Paganism

Much of the fear mongering arose in the 1980s during the Satanic Panic, where daycares and such were being wildly accused of child abuse and doing satanic rituals (which were all debunked), more than likely due to killers like Richard Ramierz and Ricky Kasso. I also think it stems from how rituals are done within Satanism, which are theatrical and dramatic in nature and poke fun at the occultist nature of the Bible (like the brutal offerings to the Abrahamic god and such), but without a living thing getting hurt in the process, of course.

As for the Church's view of what they think Satanism is as being the occult, I dunno. The general idea of what people think of when they hear about Satanism (thanks to Hollywood)/ would involve child killings, animal sacrifices, bloody orgies and all that. However, the FBI says they've yet to find an actual, verified group of people who do such acts (aka "devil worshippers"). There may be legitimate subgroups on tne deep web, but are more than likely hoaxes and attempts to be edgy. While I'm not a Luciferian, I'd expect it to be similar to standard deity worship, it towards the Roman god of Venus aka the morning star.

 

This thread's a little old but I'm an eclectic wix and partly pagan, and I'm willing to answer questions too!