What is satanism?

• LaVeyan Satanism, its practitioners, and those affiliated with the Church of Satanism, the First Satanic Church or the offshoot Temple of Set based (more or less) on Anton LaVey's written works, including The Satanic Bible, published in 1969. Focus of LaVeyan Satanism is on the power and authority of the individual, and not on a deity or pantheon. In contrast to Christianity, Satanists believe there is no universal redeemer (such as the Christ) and that each individual is capable of and responsible for his or her own redemption. Satan is respected more as a principle than a being. As with all contemporary religions, LaVeyan Satanism commands a respect for life and reciprocity and the pursuit of truth.
• The dabblings into the Occult as practiced by rebellious teens who have been raised Christian, presumed (erroneously) to be an organized institution based on the experiments of Aleister Crowley and the Order of the Golden Dawn
• By conservative Christian sects, any non-Abrahamic spiritual or religious practice. Wiccans, Pagans and New Age Spiritualists are commonly associated with Satanism, even though they are nothing alike. Part of this is due to the statement Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (No salvation outside the church) ergo any other belief system, including rival denominations must be a deception by the Adversary. Contemporarily, atheists and agnostics are regarded as similarly deceived and hence guided by Satan.
• The Freemasons and similar esoteric societies have been accused of being satanic in origin, sometimes as far back as their inception, often creating a conflict of interests, when their duties included maintenance of cathedral iconery.
  
• Gothic Satanism, as defined by the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches a treatise concerning witches and witchcraft written in 1486 for the Holy Inquisition. In this text witches are ascribed to have entered a compact with the devil selling their souls in exchange for supernatural powers. They would kidnap or even farm babies either to consume their flesh in ritual or boil them in a soup to use their bones as instruments of magic. They flew through the air on broomsticks, took black cats as familiars, organized into covens of thirteen persons and met at midnight in unholy grottoes. This interpretation of witchcraft is considered the greatest contributor to the Burning Times, in which panics would lead to outbreaks of witch burnings. While none of the practices in the Maleficarum are backed by history or archeology, its allegations are still accepted today in some circles.
• Satanic Ritual Abuse, presumed to have happened based on Recovered Memory Therapy, memories that resurface through hypnotic therapy, and confessions from children acquired through spurious interrogation techniques. The whole SRA scare erupted with the release of Michelle Remembers published in 1980. There are rare incidents of sexual predators who use a satanism motif as a tool to control their victims, but these are more based on media interpretations of Satanism and are used for their dramatic effects.

First answer by Historian. Last edit by Uriel-238. Contributor trust: 5 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 13 [recommend question]