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the Book of Genesis, where it states that the “sons
of God saw that the daughters of men were fair
and they took to wife such of them as they chose”
(6:2). Traditionally, the expression “sons of God”
was taken to indicate angels, although later
churchmen rejected the idea that angels could
have intercourse with human beings.
See also Demons; Book of Jubilees
For Further Reading:
Baskin, Wade. Dictionary of Satanism. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1962.
Ronner, John. Know Your Angels: The Angel Almanac
with Biographies of 100 Prominent Angels in
Legend and Folklore, and Much More.
Murfreesboro, TN: Mamre, 1993.
Wilson, Peter Lamborn. Angels. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1980.
Wheatley, Dennis
A significant but largely forgotten influence on
modern Satanism was Dennis Wheatley, one of
more popular British writers of the mid-twentieth
century. His long career spanned some forty-four
years, from 1933 to 1977. Although he also
authored nonfiction, historical novels, and novels
of international intrigue, he is best remembered
for his “black magic” novels, many of which
featured Satanists.
Wheatley often linked hostile geopolitical
threats to infernal forces, as in his They Used Dark
Forces, which pictures Hitler using black magic.
Similarly, in The Satanist, he portrays communist
spies as Satanists. For example, at one point in the
narrative of The Satanist, one of the protagonists
reflects, “The fact that he was both a Communist
and a Satanist had raised the interesting question
of how far might a tie-up exist between these two
supposedly separate forces for evil” In this blending
of diabolical with sociopolitical enemies,
Wheatley was merely stating what was already an
unconscious association in the mass mind of
Western nations.
His The Devil Rides Out (1935), was probably
the most popular horror novel of the midtwentieth
Dennis Wheatley, 1933 (Archive Photos)