EASTER SATANISTS (w/ TWIN TEMPLE) CONDUCT THE ULTIMATE SATANIC SACRIFICE: OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES

Like the rest of us, Jesus stayed in for Easter this year, which seemed as good of an opportunity as any for Satan to make a day of it.

Just as with much of the rest of the country, the novel coronavirus outbreak has left many of our Bay Area Satanists in difficult straits. Some of us are out of work, some are wrestling with stress, anxiety, and depression, and a great many of us are struggling with the effects of prolonged isolation.

At a time when religious community would be most helpful, the very nature of the emergency denies us most of those communal comforts.

Certain mainstream religions have responded to this difficult necessity by…just not responding and instead attempting to play chicken with the principles of epidemiology, often with fatal results. Contrarians that we are, we’ve decided to explore some alternatives to death while doing the devil’s work.

Last Sunday, our “Easter Mess: Bloody Sunday” online event invited members near and far to our Black Mass Appeal Discord sever to follow a live Satanic ritual conducted by Satanic doo-wop band and friends of Black Mass Appeal, Twin Temple.

During their Unholy Communion, which streamed live to hundreds of Satanists, Alexandra and Zach invoked four names of Satan and invested the bread and wine with Satanic values like justice and freedom, inviting anyone watching from home to partake of their own communion.

(For our purposes we used a cupcake in place of bread–if this isn’t a time to live deliciously whenever we can, what is? Tabitha has a red wine allergy, so we dyed white wine red to look the part.)

Afterwards the pair serenaded fans with a live performance of, “Lucifer, My Love,” and in the aftermath of the stream several of our members retired to watch the hit 1996 movie Seven together–an overlooked Passover classic about everyday people struggling with the unfairness of a tyrannical deity’s arbitrary moralizing punishments.

Virtual attractions like this are of course no real substitute for in-person gatherings–nothing ever quite will be. But in those religious groups that simply cannot seem to bear to be physically apart no matter what the cost, I can’t help but perceive profound insecurity that, gratefully, we all seem to be coping with more competently.

Anti-Satanists, conspiracy assholes, and fundies are always banging on about the myth of Satanic “sacrifices.” And indeed, in times like this we are conducting many sacrifices: of our time, of our company, and of opportunities that might have been. We conduct these sacrifices to save lives, just like every responsible person.

And for further support we can look at the additional examples of people like Twin Temple–who surely are having as hard a time as anyone these days, with the cancelled concert scene depriving them of much of their livelihood and relationship with fans, but who still took some extra time and effort to do something a little more meaningful.

It’s not necessary for Modern Satanists to risk life, health, and society to commune with some vague deity in a doctrinally prescribed piece of real estate. Everywhere we go, Satan is with us–because Satan is us: “For where one or more are gathered together in my name, there am I.”