#A New Satanic Panic: Mori Calliope and Dangerous Internet Cults

Are your children participating in the dark arts? – a question that might sound almost comedic, but upon further inspection turns out to be the very reality many families world-wide are now struggling with. With the internet-age, many Satanist experts believe we’re about to face yet another “Satanic Panic” – a phenomenon that during the 80’s was characterized by a widespread societal and moral hysteria.

But does this all ultimately amount to just fear-mongering, or are we really as a society at the brink of a total collapse of traditional Christian values?

“The Satanic Panics of the 20th century were characterized by the corruptive nature of mass consumer media,” an expert on the field, a scholar, neighborhood watch associate and an admin for a moderately popular Facebook meme group Stan W. Hipper explains to Anime Maru. “In fact much hasn’t changed: the most susceptible people are still our young children and teenagers, who now often have access to internet completely unsupervised. In our modern world, the primary vessels of Satanic influences are mainly the internet, Monster Energy drinks, Dungeons & Dragons and numerous YouTube personalities.”

Hipper has spent his career studying various fields of Satan worship and occultism and is worried over the fact that especially cults formed around highly successfully YouTube channels have the potential in converting their userbase into devoted – and brainwashed – worshipers.

YouTube and the “Cult of Calliope”

According to Hipper, one of the biggest rising modern cults in YouTube is focused around a Japanese anime-styled avatar who lures in especially teenage boys with male-oriented content and seductive appearances. The fictitious name “Mori” means “death” in Latin, and the surname “Calliope” refers to a Greek goddess of poetry, and for example, mother of Sirens. Another reading for the name would then be Poet of Death, which in context carries a very sinister tone.

“It isn’t a coincidence that the avatar wears a revealing outfit; they know who their target audience is and the best ways to manipulate them.”

While the content on the channel at first glance might seem innocent, covering mostly for example video game clips, things take a more dark turn when you focus on the background and the lore of the Calliope cult.

“Once you get over the cutesy appearances, you suddenly find out that the character in fact claims to stem from the underworld and collect the souls of the living. It is also worth mentioning that the followers in the cult call their deity ‘dad’, which in the context of the religion is an obvious jab and a corruption of ‘Holy Father’, a common name for God. These kind of linguistic practices are very usual when it comes to the communication in various cults.”

From Hipper’s point of view, the in-cult specific terminology serves to both enforce the sense of communal belonging, but to also serve as a tool for the cult leaders to coerce believers into following the shared cult mythology. Therefore the cult itself has a rich vocabulary: the followers for example call themselves “deadbeats”, a term that hardly carries positive connotations – especially when you consider how many followers might seem alienated and outsiders to normal society.

When you dig into the channel, you can also find content – cleverly mixed in-between other more traditional content – that is increasingly direct about the links with Satanic forces.

“There’s this original song by the avatar that features for example oriental lyrics, which in English translate roughly to ‘could you please die’. Many children do not speak in these languages, so they can’t understand what the song is in fact asking them to do.”

The music video politely informs viewers that it contains instances of flashing lights, but there’s hardly any mentions over harmful Satanic influences.

“Satanic influences are never mentioned even in the small print.”

“I’m not going to get into over-analyzing this whole rap-business,” Hipper adds. “Other people have pointed out how overt cursing, counter-culture messages and rhythmic beat have the potential of disrupting the societal fabric and our spinal fluids.”

As of date, the Calliope cult has over a million registered followers. The real number of people consuming Calliope’s cult materials is most likely even higher.

The realities of cult worship

In the wide community of Satanic experts and analysts, Hipper isn’t the only one worried over the Calliope cult. A scholar and a rational skeptic named Michelle R. Embers is concerned over how the facts behind the cult worship might become muddled in today’s mass-media environments.

“Of course it’s necessary to note that there isn’t actual, real magic going on here at any level. The avatar isn’t a literal death-god of course, and the scheme amounts to cheating youth of their money. As a parent it’s extremely important you understand the facts,” Embers explains.

“In cults such as this there’s always somebody behind the figure that uses smoke-screens and clever manipulation as a tool. Usually it’s some charismatic individual that has a high ranking within the community,” Embers states and draws parallels to for example Charles Manson and other cult leaders. “When children lack the analytical capabilities to realize these facts, they begin to believe they’re communicating with a real, demonic entity. Whether it’s a honest belief or a complex masquerade born out of the need for escapism, the result is ultimately the same.”

Luckily for all the worried parents out there, Embers also offers a solution to deal with the new cult craze.

“You just have to realize that you have the responsibility over your children and their internet activities. It’s ultimately a job for each parent to guide their children back into watching your regular Japanese cartoons about incest and hyper sexualized teenage girls.”

Join Anime Maru next time as we uncover the unholy cursed depths of Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!.