Satanic Symbols and Their Meanings

By The Mystica Editorial Team · Updated October 13, 2026

Maybe you saw one of these satanic symbols on a T-shirt, an album cover, a tattoo or your teenager's notebook, and you want to know what it means. Below you will find what each symbol represents, where it really comes from, how modern Satanist groups use it, and a short guide to the symbols that are often called satanic but are not.

10 satanic symbols and their meanings

1. Sigil of Baphomet

The Sigil of Baphomet is the most recognizable satanic symbol. It combines an inverted pentagram, a goat's head drawn inside it and five Hebrew letters around the outside that spell Leviathan. The image first appeared in La Clef de la Magie Noire ("The Key to Black Magic"), published in 1897 by the French occultist Stanislas de Guaita, where the downward-pointing star stood for matter ruling over spirit. The Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey in 1966, adopted it as its official insignia, and the full graphic first appeared publicly on the cover of the album The Satanic Mass in 1968. The Satanic Temple uses an adapted version in its logo.

2. Inverted pentagram

A five-pointed star with two points up and one point down. In 19th-century occultism, Éliphas Lévi described the upright star as the human spirit ruling over the four elements and the reversed star as the opposite: matter, instinct and the infernal. Satanist groups adopted the inverted version for exactly that reason. Remember that the upright pentagram is a different symbol with a long Christian and pagan history, which is why Wiccans are often upset when their symbol is called satanic.

3. Baphomet

Baphomet is a goat-headed figure, not a single symbol. The name first appears in 1307, in the trial records of the Knights Templar, who were arrested by King Philip IV of France and accused, often under torture, of worshipping an idol called Baphomet. Historians widely regard those charges as dubious and think the name is an Old French corruption of "Mahomet". The modern image comes from Éliphas Lévi's 1856 book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie: a winged, androgynous human-goat with a torch between its horns and a pentagram on its forehead, one hand pointing up and one down. Lévi meant it as a picture of balance between opposites, "the perfect harmony of mercy with justice". In 2015 The Satanic Temple unveiled an 8.5-foot bronze Baphomet statue in Detroit.

4. Leviathan cross (sulfur cross)

A double cross standing on an infinity sign. In alchemy this is simply one of the symbols for sulfur (brimstone), the active principle that was believed to work on mercury to create metals. Anton LaVey used it in The Satanic Bible (1969) to illustrate the Nine Satanic Statements, and from then on it became known as the Satanic cross or Leviathan cross. A Church of Satan source describes it as a "spooky decoration" chosen by LaVey. If you see it in an old chemistry or alchemy book, it means sulfur and nothing else.

5. Inverted cross (Cross of Saint Peter)

The upside-down Latin cross is, first of all, a Christian symbol. Tradition holds that the apostle Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy of dying the same way as Jesus, and the Catholic Church uses the Petrine cross as a sign of humility. In the 19th and 20th centuries anti-Christian and Satanic movements reversed that meaning and used it as a sign of defiance, and black metal bands made it famous. So an inverted cross on a church wall and on a band T-shirt can mean opposite things.

6. 666, the number of the beast

In the Bible, Revelation 13:18 calls 666 "the number of a man" and the number of the beast. There is broad scholarly agreement that it is a code for the Roman emperor Nero: the Hebrew spelling "Nron Qsr" adds up to 666 by gematria. One of the oldest surviving manuscripts of Revelation, Papyrus 115 from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, gives the number as 616, which matches the Latin spelling of Nero's name. Today 666 is mostly a pop-culture shorthand for the devil. If you keep seeing 666 on clocks or receipts, that is a separate, modern "angel number" idea from numerology, unrelated to Satanism.

7. Sign of the horns ("satanic hand sign")

The hand gesture with the index and little fingers raised and the thumb holding the middle fingers down is what most people mean by "satanic hand signs". LaVeyan Satanism uses it as a salute. But the gesture is far older and mostly innocent: in Italy it is the corna, made to ward off bad luck and the evil eye. Ronnie James Dio popularized it in heavy metal after joining Black Sabbath in 1979, saying he learned it from his Italian grandmother, and the University of Texas uses it for "Hook 'em Horns". Do not confuse it with the American Sign Language sign for "I love you", which also extends the thumb.

8. Sigil of Lucifer

A seal often described as looking like a chalice, sometimes also called the Seal of Satan. It comes from the Grimorium Verum, a grimoire of spirit evocation that is usually dated to the 18th century, where it is the signature of Lucifer used to call him. Some modern Satanists and Luciferians wear it to represent Lucifer as the "light-bringer", a symbol of knowledge and rebellion rather than evil.

9. The goat head

The goat is linked to the devil in Christian art partly through the biblical scapegoat and the parable of the sheep and the goats, and partly through the "Goat of Mendes", an Egyptian cult that classical authors described. In Satanist imagery the goat stands for the carnal, untamed side of human nature that Satanism celebrates instead of suppressing.

10. Goetic demon seals

Not all dark-looking seals are satanic symbols in the modern sense. The Ars Goetia, the first part of the 17th-century Lesser Key of Solomon, lists 72 spirits with a seal for each one. Medieval and early modern magicians believed a spirit's seal worked like its true name and gave them some control over it. Today these seals appear in occult art, tattoos and horror films. They belong to ceremonial magic rather than to organized Satanism.

Symbols that are often called satanic but are not

Many people looking up satanic symbols have seen a sign and are worried. These are the symbols most often mistaken for satanic symbols:

• Upright pentagram: used by Wiccans and pagans as a protection symbol, and in medieval Christianity for the five wounds of Christ.
• Evil eye (nazar): a protective charm against envy, used by Christians and Muslims alike.
• Eye of Providence: the eye in a triangle is Christian art representing God's watchful care, and it appears on the US one-dollar bill.
• Peace sign: designed in 1958 for the British nuclear disarmament campaign. The "Nero's cross" story is a later myth.
• Hamsa (hand of Fatima): a protective hand used in Jewish and Muslim tradition.
• Ouroboros and alchemical symbols: the snake eating its tail stands for cycles and eternity. Alchemy is the forerunner of chemistry, not devil worship.
• Horns gesture at a concert or a Texas game: fandom, not ritual.

Our guide to protection symbols and their meanings explains many of these in detail.

Who uses satanic symbols today

Satanic symbols are used today by three very different groups, and knowing which one you are dealing with changes everything:

1. Organized Satanist groups. The Church of Satan (1966) and The Satanic Temple are both non-theistic. They do not believe in a literal devil; they use Satan as a symbol of individualism, rebellion against authority or free inquiry. Their public activity is mostly philosophy, art and, in The Satanic Temple's case, campaigns about the separation of church and state.
2. Music, fashion and art. Heavy metal, goth fashion, horror films and tattoo art use satanic imagery for shock value and aesthetics. For most people wearing it, the symbol is a style, not a belief.
3. Individuals exploring the occult. Some people, especially teenagers, go through a phase of interest in dark or forbidden imagery. It is usually about identity and curiosity.

Found a satanic symbol? What it usually means

In most cases, satanic symbols on clothing, a notebook or a phone case are about music, fashion or curiosity, not about danger. During the "satanic panic" of the 1980s many people believed secret satanic cults were harming children, but an FBI analysis by Kenneth Lanning in 1992 found insufficient objective evidence for those claims.

Frequently asked questions