Satanism refers to a group of religious, ideological and/or philosophical beliefs based on Satan – particularly the worship or veneration of him. Satan is a figure of the devil in Christian belief, a fallen angel and leader of the devils who tempts humans into sin. [Note 1]
For many centuries the term was used by various Christian groups as an accusation against ideological opponents. Actually self-identified Satanism is recent, and is thought to have begun with the founding of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 1966 – that "church" being an atheistic group that does not believe in a literal Satan. Sharing "historical connections and family resemblances" with Satanism, and sometimes overlapping with it, are paganism, ceremonial magic, and "other dark entities such as Set, Lilith, Hecate, and Chaos", from the occult and the 'Left Hand Path milieu.'