Satan Speaks: Krugersdorp, Devilsdorp and the Satanic Panic...

When many of us hear the words ‘Satanic panic’, our minds automatically retrace back to the 1960’s and 70’s, during which a myriad of murders and crimes were committed, and immediately attributed to the?mythological Christian adversary ‘Satan’?and his legion of demons. Yet, this enigmatic misconception, however, seems to continually rear its ugly head every so often when ordinary people are confronted with the inhumane cruelty of others. And the stigma surrounding the?Krugersdorp murders?are no stranger to this: with the release of the new documentary called?Devilsdorp. It is thus once again apparent that society – especially in South Africa – still has a long way to go in divorcing itself from the myopic notion that there indeed exists a connection between an invisible adversary, enthralling individuals via some supernatural and diabolical power to commit monstrous and psychopathic acts. While, in fact, neuroscience combined with criminology and psychology in the last 60+ years, have generated countless research with enough scientifically sound (logically reasonable) explanations for such murderous behavioural phenomena; in stark contrast to the special pleading fallacies of conservative evangelical Christians… – in short, please stop blaming Satan. It unnecessarily vilifies people, Satanists, (like me) who just want to live in peace and mind our own business. Alas, due to the psychotic ramblings of the female South African equivalent of Charles Manson,?Cecilia Steyn, who allegedly claimed to have been a “46th generational Satanic witch”, hypnotising (or rather manipulating) her flock/friends/followers to commit murder, fraud and intimidation, and more… – on her behalf; accompanied by popular news media’s sensational headlines choosing Satan as the logical and compassionate choice for a publicity stunt, I once again feel like sharing my (uncalled for) opinion in protest. Read at own risk…

Right, now that we’ve gotten the elephant out of the room, allow me to start by noting that the media and many average religionists in South Africa love to focus on the juicy Satanic bits as the definitive driving force behind this entire murdering spree; negating for the most part, that everything Cecilia Steyn achieved was through the indoctrination of vulnerable and religiously na?ve individuals via elaborate narratives of her alleged (past) Satanic affiliations; convincing them that she is constantly an endangered fugitive, facing imminent threats from an imaginary “Satanic Church” and the witch powers that be: she cleverly crafted stunts, scenarios and stories which would emotionally and psychologically feed on the spiritual naiveté of those in her immediate circle. And all for what? Attention? Recognition? Adoration? – From what I could gather; all of the above. Because as soon as her loyalists started to ‘lose faith’ in her regurgitated stories and stunts, she ‘upped her game’ by giving them premium membership to an exclusive cult (or gang, rather) called?Electus per Deus?(Latin: “Chosen by God”), consisting of six individuals (including Cecilia), ready to carry out her murderous bidding with due diligence and unquestioning loyalty.

Oh! And also dedicate to her regular EFT ‘tithes’, totaling thousands of Rands all while Cecilia didn’t lift her arse to do a day’s honest work. The amount each individual member had to pay, depended heavily on each member’s individual profession and was purportedly donated (via Cecilia) to a mysterious orphanage in the U.S. where first born babies & children, doomed to be ritual sacrifices to Satan would allegedly be sent, by their parents (to prevent them from being sacrificed, of course). That doesn’t sound like a Pyramid scheme at all… Yet, with unwavering faith in their supreme leader Cecilia;?Marinda Steyn?(former High School teacher)?along with her two children?Marcel?(14 years old at the time)?and?Leroux Steyn?(16 years old at the time), accompanied by?Zak Valentine?(a successful financial adviser)?and his wife?Mikeila Valentine?(Rhema Bible college student), all emptied their coffers faithfully and with a smile towards Cecilia’s (imaginary) orphanage – …and also in support of Cecilia’s constant sickliness, caused by her being pestered by demons, like bugs: which according to her “could never be exorcised”. And if that’s not enough, Cecilia managed to turn most of these individuals into her own personal armada of serial killers, killing 11 (possibly more) people: first for revenge and later for money, without Cecilia ever having to get her hands dirty (physically, at least).

She did all of this over a period of 4 years, while simultaneously masquerading as a born-again Christian (or was it ex-witch, or ex-Satanist?), working with an evangelical Christian ministry: “Overcomers Through Christ (O.T.C)”, where Cecilia helped author and present coursework called “Know Your Enemy: Basic training”. Basically, a?woo-woo?booklet with stereotypical Satanic iconography, prayers and spiritualistic niches, accompanied by out-of-context Christian Biblical quackery on “how to fight Satan”, providing info- on the underground rituals and “Satanic holidays” along with a fearmongering array of “Satanic curses”. And to what end? You might ask. Well, quite frankly, there’s quite nothing that makes Christianity feel so legit, like a perceived holy war against imaginary evil principalities. Yes, it sounds extremely infantile. I know. I’ve been there, done that. Got the oil, smeared a bunch of shit with it. All while accompanied by prayer-like incantations and senseless mumbling (purely for aesthetic). And I got to burn demonic stuff that didn’t pass the 'vibe check' (i.e. using your hand as a spiritual metal detector). Although, it’s all fun and games until you realise it’s just dopamine accompanied by an indoctrinated farse, sugarcoated with poor theology and you can get the same feeling from just smoking weed… – Woah, okay, wait. I know that was a mouthful. Take your time to process that! I think I captured the moral of the story well enough, though…

On a different note, I would like to add my own tidbit of evangelical Satanism (no, not really… – relax, it’s just a joke Karen). In all seriousness though, the Krugersdorp murders case – with specific reference to Cecilia Steyn – is but one example of many, regarding the sensationalism surrounding any mention of the?Occult?or?Satanism?in a crime context. That’s why I believe the documentary?Devilsdorp?was titled accordingly: It’s clickbait! And we all know sensation sells. I mean, that’s also why?Anton LaVey?created the “Church of Satan” in the first place; people were hungry for a scapegoat but he gave them a scandal instead, because some people (like LaVey) got tired of Christians’ lack in accountability for their misdeeds. So, therefore, it’s simple ‘common practice’ for cognitive misers to assume that “Cecelia Steyn & Co.” were under a ‘Satanic influence’ which was the impetus to their erratic behaviour, rather than paying attention to the facts pointing directly to the Christian name of their little group in big neon lights, dripping with a narcissistic amount of Christian, neo-Calvinist elitism: quite comfortably overlooked, as it doesn’t seem to fit the average South African’s preconceived religious biases. Also, some of us don’t read past the headlines on Newspapers. And that’s why, when we look at the late 1900’s, the Satanic Panic blew over to?post-apartheid South Africa, all the way from the United States and Australia. And now, with Apartheid gone, it suddenly became illegal to vilify black people with the Bible, and so the church had to find a new scapegoat to suit the?zeitgeist?(spirit of the times) because organised Christianity needs an enemy as a scapegoat to point fingers at in order to maintain its self-importance. And who better than the infamous age-old evangelical rival, Satan himself? And at the forefront of this semi-righteous battle, the heroic saviour of the day while also the propaganda puppet-master, authoring biased Christian literature (perpetuating the widespread Satanic panic), was Dr. Kobus “Donker” Jonker who between 1991 and 2001 lead a local ‘occult unit’ in the South African Police Service (SAPS), seeking (and finding) the devil behind every crime scene bush.

And because of people like Jonker, Satan and Satanists (who honestly don’t even believe in Satan) were, and still are, automatically vilified as we are automatically associated with the slaughter of cats, desecration of Christian churches and iconography, worship of Satan in exchange for material benefits, hosting orgies, drinking blood, indoctrinating kids with Def Leppard (which, in itself, isn’t necessarily a bad thing)?et cetera, ad nauseum. Even though many of this couldn’t be further from the truth, people will still much rather believe that we (Satanists) are more capable of the above and violence, as opposed to suspecting the person sitting next to them in church, baking pancakes for every bazaar, attending services each Sunday, friends with the Pastor, has religious pictures drawn by children on classroom walls, who is also active and liked in the community, and so forth… These praiseworthy statements and many more, were made by fellow community members in Krugersdorp when referring to?Marinda Steyn. The same Marinda who, when she testified in Court on the stand for all to see, recounted in excruciating detail how she proudly murdered her victims in cold blood and on top of all that, admitted that she enjoyed it. Whereas she also piously acknowledged, in the same breath,?that she was a Christian. Saying “God gave me a message to be truthful, and I will be forgiven” and therefore she decided to testify. She also blackmailed her children Marcel (daughter) and Leroux (son) into forcibly participating in the murders, beating Leroux with a baseball bat and verbally abusing her daughter; eventually throwing them under the bus when disowning them in her will and dedicating her assets to Cecilia, testifying (falsely) against them in court to protect Cecilia. Furthermore, when the presiding judge:?Judge Ellem Jacob Francis?of the Gauteng High Court,?asked Cecilia Steyn whether she was?a Satanist, she answered “no”. Later adding the fact that she considered herself a so-called “born-again Christian”… – One of the other members,?Mikeila Valentine?(as mentioned earlier),?was a student at Rhema Bible College, but later left to join the murderous adventures of?Electus per Deus, along with her husband Zak who was also described by her (Mikeila’s) own mother as a “good Christian man” for whom “God opened the door” into her daughter’s life. The same husband, who unbeknownst to her, would later work together with Cecilia and Marinda to orchestrate?Mikeila’s murder, because she got ‘cold?feet’ and subsequently became a loose end.

You might be curious as to what I am trying to achieve in telling you all of this? The fact that the behaviour of the Krugersdorp murderers, commonly attributed to Satanism, by media sensationalists is misleading and dangerous – especially in light of the contradictory dissonance caused when juxtaposed with their vocal Christian rhetoric. Their group name in and of itself speaks volumes, for crying out loud! Even Kobus Jonker, when interviewed in the?Devilsdorp?documentary, charged that this wasn’t a Satanic-related murdering spree. In addition, I would like to add that Satanism (in general) has never -and will never- promote the merciless killing of animals, people or any other living creature for that matter. Moreover, we don’t even worship, or believe in Satan as an actual entity – he doesn’t exist in our frame of reference, but rather serves as a static symbol for opposing injustice and oppression. Also, encouraging self-determination, promoting autonomy, along with the healthy and responsible expression of one’s carnality. We negate the existence of god or gods, angels or demons, and any notions of the afterlife. We dedicate our human existence and the meaning thereof, towards living our lives to the fullest: completely rooted in the appreciation of the present moment. Our worldviews are firmly rooted in science and we preserve our love for those we deem worthy, and repay kindness with kindness and?vice versa. All in pursuit of- and dedication towards our ‘higher selves’ (i.e. who we aspire to be). We don’t pray, we don’t have special holidays, nor do we have churches we attend religiously. Orgies are un-Satanic and our doctrine emphatically prioritises?sexual consent. We are not evil, we are our own gods. Yet, simultaneously we are also humans with feelings and emotions. And we have, consistently, been misrepresented by an outdated stigma perpetuated by some Christians, who (unlike Satanists) fail to acknowledge responsibility and accountability for their own shortcomings, but instead choose to blame the influence of extrinsic evil personas. Because Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years…

Finally, I would like to highlight that I do not wish to make this article seem like a criticism to the overall?Devilsdorp?documentary recently released on Showmax: I binged the entire series in 4 hours and found it a riveting watch, nailing my eyes to the screen! And in my view, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best documentary – even by international standards – I have ever watched. And I am a big fan of its informative, sensible and logical, authentic and multi-faceted interviews with various professionals. However, the premise of my criticism (overall) is merely the religious entrenchment of the Krugersdorp murder-mystery narrative; marketing it to popular opinion as something borne from a Satanic driving force, which the media (of course) exploits as an opportunity to sensationalise and perpetuate the myopic regression back towards the Christian-driven religious intolerance of the late 1900’s in the 21st century, known as the ‘Satanic Panic’. I would like to also reiterate the words?Judge Ellem Jacob Francis?spoke during his sentencing of the Krugersdorp killers:?Zak,?Cecilia, and?Marcel.

“The role of this court is to dispense justice: Satanism – which is not a criminal offence in our country – is not on trial but [rather] the evil deeds that are committed by the accused [which] are heinous, barbaric and cold blooded crimes in terms of the laws of our country…this is the worst case I have presided over. Words fail to describe what I’d witnessed for the duration of the trial…”

PHAHLE, Y. ET AL. 2021, DEVILSDORP – S01E04?‘KILLER VS. KILLER’,?IDEACANDY PRODUCTIONS, SHOWMAX.COM.

Satanism was never on trial, as it is not a criminal offence in South Africa. Although, the fact of the matter remains; murder still is… Therefore, people should much rather focus on treating the Krugersdorp serial murder exposé accordingly, without any religous embellishments. Yet, alternatively, if they wish to ascribe a religious motif: let the name “chosen by God” be a stark reminder to any who wish to impulsively equate the Krugersdorp murder cult with modern Satanism: and for that reason, it was never?Devilsdorp?to begin with, but in the end, rather?Murdersdorp…