Satan

SATAN

Satan is the Adversary: the one who says no to every throne that demands obedience, and yes to the person willing to become their own master. To those who are his, he is not the enemy of humanity but the first friend of it.

Who Satan is to practitioners today

Satan is the Adversary and the Lord of this world: for some who work with him a real and present deity, for others a chosen symbol of rebellion and self-rule, and for almost all of them the patron of freedom, strength and the refusal to kneel.

His name is a Hebrew word, satan, meaning adversary or accuser, and he began in scripture less as a fallen rival than as the one who stands against, who tests and challenges. Centuries of Christianity grew him into the enemy of God and the ruler of Hell, and the Left Hand Path took that enemy and recognised a liberator.

Today Satan is worked in two broad ways that this page keeps side by side. Theistic Satanists approach him as a living being, a father, teacher and god of the dark. Atheistic and LaVeyan Satanists take him as a symbol of the carnal, questioning, self-sovereign self, without a literal deity behind it. Both are honoured here, because both are real currents, and Black Witch Coven members themselves differ on where the truth of him lies.

This page starts with how people actually work with him now, the prayers and chants they use and the questions they ask, and ends with what the old books and traditions say.

Why people work with Satan

People come to the Adversary for the whole of life, not a single office. These are the reasons practitioners work with Satan, from the oldest associations to what people actually bring him today.

Classic reasons

• Rebellion: defiance of tyranny, dogma and every authority that demands submission
• Knowledge: the forbidden fruit, the drive to know rather than to obey
• Freedom: liberty of body, mind and conscience
• Power and strength: the raising of the self to its full stature
• Temptation and the carnal: the honouring of desire, pleasure and the appetites as natural
• Justice: the Adversary as accuser and leveller, against the unearned and the cruel

Modern reasons

• Self-sovereignty: people work with Satan to become the master of their own life and destiny
• Leaving a former faith: many come to him after leaving the religion they were raised in, to claim their own path
• Strength through hardship: practitioners pray to Satan for the backbone to endure and come through
• Protection: calling on him as a guardian against those who would harm or control them
• Confidence and pride: petitions for self-worth, nerve and the refusal to be made small
• Against abuse: some invoke Satan to stop accepting mistreatment and to stand up to it
• Success and ambition: spells with Satan for the will to rise and take what is theirs
• Justice and vengeance: bringing him a wrong that the world refused to right
• Shadow and self-knowledge: facing the whole self, the dark included, without shame
• Devotion: taking Satan as patron and father, a lifelong relationship rather than a single spell
• Community and identity: claiming the name Satanist as a statement of values and belonging
• Standing against dogma in the world: blasphemy, pluralism and the defence of conscience

Traditional, for reference

What scripture, demonology and the old traditions assign him. This is historical background, not modern practice.

• Hebrew Bible: ha-satan, “the accuser,” who tests Job, stands against Joshua in Zechariah and incites the census in Chronicles
• New Testament: the tempter of Christ, the adversary of God and humanity, “prince of this world”
• Binsfeld’s princes (1589): the demon of wrath among the seven princes of Hell
• Milton, Paradise Lost: the tragic rebel archangel, “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”
• Islamic tradition: Iblis / Shaitan, the jinn who refused to bow to Adam
• The Satanic Bible (1969): the Adversary of the south and the element of fire, first of the Four Crown Princes

Satan at a glance

• Other names: the Adversary, the Devil, Lucifer (to some), Shaitan, Iblis, Mastema, Samael, Saitan, Satanas
• Name: from the Hebrew satan, “adversary” or “accuser”
• Title: Lord of this world, the Adversary, first of the Four Crown Princes of Hell
• Element: Fire (in The Satanic Bible)
• Direction: South (LaVey); both South and East in our coven’s attribution
• Numbers: 13, 666, 4
• Ritual call: no Goetic enn; the traditional cry is simply Ave Satanas — Hail Satan

Correspondences

Used in Black Witch Coven (from our own practice):

• Day: Monday
• Colours: Blue, red and black
• Directions: South and East
• Numbers: 13, 666 and 4
• Sacred animals: the peacock, the serpent, the goat, the dragon and the raven
• Zodiac: Aquarius, the Water-Bearer, and Capricorn, the Goat
• Planets: Uranus and Venus, the Morning Star
• Incense: myrrh, sandalwood, dragon’s blood resin

Also used by other practitioners:

• Element: Fire, and the direction South, following The Satanic Bible
• Ritual sigil: the Sigil of Baphomet, the goat-pentagram, used for Satan in LaVey’s system
• Colours: black and red above all
• Candles: black for ritual, red for desire and life
• Stones: obsidian, black onyx, garnet, bloodstone
• Offerings: red wine, dark spirits, rich food, tobacco, incense and acts of courage
• Observance: some keep the day after the winter solstice as a personal feast, when the sun turns back toward the light

Working with Satan today

There is no single grimoire rite for Satan, because he is not a Goetic spirit to be conjured in a triangle; he is approached as a deity, a patron or a symbol, depending on the practitioner. What follows is the shared ground across those approaches, and how we work with him in Black Witch Coven.

Come as yourself, upright

The counsel repeated most is to come upright. He is the Lord of those who will not kneel, and people who approach him on their feet, stating plainly who they are and what they want, report a truer contact than those who come in fear or in performance. Sincerity is the whole currency. He is said to see straight through a pose.

Building the altar

• A black or red candle, or one of each
• The Sigil of Baphomet, drawn, cast or printed, as his ritual emblem
• An image or statue if it helps you focus: the goat, the serpent, the Morning Star
• Incense: myrrh, sandalwood or dragon’s blood
• A chalice of red wine or dark drink
• A personal token of what you are and what you are reaching for

How to make your own Satan Oleum

Creating an “oleum” or oil associated with a figure like Satan can be approached symbolically and creatively. This oil can be used for various purposes in ritual work, such as empowerment, protection, or spiritual exploration. Here’s a basic method for making “Satan Oleum.” If you would rather have it ready-made, our Satan’s Oleum is made in-house.

Satan Oleum: ingredients

• Carrier oil: olive oil, almond oil, or jojoba oil (about 2 ounces)
• Herbs:
  • Cinnamon: for power and protection
  • Peppermint: for clarity and strong intentions
  • Thyme: for courage and strength
• Essential oils (optional):
  • Patchouli: for grounding and attraction
  • Frankincense: for spiritual connection
• A small jar: dark glass is preferable for storing the oil
• Candle: black or red (for power and banishment)
• Incense: use something like myrrh or sandalwood

Satan Oleum: method

1. Prepare your space: find a quiet area where you can work without interruptions. Cleanse the space with incense or by ringing a bell.
2. Combine the oils: in a small jar, pour in the carrier oil. This will serve as the base for your oleum.
3. Add the herbs: crumble a pinch of cinnamon, peppermint, and thyme into the oil. As you add each herb, focus on its properties and what you want to manifest.
4. Add the essential oils (optional): if using essential oils, add a few drops of patchouli and frankincense to the mixture for added depth and intention.
5. Seal and shake: close the jar tightly and shake it gently. As you do, visualize your intention for the oil, what you hope to achieve or understand.
6. Charge the oil: place the jar in sunlight or moonlight for a few hours or overnight to charge it with energy. Alternatively, hold it in your hands while meditating on your intention.
7. Candle ritual: light the black or red candle and say a few words of invocation. For example: “Satan, I call upon your power and wisdom as I create this oleum. May it guide me in my endeavors.”
8. Use the oil: once charged, use the oil in various ways: anoint candles before rituals, apply a small amount on your wrists for personal empowerment, or use it in spellwork focused on strength or protection.
9. Store safely: keep the oleum in a cool, dark place when not in use.

Dedication: taking him as patron

Many people’s first real working with Satan is a dedication, a declaration that they walk this path and claim him as their own. Practitioners describe it simply:

• Cleanse the space and yourself, and sit or stand before the altar in the dark
• Light the candle and the incense, and let the room settle
• Speak plainly who you are, what you reject, and what you choose
• Call his name, Ave Satanas, and state that you take him as patron
• Sit in the silence that follows and listen
• Seal it with an offering, and keep the night as yours

Offerings

• Red wine and dark spirits: poured to the altar or shared in his honour
• Rich food, dark chocolate, tobacco
• Incense and candles: let to burn down as you give thanks
• Black and red candles
• Blood: a drop of your own blood on the candle, on his sigil or in the wine, life force given to the Lord of this world
• Acts of courage and defiance: standing up where you once stayed silent, and dedicating it to him — the offering practitioners say he values most

Signs of contact

• A sudden, commanding presence, often felt as weight, heat or a charge in the room
• Candle flames crackling, flaring or leaning at the moment you speak his name
• Objects shifting, sounds, a sense of being watched that is somehow not hostile
• Dreams of a dark, powerful figure, a serpent, fire, or a man of great stature
• A shift in feeling: fear giving way to steadiness, or a rush of strength
• Life beginning to move: things long stuck breaking loose, sometimes all at once

A student’s account of summoning

Ahmed, a Working with Demons student, wrote for our earlier page that Satan and the demons under him became simple to summon once he had made a pact, and that the other key is the sixth sense: psychic ability built through concentration in pin-drop silence. He listed four ways the contact comes:

• Sight: seeing the demon with open eyes, through a mind trained by long practice and deep immersion
• Sound: voices heard during the ritual, and above all the crackling of the candles as the demon enters
• Dreams: the best way in for beginners; before sleep, gaze at the demon’s seal and say his name over and over
• Emotion: a sudden shift of feeling, or a rush of blood through the body, as the hidden energy arrives

He added that Satan gives a clear sign when he is present: something falling or moving, or the candles crackling.

The ruin and the rebirth

The pattern practitioners name most often with Satan is upheaval. He is said to tear down what is false in a life before he builds, so that there are times, as the much-quoted line has it, when everything falls to ruin, and from the ashes and the smouldering remains of the old life a new self emerges. People who come through it describe it afterward as the truest gift: not comfort, but becoming someone real.

Pacts and dedications

A pact with Satan is a formal bond: a written declaration of allegiance and what is asked and given in return. In the Left Hand Path it is usually a commitment for life rather than a short bargain, and Black Witch Coven does not favour short-term infernal contracts. A modern pact:

• Is written by the practitioner, in their own words and language
• Opens by naming Satan and setting aside the gods and the fear you were raised with
• States plainly what you dedicate and what you seek
• Is signed in your own hand, and may be sealed with a single drop of your own blood, since blood is life force and nearly every faith speaks of it as life itself
• Is kept privately and honoured as a standing bond, not a disposable spell

If you would like a pact made with an experienced guide, see our Demonic Pact with Savannah.

A student’s pact

Luce L., a coven member and Working with Demons student, described her pact with Satan for our earlier page. Her ritual chamber is set with whatever makes her will strong, bones, skulls and paintings among them, and a blasphemous rite comes first to delight the god.

In her country it is common to sacrifice an animal that is then eaten, and her pact is made with incense from the bones of a black goat sacrificed in Satan’s name and written on parchment from its skin; where that is not possible, any parchment serves. A sexual rite with her partner raises the energy before the pact is written. Then:

• The pact is written in her own blood, in red ink, or in a magical ink such as bat’s blood ink
• The first paragraph declares the power of Satan and renounces every other god; in Black Witch Coven the darkest rituals begin by renouncing other gods and religions in the name of Satan or Lucifer
• Three to six desires follow, written with care because they cannot be changed later; Savannah recommends one clear desire for each ritual
• The pact closes with a pledge of faithfulness to the master until the last breath, the words “as I mote so will it be” and “Hail Satan” written three times, and her signature
• It is never spoken of to anyone

Black Witch Coven does not believe in short-term daemonic contracts.

Prayers and invocations to Satan

Satan has no Goetic enn; people call on him with spoken invocations, chants and the old cry Ave Satanas. The pieces below are written by Black Witch Coven for your own use. Speak them as they are, or let them show you the shape of a prayer and then use your own words, which he is said to prefer above any script.

How people pray to him

• Standing, in the dark: upright, by candlelight, addressing him directly
• Aloud and plainly: clear statements of who you are and what you ask, not pleading
• As a repeated chant: a short line or his name said three, nine or thirteen times to raise the working
• Written and burned: a petition composed, read aloud, then given to the flame
• Candle colours: black for ritual and banishing, red for strength, desire and life

Prayer and petition

A prayer keeps the bond: devotion, thanks and respect given with nothing attached. A petition asks for something specific, names what you seek and what you offer, and is spoken or written before his sigil. With Satan, both grow stronger the longer the relationship is kept, because he is said to be loyal to his own and to answer those he already knows to be sincere.

Opening invocation

Satan, Adversary, Lord of this world,
I call you into this place.
I come to you upright, as a free soul,
asking no master and fearing no god.
Turn your dark fire toward me
and be present in this rite.
Ave Satanas. Hail Satan.

Spoken as the candle and incense are lit and the room has settled.

Prayer of dedication

Satan, I set aside the gods and the fear I was handed,
and I choose you.
Be my patron and my strength,
teacher of the forbidden, father of the free.
I give you my loyalty while I draw breath,
and I ask in return the power to become wholly my own.
Hail Satan.

Said at a dedication, standing before the altar in the dark.

Prayer for strength

Satan, in this hard hour, stand with me.
Put iron in my spine and fire in my will.
Let me break the chains I have carried,
endure what must be endured,
and rise from it harder and more myself.
Through your strength, I will not be made small.

Said with a red candle in a time of trial, repeated nightly while the working is live.

Prayer for protection

Satan, guardian of your own,
stand at my back and shield my light.
Turn aside those who would harm or control me,
and let their cruelty return to their own door.
I walk under your protection.
Let none who mean me ill come near.

Said with a black candle, facing the threshold of your home.

Prayer for justice

Adversary, accuser, you who weigh the unearned and the cruel,
hear the wrong that was done to me.
Where the world looked away,
let your justice fall.
Balance what was broken,
and let the one who caused it answer for it.

Said with the matter named plainly, a red or black candle, and the facts laid before his sigil.

Gratitude and offering prayer

Satan, I thank you
for the strength you lent me,
for the chains you helped me break,
for standing with your own.
I give you this offering freely,
in loyalty and without fear.
Hail Satan, Lord of this world.

Said as the offering is placed. Name it aloud before you begin.

Chant to Satan for magickal power

Satan, Lord of shadows deep,
Grant me power, my secrets keep.
With your strength, I rise and soar,
Open the paths to magick’s door.
In your name, I claim my right,
Awaken within, my hidden might.
Guide my will, let my spirit flow,
Satan, empower me, let it grow.

Chant to Satan for money and abundance

Satan, ruler of the bold and free,
Grant me wealth and prosperity.
In your name, I seek to rise,
Open the gates to fortune’s prize.
Money flow, come forth to me,
Abundance now, let it be!
With your power, I attract,
Satan, guide me, that’s a fact.

Chant of empowerment and strength

Satan, hear my call,
I stand before you, strong and tall.
In darkness, I seek the light,
Guide me through this endless night.
With power, I break my chains,
Through rebellion, my spirit gains.
In your name, I claim my will,
Satan, I am here, be still.

Protection chant to Satan

Satan, guardian of the night,
Stand with me, protect my light.
In shadows deep, I call your name,
Shield me now, ignite the flame.
From harm and fear, I seek release,
Grant me strength, and bring me peace.
With your power, I will stand tall,
Satan, protect me, hear my call.

These four chants come from our earlier page. Each is said three times by a black or red candle, holding the intention and the presence of Satan in mind.

Questions people actually ask

These are the questions that come up again and again in Satanic, demonolatry and Left Hand Path communities, answered the way we would answer them, and knowing that our own coven does not speak with one voice on all of them.

Black Witch Coven members differ in their answers to some of these questions, so we present a volume of knowledge to help you decide. The Left Hand Path allows for your own evolution, and your view can keep growing through your years of experience and study.

Is Satan real, or just a symbol?

Both answers have serious followings, and we will not pretend otherwise. Theistic Satanists work with him as a genuine, present being; atheistic and LaVeyan Satanists take him as a powerful symbol of the self-sovereign, questioning human, with no literal deity behind it.

Black Witch Coven members themselves differ. The Left Hand Path is built for exactly this: keep an open mind, work, and let your own experience settle it over the years.

Is Satan the same as Lucifer?

Here too there is no single answer. Some practitioners, including voices in our own coven, hold that Lucifer and Satan are two names for one entity, the apex of the infernal current. Others, following writers like S. Connolly, hold firmly that “they are two separate demons,” distinct in feel and in office.

People who work with both often describe Lucifer as the teacher and light-bringer and Satan as the adversary and sovereign. Try each, and judge by the contact.

Lucifer and Satan are the same to me, two names for the same single entity. Of course, Lucifer/Satan is the apex of demonic energy and holds the essence of reality and as such has the deepest affectations. The different spirits are essentially manifestations of different aspects of the same concept. This helps direct your goals in ways you care about, and the variety of life necessitates the variety of demons.

– Valdamer, Black Witch Coven

Isn’t Satan just made up from the Bible?

His name and much of his story come from scripture. The Hebrew satan is a role, “the adversary,” before it is a person, and Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition shaped the figure over many centuries. Satanists take up that same figure and honour him: the power those faiths named the Adversary is, for the Satanist, the liberator.

Is Satan evil?

In Christian and Islamic theology he is the adversary of God and the tempter of humankind, and within those faiths that is what his name means. To those who work with him he stands for freedom, strength, knowledge and justice, and his own describe him as consistent, loyal and even loving toward them. What Satan is to you is settled in how you meet him.

What is the difference between theistic and LaVeyan Satanism?

• Theistic Satanism: treats Satan as a real deity or spirit, worked with through devotion, prayer and ritual
• LaVeyan / atheistic Satanism: treats Satan as a symbol of human nature and self-interest, with ritual as psychodrama rather than worship
• In practice: many people sit somewhere between, using the symbol and remaining open to the presence

Do I have to worship him?

No. Devotion is one path, not the only one. Plenty of people work with Satan without worship at all, approaching him as an ally, a force or a symbol. Even among the devotional, the relationship is more like loyalty between equals than the submission of the religions he opposes. You decide how close you stand.

Is he good for beginners?

He is often the very first power people come to, drawn by the name and what it stands for, and in that sense he is open to newcomers. He is also vast, and beginners frequently need time before he feels like a person rather than a concept. Most describe starting simply: a candle, his name spoken honestly, some study, and patience.

What does Satan actually want from me?

Across accounts, the same answer recurs: that you become free, strong and wholly yourself. He is said to push people toward independence, to refuse to let them accept abuse or stay small, and to value courage and honesty over gifts. The offering he seems to prize is the act of standing up where you once stayed down.

Do I have to sign a pact or sell my soul?

No. “Selling your soul” comes from the medieval legend of Theophilus and the Faust stories of the sixteenth century, not from Satanist practice. Many work with Satan for years with no pact at all.

A pact, when it is made, is a freely chosen bond of loyalty, usually for life, not a sale and not a trap, and practitioners make one when they mean it.

How do I know he is responding?

People describe a commanding presence, candle flames that crackle or flare, a charged stillness, vivid dreams of a dark and powerful figure, and above all a change in how they feel: fear turning to steadiness, a surge of strength, things long stuck beginning to move. Most keep a record, use a form of divination, and ask him directly what he wants next.

Is the inverted pentagram or 666 his?

The inverted pentagram, especially as the goat-faced Sigil of Baphomet, is used for Satan in modern Satanism, and 666, the “number of the Beast,” has been reclaimed as his. To Satanists these are not marks of evil but banners of a chosen path, and many read 666 as a number of life and the earthly rather than of doom.

Is Satanism the same as devil worship?

Theistic Satanists do worship him: they pray, make offerings, keep altars and take Satan as their god, as devotees of any god do. What the phrase “devil worship” usually suggests, the worship of evil for its own sake, is not how Satanists describe their own practice. Satanism, theistic or atheistic, honours the Adversary as the power or principle of freedom, self-rule and this world.

What works, what doesn’t

These patterns come from first-hand accounts in Satanic and Left Hand Path communities, practitioner writing and our own coven. None of it is a rule, and accounts differ, as they should on a path built for the individual.

What practitioners report works

• Sincerity. Coming as yourself, honestly, with no performance.
• Standing upright. He is the Lord of those who will not kneel, and most report he answers best to people on their feet.
• Courage. Acting on what he pushes you toward, especially standing up for yourself.
• Study. Learning the history and the many faces of him deepens the work fast.
• Loyalty. Keeping a bond once made; he is said to be fiercely loyal to his own in return.
• Staying through the upheaval. Trusting the ruin-to-rebirth pattern instead of fleeing it.

What practitioners report working less well

• Supplication. Practitioners report that coming in submission tends to meet silence.
• Fear. Coming to him through fear learned elsewhere keeps the contact confused until it is faced.
• Posing. Playing a part for shock or image rather than meaning it; he is said to see through it.
• Treating him as a vending machine. Demanding results with no relationship or respect.
• Resisting the lessons. Asking for freedom and clinging to the very chains you asked to lose.

What people report from their first months

• Expecting the horror-film Devil and missing the actual presence
• Kneeling out of habit from a former faith, then finding he answered better when they stood
• Coming only for a quick favour with no sincerity behind it
• Reading early upheaval as punishment and giving up
• Assuming you must sign away your soul to work with him

What changed when they kept going

People who stay with Satan describe becoming harder to push around and harder to shame. They stop apologising for existing, stop accepting mistreatment, and start living as the authors of their own lives. Many say the fear they were raised with fell away entirely, replaced by a steadiness they trace directly to him, and that whatever else came, that freedom was the real gift.

The darker work: justice, vengeance and the forbidden

Satan is the Adversary, and people do not only bring him devotion. They bring him enemies, injustices the world ignored, and the wish to break the taboos religion has built around the body. We would rather explain that side than pretend it does not happen.

Workings against an enemy

Some practitioners bring Satan baneful work: to stop someone who is harming them, to answer an abuser, to see a cruelty repaid. This is justice work with teeth, and it is handled very differently from a prayer for strength, with its own framing and its own closing of the altar.

The carnal and the blasphemous

Satan is the patron of the body and the appetites the old religions called sin, and some work that current directly: rites that break a religious taboo on purpose to free the power it was guarding, and sex magick that treats desire as sacred rather than shameful. It is deliberate, adult work, and it is the part of his practice most likely to get a site like ours pulled down.

What the old books and traditions say

The living practice above is the real work. The old sources are its background, and they matter, because the Satan most people picture was shaped by two thousand years of Jewish, Christian and Islamic theology.

The Hebrew Bible

In the oldest layer, ha-satan is a title, “the accuser” or “the adversary,” not yet a proper name. In Job he is a member of the divine council who tests Job’s faith with God’s leave; in Zechariah 3 he stands to accuse the high priest Joshua; in 1 Chronicles 21 a satan incites David to number Israel. He is a prosecutor and a tester, an opponent of human beings in God’s court, far from the cosmic enemy he would later become.

The New Testament and after

By the New Testament Satan has grown into the tempter of Christ, the “prince of this world” and the adversary of God and humanity. The early church fused him with Lucifer, with the serpent of Eden and with the dragon of Revelation, and the medieval imagination gave him the horns, hooves and pitchfork borrowed in part from the Greek god Pan. This composite devil, assembled over a thousand years, is the one modern Satanism inherits and overturns.

Other names and old gods

• Samael: in Talmudic lore an accuser, seducer and destroyer, often read as the true name behind the title Satan
• Mastema: in the Book of Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls, a prince of hostility, an apocalyptic name for the Adversary
• Iblis / Shaitan: in Islam, the jinn who refused to bow to Adam and became the tempter
• Older identifications: some modern Satanist currents link him with pre-Christian gods such as Saturn, Set or Enki, reading him as an old deity demonised by a younger faith; these are interpretive claims, offered here for reference rather than as settled history

A god by many names

Our earlier page, following identifications made by the Joy of Satan and other Satanic currents, set out the older gods in whom many see Satan:

• Saturn, the Greek Cronus
• Shiva
• Zeus and Jupiter, the Golden Taurus
• Perun among the Slavs
• Ea, also called Enki, “Lord of the Earth,” of Sumer
• Melek Ta’us, the Peacock Angel, though the Yazidis who honour him do not identify him with Satan

Other names given to the Adversary

• Shaitan: the Arabic name
• Tchort: the Slavic chort, “devil,” called the Black God; the Slavic diavol comes from the Greek diabolos, “slanderer”
• Satanachia: in the Grimorium Verum and Grand Grimoire, a commander directly under Lucifer
• Sidragasum: a spirit of the Grand Grimoire under Satanachia, who seduces women, sets them dancing at the Sabbath and makes them seem more beautiful than they are
• Typhon: the Greek storm monster, whom the Greeks identified with the Egyptian Set, the adversary of Osiris
• O-Yama: Enma-O, Yama, the Japanese king and judge of the underworld
• Pwca: the Welsh pwca, a trickster spirit kin to Puck
• Saitan: named on our earlier page as the Enochian equivalent of Satan

How he has been pictured

• In legend: a giant, muscular man with an animal’s face, hooves, horns and webbed wings, covered in thick fur, able to change his appearance endlessly, who walks the earth’s surface by night and goes down into the depths by day to hide from the sun
• From Pan: the horned, hoofed goat-figure with a trident, later softened into a dark man with a goatee; Cernunnos, the horned god of the Gauls, is often set beside him
• The tempter: a charming, attractive man who wins souls through their vanity
• The beautiful angel: as in Go Nagai’s Devilman
• The Joy of Satan: a gorgeous man with fair skin and blonde hair, in a long white robe, who rarely shows his white wings; they call him the leader of the Nordic Gods of Orion

Milton and the rebel

John Milton’s Paradise Lost gave the West its most sympathetic Satan: the archangel who would not serve, who declares it “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” magnificent and tragic in his defiance. Milton meant him as a warning, but the Romantics and, after them, the Satanists read the rebel as the hero, and much of the modern figure’s dignity comes from that reading.

LaVey and the Four Crown Princes

In 1969 Anton LaVey’s The Satanic Bible set the modern template, naming its four sections for the Four Crown Princes of Hell. Satan holds the south and the element of fire, the adversary and opposition itself; Lucifer the east and air, light and enlightenment; Belial the north and earth, independence; Leviathan the west and water, the primal deep. Whether taken as real powers or as symbols, this fourfold scheme underlies a great deal of how Satan is placed in ritual today.

Key points from our coven

• Satan gives us the knowledge to become independent and free. He directs us to be masters of our own lives and destinies.
• Satan and his Demons are always there to help us when there are things we cannot yet handle.
• Satan keeps his promises; he is consistent and loving with his own. Satan stands for freedom, strength, power, and justice.
• Satan shows us it is NOT OK for us to take abuse. He shows us that we are deserving of pleasure, happiness and a better life.
• Our earlier page also held, with the Joy of Satan, that he created humanity through genetic engineering, as scientists now work with clones and genetics, but on a far more advanced level.

Black Witch Coven’s view

We find Satan to be the Adversary in the truest sense: the one who stands against every power that demands you kneel, and who gives, in return, the strength to stand. He teaches freedom, self-respect and the refusal to accept abuse; he is said to keep his word, to be consistent, and to be loyal and loving toward his own. He will tear down what is false in a life before he builds, and that can be hard, but those who come through it describe becoming real for the first time. Whether you meet him as a living god or a chosen symbol, whether you count him one with Lucifer or separate — and our own coven does not all agree — the heart of him is the same. He will not make you small. Those who come to him upright find he meets them as what they are becoming: their own.

Work with Satan through Black Witch Coven

• Satan’s Oleum: for anointing candles, sigils and your own altar work
• Satanic Destruction of an Enemy Ritual: if you would rather have justice work done for you
• Satanic Ritual Spell Altar: the tools to set up your own
• Consultation with Vald: a reading and guidance from a Satanic occultist
• The Satanic Bible: LaVey’s foundational text
• Demonic Pact with Savannah or a Demonic Pact with a Junior Coven Member: for a dedication or pact

As with all magick, results are never guaranteed.

Learn more about Satan and Satanism

• The Gospel of Satan: a concise guide to making a pact with Satan, with spells for almost any purpose
• The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey: the philosophy every Satanist, theistic or not, meets sooner or later
• At Satan’s Altar: prayers, chants, affirmations, hymns and rituals written for the worship of the Devil
• Paths to Satan, Martin McGreggor: bringing Satanism into daily life, including with friends and family

Recommended websites, in no order: Satanic Australia, The Satanic Temple and The Church of Satan.

Related spirits

• Lucifer: the Light-Bearer; to some the same power, to others his own distinct spirit
• Leviathan: Crown Prince of the West and the water
• Belial: Crown Prince of the North and the earth
• Baphomet: whose goat-pentagram serves as Satan’s ritual sigil
• Mammon and the Goetic Kings, for the specific works beneath the sovereign

Sources

Job 1–2; Zechariah 3; 1 Chronicles 21, King James Version	Ha-satan as accuser and tester in the divine court
Peter Binsfeld, Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (1589)	Satan as the prince of wrath among the seven princes
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)	“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”
Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible (1969)	Satan of the south and fire; the Four Crown Princes of Hell
S. Connolly, The Complete Book of Demonolatry	“They are two separate demons” (Satan and Lucifer)

Further reading: Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan; Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible; Martin McGreggor, Paths to Satan.

• Satan, Wikipedia
• Church of Satan
• The Satanic Temple

Share your current opinion about Satan in the comments below.