Book excerpt: A comprehensive A-to-Z reference guide to the terms, concepts, influential figures, and key events associated with Satanism. Dictionary of Satanism is a concise yet wide-ranging reference guide for the casual reader or student of satanic practices. It features essential information on the important concepts, issues, people, places, and events associated with Satanism, as well as the myriad forms and names that satanic worship has taken from ancient times to the present. Author Wade Baskin also covers a host of unorthodox beliefs and irrational acts, such as the murder of Sharon Tate. Distilled from hundreds of reliable sources, both religious and secular, the entries include men and movements, orders and objects, rites, rituals, incantations, legends, and occult practices that have fascinated the mind of man through the ages.