Satan the Devil (Illustrations did not copy)
ISAIAH 14:12 "How you have fallen from Heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the Earth, who once laid the nations low!"
Satan was originally a righteous angel named Lucifer, meaning "light bringer." In the process, he and other angels willfully disobeyed and rebelled against God and became demons (Revelation 12). Lucifer's name changed to Satan, which means "the adversary."
Lucifer corrupted himself through lust (pride) and vanity. He sought nothing less than knocking God off his throne and taking control of the entire universe (Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14)! He and his demons, however, were perfectly defeated and cast down to the Earth as quick as lightning (Luke 10:18). Satan, soon, will be put to death for his rebellion!
Illustration of the Devil, dating to the early thirteenth century
Satan, also known as the Devil and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the Yetzer Hara, or "evil inclination." In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who rebelled against God, temporary power over the fallen world, and a host of demons. Nevertheless, in the Quran, Shaitan, also known as Iblis, is an entity made of fire that was cast out of Heaven because he refused to bow before the newly created Adam and incites humans to sin by infecting their minds with waswas ("evil suggestions").
A figure known as ha-satan ("the satan") first appears in the Hebrew Bible as a heavenly prosecutor, subordinate to Yahweh (God), who prosecutes the nation of Judah in the heavenly court and tests the loyalty of Yahweh's followers. In the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, Yahweh grants satan (referred to as Mastema) authority over a group of fallen angels, or their offspring, to tempt humans to sin and punish them.
Although the Book of Genesis does not mention him, Christians often identify the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan. In the Synoptic Gospels, Satan tempts Jesus in the desert and is identified as the cause of illness and temptation. In the Book of Revelation, Satan appears as a Great Red Dragon, who is defeated by Michael the Archangel and cast down from Heaven. He is later bound for one thousand years but is briefly set free before being ultimately defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire.
In the Middle Ages, Satan played a minimal role in Christian theology and was used as a comic relief figure in mystery plays. During the early modern period, Satan's significance significantly increased as beliefs such as demonic possession and witchcraft became more prevalent. During the Age of Enlightenment, belief in the existence of Satan was harshly criticized by thinkers such as Voltaire. Nonetheless, belief in Satan has persisted, particularly in the Americas.
Although Satan is generally viewed as evil, some groups have very different beliefs. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered to be worshiped or revered Deity. In LaVeyan Satanism, Satan is a symbol of virtuous characteristics and liberty. Satan's appearance is never described in the Bible, but since the ninth century, he has often been shown in Christian art with horns, cloven hooves, unusually hairy legs, and a tail, often naked and holding a pitchfork. These are an amalgam of traits derived from various pagan deities, including Pan, Poseidon, and Bes. Satan frequently appears in Christian literature, most notably in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, all variants of the classic Faust story, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and the poems of William Blake. He continues to appear in film, television, and music.
Hebrew Bible
Balaam and the Angel (1836) by Gustav Jäger. The angel in this incident is referred to as "satan."
The Hebrew term sa?an (Hebrew: ??????) is a generic noun meaning "accuser" or "adversary" and is derived from a verb meaning primarily "to obstruct, oppose." The earlier biblical books, e.g., 1 Samuel 29:4, refer to human adversaries, but in the later books, especially Job 1-2 and Zechariah 3, to a supernatural entity. It can refer to any accuser when used without the definite article (simply satan). However, when used with the definite article (ha-satan), it usually refers specifically to the heavenly accuser, satan.
The word with the definite article Ha-Satan (Hebrew: ????????? hasSa?an) occurs 17 times in the Masoretic Text, in two books of the Hebrew Bible: Job ch. 1–2 (14×) and Zechariah 3:1–2 (3×). It is translated in English bibles primarily as 'Satan' (18x in Book of Job, I Books of Chronicles, and Book of Zechariah).
The word without the definite article is used in 10 instances, of which two are translated as diabolos in the Septuagint. It is translated in English Bibles as 'an accuser' (1x) but primarily as 'an adversary' (9x as in Book of Numbers, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Kings).
• 1 Chronicles 21:1, "Satan stood up against Israel" (KJV) or "And there standeth up an adversary against Israel" (Young's Literal Translation)
• Psalm 109:6b "and let Satan stand at his right hand" (KJV) or "let an accuser stand at his right hand." (ESV, etc.)
The word does not occur in the Book of Genesis, which mentions only a talking serpent and does not identify the serpent with any supernatural entity. The first occurrence of the word "satan" in the Hebrew Bible about a supernatural figure comes from Numbers 22:22, which describes the Angel of Yahweh confronting Balaam on his donkey: "Balaam's departure aroused the wrath of Elohim, and the Angel of Yahweh stood in the road as a satan against him." In 2 Samuel 24, Yahweh sends the "Angel of Yahweh" to inflict a plague against Israel for three days, killing 70,000 people as punishment for David having taken a census without his approval. 1 Chronicles 21:1 repeats this story but replaces the "Angel of Yahweh" with an entity referred to as "a satan."
A "spirit," whose name is not specified but analogous to satan, volunteers to be "a Lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets."Some passages clearly refer to satan without using the word itself. 1 Samuel 2:12 describes the sons of Eli as "sons of Belial"; the later usage of this word makes it a synonym for "satan." In 1 Samuel 16:14–23, Yahweh sends a "troubling spirit" to torment King Saul as a mechanism to ingratiate David with the king. In 1 Kings 22:19–25, the prophet Micaiah describes to King Ahab a vision of Yahweh sitting on his throne surrounded by the Host of Heaven. Yahweh asks the Host which of them will lead Ahab astray.
Judaism
The sound of a shofar (pictured) is supposed to confuse Satan symbolically.
Most Jews do not believe in the existence of a supernatural omnibenevolent figure. Traditionalists and philosophers in medieval Judaism adhered to rational theology, rejecting any belief in rebel or fallen angels and viewing evil as abstract. The rabbis usually interpreted the word satan lacking the article ha- as it is used in the Tanakh as referring strictly to human adversaries. Nonetheless, the word satan has occasionally been metaphorically applied to evil influences, such as the Jewish exegesis of the Yetzer Hara ("evil inclination") mentioned in Genesis 6:5. The Talmudic image of Satan is contradictory. While Satan's identification with the abstract Yetzer Hara remains uniform over the sages' teachings, he is generally identified as an entity with the divine agency. For instance, the sages considered Satan an angel of death that would later be called Samael since God's prohibition on Satan killing Job implied he was even capable of doing so. However, despite this syncretization with a known heavenly body, Satan is identified as the yetzer hara in the same passage. Numerous other rabbinical anecdotes strengthen Satan's status as a 'physical' entity: one tale describes two incidents where Satan appeared as a woman to tempt Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Akiva into sin. Another passage describes Satan taking the form of an ill-mannered, diseased beggar in order to tempt the sage Peleimu into breaking the mitzvah of hospitality.
Rabbinical scholarship on the Book of Job generally follows the Talmud and Maimonides in identifying "the satan" from the prologue as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and not an actual entity. Satan is rarely mentioned in Tannaitic literature but is found in Babylonian Haggadah. Kabbalah presents Satan as an agent of God whose function is to tempt humans into sinning so that he may accuse them in the heavenly court. According to a narration, the sound of the shofar, primarily intended to remind Jews of the importance of teshuva, is also intended symbolically to "confuse the accuser" (Satan) and prevent him from rendering any litigation to God against the Jews. The Hasidic Jews of the eighteenth century associated ha-Satan with Baal Davar.
Each modern sect of Judaism has its interpretation of Satan's identity. Conservative Judaism rejects the Talmudic interpretation of Satan as a metaphor for the yetzer hara and regards him as a literal agent of God. Orthodox Judaism, on the other hand, outwardly embraces Talmudic teachings on Satan and involves Satan in religious life far more inclusively than other sects. Satan is mentioned explicitly in some daily prayers, including during Shacharit and certain post-meal benedictions, as described in the Talmud and the Jewish Code of Law. In Reform Judaism, Satan is generally seen in his Talmudic role as a metaphor for the Yetzer Hara and the symbolic representation of innate human qualities such as selfishness.
Christianity
Main article: Devil in Christianity
Names
The most common English synonym for "Satan" is "devil," which descends from Middle English devel, from Old English deofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of Latin Diabolus (also the source of "diabolical"). This, in turn, was borrowed from Greek diabolos "slanderer," from diaballein "to slander": dia- "across, through" + ballein "to hurl." In the New Testament, the words Satan and diabolos are used interchangeably as synonyms. Beelzebub, meaning "Lord of Flies," is the contemptuous name given in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament to a Philistine god whose original name has been reconstructed as most probably "Ba'al Zabul," meaning "Baal the Prince." The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and Beelzebub as the same. The name Abaddon (meaning "place of destruction") is used six times in the Old Testament, mainly as a name for one of the regions of Sheol. Revelation 9:11 describes Abaddon, whose name is translated into Greek as Apollyon, meaning "the destroyer," as an angel who rules the Abyss. In modern usage, Abaddon is sometimes equated with Satan.
New Testament
Gospels, Acts, and epistles
Sixteenth-century illustration by Simon Bening shows Satan approaching Jesus with a stone
The Temptation of Christ (1854)
The three Synoptic Gospels all describe the temptation of Christ by Satan in the desert (Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1–13). Satan first shows Jesus a stone and tells him to turn it into bread. He also takes him to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and commands Jesus to throw himself down so that the angels will catch him. Satan also takes Jesus to the top of a tall mountain; there, he shows him the kingdoms of the Earth and promises to give them all to him if he will bow down and worship him. Each time Jesus rebukes Satan, and, after the third temptation, he is administered by the angels. Satan's promise in Matthew 4:8–9 and Luke 4:6–7 to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the Earth implies that all those kingdoms belong to him. The fact that Jesus does not dispute Satan's promise indicates that the gospels' authors believed this to be true.
The Kabbalah presents Satan as an agent of God whose function is to tempt humans into sinning so that he may accuse them in the heavenly court. Satan plays a role in some of the parables of Jesus, namely the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds, the Parable of the Strong Man, and the Parable of the sheep and the goats. According to the Parable of the Sower, Satan "profoundly influences" those who fail to understand the gospel. The last two parables say that Satan's followers will be punished on Judgement Day, with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats stating that the Devil, his angels, and the people who follow him will be consigned to "eternal fire." When the Pharisees accused Jesus of exorcising demons through the power of Beelzebub, Jesus responded by telling the Parable of the Strong Man, saying: "how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house" (Matthew 12:29). The strong man in this parable represents Satan.
The Synoptic Gospels identify Satan and his demons as the causes of illness, including fever (Luke 4:39), leprosy (Luke 5:13), and arthritis (Luke 13:11–16). At the same time, the Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Devil as "him who holds the power of death" (Hebrews 2:14). The author of Luke-Acts attributes more power to Satan than both Matthew and Mark. In Luke 22:31, Jesus grants Satan the authority to test Peter and the other apostles. Luke 22:3–6 states that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus because "Satan entered" him, and, in Acts 5:3, Peter describes Satan as "filling" Ananias's heart and causing him to sin. The Gospel of John only uses the name Satan three times. In John 8:44, Jesus says that his Jewish or Judean enemies are the children of the Devil rather than the children of Abraham. The same verse describes the Devil as "a man-killer from the beginning" and "a liar and the father of lies." John 13:2 describes the Devil as inspiring Judas to betray Jesus. John 12:31–32 identifies Satan as "the Archon of this Cosmos," destined to be overthrown through Jesus's death and resurrection. John 16:7–8 promises that the Holy Spirit will "accuse the World concerning sin, justice, and judgment," a role resembling satan in the Old Testament.
Jude 9 refers to a dispute between Michael the Archangel and the Devil over the body of Moses. Some interpreters understand this reference as an allusion to the events described in Zechariah 3:1–2. The classical theologian Origen attributes this reference to the non-canonical assumption of Moses. According to James H. Charlesworth, there is no evidence that the surviving book of this name ever contained any such content. Others believe it to be in the lost ending of the book. The second chapter of the Second Epistle of Peter, a pseudepigraphical letter that falsely claims to have been written by Peter, copies much of the content of the Epistle of Jude but omits the specifics of the example regarding Michael and Satan, with 2 Peter 2:10–11 instead mentioning only an ambiguous dispute between "Angels" and "Glories." Throughout the New Testament, Satan is referred to as a "tempter" (Matthew 4:3), "the ruler of the demons" (Matthew 12:24), "the God of this Age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), "the evil one" (1 John 5:18), and "a roaring lion" (1 Peter 5:8).
Patristic era
Even though the Book of Genesis never mentions Satan, Christians have traditionally interpreted the serpent in the Garden of Eden as Satan due to Revelation 12:7, which calls Satan "that ancient serpent." This verse, however, is probably intended to identify Satan with the Leviathan, a monstrous sea-serpent whose destruction by Yahweh is prophesied in Isaiah 27:1. The first recorded individual to identify Satan with the serpent from the Garden of Eden was the second-century AD Christian apologist, Justin Martyr, in chapters 45 and 79 of his Dialogue with Trypho. Other early church fathers to mention this identification include Theophilus and Tertullian. The early Christian Church, however, encountered opposition from pagans such as Celsus, who claimed in his treatise The True Word that "it is blasphemy... to say that the greatest God... has an adversary who constrains his capacity to do good" and said that Christians "impiously divide the kingdom of God, creating a rebellion in it, as if there were opposing factions within the divine, including one that is hostile to God."
Lucifer (1890) by Franz Stuck.
Because of Patristic interpretations of Isaiah 14:12 and Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation, the name "Lucifer" is sometimes used about Satan.
The name Heylel, meaning "morning star" (or, in Latin, Lucifer), was a name for Attar, the God of the planet Venus in Canaanite mythology, who attempted to scale the walls of the heavenly city, but was vanquished by the God of the sun. The name is used in Isaiah 14:12 as a symbolic reference to the king of Babylon. Ezekiel 28:12–15 uses a description of a cherub in Eden as a polemic against Ithobaal II, the king of Tyre.
The Church Father Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – c. 253), who was only aware of the actual text of these passages and not the original myths to which they refer, concluded in his treatise On the First Principles, which is preserved in a Latin translation by Tyrannius Rufinus, that neither of these verses could refer to a human being. He concluded that Isaiah 14:12 is an allegory for Satan and that Ezekiel 28:12–15 is an allusion to "a certain Angel who had received the office of governing the nation of the Tyrians" but was hurled down to Earth after he was found to be corrupt. In his apologetic treatise Contra Celsum, however, Origen interprets Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12–15 as referring to Satan. According to Henry Ansgar Kelly, Origen seems to have adopted this new interpretation to refute unnamed persons who, perhaps under Zoroastrian radical dualism, believed "that Satan's original nature was Darkness." The later Church Father Jerome (c. 347 – 420), the translator of the Latin Vulgate, accepted Origen's theory of Satan as a fallen angel and wrote about it in his commentary on the Book of Isaiah. In Christian tradition, Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12–15 have been understood as allegorically referring to Satan. For most Christians, Satan has been regarded as an angel who rebelled against God.
According to the ransom theory of atonement, popular among early Christian theologians, Satan gained power over humanity through Adam and Eve's sin. Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan for humanity's liberation. This theory holds that God tricked Satan because Christ was not only free of sin but also the incarnate Deity, whom Satan could not enslave. Irenaeus of Lyons described a prototypical form of the ransom theory, but Origen was the first to propose it in its fully developed form. The theory was later expanded by theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa and Rufinus of Aquileia. In the eleventh century, Anselm of Canterbury criticized the ransom theory and the associated Christus Victor theory, resulting in the theory's decline in western Europe. The theory has retained some popularity in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Most early Christians firmly believed that Satan and his demons had the power to possess humans, and exorcisms were widely practiced by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike. Belief in demonic possession continued through the Middle Ages into the early modern period. Exorcisms were seen as a display of God's power over Satan. Most people who thought the Devil possessed them did not suffer hallucinations or other "spectacular symptoms" but "complained of anxiety, religious fears, and evil thoughts."
Modern era
The Genius of Evil (1848) by Guillaume Geefs
Mormonism developed its views on Satan. According to the Book of Moses, the Devil offered to be the redeemer of Mankind for the sake of his glory. Conversely, Jesus offered to be the redeemer of Mankind so that his father's will would be done. After his offer was rejected, Satan became rebellious and was cast out of Heaven. In the Book of Moses, Cain is said to have "loved Satan more than God" and conspired with Satan to kill Abel. It was through this pact that Cain became a Master Mahan. The Book of Moses also says that Satan tempted Moses before calling upon the name of the "Only Begotten," which caused Satan to depart. Douglas Davies asserts that this text "reflects" the temptation of Jesus in the Bible.
Belief in Satan and demonic possession remains strong among Christians in the United States and Latin America. According to a 2013 poll conducted by YouGov, fifty-seven percent of people in the United States believe in a literal Devil, compared to eighteen percent of people in Britain. Fifty-one percent of Americans believe that Satan has the power to possess people. W. Scott Poole, author of Satan in America: The Devil We Know, has opined that "In the United States over the last forty to fifty years, a composite image of Satan has emerged that borrows from both popular culture and theological sources" and that most American Christians do not "separate what they know [about Satan] from the movies from what they know from various ecclesiastical and theological traditions." The Catholic Church generally played down Satan and exorcism during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries,[172] but Pope Francis brought renewed focus on the Devil in the early 2010s, stating, among many other pronouncements, that "The devil is intelligent, he knows more theology than all the theologians together." According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, liberal Christianity tends to view Satan "as a [figurative] mythological attempt to express the reality and extent of evil in the universe, existing outside and apart from humanity but profoundly influencing the human sphere."
Bernard McGinn describes multiple traditions detailing the relationship between the Antichrist and Satan. In the dualist approach, Satan will become incarnate in the Antichrist, just as God incarnate in Jesus. However, this view is problematic because it is too similar to Christ's incarnation. Instead, the "indwelling" view has become more accepted, stipulating that the Antichrist is a human figure inhabited by Satan since the latter's power is not to be seen as equivalent to God's.
Islam
The Arabic equivalent of the word Satan is Shaitan (?????, from the triliteral root š-?-n ????). The word itself is an adjective (meaning "astray" or "distant," sometimes translated as "devil") that can be applied to both man ("al-ins," ?????) and al-jinn (????), but it is also used about Satan in particular. In the Quran, Satan's name is Iblis (Arabic pronunciation: ['ibli?s]), probably a derivative of the Greek word diabolos. Muslims do not regard Satan as the cause of evil but as a tempter who takes advantage of humans' inclinations toward self-centeredness.
Islamic tradition
Muhammad Siyah Qalam
Affiliation
In the Quran, Satan is an angel, but, in 18:50, he is described as "from the jinns." This, combined with the fact that he describes himself as having been made from fire, posed a significant problem for Muslim exegetes of the Quran. They disagree on whether Satan is a fallen angel or the leader of a group of evil jinn. According to a hadith from Ibn Abbas, Iblis was an angel God created out of the fire. Ibn Abbas asserts that the word jinn could be applied to earthly jinn and "fiery angels" like Satan.
Hasan of Basra, an eminent Muslim theologian who lived in the seventh century AD, was quoted as saying: "Iblis was not an angel even for the time of an eye wink. He is the origin of Jinn as Adam is of Mankind." The medieval Persian scholar Abu Al-Zamakhshari states that the words angels and jinn are synonyms. Another Persian scholar, Al-Badawi, argues that Satan hoped to be an angel but that his actions made him a jinn. Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, revered as the founder of Maturidiyya Sunni orthodoxy (kalam), argued that, since God can bless angels, they are also put to the test and can be punished; accordingly, Satan became a devil after he declined to obey. Other Islamic scholars argue that Satan was a jinn admitted into Paradise as a reward for his righteousness. Unlike the angels, he was given a choice to obey or disobey God. When he was expelled from Paradise, Satan blamed humanity for his punishment. Concerning the fiery origin of Iblis, Zakariya al-Qazwini and Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibshihi state that all supernatural creatures originated from fire but the angels from its light and the jinn from its blaze, thus fire denotes a disembodiment origin of all spiritual entities. Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi argued that only the angels of mercy are created from light, but angels of punishment have been created from fire.
The Muslim historian Al-Tabari, who died around 923 AD, writes that, before Adam was created, earthly jinn made of smokeless fire roamed the Earth and spread corruption. He further relates that Iblis was originally an angel named Azazel or Al-Harith, from a group of angels created from the fires of simoom, sent by God to confront the earthly jinn. Azazel defeated the jinn in battle and drove them into the mountains, but he became convinced that he was superior to humans and all the other angels, leading to his downfall. Azazel's angels were called jinn in this account because they guarded Jannah (Paradise). In another tradition recorded by Al-Tabari, Satan was one of the earthly jinns who was taken captive by the angels and brought to Heaven as a prisoner. God appointed him as judge over the other jinn and became known as Al-Hakam. He fulfilled his duty for a thousand years before growing negligent but was rehabilitated again and resumed his position until he refused to bow before Adam.
Satanism
Eliphas Levi's image of Baphomet is embraced by LaVeyan Satanists as a symbol of duality, fertility, and the "powers of darkness," serving as the namesake of their primary insignia, the Sigil of Baphomet.
Theistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism, commonly called "devil worship," views Satan as a deity that individuals may supplicate. It consists of loosely affiliated or independent groups and cabals, which all agree that Satan is an entity.
Atheistic Satanism
Atheistic Satanism, as practiced by the Satanic Temple and by followers of LaVeyan Satanism, holds that Satan does not exist as a literal anthropomorphic entity but as a symbol of a cosmos that Satanists perceive to be permeated and motivated by a force that humans have given many names with time. In this religion, "Satan" is not viewed or depicted as a hubristic, irrational, and fraudulent creature but rather is revered with Prometheus-like attributes, symbolizing liberty and individual empowerment. To adherents, he also serves as a conceptual framework and an external metaphorical projection of the Satanist's highest personal potential. In his essay "Satanism: The Feared Religion," the current High Priest of the Church of Satan, Peter H. Gilmore, further expounds that "...Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshiped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will".
LaVeyan Satanists embrace the original etymological meaning of the word "Satan" (Hebrew: ??????? satan, meaning "adversary"). According to Peter H. Gilmore, "The Church of Satan has chosen Satan as its primary symbol because Hebrew means adversary, opposer, one to accuse or question. We see ourselves as these Satans; the adversaries, opposers, and accusers of all spiritual belief systems that would try to hamper enjoyment of our life as a human being."
Post-LaVeyan Satanists, like the adherents of The Satanic Temple, argue that the human animal has a natural altruistic and communal tendency and frame Satan as a figure of struggle against injustice and activism. They also believe in bodily autonomy, that personal beliefs should conform to science and inspire nobility, and that people should atone for their mistakes.
Allegations of worship
A depiction of Santa Muerte
The main Deity in the tentatively Indo-European pantheon of the Yazidis, Melek Taus, is similar to the Devil in Christian and Islamic traditions, as he refused to bow down before humanity. Therefore, Christians and Muslims often consider Melek Taus to be Satan. However, rather than being Satanic, Yazidism can be understood as a remnant of a pre-Islamic Middle Eastern Indo-European religion and a chat Sufi movement founded by Shaykh Adi. There is no entity in Yazidism that represents evil in opposition to God; such dualism is rejected.
In the Middle Ages, the Cathars, practitioners of a dualistic religion, were accused of worshipping Satan by the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory IX stated in his work Vox in Rama that the Cathars believed that God had erred in casting Lucifer out of Heaven and that Lucifer would return to reward his faithful. On the other hand, according to Catharism, the creator god of the material world worshipped by the Catholic Church is Satan.
Wicca is a modern, syncretic Neopagan religion whose practitioners many Christians have incorrectly assumed to worship Satan. In actuality, Wiccans do not believe in the existence of Satan or any comparable figure and have repeatedly and emphatically rejected the notion that they venerate such an entity. The cult of the skeletal figure of Santa Muerte, which has grown exponentially in Mexico, has been denounced by the Catholic Church as Devil-worship. However, devotees of Santa Muerte view her as an angel of death created by God, and many identify as Catholic.
Much modern folklore about Satanism does not originate from the actual beliefs or practices of theistic or atheistic Satanists but rather from a mixture of medieval Christian folk beliefs, political or sociological conspiracy theories, and contemporary urban legends. An example is the Satanic ritual abuse scare of the 1980s—beginning with the memoir Michelle Remembers—which depicted Satanism as a vast conspiracy of elites with a predilection for child abuse and human sacrifice. This genre frequently describes Satan as physically incarnating in order to receive worship.
