What is Devil Worship?

To define the concept of devil worship I came across an informative website called Devil Worship, Your Friendly neighbourhood Devil Worshipper’s Site mapThroughout the website there are links to articles or as the website describes them as 'sermons' regarding topics that concern Devil Worship. The first sermon is titled What Devil Worship is. The author of this sermon focuses on who devil worshipers actually worship. He denies the basic assumption that many followers of others make (including myself also), that the devil is an fallen Angel. He goes on to claim that the Bible does not refer to the devil as a fallen Angel at all but rather as a dragon. He provides a quote from Revelation 12:9 : "The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." It is a clear from reading this introduction that devil worship is a way of expressing one's devotion to a cultural scapegoat that is reclaimed as a slandered divinity. The examples that are mentioned include Apep in Egypt, Loki in Northern Europe and Satan in Christianity. However if the particular devil being worshiped is Satan a more specific term is used. Instead of devil worship it is referred to as Theistic Satanism. Another website I came across is The Description, Philosophies and Justification of Satanism. This website had a very negative perspective on devil worship. arguing that those who choose to worship the devil are influenced by Christianity and are looking for a way to rebel. To carry out this rebellion they worship the devil rather then God in Christianity. It is clear that this website is biased and is attacking devil worship to justify its own form of satan worship. However the polemics of this website and the differences between devil worship and satanism is a discussion I am going to leave for another post. I am guilty myself for automatically associating the term devil worship to a group of people who worship satan, who is the evil entity mentioned in Christianity and Islam. The tern devil is not limites to a single evil entity such as satan but can be used differntly across various cultures. Although one thing is clear, the term devil whenever used in any culture refers to some sort of evil, be that a spirit or a human being. 

The Last Exorcism

Having a ‘phobia’ to watching horror films, it was with great persuasion from a friend and bravery on my part, that I went along to the cinema to watch the film ‘The Last Exorcism’ directed by Daniel Stamm. Before watching the film I first read the synopsis online which is as follows: 

The Reverend Cotton Marcus had performed more exorcisms than he could remember before he visited the Louisiana farm of Louis Sweetzer. That would be a day he wouldn't soon forget. The last person Lious Sweetzer ever thought he would invite to his farm was an exorcist. But his young daughter Nell had been acting so strange. He could think of no other explanation for her behaviour than possession by demons. But many long years of attending to those with questionable spiritual infestations has left Cotton a broken man. The faith he once proudly held up as a shield against evil had deserted him long ago.
This day has brought Reverend Marcus to the Sweetzers farm where he plans to film a documentary of what he hopes to be his final exorcism. All of his past experience could not begin to prepare him for the terror that lay within. But upon arriving at the already blood drenched family farm, it was soon clear that nothing could have prepared him for the true evil he would encounter there. The Reverend must call upon a near-empty well of faith to protect Nell, his film crew and ultimately himself.

I also watched this trailer (brace yourself) :

 

Soon as I had agreed to watch the film (after much convincing) and until the beginning of the film I was having a constant battle in my mind to back out at the last minute. The way I was going on any one would think it was a life and death dilemma. Anyone who has seen the film can imagine my disappointment when I finished watching the film. I was laughing throughout the so called disturbing scenes. The film could have redeemed itself from being a ‘don’t watch’ to a 3 star rating if the ending was not so terrible.  What I really should have read is reviews on posted on film shaft and on den of geek,  they just about sum up what I felt about the film myself.

Readers, you must be thinking why am I giving you an account of my opinion of a horror film? The reason being that at the end of the film (Spoiler Alert!) there is an apparent devil occult invocating the devil but the whole issue is left ambiguous and vague with an abrupt ending. Without the viewer getting the full picture of what is actually happening and what the occult is trying to do. Are they worshiping the devil? Is the baby which is delivered the devil? Is it the fire they are calling upon? Instead of the scary chills I was supposed to get, I left the cinema with a head full of these questions and more. Thus leading to my interest to research into the topic of Devil Worship. I am hoping that by scouring the internet and recording what I come across in this blog, it will help clarify what the misconceptions of Devil Worship are and what Devil Worship actually is.