However, in general it can be said that the satanic rites serve the purpose of the celebrant, and comprise a collection of gestures and words aiming at provoking a change in situations and events which are thought to be impossible to achieve by ordinary means and instruments. When one intends to send a curse or realize a certain enchantment with regard to a particular person through such rites, it is thought that the best moment is found in the night within a certain period of time in which the person is asleep (for example, two hours before awakening). This is one of the reasons why the satanic rites normally begin in the nocturnal hours. The selection of particular locations in which to perform the rites, in or outside cities, probably depends on the possibility of performing the whole with a certain reserve, and in some cases on the presences in the area of cemeteries and churches no longer consecrated. It is not to be excluded that during the satanic rites some groups even reach the point of perpetrating acts of outrage or profanation of corpses, physical violence on minors, and even of ritual homicide. .
A congregation, which has inspired a significant number of the more recent satanic sects, is the Church of Satan, founded in the USA in 1966 by Anton Szandor La Vey. The symbol of this sect is the so-called sign of Baphomet, which is the head of goat inside an inverted pentacle (an upside-down star with five points), inscribed in a circle. La Vey is the author of three books: The Satanic Bible, Complete Witch, and The Satanic Rituals. La Vey both in The Satanic Bible and in The Satanic Rituals describes the black mass, which can be said to be the principal rite of every satanic group. The diverse satanic groups introduce some modifications with respect to the rite applied by La Vey, which is structured on the model of older European black masses.
The rite is officiated by a celebrant, a deacon, and a sub deacon.
