Satanism refers to a group of religious, ideological, and/or philosophical beliefs based on Satan – particularly his worship or veneration. Satan is commonly associated with the Devil in Christianity, a fallen angel often regarded as chief of the demons who tempt humans into sin. The phenomenon of Satanism shares "historical connections and family resemblances" with the Left Hand Path milieu of other occult figures such as Chaos, Hecate, Lilith, Lucifer, and Set. For centuries, the term was used by various Christian groups as an accusation against ideological opponents, a slur for assorted heretics, freethinkers, and pagans. By contrast, self-identified Satanism is a relatively modern phenomenon, largely attributed to the 1966 founding of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States – an atheistic group that does not believe in a supernatural Satan.
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges that the modernizing world poses to them by embracing individualism, while other NRMs deal with them by embracing tightly knit collective means. Scholars have estimated that NRMs number in the tens of thousands worldwide. Most NRMs only have a few members, some of them have thousands of members, and a few of them have more than a million members.
The Order of the Solar Temple, or simply the Solar Temple, was an esoteric new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several incidents throughout the 1990s. The OTS was a neo-Templar movement, claiming to be a continuation of the Knights Templar, and incorporated a mix of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and New Age ideas. It was led by Joseph Di Mambro, with Luc Jouret as a spokesman and second in command. It was founded in 1984, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Luc Georges Marc Jean Jouret was a Belgian cult leader and homeopath. Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) with Joseph Di Mambro in 1984. He committed suicide in the Swiss village of Salvan on 5 October 1994 as part of a mass murder–suicide. While Di Mambro was the true leader of the group, Jouret was its outward image and primary recruiter.
The Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem are a group of associations commonly originating from the revivalist Ordre du Temple which was formed in 1804 by Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat.
Theistic Satanism, otherwise referred to as traditional Satanism, religious Satanism or spiritual Satanism, is an umbrella term for religious groups that consider Satan, the Devil, to objectively exist as a deity, supernatural entity, or spiritual being worthy of worship or reverence, whom individuals may contact and convene with, in contrast to the atheistic archetype, metaphor, or symbol found in LaVeyan Satanism.
Joseph Léonce "Jo" Di Mambro was a French cult leader and convicted conman who founded and lead the Order of the Solar Temple with Luc Jouret. Di Mambro had been associated with a variety of esoteric groups before founding OTS. After the cult began to face increasing public and legal pressures, he died in a mass murder–suicide with other cult members in October 1994. While Jouret was considered by the public to be the figurehead of the group, Di Mambro was the true head of the organization.
Jean-François Mayer is a Swiss religious historian, author, and translator. He is also Director of the Religioscope Institute, which he founded. He received his masters degree, and then his doctorate, from the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in 1979 and 1984. His writing focuses on religion, with a particular focus on new religious movements and cults, including the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology and the Pilgrims of Arès.
Following the dissolution of the Knights Templar, or the Order of the Temple, several groups have claimed to have unbroken descent from the initial Order. The idea of the Templars' continued existence has been criticized by scholars of Templar history, and was described by French historian Régine Pernoud as "totally insane." These orders typically draw from western esotericism.
Jacques Breyer was a French esotericist and writer.
Julien Origas was a French Rosicrucian. In his 20s, he was sentenced to prison by the French government for collaborating with the Nazi occupation, for which he received several years in prison, though he was amnestied after serving two. Following his release from prison, he became interested in esotericism, and joined AMORC, a large Rosicrucian organization. He later split from the organization following criticism over ties Origas had with neo-Nazi groups and ideas, and other more controversial occult organizations.
Sacred Suicide is a 2014 edited volume about suicide and religion, particularly as it relates to cults or new religious movements. It was published by Ashgate and edited by James R. Lewis and Carole M. Cusack, part of the Ashgate New Religions series. Other contributors to the book include Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Mattias Gardell, and Thomas Robbins. It is divided into five sections.
Les Mythes du Temple Solaire is a book by religious historian Jean-François Mayer. It was published in 1996 by Georg éditeur. The book covers the Order of the Solar Temple a cult notorious for the deaths of many of its members through both murder and suicide in several incidents throughout the 1990s. Mayer had access to many of the OTS's records while writing the book, and had been personally consulted in the police investigation.
How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven's Gate is a book about millennialist violence by Catherine Wessinger, published in 2000 by Seven Bridges Press. The book covers various millennialist new religious movements (NRMs) and their relation to violence, including the Peoples Temple, the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo, the Order of the Solar Temple, and Heaven's Gate, and attempts to set out a typology for dealing with millennial NRMs.
Les Chevaliers de la mort: Enquête et révélations sur l'Ordre du Temple Solaire is a book by journalists Arnaud Bédat, Gilles Bouleau and Bernard Nicolas, covering the cult the Order of the Solar Temple, notorious for the mass murder-suicides committed by the group in the 1990s. It was co-published in December 1996 by L'Illustré and TF1 Éditions, and published in Canada by Libre Expression the next month.
Vie et mort de l'Ordre du Temple Solaire is a 1994 book about the Order of the Solar Temple, written by Carl-A. Keller and Raphaël Aubert. The Solar Temple was a notorious cult active in Switzerland in the 1990s, known for the mass suicides of several of its members throughout the 1990s. The book was published in December 1994 by Éditions de l'Aire, just two months after the first deaths. It was the first book about the group.
Following the Order of the Solar Temple affair – a case that gained international notoriety when members of the group, a then-obscure Neo-Templar cult or new religious movement, orchestrated several mass suicides and mass murders in the 1990s – there have been several books and studies published about the events and organization. The case became a media sensation, with many conspiracy theories promoted by the media; as described by Susan J. Palmer, "false or unverifiable trails have been laid: secondhand testimonies are traded by journalists, ghost-written apostate memoirs are in progress and conspiracy theories abound."
Violence and New Religious Movements is a 2011 edited volume. It was edited by sociologist James R. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. Lewis' previous work had focused on new religious movements, and he had edited several books on the topic. Containing 19 articles by 22 academics, mostly sociologists or scholars in religious studies, it discusses the intersection between new religious movements and violence, both perpetrated by and against the groups. It is divided into five sections.
On 22 March 1997, five members of the cult the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) committed mass suicide in Saint-Casimir, Quebec, setting their house on fire with them inside. The dead included two couples, and one of their parents. The three children of one of the couples had initially been included in the plans, but after the failure of the previous attempts, convinced their parents that they wanted to live and were let go. Following three unsuccessful attempts to orchestrate the suicide, the final attempt, with help from the teenagers, was successful.
