THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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a righteous god who hated evil deeds. This contradiction made the evolution of a
dualistic distinction between good and evil deities inevitable. Consequently, in the New
Testament, Satan evolved into a distinct personality. With Yahweh perceived as both
omnipotent and moral, evil had to be ascribed to an adversary embodying opposing
qualities. Satan, as God's adversary, thus emerged at this point in history to represent the
dark side of God, split off and embodied in an opposing deity.
In addition to Satan, biblical mythology makes many references to demons - hostile
spiritual influences seeking to take possession of humans.
Old Testament scripture
'\ attributed the origin of lesser demons to the actions of corrupt angels, originally the
servants of God. In the book ofEnoch. an order of angels called the Watchers lusted after
the daughters ofman. They descended from heaven and had intercourse with the mortals,
giving rise to a race of evil giants. Demons emerged from the bodies ofthe giants whom
God had commanded the archangel Michael to kill because they ate up firstly human
possessions, then human beings, and later began to "devour one another's flesh and to
drink the blood" (Enoch in Cavendish, 1967, p. 285). 4
The angel Lucifer's fall from heaven, however, is not ascribed to lust, but to the ambition
of becoming equal to God: "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the
morning ... thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God" (lsiah 14:12-13).
These biblical legends of Lucifer and the
Watchers attribute the origin of evil, not to God, but to the fall of divine beings driven to
sin by pride and lust. In Christian mythology Lucifer, after being cast down from heaven,
became known as Satan. The Watchers and their demonic offspring become Satan's
followers (Cavendish, 1967). Another myth has Satan expelled because of his refusal to
4 Cavendish (1967) notes that the significant theme of this biblical narrative is that "evil and bloodshed and
forbidden arts came to earth through an appalling crime against Nature, the physical union of the angelic
and divine with the mortal, which produced monstrosities - the giants" (p. 286). This is a demonic
counterpart to the Christian miracle of the saviour's birth from the Holy Ghost's Divine contact with a
mortal woman, and Cavendish attributes the medieval preoccupation with sexual relations between witches
and the Devil to the legend ofthe Watchers.