Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 45
CSER‟s list of Wicca-type religions possesses a common thread of magic, the goal of which
is to bring down discarnate spirits to a point where they infuse the suppliant This may be
done for purposes of expiation, in order to gain direct control over reality, or for a number
of other reasons. However, it is not comparable to practices such as kosher butchery and
the slaughter of turkeys for Thanksgiving, as the report tries to imply. The difference is in
immediate intention and ultimate goal. Kosher butchery is done in acquiescence to the
authority of a distant deity, possibly to incur the deity‟s favor, but with no intention of
infusion into the rabbi, the animal, or those who par-take of the animal. The same applies
to Thanksgiving, which is the celebration of an act which was originally performed simply to
express gratitude for sustenance.
CSER cites Michael Aquino of the Temple of Set as an authority. Here is what Aquino has to
say about bringing down the spirit of Set to infuse the celebrant:
[T]he Priesthood involves the opening of a very special kind of door: the
merging of the consciousness, indeed the personality, with that of the Prince
of Darkness himself. In this Working the Priest or Priestess in no sense loses
personal identity of Self-awareness rather one‟s consciousness is augmented,
energized, and strengthened by that of Set. Hence the Priest or Priestess -
when acting as such, for “Priesthood” is a deliberate act, not an office -is
something more than human, something more than the individual whose
human visage appears before onlookers. At such times he or she is not
“possessed,” but is rather become a veritable living Temple indwelled by the
presence of Set. Each Priest and Priestess of Set is a Temple of Set: a psyche
so purified, educated, consecrated, and initiated that is has become a fit
medium for the Prince of Darkness. Nowhere is this more succinctly illustrated
than in the ultimate admonition of the Egyptian sage to Her-Bak, at the
culmination of the latter‟s initiation as a Priest: “O Her-Bak. 0 Egypt. You are
the temple which the Neter of Neters inhabits. Awaken Him ...then let the
temple fall crashing.”7
Aquino‟s description should remove any doubt about the intention of satanist practice.
Rhetorical double-talk to the contrary notwithstanding, what Aquino is describing is indeed
possession. It is to allow one‟s self, one‟s thoughts, beliefs and acts of will, to be absorbed
into those belonging to an alien entity -and the “temple” must indeed come crashing down.
One‟s self -that is, one‟s unique, authentic non-cult personality -thus becomes the first
sacrifice to one‟s satanic Self merged with that of the Prince of Darkness. This initial psychic
casualty accounts for the reversed ethical judgments of many satanists. Restraint is
replaced by aggression, compassion fades into cruelty, and the pursuit of the experience of
power emerges as the means and the end. Satanists do not see these shifts as evil. A
knowledgeable Satanist such as Michael Aquino considers judgments of good and evil to be
subject to purely personal criteria.8 A believing and practicing Satanist is more than a
theological maverick. He or she is also a philosophical subjectivist.
Wicca is a contemporary form of traditional witchcraft. As such it incorporates attributes of
the generic craft and traits normally found in more obviously occultic practices. Wiccan
practice is a syncretistic quagmire in that it is not based on a uniform ritual, universal
theology, or coherently ordered network. It is possible, however, to discern parallels
between Wicca and the CSER report‟s description of satanic worship. The report says that
“Satanists believe that there exists an all-pervasive and creative “force of Nature” that is
responsible for the “balance” in nature ...the one thing that is necessary to personally
experience this “force,” to know it and to be able to use it to advance one‟s life, is to indulge
in earthly pleasure.”9 The similarity between Wiccan beliefs and the Satanic beliefs
expounded by the report can be observed in the book The Witches’ Goddess by Janet and
Stewart Farrar. The authors write, “paganism (and perhaps the Craft in particular is strongly

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 46
Nature-based. Both in their worship and in their daily lives, pagans love, respect and
endeavor to attune themselves to their natural environment ...its currents and rhythms.”10
Attuning to this environment is assisted by acts of communion with the Goddess of Nature.
This is not, however, “a purely rational activity.” It must be expressed through myth and
ritual and ultimately depends on “the psychic fermentation which cannot be hurried but
which gradually transmutes knowledge into personal awareness.”11
Another parallel between Satanism and Goddess worship is the monist conception on which
each rests and from which each religion‟s ominous aspects emerge. The Farrars write that,
“The Goddess is both the womb and the tomb she gives birth, she creates form, she
nourishes, and she reabsorbs the outworn preparatory to its reshaping and rebirth. If she
were not the destroyer, she could not be the renewer.”12 The report says that Satanists
believe that “one cannot know love without also knowing hate, one cannot know ecstasy
without also knowing agony.”13 The Farrars go even further and acknowledge that the dark
side of the Goddess is the force “the patriarchal order” mistakes as the Devil.14 This is quite
telling, because of the similarity between the types of sorcery each requires.
The most striking parallel between Wicca and the report‟s cited satanic beliefs is to be found
in the phenomenon of sought-for possession. Where Aquino acknowledges the Prince of
Darkness, the Wiccans seek the presence of the Goddess. The ritual is called Drawing Down
the Moon. The Farrars describe a very explicit ritual in which the Priest “addresses the
Goddess independently of the woman, invoking her to “descend into the body of thy servant
and priestess.”15 The Farrars claim that this ritual “works.”16 “Time and again, an “ordinary”
human woman seems transformed by it, so that the coven has no difficulty in reacting to
her as the voice and presence of the Goddess.”17 The Farrars explain that the words of the
Charge, or its human channel, are often replaced by something quite different. “Every
experienced High Priestess is familiar with the strange feeling of observing from a corner of
her own mind, of listening to the Goddess using her vocal chords, and wondering what will
come next.”18
As the history of Goddess-worship so clearly attests, “what will come next” may well be
human sacrifice. In his book Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the reports designated expert on
witchcraft, Jeffrey Burton Russell, acknowledges that many medieval witches did indeed
perform the horrific acts attributed to them. He cites Lynn White‟s observation that
“Witchcraft is always a turning upsidedown of the moral standards of the world in which the
witch lives.”19 White also noted that it is a rebellion, a repudiation, “a form of nihilism which
is demanded by mentally and emotionally unstable people in any time of rapid change.”20 In
a predominantly Christian world the rebellion would necessarily be against a Christian moral
order. As the Farrars point out, contemporary witches express an anti-Christian view.21 This
is not surprising. “People alienated from society escape ambiguity, dissonance, and despair
only by throwing themselves totally into another symbolic order. In turning away from God,
the witches naturally sought to discover their identity in total union with the Devil.”22
This, then, is what the report obscures. Wicca and Satanism share, metaphysically
speaking, a regression to an ethical mode based upon the relinquishing of personal
responsibility in the experience of possession. By acquiescing to the directive will of a
spiritual Force greater than the individual, all manner of license is permitted, then
demanded. A state of primal innocence is entered, wherein actions are considered to be
ultimately those of the spirit, not the individual. It is increasingly evident that contemporary
practitioners are, as were those of the Middle Ages, pursuing ecstasy through domination of
themselves, of Nature, and of other people. And total dominance means just that. Death.
For, as history demonstrates, the Earth Goddess and the Devil do demand death. (The drift
toward this demand is already apparent in another realm we shall be examining, the social
fascination with magical and satanic themes found in certain forms of rock music.)