The Sigil of Baphomet. The goat of Mendes. The Nine Satanic Statements. The Luciferian Theosophy. And… The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Wait. What in the literal hell?!
Yeah, there are all these sardonic symbols that are closely affiliated with the Church of Satan. Not some esoteric quorum of people who dress in black, wear emo eye liner, and listen to guttural mumbling so loud eardrums have been known to explode.
This is an actual 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in San Francisco founded in 1966 by some bald-headed troll named Anton Szandor LaVey.
(See that fun star dumped on its head there? That is called the Sigil of Baphomet — it, being the goat-man in the “pentagram.” And now, all you Thrasher-wearing goths know for your ‘Jeopardy’ night.)
There have been many iterations of this construct, including government recognized covens and spawns of LaVeyian freethought. One of the largest and most official in the country is called (original name alert) The Satanic Temple, which was founded by Lucien Greaves.
Heaven forbid for a hellbound gaggle of folks not to Netflix and chill from time-to-time. And so it seems, Greaves decided to binge before “[satanic] bible study” one night and saw something that really perturbed the malevolent proselytizer.
So much that he decided to sue the streaming content juggernaut for copyright infringement, according to SFGate.com.
Seriously. What in the literal hell?!
Netflix adapted the 2014 Archie Comics series for what appears as the most stereotypical, millennial-riddled-with-hate-gone-helter-skelter-to-spite-mom-and-dad TV show in recent years. And while director Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa reaches for every possible symbol seen on a t-shirt found in Hot Topic, it seems his research took him too far.
That statue in the hero image above features a statue of Baphomet, the aforementioned deity the Knights Templar were falsely accused of worshipping, which brought it to infamous status throughout the occult. That evil caste of plaster is actually protected as intellectual property of Greaves’ Satanic Temple. Ergo, the law suit.
Yes, we are taking legal action regarding #TheChillingAdventuresofSabrina appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 29, 2018
So, there’s that. Never mind Greaves’ impressive 11,000 acolytes on Twitter, but Netflix has a paltry 5.3 million followers and its meager 117.6 million subscribers. Sure, that’s nothing compared to the dust Greaves can muster but has the thought never occurred to him of something called “free publicity?!”
For purposes of comparison… pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018
Yeah, apparently not.
“It’s deeply problematic to us,” Greaves, who said he’s seen parts of the show, told SFGATE. “(But) even if that wasn’t the case we’d be obligated to make a copyright claim because that’s how copyright works.” Greaves also noted that if the group didn’t make the copyright claim now, it would have a weakened ability to do so in the future. In this instance, he said, “we would have had to send some message.”
So, why the ballyhoo over some paper mache faceted after goat-man? As SFGate.com labels it, “it’s a Satanic Panic.” (Damn, I wish I coined that phrase. Hot Topic would be calling fast.)
“I feel that the use of our particular image that is recognized as our own central icon (being) displayed fictionally as central to some cannibalistic cult has real world damaging effects for us,” he said.
Not so much on the copyright issue as this has become reputation management. While Netflix hasn’t provided a comment yet, you can rest assured one thing — the only thing producers are convinced Greaves’ coterie of “cannibals” eat is raw meat.
And given the money they are doling out for this law suit, you can expect that meat to be more sashimi. Very cosmopolitan now that they’re TV stars. Kinda.
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