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Comment by cempaka | Hacker News Reader

Naturally, no mention in this article of Michael Aquino, the US Army Colonel who wrote the book on psychological operations, openly bragged about performing a ritual with a Nazi SS dagger at Wewelsburg Castle, and was credibly accused by children in the Presidio daycare scandal, who themselves exhibited physical signs of abuse and could describe details of the interior of Aquino's house.

But I'm sure if anything like that had actually happened, you would have heard about it already.

The thing I don't get about Satanism/witchcraft and the like is, either you take it seriously, in which case is it really a great idea to be cutting deals with these powerful interdimensional entities for your own benefit? Or with Laveyan Satanism it's basically "Ayn Rand with magic." OR you don't take it seriously, in which case it's sort of overly theatric and involved (and hence pathetic) edgelordery.

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> The thing I don't get about Satanism/witchcraft and the like is...

Satanism and Witchcraft aren't really similar at all, though it's common for them to be wrongly conflated. The modern idea of Satanism can be traced with the founding of the Church of Satan and pretty explicitly has roots in the traditional framework of Christianity. Given Satan's role in Christian dogma, I can at least understand the "ick" factor.

Wicca on the other hand is part of a larger group of modern pagan religions that take inspiration from the kinds of ancient religions that were steamrolled by Christianity and Islam. It has more in common with New Age spirituality than anything else, and it really doesn't seam any more harmful than mainstream religions - in fact it seems less so, due to the lack of organization and agreed-upon canon.

The kids 'involved' in satanic ritual abuse "accurately" described many things, because they were questioned by adults who had the goal of guiding them to what they thought was the right answer, and connecting any vague statement they made to it. Some to the point of berating and threatening them, if they did not give the answers desired.

Satanists do not go around making ritual child rape altars. That is so fucking ridiculous that it should immediately fail the sniff test for anybody.

> because they were questioned by adults who had the goal of guiding them to what they thought was the right answer

That's not what happened in the Presidio case. The questioners also didn't give the children STDs.

> Satanists do not go around making ritual child rape altars. That is so fucking ridiculous that it should immediately fail the sniff test for anybody.

What's ridiculous about it, exactly? Crowley in particular wrote extensively about his desire to commit "the unforgivable sin." I'm not Christian myself but why anyone would want to associate with this kind of garbage is beyond me.

At the very least, everyone's reflexive knee-jerk impulse to dismiss the very idea as ridiculous makes it an ideal form of cover for actual abusers.

Those who are serious believe that they'll get power over others if they please their cruel deity. Those who arent serious fall victims of their vices. Lust brings them to sex clubs where they can do things generally unacceptable. Less common is desire for secret knowledge to get an edge over others. Such is the threefold division of satanism: selfish ambition for the strong willed, desire of occult knowledge for the smart ones, and unhinged sexuality for the rest. Your example with a Nazi SS officer shows how one man can combine all three vices. On the outside, such a sect usually appears as a criminal org, with an unusual initiation rite, like yakuzas or some mexican drug cartels. Wars enable these sects to "upgrade" to something like unit 731.

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