Some groups affirm a theistic Satanism, regarding Satan (or, in the Temple of Set, the ancient Egyptian god Set), as a real spiritual being or force rather than a mere symbol. On this view the dark god is genuinely venerated or worked with as a source of power, wisdom, or self-transformation. Theistic Satanism is diverse and mostly organised in small groups, and it is sharply distinct from the far more numerous atheistic Satanists, for whom Satan is only an emblem. This entry describes the position as its adherents hold it, without endorsing its claims.
The Temple of Set was founded in 1975 by Michael Aquino, a former high-ranking member of the Church of Satan who left in a documented schism over disagreements about the organization's direction after Anton LaVey's leadership; Aquino reported receiving a text he called The Book of Coming Forth by Night, which he presented as a communication from Set, the ancient Egyptian god he identified as the true power behind the Satan figure, and built the Temple's theology explicitly around genuine veneration of Set as a real, independently existing being, a decisive theological break from LaVey's insistently symbolic and atheistic framework.