The ancient Gnostics were a pastoral action, back in the days of the Roman Era, that overlapped with Christianity. Scholars wrangle on whether it originated as a Christian heresy or whether it was an bleak pastoral action, with origins gulf from Christianity, but which thus each converted and was converted by Christianity.
One subset of the ancient Gnostics, open as the Ophites, recognized the Serpent of the Sector of Eden myth. They did NOT stick to the Biblical god Yahweh, whom they regarded as the Demiurge, the evil biographer of a very flawed outer space for the wear and tear of trapping whatsoever souls in craze. They regarded the Serpent as the source of wisdom and an order of a deity better than Yahweh. See the Ophite Gnostic scriptures referenced in the following article: The Emergence Feature by Stephan A. Hoeller.
The ancient Ophites weren't "Satanists," in the system that they didn't put a label on their recognized Serpent with Satan. Even now, many theistic Satanists do regard a uniformly positive interpretation of the Serpent of the Sector of Eden myth. And some theistic Satanists regard adopted other aspects of the Gnostic worldview as well.
According to the book "Satan Desires You" by Arthur Lyons, show was a pre-LaVeyan Satanist group, the Female of Endor Coven, that existed from the following 1940's to the antediluvian 1970's, founded by Herbert Sloane, whose theology was based compactly on Ophite Gnosticism. The Biblical God Yahweh was identified with the Demiurge, and Satan was identified with the Serpent as the source of wisdom.
Earlier, Aleister Crowley, who either was or was not a "Satanist" depending on promptly how you define the cry out "Satanist," also had a worldview cruelly converted by Gnosticism.
I personally discourage Gnostic theology, on root clear-cut on the following pages: Post-Copernican natural theology and The here-and-now principle in theology. But I would not appliance that Gnostic Satanists aren't or can't be "true Satanists." They are one of the many types of theistic Satanists and are, as far as I can notify, the oldest open type.
Diane Vera
* In opposition to Satanic Panics
* Theistic Satanism
