THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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Jevolution because it is the first documented principle of absolute evil, personified in the
form ofAhriman/Mainyu, having all the qualities later attributed to Satan (Russell, 1977).
For these ancients, as in Christianity, sin was the product of both the evil spirit and
humans, who, yielding to temptation, chose evil over good.
Ahriman could adopt various physical guises, and his demons were capable ofpossessing
the bodies of mortals, thereby causing disease, insanity, and death. The degree to which
Mazdaism 2 influenced Judeo-Christian thought is uncertain (Russell, 1977), but the
latter's theological dualism, demonology, conception of hell, and personified principle of
evil, are all prefigured in Iranian religiori)
1.4 Graeco-Roman dualism and the principle of evil
Iranian religious dualism persisted for centuries in various forms, and is assumed to have
influenced the religious thought of the Graeco-Roman world. This influence is not
immediately obvious. The gods of the ancient Greeks were ambivalent manifestations of
the one God, each displaying good and evil qualities, and each personified by both
ouramc (heavenly) and cthonic (underworld) mythical characters (Russell, 1977).
Dualism began to emerge in ancient Greece as early as the sixth century RC. The soul is
imprisoned in the body and man's earthly task, according to Orphic dualism, was to
.\ liberate the soul through ritual purification. This is. the first appearance of dualism in
Greek thought, and its subsequent impact on Christianity is clearly evident in the latter's
dissociation of spiritual from carnal, with the respective ethical associations of good and
bad. pespite the dualism represented in the myth, the ancient Greek coincidence of
opposites is evident in the fact that Dionysus is both the divine son of Zeus and the
horned fertility god associated with carnal excess (Russell, 1977). The Dionysiac orgy
later became the prototype for the orgies that medieval Christendom attributed to heretic
sects and witches. Orphic dualism 3 was later united with Iranian dualism, paving the way
2 Mazdaism or Zoroastrianism was the ancient Persian religion founded by Zarathustra, characterised by
belief in the cosmic war between Good and Evil.