Black Mass Appeal: Modern Satanism for the Masses

Episode 166 - The Wicker Man

Something Wicker this way comes, as we rekindle our interest the most heathenish of horror classics, 50 years after it scared the Hell into audiences.

Episode 165 - Ohio's Great Satanic Panic ("Digging Up Devils")

Author Jack Legg is here to dig up all the dirt on the Satanic Panic in his own backyard with his new book "Digging Up Devils," the story of 80 human sacrifices that never happened.

Episode 164 - Deadly Sins: Satanic Greed

On this episode: How can greed be a sin if it also makes the world go round? Ethicist John Paul Rollert joins us as we cash in our chips.

Episode 163 - The Cannibalism Episode

We're biting off more than we can chew with mythical Satanic cannibals past and present, and it's a mouthful.

Episode 162 - Priests of Satan

Its time to correct some clerical errors with our comprehensive history of Sinister Ministers--fictional and factual.

Episode 161 - The Return of Lilith

Our favorite feminist fiend is back, as we uncover even more esoteric history revealing why Lilith always comes out on top.

Episode 160 - Drunk Heresy: The Geraldo Special

We remember the infamous 1988 Geraldo Satanism special--and then drink to forget the infamous 1988 Geraldo Satanism special.

Episode 159 - Satanists Read the Book of Mormon

We've tested Testaments new and old, and so it came to pass that we delve into the most fundamentally American of all fundamentalist American religions and meet their really weird devil.

Episode 158 - Selling Souls

It's a buyer's market, but everything must go! Sidney Sin joins us for a who's who of who's sold their souls for fame, fortune, and malevolent musicality in human history.

Episode 158 - Selling Your Soul

It's a buyer's market, but everything must go! Sidney Sin joins us for a who's who of who's sold their souls for fame, fortune, and malevolent musicality in human history.

Episode 157 - The Pazuzu Episode

Pazuzu, king of ancient wind demons and friend to children everywhere; but what made Pazuzu the most popular demon of his day, and what can his myth tell us about the nature of religion, morality, and storytelling? Digital Hammurabi's Megan Lewis explains.

Episode 156 - Satanists Read the Bible: "A Game For Good Christians"

Black Mass Appeal is developing a King James Aversion with this down and very dirty study of the absolute worst parts of the Bible.

Episode 155 - Summoning Satan

Where do you go for face time with the Big S? To the library, of course.

Episode 154 - The Amityville Horror

We're making a Halloween house call to America's most famous haunted home to learn how the Amityville Horror conjured a new brand of American demonology. 

Episode 153 - The Sudbury Devil

Atun-Shei Film's Andrew Rakich talks religion, race, and recreancy with his new Satanic historical thriller "The Sudbury Devil."

Episode 152 - Good Omens 2

We are angel investors once again as we discuss the Satanic queer vibes of "Good Omens."

Episode 151 - Satanists Play Call of Cthulhu (Part 2)

In the thrilling conclusion of our Black Miskatonic Appeal game: Who lives? Who dies? And who has to submit to Misty's community theater tryouts?

Episode 150 - Satanists Play Call of Cthulhu (Part 1)

That is not dead what can eternal lie, but what if it's just been lying for 150 episodes or so, how dead is it then?

Episode 149 - The Cemetery Episode

What Satanic secrets do we dig up in this grave underaking?

Episode 148 - Satanic Anime

Episode 147 - Infernal Dictionary

On this episode: We don't know the meaning of the word...but that's about to change.

Bonus Episode: "In the Name of Satan"

Beelzebub has visited us with a very inconvenient virus, so while we reschedule our regular BMA, here's another little peak into Tabitha's private library to tide us all over. This time: Neo-Exorcist and Lego hair pioneer Bob Larson exercises our patience.

Patreon Episode Preview: Tabitha Does Stonehenge

Just for our Patreon backers, Tabitha is cracking the books and cracking the mysteries of Stonehenge. What will we learn? Well, we're talking about Mike Warnke here, so probably not much--but hey, at least it's a party.  

Episode 146 - The McMartin Preschool Scare

How did a tiny Southern California school end up giving an object lesson in the dangers of mass hysteria? To help us prosecute the McMartin Preschool case, we’re joined by lawyer and YouTuber Leonard French.

Episode 145 - Other Devils (Set & Ba'al Edition)

Satan springs eternal, but where did he spring from? Often we see older gods and religious figures compared to Satan and held up as his supposed origins, but is this accursed ancestry legit?

Episode 144 - The Satanic Warlock

In possibly our funniest episode ever, you say to-may-to and we say to-mah-to as we pick apart this pick-up manual for Satanists.

Episode 143 - Deadly Sins: Satanic Wrath

We're mad as Hell. No, really, literally this time.

Episode 142 - The Golden Age of Hollywood Satanism

We’re returning the world of Silver Screen Satanism in the days before major film censorship for some historical Hollywood heresies.   SHOW LINKS KSAT: San Antonio man wrongfully convicted in 1991 has charges dismissed in Satanic Panic case Australian Center for the Moving Image: Early Hollywood and the Hays Code Faust (1926) A landscape of nightmares, Roger Ebert (2005) Cultural Studies of Modern Germany: History, Representation, and Nationhood, by Russell A. Berman (1993) F...

Episode 141 - Satan's Underground

By 1988, the Satanic Panic was starting to run out of steam, so Harvest House Publishing pushed a brand new absurdo-biography tell-all to stoke its engines. Is “Satan’s Underground” the worst Satanic Panic memoir ever published–or just the worst we’ve read for this show?

Black Mass Appeal 141 - Satan's Underground

By 1988, the Satanic Panic was starting to run out of steam, so Harvest House Publishing pushed a brand new absurdo-biography tell-all to stoke its engines. Is “Satan’s Underground” the worst Satanic Panic memoir ever published–or just the worst we’ve read for this show?

Episode 140 - Goetic Demons 2

BMA 140: Goetic Demons 2

Episode 139 - Cutesy Satanism (with Artetak)

When it comes to Satanic aesthetics, you know the drill. But these days, we can’t help but notice a lot of Satanic art and fashion is looking downright cute – even adorable. Artist Artetak joins us to discuss this brand of "Soft Satanism."   SHOW LINKS Artetak! Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube The Daily Voice: NC Man Vowed To 'Shoot Everybody' At PA Middle School With 'Satan Club': DA, Mac Bullock (2023) Jezebel: Inside the Rainbow Gulag: The Technicolor Ri...

Episode 138 - Deadly Sins: Satanic Lust

When it comes to Deadly Sins, there’s one option you can always count on for putting skin in the game. So why do conventional religions have so many intimate inhibitions about Lust, and what can we do with the baggage we’ve inherited from them?   SHOW LINKS Salon: "The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic" is a thing that exists now, Kelly McClure (2023) Cathechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil, by Stanford M. Lyman (1989) T...

Episode 137 - Hell On Earth

We're taking everybody's advice and going to Hell! For as long as people have believed in a fiery underworld, they’ve spread stories about how to get there from various locations around the world; so when you want to go somewhere just for the Hell of it, where should you set your sites?   SHOW LINKS The Telegraph: Young sacrifice belief in God on altar of Satanism, Gabriella Swerling (2023) The Lineup: Stull Cemetery: A Hellmouth in the Heart of Kansas (2018) Atlas Obscura: Hellam T...

Episode 136 - Satanic Bible 2: The Revenge

Of all the books in Lucifer’s Library, one is overdue more often than all the others. But in the 50-plus years since the publication of the Satanic Bible, what has the world been saying about it, and how should these perspectives inform our own?   SHOW LINKS A Journey to Hell: My Visit to the Houston Satanic Temple’s Art Show, Michael Hardy (2022) Marburg Journal of Religion: Diabolical Authority: Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible and the Satanist "Tradition," James R. Lewis (2002) Sat...

Bonus Show: Satan's Whispers...

We've heard of the banality of evil, but this wasn't really what we imagined.

Bonus Show: Satanic Panic Theater (starring Tabitha!)

We unleash the weirdest depths of Tabitha's Satanic Panic library.

Episode 135 - Our Satanic Resolutions

The future is now – and also later, and arguably anytime we want it. With 2023 looming, we’re looking ahead and behind at some of our biggest Satanic and personal ambitions, and wondering which of them we’ll summon up for ourselves in the new year?   SHOW LINKS WAAYTV: Business Owner Defends Yule Festival   GET IN TOUCH WITH BLACK MASS APPEAL Facebook Twitter Instagram Patreon Tabitha Slander’s Instagram Discord server   SATANIC BAY AREA Website Facebook Twitter (...

Episode 134 - Why We Hail Satan

Every Satanist knows that there are really only two magic words in life: Hail Satan. But where does this phrase come from, and why DO we say it so often?   SHOW LINKS WCIA: Satanic Temple adds ‘Serpent of Genesis’ to Capitol Rotunda holiday display, Danny Connolly, Cole Henke (2022) Latin for Satanists: How to hail Satan in proper Latin, Nahn Cerwyam (2019) Eccentric Tales: In Verse: The Monk of Cambray, collected by William Barnes Rhodes, George Colman (1812) A Hymn To Satan: & O...

Episode 133 - The Devil's Advocate

“It’s my time now," Satan declares in the 1997 horror/drama Hollywood hit The Devil’s Advocate, starring Al Pacino as the original boss from Hell. Now, at the film’s 25th anniversary, has his time passed -– or has this become a truly timeless work?   SHOW LINKS LiveScience: Why Does the Devil Have Horns & Hooves?, Tom Metcalfe (2022) Publisher’s Weekly: What I Learned From Bestselling Author Andrew Neiderman, Sari Feldman (2018) The Devil’s Advocate, by Andrew Neiderman, Pocket Boo...

Episode 132 - Satanic Pride

Pride comes before the fall -- and since it’s already November, that means we’re already late! But as Modern Satanists, what does pride, in all of its myriad forms, mean to us, and how can we celebrate it most meaningfully?   SHOW LINKS Simone's "Creepy Bay Area" streaming special Awful Announcing: The danger of Kyrie Irving’s flat-Eartherism was ignored by the media in 2017, Velodus (2022) Online Etymology Dictionary: "Pride"  Queer Theology: The Sin of Pride, Fr. Shannon Kearns ...

Episode 131 - Fortune Telling & the Devil

For as long as humans have believed in mysticism we’ve been eager to know what the future holds, but modern religions are always hot to deal fortune telling to the devil. To help us learn more about why everyone is so afraid of making a psychic connection, we’re joined by Shiva Honey.   SHOW LINKS Shiva Honey's Serpentinae website and shop, Instagram, and Facebook York Dispatch: No One Wants Satanic Temple Money Cambridge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Divination, Diana Santo (2019) ...

Episode 130 - Satanic Monsters with MonsterTalk

We're created some monsters -- or so they say. Just in time for Halloween, we’re going to decrypt the Satanic legend-making over American cryptids, with the help of Karen and Blake from the long-running skeptics' podcast, MonsterTalk.   SHOW LINKS MonsterTalk: website, Twitter, and Facebook The Conversation: The monster festival – a pilgrimage to small town America, Joe Laycock (2018) Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program, by James T...

Episode 129 - A Jack Chick Halloween

Satanic Bay Area has our very own Satanic ‘Chick’ Tract celebrating the real history of Halloween, but the actual Jack Chick spent decades hatching fabrications about our favorite holiday. To help us with some of these comic misconceptions, we welcome Satanic artist Jason Lenox back to the show.   SHOW LINKS Lenox Art Emporium Satanic Bay Area's Halloween "Chick" Tract -- Preorder now! NPR: Christian Majority To End Women Write About Comics: Jack Chick's Unhappy Halloween Sat...

Episode 128 - The Dragon Episode

In past episodes we’ve added such creatures as goats, cats, and everyday snakes to our Mephistophelean menagerie, but today… Here there be dragons. We’re making the biggest addition ever – in more ways than one. We explore the history of devilish dragons and why these mythical monsters are so often associated with Satan.   SHOW LINKS Satanic Bay Area: Preorder our Halloween parody tract! San Francisco's best haunt: Terror Vault PopCrush: Mom Slammed Over Satanic Party Follow Davi...

Episode 127 - Mark of the Beast

On your MARKS, get set, go! We all know those fateful numbers 6-6-6 by heart, but most people’s assumptions about what they really mean don’t add up. To help us decipher this inscrutable integer, we’re joined by Beverly, longtime record-breaking member of our own Mark of the Beast club.   SHOW LINKS Only Sky: After legal threats, Kansas school board repeals ‘Satanism’ ban in dress code Revelation 13 Against Heresies, Irenaeus (180 CE) A Commentary Critical & Explanatory of the Ent...

Episode 126 - Burning Questions

For five years here at Black Mass Appeal we’ve strived to pass around the fruit of knowledge and answer everyone’s questions about Satanism, Satanists and non-Satanists alike. But we can’t reach everyone, and some people have instead gone looking for wisdom on the wrong places, like Quora and the dearly departed Yahoo Answers. So today we’re answering the burning questions that nobody asked us… but probably should have.   SHOW LINKS New Yorker: Farewell, Global Liberal Cannibalistic Ped...

Episode 125 - Satanic Birthdays

It's said one's own birthday is the highest of Satanic holidays, so we're making a wish and diving into the history of these rites of passage with Satanic writer La Carmina; also, a classic American witch finally gets her day in court, and Satanic Bay Area finds its initiative.   SHOW LINKS Ripley's: Last Salem "witch" pardoned thanks to middle schoolers La Carmina's website, Twitter, and Instagram The Satanic Bible, by Anton LaVey (1969) It is about time: Birthdays as modern rite...

Episode 124 - Drunk Heresy: Ending the Satanic Panic

In 1992, FBI Special Agent Kenneth Lanning published his "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse." Though many sources today credit Lanning with sinking the Satanic Panic, few people have actually read this conclusions, so today we’re getting to the bottom of a national panic -- and to the bottom of a few drinks. CW: We drink and talk about alcohol throughout the episode; if that's not the content for you, we understand!   SHOW LINKS IOL: South African Satanic Churc...