Holly Elsdon - Are Satanists Real?

This year we have heard a fair few talks from a variety of speakers about satanic panics and historical ideas about witches and witchcraft- making pacts with the Devil. We saw it more recently with accusations of ‘satanism’ thrown at the organisers of the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris. The one question that is often asked- if there are so many stories or historical ‘examples’ of people worshipping the Devil, are there actually real Satanists?

During this talk we will will look at the history of the Devil and what he represents, the times his presence has been feared, the people who have been accused of Satanism, and those who have self identified as Satanists to try and unravel some of the fact from the fiction.