fair, the girls should have been taught to be wary of boys trying to get them to yield to sexual temptation and that we would use every trick in the devil's arsenal to get them to go "all the way." But it would not surprise me to discover that the girls were taught that they were the temptresses and were therefore the ones who needed to keep from harming the boys with their female charms. In any case, we were taught to pray constantly, implore the intercession of the saints and the Holy Mother of God, that they give us protection against the snares of Satan. It must have occurred to many observers that the fear of Satan seems very much like fear of our own sexuality.
For all the instruction we were given on the Evil One, I don't remember ever being taught about Pope Innocent VIII and his initiation of the Inquisition and the subsequent persecution of witches along with heretics. The Pope proclaimed in a Bull that "evil angels," i.e., devils, were having sex with many human men and women. He was not the first to have made this claim. Others before him, such as Thomas Aquinas, had explored this territory in great detail. Thomas reminds us that since the devil is not human, he can't produce human seed. So, he must transform himself into a woman, seduce a man, keep the seed, transform into a male, seduce a woman and transfer the seed. Something of the devil is captured by the seed along the way, so the offspring are not normal. Apparently it took Satan a long time to figure out that if he wanted to control the world, the best way to do it would be to breed with humans. Invading our bodies would be more efficient and effective than trying to invade our minds. But the Pope and many other pious men had a plan to exterminate the diabolical offspring: they would torture and burn them all! They would fight fire with fire! The Devil would not outdo them. In fact, the sadistic and monstrous behavior of the holy and pious inquisitors is almost enough to make a skeptic believe in Satan. The inquisitors were nothing short of diabolical.
One of the more interesting aspects of satanology is the recurring theme of humans making a pact with the devil. The Faust legend is the most well known of these: in exchange for one's soul, satan will bestow upon on wealth, power, whatever, for a specified time. In most versions of the story, Faust tricks the devil and avoids payment. In the original, the devil mutilates and kills Faust at the end of the contract. His brains are splattered on the walls of his room, his eyes and teeth lay on the floor and his corpse rests outside on a dunghill. [Smith, p. 269]
Today there are still those who believe Satan is a real being, but we hear few stories of incubi and succubi any more. The closest thing we have to such stories are alien abduction accounts. Fortunately, for today's alien abduction victims with similar tales of sexual experimentation--the devil being replaced with aliens from outer space--there is no Church to persecute, torture or exterminate them. Instead, there is a ready and growing market for their stories and a mass media more than willing to pander to that market. Unfortunately, the offspring of the inquisitors are still with us. The only thing they seem to have in common--besides their love of torturing and killing others--is a love of uniforms: military, police, judicial or clerical. But this is a pretty weak link, since there are many who love uniforms who do not engage in torture or murder. The uniform for the sadistic inquisitors of all ages seems to be little more than camouflage or a convenient excuse to present to the world.
It is interesting, though, that most of these murderers and torturers feel some need to at least appear as if they are doing good while they commit their horrors. What drives the terrorist or ethnic cleanser today to their abominations, or the witch hunters to their destruction of families, seems to be the same forces that drove the pious enforcers of the Inquisition. Their behavior is almost enough to make a skeptic think that maybe Satan does exist--in the souls of these good people fighting for their noble causes.
From a philosophical perspective, the universal belief in evil demons is based on the need for an explanation of the enormous quantity of moral and physical evil pervading human existence for our entire history. I suppose, too, that devils in some way serve to excuse our own evil actions and mitigate our sense of responsibility for the harm we do. Psychologically, demons may well be a projection of ourselves, the worst part of our nature or the most feared part of our own nature. From a literary perspective, demons must exist. If they didn't, we'd have to invent them. They seem essential to so much of our storytelling. More essential, perhaps, than their goodly counterparts.
As the power of the Christian Church has waned, so too has the power of Satan. It is no accident that Satan reached the peak of his career at the same time the Church did, during the thirteenth century. During the Middle Ages, the Devil was said to have built Hadrian's wall between Scotland and England, moved huge stones to construct megalithic stone circles and dolmens, build bridges such as that at Saint-Cloud and the Pont de Valentre at Cahors, for the price of the soul of the first one who crossed the bridge, etc. Satan could perform magic, but it must be remembered that the Christian religion is basically a religion of magic, of sacraments which protect one from Satan and which change bread and wine into Christ, of miracles which contravene the natural order for good or ill, of resurrection from the dead and of the promise of eternal life. Satan represents the obverse of that order: black magic, pacts with the devil, wonders done contravening the natural order, the promise of eternal youth and wondrous powers. The Satanic Order was the creation of the Church, necessary to establish its own power over the world. Heretics, witches and sorcerers were a threat to the world dominion of the Church. They had to be eradicated. As the enemies of the Church grew more numerous and more powerful, so did the reign of terror grow and so did the power of the Church get established more and more firmly.
As the power of Christianity waned as the dominant social and political force in western culture, so too did the power of Satan. By the eighteenth century, in Europe at least, witch and heretic burnings had all but ceased. Today, most of us in the Christian world would consider it primitive and barbaric to suggest that anyone be hounded or killed for communing with Satan. Even those who are allegedly doing evil in the name of Satan are usually pursued for the evil they do, not for their alleged association with the devil. It is likely that most police officers, if they had to deal with crimes committed by Satan worshippers, would view the criminals as deluded rather than as really communing with otherworldly beings.
If the rise of modern science had anything to do with the fall of the Christian Church from its position of supreme influence in western culture, then modern science can take partial credit for the exorcism of Satan from western consciousness. Of course, the Devil is not dead yet but he gets his power from God, and as God's power wanes so does Satan's. Someday, perhaps, both God and Satan will become impotent strangers to the human imagination. But don't count on it. Many theists today believe that the evils of today's world, and they are many as we all know, are due to the rise of Satan and the decrease of religious influence. If they had their way, we would all be praying more and working against the snares of the devil. Others, such as myself, however, think we have more to fear from these pious people than we do from the Devil or his admirers. Some might even go so far as to identify these pious advocates of constitutional amendments for prayer in schools as devils in disguise. I don't think so, though when you have God's children murdering people at abortion clinics, there really doesn't seem to be much need for Satan. In fact, if Satan and his crew returned to earth they'd find that all the good jobs for devils have been taken by the pious of the earth.
Finally, there are the modern day satanists who find solace and power in occult magick, but especially in anything anti-Christian. They draw their inspiration from the great works of imagination in art, literature and policy created primarily by pious Christians in their zealous wars against their enemies, but also created by pre-Christian cults such as the Egypt cult of Set, and non- Christian occultists such as Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey. Today's satanists have been blamed, by pious Christians, for ritual murders of children, mutilation and sacrificial killings of animals, writing backwards messages on musical recordings instructing people to kill, sending subliminal or secret messages through diabolical symbols on pizza boxes or soap wrappers, causing the general decay of morals and civilization as we know it, etc., However, they deny it. The evidence is not very strong that the satanists are either as evil or as powerful as their enemies say they are. There is stronger evidence for the strength and wickedness of the pious. Witness their witchhunts in recent years against child care workers and parents and relatives of children. The evidence is strong that the pious have frequently and unjustly accused many of satanic ritual abuse of children. And they have been aided in the witchhunt by devoted therapists and pious police and prosecutors.
See related entries on magick, miracles, pagans, wicca and witches.
further reading
The Satanic Ritual Abuse Home Page
Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) The Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance Page on the new witchhunt for satanic abusers of children
"The Hard Facts About Satanic Ritual Abuse," by Bob and Gretchen Passaintino
The Temple of Set Satanists who believe in Satan as "a metaphysical being;" they accept both Visa and Master Card, but not American Express.
The Church of Satan Satanists who don't believe in Satan as a real being; founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey in San Francisco.
Carus, Paul. The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1974), unabridged reproduction of the original 1900 edition.
de Givry, Grillot. Witchcraft, Magic & Alchemy, trans. J. Locke (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1971), an unabridged republication of the Houghton Mifflin edition of 1931.
Hicks, Robert D. In Pursuit of Satan : the Police and the Occult (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991).
Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan - The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials (New York: Doubleday, 1995).
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark, ch. 7 "The Demon-Haunted World," (New York: Random House, 1995).
Smith, Homer W. Man and His Gods, ch. vi "The Rise and Fall of His Satanic Majesty's Empire" (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1953).
reader comments
13 Jul 1996
When water gathers from the rain, it is directed to the LOWEST
places and DUMPED (in the lowest places) at the end of the river it
follows Do you see your life in 20 or 30 years ?
So whenever GOOD people who are NOT involved with DEMONIC activity make GOOD, demonic activity strives to use any MEDIA available to make GOOD PEOPLE look bad.
It is obvious, even to the most casual observer what has taken place here.
Unfortunately, you have NO LIFE, no POSITIVE goals, or no
POSITIVE directions.
RODERICK MCAFEE
reply. What is obvious is not always obvious. And remember: you cannot lock a broken door. Nor is it chivalrous to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
In your "Satan" entry, you write: "As the power of the Christian Church has waned, so too has the power of Satan It is no accident that Satan reached the peak of his career at the same time the Church did, during the thirteenth century." This is not true!
The peak of the satanic scare and of the witch trials happened in the early part of the seventeenth century. Heresy trials did happen during the middle ages, but the large scale inquisition trials happened in the modern era, mostly in Spain.
The thirteenth century was the peak of the church influence (it was the era of the great cathedrals.) But it was not the era of the inquisition or of the witch trials. And the inquisition (catholic) and the witch trials (mostly Protestant) were two basically distinct phenomena.
Get your facts right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Filippo Neri
Los Alamos National Laboratory
reply: Good idea. The era of the great gothic cathedrals was not the 13th century, but the 11th and 12th. And the witch trials were not mostly Protestant, although the Protestants were every bit as prolific and sadistic as the Catholics when it came to witches.
Europeans started building massive stone cathedrals after the earliest crusades. The crusaders brought back from the east more than blood and gold. They must have taken some time to admire the mosaics and icons of "Notre Dame," Our Lady, that are dominant features of many Byzantine churches. Before the crusades the Blessed Mother was not a dominant Christian motif in the west. After the crusades, she was elevated nearly to the status of goddess.
The title "inquisitor" (judge in matters of faith) was first granted by Pope Alexander III in 1163 at the Council of Tours. The main "devils" at that time were the Albigensians. But the Inquisition really got started by Innocent III, who became pope in 1198. Jones claims that he initiated the Fourth Crusade (which took Constantinople) to channel the divisive crusading energy of nearly all of Europe which had led to "an open war between Satan and the church." [Jones, p. 255] Maybe. But Innocent certainly used the power he gained for the church to extend his political domain. And in 1209 he called for a crusade against the Albigensians to drive the devil out of France. "He gathered an army which in its hatred of satan and its zeal for god's service established new precedents." [Jones, 256] And he is reported to have said, when asked what to do with the heretics, something to the effect of kill them all; God will sort them out. It is estimated that by the end of the century (the 13th century) a mil lion people were slaughtered in God's name. [Jones, 257] Also, it was in 1232 that Gregory IX empowered the Dominicans (the Domini canes, hounds of God) to be inquisitors as well as itinerant preachers. Gregory's major crusade was against a fishing community accused of worshipping the devil, who was, according to the inquisitors, appearing to these people under the guise of a duck, a goose or a youth. And "when they kissed him and danced around him, [he] enveloped them in total darkness wherupon they all, males and females, gave themselves up to debauchery." [Jones, 258] Gregory's chief inquisitor was Conrad of Marburg, a man in no way inferior to Torquemada in understanding the wiles of the devil and the need to be merciless in fighting Satan.
The thirteenth century saw the edges between heresy and witchcraft blur so that the distinction between the two is often unrecognizable. Satan was behind heresy and he was behind witchcraft. He was everywhere, gaining more and more in power and influence. The methods of fighting Satan had to become more and more brutal and savage; fire had to be fought with fire, evil with evil. This is why Paul Carus writes: "In the thirteenth century the Devil reached the acme of his influence...." [Carus, 282] Of course, this was before the invention of the printing press, so the written accounts from this period are scarce compared to the seventeenth century when anyone with a pen and a clerical education could publish a book in God's honor. But we do have some writings from this period besides those of Thomas Aquinas.
Yet, we should probably start with Aquinas. His theory of incubi and succubi reflects a widely held view of the time. The devil is everywhere and he has a potent sex drive. Any person or animal you meet could be the devil in disguise. Other writings give testimony to the pervasiveness of satanic superstition which emerged in full force during the thirteenth century. It had been growing for centuries, but it peaked in the thirteenth century. In 1211, Tilberiensis explains nightmares as caused by the devil [Carus, 283] Caesarius von Heisterach (died about 1245) writes of Satan as the cause of thunder-storms, hail-storms, inundations, diseases, unexpected noises, the rustling of leaves. Satan appears "as a bear, a monkey, a toad, a raven, a vulture, a gentleman, a soldier, a hunter, a peasant, a dragon, and a negro." [Carus, 284] Caesarius's work is called Dialogus Miraculorum; it was written mainly for instructing young monks. It presents in detail the many superstitious beliefs about Satan pervasive in the thirteenth century.
In my view, Satan was at his peak when his influence was felt by nearly everyone; when his presence in the world was an acknowledged fact; when he became a major player in the daily lives of everyman. That happened in the thirteenth century. The persecution of heretics and witches continued for over four hundred years. The Protestant Reformation did not protest either, nor did it reform these practices. The Protestants did not initiate them but, when they had their chance, they equalled or surpassed the Catholics in ferocity and zeal.
My opinion is that the ferocious persecutions of heretics and witches from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries is symbolic of the waning power of the Church. It was losing its magic, literally. Satan's magic had to be fought with diabolical weapons. In my view, it was not the last witch trial or heretic burning that signalled the end of the Christian era of power. A more symbolic event might be picked, such as, putting lighting rods on the tops of church steeples. Churches resisted for years because, as everyone knows, lightning is caused by the magic of God or Satan. If God zaps the church or let's the devil do it, there must be a divine reason for it. Prayers and incantations should be enough to fight off Satan. I'll finish with a quote from Jones:
It was long before the churches consented to be protected by the heretical tool [known as the lightning rod]. The tower of St. Mark's in Venice had at the time of Franklin's invention been struck again and again by lightning, sometimes with such disastrous effects that it had been almost destroyed. The Almighty, or alternatively the Powers of Darkness, seemed to have singled it out for special punishment, in spite of the angel that adorned its summit, the consecrated bells which were repeatedly rung to drive away the thunder, the holy relics in the cathedral nearby and the processions of the Virgin and the patron saint. The tower was struck again in two successive summers after the lightning rod was introduced in Italy, whereupon the authorities succumbed and a rod erected. The edifice has never been struck since, but God alone has received the thanks of a grateful people.[Jones, 295]
I guess we can say that, for some people, faith is stronger than the lightning rod.
p.s. My opinions may differ from yours, but I think I have most of the facts right.