I agree with what David is saying about it. It is a tool to essentially manipulate and encourage secrecy and use these secret societies for certain purposes. I mean if you discover a secret society that is drawing people in and making members believe fantastical things and perhaps do salacious things then you have a whopper of a tool at your fingertips. I think that was always the general idea.

I believe the Nazis had Crowley on a death list. I would say too, Hitler, like Trump, was not a bright guy and so I think that drew a lot of other not very bright guys into the circle. In fact, I think that is a goal with most of these types because you can get not very bright people to do absolutely horrific things when they think it supports their insane beliefs. Call that whatever you want, but I think it is much more human failings than Satan swamping someone in the dark arts.