Thanks for this post Jesper, I was recently at a conference for school leaders on safeguarding and the Metropolitan Police had representatives leading workshops on cultural issues such as FGM and ritual abuse. They skipped over Satanism, but it was mentioned, they seemed more interested in African issues, but I was interested that they have a task force for such matters. I wonder who they call in as their expert on Satanism ?
Sent from my iPhone so please excuse the spelling.
On 22 Feb 2013, at 10:53 AM, Jesper Petersen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Nobody seemed to comment on this, so perhaps I did something wrong? I'll
> post it again, sorry for any crossposting.
>
> Best,
>
> Jesper.
>
> Dear Melissa and Sabina,
>
> I only took a brief look at the links you provided, but Sabina is exactly
> right - this is the recurrent theme of satanic panic which lives a zombie
> life in newspapers just like The Sun, the Daily Mail, survivor groups and
> marginal segments of religious, law enforcement, social service and therapy
> circles. The calendar has no direct relation to satanic practices for two
> reasons: First, there is no unified "satanic movement" in agreement on one
> calendar. Second, most of the dates are common pagan festivals, some of
> which Satanists are also celebrating, although often for different reasons.
> The "satanic" content is entirely fictional and has more to do with
> conspiracy theory than contemporary Satanism.
>
> Take a look at the original academic literature on SRA and satanic panic
> from the early 1990s:
>
> Hicks, Robert D. (1991). In Pursuit of Satan: The Police model of Satanic
> Crime. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
> Richardson, J. T., Best, J., & Bromley, D. G. (Eds.). (1991). The Satanism
> Scare. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
> Victor, J. S. (1993). Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend.
> Chicago; La Salle: Open Court.
>
> Many of the best articles are collected in a volume I edited:
>
> Lewis, J. R., & Petersen, J. A. (Eds.). (2008). The Encyclopedic Sourcebook
> of Satanism. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
>
> Also, some newer treatments:
>
> Dyrendal, A. (2003). True Religion versus Cannibal Others? Rhetorical
> Constructions of Satanism among American evangelicals. (nr 174), PhD thesis,
> Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo, Oslo.
> Ellis, B. (2000). Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media.
> Louisville: Univ Pr of Kentucky.
> Ellis, B. (2004). Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular
> Culture. Lexington: Univ Pr of Kentucky.
> Frankfurter, D. (2006). Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and
> Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton: Princeton UP.
> Gunn, J. G. (2005). Prime-Time Satanism: Rumor-Panic and the Work of Iconic
> Topoi. Visual Communication, 4(1), 93-120.
> Hjelm, T. (2009). Satanism and Satanism Scares in the Contemporary World.
> Special Issue. Social Compass, 56(4), 499-576.
> Jenkins, P. (2004). Satanism and Ritual Abuse. In J. R. Lewis (Ed.), Oxford
> Handbook of New Religious Movements (pp. 221-242). Oxford; New York: Oxford
> Univ Press.
> La Fontaine, J. S. (1998). Speak of the Devil: Tales of satanic abuse in
> contemporary England. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
> La Fontaine, J. S. (1999). Satanism and Satanic Mythology. In B. Ankerloo &
> S. Clark (Eds.), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Twentieth Century (Vol.
> 6, pp. 81-140). London: Athlone Press.
> Medway, G. J. (2001). Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of
> Satanism. New York: New York University Press.
> Richardson, J. T., Reichert, J., & Lykes, V. (2009). Satanism in America: An
> Update. Social Compass, 56(4), 552-563.
>
> I would recommend Victor, Ellis and Frankfurter if you are in a hurry, as
> they already focus on the folklore angle. The recent article by Richardson
> et.al. is the newest analysis I know of. Also, I have most of the original
> articles in store if you need anything specific.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> Best,
>
> Jesper.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Melissa Harrington
> Sent: 21. februar 2013 21:09
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Satanic calendar?
>
> Dear Sabina.
>
> Thank you for letting me know about the links, I don't get a copy of mail I
> send to the forum, I have tried again here. If it does not work I can give
> people the key words that go straight to these articles. And thanks also for
> your response, do you, or anyone else here, have any more information about
> these right-wing Christian extremists who have conconcted the calendar from
> a variety of sources to "inform" law enforcement about "Satanic ritual
> crime." ? Obviously Jean la Fontaine's work on the British satanic panic in
> the 1980s is an important resource in such matters, but is there any new
> scholarly or concrete information on these newer developments? I had really
> not thought I would end up here in such a paper, 20 minutes on "Elf knots,
> mysteries since Shakespeare and beyond, now solved by Horse and Hound
> Magazine readers" seemed so pleasant; yet in dealing with stories of Witches
> it all too often comes back to this terrible battle that is waged without
> end by those who want to fight the "forces of darkness" by means fair or
> foul!
>
> best regards
>
> Melissa
>
>
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085564/Eric-horse-sacrificed-Satani
> c-ritual.
>
> www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4060369/Cornwalls-fear-after-ritual-s
> laughter-of-horses.html
>
> http://www.survivorship.org/index.html
>
> http://www.survivorship.org/resources/altcalendar.html
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Magliocco, Sabina" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 7:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Satanic calendar?
>
>
> Dear Melissa,
>
> The links you promised to attach did not go through, but if the "Satanic
> calendar" is anything like a similar piece of folklore circulating in the
> US, it has no correspondence to anything that modern Satanists practice.
> Instead, it is the product of a small number of right-wing Christian
> extremists who have conconcted it from a variety of sources to "inform" law
> enforcement about "Satanic ritual crime." This links up to the Satanic
> legend complex of the 1980s, which is returning in new guise or, in some
> cases, never fully subsided.
>
> Fascinating project, BTW!
>
> All the best,
> Sabina
>
> Sabina Magliocco
> Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> California State University - Northridge [log in to unmask]
> ________________________________________
> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
> [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Melissa Harrington
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 10:26 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Satanic calendar?
>
> Dear All
>
> I am starting on a paper for the Folklore Society's AGM in April on Urban
> Folklore. My original abstract is relatively simple for a very nice topic -
> early examples of folklore on mystery braids in horses manes linked to
> witches and fairies that have reached the modern day almost intact, how the
> folklore may have started, how it is perpetuated today by press, police and
> ignorance, and how social networking may be ending this long running myth.
> Much as I wanted to avoid this, and though the link is yet small, it seems
> the subject is merged at the edges with the understandable hype and fear
> round horse mutilations, and how they are linked to Satanism in the press. I
> have added 4 links below, one shows how detailed such accounts are, the next
> shows how totally unconnected Pagans are linked to it, in this case taking
> photos from Cornwall's village Witches' web site and adding them in, and the
> next two links show what may be a source for the mysterious St Winebald's
> Day, apparently one of ritual sacrifice on which one may expect one's horses
> to be slaughtered. It seems like it is the old chestnut of fundamentalists
> and recovered memory nutters feeding press with such calendars, in which
> they include modern Pagan dates, in which case there may be new urban
> folklores starting with echoes of the SRA events of the late 20th century.
> However, unlike the braiding which seems to be simple "wind knots" rather
> than "witch knots", there have been reports of horrible animal mutilations
> over the years that do seem to be ritualised in some ways, this is probably
> the activity of sinister nutters, but what kind of nutter and why?
>
> I would value comments on any aspect of this from people on this forum, and
> particularly those who are scholars of contemporary Satanism, could you
> comment on these calendars please, I have never heard of half these
> "festivals", are any of these dates celebrated, is there any link with
> modern Satanic rites and any of these purported saints days, revels, feasts
> etc?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Melissa
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