Category Archives: Modern Satanism

By Lucien Greaves By Lucien Greaves August 23 Lucien Greaves is co-founder of and spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, an international nontheistic religious organization advocating for secularism and scientific rationalism.

Soon after the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville this month, religious leaders and pious politicians began the usual drudgery of fitting the events into their preferred narratives.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) seized the opportunity to rail against secularism, declaring that the whole thing was but a symptom of a rampant evil that has been allowed to freely permeate public schools unmitigated by the moral corrective of compulsory Bible study.Some Christian leaders, such as Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., said little about the actual events in Charlottesville, but praised President Trumps bold and truthful statement at his news conferencethree days after the protest, which claimed many sides were to blame and that all sides harbored some very fine people. American Family Radio host Bryan Fischer blamed Democrats.

But the consensus among Christian leaders was that Satan was at fault. As Evangelist Franklin Graham put it: Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in Charlottesville. Really, this boils down to evil in peoples hearts. Satan is behind it all. Premier Christianity, a popular news and culture blog from a Christian perspective, condemned both white supremacy and Trumps equivocating response to it as Satanic. Similarly, Morgan Guyton, director of the NOLA Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist campus ministry at Tulane and Loyola universities in New Orleans, saw in Charlottesville a manifestation of Satans power. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, denounced white supremacy as Satanism and devil-worship.

[The man who organized the Charlottesville rally is in hiding and too toxic for the alt-right]

As the co-founder of and spokesman for the Satanic Temple, Im naturally irritated by such comments. To many casual observers, there seems to be a tendency to view condemnations of white supremacy as Satanism as a triumph of progressive thought among prominent U.S. Christians. But such language is not harmless. It lets mainstream religions off the hook for some of the darker periods of American history, despite the deep connections between slavery and Christian theology. These leaders invocation of the eternal adversary as a scapegoat comes with darker implicit assumptions that should be confronted and rejected outright.

I identify nontheistically with a Miltonic Satan that defies all subjugation, exalts scientific inquiry and promotes Humanistic, pluralistic values. The Satan of Modern Satanism is a metaphorical icon for Enlightenment values. Satanism adopts a mythological backdrop that we feel is more befitting to modern culture than the monarchical, feudalistic, theocratic superstitions of old. The Satanic Temple, far from endorsing crass nationalistic tribalism, actively fights for individual sovereignty and secular values.

In allowing the colloquial use of Satanic to stand unopposed as a blanket term to describe all that is reprehensible and morally corrupt, one also tacitly affirms the implied opposite, that Christianity defines all that is just and morally sound. Correcting this assumption is more than a matter of embittered punitive nitpicking; its a matter of maintaining fidelity to historical facts so that we might more appropriately confront the dire issues of the present. Its a matter of undermining the destructive certainty of moral authority held by the superstitious.

[Only white people can save themselves from racism and white supremacism]

Slavery in the United States was traditionally and rather credibly, from a theological perspective justified on scriptural grounds. The Ku Klux Klan is as much a religious Protestant sect as the Taliban or al-Qaeda are Muslim. The doctrine of the Christian Identity movement, with its spurious scholarship and militant apocalyptic urgency, forms the ideological backdrop of virtually all white supremacist and extreme anti-government movements in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League writes.

Allowing Christian leaders to merely disown Protestant radicalization by fiat absolves them of having to confront the problem. Its one thing to disagree with the scriptural interpretation of a movement; its another to deny that the movement had any foundations in scriptural interpretations at all. Facing the problem of Protestant racism from within means acknowledging its existence and dedicating a certain amount of energy to maintaining a nonracist church, not merely claiming thatsuch elements exist only when politically convenient.

Its well past time we stopped allowing religious authorities to pretend that their doctrines have guided the rights revolution, when in reality, far too many of them traditionally stalled and crippled it. Without a moments introspection, we find American Christian religious leaders claiming the glory of the 1960s civil rights movement while simultaneously fighting to prevent and undo any advances in rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. As if theyve never been wrong, and failing to be corrected by those who know better, they carry on acting as if right is not defined by that which is equitable, increases happiness, or reduces suffering, but rather is defined by (their interpretations of) what is stated as such in their archaic, yet allegedly infallible, laws.

[White people think racism is getting worse. Against white people.]

Blaming Satan for any misdeeds, real or imagined, has never been a victimless crime. Moores words are the very stuff of witch hunts inspired by a guilty desire to purge ones own sins in a conflagration of the scapegoated other. In fact, Trumps own conspiracy scapegoating, his cozy relationship with deranged paranoia-mongers and his near unanimous support among evangelicals have all unquestionably contributed to the increasing flagrance of the racist right. Blaming Satanism for Charlottesville only adds fuel to the growing flames of conspiracist unreason while shifting responsibility from where it properly belongs.

Finally, it must be said that nothing could be more antithetical to modern nontheistic Satanism than racist ideologies. We embrace a large diversity of individuals from a wide spectrum of political and cultural backgrounds, but were all unified by our respect for individual rights and pluralism. It is axiomatic within Satanism that individuals must be judged for their own actions and for their own merits. To unfavorably relegate individuals into arbitrary categories, or to take credit for the achievements of another based upon a shared classification, is to defy the very foundational principles of our ethics. We simply have no place for simple-minded supremacist, nationalist ideologues, and its impossible to interpret our tenets otherwise.

Ironically, much of what Moore and other preachers of superstition claim to know about Satanism is derived froma mythology constructed from libels against minority out-groups by Christian majorities. Pagans and Jews were early victims of violent purges, their practices deemed Satanic and intolerable. Native Americans and black slaves were often suspected and accused of Satanic activity in Early America. The vision for a Christian Nation, persistently fought for by evangelical theocrats, with its refusal to accept cultural diversity, holds that there is but one right way to live our lives, one lifestyle for all households, only one acceptable religious outlook that should be dictated to the nation at large, one god for one people. Is it really so mysterious that some among them might decide theres a right race as well?

If were going to confront the violence in Charlottesville in any constructive manner, were going to have to do better than the Devil made them do it.

Read more:

As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.

What the Pizzagate conspiracy theory borrows from a bogus satanic sex panic of the 1980s

The whole point of Confederate monuments is to celebrate white supremacy

The rest is here:

I'm a founder of the Satanic Temple. Don't blame Satan for white supremacy. - Washington Post

WASHINGTON The venerated journalistic institution the Washington Post, which recently adopted the slogan Democracy Dies in Darkness, published acolumn Wednesday by a spokesman for the Prince of Darkness whoblamed Christianity for slavery and white supremacism.

The op-ed by Lucien Greaves, both a defense of satanism and an attack on Christianity, was headlinedIm a founder of the Satanic Temple. Dont blame Satan for white supremacy.

Although slavery was historically practiced by virtually every culture in the world and only stopped by Christians, Greaves revives the argument that blames it on Christians.

In the op-ed, the self-described co-founder of the Satanic Temple:

Greaves begins his piece by taking exception to what he terms a consensus among Christian leaders was that Satan was at fault for the violence and death in the melee between far-right protesters and far-left counter protesters earlier this month in Charlottesville.

Evangelist Franklin Graham had shamed politicians trying to push blame on President Trump.

Really, this boils down to evil in peoples hearts. Satan is behind it all, Graham said.

Greaves said he was naturally irritated by such comments because such language is not harmless.

It lets mainstream religions off the hook for some of the darker periods of American history, despite the deep connections between slavery and Christian theology, he said.

Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Satanic Temple

However, while asserting that slavery in the U.S. was often justified on scriptural grounds, Greaves failed to mention it was Christians who were responsible for ending slavery.

This is one of Satans oldest tricks, asserted pastor Carl Gallups, bestselling author of WND Books When the Lion Roars and The Magic Man in the Sky.

He still uses it so prolifically because it still works so well. It is the tactic of blaming others for that which you are actually, and so obviously, the guilty one, the pastor told WND.

He continued:While it is true that all manner of evil has been carried out in the name of Christianity and the Christian church, the fact of the matter remains neither the teachings of Jesus, the contextual Word of God, or the conduct and practice of true born-again Christians support slavery, white supremacism, or acts of abject terrorism and violence. The exact opposite is the truth.

Indeed, it was Christian activists who ledthe pre-Civil War abolitionist movement in America, as well as the campaign across the Atlantic led by parliamentarian William Wilberforce that brought an end to the slave trade in Britain in 1807.

Also unmentioned by the satanist was the Catholic Churchs long history of opposing slavery, including Pope Benedict XIVs condemnation of it in 1741, Pope Piuss demand for the end of the slave trade in 1815,Pope Gregorys condemnation of the slave trade in 1839 and the same by Pope Leo in 1888.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) English politician, philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade

Greaves painted satanism as an enlightened and modern culture, as opposed to the monarchical, feudalistic, theocratic superstitions of old.

Calling modern satanism a metaphorical icon for Enlightenment values, Greaves maintained it actively fights for individual sovereignty and secular values and exalts scientific inquiry and promotes humanistic, pluralistic values.

However, even though such Enlightenment philosophers as Montesquieu and Rousseau did attack slavery in principle, Greaves neglects to mention it was only Christian groups that did the organizing and work that actually ended slavery.

Although most Christians in the mid 1700s did accept slavery as a fact of life, that changed entirely on both sides of the Atlantic in just one generation, thanks solely to Christian activism.

The abolitionist movement began in America when Quakers officially renounced slavery in 1754. By the 1770s, they were joined by evangelicals, Methodists and Presbyterians.

It became a mass movement in 1787 when the British Abolition Committee was established.

Abolitionists boycotted goods from slave plantations in the Caribbean, including up to 400,000 Britons who stopped buying rum and sugar.

According to a scholarly paper on the end of the slave trade by professor John Coffey of the University of Leicester, it was the Quakers and the evangelicals who were primarily responsible for the formation of the abolitionist movement, by building a broad coalition that included Whig and Tory politicians, Enlightenment rationalists, Romantic poets and sympathetic journalists.

In addition to attempting to blame slavery on Christians, the satanist Greaves also blamed all modern-day white supremacy in America on something the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, calls the Christian Identity movement.

However, Greaves neglected to mention the ADL characterizes the group as a small, fringe cult of conspiratorial racists and anti-Semites whose adherents believe that white people of European descent are the descendants of the Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.

From the information provided by the ADL, the Christian Identity movement is not supported by any mainstream or prominent Christian leaders, groups or denominations.

Nonetheless, Greaves blames slavery on Protestant radicalization.

Spanish Conquistadors stopped the Aztec practice of using slaves for human sacrifice

He claimed, The Ku Klux Klan is as much a religious Protestant sect as the Taliban or al-Qaeda are Muslim.

Greaves said allowing Christian leaders to merely disown Protestant radicalization by fiat absolves them of having to confront the problem of slavery.

However, history shows slavery was actually abolished by those same Protestants the satanist blames, as outlined by Coffey.

What we are witnessing, Gallups told WND, in this ridiculous rant by a co-founder of the Satanic Temple is the spirit of Satan himself who is the father of all lies, deception, and wickedness and is also called the accuser of the brethren.

There could not be a more poignant illustration of this fact than this particular Washington Post article, the pastor observed.

History also refutes Greaves intimation that slavery was somehow a uniquely Christian institution and survived though the ages only because of its support.

As Fox News host Tucker Carlson pointed out (in the video at the top of this story) on Aug. 15, following the violence in Charlottesville:

Up until 150 years ago when a group of brave Americans fought and died to finally put an end to it, slavery was the rule, rather than the exception around the world. And had been for thousands of years, sadly. Plato owned slaves, so did Muhammad, peace be upon him. Many African tribes held slaves and sold them. The Aztecs did, too. Before he liberated Latin American, Simon Bolivar owned slaves.

Plato, iconic philosopher and slave-owner

Slave-holding was so common among the North American Indians that the Cherokee brought their slaves with them on the Trail of Tears. And it wasnt something they learned from European settlers. Indians were holding and trading slaves when Christopher Columbus arrived. And, by the way, he owned slaves, too. None of this is a defense of the atrocity of human bondage. It is an atrocity. The point, however, is that if we are going to judge the past by the standards of the present, if we are going to reduce a persons life to the single worst thing he ever participated in, we had better be prepared for the consequences of that. And heres why: 41 of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence held slaves. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, had a plantation full of slaves. George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights also owned slaves, unfortunately. But does that make what they wrote illegitimate?

Gallups somberly reflected on the Washington Postcolumn, telling WND, The fact that a mainstream media publication has now aided the Satanic Temples distorted message to go worldwide is also an indication of the biblically prophesied demonic outpouring of the last days just before the return of Jesus Christ.

The pastor then shared in detail, just how and why he found the opinion pieceso timely:

This entire article, and the convoluted bluster that it aides in promoting, reminds me of the passage in Revelation that appears to speak of the times in which we are now living: Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

Two thousand years ago, these words were prophesied in the book of Revelation concerning the last days: Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring those who keep Gods commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

The context of that passage defines the woman as a returned Israel. The rest of her offspring are obviously those who are born again Christians. Now ask yourself, who is it that Satan is most viciously attacking in these prophetic days?

It is none other than the prophetically revenant nation of Israel as well as born again believers and the true church of Jesus Christ, worldwide.

The article by Lucien Greaves does not surprise me in the least. Indeed, Satans time is short and quickly closing in. But, Ive read the end of The Book. I know who wins; and its not Satan or his minions.

Read the original here:

Wash Post column cheers Satan, jeers Christians - WND.com

The Devil's Cradle: The Story of Finnish Black Metal is the definitive history of one of the most uncompromising music scenes in the world: Finnish black metal. Based on over 50 interviews conducted by Helsinki-based journalist Tero Ikheimonen between 2014 and 2017, the book unravels the story of Finnish black metal from the late 1980s to modern times.

"Countless of books have been written about black metal over the years, but every time, the Finnish scene has remained merely a side note," says Ikheimonen. "It's an atrocity, since Finland has created some of the world's most renown underground black metal since the beginning; I wanted to fix that. This book is made for the maniacs all over the world."

To be released by Svart Publishing on November 1st, The Devil's Cradle features such bands as Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Barathrum, Archgoat, Azazel, Diaboli, Darkwoods My Betrothed, Horna, Vornat, Thy Serpent, Wanderer, Urn, Black Dawn, And Oceans, Musta Surma, Alghazanth, Azaghal, Warloghe, Behexen, Clandestine Blaze, Satanic Warmaster, Ride for Revenge, Goatmoon, IC Rex, Charnel Winds, Cosmic Church, Saturnian Mist, Rienaus, and Abyssion among others.

"It was important for me to base the book on the experiences of true underground spirits - black metal musicians, zine authors, and tape traders," Ikheimonen says. "Many stories are told for the first time. I wanted to focus on the music, but not forget the darker side of black metal - all the violence, death, and destruction that have ravaged the Finnish scene. It was crucial to include the spiritual and psychological side of black metal, too. Satanism with all its different notions and the occult are present throughout the book."

The Devil's Cradle was first published in Finnish in September 2016 by Svart Publishing (titled Pirunkehto). The English translation features all the original content and two additional chapters. This edition will encompass 500+ pages and be presented in a hard cover. Chapter excerpts will be periodically revealed HERE.

MORE INFO: HERE!

Continued here:

The Devil's Cradle: The Story of Finnish Black Metal - The Gauntlet

Published time: 25 Aug, 2017 04:08

Kentuckys highest court has ordered a new trial in the infamous satanic killing case in which two men were convicted of sacrificing a 19-year-old woman and spent some 22 years in prison.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Kentucky vacated Jeffrey Dewayne Clark and Garr Keith Hardins convictions, ordering a new trial after DNA evidence from the 1992 murder was tested with modern technology.

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The new DNA analysis showed the single hair found on Rhonda Sue Warford wasnt Hardins and the blood-stained rag found in Hardins room, wasnt from a sacrificial ritual, but rather from Hardin cutting himself on a chalices jagged edge.

"This is such a glorious day," said Vickie Howser, Hardin's sister, to AP. "After 22 years, it is so about time for him to have a decent life. They took his life away from him for something he did not do."

Hardins girlfriend, Rhonda Sue Warford, was 19 when she left her home in Louisville after midnight on April 2, 1992. She was found dead 50 miles away in Meade County three days later with multiple stab wounds.

Hardin, and his close friend Clark, became the subject of the investigation after Warfords mother told police she believed the boys, and her daughter, were all involved in satanism.

READ MORE: Oklahoma woman fatally stabs daughter in throat with crucifix to rid Satan from her body

Other factors, like Hardins subsequent confession to the murder, and Clarks confession to helping Hardin move the body, were found to have little merit as they were given during parole hearings and were "insincere and contrived admissions, which are induced solely by the yearning to be free."

Hardins attorney, Larry Simon, said he expected Meade County prosecutors to try the men a second time.

Read more here:

Court orders new trial in satanic sacrificial murder case - RT

This article originally appeared on Noisey Germany.

I used to play in a metal band as a tender, bright-eyed teen. Back in the day, my bandmates stopped me from buying a yellow hat at the last minute because it wasn't metal. The question has never left me: What is metal and what isn't? I recently went to the Swedish Gefle Metal Festival to finally get some answers to this question. During interviews with roughly 50 participants, I discoveredamong other thingsthat the majority of them agreed with my former bandmates: The color yellow is not metal.

By contrast, these festival goers had metal all over their faces: Roughly 66.6 percent of them sported a thick beard. I quickly realized how important and metal it is to know about, first and foremost, metal. But to also have a working understanding of metal-affiliated topics like religion, history, swords, death, dragons, and meat. If you can effectively trump another person's knowledge of these topics, you get metal cred. While this may sound reminiscent of the hipster mentality, don't be fooledmetal culture is stable, and doesn't blow like a flag in the wind and reinvent itself every Wednesday.

The occasional pissing contest of expert knowledge is also pretty metal. But generally, these festival goers are endearing nerds with a slightly daunting faade who can survive with minimal intellectual and emotional stimulation. The music almost entirely satisfies those needs, but community is just as important in metal culture.

So, I stepped into this mysterious world of smoke, beer, blood, and guttural screams. Here's what I found:

Satanism (34%) Nobody is as metal as Satan. He's so often described as the driving force in so many different contexts throughout the genre that we can confidently deem him the greatest muse of all. The devil even has his own musical interval, the tritone.

Asatru/Neopaganism (30%) For those who aren't as down with Satanism, Asatrualso known as Heathenry or Germanic Neopaganismprovides a nice alternative that perfectly aligns with conventional metal themes. After all, the Vikings were pagans, and their flowing hair, thick beards, and battle axes are unequivocally metal. Even the TV show, Vikings, was mentioned on several occasions. Amon Amarth, arguably the most well known Viking Metalers, were among the headliners at Gefle, so it's safe to say there were some modern Vikings who participated in my study.

Atheism/Non-religious (17%) A decent percentage of participants don't want metal to be defined by ideologies that just aren't metal. After all, metal is metal and nothing else.

The Goat (30%) Goats have beards and hornsand, as it turns outare totally awesome metal singers. Eliphas Levis illustrated Baphomet as a sabbatic goat, and Aleister Crowley's Baphomet of Levi became a central figure within the cosmology of Thelema. The Church of Satan later adopted the Sigil of Baphomet as its official symbol. Based on that objective criteria, that's when the goat officially became metal. This also means that the Swedish city of Gvle, where the festival took place, is the most metal location in the countrymaybe even in the entire world, too. Gvle has constructed a giant straw goat every Christmas since 1966 and arsonists usually let the whole thing go up in flames every year. Giant, flaming goats are almost too metal, Sweden.

The Wolf (22%)The wolf came in second place, taking lead over the cat, the dachshund, and the sloth, who were all tied for third. The dog's wild ancestor isn't just popular in Viking metal and black metalhe also flees whenever he hears Creed's music, which is a pretty damn metal move.

Any back-breaking trade, but especially forging/welding/construction work/etc. (39%) What's more metal than heavy machinery, fire, and grime? Some people insisted it was more metal to play metal, but everyone knows that music, much like playing golf, is a paid hobby and not a real job.

Playing and/or listening to metal (37%) See? Like I said, a hobby.

Boozing (24%)Because every subculture enjoys getting plastered while listening to their favorite music. In this case, even metal is exceptionally unexceptional.

Classical music (30%)When Beethoven composed Symphony No. 5, he birthed the oldest and most traditional metal-riff. Edvard Grieg was also pretty metal, considering he set Ibsen's play Peer Gynt to musicand that was about trolls. Additionally, classical musicians always seem to dress up like vampires from horror movies, drink red wine, and drain the life out of you by being simultaneously condescending and uninteresting. They subjugate themselves to a severe-looking ruler with an awe-inspiring stick and obsessively shred every day. Overall, high-grade metal. Strings and wind instruments like to be inserted in certain metal sub-genres and, once in a while, larger bands make the mistake of performing with an entire orchestra.

Alcohol (100%), specifically beer (88%) Do you see someone drinking beer? Is that person wearing camo shorts or a kilt with a black band t-shirt? Don't hesitate: Salute them with your miniature pitchfork made of French fries to identify yourself as a fellow metalhead, and then headbang away. Maybe they'll even invite you to drink with them.

Meat (63%)Blood, death, burning. Meat is nature's metal. Even the simple act of eating is metal. As this Tumblr user explains, "Eating is so badass. I mean, you put something in a cavity where you smash it and destroy it with 32 protruding bones and then a meat tentacle pushes it into a pool of acid and after a few hours you absorb its essence and transform it into energy just wow."

No fruit at all (41%) "Even the thought of describing fruit as being metal is wrong," one pollster curtly replied when I asked which fruit was the most metal. Another one said, "Fruit has to do with God, and God is bad." Someone else retorted, "I haven't eaten any fruit since I was five years old." Maybe this staunch rejection of fruit is somehow related to the aforementioned ideological freedom? Case in point: There's such a thing as Fruitarianism.

Bananas (14%) This year, former bandmates of the Swedish band Ghost brought forth a lawsuit against the current frontman, Papa Emeritus. The court documents reveal that these sinister-looking masked performers are actually humans like the rest of us: The defamatory points of contention range from inadequate laundry facilities to rogue bananas (one member of the crew is allergic). If bananas have the power to destroy a band's image, perhaps they also qualify as being metal.

Blood oranges (11%)Blood is obviously metal and, as fans and musicians alike know, the "orange grip" is one of the distinguishing features of the genre.

Black (77%) Yeah, we all saw it coming. Even people who consider Creed heavy metal think black is the most metal color. I really only wanted to see if other colors stood a chance. Yellow, for example. Red (12%) Red is metal because blood is metal. Further evidence of this: The red blood pigment hemoglobin is a metalloprotein.

Yellow (<2%) I ended up buying a black hat with red designs, back then. Per the results of my study, this was an acceptable choice. A yellow hat in and of itself wouldn't have been metal, but maybe Bathory's satanic goat could have saved it.

None (68%) Political parties aren't metal. Leif Pagrotsky (9%) When the Swedish social democrat and Minister of Culture, Leif Pagrotsky, went to see Dissection live in 2005, he became "Leffe" to his metal-loving compatriots. Since he's only about 5'3", a helpful circus artist put him on her shoulders so he could have a better view. To this day, he is an honorary member of a death metal study group in Linkping, and Leffe's legend continues to live on in Gvle.

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We Asked Diehard Swedish Metalheads What They Consider to be 'Metal' - Noisey

Alexander Reid Ross is a lecturer at Portland State University, the editor of 'Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab,' and the author of the new book, 'Against the Fascist Creep' (AK Press). His book traces today's often-disguised forms of rightwing extremism through the decades and across the globe to show how infiltration is a conscious and clandestine program for neofascist groups that seek to co-opt and undermine both the mainstream and the new social movements of the left.

The fallout from the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville organized by open fascists has brought a renewed sense of urgency for the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement. Following the abortive rally, a neo-Nazi named James Alex Fields drove into a contingent of antifascists, murdering one and injuring 19. Fields was pictured at the rally among the fascist Vanguard America group, wearing their uniform of white polos and khaki pants and brandishing a shield with their logo of two fasces crossed in an X. This image appears to give us a clear understanding of what fascism looks like and where it can be opposed. However, fascist organizing is rarely so open or obvious. Fascist efforts to recruit and influence often take place under shades of ambiguity within subcultural spaces, for instance at shows, parties, in magazines, and online. There is a likelihood that many will either leave the alt-right or retreat back into such spaces to regain momentum.

For people who live across the country from Charlottesville, in Portland, Oregon, the August 12 slaying brought back sad memories of May 26, when a racially-motivated slashing by Jeremy Joseph Christian left two dead and one critically injured on public transit. News quickly emerged of Christian's associations with recent alt-right linked protests, but he did not fit the typical white supremacist profilehe was into heavy metal, anarchy, and nihilism.

While Fields gives us the image of the clean-cut fascist from the Midwest, eager to bully others whom he deems weaker and capable of extreme acts of violence, it is important to remember that the alt-right emerged through a longer history of ongoing efforts by fascists to manipulate different cultures and their values, from conservative anti-interventionism to leftist anti-imperialism and even rock subcultures. In order to stop fascists from continuing to organize, subcultures must stand against not just those wearing white polo shirts and khakis but those who are used to the cover of ambiguity often afforded by the insular subcultural dynamics of belonging and in-group formation.

In the wake of the May 26 murders in Portland and the Charlottesville slaying on August 12, the alt-right must have no safe space, no place to hide, and no capacity to organize.

A glance at the photographs and videos from Saturday's macabre display and the alt-right's torch lit march through the University of Virginia that took place the previous evening reveals not just a renegade country club aesthetic, but an assortment of styles, from hipster mustaches and haircuts to hate rock band shirts and open skinheads wearing Blood & Honour merch. The alt-right has not attempted to replace such counter-cultural scenes as add onto them with new sectors of the population. In fact, the punk attitude and metal subcultures remain vital to the modern fascist movement.

When the punk and metal scenes came to prominence first in the 1970s, they encapsulated the feelings of working class people betrayed by conditions out of their control. Exploiting an economic downturn in the UK under a left-wing Labour government, fascists began organizing for a political party called the National Front but faced violent opposition from the left. A group of National Front members agreed on a "metapolitical" approach, intervening in subcultural milieus like punk and metal to turn them into breeding grounds for fascism. This approach, gleaned from a group of fascist ideologues known as the European New Right, would later form the bedrock of the alt-right's ideology.

Taking inspiration from a network of "national revolutionary" terrorist cells structured like left-wing nuclei and inspired by the occult fascist, Julius Evola, this breakaway group founded the Official National Front and began actively working to recruit fascist skinheads as "political soldiers." Their seminal point person in this regard, Ian Stuart Donaldson, fronted a band called Skrewdriver, which emerged with the gritty rock' n' roll of the Oi! punk scene in 1976. When leftists organized an annual concert called Rock Against Racism to build a grassroots movement against the National Front and fascist skinheads, Donaldson created a counter-event called Rock Against Communism and a distribution network called Blood & Honour, both of which continue to this day.

When leftists organized an annual concert called Rock Against Racism to build a grassroots movement against the National Front and fascist skinheads, Donaldson created a counter-event called Rock Against Communism and a distribution network called Blood & Honour, both of which continue to this day.

In the early 1980s, two members of a left-wing band that had played at Rock Against Racism moved to Germany disillusioned by the left, and joined the "third positionist" tendency of fascism (neither capitalism nor state communism but national socialism). What they created was a kind of avant-garde fascist aesthetic that could draw in those who recoiled at the drunken, boisterous presence of skinheads.

Taking ideas from both left and right while adopting Evola's occult trappings "beyond" ideology, their new band, Death In June, produced a brooding, monotonous sound with often lugubrious lyrics evoking the ruins of civilization and the desire to rise, phoenix-like from the ashes. Soon, Death In June and associates developed a network of close-knit bands around the genre, "neofolk," which was loosely connected to the National Front, as well as fascist think tanks like the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA) and Transeuropa.

While Donaldson's Blood & Honor distribution network helped spread the National Front and Nazi ideology through skinhead shows and parties around the world, neofolk bands and related noise and experimental artists like Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan increasingly explored the counter-cultural allure of metapolitics, becoming involved in Satanism, paganism, and fascism. Dedicated musicians ensured that no milieu, excepting hate rock, could be exclusively claimed by fascists, but the struggle would be difficult and often violent.

In San Francisco, the fascist skinhead and avant-garde scenes converged with the American Front, which developed further ties to larger political assemblages from Australia to Belgium, Canada to Spain, France, and England in a new network that would take the name "European Liberation Front." Many of these groups organized under "national-Bolshevik" ideas that the world should be organized into ethno-states in a federated ultranationalist version of the Soviet Union. It was the earliest issuance of an international fascist syndicate that would later come under the influence of Russian fascist Alexander Dugin and his "Eurasianist" philosophy, both of which are currently associated with the alt-right.

European Liberation Front organizers like Troy Southgate, formerly of the Official National Front, sought to exploit the anarchist ideology associated with punk and metal subcultures, as well as rebellious autonomous radical groups. Calling their syncretic ideological fusion "national-anarchism," these fascists commandeered a Trotskyist strategy known as "entryism," entering groups (particularly in the green movement) and either turning them toward their ideology or destroying them from within. In a fashion later taken up by the alt-right, fascists deployed leftist ideas against the left in order to conceal itself while eroding egalitarian and anarchist tendencies within subcultures that remained superficially anarchic. Denying fascists such entry points cuts a large and important base off from their organizing.

Through record labels like Resistance Records, Elegy Records, and Unholy Records, distribution enterprises like Rouge et Noir, and magazines like Requiem Gothique and Napalm Rock, fascists merged haterock and neofolk with anarchist and nihilist thought in order to convincingly carry their ideas and themes into subversive, though politically ambiguous, countercultures. Important themes included spiritual occultism and nihilism (as in, everything must be destroyed for truly nationalist life to begin anew), as well as a linking of localized ecology with the essence and spirit of the nation, often identified along "folkish" or tribal lines.

Fascists also fetishized the Aryan mythos and a return to paganism as naturally closer to the European folka tendency that became especially clear with their championing of Scandinavian black metal. Developed as a reaction to the glitzy hair metal and messy death metal bands of the 1980s, early Scandinavian black metal strove for brutality in music, emphasizing an austere aesthetic of blood, violence, and sacrificial rituals.

As black metal spread to the US and several groups aligned with Blood & Honour, a number of bands became increasingly open about white nationalism. After Burzum leader Varg Vikernes murdered a member of a rival band, Michael Moynihan co-authored Lords of Chaos to discuss black metal and satanism in what became the leading narrative of the black metal scene. Thus, many young people intrigued by the gruesome and brutal black metal scene found their introduction through a "heathen anarcho-fascist," according to eminent scholar Mattias Gardell, feeding into a growing international network of specifically National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM) bands and fans.

The consequences for cross-over between fascist and anarchist ideas in subcultures can be severe. In May 2010, antifascists campaigning against the violent fascist skinhead network, Volksfront, were shocked when an antifascist activist named Luke V. Querner was shot by a fascist, leaving him paralyzed. Following the shooting, Rose City Antifa released an expos of two NSBM bands, Immortal Pride and Fanisk, that eerily cautioned, "subcultural settings are also being contested ideologically, a reality that we ignore at our own risk."

According to comments on the Indymedia page, the Volksfront-connected group, Immortal Pride, admitted their fascism proudly, while Fanisk argued that their "transcendent" art had been misunderstood by vulgar, witch-hunting antifascists. Fanisk's attempts to deflect allegations ran parallel to fascists' attempts to translate their ideas into uncontroversial themes like "the right to difference," which means apartheid style ethno-states, or "simultaneously being in favor of White Power, Yellow Power[, Black Power], and Red Power."

Amid the controversy and fallout from both the shooting and subsequent expos, one Immortal Pride fan named Tom Christensen quietly announced on Stormfront his exploitation of the punk and black metal scene and gathering of information on antifascists:

"I used to be a big punk rocker in the music scene and there were some antis that ran around in the same scene. I was friends with a few I kept my beliefs to myself and would shut down any opinions the[y] expressed that seemed to have holes in them. It's been fairly useful to know some of these people. I now know who all the major players are in the anti and SHARP [Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice] scene."

He later asked Stormfront whether or not he should snitch out his antifascist associates. Christensen was discovered by Rose City Antifa and outed in a May 2013 alert, only after a series of regional grand jury indictments of anarchists that some speculate might have used information he handed over to the police. He also came to identify as "Trigger" Tom, suggesting perhaps that he had shot Querner in 2010. Whether or not those speculations are accurate, Christensen's position within radical subcultures opened antifascists to crucial vulnerabilities. As recently as Tuesday, August 8, Christensen was arrested for stabbing someone at a Rancid/Dropkick Murphys show in Chicago.

To this day, fascist groups find shelter moving between politically ambiguous subcultures and fascist groups. Paul Waggener, the leader of a violent bioregionalist-fascist group, the Wolves of Vinland, which has chapters across the US, attempts to spread his ethno-separatist vision through both neofolk and black metal projects. Despite the fact that WoV Portland-area leader Jack Donovan calls himself an "anarcho-fascist" and has spoken at alt-right conferences, efforts by Rose City Antifa to expose this group and their local workings have met with resistance from nihilist apologists.

It was significant to many that Jeremy Christian identified his idea of a bioregionalist, whites-only homeland in the Pacific Northwest as "Vinland," a term used not just by WoV but also by the now-defunct US chapter of the NSBM-linked fascist group, Heathen Front, headed by infamous Nazi, James Mason, whose work is published by "anarcho-fascist" Michael Moynihan.

Christian's mixture of bioregionalism, racism, and metal also resonated with the leader of the Nazi group Northwest Front, Harold Covington, whose experience as a Nazi includes participating in planning the 1979 Greensboro Massacre and creating the Blood & Honour-linked UK fascist skinhead group Combat 18. Currently dedicated to entering the popular Cascadian bioregional movement and turning it toward fascism, Covington declared, "it does look like [Jeremy Christian] was one of 'our' many fringe characters[.]" Similar white nationalist groups exist around the neo-Confederate movement in the South.

The metal scene, punk, bioregionalism, and other interlinked subcultural milieus continue to provide a sense of belonging for those who need it, but often become insular and defensive when criticized from the outside. That insularity opens a vulnerability to the persistent efforts of fascist entryists. Nevertheless, opposition continues to grow from within as people become increasingly wise to the dangers posed by creeping fascism.

In the last few years, protests have grown outside of venues that host metal and neofolk bands that have been proven to be or are allegedly associated with fascism. Protests against Death in June have emerged from Portland to South Florida; a large group of people demonstrated against Graveland in Montreal, while Satanic Warmaster had to play a secret show in Glasgow, Blood and Sun gigs were called off in the Midwest, and Marduk was cancelled in Oakland and protested in Austin. Meanwhile, antifascist black metal bands like Ancst and Dawn Ray'd are gaining notoriety for their rejection of sexism and racism.

Despite some fans and journalists complaining about the free speech of musicians, judging by the increasing demonstrations, the metal scene is becoming increasingly conscious not only of the safety of its own members, but its role in either fanning the flames of a global fascist revival or helping to put them out.

Follow Alexander Reid Ross on Twitter.

Link:

A Brief But Very Informative History of How Fascists Infiltrated Punk and Metal - Noisey

Over the weekend, the streets of Charlottesville filled with white supremacists and members of the alt-right movement bent on preserving a white culture and the white identity they feel to be under attack.

Their Unite the Right rally quickly devolved into violence as white supremacists clashed with counter-protestors, culminating in an attack by James Alex Fields, Jr., a 20-year-old Nazi sympathizer. Fields drove a car through the crowds, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others.

What happened in Charlottesville, according to some Christians,is the fruit of a Satanic ideology that preaches racial segregation and white dominance. These Christians claim that Satan and not Christ, as some groups assert is behind the movement to preserve and protect white culture against the forces of liberalism, globalization and multiculturalism.

Franklin Graham, a preacher known for espousing bigoted views toward immigrants, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community, was quick to say Satan was behind the events in Charlottesville, though he did not refer to white supremacists specifically. In a Facebook post Sunday evening, Graham defended President Donald Trumps handling of the violence, saying Satan alone is to blame.

Really, this boils down to evil in peoples hearts, the evangelist wrote. Satan is behind it all. He wants division, he wants unrest, he wants violence and hatred. Hes the enemy of peace and unity.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post on Monday, prominent evangelical theologian Russell Moore expressed a similar read on what happened in Charlottesville.

White supremacy is Satanism, Moore asserted.Even worse, white supremacy is a devil-worship that often pretends that it is speaking for God.

NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Christian gospelasserts thatall nations derive from the same divine origins and that Jesus envisioned his own church as a force that would unite the globe, Moore argued.

White supremacy, he said, is fundamentally opposed to these biblical principles. And that should disturb Christians.

Moore described the Charlottesville protesters chanting ofblood and soil, a phrase inspired by Nazi ideology, as idolatry of the flesh, the human being seeking to deify his own flesh and blood as God.

The Scripture defines this attempt at human self-exaltation with a number: 666, he continued. White supremacy does not merely attack our society (though it does) and the ideals of our nation (though it does); white supremacy attacks the image of Jesus Christ himself.

This was, after all, what the Nazis were after too.Adolf Hitler himself was antagonistic toward religion, noted J. Lee Grady, former editor of Christian magazine, Charisma.

A huge majority of Germans, under the spell of this spiritual deception, supported Nazi policies, wrote Grady in an article published Wednesday. It is no surprise that many Christians in the 1940s viewed Hitler as the Antichrist.

What should trouble Christians most right now, Moore argued, isnt just the racist underpinnings of the alt-right but the fact that many white supremacists seek to promote a separate, white existencein the name of Jesus Christ.

White supremacists and alt-right advocates tend to be united around a deep belief in white difference, if not superiority, and a desire for racial segregation. Most are also aligned in their abhorrence for Judaism. Membership in some of the groups, including Identity Evropa and the National Socialist Movement, is limited to individuals who are white and non-Semitic.

Though not categorically united around Christianity, many of the alt-right and white supremacist groups that gathered in Charlottesville weave Christian language into their statements of belief. Some, like the Ku Klux Klan, assert overt Christian allegiance. As one Klan member explained his interpretation of Christian scriptureto Ilia Caldern, a reporter who is black and an immigrant, the Bibles mandate to love thy neighbor applies only to thy people. In his case, he said, that means white people.

On its official website, the KKK draws a distinction between what it calls mainstream Christians and committed Christians. The former bow to liberal theology, which presents Jesus as a good man whosemost important message is that we are to love everybody. The latter, with whom the KKK identify, hold fast to the beliefthat homosexuality is a sin, race mixing is a sin, abortion is a sin and obedience to civil authority above that of Godly authority is idolatry.

Others groups, including the Nationalistic Front and the Traditionalist Workers Party, speak of unifying the traditional faiths of the European people. Under that umbrella fall most denominations of Christianity, as well as agnostics and folk religionists.

Some groups speak more generally about family values and a shared understanding of the centrality of faith.

In fact, its in these broader descriptions of the alt-right vision that influential Christian theologian Tim Keller sees the most pernicious threat of white supremacy.

In an op-ed published on The Gospel Coalition website Tuesday, Keller wrote: Twentieth-century fascist movements that made absolute values out of Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ... also claimed to champion traditional family values and moral virtues over against the decadence of relativistic modern culture.

These ideologiescould and can still appeal to people within American Christian circles today through online efforts toradicalize people who are disaffected by moral decline in society.

We need to make those in our circles impervious to this toxic teaching, Keller wrote, or, perhap in other words, protect them from Satan.

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Read more from the original source:

Why Some Christians Are Calling White Supremacy 'Satanic' - HuffPost

The following is a guest post by Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple.

Soon after the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville and while the President was, for the first time in his political career, carefully moderating his words against those whom he was expected to denounce opinionators began the usual drudgery of fitting the events into their preferred narratives, regardless of how square the circle. Conservative Sylvia Thompsondeclared thatthe entire fiasco had been staged by fascist leftists who had infiltrated the Unite the Right movement with Deep State operatives to sow racial animus.

Radio host Michael Savage took to Twitter toask the questionthat was on no single reasonable persons mind, WHO STARTED THE RIOTS IN VIRGINIA? IS THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER AN INSTIGATOR OF UNREST?

The groveling Christian apologist, conservative commentator, and insufferable little shit, Dinesh DSouza was also quick to somehow put the unlikely blame upon his political adversariestweeting, Maybe if Democrats admitted their 150 year history of bigotry & apologized for it this country can begin to heal its divide#Charlottesville

American Family radio host Bryan Fischer also took to Twitter toblame Democrats, offering a typical Fischerian historical revision, White nationalism is not conservative but far left. KKK was a Democrat organization, Hitler was a socialist.@CNNhttp://cnn.it/2vXGi0j

The Ku Klux Klan is, and always has been, an openly, explicitly, Protestant religious sect, which also made the Twitter comment of author and Corporate Strategist, Eric Garland, who attributed White Supremacy to Americas Satanic side both senseless and infuriating:

Evangelist FranklinGraham blamedthe Charlottesville violence on the removal of a Confederate memorial, as well as on Satan, Shame on the politicians who are trying to push blame on President Trump for what happened in#Charlottesville, VA. Thats absurd. What about the politicians such as the city council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924, regardless of the possible repercussions? [] Really, this boils down to evil in peoples hearts. Satan is behind it all.

Writing for the Washington Post, 14 August 2017, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention,described on his websiteas the moral and public policy agency of the nations largest Protestant denomination,further elaborateda position that white supremacy is Satanic.

It is the same old idolatry of the flesh, the human being seeking to deify his own flesh and blood as God.The Scripture definesthis attempt at human self-exaltation with a number: 666. []

The church should call white supremacy what it is: terrorism, but more than terrorism. White supremacy is Satanism. Even worse, white supremacy is a devil-worship that often pretends that it is speaking for God.

White supremacy angers Jesus of Nazareth. The question is: Does it anger his church?

As the co-founder of, and spokesperson for, The Satanic Temple, my irritation at such comments shouldnt be surprising. However, to the unaffiliated there seems to be a tendency to view Moores comments as a triumph of progression among prominent American Christians. He is clearly denouncing the terrorism of the White Supremacists and, while I may identify non-theistically with a Miltonic Satan that defies all subjugation, exalts scientific inquiry, and promotes Humanistic, pluralistic values, I must also recognize that there is a general colloquial understanding of Satanic as synonymous with evil, cruelty, and abject depravity. What Moore is really saying is that Christians, and Christian Churches, should be clearly opposed to the mindless tribal thuggery of White Nationalists and they should also be clear that no such philosophy enjoys any of their support. While it may be thoughtless to ignore that self-identified Satanists very actively fight for individual and civil rights, is it not a relatively small crime given the overall picture?

No. In fact, Moores characterization of the situation is no small offense and, I would argue, one should be at least as offended by Moores assertion that White Supremacy is Satanism as they may be over Dinesh DSouzas implication that the violence in Charlottesville can be blamed on the Democratic Party, or Michael Savages unsurprisingly asinine speculation that the Southern Poverty Law Center was involved. There is more at stake here than a semantic battle over who defines Satan. Moores article, and the various comments from Christian leaders seeking to attribute Charlottesville to Satan or Satanism are nothing short of their Declaration of Refusal to confront the Protestant roots of the American Racist Right. Further, their invocation of the eternal adversary as a scapegoat comes with darker implicit assumptions that should be confronted and rejected outright.

In allowing the colloquial use of Satanic to stand unopposed as a blanket term to describe all that is reprehensible and morally corrupt, one also tacitly affirms the implied opposite, that Christianity defines and has defined all that is just and morally sound. Correcting this assumption is more than a matter of embittered punitive nitpicking, its a matter of maintaining fidelity to historical facts so that we might more appropriately confront the dire issues of the present. Its a matter of undermining the destructive certainty of moral authority held by the superstitious.

Slavery in the United States was traditionally andrather credibly, from a theological perspective justified on scriptural grounds. The Ku Klux Klan is as much areligious Protestant sectas the Taliban or Al-Qaeda are Muslim. The doctrine of theChristian IdentityMovement, with its spurious scholarship and militant apocalyptic urgency, forms the ideological backdrop of virtually allwhite supremacist and extreme anti-government movements in the United States. Allowing Christian leaders to merely disown Protestant radicalisation by fiat absolves them of having to confront the problem of radicalisation from amongst their own. Its one thing to disagree with the scriptural interpretation of a movement, its entirely another to deny that the movement had any foundations in scriptural interpretations at all. Facing the problem of Protestant racism from within means acknowledging its existence and dedicating a certain amount of energy tomaintaininga non-racist Church, not merely claiming that no such element exists only when politically convenient.

Its well past time we stopped allowing religious authorities to pretend that their doctrines have guided the Rights Revolution, while in reality theyve traditionally stalled and crippled it. Without a moments introspection, we find American Christian religious leaders claiming the glory of the 1960s Civil Rights movement while simultaneously fighting to prevent and undo any advances in LGBTQ rights. Believing theyve never been wrong, and failing to be corrected by those who know better, they carry on assuming that right is not defined by that which is equitable, increases happiness, or reduces suffering, but rather right is defined by (their interpretations of) what is stated as such in their archaic yet allegedly infallible laws.

Further, blaming Satan for any misdeeds, whether real or imagined, has never been a victimless crime. Moores words are the very stuff of witch-hunts inspired by a guilty desire to purge ones own sins in a conflagration the scapegoated other. In fact, Trumps own conspiracist scapegoating, his cozy relationship withderanged paranoia-mongers, and his near-unanimous support among Evangelicals are all unquestionably factors that have contributed to the increasing flagrance of the Racist Right. Blaming Satanism for Charlottesville only adds fuel to the growing flames of conspiracist unreason while shifting responsibility from where it properly belongs.

Finally, it must be said that nothing could be more antithetical to Modern non-theistic Satanism than racist ideologies. We embrace a large diversity of individuals from a wide spectrum of political and cultural backgrounds, but were all unified by our respect for individual rights and pluralism. It is axiomatic within Satanism that individuals must be judged for their own actions and for their own merits. To unfavorably relegate individuals into arbitrary categories, or to take credit for the achievements of another based upon a shared classification, is to defy the very foundational principles of our ethics. We simply have no place for simple-minded Supremacist, Nationalist ideologues and, whats more, its impossible to interpret our tenets otherwise.

Ironically, much of what Moore and other preachers of superstition claim to know about Satanism is derived of a mythology constructed from libels against minority out-groups by Christian majorities. Pagans and Jews were early victims of violent purges, their practices deemed Satanic and intolerable. Native Americans and black slaves were often suspected and accused of Satanic activity in early America. In fact, the vision for a Christian Nation, persistently fought for by Evangelical Theocrats, with its refusal to accept cultural diversity, holds that there is but one right way to live our lives, one lifestyle for all households, only one acceptable religious outlook that should be dictated to the nation at large, one god for one people. Is it really so mysterious that some among them might decide theres a right race as well?

If were going to confront the violence in Charlottesville in any constructive manner, were going to have to do better than the Devil made them do it.

PS: I now have a Patreon if youd like to support my writing and podcasting.

Here is the original post:

Satanic Leader Calls Upon Christian America to Face Their Contribution to Racist Right - Patheos (blog)

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, Eng An unusual upswing in the number of complaints made to the police in one area of Nottinghamshire is concerning both local and national Pagans.

Ashfield North saw 87 calls referring to Witches in 2016, and 38 in the previous year. These figures released to the Nottingham Evening Post as part of police statistics under a freedom of information request is extremely high compared to other parts of the country, and the reason for it remains unclear.

Local experts in the paranormal have suggested that some of these complaints relate to Witchcraft carried out in the past, but local Pagans are becoming concerned that the ordinary practices found in modern Pagan paths are also being reported as sinister.

Ashley Mortimer, director of the Nottingham Pagan Network, said, Thirty eight reports out of 44 [paranormal incidents in Ashfield North] says more to me about the level of reporting than necessarily about the level of witchcraft activity.

I think peoples understanding of Witchcraft is misconstrued and has been for centuries, Mortimer told a local reporter. Weve actually had a bad press for a long time.

In that same interview, Mortimer explained to the mainstream press that Witchcraft is a modern-day interpretation of ancient Pagan beliefs. [] Its about believing in nature, and having the divine imminent in nature, personified and recognised as a lunar goddess and a solar god. But witchcraft is only one small part of modern-day Paganism. If you were to see someone dont be alarmed were quite happy to explain to people. But I dont like them being seen as sinister, because it isnt sinister.

Mortimer also noted that Pagans are the sixth biggest faith group in Nottinghamshire, as per the 2011 census.

In a conversation with The Wild Hunt, Mortimer said that he thinks the complaints might be the work of one serial reporter but that the released figures contain no specific information on what the substance of the calls to police might be.

One clue might lie in claims made by the Ashfield-based paranormal magazine Haunted. It statesthatits paranormal team has encountered several potential incidents of Witchcraft in the area, and at one point felt surrounded by not very nice people.

In an article for that magazine, James Pykett, part of the Haunted LIVE paranormal investigation team and owner of the Facebook page Haunted Nottinghamshirewas quoted as saying, Its no surprise to be honest, we investigate all over Nottinghamshire and as most of the boys are from this area, locations are easily accessible in Ashfield and we have had lots of paranormal activity.

As for Witchcraft, lets just say that I can easily understand why there has been 87 reports of Witchcraft in Ashfield North.

He did not elaborate any further. However, Jason Wall, also part of the paranormal team, added: Recently we were on the Teversal Trail, and it felt like we were being watched, we picked up a lot of female names and it felt like we were being circled.

However, it would seem that this was a matter of psychic impression rather than the presence of living people.

Nottingham has been in the news before in connection with complaints made against Paganism, notably an episode of Satanic Panic in 1988, which saw a number of children taken into care from a city estate after multi-generational incest and abuse.

However, the police concluded that there was no evidence of Satanism or indeed Witchcraft being involved in that enquiry, but this was disputed by social services.The children concerned spoke of a number of structures, including underground rooms beneath churches, being the scene of Satanic ceremonies. None were found..

In 1989, the Nottingham Police/Social Services Joint Enquiry Team (JET) concluded in a report:

We had not found any physical corroborative evidence in the Broxtowe case and no longer believed the childrens diaries substantiated the claim of Satanic abuse. In our view they reflected other influences and were open to alternative interpretations. Our research indicated that nobody else [in other countries] had found corroborative physical evidence either.

All the evidence for its existence appears to be based upon disturbed children and adults claiming involvement during interviews by social workers, psychiatrists, and Church Ministers who already themselves believed in its existence. It seemed possible that Satanic abuse only existed in the minds of people who wanted or needed to believe in it.

There is no evidence that the complaints today and the episode in 1988 are connected, but local Pagans hope that the recent sharp rise in the complaints being made to the police are not a resurgence of the mindset that led to the 1988 allegations.

A spokesperson for the Nottinghamshire police recently noted: We are very busy dealing with genuine calls for service and receiving calls about paranormal activity, UFOs and witches may delay our ability to pick up the phone to someone in real need of help.

Read more:

The Wild Hunt | Tag Archive | paranormal investigation - The Wild Hunt

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, Eng An unusual upswing in the number of complaints made to the police in one area of Nottinghamshire is concerning both local and national Pagans.

Ashfield North saw 87 calls referring to Witches in 2016, and 38 in the previous year. These figures released to the Nottingham Evening Post as part of police statistics under a freedom of information request is extremely high compared to other parts of the country, and the reason for it remains unclear.

Local experts in the paranormal have suggested that some of these complaints relate to Witchcraft carried out in the past, but local Pagans are becoming concerned that the ordinary practices found in modern Pagan paths are also being reported as sinister.

Ashley Mortimer, director of the Nottingham Pagan Network, said, Thirty eight reports out of 44 [paranormal incidents in Ashfield North] says more to me about the level of reporting than necessarily about the level of witchcraft activity.

I think peoples understanding of Witchcraft is misconstrued and has been for centuries, Mortimer told a local reporter. Weve actually had a bad press for a long time.

In that same interview, Mortimer explained to the mainstream press that Witchcraft is a modern-day interpretation of ancient Pagan beliefs. [] Its about believing in nature, and having the divine imminent in nature, personified and recognised as a lunar goddess and a solar god. But witchcraft is only one small part of modern-day Paganism. If you were to see someone dont be alarmed were quite happy to explain to people. But I dont like them being seen as sinister, because it isnt sinister.

Mortimer also noted that Pagans are the sixth biggest faith group in Nottinghamshire, as per the 2011 census.

In a conversation with The Wild Hunt, Mortimer said that he thinks the complaints might be the work of one serial reporter but that the released figures contain no specific information on what the substance of the calls to police might be.

One clue might lie in claims made by the Ashfield-based paranormal magazine Haunted. It statesthatits paranormal team has encountered several potential incidents of Witchcraft in the area, and at one point felt surrounded by not very nice people.

In an article for that magazine, James Pykett, part of the Haunted LIVE paranormal investigation team and owner of the Facebook page Haunted Nottinghamshirewas quoted as saying, Its no surprise to be honest, we investigate all over Nottinghamshire and as most of the boys are from this area, locations are easily accessible in Ashfield and we have had lots of paranormal activity.

As for Witchcraft, lets just say that I can easily understand why there has been 87 reports of Witchcraft in Ashfield North.

He did not elaborate any further. However, Jason Wall, also part of the paranormal team, added: Recently we were on the Teversal Trail, and it felt like we were being watched, we picked up a lot of female names and it felt like we were being circled.

However, it would seem that this was a matter of psychic impression rather than the presence of living people.

Nottingham has been in the news before in connection with complaints made against Paganism, notably an episode of Satanic Panic in 1988, which saw a number of children taken into care from a city estate after multi-generational incest and abuse.

However, the police concluded that there was no evidence of Satanism or indeed Witchcraft being involved in that enquiry, but this was disputed by social services.The children concerned spoke of a number of structures, including underground rooms beneath churches, being the scene of Satanic ceremonies. None were found..

In 1989, the Nottingham Police/Social Services Joint Enquiry Team (JET) concluded in a report:

We had not found any physical corroborative evidence in the Broxtowe case and no longer believed the childrens diaries substantiated the claim of Satanic abuse. In our view they reflected other influences and were open to alternative interpretations. Our research indicated that nobody else [in other countries] had found corroborative physical evidence either.

All the evidence for its existence appears to be based upon disturbed children and adults claiming involvement during interviews by social workers, psychiatrists, and Church Ministers who already themselves believed in its existence. It seemed possible that Satanic abuse only existed in the minds of people who wanted or needed to believe in it.

There is no evidence that the complaints today and the episode in 1988 are connected, but local Pagans hope that the recent sharp rise in the complaints being made to the police are not a resurgence of the mindset that led to the 1988 allegations.

A spokesperson for the Nottinghamshire police recently noted: We are very busy dealing with genuine calls for service and receiving calls about paranormal activity, UFOs and witches may delay our ability to pick up the phone to someone in real need of help.

More here:

Nottinghamshire sees increase in Witchcraft complaints - The Wild Hunt