Lucifer Rising - Gavin Baddeley

Lucifer Rising is a history of Satanism, through paganism and the heretics of the middle ages, to Aleister Crowley and black metal.



Lucifer Rising gives fairly good coverage on the history of satanism. About half the book is about the history before 1960, when Anton LaVey started the Church of Satan and Charles Manson carried out his atrocities (nothing to do with satanism apparently, yet still gone into in high detail here). The majority of the book is about the late 20th century, in particular heavy metal. I understand that a lot of people who get into Satansim do so through Heavy Metal, but also I know enough about the music to know all the satan stuff is just theatrical, and 99% of the musicians who claim to be satanists are doing it to maintain an image. Even some of the bands who are interviewed in this book have since denounced their satanic image. It would have been nice to have a bit more focus on the history of the religion and less of the pop-culture, but it is what it is. I'm sure alot of people are more interested in the pop-culture side of things.

The bits that are present about the older history are super interesting though. There are lot of names here that I never knew were Satanists, such as John Milton. There's Satanism throughout history, running alongside mainstream culture and its influence reach pretty far. This was the best bit about the book for me.

The other thing is, this book evades defining what exactly Satanism is, and what makes something satanic. Is blasphemy enough, is heresy enough, or do we need witchcraft and rituals to make something satanic? Is witchcraft alone a form of satanism? This book covers a lot, there is a lot here, but it assumes quite a lot of knowledge going in. A lot of things get labelled as satanic that I feel are a bit of a stretch - Is the song Sympathy for the Devil satanic really? 

This is a nice history of an interesting subject, and it's a shame there are a few holes here and there. It's also a brick of a book, with tiny text that makes it a bit of a struggle to get through. Ultimately, I think this is one for people who are truly interested, and I'm not sure how strongly I would recommend it to someone who has a passing interest.


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