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Jason Pitzl-Waters on Feb 27th 2006 at 11:30 pm Neopaganism

Modern Paganism’s Satanic Panic

Pagan blogger J. Brad Hicks relates how “Satanic panic” in the 1980s and early 1990s spurred some prominent Pagan leaders to do some foolish things.

“I ended up getting a threatening phone call from Pete Pathfinder of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, telling me that if I kept defending accused Satanists that he and the other Big Name Pagans would make my life a hell on earth, including doing everything in their power to make trouble between me and the cops. I refused to be intimidated, and again, nothing ever came of it.”

Hicks goes into even more detail in the comments section where he discusses the fear of persecution amongst several well known big-name Pagans that may have spurred the anti-Satanism trend in modern Paganism to new levels.

“…the only way for several hundred thousand Neopagans and Witches to not end up dangling by their necks from tall trees, any imminent day now, was if the Neopagans and Witches proved to the public that they were even more anti-Satanist than the Christians were, and if we went out of our way to “out” to the cops anybody we suspected of being involved in Satanism. A tiny handful of organizations refused to toe this party line; mostly the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance and us at AMER. So over the course of about a year, I think this was around 1988 or 1989, we at AMER and the WPPA (and I think WADL?) came under massive pressure to reverse ourselves in public, or if we wouldn’t do that, to at least shut up. It mostly took the form of a whispering campaign; I was able to trace some genuinely nasty slanderous rumors back to Selena and the G’Zells, and the G’Zells in particular deserve horrific shame for what they tried to do to local Thelemists on the west coast.”

These conflicts may be old news to long-time Pagan insiders, but as a born-and-bred Midwesterner it is the first I have heard of such a collaborative (and political) effort amongst Pagan leaders. It draws into question how much of our need to constantly affirm our non-Satanic leanings stems somewhat from the fall-out of this panic. It would be very interesting to hear this story from the leaders he names or those close to the leaders during that time. I also wonder how they feel now about the Satanic panics of that era (Bonewits denounces the idea of any widespread Satanic abuse), especially now that the vast majority of people accused of Satanic ritual abuse have been proven innocent.

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2 responses so far

  • Chas S. Clifton

    Brad’s a little over the top as usual, but during the 1980s, when the “ritual abuse survivor” racket was its peak, there was one woman whose name I forget who showed up at several large Pagan gatherings.I was not present, but the story was widely reported. She spoke kindly of the Pagans, and certain Pagans in turn seemed to accept her validation that we Pagans were nice people, not like the alleged Satanists who abducted and tortured her.It was almost certainly all bullshit on her part

  • Anonymous

    Ahoy mate, this is rimrunner from LJ.I’d heard of this before, and in fact read that entry before. Having been an ATC member in recent years, I can’t attest to the specific incident Brad describes (it would’ve been well before my time), but it is a somewhat political organization simply because it’s public.If this sort of collusion did take place, it’s unfortunate, especially since as you point out the accusations of Satanic ritual abuse seem to be entirely unfounded. Speaking anecdotally, a lot of Satanists of my acquaintance are less disposed to take Pagans seriously, possibly as a result, though it may also be simply due to having encountered too many lightweights.