The Temple of Set is an occult initiatory order founded in 1975. A new religious movement and form of Western esotericism, the Temple espouses a religion known as Setianism, whose practitioners are called Setians. This is sometimes identified as a form of Satanism, although this term is not often embraced by Setians and is contested by some academics.
Aquino with his wife Lilith in 1999
Lieutenant colonel Michael Aquino specialized in psychological warfare
Aquino established his Order of the Trapezoid at Wewelsburg castle in Germany (pictured)
Don Webb (high priest 1996–2002)
Satanism refers to a group of religious, ideological, and/or philosophical beliefs based on Satan – particularly his worship or veneration. Satan is commonly associated with the Devil in Christianity, a fallen angel often regarded as chief of the demons who tempt humans into sin. The phenomenon of Satanism shares "historical connections and family resemblances" with the Left Hand Path milieu of other occult figures such as Chaos, Hecate, Lilith, Lucifer, and Set. For centuries, the term was used by various Christian groups as an accusation against ideological opponents, a slur for assorted heretics, freethinkers, and pagans. By contrast, self-identified Satanism is a relatively modern phenomenon, largely attributed to the 1966 founding of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States – an atheistic group that does not believe in a supernatural Satan.
Saint Wolfgang and the Devil, by Michael Pacher
Title illustration of Johannes Praetorius (writer) Blocksbergs Verrichtung (1668) showing many traditional features of the medieval Witches' Sabbath
The Obscene Kiss, an illustration of witches kissing the Devil's anus from Francesco Maria Guazzo's Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
Witches' Sabbath, an illustration by Martin van Maële, from the 1911 edition of the book La Sorcière, by Jules Michelet