Satan Rehabilitated? a Study Into Satanism in the Nineteenth Century Van Luijk, R.B
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Tilburg University Satan rehabilitated? A study into satanism in the nineteenth century van Luijk, R.B. Publication date: 2013 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): van Luijk, R. B. (2013). Satan rehabilitated? A study into satanism in the nineteenth century. [s.n.]. 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A Study into Satanism during the Nineteenth Century Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op vrijdag 19 april 2013 om 14.15 uur door Ruben Benjamin van Luijk geboren op 9 juli 1976 te Rotterdam 2 Promotores: Prof. dr. G. A. M. Rouwhorst Prof. dr. D. A. T. Müller Copromotor: Dr. T. A. M. Salemink © Ruben van Luijk, 2013 3 Table of Contents 5 Introduction defining Satanism * available literature * hypothesis, framework & methodology of this study 23 Chapter I. The Christian Invention of Satanism a short history of Satan * constructing worshippers of Satan * exorcising the devil’s fifth column * the Satanist conspiracy of witchcraft * black magic, and the black mass * the Affair of the Poisons * Satanists before the Modern Age? 77 Intermezzo 1. The Eighteenth Century: Death of Satan? 83 Chapter II. The Rehabilitation of Satan the Satanic School of Poetry * God, Satan, and Revolution * poetry, myth, and man’s ultimate grounds of being * Satan’s new myths: Blake & Shelley * Satan’s new myths: Byron & Hugo * how Satanist were the Romantic Satanists? * sex, science, and liberty * Satan the anarchist * new (re)constructions of historical Satanism * Satan in nineteenth-century occultism * children of Lucifer 174 Intermezzo 2. Charles Baudelaire: Litanies to Satan 188 Chapter III. Huysmans & Consorts ‘Down There’ * Huysmans discovers Satanism * Péladan, Guaita, Papus * Joseph Boullan * the remarkable case of Chaplain Van Haecke & Canon Docre * intermediary conclusions * competing concepts of Satanism * aftermath 241 Chapter IV. Unmasking the Synagogue of Satan the unveiling of Freemasonry * Taxil before Palladism * excursus: Taxil’s sources * the rise and fall of Palladism * the Great Masonic Conspiracy * how Freemasons became Satanists * fighting democracy by democratic means * hidden temples, secret grottos, and international men of mystery * A few words on Satan in Freemasonry, and on neo-Palladism * the Jewish Question * by way of conclusion 324 Epilogue. Nineteenth-century religious Satanism: fact or fiction? 339 Bibliography of Consulted Texts 4 5 Introduction When one day, as I walked through the university library, my eye fell on a pulp paperback entitled The World’s Weirdest Cults, I immediately surmised that Satanism would be among the religions featured in the book. Indeed, seven of the sixteen chapters in the little book turned out to be centered on Satanist ‘cults’ of one kind or another.1 It did not take some eerie premonition to make this prediction. Authors of pulp paperbacks are by no means exceptional in ranging Satanism among ‘the world’s weirdest cults’. The word Satanism conjures images of the bizarre, the sinister, and the maleficious. To this day, it remains very much a subject enshrouded in mystery and rumour, associated with the monstrous and the perverse, and, ultimately, the practice of evil. This attitude is reflected in most of the literature, both academic and non-academic, that deals with the subject or happens to refer to it in passing; it was also reflected in the reactions of many people, both academic and non-academic, to whom I told which subject I was working on. Such associations naturally make Satanism an excellent tool to blacken other people. Throughout history, persons and groups alleged to practise Satanism of some kind or another make up a long list, including the Essenes,2 the Gnostics,3 the Hindus,4 the Jews,5 the Cathars,5 the Templars,6 the Goliards,7 several medieval and Early Modern Roman Catholic popes,8 tribal religions,9 the protestants,10 the Anabaptists,10 John Milton,11 François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, Maréchal de Luxembourg,12 Madame de Montespan,13 the 1 Martin Ebon (ed.), The World’s Weirdest Cults (New York: Signet, 1979); chapters (partly) concerned with Satanist ‘cults’ are: B.J. Baronitis, ‘Beheadings in West Virginia’, 39-48; Jerome Clark, ‘Cattle Mutilations: Sex and Satanism?’ 115-126; ‘Pity the Drug-Cult Witch!’ (‘by Ruth Pauli, as told to Daphne Lamb’), 127-139; Jean Molina, ‘Black Pope of San Francisco,’ 140-151; Michael Ballantino, ‘The Man Who Called Himself ‘The Beast’,’ 152-161; Willam R. Akins, ‘Hell-Fire Club,’ 162-175; and Stephan A. Hoeller, ‘The Real Black Mass,’ 176-186. 2 Robert Ambelain, Adam Dieu Rouge: L’ésotérisme judéo-chrétien, la gnose et les Ophites lucifériens et rose + croix (Paris: Éditions Niclaus, 1941), 161, where Ambelain calls their doctrines ‘nettement luciférienne’. 3 ‘Docteur’ Bataille, Le Diable au XIXe siècle: La Franc-Maçonnerie luciférienne ou les mystères du spiritisme. Révélations complètes sur le Palladisme, la théurgie, la goétie et tout le satanisme moderne. Récits d’un témoin 2 vols. (Paris: Delhomme & Briguet, [1892-1893]), 1:37. 4 Bataille, Le Diable au XIXe siècle, 1:37. 5 Cf. Chapter I and Chapter IV. 6 Cf. Alain Boureau, Satan the Heretic: The Birth of Demonology in the Medieval West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 38. Also Jules Bois, Le Satanisme et la Magie: Avec une étude de J.K. Huysmans (Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1895), 47n ; Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Rituals (New York: Avon Books, 1972), 55. 7 Elliot Rose, A Razor for a Goat: A Discussion of Certain Problems in the History of Witchcraft and Diabolism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989), 160-170. 8 Cf. Karl R. H. Frick, Satan und Die Satanisten: Ideengeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Herkunft der komplexen Gestalt ‘Luzifer/Satan/Teufel’, ihrer weiblichen Entsprechungen und ihrer Anhängerschaft. 3 vols. (Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1985) 2:57-62, who mentions that rumors of allegiance to the Devil circulated about Pope John XIII, Sylvester II, John XVIII, Benedictus VIII & IX, John XIX & XXI, Gregorian VII & XI, Paul II and Alexander VI. 9 Among others, Laurent Kilger, O.S.B., ‘Le diable et la conversion des païens,’ in Satan: Les Études Carmélitaines 27 (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer, 1948), 122-129. 10 Cf. further on in this introduction and in Chapter I. 11 Anton Szandor Lavey ranges him among his ‘de facto Satanists’ in Blanche Barton, The Secret Life of a Satanist: The authorized biography of Anton LaVey (London: Mondo, 1992), 4. 12 Anton Kippenberg, Die Sage vom Herzog von Luxemburg und die historische Persönlichkeit ihres Trägers 6 Illuminati,14 the Presbyterians,15 Robespierre, Marat and Danton,16 the Rosicrucians,17 magnetism and spiritism,18 Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi,19 Otto von Bismarck,20 Giacomo Leopardi,21 Charles Baudelaire,22 Grigori Rasputin,23 the Chinese Tongs,24 Karl Marx,25 Friedrich Nietzsche,26 The San Francisco Vigilantes,27 Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII,28 Cardinal Mariano Rampolla,29 Aleister Crowley,30 J. R. R. Tolkien,31 Robert Johnson,32 Adolf Hitler,33 the SS,34 Julius Evola,35 the New Age Movement,36 the Wiener Aktionstheater,37 the Beatles,38 the Manson Family,39 Communism,40 McDonalds,41 Procter & Gamble,42 Walt (Niederwalluf bei Wiesbaden: Dr. Martin Sändig oHG, 1970). 13 Among others, Hoeller, ‘The Real Black Mass,’ 186; see also Chapter I. 14 Cf. Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott, Selling Satan: The Evangelical Media and the Mike Warnke Scandal (Chicago: Cornerstone Press, 1993), 102-106, citing William Guy Carr’s Pawns in the Game (1958) and Mike Warnke’s The Satan Seller (1972). 15 Bataille, Le Diable au XIXe siècle, 1:95, 1:184. 16 M. J. C. Thorey, Rapports merveilleux de Mme Cantianille B… avec le monde surnaturel. 2 vols. (Paris: Louis Hervé, 1866), 1:40n. 17 See Chapters III and IV. 18 Cf. for instance Max Milner, Le diable dans la littérature française: De Cazotte à Baudelaire 1772-1861, 2 vols. (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1960), 2:348-355. 19 See Chapter IV. 20 Bataille, Le Diable au XIXe siècle, 1:730. 21 Gerhard Zacharias, Satanskult und Schwarze Messe: Die Nachtseite des Christentums. Eine Beitrag zur Phänomenologie der Religion (München: F.A. Herbig, 1990), 132, where his unfinished hymn ‘Ad Arimane’ is described as ‘satanistischer Kultmystik’. 22 See intermezzo 2. 23 Anton Szandor Lavey ranges him among his ‘de facto Satanists’ in Barton, The Secret Life of a Satanist, 4. 24 Bataille, Le Diable au XIXe siècle, 1:37. 25 Richard Wurmbrand, Was Karl Marx a Satanist? (s.l.: Diane Books, 1979). 26 Anton Szandor Lavey ranges him among his ‘de facto Satanists’ in Barton, The Secret Life of a Satanist, 4 27 Brad Steiger, Sex and Satanism (New York: Ace Publishing Corporation, 1969), 147-162, basing himself on Helen Holdredge’s The House of the Strange Woman (1961).