THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

42
Melton, 1978). Drug ingestion was deemed escapist, and hence contrary to The Church's
philosophical realism (Melton, 1978). According to Melton (1992), The Church has not
been implicated in any of the crimes allegedly perpetrated by more "traditional" Satanist
groups. LaVey did not employ the ritual ofthe Black Mass (Guiley, 1989; Melton, 1978).
The Church of Satan never had more than a few hundred members, and lasted only a few
years before several schisms forced LaVey to disband the Church's "grottos" and
reorganise it as a loose coalition or fellowship of individuals (Guiley, 1989; Melton,
1992).
Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set
Two ofthe schismatic groups (Church of Satanic Brotherhood, and Ordo Templi Satanis)
dissolved shortly after their leaders left The Church of Satan in the early 1970's. Michael
Aquino, a USA military officer in the field of psychological warfare, enjoyed more
success when he broke away to establish the Temple of Set in 1975. Aquino allegedly
left the Church because of LaVey's vulgar commercialisation of Satanism (Tate, 1991)
and his refusal to acknowledge the literal existence of Satan (Melton, 1992). In fact,
realising that Satan was merely the mirror image ofGod, and hence a product of Christian
theology, Aquino evoked the pre-Christian Egyptian deity, Set, as a more apposite satanic
symbol.
Aquino was critical ofLaVey's celebration ofall impulsive desires, precisely because this
proved destructive and degrading, rather than exalting. Aquino preserved the principle of
individualism, but emphasised a rather more holistic and spiritual understanding of the
individual: "Glorification of the ego is not enough: it is the complete psyche - the entire
self or soul - which must be recognised, appreciated and actualised" (Aquino cited in
Tate, 1991, p. 145). Aquino called this spiritual process "Xeper", which he defined as
"the transformation of the Will from a human to a divine state of being by deliberate,
conscious, individual force of mind" (Cited in Tate, 1991, p. 146). Whereas LaVey's
Satan may be equated with the Freudian concept of libido (Suster, 1989), Aquino
discerned a higher calling, reminiscent of the intention behind Crowley's understanding