Satanism is considered to be an “auto-theistic” philosophy or belief system. This means that they only believe in the divinity of Self and they do not form a group united by the same belief in anything else but “self”, not even in Satan.
Basically, there are two types of Satanism, which have different subdivisions: “Theistic Satanism” and “Philosophical Satanism”. The first states that Satan is a literal force or being that can be invoked or evoked and worshipped the same way as any other God. The second type holds that Satan is a force, a principle, a state of mind and can only reside within the individual. Being an individualistic belief, not all Satanists are of one type or the other, they generally blend the ideologies. Philosophical Satanism which is also referred to as Modern Satanism is attributed to Anton LaVey’s writings. He established in the mid 1960’s the Church of Satan. Today, his part in the development of the Philosophical Satanism has been challenged, people starting to give credit to Eliphas Levi and a trickling down of individuals who came after him. Theistic Satanism groups a number of subdivisions within it’s ranks like Traditional Satanism, Gnostic Satanism, Diabolism and others, even though historical lineage to this date has not been demonstrated by any of these subdivisions.
New forms of Satanism emerge almost every day between these two types. This philosophical idea is still in it’s infancy and of this day it is changing and evolving at an astonishing rate. Even if it doesn’t have a clear history, Satanism is writing it’s past now, building it’s background day by day.