_Devil_  Christianity's Prince of Supreme Evil, the Devil, or Satan,
is not a god of neo-Pagan WITCHES....

The term *Devil* comes from the Greek *diabolus* ("slanderer" or
"accuser"), translated from the Hebrew *satan*.  The concept of
the Devil as archfiend of evil developed slowly over many centuries,
becoming a composite of Lucifer, the fallen angel whose pride and
ego get him from heaven; Satan, the tempter of man; and various 
pagan deities such as PAN and CERNUNNOS.  The religion of the early
Hebrews was, like pagan and European religions, monistic, in that
the one Supreme Being, God, or Yahweh, was both good and bad.
Satan plays a minor role in the Old Testament as the opponent of
man, dispatched by God to test man's faith.  He is not evil and
is an angel in the kingdom of heaven.  In Job, Satan follows God's
instructions to destroy Job's family and possessions and cover him
with running sores in an effort to tempt him into cursing God.  In
the New Testament, Satan becomes more personal and is the great 
antagonist of God as well as man.  Revelations forecasts that 
Christ, in his second coming, will bind the Devil for 1,000 years,
at which time the Devil will reappear one final time, as the
Antichrist, before being destroyed.  The dualism of Christianity
became firmly established, with a god of light and goodness and a
god of evil and darkness.

By the Middle Ages, Satan, the Devil, was a real, potent being who
possessed terrible supernatural powers and was intent upon destroying
man by undermining his morals.  In this pursuit, he was aided by an
army of evil DEMONS (a corruption of the Greek term *daimon* or
*daemon*, meaning "guardian spirit").  This army expanded to include
heretics and sorcerers, whose MAGIC posed a threat to the divine
miracles of the Church.  Witches were included first as associates
of sorcerers..., then as heretics.

Preachers in the Middle Ages and Reformation pounded fear of the
Devil into their followers by constantly inveighing against his
attempts to pervert people and turn them away from God.  Satan's
kingdom was the material world.  He would tempt people with false
riches, luxuries and carnal pleasures, only to claim their souls
for eternal damnation in the end.  His chief means of attacking
others was through demonic possession.  Pacts with the Devil,
which date back to the 6th century, become implied; any consort
with the Devil automatically meant one had entered into a
diabolic pact....  John Stearne, the assistant to MATTHEW HOPKINS,
Englands notorious witch-hunter of the 17th century, was of the
opinion that the preachers' obsession with Satan encouraged
witches to worship him.  Undoubtedly, there must have been some
persons so beaten down by poverty that worship of such a powerful
being as the Devil offered the only hope of relief....

The Devil was said to appear in many guises in order to fool people.
His most common human shape was that of a tall black man, or a tall
man, often handsome, dressed in black.  Black is universally
associated with fear, evil, the dark and chaos....

The Devil could also appear as a saint, the Virgin Mary, comely
young women and preachers.  He could appear in a multitude of
animal shapes, most commonly a dog, a serpent or a goat....  He
also had ugly appearances: as the alleged god of the witches,
he was portrayed as half human, half animal, like Pan, with horns,
cloven feet, hairy legs, a tail, a huge penis, glowing eyes and
Saturnine features.

In folklore, the Devil was often portrayed in a lighter fashion,
perhaps to mitigate the fear inspired by the clergy.  He was often
buffoonish and called by nicknames such as Jack, Old Nick, Old
Horny and Lusty Dick.  He could be easily tricked, as in the
numerous versions of the DEVIL'S BRIDGE story.

In both theology and folklore, the distinction between the Devil
as Prince of Evil and his hordes of demons often blurs.  The
phrase "the devil" referred to both.  Joseph Glanvil observed in
_Saducismus Triumphatus_ (1689) that

	The Devil is a name for a body politic, in which there
	are very different orders and degrees of spirits, and
	perhaps in as much variety of place and state, as among
	ourselves.

Images of the Devil have remained largely unchanged to present
times.  The New Age movement, which gained momentum in the 1960s
as the Age of Aquarius, has been termed the "Devil's plan for
world domination" by certain Fundamentalist Christians.  The
worship of Satan as a god of power and materialism is practiced
by numerous groups.  Neo-Pagans and neo-Pagan Witches do not
worship the Devil.  Pagan deities, and the HORNED GOD of the
Witches, are often confused in the public mind with the Devil....


_The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft_, by Rosemary Guiley,
  Facts On File Books, 1989; pp. 96-8.
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