THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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reaction resulted in renewed and systematic witch persecution.
perceived the other to be part of a satanic conspiracy.
Each religious group
The Protestants were no more tolerant of witches than the Catholics. Many new witchhunting
manuals were published by legal and theological experts. All of them contended
that Christian society was threatened by an epidemic of satanic witches, guilty of
committing the most despicable atrocities in the Devil's name. The most incredible feats
attributed to witches were never challenged, as any sign of scepticism was interpreted as a
dangerous expression of sympathy with the forces of evil. Belief in the witches' magic,
however, also testified to the almost limitless power attributed to Satan, and apparent
cases of demonic possession were considered further proof of malevolent witchcraft and
the invasive influence ofthe Devil (Cavendish, 1977).
2.3 The witches'sabbath
The infamous witches' sabbath rituals, as portrayed in folklore, are historically important
because they provide the prototype for later satanic rituals. The sabbath was presided
over by women, in sharp contrast to Christian rituals, where women were deprived of
liturgical function and power. Christianity has historically been characterised by the
rejection of both femininity's dual aspects: sexuality and fertility on the one hand, and
the destructive, devouring, negative elemental aspects, on the other (Zacharias, 1980).
The only Christian female symbol is Mary, a passive, sexless, one-sided image of purity
and light. The witches' sabbath thus not only introduced a Dionysian challenge to the
Apollonian character of Christianity, but also represented the revenge of the repressed
feminine (Zacharias, 1980).
The sabbath meal, typically cooked in a large cauldron, consisted of gruesome
ingredients: the flesh of children, poisonous toads and snakes, etc. This is a corruption of
the Christian Agape-feast, and represents cannibalistic and oral-aggressive desires
antithetical to the Christian equivalent (Zacharias, 1980). Satan traditionally appeared
and was kissed on the buttocks by the witches (Kingston, 1976). In Catholic theology,