THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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interest was one aspect, but others included a religious revival in the form of evangelical
Christianity, and a renewed appreciation of the 'anti-rational' arts and literature (Nelson,
1987). The most important figure in the modem revival of high magic was Eliphas Levi
(1810-1875). Levi, a former Catholic deacon and later a left-wing political journalist,
devoted his life to occult study. He reconciled Catholicism with occult theory by
asserting that although the Christian conventions were important, Christi~ty had an
esoteric heart which was only accessible through the mystical traditions of the West,
particularly the Cabala. Levi integrated Mesmer's theory of animal magnetism with the
esoteric belief in the astral body. According to his theory, magnetic energy derived from
the astral body and was manifest as 'astral light'. Astral light, which bathed all reality,
was characterised by opposite polarities of good and evil, and was responsive to human
will. This meant that it could be mentally controlled by ritual magic, and the magician
was endowed with enormous power because of the ability to "exercise the almighty
powers ofNature" (Levi quoted in Cavendish, 1977, p. 136).
Spiritualism, the practice of using rituals to contact the disembodied spirits of the dead,
quickly gained popularity in America and Europe in the second half of the 19th Century.
Two other important movements, related to 17th Century Rosicrucianism, were the
Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, and The Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, formed in London in 1888. Theosophy aimed to reconcile science and
mystical religion, as well as integrating the Western and Eastern Occult traditions
(Cavendish, 1977). Under the leadership of MacGregor Mathers, the Golden Dawn
accomplished "the construction of a coherent magical system embracing the Cabala, the
Tarot, alchemy, astrology, numerology, divination, Masonic symbolism, visionary
experience and ritual magic" (Cavendish, 1977, p. 143). The Golden Dawn employed
magic toward the end of self-development, and interpreted the gods and spirits of earlier
magical traditions as largely internal forces, rather than independent spiritual entities.
Theosophists and members of The Golden Dawn were obviously not Satanists, but the
Devil began to emerge as an appealing figure in certain elitist intellectual circles in the