The Assassination of Charlie Kirk and the Satanic Panic 2.0

“We live in the midst of invisible forces whose effects alone we perceive. We move among invisible forms whose actions we very often do not perceive at all, though we may be profoundly affected by them.” – Dion Fortune

I was recently asked by several people to comment on the political assassination of conservative Christian social commentator Charlie Kirk. While a more detailed analysis is required, I’ll point out the following and leave it to the reader to consider the points made and what it means to them as a practitioner of esoteric disciplines.

What we know: Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a rally in front of thousands of people and his family.

What we don’t know: We do not know much more than that simple fact. We are told a great deal. We can even very rationally surmise a great deal for a host of reasons, but that is not something we know. It is something we believe or are presenting as conjecture.

What we know: The response to Kirk’s death worldwide was staggering. He, along with the murdered Ukrainian woman, Iryna Zarutska a day earlier, have become not only martyrs but secular saints of sorts for a variety of populist and religious causes – again, worldwide.

What we don’t know: What the long-term reactions to this vast reservoir of psychic power is going to be.

What we know: Two days prior to Kirk’s murder an editor at the leftist online publications Jezebel published an article (since removed from their website) on how she hired a witch from an Etsy listing to curse Charlie Kirk. They insisted it was all in good fun and meant no harm.

Why this matters: For over ten years the “spiritual community” has been increasingly infested with neo-pagans, witches, and some variations of Buddhist converts and magicians who have advocated the use of malefic magic for their specifically “progressive” political ends. This includes publishers as well as authors, and as I have stated repeatedly, it is interesting to see how the neo-pagan community has gone from “And harm ye none” and “We are not Satanists” (c.1985) to endorsing, advocating, and supporting a host of publications and organizations are either malefic or openly “Satanic” for either commercial or political reasons (c. 2015-2025).

This collapse of ethics and adherence to the virtues as presented on the Tree of Life, the basis for classical initiation and spiritual progress, can mean only one thing: there will be Hell to pay.

It is unimportant if the editors of Jezebel or even the publishers of the political occult pulp don’t believe that cursing really works. The fact that they ignore the fundamentals of what constitutes a healthy person and healthy society alone is what matters. So, we have what are fundamentally spiritually bankrupt materialists mocking not only the Christian faith of Kirk and wishing him harm – all in good fun we are told – but we also have would-be practitioners going along with it for the ride. And they will be ridden, be sure of that – because either way, the power of the mind – be it materialist based mass suggestions and media manipulation or occult thought forms and the generation of an egregore – will not be abused without consequences.

If we are lucky, we – and that means the esoteric community, publishers, and writers like myself (and that really means my family) – will get through the next two or three years without seeing a “Satanic Panic 2.0.” And be clear, if it happens it will be well founded and deserved. Failure to enforce ethics as a baseline standard for entry into and practice of esotericism is not a strength, it is a profound weakness. The widespread publishing of books on malefic magic, even under the guise of political activism, is not an acceptable excuse. And to be doubly clear, the attempts by some in the esoteric community to have me and others I know “cancelled” (read: defunded) for questioning the official narratives was also a form of malefic magic aimed at purging “the community” of any dissent.

If all goes well we will be ignored, but I doubt it. There will be some blow-back at least on the “witchcraft” end of the spiritual community. I do not expect it to last long, as the news cycle and attention cycle is considerably faster than when “Satanic Panic 1.0” took place.

However, it needs to be clearly understood that the original Satanic Panic was a phenomena born of an unholy alliance of strange bedfellows: aspects of Second Wave Feminism, the emerging Social Work programs on the graduate degree level, Fundamentalist Christians, and cliques within the Roman Catholic Church, all coming together with an irresponsible, ratings (read profit) driven media and government agencies – mainly local law enforcement, schools, and social services – that were underinformed, overwhelmed, and unable to adequately address the problems as they were told to “protect the children.” Be clear, strange things were happening, children were abused (as they had been before and after), but the hysteria of the time prevented an understanding of the reality of child trafficking and sexual abuse. Political and financial agendas dominated the scene, because that was the purpose all along. Any “occult” reality to the events was truly hidden, or rather invisible, but could be seen in the hysteria, emotionalism, dogmatisms, and rush to judgement that dominated the events of the period. It was less by the 1990s when it morphed into the more generalized “anti-Cult Movements” often linked to concerns about Scientology with other spiritual movements and esoteric groups getting swept into the bin at the time. It was and still is a battle between various egregores.

Unfortunately, we are currently looking at the emerging “We are Charlie” movement that is worldwide, well funded, and has a legitimate reason to be “afraid of the midnight hag.” A reason given to it by many in the witchcraft community themselves, either by open action of cursing, or silence in their opposition to it. There is also an unspoken part: it will not simply be white, conservative Christians who start to question the efficacy of malefic magic, as they already believe in it. It will be the middling milquetoast cultural Protestants beginning to wonder if there is something to this “evil thing after all,” along with the host of legal and illegal immigrants that have come to the West in the tens of millions from cultures that already have a conviction in the efficacy of magic in general, and black magic in particular. They will be the potential supporters of the “anti-cult movement” as it unfolds here – a clear reversal of the 1990s when part of the anti-cult movement was to stop the spread of various movements into not only Europe but also Developing Countries.

Then, just for the sake of completeness, we throw in the increased interest over the last decade in folk magic among African Americans (a return to their hoodoo roots so to speak), Native Americans and their various practices, and well just about anybody you want to mention has some form of malefic magical practices in their closet or desk drawer somewhere waiting to be pulled out. How they may respond to its general appearance in wider society is unknown.

That said, how the players for a potential “Satanic Panic 2.0” will line up is not clear to me. It will most likely be a revival of the usual suspects, some of the usual slogans, and there will be unintended consequences that will be ignored. What will be different about this time, is that the New and Emerging Religious Movements, and the neo-pagan, witchcraft, and some related groups will have brought it upon themselves for thirty years of poor choices. Open hostility to the mainstream culture at large (i.e, “the spoon that feeds you”), moving away from practice to having a political litmus test, and with that a near lockstep identification and support of radically Left of center causes and even candidates, all topped off with the very public advocacy and support of magic as a tool to those ends, and if a malefic tool, so much the better.

As one sows, so shall they reap. Fall is here and the Reaper is coming, check your karmic bank balance and get it in the “black” so to speak.

“I well remember it being said to me by an occultist of great experience that two things are necessary for safety in occultism, right motives and right associates.” – Dion Fortune