peace and sleep, was transformed into hell, a place of damnation and punishment for the wicked. The serpent that tempted Eve became Satan in disguise, and the Devil became the originator of all evil, the author of death..." (Lyons, 1988:22.)

For centuries, the Hebrews believed in two personified and conflicting forces of good and evil. Modern Judaism, however, rejects the concept of a "personified being leading the forces of evil" and, instead, teaches evil is the result of the imperfect state of the created world and from "human misuse of free will." (Russell, 1988:51.) in contemporary society, only two world religions still believe in the personified struggle for power between God and Satan: Christianity and Islam.

For approximately the first 800 years of Christianity, Satan served a role similar to that in early Hebrew theology: he was primarily the temptation who led men astray in order to exact their punishment. In essence, because the early Christians were constantly under siege from external forces, they were too busy to worry about any internal threats conveyed by a totally evil Satanic force. Once Christianity gained power and influence throughout Europe and Christians became aware of the vast influence primitive religions played in society , they embarked upon a crusade to convert all non-believers.

Despite several centuries of missionary work, the Christians were dismayed to find that many people as well as converts still held onto the beliefs of their nature-oriented, polytheistic religions.

Clearly, something evil was in their midst and that something took on the personage of Satan. Thereafter, the Satan of the New Testament, a creature of God believed to be a fallen angel committed to exacting evil powers, acted as an opposite principle to God. Fear of Satan's power in European communities reached previously unknown heights during the inquisition with rumors that avowed Satanists, who were then known as Witches, practiced a blasphemous black mass and other activities described in The Occult Debate, 1ssue #1.

Fear of Satan's power subsided for almost 200 years until novelist J.K. Huysmans wrote a fictional account of his attendance at a black mass in Paris during which the congregation met secretly:

"in a darkened room decorated luridly with black, flickering candles. The canon, who wears the cross tattooed on the soles of his feet so as to tread upon the Savior with every step, feeds consecrated hosts to mice and mixes excrement with the sacrament. While incense smolders, drugs are handed round, the Devil is invoked, and a hymn to Satan is intoned. A long litany of blasphemies and insults to Christ is read out, with choirboys singing the responses. The drugged congregation howls and rolls on the1loor. The priest sexually abuses the host at the altar, and women come forward to eat of it while men violate the choirboys." (As described in Russell, 1988:237.)

And what about Satanism in the New World? Satanic researcher Arthur Lyons emphasizes that Satanism as defined by actual Satanic worship has never been proven to exist in any organized form in early America. Most accounts of Satanism in pre-twentieth century America were "either wild-eyed narratives by writers wishing to make a splash in literary circles, or vicious attacks by terrified, superstitious individuals, seeking a scapegoat for their own personal misfortunes." (Lyons, 1970:101.)

Aleister Crowley - A Brief Biography Born in 1875 into a wealthy and religious British family, Aleister Crowley eventually became known as one of the world's most masterful magicians. In 1898, Crowley joined the occult-oriented Order of the Golden Dawn. As one of its prominent members described the Order, its purpose was to study "the intelligent forces behind Nature, the Constitution of man and his relation to God" in order that man "may ultimately regain union with the Divine Man latent in himself." (Mathers, 1887.) Crowley was expelled from the Order after an unsuccessful attempt to take over the leadership and eventually joined the secret German occult society, Order Templi Orientis (OTO). In 1920 he went to Sicily to create the Sacred Abbey of Thelema where he and his few initiates engaged in controversial rites and orgies that eventually led to his expulsion from Italy in 1923. He spent the rest of his life wandering throughout England and Europe, during which many of his famous magical writings were published.

Temple of Set Founded in 1975 by a dissident member of the Church of Satan, Michael Aquino, the Temple of Set is the second largest of all contemporary organized Satanic churches. The Temple of Set is a religious society dedicated to Set, the ancient Egyptian god believed by some to be the model for the Christian Satan. Aquino's many writings, especially The Book of Coming Forth by Night, develops a sophisticated form of Satanism far beyond that of LaVey's Church. Among its teachings is the belief that Judeo-Christian religions have established Satan as a "straw man" to justify their guilt for man's ejection from the Garden of Eden. Not much more is known about Setians as the society is secret and most of its writings are not available to the public at large. During its first decade, over 500 members throughout the U.S. embraced the Setian belief system. In late 1986, Aquino claimed that about 1,000 members were still involved. Most group activities are irregular, teaching occurs through personal tutoring and correspondence, and almost all magical work is performed in private.