Book Reviews

The Satanic Bible 50th Anniversary ReVision (2018) is a book by Michael A. Aquino, a former high-ranking member of the Church of Satan, and the founder of the Temple of Set. This book aims to be a revision of the original TSB, as planned but never completed by Anton LaVey, but not an outright replacement of it. ReVision is split into five books (Satan, Lucifer, Belial, Leviathan, and Yankee Rose), with Yankee Rose being an addition to the original four books of the TSB. The Book of Satan is an original narrative describing Satan’s fall, Lucifer is commentary on LaVey’s essays in TSB, Belial expands on the LaVeyan magic system, Leviathan reworks the Enochian Keys, and Yankee Rose is a recollection of Aquino’s experience in the CoS and with LaVey. Appendices at the end describe LaVey’s influences, Aquino’s introduction to the original TSB in its 1972 edition, a ceremony Aquino made for the CoS, and how the Sigil of Baphomet was created.

Aquino excels at writing narratives. His Book of Satan is much preferred over LaVey’s rushed, page-filling plagiarism of Might is Right and his description of the Black House in Yankee Rose gives it a personality and life beyond its inhabitants. His additions to the LaVeyan magic system, when congruent with it, are decent expansions. I like the introduction of the concepts of subjective and objective universes as they are explained well and work within LaVey’s system.

However, Aquino can’t keep his god Set out of Satanism, wasting pages describing theistic Egyptian concepts that fall flat to his assumed audience of atheistic Satanists. In doing so, he forgets that LaVey’s TSB was intentionally non-occult: LaVey denigrates the occultism, the intentional obfuscation of information, of past occult texts, which shows in how straightforward and uncomplicated his TSB is. At some points the book contradicts itself: for example, Aquino introduces the distinction between black and white magic and says they have no moral weight, but describes white magic in mostly negative terms. 

If you want an improvement on LaVey’s Book of Satan and more insights on him and the CoS, definitely check out the corresponding sections. The other sections are of varying quality, especially if you’re not amicable to Aquino’s Egyptian and/or theistic leanings.

Wicca Elemental Magic: A Guide to the Elements, Witchcraft, and Magic Spells by Lisa Chamberlain (2014) is exactly what it says on the tin: it is a book examining the four classical elements as they pertain to Wiccan practice.

It is a breezy book written in plain, understandable language, but that is about the only good I can say. I would say this book is a good companion to another book on Wicca or the four elements if it wouldn’t be immediately irrelevant by a more in-depth book on either. Painfully generic and shallow, there is nothing here that isn’t done better by other books. 

Unfortunately, this book struck a particular nerve with me. Chamberlain is not scientifically literate, and given that this is the most beginner of beginner books, that ignorance is dangerous. This illiteracy is thankfully condensed in the section called “Elements and the Living Universe”, but it is so bad that it takes this book from generic to distasteful. My extended breakdown will be at the end (along with sources), but in essence:

1. Chamberlain asserts that science is beginning to support animism, defined as “the quality of the soul, or spirit, [to not be] limited to humans or even all living creatures, but [...] found in all things.”
2. She claims piezoelectric crystals, which make electricity when struck, are alive in some sense. Crystals lack all characteristics of life as defined by biologists and electrical charges do not mean something is alive. 
3. She cites discredited research on the intelligence of plants which she says is widely called  “psuedo-science”. We know plants respond to their environment, and we’re figuring out more on how plants can “speak” to each other, but because we have no agreed-on definition of “intelligence”, we cannot measure it in plants.
4. She cites Masaru Emoto’s experiments on water crystals forming more pleasing shapes when exposed to prayer or positive affirmations, using it as evidence that words can affect the body. She says that science has dismissed his work for being unscientific, but despite that, it goes against scientific convention in a miraculous way. If Emoto’s work isn’t scientifically accepted, it can’t be used as proof of science supporting animism.
5. Blatant quantum mysticism relying on one lone physicist’s philosophical beliefs as evidence of scientific consensus.

Magicians, witches, magi, please. If you don’t understand how science works, trying to make science fit your beliefs makes you look like idiots to people who know better. Give up or grow up.

You’d like this book if: You’re eleven years old and waiting for your Hogwarts acceptance letter, and figure Wicca might make your magic manifest quicker.

You’d dislike this book if: You paid attention in your high school science classes.

Read instead: Any of Gerald Gardner’s works if you’re interested in Wicca itself. On the Heavenly Spheres by Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro if you want to know more about the classical elements.

Extended arguments

1. Chamberlain’s use of the elements in magic relies on animism, which she defines, in contrast to “conventional” science, to be “no separation at all between the material and spiritual worlds”, causing “the quality of the soul, or spirit, [to not be] limited to humans or even all living creatures, but [...] found in all things.” This is something us modern humans take for granted, but is the basis of Witchcraft.
2. Some scientific discoveries support animism. This is the core of her argument.
3. Some crystals are piezoelectric, meaning they generate electricity when, say, struck with a hammer. Chamberlain states that this means “they are ‘alive’.” 
1. Generating electricity is not a prerequisite for life in the scientific definition of the term. Crystals do not maintain a stable internal environment, grow, reproduce, convert food into energy or resources, respond to the environment, evolve, nor are made of cells.1 And while living things do use electricity, including to think, this does not prove crystals can think, only that they can make electricity. Would you argue that lightning is scientifically proven to be alive?
4. Plants, when hooked to a polygraph, are able to register the responses of plants to the actions and thoughts of those nearby. Chamberlain says that, though this book presenting this (The Secret of Plants) was “widely discredited as ‘pseudo-science’”, it promoted the idea that plants can be influenced by their environment”. Further research (cited as “one recent experiment” and “many scientists”) explains how plants sense the world around them, how trees communicate with mushrooms, and whether science considers plants “intelligent”.
1. Polygraph machines are not reliable for detecting lies, so let’s get that out of the way first. Because much life, including plants, uses electrical impulses to carry signals, I’m sure that a polygraph could pick up a response from a plant. Based on her saying the book was called pseudoscientific, it's likely that the research quality is poor.
2. Weasel words notwithstanding, I was able to find sources for her other claims. “Plants respond to leaf vibrations caused by insect herbivore chewing” by Appel & Cocroft (2014) is alluded to when Chamberlain mentions a study that plants produce chemicals in response to auditory stimuli. I am choosing “How Plants Sense and Respond to Stressful Environments” by Lamers et al. (2020) and “How mycorrhizal fungi could extend plant cognitive processes” by Parise et al. (2025) to support her claims of plants having additional senses and trees working with mushrooms to share resources respectively.
3. Are plants intelligent? Science is still unsure how to define intelligence, so how do we measure intelligence in plants?
5. As per Masaro Emoto’s research, water crystals respond to verbal stimuli, growing in more pleasing shapes when positively affirmed or prayed over. This suggests water responds to “the energetic charge of words, thoughts, emotions, and even art forms”. Emoto then used this to purify a polluted lake in Japan, which caused a significant reduction in algae and odor. However, conventional science dismisses Emoto’s work due to it not properly meeting the standards of the scientific method, but Emoto never claimed his work met those standards. Regardless, the results are “astounding” enough to “defy any ‘rational’ explanation that the scientific model can currently offer.”
1. Emoto is not a scientist, but a businessman-turned-alternative medicine peddler. His experiments were poorly controlled and highly subjective, and were never published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
2. If Emoto not measuring up to the scientific standard is irrelevant, then Chamberlain’s argument falls apart. If her thesis is to support animism with science, why is she relying on science she herself admits is heavily flawed?
6. Quantum physics means science is compatible with animism, as it entwines mind with matter. This was described by Nick Herbert, a physicist.
1. Can Chamberlain define what quantum physics are? I can’t. I bet she can’t either, because if she could, she wouldn’t have to rely on spiritual buzzwords like “vibrations” to describe it. In lieu of actually describing something I can’t, here’s Professor Dave Explains’ video on quantum mysticism. 
2. Herbert’s credentials are not in question, and I’m sure he understands quantum physics better than either Chamberlain or I. What I want to point out is that he is seemingly alone in his “quantum animism”, and no actual research has been produced on the topic that isn’t associated with him. Herbert’s claims are more philosophical than scientific. If a physicist making philosophical claims is good science, then I shall petition a physicist friend to promote my own philosophical stances.

The Demonolater’s Guide to Daemonic Offerings by Stephanie Connolly (2015) is a short read outlining how and what to offer to demons. Covered by The Complete Book of Demonolatry.

Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly (2010) approaches the evoking of demons in texts like the Lesser Key of Solomon from a demonolater’s perspective. I enjoy the expanded descriptions of the Goetia though Connolly notes when what she’s added is an expansion on the texts. Great if you want specifically goetic demons; not so great if you want more general demonolatry.

Read instead: Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia by Lon Milo DuQuette et. al, The Lesser Key of Solomon by Joseph H. Peterson, Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly, or The Demonolater’s Handbook by Mirta Wake.

The Complete Book of Demonolatry by Stephanie Connolly (2006) is a textbook of demonolatry covering its history, known demons, theology, ritual practice, magic, and holidays. I like the care that Connolly has in making sure that ritual work is safe, sane, and consensual, and discusses issues like animal sacrifice, mental health, and sex in a manner amicable to me. She provides an extensive list of demons with both their domains and citations to where they were found, which I appreciate. I also enjoy that the back half of the book is structured as specific lessons, though these lessons don’t appeal to me. They seem like they would be beneficial to someone wanting to learn Connolly’s system. There’s a lot here that a demonolater could use, and certainly things that I’m going to take for myself. 

So, what’s the caveat? In being an all-encompassing book, it feels scattered. The lessons should be integrated with the rest of the text if this is meant to be a beginner’s guide. I’m also too historypilled to be entranced by the narrative of demonolatry being passed down from ancient Egyptians and the fucking Illuminati. As an atheistic Satanist, most of the theology does not apply nor appeal to me. But most importantly: stop using the Yezidis as examples of demonolaters. You are contributing to their genocide. Thanks!

Decent enough. 

You’d like this book if: You’re a beginner demonolater wanting a singular book as a starting point.

You’d dislike this book if: You’re an atheistic Satanist.

Modern Demonolatry by Stephanie Connolly (1998) is essentially beta versions of “Introduction to Demonolatry”, “All About Demons”, “Demonolatry History”, “The Practice of Demonolatry”, “Proper Invocation, Tools, Ritual Execution and Layout”, “Dedication and Initiation”, “Demonolatry Magick”, “Demonolatry Rites of Birth, Marriage, and Death”, and “Prayers and Offerings” from The Complete Book of Demonolatry. That book is preferred, but if you got this one, my thoughts are essentially the same as written in its review. 

Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia: Sexual Evocation) by Lon Milo DuQuette and Christopher S. Hyatt and illustrated by David P. Wilson (1992) is a book focused on the conjuration of Goetic demons from a ceremonial magic perspective. As such, demons are treated like tools to control rather than as beings to work with. Whether this bothers you depends on your beliefs, but it should be said this is a book on evoking demons, not invoking them.

Chapters 1-7 explain the basics of ceremonial magic, why and why not to work with the Goetia, and how to summon the Goetia. Chapter 8 is a list of all 72 demons of the Ars Goetia with nice black-and-white illustrations along with them. Chapters 9 and 10 cover the use of Jungian personality types (better known as MBTI) and how to enter a trance state. 

The actual text of the book runs for about 80 of its 200 or so pages, with most of those pages being taken up by the Goetia, which isn’t a unique problem to this book. However, this book has one of the most accurate and modern-English-parsable translations of Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum available, and I can say that because I’ve been working on a translation of it myself. For that alone, I must recommend this book. However, the rest of the book is unimpressive from a demonology, demonolatry, and/or satanic perspective. I don’t practice ceremonial magic, though for someone into that, this book could be a worthwhile addition if you want to work with the Goetia. I’m also not into Jung, nor do I think his work is relevant to my practice, though it could be for yours. 

Decent, if only for the Goetia.

You’d like this book if: You’re a ceremonial magician interested in working with Goetic demons or a demonolater/demonologist looking to read English that isn’t several centuries old. 

You’d dislike this book if: Buying a book based on one very long but good chapter isn’t worth it.

Read instead: The Lesser Key of Solomon by Joseph H. Peterson, Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly, or The Demonolater’s Handbook by Mirta Wake.

The Goetia by Michael M. Ford (2003) is so incomprehensible and dense that I can’t tell you what this book is about other than its a “Luciferian” look at the Goetia. Only Lucifer knows what that means. This book’s problem is that it throws a bunch of proper nouns at you like a C-tier YA dystopia that thinks that capitalising normal nouns makes them sound more important. 

And if that wasn’t repulsive enough, Ford’s connection to the Order of the Nine Angles, a neo-Nazi Satanic terrorist group, is enough to make me not want to finish this book.

You’d like this book if: Big words and proper nouns make you trust a writer more.

You’d dislike this book if: You’re normal.

Read instead: Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia by Lon Milo DuQuette et. al, The Lesser Key of Solomon by Joseph H. Peterson, Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly, or The Demonolater’s Handbook by Mirta Wake.

Oven-Ready Chaos by Phil Hine (1997) is a sub-70 page introduction into chaos magic: what magic itself is, how chaos magic came to be, how chaos magic breaks away from traditional modes of magic, sigil magic, and some exercises.

This is a non-occult book: information is presented as quickly and as efficiently as possible, with humour injected in. This means that it is highly approachable and easily understood. Hine doesn’t treat you like a magus, and really, he doesn’t want you to treat yourself like a magus. Anyone could understand this book.

You’d like this book if: you want a quick and easy explanation of chaos magic.

You’d dislike this book if: you want more elaboration on chaos magic or dislike chaos magic entirely.

The Devil’s Tome by Shiva Honey (2020) is a book written by a longtime member of The Satanic Temple, complete with a foreword by Lucien Greaves, one of TST’s founders. This book is a gentle introduction to TST-style Satanism, with many rituals, grounded in the scientific study of ritual efficacy, with encouragement to modify the rituals to suit your needs.

There’s little for me to like about this book. I think it exemplifies why I don’t align myself with TST despite similar politics. What I do like is that Honey does pony up the sources on academic studies of ritual efficacy. However, sans any theological reason to undertake these rituals (what reason do I have to honour the seasons?), I’m left wondering if this book is targeted towards people who want to be genuine Satanists, or if it's appealing to people who want slightly edgier #selfcare routines.

I’m not intending to gatekeep Satanism here. Satanism is, by its left-hand path nature, hard to define. But speaking as someone involved in Satanism and in magical communities for years, there is a palpable difference between Honey’s rituals and LaVeyan psychodrama. LaVey provided a workable, unique system for Satanic magic. Honey does not make a new system, because she wants you to make your own. That might be beneficial for some people, but I crave a structure that TST refuses to provide. I may significantly diverge from LaVey (especially politically) but his magic system is the scaffold on which I build from. There is no scaffold provided by Honey beyond the tenets of TST, which are only Satanic if you’re a fundamentalist Christian.

Furthermore, despite Honey encouraging you to modify rituals to suit your needs, the rituals often require specialised items. To be clear, my practice is focused on resourcefulness and working with what I have. If I must buy something, I need to be certain I can’t make it myself or scrounge it up. Rituals in this book require specific crystals, specific candle colours, essential oils, obsidian blades, and quills with specialised ink. Some of these items you can buy in Honey’s online shop, which she points out when applicable. And some of these items, like a body of water you can swim in, are verging on being inaccessible for most people. At the rate I’m going to be substituting, it feels like I’m going to end up as a comment on a recipe that hated the recipe, but replaced everything within it.

You'd like this book if: You're a Witchblr/WitchTok/Witchtagram user who is ideologically aligned with the TST and is too scared of engaging with problematic authors to read LaVey.

You'd dislike this book if: You want something more than Wicca with the horned god replaced with Satan.

Read instead: Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion by Joseph P. Laycock and The Little Book of Satanism by La Carmina if you’re interested in The Satanic Temple. The Satanic Bible, whether by Anton LaVey or Michael Aquino if you’re interested in Satanism more broadly.

Works of Darkness by E.A. Koetting (2008) is a ritual and theory book about black magic, defined as harmful magic and evil spirits for your own personal gain, with the goal of Becoming a Living God (incidentally, a course Koetting sells).

Koetting has glimpses of writing competency. His prose is sufficient and I understand what he’s talking about most of the time. I appreciate the simplicity of his ritual setup. That is about all the good in this book.

Works of Darkness is overwrought in the same way My Immortal is overwrought, except there is substantially less meaning to extract. Chapter one in specific is an attempted narrative of a black magician’s journey from dabbler to adept, and not only is it terribly uninteresting, I fail to see why a book whose subtitle is A Guide to Advanced Black Magick is going over something so introductory.

His system is eclectic and his perspectives strange. Along with more typical black magic workings such as necromancy and baneful magic, he also asks you to… work with the Qabbalah, your Kundalini, (pg. 34) and your chakras (pgs. 34, 193-194). If that sounds too New Age to you, that’s okay, because he bends back into comfortable theistic Satanist territory with Yezidi appropriation (pgs. 92, 198). And, when discussing the Satanic Panic, he believes that, instead of the victims being victims of shoddy therapists implanting false memories in them, they are instead having an “atavistic remembrance of a secret knowledge that perhaps man should have never uncovered” (pg. 152). Right.

Koetting is more afraid to kill his darlings than he is to kill real, live people. Blood (pg. 35), and more specifically, human blood gained through ritual sacrifice (pgs. 161-162), takes center stage as the most powerful kind of black magic possible. But the people who die would have died in wars anyways, as part of the culling of humanity’s “dross” (pg. 160), so it's fine. But I shouldn’t expect a man part of the Order of the Nine Angles (the real heirs of Satanism according to Koetting, as per pg. 26), known neo-Nazi terrorist organisation, to care about the murder of anyone but themselves. And considering Koetting’s ideals have been linked to murder, and has elsewhere instructed others on how to commit acts of terrorism… yeah. 

This is a bad book by a bad man and I’m not letting it take up hard drive space after this review.

Read instead: The Satanic Bible, whether by Anton LaVey or Michael Aquino.

The Little Book of Satanism by La Carmina (2022) is a concise guide to atheistic Satanism and the history of satanism. As the name suggests, it is a condensed book of satanic history, from the satans of the Old Testament, to The Satanic Temple today. This book has a noticeable TST bent, having a foreword by Lucien Greaves, one of the founders of TST. The book is split into four parts: part one, which covers Satan’s creation as a figure; part two, satanic history from the 15th to the early 20th centuries; part three, satanic history from the 20th century onwards; and part four, an introduction to TST.

Having read many of the academic works La Carmina cites, The Little Book of Satanism is an accessible and digestible summary of that literature. As someone more aligned with the Church of Satan than TST, I agree with both her depiction and criticism of the CoS. However, this book has issues in how it describes Lilith. Despite the progressivism of TST, the paragraph about Lilith does not mention her Jewish roots, nor does it mention that her reinterpretation from a childbirth demon to a feminist icon was done by Jewish feminists within the framework of Judaism. For a book focused on the history of satanism, this gap continues the erasure of Lilith’s Jewish origins.

Read parts two and three for a primer on satanic history. Read part four if you’re interested in TST itself. I’d only recommend you read “The Devil’s Predecessors” and “Satan’s Genesis in the Bible” in part one.

You’d like this book if: You want somewhere to start with satanism in history, but don’t want to read something dense.

You’d dislike this book if: You want something more substantial.

Further reading: Any academic study of satanism (Faxneld, Petersen, etc.).

The Book of Mephisto by Asenath Mason (2006) is a grimoire dedicated to Mephistopheles, not only exploring the forms he appears as in Western occultism, but also advocating for his importance within the modern left-hand path as a demon worth following.

What follows is a decent dissection of Mephisopheles in both Goethe’s and Marlowe’s Faust plays, a collection of rituals, and a lot of philosophising I couldn’t get into. Mixed in are sketchy interpretations of history, Jung, the equivocation of Yezidi beliefs to satanism, and other things I expect from theistic Satanists. Despite its short length it was a slog to get through. I’m sure you can find more worthwhile analyses of Mephisopheles in the aforementioned plays, since they’re the only thing I found interesting or well-written in this book. 

You’d like this book if: You’re into either Goethe’s or Marlow’s Faust plays and want to see an analysis of a character in them.

You’d dislike this book if: You want anything else.

Read instead: Any academic study of satanism (Faxneld, Petersen, etc.).

Command to Look by William Mortensen (1937) has an odd afterlife. Mortensen had his time in the limelight as a pictorialist photographer and faded into obscurity, only for LaVey to necromance his ideas for his religion. Why LaVey was attracted to his work is clear. Pictorialism was a movement that sought to transform photography into an art by emphasising the photographer’s construction and manipulation of the image itself. Mortensen’s photography and philosophy were influenced by Hollywood, the occult, and Jungian psychology. And if that wasn’t enough for a young LaVey to get attached, one of Mortensen’s contemporaries calling him the antichrist sealed the deal. The first two chapters are preliminary information that conclude with Mortensen’s formula for a perfect picture: command a viewer to look at your picture, give them something to look at, and then let them participate in it. These are described in more detail in chapters three through six. The seventh chapter troubleshoots common issues when working with the formula, and the eighth chapter serves as an introduction to fifty-five images Mortensen uses as examples of the formula in action.

When someone looks at an image, they don’t yet register what the image is about. Mortensen recommends you command a viewer to look at your image through taking advantage of biological fear responses generated by swift or slithering movements, sharpness, or large masses that dominate the image. Once you have a viewer’s attention, they will then see what the image is of. You must provide them with an emotional payoff for viewing the image, separated into the broad categories of sex, sentiment, and wonder. Sex is the use of sex appeal and invites the viewer to vicariously live through the subject as an object of admiration. Sentiment is the use of positive emotions, mundanity, and nostalgia. Wonder covers both fascination, fear, and the unknown. Pictures ought to be fundamentally timeless and universal; the subject of the picture should embody an archetype rather than do actions or bear symbols of what they’re trying to convey. And finally, to allow the viewer to participate in the image, you use contours, outlines, details, and reiteration to control the movement of their eyes around the image.

Mortensen is a passable writer, with the example images clearing up confusion, and the book is not difficult to understand if you have context behind his work. However, without that context, you’re going to miss the influence of Jungian archetypes implicit in his emphasis on subjects being rather than doing what they symbolise. This is not an inherently occult book, but LaVey has done the legwork in applying it to occultism: sex, sentiment, and wonder are elements of lesser magic, and cleanly correspond to the provided greater magic rituals of sex, compassion, and destruction.

A note of caution. This book was published in the 1930s, and in the example pictures, you’re going to find images that are at minimum exoticising non-Western cultures, and at worst literal blackface. This is not all of the images, but the former pops up enough to warrant a warning, and the latter definitely commanded me to look in a bad way.

You’d like this book if: You want more context on lesser magic and/or LaVey’s inspirations in creating Satanism, or want a step-by-step guide for pictorialist photography from someone influential within it. 

You’d dislike this book if: You’re expecting something more blatantly occult than a photography manual, or disagree with Mortensen’s prescriptivism.

Goetic Demonolatry by Ellen Purswell (2007) is a tiny book on the goetic demons. What is covered in it is better covered in other demonolatry books and I find Purswell’s tone somewhat condescending even if I also like following steps and rules.

Read instead: Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia by Lon Milo DuQuette et. al, The Lesser Key of Solomon by Joseph H. Peterson, Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly, or The Demonolater’s Handbook by Mirta Wake.

The Infernal Gospel by Reverend Cain (2020) purports to be a handbook for traditional (theistic) Satanists that aims to both illuminate Satanic theology and counter Satanic myths. It is split into three books with an introduction and a conclusion.

The Book of Descent parallels TSB’s Books of Lucifer and Belial, outlining beliefs, behaviour, and ritual practice Rev. Cain expects from theistic Satanists. The Book of Kings is equivalent to TSB’s Book of Satan in that it tries to provide a Bible-like exposition of Satan, but lacks the strong narrative found in Aquino’s ReVision. The Book of Hymns is like the Book of Leviathan, providing a small collection of prayers.

This book is content-light and I read it within an hour. The font is large, each paragraph is a sentence or two at most, and almost every page has significant white space where text can go. Rev. Cain was clearly page-filling, but page-filling is a LaVeyan custom since TSB, so he’s not unique in fluffing up a Satanic Bible’s pagecount. What differs between Rev. Cain and LaVey is that Rev. Cain is not an engaging writer. Despite his whinging about how atheistic Satanism is a modern invention (in reality, the atheistic Church of Satan is the first known satanic religious group), there is little in this book that you couldn’t find written better in the equivalent books of TSB.

You’d like this book if: You’re a brand-new theistic Satanist who’d rather not read the atheistic TSB.

You’d dislike this book if: You’re literally anyone else.

Read instead: The Satanic Bible 50th Anniversary ReVision Michael Aquino or The Complete Book of Demonolatry by Stephanie Connolly.

Demons of Magick by Gordon Winterfield (2017) is a book on working with Goetic demons from a ceremonial magic perspective. It presents why one would work with demons, the methodology used in the book, three rituals to evoke a demon, and the Goetia themselves. 

I used to not like this book, but now it’s alright. Winterfield knowingly diverges from prior descriptions of the demons, but what he offers is a decent extrapolation on those texts. However, this is a ceremonial magic book. Demons are evoked and contained by angels, Biblical psalms, and the names of the Abrahamic God. Winterfield notes that demons are not chained by the angels, but that they “lack the free will they appear to have and cannot perform any action without angelic guidance or authority”. If that is bothersome, or if you aren’t a ceremonial magician, then all of the book but the Goetia will be worthless to you.

You’d like this book if: You’re a ceremonial magician interested in working with Goetic demons or a demonolater/demonologist wanting to see further interpretation of the Goetia’s powers. 

You’d dislike this book if: Angels and God have no place in your practice, nor want to work within a ceremonial magic framework.

Read instead: Aleister Crowley’s Illustrated Goetia by Lon Milo DuQuette et. al, The Lesser Key of Solomon by Joseph H. Peterson, Demonolatry Goetia by Stephanie Connolly, or The Demonolater’s Handbook by Mirta Wake.