Gardner talks about the Christian perspective of the Inquisitory witchcraft and compares this with what he claims he has discovered. when speaking of anything diabolic, he focusses heavily the Pact with the Devil, admitting to his fascination with the subject. he mentions that the coven he's been admitted to calls its High Priest 'the Devil' and that this is a Inquisition-times survival. while his sources and substance should be considered suspect (as A.Kelly and others have demonstrated), his interest in Satanic themes (esp. the Faustian) is indicative of the overlap in culture between modern Satanists and modern Witches from early on.

the author doesn't mention 'Satanism' at all and defines 'Satan', which he continually terms "the Devil" in purely Christian terms. he appears to be a hack occult writer.

Hughes talks a great deal about the 'testimonies' from the Inquisitory tortures. he integrates the Murrayan hypothesis concerning the 'God of the Witches' into a typical framework stating that the 'Old Religion' has been perverted by Christians and people lost touch with their gods/practices or fake it in order to accede to the oppression of the Church. it is significant that Gardner wrote his book in many ways as a RESPONSE to Hughes, whose Satanic elements the latter says he did not find within the cult of his discovery (a cult whose very existence is doubted by modern scholars).

this work is the first scholarly treatment of Satanism and Satan from the materials culled from the Kaoshaus library; especially from a modern occult perspective, as compared to the scrawlings of various Inquisitory compilations, Murray-derivations, or fevered Christimaginings. Cavendish thoroughly analyzes the history of Satan from early Jewish origins into Christianity through _The Book of Enoch_ and the rebellious angels of Semjaza. He mentions the Hell Fire Clubs and Black Masses of Europe in some detail and describes Satanists as severe anti-Christians.

Seabrook appears to equate Satanism with 'faith killing', but says little about it here, spending the bulk of his time talking about the paranormal.

this book is chock-full of the legends of evils told from the puritanical perspective of the Church, though not sparing on anthropological details, even when embarrasing to said Church; a wonderful resource, it takes the popular perspective in which witches, sorcerers and magicians of past ages are roughly equivalent; it makes little real mention of 'Satanists' per se, though does talk about a little about 'Devil-worship' as a kind of hedonistic frenzy-worship involving sexuality.

a very extensive overview of arcane and supernatural subjects, at times in lovely detail with decent citations. Crow dissects the phenomenon of the Blood Pact and the Faustian legend with care, never mentioning 'Satanists' by name.

contains no references to 'Satan' or 'Satanism', though it does mention 'the Devil' a few times. the bulk of its many anthropological essays presume that no Pagan remnant survived to present day and characterizes 'the witch' as troublemaker or evil-doer (as seen by the societies in question, not in any absoluteness). some of the scholars mentioned by Adler who are in opposition to popular notions of pagan continuities are contained here, but this is more about 'witches' and 'sorcerers' than 'Satanists'.

this text is mostly about Witchcraft, especially that of Gardnerians and Alexandrians (last chapter on Alex 'King of the Witches' Saunders); sensationalist writing style, probably very poorly researched, the author describes Satanists as if they have newly emerged from a Wheatley novel. his overview of a 'conservative English Satanist' is very intriguing as at least an anomoly or a future strand of conservative Satanism.

Valiente is an entertaining read and her sources are often viable until she begins to speak of the origins of her religion. she takes on such topics as the Black Mass, Demonology and the Devil with style and tact, even serving as one of the first popular writers to identify Satan with wild nature. when she reviews SatanISM, however, she begins an unfortunate side-swipe, betraying her bias in keeping 'Christianity and sickos' out of Wicca. she doesn't mention the Church of Satan by name but makes hints at LaVey. she ties Satanism with Manson and wonders if there might be something ironic about the fact that Polanski, who directed 'Rosemary's Baby', lost his wife and her unborn child to Satanic Cult murderers.

Starhawk is one of the most popular writers in the Craft, and her respectful style and inclusive thealogy create a spell of beauty in this classic book. her mention of Satanism is brief, indicating that Witchcraft and Satanism (which she qualifies as a Christian rebellion) have no points in common. most of the quotes in this file pertain to her description of the Horned God, whose qualities incorporate much more than Pan (often Dionysian/Jesuian and Hadean).

to say that Ferrar is not very kind to Satanists is putting it rather mildly. his text is the first which appears to parallel Isaac Bonewits in a blanket-characterization of Satanism as a type of 'sick Christian rebel-child'. he mentions modern Satanists insofar as discussing their 'covens', and says they are not witches but "a sick fringe, delayed-action victims of a centuries-old Church delusion in which even intelligent Christians no longer believe."

Adler is by far the most adroit and well-written of the Neopagan authors reviewed here. she says little about Satanists except twice mentioning Bonewits' characterization of them as "Neogothic Witches". she does mention that there appear to be modern Neo-Pagans who are involved in Satanism, though she says that they appear not to have got 'beyond the Christian terminology and symbolism'. one bright point in this book is a review of an anthropological work by a Mr. Moody, within the Church of Satan (at the 'Church [Grotto?] of the Trapezoid'). this insightful tangent examines why people find the occult world attractive and what types of activities and disciplines are (or at least were) undertaken within the Church of Satan.

this is actually a very valuable resource for Neopagans and Witches, since it examines the character and qualities of Witches/(Neo)Pagans/etc. in a very positive yet thorough light, even including a couple of unexpected (Christian, popular news) documents. the little it does have on Satanism is conventional Christian-rebellion which, as these people continually say, 'is not what Wicca is about'. they seem to have little or no cognizance of anything Satanic of modern derivation. G. Gordon Melton (writing for 'Christianity Today', mentions that the conservative Witches drove out a batch of incoming (false?) 'Witches' who were dressed in their black leathers and sporting 'evil occult symbols'.

these articles appear to be fairly reasonable assessments of the media hysteria (the latter mainly in Britain), and contain a neutral if at times favorable understanding of Satanism, especially within the first article. perhaps this is due a proximity to the Church of Satan (OTO and CoS HQs were located fairly close, geographically, during a period preceeding these writings) and/or their philosophic similarities (many Satanists ascribe the origins of modern Satanism to such writers as Crowley and Nietzsche). the latter article generally makes fun of the silly things which Christians and the media that quotes them have said about the O.T.O., which demonstrating a lack of substance surrounding the whole affair.