Church of Satan Sigil of Baphomet

To Hell with Madonna?

We have been asked if Madonna’s Super Bowl 2012 halftime show was intended to be a Satanic ritual. Having just watched the spectacle, which began rather like a Ken Russell remake of Mankiewicz’s 1963 CLEOPATRA, I have to applaud the opulent production. Satanic ritual is intended as a theatrical means to release pent-up emotions. I suspect that many who viewed the show found themselves excited by the selection of songs and the manner in which they were performed so that they were moved emotionally and may have achieved the sort of catharsis which is sought by Satanists when they ritualize. The game itself which framed this performance may have also served many sports fans in the same way.

Madonna, in her “material girl” phase, touched on perspectives that are dear to Satanists, after all we are a materialist philosophy. Her promotion at that time of the power of feminine allure was certainly congruent with principles expounded in our founder Anton LaVey’s “The Satanic Witch.”

Conspiracy theorists are jumping on aspects from Madonna’s cavalcade of imagery, but so much of that is like seeing the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast – people project things that they want to see in places where they were not consciously intended. The use of horned helmets and her disappearance into the nether regions at the conclusion were most likely coups de théâtre without deeper meaning. 

Over her career, this pop star has very cleverly found ways to reference religious iconography – her stage name alone gives that away. She stimulates her audiences, often with deftly wielded controversy, and that demonstrates her consummate mastery of the magic of show business.

Magus Peter H. Gilmore