I Entered America's Most Feared Satanic Cult

There are more than 700,000

people in America who identify as Satanists.

>> Many of its members belong to the Satanic Temple, a real place in Massachusetts

who turned the devil into the ultimate symbol of resistance.

But what do Satanists actually believe in?

Is it a religion, an anti-culture

movement, or maybe even a cult?

>> The world is ours.

>> I'm about to head straight into the belly of the beast, the Satanic Temple.

And to get access,

I'm meeting up with Sandor,

who identifies as a real satanic >> How are you? Good. How are you?

Good >> to meet you. You, too.

>> Do you mind showing me your house?

>> Yeah, let's do it. >> Okay, cool.

>> So, right now we're in the living room.

Try to do like this kind of

monochrom burgundy and black situation. >> Looks wonderful.

So Anton Ley, to my knowledge, he is like the founder of the Satanic Church.

>> Yeah, he is founder of the Church of Satan.

It was founded in 1966

in San Francisco, California.

The Satanic Bible was published in 1969.

And that is basically the book that

everyone reads as becoming a a baby Satanist.

And it lays the ground lines for Satanism.

Basically, what Satanism is self-empowerment.

Yes, it's called Satan

because Satan represents carnal desire.

He He represents the rebel. We embrace sexuality. We embrace sensuality.

We also embrace humanism. We have empathy.

We're very sensitive people.

But also, if you

smite me on one cheek, I'll smash you on the other.

I think that the word Satan scares people.

When we say hell Satan,

we say hell thyself. >> HAIL SATAN. >> HAIL SATAN. >> XANDOR.

That's Anton's middle name.

>> Is that where you get your name from?

>> When I started doing fetish modeling,

I had to come up with a pseudonym.

So, I came up with Xandor.

>> What's your relationship to him?

>> I was married to his grandson, Stanton.

But I was a Satanist

and Xandor before I met his grandson.

>> This is my bedroom. Welcome.

I bid you So, this is my broom.

This is really special to me.

My friend, my best friend Christine, hi Christine.

She makes these uh with her witch co-op.

It's symbolic to me.

It's like from nature.

It's made from a witch for a witch.

I think that's special.

Too delicate to fly.

>> And then out the window, my front yard is a graveyard.

The little old lady that is my landlord

was like, "You know, I do have to be honest.

you know, there's a graveyard

up front in the front yard and it's been turning some people off and

I was like on the phone going

I've always loved cemeteries.

Everywhere I go, I will always visit a cemetery.

I don't know, it's just kind of relaxing.

I like to look at

people's last names, look at the stories on their tombstones,

kind of celebrate who they were, even though I didn't know them.

I've tried to look some of these people up, but I haven't had any luck.

I do research people on grave

in graveyards and tombstones all the time.

>> You told me you haven't cursed someone in a long time, and and like

the thought of you cursing someone is really interesting to me.

How do you curse people and I would not want to be the one

that is being cursed?

Sometimes curses can be in the form of rituals,

but sometimes it could be a form of just manifesting.

I like to call it manifesttoring,

but I also do compassion rituals.

I do those most of the time. >> That's nice. Yeah.

>> What does that look like?

>> A lot of people are familiar with Christianity, right?

If you're a Christian and you pray for someone

and you know, you're putting that energy towards them and they get better, you're

like, "Oh, yay, Jesus."

Same kind of thing.

You know, I'm doing my compassion ritual.

What is my intent?

What kind of energy do I want to bring to that person?

What kind of wealth

do I want to bring to them?

And I put that out into the atmosphere.

I put that in my energy towards them.

>> It's been very interesting to learn about Sandor and her beliefs.

But now she's going to take me to downtown Beverly to teach me more

about the history of witchcraft in Massachusetts.

Has anybody ever asked you

to put them in touch with the devil?

>> All the time online.

I can't do that.

You know, like that's not the brand of Satanism

that I am pedalling.

You know, >> there's a church right here and there's a church right there and

there's a church right there.

We are in a land of

>> We are >> all these churches around us like they believe that the devil is

like sin and >> I've had friends

that didn't realize that I was a Satanist

cuz like it's not something I just say, "Hey, I'm Xandor. I'm a Satanist."

you know, and they have found out eventually

and just not been my friend,

>> And it's like, well, I'm a good person.

Why wouldn't you be my friend just because of what I believe in?

You believed in Christianity

and I was fine with it, but that's life.

You know, maybe they're not my friend anyway.

Oh, I love this.

And I love how they have the stories.

>> Here lies the body of

Reverend and Joel >> This is John Hill.

This is a guy that

was with the the witch trial guy.

We just randomly >> No way. >> Yes.

That is crazy that we just I I haven't seen this yet and I've

been wanting to come here.

>> We just randomly pulled up to a random graveyard and we found >> Yeah.

His wife was accused of witchcraft.

He persecuted the witches

and he was the one that retracted

his statement saying, "This was hysteria.

We shouldn't have believed these kids. This is wrong."

But only when this happened to him. >> That's bizarre.

>> Isn't that a crazy story?

>> That's the first grave we went to

was >> I was like, "Look at this."

>> Like 100 gravestones here. >> Wow.

Back in 1692 in colonial Massachusetts,

hundreds of women were accused of being witches.

Neighbors turned on each other.

Fear spread like wildfire.

And by the end, 20 people were hanged,

crushed, or left to die in prison.

It remains one of the most infamous moral panics in American history.

To learn more, we're meeting up with one of Sindor's

friends, a Satanist named Adam.

>> Tabitha, the woman that was

brought here by the owner of this house,

and you know, the two kids had accused her of being a witch.

This is where it all

>> You're a satanic witch.

What are the other kinds of witches?

>> There are thousands of different types of witches.

There are white witches,

gray magic, black magic, right?

Those are your three kind of basis of magic.

>> And like anyone can claim themselves as a satanic witch.

Like how do you >> I think anybody

can say that they're a witch, right?

I've put in the work to be a witch.

First of all, you know, I feel like I was born a witch.

I will die a witch.

At 13, I started reading about like

occultism and things like that and started doing little rituals and building that.

And throughout my lifetime,

you know, I use practical

magic on a daily basis.

I use for everything in my life.

>> How do you feel in here?

>> I feel really great.

It feels really powerful hearing what Xandora

has just said because she's accurate right on the point about

witchcraft and Satanism is that it's really what works for you

>> and how it works to help other people in the process.

Satanism isn't about murdering things, hurting people.

It's >> I'm going to cut you off.

It's a misconception that people think it's all about death and drinking blood and killing people.

Like that's that's what people think

and you must put that's what Hollywood does.

And you must struggle

if you come if you go somewhere random and you're alone and you're trying

to explain this to someone.

It is >> they they will almost always

like the you're joking or >> legacy media likes to to play this part where

it's a theatrical thing where oh there's devil worshippers.

Let's go follow that

and let's hype it up so it looks like they're

terrible people that are going to do this but they're really behind

uh something that is so positive

and has nothing to do >> What is the core belief?

Is it almost like anti-socciety belief?

Is it anti- re-religion? Like what?

>> Satanism is a par

religion, which means it's an alternative to religion.

There's like a lifestyle Satanist, right?

That believes in the core basis of Satanism.

A lot of people call it a religion because it's the church of Satan, the satanic temple.

So, it's been there for me every day of my life.

So, to me, I would consider

>> prayers like in Judaism, we light the candles for Shabbat.

Is there something like that in Satan?

Oh, we have rituals for sure.

Uh we have three major types of rituals in Leva and Satanism.

Lust, compassion, and destruction.

You'll see these like very theatrical

themes, but the reason that they're theatrical

is because for a curse

or a compassion ritual

to work, everybody has to be on the same energy level.

And adding that part of theatricalness

to it makes the energy of that ritual higher.

It makes it stronger.

Yes, you can do a ritual

without lighting a candle.

And that's more of a manifestation, right?

>> Before coming to Massachusetts,

I had no idea what Satanism was about.

But with Sandor as my guide, I now understand that most Satanists

are atheists, which means they don't believe in anything supernatural.

They're more like artists or activists than they are devil worshippers.

I can't wait to meet real believers at the Satanic Temple.

But first, we can't leave without visiting the famous graveyard.

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Now, let's head back to Massachusetts

to meet more >> So, this where we're taking you right now is the most

haunted cemetery in >> Yes. This where Mr.

Guiles was a uh victim

of the Salem witchcraft hysteria.

Was crushed to death.

>> So, when you say haunted,

like do you think it's haunted?

Like, do you feel something different in here?

This is what people say because

back then, you know, they crushed him to death.

15% of the people that are buried here were crushed to death.

>> So, you know, a lot of people, myself included, are very scared of death

and we don't like to think about it.

What does death mean to you?

>> In Satanism, the reason

we celebrate ourselves is because

this is the only life you got.

When you die, you're dead.

There's no uh heaven glory bright and no

hell where sinners roast, right?

Basically, make the best of your life.

If you're going to be an apologize.

Be a hedonist with

>> What does hedenist mean?

>> If you want to have sexual freedom,

if you want to party on the weekends,

you want to be a weekend warrior, you go do that.

But get to your actual life, too,

>> You're personally not scared of death. You embrace death.

I've had a lot of my friends die. My ex-husband's dead.

So, you know, it took me a while to process all these deaths

because they happened all so suddenly, right?

>> And that's it for me, you know, like I'll never see those people again.

To me, that is the last

that I will ever >> from those people.

And that's I think what makes me the saddest.

>> Yeah, that is sad >> because

life is for the living.

Depends on what you believe in where you're gonna go.

But I think that

we go in the ground or we get spread into the air or into the sea.

>> So Satanists in general don't believe in heaven or hell. >> Absolutely not.

We don't believe in Satan.

Satan is a metaphor.

>> So what So why is it called Satanism? It's confusing. >> It really is. Right.

It's it's a double-edged sword.

Satan represents personal freedom.

>> That's what you believe in. >> Yes.

People say, "Oh, it's a religion or it's a philosophy."

You you could say it's a little bit of both.

But what Satanism gives you is that freedom to be yourself.

Like yes, there's some guidelines

to Satanism, but you can be you.

>> I don't believe in the actual devil at all.

I've been actually close to death many times where

I've had 30 intubated surgeries, several scars. >> 30? Yeah.

My whole leg is completely just messed up. Yeah. I mean, >> damn.

Sorry to hear that.

>> It's just I mean I had my entire leg taken out.

I was hit by a car when I was

>> 20 years old and I mean

had 33 four rods put in cuz one of them snapped and >> I'm sorry. >> And he's strong.

He's stronger than anyone I've ever met.

>> On to Christianity at that time, but I decided to stay with No, you are with >> Wow.

I mean, I would have never known. You're walking fine. You're >> Yeah.

I people coming over trying to preach to me in the hospital

tell me that, you know, God really was on your side.

That's why you survived this

>> And you're thinking like, no.

>> I'm like, um, I I really want to get the out of here. >> Yeah. Science saved you.

Science saved >> Do you say to them like you just keep it in your

head like about God?

You're just >> I listen to them and I listen to why they believe in

God and why it helps them guide themselves

through personal >> The devil, Satan, like you go to hell, but you guys don't believe in that. So, what's this?

What's going on here?

>> I think hell is on earth.

Like hell is what you make of it, right?

Like if you're having a shitty time,

I consider that to be hell. Yeah.

>> If you're here and you're having a great time,

that's your heaven, right?

>> We're in downtown Salem

and it's really cool.

I really feel like I'm in Boston because of the brick buildings.

And every sign I'm seeing is literally

when she told you she's a satanic witch. What?

Like you said, I love that.

>> There's a huge misconception

about Satanists and the Satanic

Temple and what they have to offer.

And I think Satanists

and people that care about the Satanic Temple and support it just care about supporting other people.

Honestly, my wife and I, we moved here

um like 2 years ago and immediately noticed a huge community shift here.

There's a huge sense of community, a big sense of

care for one another.

Everyone talks to each other. Everyone's really welcoming.

Um, and that was one of the very first I mean you noticed that

at the grocery store here.

>> I want you to meet my friend. >> Hi, I'm Dora. You can panic witch.

>> Oh, we love that.

>> Why do you love that?

>> I was born here and I love I love everything witches and stuff. >> Really? It's so cool. >> That's so cute. >> How about y'all?

How y'all feel about

>> I think it's cool.

Like all the history, >> It's really cool.

>> I mean, I believe

like strongly with, you know, witchcraft

and like the crystals and like the tarot cards and all that.

I grew up like that with my mom and stuff.

So, >> I have a witch natural witch vibe in

>> Thank you so much.

>> Have a good day.

>> Is your family supportive of you and your beliefs?

>> They have never said to me about my beliefs.

They're really cool with it.

I don't have a very good relationship

with my mom, but when I did, she was very supportive.

And I talk to my dad sometimes.

I'll tell him about it, but he might not see it.

He has gotten the brunt of being my father

and me being an erotica model.

Um, one time I was in >> You were.

>> Now, my my dad doesn't order Playboys

ever again >> cuz he saw you.

>> Do you enjoy performing on stage? >> I love performing. That's my ritual.

Like that is the ultimate ritual.

That's what gets you going.

But as soon as I step on the stage

and I see the lights come on

and the curtain >> I love that >> spread.

I go to a different place.

>> What do you think about blood sucking?

>> I don't suck people's blood.

That sounds really dangerous,

but if you're into it, hey, and the other person is consenting,

I don't have a problem with it.

As long as there's consent,

you can do whatever the hell you want.

If you agree to something that's consensual, >> agree.

I agree to that. >> Consensual is sexy. Consent is sexy.

>> Consent is very sexy.

>> Behind me is the Satanic Temple.

And what's kind of crazy is it's located inside of a neighborhood.

There's literally houses like everywhere around us.

What is it like to live next to the Satanic Temple? >> They're good neighbors.

They don't bring any issues to our area.

It's the fanatics that come and are disruptive,

but they've been fantastic neighbors. They're not Satanist. That's the thing. >> Tell me more. I'm interested. What do you mean? >> They're not Satanists.

They They believe in equality for everyone. >> They do.

>> Everyone equal equal ground for

>> So, who's a Satanist? >> No one.

>> The bottom line is the Satanic Temple is named as such

to be shocking, to get the known,

to make people react.

They're all about rights for all.

You know, whenever they

some state wants to put the

ten commandments in school, the satanic temple is right there going, "Wait a minute.

No, no, we're all the same.

That means you have to put a boss." >> You're right.

>> So, you think it's all kind of for show

>> I think it is the name.

The name, not the movement.

I think they're very sincere about having equal freedoms

and religions throughout the country.

But yeah, the name it's shock value.

some of the people who want to look at it as something different in

other parts of the country. It's unfortunate.

>> It's something easy to latch on to. >> It is.

It's an easy thing to do >> as an outsider.

Like, it's it's interesting.

Why do we watch scary movies?

Why do we watch serial killers?

>> It's refreshing to meet the normal residents of Salem and see what they think of Satanism.

But now's the moment I've been waiting for.

We are about to step inside the actual satanic temple.

It's strictly forbidden to take photos or videos here.

So, we're lucky that Sora got us permission.

Here we are with modern Satanism

with the Satanic Temple.

Want to come on in? >> Let's go inside. >> Let's go.

They have seasonal artists

come here and they curate

these beautiful art pieces.

And then you have sigual work, right?

So like sigil work is really important to ritualist

Satanists and some people have their own sigils.

Some people go off of

sigils like the baff.

So basically this sigil that I have is called the satanic

power symbol and it was Anton Lave's personal symbol.

So it's a inverted star with a lightning bolt in it and that lightning

bolt like goes downwards

because it grounds you as a satanist.

They all mean something different to everyone. So yeah.

>> Wait, so is this more of an art museum or a temple?

>> Right now it's the daytime so they got to make money.

Honey, when they turn the lights down

that's when the magic happens.

And speaking of the magic,

>> this is the baffomet right here.

Uh, designed by Mark

Porter in Florida of all places.

We have some people that had donated.

If you come look on the back in the secret spot that nobody looks at.

>> So basically the Baffomet

originally was created by

a occultist called Leopus Levy.

He was the first person to draw the Baffomet.

Not with the little children.

That's added on by the satanic temple.

But Baffomet was basically trans, right?

It had this male

body of a goat,

but he also has boobies.

>> And this one doesn't have boobies. No.

>> To me, the baff

represents a lot of different things.

It represents to me like the duality

of just being a human, right?

Like especially nowadays, everyone's

sexuality and like preferences on blast.

Like I think that

all of us have some feminine

and male divine energy within us and I think the baff represents that. >> Hail Satan.

How does one become a

>> Satanists are born not made.

When I first read the Satanic

Bible at 13, it made sense to me.

And then when I read The Satanic

Witch, it really started to make sense to me because

I never read an occult book that was written for women.

That really sol solidified

me as being a satanic witch.

It taught me how to use my attributes

and my sexuality and my sensuality.

And even if people think I'm dumb, let them think you're dumb

because you can use it to your advantage.

It's crazy to me how publicly the satanic church operates in this day and

age because back in the 80s and '90s,

a wave of fear called the satanic

panic swept across America.

>> Warning signs of satanic

behavior may be >> People believe there were secret cults abusing kids, performing rituals, and

hiding in plain sight.

>> Smurfs carry a homosexual

connotation in that most of them are male. >> I believe so.

>> None of it was ever proven, but that didn't stop the media, the courts,

and the churches from turning it into a full-blown hysteria.

not unlike the witch trials or communist red scare.

>> So what happened to Anton Levy during this time

is basically they almost destroyed the church of Satan.

And it's really important

that we take a moment to focus on this

because this place wouldn't be here

if he didn't fight

for Satanism during that time.

>> Do you think there'll be another satanic

>> I hope not in my lifetime.

But if it is, honey, I'm coming.

I'm going to come for Find me. Fight me.

>> I love that >> the Satanic Temple uses art as well to make a political statement, right?

It's not about you.

There's not a Satanist that you've met in your life probably or even a

trans person or someone that thinks differently

that's done something bad to you.

You know, I'm not here to do anything bad to anyone.

I'm actually doing very good positive things in the world.

And I don't judge you,

so please don't judge me.

and and we can all get along.

So that's how I kind of feel about it.

And hell Satan, >> when Satanism

was created in the '60s,

you have to think of the climate

that 1966 in San Francisco was free.

Sexuality is a part of our rituals.

Sexual freedom, you know, like

if someone comes up to me and they're a sex worker, cool.

I don't have any,

you know, beef with that.

like whatever sexual empowerment

makes you great as long as you're not like going behind

somebody's back and their husband or something, you know, like

let's not do that. It's not cool.

But I'm probably not going to judge you.

But I take sexualism

from Satanism and I definitely use it as a ritual on stage as a burles dancer.

Uh, one of my most famous acts is me of of

a stripping as a stripping

>> When I was uh in high school,

I ended up getting

arrested for something that I did in school

because I was Gothic and I had

serial killers a Toz in my book bag and the Satanic

Bible and some Marilyn Manson lyrics.

I became a victim of the satanic panic.

They shipped me to a mental institution

for three months trying to whitewash me of Satanism.

We'll see how that worked. Right.

When I got in probation,

a part of my probation

was that I had to have normal hair color and I couldn't wear any black.

Yes, they can actually do that there.

And the day that

uh my probation was over, I dyed my hair black.

I was wearing like vinyl to school.

And then the officer that arrested me

somehow ended up coming to my school and saying, "Hey, can I talk to

you for a second?"

and said, "Oh, I'm concerned about you.

They told me they called me and told me that you

went back to yourself today."

And I was like, "Yeah, myself."

And he basically sat me down and took

uh Polaroid photos of me for his book on cults that he was going to write.

And from that day forward,

I never went to high school again

because my mom came

and signed me out and I got my GED

and I left school because

of the way that I was treated.

>> It makes you stronger. >> It does.

If that didn't change me, nothing will, sweetheart.

>> So, the word cult gets thrown around a lot.

Not only with Satanism, with everything. Everything's a cult. Everything's a cult.

>> The word a cult scares people.

And I think the word cult has been overused

so much also by the media.

A cult is a group of people that believe in have esoteric

beliefs of one thing or another.

It doesn't have to be one specific thing.

A cult is just a umbrella statement, right? >> Cult.

It didn't come from Manson,

but Manson made it popular in modern times.

So when you look at me, do you think of Charles Manson? >> Thank you.

>> You're not a serial fan.

>> So I'm not a cult member,

even though people think I am.

If I was in the Manson

family, then I would be a cult member.

Does that make sense to y'all?

>> Makes sense to me. Cool.

>> Whether you see it as trolling or a form of protest, Satanism

today is less about the devil and more about the separation of church and state.

From courtroom battles to community outreach, they're using shock to spark change.

The people I met today in Massachusetts

are thoughtful, organized, and they stand up for something bigger than themselves.

And I got to say, it really isn't that strange after all.