Fanthorpe Patricia - Satanism and demonology

Also by Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe

Oak Island

The Worlds Greatest Unsolved Mysteries

The Worlds Most Mysterious People

The Worlds Most Mysterious Places

Mysteries of the Bible

Death: The Final Mystery

The Worlds Most Mysterious Objects

The Worlds Most Mysterious Murders

Unsolved Mysteries of the Sea

Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars

The Worlds Most Mysterious Castles

Mysteries and Secrets of the Masons

Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah

Mysteries of Secrets of Time

Secrets of the Worlds Undiscovered Treasures

The Big Book of Mysteries

DUNDURN PRESS

TORONTO

Copyright Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Allison Hirst

Design: Courtney Horner

Printer: Marquis

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Fanthorpe, Patricia

Satanism and demonology : mysteries and secrets / Patricia and Lionel

Fanthorpe.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-55488-854-2

1. Satanism. 2. Devil. I. Fanthorpe, R. Lionel II.Title.

BF1548.F35 2011 133.422 C2010-907726-1

1 2 3 4 5 15 14 13 12 11

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

www.dundurn.com

All images are courtesy of the authors from their private collection.

Back cover image: Satan, King of Hell. Front cover image: Lucifer Cast Out. Both engravings by Gustave Dor.

This book is dedicated to all the kind, generous, loving, unselfish, and

caring people all over rfie world who oppose evil by doing good.

For more than twenty years now it has been my privilege to write a foreword to many of the books written by Patricia and Lionel Fanthorpe. This one for the first time I do with a somewhat heavy heart, not because of the book, which, as always with the Fanthorpes, is meticulously researched and carefully written. What daunts my pen is the subject matter of the book.

Satan and I have never existed for each other. The late C.S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, relates how Screwtape advises Wormwood, one of the young devil nephews, how best to do maximum damage to the world around him. In one letter his advice is to go round persuading everyone he meets that Satan really doesnt exist, is, in fact, simply an invention from the long-distant past. Thus, relieved of any fear of consequences, sinners may feel free to do any wicked act that appeals to them. Well! Wormwood certainly succeeded with me. I have never been able to believe in Satan as a person, or any of his satanic angels, or any part of the paraphernalia that goes with them. The satanic world has never existed for me nor will it ever, unless of course I have it all wrong and I eventually end up in his everlasting company!

However, it doesnt follow that, having no belief in Satan, I have no concept of evil. No one who has lived through two world wars, as people of my generation have, having lost friends on the battlefield or blasted to death in their own homes, can do other than shudder at the evil that set into motion such mass global slaughter. Those who were present at the liberation of concentration camps, such as Belsen or Dachau, will never get over the stench of evil revealed in those camps.

Evil is a reality. It always has been and, sadly, no doubt we shall never be free of it. Its origins, to our shame, may be not with Satan, but from within the human heart. It might be more comforting to lay the burden on some outside demonic presence but we may have to bear the responsibility for ourselves.

Satan as an entity some of us cant come to terms with but satanic evil we can. However, life is not all doom and gloom. Evil doesnt consume life. It cheers the heart to remember that not all that comes from the heart is evil. There also comes the glory of real goodness. Human nature we know sometimes produces monsters; it also produces angels. Where the few inflict evil after evil on the world, others spread goodness, compassion, kindliness, and self-sacrifice that sweeten life for everyone around them.

That having been said, whatever I may believe or you may believe, is not the end of it. The fact remains that many have had, and still have, an unshakeable belief in Satan and his angel demons. Millions do to this day and countless millions have been devil conscious all down the centuries and all over the world. Probably many will go on believing in the satanic world until the end of time. What the Fanthorpes have done is to research those beliefs in all their infinite variety. They have explored all ages and examined many different countries. It must have been a massive undertaking.

Satan has been shown to have many names and appear in many guises. Every nation seems to have feared him and the research has covered the great variety of ways people devised to protect themselves from him, defending their health, their crops, and their families. Some took a different stance. Oscar Wilde once said that the only thing he couldnt resist was temptation. Where people could not resist the devil, they joined him. They went so far as to worship him, daring even to conjure up his presence. It seems, even to this day, some still do.

The work involved in researching this book would leave most of us hopelessly defeated. The Fanthorpes seem inexhaustible in their studies. What they themselves believe about Satan and Satanism, if they believe in any of it at all, I dont know. What I do know, and all who read the book will feel the same, is that they have researched widely, and fairly, and without judgement or prejudice as they always do. I long for the day when the Fanthorpes, kindly, generous friends as they always are, will be commissioned to write not about the abnormalities of the world, but about its goodness. Devils have their fascination but so have Saints. Where does real goodness come from? Hopefully, some day, while they still have their gifts and energy, they will write of those who by the grace and beauty of their lives enriched the world of their generation. Evil has a horrible fascination. Goodness will always overcome it.