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Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

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Manichaeism 159<br />

issue <strong>of</strong> accepting Crowley’s Book <strong>of</strong> the Law as<br />

authoritative. (Rudolf Steiner headed an OTO<br />

chapter early in this century, before he founded<br />

the <strong>An</strong>throposophical League.)<br />

Violet Firth was initiated in 1919 into the<br />

Alpha et Omega, the HOGD <strong>of</strong>fshoot presided<br />

over by Mathers’s widow, Moira Bergson Mathers.<br />

In 1922 Firth organized the Fraternity <strong>of</strong> the Inner<br />

Light as an “outer court” for the AEO. She <strong>and</strong><br />

Mrs. Mathers clashed more <strong>and</strong> more as Violet<br />

matured as a leader. When Mrs. Mathers expelled<br />

her in 1927, Firth, now using the name Dion<br />

Fortune, took the Fraternity <strong>of</strong> the Inner Light<br />

with her, <strong>and</strong> it became the parent or ancestor <strong>of</strong><br />

many other important magical organizations now<br />

functioning in Engl<strong>and</strong>.<br />

See also Crowley, Aleister; Levi, Eliphas; Hermetic<br />

Order <strong>of</strong> the Golden Dawn; Ordo Templi Orientis<br />

For Further Reading:<br />

Flowers, Stephen E., Lords <strong>of</strong> the Left H<strong>and</strong> Path.<br />

Smithville, TX: Runa-Raven Press, 1997.<br />

Green, Marian. The Elements <strong>of</strong> Ritual Magic.<br />

Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK: Element,<br />

1990.<br />

Knight, Gareth. Magic <strong>and</strong> the Western Mind. St.<br />

Paul: Llewellyn, 1991.<br />

LaVey, <strong>An</strong>ton Sz<strong>and</strong>or. The Satanic Bible. New York:<br />

Avon, 1969.<br />

Malik<br />

Malik is the wicked angel who guards hell. This is<br />

according to the Koran, which states that Malik is<br />

aided by nineteen other angel guards (sbires or<br />

zabayniya). When the sinful residents <strong>of</strong> hell beg<br />

Malik for help, he tells them that they must stay in<br />

hell forever because they denied the truth when it<br />

was once showed to them. Malik makes life even<br />

worse for them by stoking the fires <strong>and</strong> making<br />

jokes. The only relief comes for the Muslim<br />

sinners in hell who can escape such treatment by<br />

reciting “Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”<br />

Malik knows that these true believers will one day<br />

be freed from hell by Muhammad.<br />

See also Islam<br />

For Further Reading:<br />

The Encyclopaedia <strong>of</strong> Islam. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978.<br />

Glassé, Cyril. The Concise <strong>Encyclopedia</strong> <strong>of</strong> Islam. San<br />

Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1989.<br />

Mammon<br />

In folklore, Mammon is a fallen angel, now residing<br />

in hell as the demon <strong>of</strong> avarice. He personifies<br />

greed <strong>and</strong> a lust for money. In John Milton’s<br />

Paradise Lost, Mammon is depicted as always<br />

looking downward, at heaven’s golden pavement,<br />

rather than up at God. After the war in heaven,<br />

when Mammon is relegated to hell, he is the one<br />

who finds underground precious metal that the<br />

devils use to build P<strong>and</strong>emonium, their capital city.<br />

In the Bible (Matt. 6:24 <strong>and</strong> Luke 16:13)<br />

Mammon is referred to as being hostile to God.<br />

<strong>An</strong>d in the Dictionnaire Infernal by De Plancy,<br />

Mammon is noted as hell’s ambassador to<br />

Engl<strong>and</strong>. He is equated with Lucifer, Satan,<br />

Beelzebub, <strong>and</strong> Nebuchadnezzar. Gregory <strong>of</strong><br />

Nyssa interpreted Mammon to be a name for<br />

Beelzebub. The word “mammon” comes originally<br />

from Jesus’s declaration in the Gospels: “No man<br />

can be a slave to two masters; he will hate one <strong>and</strong><br />

love the other; he will be loyal to one <strong>and</strong> despise<br />

the other. You cannot serve both God <strong>and</strong><br />

mammon (greed for worldly riches)” (Matt. 6:24).<br />

See also Fallen <strong>An</strong>gels; Milton, John<br />

For Further Reading:<br />

Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary <strong>of</strong> <strong>An</strong>gels Including<br />

the Fallen <strong>An</strong>gels. 1967. New York: Free Press,<br />

1971.<br />

De Plancy, J. A. S. Collin. Dictionnaire Infernal.<br />

Paris: P. Mellier, 1844 [1818].<br />

Ronner, John. Know Your <strong>An</strong>gels: The <strong>An</strong>gel Almanac<br />

with Biographies <strong>of</strong> 100 Prominent <strong>An</strong>gels in<br />

Legend <strong>and</strong> <strong>Folklore</strong>, <strong>and</strong> Much More.<br />

Murfreesboro, TN: Mamre, 1993.<br />

Manichaeism<br />

Manichaeism refers primarily to a religious movement<br />

that arose in the third century <strong>and</strong> spread<br />

across the Mediterranean world. Like Zoroastrianism,<br />

it postulated an ongoing, more or less<br />

evenly matched war between a good god <strong>and</strong> an<br />

evil god. Founded by Mani, a Persian born into a<br />

Christian <strong>and</strong> Jewish community in Assyria in A.D.<br />

215, Manichaeism was a mixture <strong>of</strong> Gnosticism,<br />

Zoroastrianism, <strong>and</strong> Christianity that spread<br />

across the Western world <strong>and</strong> lasted for the better<br />

part <strong>of</strong> a thous<strong>and</strong> years. It may even have lasted<br />

until the twentieth century in China.

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