Episode 12 - Halloween and Satanism

Welcome back to the Forgotten Library; as always, I’m Nikki Gee. It’s October as I record this, so let’s embrace the spooky season and look at a book about Halloween’s obviously Satanic origins.

If you listened to Episode 7, about Turmoil in the Toybox, you are already familiar with Phil Phillips, the author of that obnoxious screed decrying pretty much all the popular 80s toys as Satanic and not suitable for good Christian children. He also wrote such one-note fare as Dinosaurs: the Bible, Barney, and Beyond; Saturday Morning Mind Control; and The Truth about Power Rangers; and is the co-author of today’s selection with Joan Hake Robie. He and Robie also teamed up to write Horror and Violence: the Deadly Duo in the Media.

Joan Hake Robie, according to her obituary, was the author or co-author of fifteen books over her lifetime, including an autobiography of Colonel Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken Fame; I presume this is A Bucket of Finger Lickins, as that was also published by Starburst, which, apparently, she founded in 1981. Starburst Publishers is still active in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, according to a search of the state’s division of corporations website. Ownership is under Starburst Inc., though, so no idea if her family still runs it or what they’re publishing right now.

Anyway, Robie was a born-again Christian and in addition to writing these books and founding an evangelical Christian publishing house, she appeared on some talk shows in the 1980s to talk about the same themes: People Are Talking, Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, and Morton Downey, Jr. (no relation to Robert Downey, Jr., in case you were wondering). In other words, trash TV, not serious journalistic endeavors, which makes sense after perusing the book (or listening to this episode).

The back copy of the book reads: Is Halloween for children or is there a definite link between Halloween and Satanism? What about "Trick or treat," Jack-o-lanterns," and "bobbing for apples?" Do you read horoscopes? Do you play with Ouija board? Are you involved with Tarot Cards? Do you "dabble" with tea-leaf reading, Scrying (Crystal) Palmistry? Good luck charms? If you answered yes to any of those then you have a "link" to the occult.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

[break]

If you thought Halloween was innocent, well, you thought wrong, sucka! Read this book to save yourself, or a loved one, from the pitfalls of Satan. Is that a secret level in the Atari game? If you are fettered with the devices of Satan, this book will help to free you!

Chapter One – The Spirit of Fear. As he did in his previous book, Philly Boy regales us with a story. He’s a young’un, and now he’s in a haunted house, but he tries to build up suspense to make you think he’s in real danger. Puh-lease. Anyway, the house is full of fears, to which I say, no shit. “If this is Halloween, who needs it?” he concludes.

Fear. Among other things, it can make a person lose faith in god. He natters on about phobias, telling us about a woman named Barbara with agoraphobia. Fear is not of god, he states, but it’s society’s “stock in trade” today. People want to be scared by television programs and other productions, and Phil doesn’t understand this. First, there was Dracula, but now things are becoming more explicit, and worse, mixed with comedy, such as Poltergeist. Oh, no, humor makes everything worse!

Here comes one of Phil’s favorite words – Occult. Remember, in his lexicon, that’s everything that doesn’t embrace Christian tenets. ET (whose name is apparently Zrek, according to a treatment for a sequel that was never shot) is a “fetus-looking creature” with occult powers, which he discussed more in Chapter 12 of Turmoil in the Toy Box. Ghostbusters has a woman become possessed by a demon. He spells Zuul wrong, but why would he care? No one is gonna fact-check him or anything. He also mentions The Golden Child, with Eddie Murphy, which makes the two aforementioned movies look “like a Sunday afternoon walk in the park.” Why? Because it’s a graphic depiction of a demon going directly to hell to communicate with Satan. And the Dalai Lama is presented as the equivalent of Jesus, and that won’t do! Evil! It lurks on our silver screen. Okay, so I never saw The Golden Child, but I watched a trailer and some clips and the movie seems like a pretty standard 80s adventure, with some dark themes and comedic elements – hardly a slasher flick.

Fear leads to the occult. He cites a book by Dr. Grace Ketterman called You and Your Child’s Problems: How to Understand and Solve Them regarding fear. “A tragic by-product of fear in the lives of children . . . is the interest and involvement in supernatural occult phenomena.” Ellen learned about witchcraft when she was four years old! By the time the good doctor met Ellen at 12, “the child was convinced that love and caring are weak feelings,” and “so entrenched in fear that she actually had been practicing a form of witchcraft.” Okay, that sentence is murky. Was she fearful due to the practice of “witchcraft,” or was her fear a form of “witchcraft?”

Stop Satan; be aware and put on the armor of god! That sure sounds like a Halloween costume to me . . . or a Castlevania power-up.

Chapter 2 – A Celebration of Death. This is always my favorite part – debunking every damned thing Phillips writes. Behold, the power of the internet. By the way, he cites no sources for any of the following, and none of his images are credited in any way.

If you think Halloween is just a time for pumpkin pie and treat-or-treating children, again, you thought wrong, fool! There is so much more to the story that you are not thinking about!

Halloween is the festival witches celebrate more than any other! Actually, it’s Samhain, but factchecking whut? Witchcraft is nothing to sneeze at. It is an abomination in the eyes of god, and to make sure you are aware of how serious this this, they made sure to put it in italics! Phillips and Robie have their collective panties in a bunch over the fact that the IRS gave tax-exempt status to the Church of Wicca. Um, anything that is recognized as a religion gets tax-exempt status – shit, even the Scientologists finally got tax exemption after many years of fighting about it! Worshiping Jesus is the same as worshiping nature, so yeah, you’re equal. Deal.

How do you spot the Halloween Witch, as opposed to, say, the Christmas or Hanukkah Witch? She wears a black cloak and peaked hat, rides a broomstick, and has a cat with her. Well, now I know where you got your information; looks like someone watched a lot of cartoons. They prove my point by including a picture of the wicked queen from Snow White in her guise as the old hag, offering up the poisoned apple. Hey, Disney, the photo is uncredited, in case you wanted to know!

Witches “fly” by the use of “sacred ointments” called “ungent” rubbed on the skin. At first, I thought that was an error, but it was misspelled again at the end of the paragraph. The word is “ungUent,” by the way; if being pedantic makes me a heathen, well, I’m the biggest heathen there is. The “flying ointments” have actually been1 written about elsewhere; earlier pagan religions used solanaceous plants, such as Datura, in various rituals. Well, a stopped clock is right twice a day. What would have been more amazing, however, is if they would have cited some damned sources. They obviously didn’t come up with this on their own.

“The peeling of church bells was believed to be a defense against aerial witches.” Oh, I see, because you pull off the strips of metal and throw them at the fiends! Ugh, how did this error-riddled idiocy ever get published? How much money did he slip Starburst Publishers?

In the seventh century, the Archbishop of Canterbury set punishments for “those who goeth about in the masque of a stag of bull-calf . . . those who by their craft raise storms . . . sacrifice to demons . . . consulteth soothsayers who divine by birds.” This is quoted directly from the book, but I cannot find an original attribution. A Google search yields me a Facebook post, as well as a pamphlet handed out at St. John’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Covina, California that plagiarized most of its pages from Phillips’ and Robie’s book (I know because the peeling line, with the spelling error, still remains). And the only other quotation is on a fundamentalist-leaning website that cites this book for its source – which, at least they gave credit, I guess?

The “bull-calf” is the horned god, and it’s worshiped with dances, barking, and howling. Herbs were gathered and potions created, some even with snakeskins and bat entrails! The religion of the horned god spread even though Christianity was trying to knock it out of existence. And even after people became Christian, they still worshipped the dead. In the Middle Ages, stone lighthouses known as “lanterns of the dead” protected people from malicious ghosts on All Hallows’ Eve. Most sources I can find state that “lanterns of the dead” were actually towers that lit the way to a cemetery.

Blah blah, Baphomet, Pan, esbats, somehow they got some of this right, blah. “The Hartz[sic] mountain region of Germany was the most famous sacred spot for witches.” Seems like “legend has it,” according to many websites, yet they are reporting it as actual fact. And I am sure that some “witches” probably did meet up there. But come on.

And now, the Celts, who worshipped the sun god “Muck Olla.” WRONG. A Google search turns up quite a few misattributions such as the one above, but this name does not appear in listings of Celtic deities at all. Belenus was the sun god. However, the legend of Muck Olla appears to be one of the several origins of “trick or treat.” Masked people would go from farm to farm and tell said farmers their good fortune was due to Muck Olla’s goodness; now, if they wanted this goodness to continue, and their crops to prosper, et cetera, they better give, and give plenty! This could be in the form of food or even gold. Much better than pennies, I’m sure.

The Celts built large stone structures called megaliths, the most famous of which is StoneHEDGE, not to be confused with its more well-known brother, StoneHENGE. Come on, how do you fuck that up?

In the end, they present all of this information about the origins of Halloween, and it’s not necessarily bad, just pagan. Oh, wait, pagan is automatically anathema to a fundie Christian. Trick or treat, motherfuckers.

Chapter 3 – The Strange and the Supernatural. In this chapter, more folklore and mythology is presented, and if one had any sense at all, they would recognize that that is all this is, and has nothing to do with Satan.

“Europeans of the Middle Ages feared the glassy star and eerie call of the owl.” The star was their amulet, you see, and to look into its face was to look into the face . . . of pure evil. So, many fucking typos in this book! Ever hear of a copy-editor? Damn!

Under the heading of “cats,” there is a picture of a cat with an upside down crucifix next to him/her. The hell? The poor baby has a wandering eye, too. That’s just cruel.

To show how stupid this book really is, there is another image described as “vampire show advertisement.” Actually, Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood was a Victorian horror story introducing much of the vampire mythology in popular culture today. I really wish I knew how many people got duped by Phillips in the end. However, in this case, I’ll blame the victim; don’t be brainwashed, and do your own damned research.

Phillips talks about the history of masks in various cultures, then says, “I ask you, ‘Do Christians wear masks? What kind of masks do they wear?'” The answers are “yes,” and “that of the hypocrite.”

So, parents, now that you know all of the Satanic rituals and history of not-so-innocent Halloween, what can you do when your children want to go romp about with the pagan neighbor’s kids? There are alternatives!

How about a Harvest Party? Children can come as Bible characters or something else that isn’t Satanic. Or how about a Country Party, where they can dress in overalls like backwoods bumpkins? I’ll bring the banjo! This is much safer, don’t you think? Don’t let your kids wander in back alleys in search of candy; they’re only going to get apples with razor blades that they somehow won’t be able to see! Or perhaps LSD tattoos.

“Parents may wish to have a prayer meeting when the youths are having a party.” Hahahahahahaha! Or a “Holy-ween” party to save souls on Satan’s day! Yes, let us all worship Jesus’ Holy ween! *snicker*

If you have ever participated in Halloween celebrations, even when you were young and innocent, you should pray about it. Not sure what to say? That’s fine, they’ve done it for you!

Lord Jesus, I renounce any involvement I have had with this pagan holiday, Halloween. I serve Satan notice that I will not be involved in the things that represent him, and I choose to do that which represents my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love how the prayer makes mention of which pagan holiday you are referring to. Isn’t Jesus supposed to be omniscient?

And ya hear that, Satan? You’re on notice!!

Chapter Four – “Dabbling.” In the Bible, readers are warned that “the sins of the fathers are visited upon the third and fourth generations of those who disobey God.” So, if you’re second generation, that means you’re in the clear.

Involving oneself with occult practices has serious side effects. Some people may experience these side effects: nausea, vomiting, constipation, dizziness. Call your doctor right away if any of these very serious side effects appear: over-large pupils, insanity, or death.

We live in an enlightened age, so why do people still get involved with such practices? “Occult experiences, though deceptive, offer people a certain reality and answers for life’s basic questions.” You mean, just like your religion?

Incantations. Words are weapons and can be very powerful. Gestures and expressions can assist us, but “to communicate with clarity we usually use the tongue.” That’s what she said. The magical use of words dates back many centuries. Prayers have been used as incantations. You can be set free from incantations! Is there a prayer involved?

Ouija boards. Yes, the Parker Brothers board game. It is not a lighthearted game, “to play at a slumber party or a birthday party.” So, parties of adults with alcohol and such can play with it, right? It is a dead serious occult tool game. Wait, so which is it – occult, tool, or game? Make up your mind, man!

The messages that come through the board are not always wicked, at least, at the outset, for Satan is a great deceiver. He cites several stories about people being influenced by the Ouija board, writing books about subjects of which they profess no prior knowledge. There is the danger of demon possession, not to mention murder. Yes, “no one knows how many murders have been caused that relate somehow to the Ouija board.” Let us take a brief sidequest to Proquest’s newspaper search!

In 1923, there is a short blurb in the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record regarding the sentencing of Mae Murdock who was found guilty of manslaughter in the Ouija board murder of her husband – her term was 1-10 years in San Quentin. After searching further by her name, it appears that the Ouija board warned her that her husband was trying to kill her, so she should kill him first, essentially. So, she shot him before he could chop her head off with an ax.

In the December 31st, 1933 edition of The Salt Lake Tribune, it was reported that one Ernest Tulley was murdered by his daughter, and according to her, it was the fault of the Ouija board. Tulley and his wife and fifteen-year-old daughter had been guided to Arizona by the board originally, in search of treasure, and finding none, the girl decided to try seeking guidance once more. This time, she claimed, she was given instructions to kill her father so that her mother could marry a cowboy, so she shot him in the back while he was working. Authorities believed, of course, that the mother was to blame, being enamored, perhaps, of someone other than her husband, and had convinced the young lass to kill dear old dad. Three years later, the case was still in court, and both women were fighting to stay out of jail. According to the daughter, Mattie - her mother, Dorothea, was in love with another man, and sat with Mattie over the Ouija board the night the board gave the fatal message. According to Dorothea, her daughter was mad at both her and her father because they didn’t want her wearing makeup and hanging out with boys. Dorothea was sentence to 10-35 years in the state pen and her daughter was sent to the State School for Girls for six years.

In 2001, Oklahoma resident Carol Sue Elvaker stabbed her son-in-law to death because she claimed god sent her a message through the Ouija board to kill him. She tried to stab her granddaughter as well, though, and then tried to crash the car in which she and her daughter rode. Experts declared her insane.

There are others, but one more recent one: in 2008, a 16-year-old boy named Josh Tucker and his friend, Donald Schalchlin, were playing with a Ouija board at Donald’s house, when Josh, who was also drinking at the time, asked the board if he was going to become a serial killer. Supposedly, the board answered yes, so Josh stabbed Donald’s mother and sister. Donald’s home life was apparently not so great and Child Protective Services had been called a couple of times on his mom; he’d had a few instances of burgeoning criminal behavior, as well. Tucker was sentenced to 41 years and Schalchlin to 9.5.

So, to get back to Phil Phillips, while there have been some instances of people claiming that the Ouija board was to blame for murders, it’s obviously more likely that these people were psychologically disturbed rather than possessed by a demon living in a plastic and wood game set. However, he quotes from an author who wrote a book about the game, “voices say we are all gods, the Ouija is a tool to become more like a god, or even become god.” Don’t worry, you can be set free from the Ouija board!

Dungeons and Dragons. He talked about this at length in Turmoil, so I’ll summarize quickly here. The Dungeon Master is often seen as a god, which is blasphemous. Any creative thoughts one has should be used to expand one’s relationship with god, not playing silly games. D&D uses “traditional Christian terms” such as fasting, atonement, deity, and prayer – because of course, these terms only exist to describe Christian concepts. Finally, fantasy role-playing is “the first step towards subtly introducing [sic] the child to reject the religious training of church and home.” Because you play god over imaginary characters, which is Humanism, which is a belief system where man controls his own destiny, which rejects god, which is wrong-headed because everyone practices the same religion, don’t’cha know? If you are involved with D&D, though, don’t worry – you can be set free!

Tarot cards. Obviously occult, because they are fortune telling. The pictures are “crude and not very well drawn.” Yeah, well, this book is rife with errors and very poorly written. Somehow, both things make money, so what’s your beef? You can be set free from tarot cards. He keeps repeating this at the end of every section, but yet, doesn’t tell you how.

Tea-leaf reading. You might think it’s just for fun, but it is also occult, and involves trances, and clairvoyants, and other such Satanic devices, and I ask you, what does all of this have to do with Halloween specifically? I’m not sure, so let me gaze into my crystal ball, like the “occultic” heathen I am. For divination of such types is also of the debbil!

You can also be set free from the third eye (of which he knows very little, as he only wrote two teensy paragraphs), talismans, palmistry, necromancy, ritual magic, Edgar Cayce (but he’s been dead since 1945, so perhaps he should say Edgar Cayce is free from us), the Rosicrucians (and other secret societies), good luck charms, pentagrams, and “hex signs,” by which he means mostly the folksy art you see in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Bluebirds and tulips are bad, mmmkay?

Chapter Five – Twelve Forbidden Practices. There is not much to this chapter, and it was also an index in Turmoil in the Toybox. Basically, it’s the “occultic” things to watch out for and avoid, such as necromancy, witchcraft, and prognostication, with Bible verses to back him up.

Chapter Six – Satan is Alive and Well. Yes, and he wrote this book! This chapter concerns itself with types of witchcraft, and didn’t he cover this already? Witches carried cooking pots and would make brews in the woods! Look, here’s a recipe from Macbeth. Shakespeare is historical fact now – you learned it here first.

Witches have familiars, or companions, traditionally the black cat, but blackbirds, crows, toads and frogs were also possibilities. “As late as the 19th century, cases are recorded, in Russia, that peasant women were ordered by their masters to nurse bear cubs that were being reared for sport.” Wha? First of all, what does this have to do with famililars? Secondly, I say again, wha? A search dredges up a photo in the Library of Congress archives, circa 1903, of a woman nursing a human baby and a bear cub at the same time. There is also a Norwegian story involving an abandoned bear cub that was used rather like an advertisement to bring investors to a struggling fertilizer factory; the little bear was presumed to have been given breast milk from its adopted human mother, who had just given birth to a child of her own. But no connection with Russia or this quote.

This book confuses the hell out of me, because I am not sure what he’s really going for here. He writes all this history about witches, but is he informing the populace that this is stuff to watch out for in the present? What is the purpose of speaking of Isabel Gowdie, for example? He also mentions Anne-Marie de Georgel, a Frenchwoman who confessed (under torture) that she had had sex with the devil. This apparently was a forgery, but again, does that matter to Phillips? Hell naw.

Italian witchcraft is in two forms, fortune-telling and potion-making. Both are evil. Swedish witchcraft is how Ikea manages to squeeze a buncha furniture in those makeshift 987 square-foot houses. And of course, their delicious meatballs.

To be ignorant of Satan’s devices is death! And by “devices,” he means gigantic wang.

Chapter 7 – Black Mass and Black Magic. Phillips tells us little is known of the early history of the black mass. Somehow, however, he knows lots about the contemporary history of said ritual and how it is performed: over the altar is an upside-down cross and a picture of the devil. The priest throws a cross to the floor and shouts “Shemhaforash,” which, apparently, is a bastardization of a Hebrew word meaning “the explicit name.” Then the “priest” spits on the cross and and says “Hail Satan,” replete with an obscene gesture. Then the attendees repeat the Lord’s prayer backwards. Where does Phillips get this information? From a book called Occult Shock and Psychic Forces, which blurb talks about “occult forces” sweeping the nation, such as parapsychology and seances, and ESP. And yoga. Which, yes, began as a religious practice, but in our modern Western world, has been bastardized and some posit is really a form of cultural appropriation. But anyway.

Phillips cites a long description by Rollo Ahmed, an Egyptian occultist who wrote at length on such black mass ceremonies in his book The Black Art. This book, by the way, was published in 1936 and supposedly had first-hand knowledge of some very secret societies. It seems modern-day historians have explained him away as a charlatan and swindler, but he’s very interesting to read about, at any rate.

So, yeah, I’m willing to bet most of this is bunk. I’m assuming the “oracle of the bleeding head” story is from the same book, but I found a quotation in the 1877 book Isis Unveiled by H.P. Blavatsky, or Madame Blavatsky, if that rings any bells for you. Supposedly, the “oracle of the bleeding head” involved decapitating a child blessed with great beauty and purity, and asking the spirits to speak through the mouth of the head. Sounds like something that QAnon crazies would seize on today.

In between all this, is a picture with the caption “Satanic symbol.” Actually, it’s a movie poster for a Nazi propaganda film called “The Eternal Jew.” So, Phillips, what are you REALLY trying to say here? Jews are Satan? It’s obvious he cribbed this movie poster from somewhere, and not knowing the language, could feign ignorance. I would hope that is the case and not that he’s also anti-Semitic, but who knows with these evangelicals?

He likes to continually point out that all of these Satanic rituals involved nudity. I think he’s just jealous and wants to cavort with the naked ladies, too. “The ordinary participants, inflamed with drug and drink, maddened with blood and sadistic excitement, would certainly have had no thought but of expressing their lowest and filthiest impulses, and of wallowing in a mad phantasmagoria of sexual lust.” See? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

He then describes how witches were tortured in the 1600s, and the detail is a bit gory – alcohol burns, hanging, crushed limbs, et cetera. So, obviously, under such duress, people confessed to anything, including eating babies, and fornicating with the devil in mad moonlit orgies. However, Phillips said that the descriptive tortures should not make you sympathetic towards these obviously wicked creatures, as the book from which he quoted was written by a person with a “liberal position towards witchcraft.” Remember god’s commandment that “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” So torture is okay? Oh, wait, plenty of things in the Bible were heinous and violent, so of COURSE it’s okay!

The phallus, by the power of Greyskull, has the power to subdue demons and the Evil Eye. Everyone, get out your penis necklaces that you got from that bachelorette party a long time ago. They fight evil! For some reason, there are certain sentences in all caps, such as “SPECIAL CHARMS WERE MADE AFTER THE FASHION OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. TODAY, THESE PHALLIC TALISMANS CAN BE SEEN EVERWHERE [sic] AND ARE WORN WITHOUT ANY CONCEALMENT.” I don’t see a lot of peen necklaces in America, but . . . an anklet might be nice and fashionable. What do you think?

He has a small section on Jewish magic, which basically seems to say that Jews consider sorcery abhorrent. So, how can they be sorcerers then? My head hurts.

“Young boys were used for the discerning of spirits . . . the magician seats himself on a three-legged stool, drawing the child between his thighs with his back turned . . . ” Um, there is a LOT wrong with that besides the “black magic” aspect, dude. I found this ritual in a book entitled Babylonian Oil Magic in the Talmud and in the Later Jewish Literature. So, um, why isn’t this under “Jewish magic,” then?

Many rain-making ceremonies are sexual in nature. Wife-swapping is common, but they’re all heathen Africans, so what do they know? It is a tireless pursuit to satisfy the flesh, especially when the spirit is unsatisfied. “Peace is found only in Jesus Christ.” Yes, but can you have sex with him?

Chapter 8 – Modern Day Witchcraft. It seems the further I get, the crazier Phillips becomes.

To recap, witches are bad, mmmkay? Then he segues into modern Satanism, which is NOT the same thing, you idiot. He quotes from the Satanic Bible. Dude, you picked it up and read from it? Jesus is gonna be so pissed!

Phillips tells us that Satanists hate humility and purity, and love cruelty and lust. “To the Christian, to delight in all pleasures of the senses is sinful and unclean.” All? So, that would mean that, say, enjoying a good meal is “sinful and unclean;” hope you don’t take wifey out to nice restaurants for your anniversary, because then you are completely disobeying god – according to your skewed worldview, that is.

Aleister Crowley is up next, who “resisted faith in Christ and turned to Satan.” Actually, he formed his own kooky theosophy, but apparently, the hand of Satan was in it. And his father was a preacher, too; more’s the pity!

Remember, most modern-day witches look just like everyone else; “this is what makes them difficult to spot . . . except through the power of the Spirit of God.” Why? Is it like a flashlight you can shine on someone and discover if they’re for Jesus?

In recent years (that is to say, the early 1990s), the West Coast has seen larger numbers of young people becoming Satanists. What is the reason? Oh, several; I’m sure you can say them with me now – rock music, Dungeons and Dragons (and other filthy LARPs), and “individual recruitment.” Be all you can be – in Satan’s army!

And now, The Brotherhood. Supposedly an offshoot of the Church of Satan, “this cult is extremely secretive.” Can’t be TOO secretive, otherwise, how would you know about it? “No written records of membership are kept.” Actually, they have a website now . . . “Most attend local Christian churches and are considered ‘good citizens’ because they are involved in local civic activities.” Hey, Philly Boy, are you trying to tell us something here? He tells us about code names and human sacrifices, “most often babies – born out of wedlock to various cult members, cared for by the doctors and nurses within the cult so that the mother is never seen in a hospital . . . ”

He has a source for all of this information quoted above. A book entitled He Came to Set the Captives Free, by “Doctor” Rebecca Brown. I put the word in quotes because she was a licensed doctor, but lost her license due to improperly diagnosing and over-medicating patients! She’s a kook herself, and apparently, a liar; she made up all of her stories in the book Phillips cited. You can see for yourself just from doing a cursory Google search.

Now, I don’t doubt that there ARE cultists (Satan-worshippers or not) who participate in human sacrifice; however, I doubt that they are as prevalent as Phillips (and his crony, Brown) make it out to be.

Finally, the goddess movement and feminist witches. Their radical viewpoint is, “‘Imagine that the people of the people of this world finally take that poor son off the cross; let’s take him down slowly, pull out the nails and lay him to rest in the Mother Earth . . . ‘” However, Phillips states that this is unnecessary, for HE’S ALIVE!!!

Run, children, run; Frankenstein’s monster is upon us!

Chapter 9 – Satanic Symbols and Rituals. This chapter mainly consists of “symbols of darkness,” by which he means the Satanic lingo. Yes, words such as “circle” and “charm” apparently do not have mundane or secular definitions anymore. He then copies some rituals from The Satanic Rituals, and what does it all really mean? I cannot find the definitions for such items as “Ty tchortu ogonyok!” so how do you know that it’s really bad?

So that the witches are not left out, he gives some examples from a Book of Shadows, even though “The Book of Shadows is kept a secret.” So, how did you get this? The Great Rite means “making ritual love,” in case you wanted to know.

Finally, some “warning signs.” Of what? That your child or loved one is taking the path to Satan? I assume that is what he means, although it’s written directly after a ritual for consecrating an athame. There are six in total:

1. Presence of books on the occult, witchcraft, or Satanism, particularly The Satanic Bible and/or Satanic Rituals.

Right, because you obviously can’t just be interested for the sake of interest, right? What about you, Philly? You obviously “read” a lot on the subject; what does that mean for you?

2. Presence of heavy metal albums by groups who promote Satanism or the occult, such as Motely Crue or Ozzie Osborne.

I just laugh at this one. Ozzie is a nutter, and maybe he bit the head of a bat, but you’re putting Motley Crue in the same league. Hell naw.

3. Occult or Satanic symbols appearing on clothing, or books, or in drawings; sometimes a teenager will even draw pictures of rituals.

So, don’t worry if your five-year-old starts chanting the Lord’s Prayer backwards and draws pentagrams on your walls . . . he’ll grow out of it.

4. A seeming fascination with murder, suicide, or death in general.

Don’t try suicide; nobody cares. Also, lots of teenagers become fascinated by death. It’s a rite of passage! Doesn’t mean that they’re blowing Satan.

5. Secretiveness, particularly on a consistent basic.

More likely, masturbation is the cause!

6. An arrogant attitude combined with hostility when referring to Christianity, the Bible, church, etc.

Could just be someone who is exasperated with your holier-than-thou attitude. Like me!!

Chapter 10 – Playing with Fire. Balaam in the Bible became a false prophet; beware of him. Study your Bible and his story so you can avoid the same traps. Even though you might well be as mentally and spiritually deranged as he.

He next cites a destruction of a Mennonite church in Pennsylvania, in great detail. Even though the “Satanic symbol,” 666, was written on certain things, doesn’t mean it was necessarily the work of Satanists. Could have been some bored kids, too! It mentions that “hundreds of cone-shaped paper cups” were left behind. Perhaps the participants were wildly drunk and stupid kids. Not everything is Satan, ya know. Most times, it’s the free will of the stupid.

Hearken to the story of Roberta, who wrote a book entitled Escape from Witchcraft, a supposed autobiography where she got caught in the clutches of witchcraft – that is to say, Satanism, because they are both the same thing to an uninformed dude trying to dupe well-meaning people. Here is an excerpt from the book that I found:

I dressed myself in black, cursing like a mad woman. “He will die for that. I’ll destroy him. He’ll suck the wrath of hell!” I ran around the house chanting, “Give me power. Draw it up out of my soul from the very roots of hell.”

Suddenly I fell on my knees. Realization poured over me. The powers that I had thought were my own gifts were really the devious tricks of the devil. Tricks used to trap me. My powers were produced by and rooted in evil. For almost three years I had blindly claimed these powers as my own, never realizing whose puppet I had become.

The sound of thunder echoed within the walls of my mind and a voice crackled, “You stupid fool. Where do you think you got your power from?” It laughed. “Not yourself.” And laughed again. “I’m not through with you.”

I screamed aloud, hoping I could hear my own voice above the other. “I’m crazy. I’m crazy. Kill me, I’m crazy.” I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a butcher knife, ready to slash my wrists.

Suddenly I froze as the voice continued, “I’m not through with you. You’ve just begun. So do as I say.” And the next thing I knew, I, Roberta Blankenship, bowed down on my knees, raised my arms into the air, and said, “Satan, you are my master and my prince. Use me as you will. I am yours.”

With that I fell flat on the floor and cried, “The devil is real.”

How horrible – the writing, that is!

Or what about Elaine? Remember I spoke of a Doctor Rebecca Brown who lost her medical license? Elaine, whom she claimed to cure from demonic illness, was actually her roommate, and the entire story embodied in Brown’s book was made up. It was later made into comics by Jack Chick, yes, the very same Chief Engineer on the train to Crazytown. Perhaps He Came to Set the Captives Free (Brown’s book) may make a spotlight entry on a future episode. It sounds too fucked up not to be! But essentially, the good “doctor” helped the demonized woman (who claimed that she had married Satan) to spiritual deliverance. Aw, a happy ending! (except not).

There are a few more chapters, but it’s the same shit about putting on the armor of god and all that nonsense.

[break]

As I said in the Turmoil in the Toybox episode, there was a glut of books during this time period (the high point of which was the early-to-mid-1980s) where Christian preachers and laypeople were making tenuous and flimsy connections to Satanism in everything they saw, read, or watched. Dungeons & Dragons particularly came under fire, especially after two young men took their own lives for different reasons, but it was discovered that they had played the game, and so the connection was made in the public consciousness. In addition, there were books such as Michelle Remembers, which was a supposed memoir of a woman who had been involved in Satanic cult practices as a young child, but only remembered all of this under hypnosis. Despite glaring holes in her story (such as the fact that the cult members had sewn devil ears and a tail to her body, but no one ever saw her with such appendages, and she was still regularly going to school when she apparently kidnapped), easily-duped people took the bait. And there was also the Satanic ritual abuse scare that spread to several daycares across the country. I went into more detail about all of this in the Turmoil episode, so if you are interested, take a listen to Episode 7.

In my research for this episode, however, I did find an even earlier publication called The Satan Seller by Mike Warnke, who is a Christian evangelist and comedian into the present day. In 1972, he published The Satan Seller, which was his memoir of being indoctrinated into Satanism and his subsequent freedom through Christianity. Warnke was orphaned as a child and served time in foster homes, then got involved in drugs and Satanism. He became a high priest in the religion, having 1500 followers in three cities. He had so much wealth and power because of the Illuminati! And then, he was saved and eschewing Satan helped rocket him to notoriety. But then. . . in the early 1990s, one Christian magazine started taking a harder look at Warnke’s life and claims. Was it all too much to be believed? I’m trying to get my hands on the actual book, so perhaps next time, on the Forgotten Library.

That’s the show. If you liked this episode, please like, subscribe, review (pretty please?); the Forgotten Library is available on most podcast aggregators. You can hit me up on twitter @forgottenlibra1, which also features occasional photos of our very own library cat, Grimm! Transcripts and source materials are on the website, which is linked in the bio. Until next time, I’m Nikki Gee, your intrepid library haunter.

Reference List

Clifton, C. (2001). If Witches No Longer Fly: Today’s Pagans and Solanaceous Plants. The Pomegranate, 16, 17-23. http://www.chasclifton.com/papers/If_Witches_No_Longer_Fly.pdf

Josiffe, C. (2014) British Voodoo: the Black art of Rollo Ahmed. Fortean Times, 316-317, 28-35, 42-47.

Phillips, P. and Hake Robie, J. (1987). Halloween and Satanism. Starburst Publishers.