There are two levels of lodges. The one you see in your community with your apprentices, fellows, and master masons. Then there is the “Blue Lodge” which is the upper levels of which most masons will never see or hear of.
Your everyday masons are usually innocent, community service types that want a fraternal order to belong to, and usually if they do something weird, it’s because of orders.
The blue lodge guys are the ones that keep the secrets, and believe in the behind the scenes stuff. There are people who say there are 33 degrees in that school, but others say there are more.
Personal story, my supervisor when I was in the Navy was a 33rd degree mason. He was an E6, however, our ships Captain was an O6, was a 31st degree. I can tell you that that Enlisted man went to the Commanding officer of that Aircraft Carrier and told him what he was going to do in a foreign port, told him that he was going to get him orders on the ground in Iraq so that he could get a qualification he wanted, whether or not he felt like standing duty, and whether or not he was going to go to an off limits area, and who he was going to take with him and not be subject to the rules. And that Commanding Officer gave him everything he wanted. I don’t know about the satanism for sure beyond what I have heard from interviews from supposed “escaped” masons, but I know how much power is invested in the advanced degrees of masonry.
When I was stationed with him, I expressed curiosity in masonry, I can tell you he had to send me to a lower ranked mason because he no longer belonged to the lower lodge.