Definition: Infernalism and Diabolism
From LanceaSanctum
21 August 2006
"Infernalism/Diabolism - The study and practice of demonology in the form of summoning and pacting with Infernal entities. Service to the Infernal or the Devil."
I would contend that it is not just engaging in summoning and making pacts with infernal entities, but the actual worship of the Adversary and his allies. First let us define the Adversary.
"The Devil," as the Adversary is commonly known, is so named from the Greek *diabolos* and the Latin *diabolus*. The term "devil" itself is a name commonly given to the fallen angels, who are also known as demons. When combined with the article (*ho*) it denotes Satan, their chief, as in Matthew 25:41, "the Devil and his angels".
It may be said of this name, as St. Gregory said of the word angel, "*nomen est officii, non naturæ *"--the designation of an office, not of a nature. For the Greek word (from *diaballein*, "to traduce") means a slanderer, or accuser, and in this sense it is applied to him of whom it is written "the accuser [ *ho kategoros*] of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night" (Apocalypse 12:10). It thus answers to the Hebrew name Satan which signifies an adversary, or an accuser.
Thus, "Satan" is also called "the Adversary," and I use this name in my own discussions, as it is easier to translate into many languages and yet is understood completely in context.
However, to use the name "Lucifer" for the Adversary is incorrect. The origins of the word "Lucifer" are rooted in the Hebrew *helel*, the Septuagint *heosphoros*, and the Vulgate *Lucifer*. The name Luciferoriginally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for "the light of the morning" (Job 11:17), "the signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32), and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). The word is applied as metaphor to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon, son of Onias, (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16; the "Exultet" of Holy Saturday) as the true light of our spiritual life.
The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun *helel*from the verb
- yalal*, "to lament"; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1:14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Greek Fathers maintained that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen (Petavius, De Angelis, III, iii, 4). In this they are correct..."Lucifer" is a state that the Adversary dreams of attaining again, to be the light bringer in the service of God.
There is such a strange startling incompatibility between the notion of the Adversary and that of an object of worship, that the combination in this case may well present a grave difficulty. And the more we are able to understand about the character and history of the Adversary and about the true nature of worship, the more difficult is it to believe that men and vampires can have been led, even in the utmost extremity of folly and wickedness, to worship the Adversary. Yet, incredible as it may seem, it is unfortunately true that some worship of this kind has prevailed at many times and among widely different races of mankind, as well as vampires. The following considerations may help in some degree to lighten the difficulty presented by this singular phenomenon.
In the first place it may be well to recall the analogy between the worship given to a divine being and the tribute paid to a king. Both alike are sensible proofs of service and subjection. In the case of kings, besides the willing service paid to a just and legitimate sovereign, there may be tribute paid to some alien oppressors or blackmail grudgingly given to some pirate Chief or marauder in order to deprecate the evils that may be feared at his hands. And so in the case of religious worship, we may find that in the rude polytheism of barbarous races, where the gods were not only many in number but various in character, besides the willing worship given to good and beneficent beings in the service of love and gratitude, there is a sort of liturgical blackmail offered to the evil and malignant gods or demons in order to placate them and avert their anger. In like manner, when we pass from Polytheism to the philosophic Dualism--where the worlds of light and darkness, good and evil, sharply defined, are constantly warring against each other over against the good men, who offer worship to the good god, Ahura Mazda, there are the wicked Daeva-worshippers who sacrifice to the Demons and to Ahriman their chief, the principle of evil.
Another source of this strange worship may be found in the fact that in the early days each nation had its own natural gods; hence racial rivalry and hatred sometimes led one nation to regard the protecting divinities of its enemies as evil demons. In this way many who merely worshipped gods whom they themselves regarded as good beings would be called devil worshippers by men of other nations. Such may be the case with the Daeva-worshippers in the Avesta. In the same way the Greeks and Romans may have worshipped their divinities, fondly believing them to be good. But the Christian Scriptures declare that all the gods of the Gentiles are demons.
This declaration, it may be added, was not the utterance of a rival race but the teaching of Holy Scripture. For as the Fathers and theologians explain the matter, the fallen angels besides tempting and assailing men in other ways have, by working on their fears or exciting their cupidity, brought them to give worship to themselves under the guise of idols. If not in all cases, it would seem that much of the heathen idolatrous worship, especially in its worst and most degraded forms, was offered to the devils. This may explain some of the manifestations in the old pagan oracles. And something of the same kind occurs in the demonic manifestations among the modern demonolaters in India. Nor has this been confined to heathen nations, for in connection with magical practices and occultism some forms of devil worship appear in the heresy history of medieval Europe. Görres, in his great work on Christian Mysticism, gives some curious and repulsive details of their obscene ceremonial. Of late years there seems to have been a recrudescence of this evil superstition in certain countries of Europe. While there is some authentic evidence as to the existence of these evil practices, the truth is overlaid with a mass of legend, many charges of this kind are false or grossly exaggerated, and a number of innocent persons have been cruelly put to death on charges of witchcraft or devil worship. It is well also to remember St. Augustine's words: " *Non uno modo sacrificatur traditoribus angelis*"; and possibly calumny and cruelty may be more dangerous forms of devil worship than all the dark rites of African Medicine men or medieval magicians.
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