Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 46
Nature-based. Both in their worship and in their daily lives, pagans love, respect and
endeavor to attune themselves to their natural environment ...its currents and rhythms.”10
Attuning to this environment is assisted by acts of communion with the Goddess of Nature.
This is not, however, “a purely rational activity.” It must be expressed through myth and
ritual and ultimately depends on “the psychic fermentation which cannot be hurried but
which gradually transmutes knowledge into personal awareness.”11
Another parallel between Satanism and Goddess worship is the monist conception on which
each rests and from which each religion‟s ominous aspects emerge. The Farrars write that,
“The Goddess is both the womb and the tomb she gives birth, she creates form, she
nourishes, and she reabsorbs the outworn preparatory to its reshaping and rebirth. If she
were not the destroyer, she could not be the renewer.”12 The report says that Satanists
believe that “one cannot know love without also knowing hate, one cannot know ecstasy
without also knowing agony.”13 The Farrars go even further and acknowledge that the dark
side of the Goddess is the force “the patriarchal order” mistakes as the Devil.14 This is quite
telling, because of the similarity between the types of sorcery each requires.
The most striking parallel between Wicca and the report‟s cited satanic beliefs is to be found
in the phenomenon of sought-for possession. Where Aquino acknowledges the Prince of
Darkness, the Wiccans seek the presence of the Goddess. The ritual is called Drawing Down
the Moon. The Farrars describe a very explicit ritual in which the Priest “addresses the
Goddess independently of the woman, invoking her to “descend into the body of thy servant
and priestess.”15 The Farrars claim that this ritual “works.”16 “Time and again, an “ordinary”
human woman seems transformed by it, so that the coven has no difficulty in reacting to
her as the voice and presence of the Goddess.”17 The Farrars explain that the words of the
Charge, or its human channel, are often replaced by something quite different. “Every
experienced High Priestess is familiar with the strange feeling of observing from a corner of
her own mind, of listening to the Goddess using her vocal chords, and wondering what will
come next.”18
As the history of Goddess-worship so clearly attests, “what will come next” may well be
human sacrifice. In his book Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the reports designated expert on
witchcraft, Jeffrey Burton Russell, acknowledges that many medieval witches did indeed
perform the horrific acts attributed to them. He cites Lynn White‟s observation that
“Witchcraft is always a turning upsidedown of the moral standards of the world in which the
witch lives.”19 White also noted that it is a rebellion, a repudiation, “a form of nihilism which
is demanded by mentally and emotionally unstable people in any time of rapid change.”20 In
a predominantly Christian world the rebellion would necessarily be against a Christian moral
order. As the Farrars point out, contemporary witches express an anti-Christian view.21 This
is not surprising. “People alienated from society escape ambiguity, dissonance, and despair
only by throwing themselves totally into another symbolic order. In turning away from God,
the witches naturally sought to discover their identity in total union with the Devil.”22
This, then, is what the report obscures. Wicca and Satanism share, metaphysically
speaking, a regression to an ethical mode based upon the relinquishing of personal
responsibility in the experience of possession. By acquiescing to the directive will of a
spiritual Force greater than the individual, all manner of license is permitted, then
demanded. A state of primal innocence is entered, wherein actions are considered to be
ultimately those of the spirit, not the individual. It is increasingly evident that contemporary
practitioners are, as were those of the Middle Ages, pursuing ecstasy through domination of
themselves, of Nature, and of other people. And total dominance means just that. Death.
For, as history demonstrates, the Earth Goddess and the Devil do demand death. (The drift
toward this demand is already apparent in another realm we shall be examining, the social
fascination with magical and satanic themes found in certain forms of rock music.)

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 47
But the CSER report ignores this historical fact, as it does any unpleasant fact about
“alternative religions.” It is patronizing and inaccurate to deny the place of malevolent
“black magic” practices in Voodoo, Santeria, Brujeria etc., especially when its existence is
acknowledged by recognized experts on these religions. As for Palo Mayombe, the very
name means “way of the black witch,” and it is described by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler as
having been derived from the black magic of the Congo.23 Metraux notes that in Voodoo
society sorcerers, or boko, are those whose patron gods, or loa, are believed to be
mercenary and, therefore, amoral.24 Harvard anthropologist Wade Davis has described how
and why some of these boko create “zombies” as a tool of social control. In addition, the
report ignores related issues such as the cult of pain in Native American religion (e.g., the
Sun Dance), the ritual sacrifice of young women by the Blackfeet, the body-piercing rituals
of the ancient Maya, and the wholesale human sacrifices -including the sacrifice of children
-of the Incas and Aztecs. While these practices were not specifically “satanic” in intent,
they certainly give the lie to the notion that these “folk religions” were, or are, all sweetness
and light.
“Black magicians‟ are not limited to practices which might be defined as “legitimate
Satanism” -whatever that is -but are happy to employ whatever works. Authorities in the
field recognize that, due to the inherent moral neutrality of magical practice, certain folk
religions, such as Brujeria and Palo Mayombe, are popular with criminals. Adolfo Constanzo,
high priest of the Matamoros drug-trafficking cult, borrowed liberally from the whole magical
menu, and threw in elements of Aztec ritual sacrifice for good measure. Military
investigators who examined the contents of Manual Noriega‟s headquarters in Panama
discovered that the General apparently had invoked every unorthodox creed he could think
of in an effort to magically confound his enemies.25
For the authors of the CSER report to contend that the Matamoros incident is unrelated to
the phenomenon of “satanic” crime because, in effect, the members of the cult were not
“traditional satanists” is absurd. Complaining that the practices of Constanzo and his cohorts
were a “perverted” form of Palo Mayombe, and hand-wringing over alleged “distorted views”
and “ignorance about minority religions,” cannot wipe out the fact that the Matamoros
massacre is a nearly textbook example of occult-related murder and mayhem.
Unfortunately, readers who are relatively unfamiliar with these folk religions will tend to
accept CSER‟s laundered version of their beliefs and practices. However, our interest lies in
dealing with crimes committed in the name of any form of malevolent occultism, not just
traditional European- American “Satanism.” The focus is on the criminal activity. If, as CSER
implies, criticism of Satanism were merely a case of “religious persecution,” then where
were the persecutors 25 years ago when the Church of Satan announced itself to the world?
Error Number Two: The Nature of Satanism
Another of the Report‟s claims involves an attack on its targets‟ methodology. Its authors
extend their argumentum ad hominem to the point of suggesting that concerns about
satanic influence are the product of prejudgment. Contrary to CSER‟s assertions, however,
reputable investigators in this area did not start out with the assumption that an
“international conspiracy of Devil-worshippers” was plotting atrocities and then attempt to
make the facts of individual crimes fit into that framework. Instead, over a period of several
years, we and others equally concerned were confronted with a series of crimes and
incidents sharing certain characteristics which led us to identify them as part of a pattern of
criminal activity in which practices consistent with malevolent forms of occultism played a
significant role. This pattern is sufficiently consistent to allow the suspicion that a common
source exists. This does not mean that a consensus about a conspiracy also exists. CSER,
on the other hand, apparently began its “investigation” with the attitude that a collection of
venal, demented, and/or hysterical fundamentalist Christians were beating the bushes for
Satanists, and has steadfastly ignored any and all evidence to the contrary.