This story originally appeared in our July 8-21 print edition. Check out the edition online here and find where you can get a print edition near you here.
Nearly 50 years have passed since the publication of recorded therapy sessions in the 1980s led to what we know as the Satanic Panic. While the book, detailing a series of supposed Satanic rituals, has since been discredited, its publication led to decades of false accusations and widespread fear.
As local Satanists who grew up during that time have recently described feeling familiar echoes of a building hysteria, they’ve chosen to embrace Satanic imagery in the name of progressive politics.
CinSatanas is one of those groups; the Satanist offshoot officially gained nonprofit status in April, with a focus on “community built on reason and compassion.”
The organization has grown quickly. In February, a post was made on Cincinnati’s dedicated subreddit seeking interested parties to join a “Satanically Aligned Cincinnatian Community,” as the post’s title explains.
The comments were largely supportive, with nearly 50 people showing interest, and more giving their best wishes for the group’s success. Some community members took issue with the group, however, like one who wrote in a lengthy comment, “As a Christian I will love you as God still loves you, but Satanists are being deceived.”
Later that month, the group hosted their inaugural gathering. According to CinSatanas’ founder Ashley Morningstar, that first meeting laid out the goals and aspirations of the group, and set up strategies to ensure their success. CityBeat first got into contact with Morningstar in March.
In April, the group was approved for state 501(c)(3) nonprofit status as a religious organization. That same month, they held elections to fill leadership positions in the organization. Twelve members were present.
“We’re figuring out how we’re going to function as a group,” Morningstar said, describing the organization’s next steps. “Things like fiscal transparency, how we handle incidents when they come up, and how we make sure we’re always doing the right things.”
The Satanic Panic
In 1980, St. Martin’s Press published Michelle Remembers; a memoir of sorts, compiled from hypnotic recovered-memory therapy sessions held between Dr. Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Lewis, his patient and later wife.
The book, which details a number of supposed Satanic rituals Lewis was victim to between 1954 and 1955, was widely uncorroborated after its publication. Today, the book and the discredited therapy at its center are considered a strange relic in the world of pseudo-psychology — but in 1980, it struck a yet-untapped American cultural nerve, and the Satanic Panic began.
The Panic would go on to rage for nearly two decades, and thousands would fall victim to allegations of Satanic allegiance. Such accusations led to investigations by both law enforcement officials and the public, which in turn fueled further worries of a growing diabolic force.
In 1983, teacher Ray Buckey and his grandmother Virginia McMartin were accused of leading and facilitating Satanic rituals at their family preschool.
According to archived notes from a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney’s deposition of one accuser, allegations included a variety of claims, from, “Billy [the accuser’s child] was hurt by a lion. Billy was on his back. Ray let him pull the lion’s tail,” to, “Billy said Peggy [another McMartin teacher] killed the baby. Billy had to drink the babies [sic] blood.”
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In a 1984 trial prosecuted by Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner, Buckey, McMartin and five others were charged with 321 counts of child abuse based on those and similar claims.
That trial resulted in a hung jury, as did a later 1990 trial; all charges were dropped after the second deadlock. Dr. Pazder and Michelle Lewis met with the accusers during depositions, and Pazder acted as a consultant for the prosecution during the 1984 trial.
What does it mean to be a Satanist?
CinSatanas identifies as a “non-theistic Satanic community,” which means its members don’t believe in an actual Devil, but instead view Satan as a symbol.
“Satan is an adversarial figure,” Morningstar said when they first spoke to CityBeat. For their group, Satan represents their opposition to what they see as a Christian hegemony on political and cultural power in the United States. Morningstar pointed to a recent example of an Ohio law that allows the Ten Commandments to be displayed in the classroom.
It’s not just about politics, though.
“Non-theistic Satanism is a great way for those of us who aren’t religious, or don’t hold traditional religions, to still have that same kind of community,” said Mistress Vex, CinSatanas’ Stewardess of Souls — the group’s membership coordinator.
“In the few short months that we’ve been around, I’ve watched friendships form where they might not have otherwise,” Morningstar added.
Instead of a Hell-dwelling fallen angel, the members of CinSatanas revere the Seven Tenets, as set down by Lucien Greaves and other members of The Satanic Temple, the largest non-theistic Satanic organization in the world.
The Tenets include precepts like, “One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason,” and, “If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.”
Perhaps the most central and timely Tenet is the third, which reads simply: “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s will alone.”
In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022, Satanic groups that follow the Seven Tenets have increasingly used their religious organization status to attempt to find loopholes in anti-abortion laws across the United States. The Satanic Temple has gone as far as to build three free reproductive telehealth clinics in New Mexico, Virginia, and Maine; respectively named the Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Abortion Clinic, the Right to Your Life Abortion Clinic, and the President’s Yuge Most Beautiful Tremendous Satanic Abortion Clinic.
Jex Blackmore, a reproductive health organizer and former leader of The Satanic Temple, has critiqued Satanic approaches to abortion access as simplifying what is often a complex legal minefield for pregnant people.
Despite following the Seven Tenets, it should be noted that CinSatanas is not connected to The Satanic Temple, or any larger non-theistic Satanic organization.
Asked to summarize their beliefs, Morningstar wrote, “We choose empathy over cruelty, truth over dogma, and action over apathy.”
What Does CinSatanas Do?
If you’ve recently pulled off the interstate around St. Bernard, you’ve likely been on the Hellbound Highway. That’s what CinSatanas have taken to calling the Exit 6 on-and-off ramps on I-75, which they foster and keep clean under Ohio’s Adopt-a-Highway program. The roadway even features an official state sign bearing the group’s name.
While it may be the most eye-catching project, the highway clean-up is only a part of CinSatanas’ series of programs going on around Cincinnati.
According to the Education Data Initiative’s 2025 study, Ohio had more than $287 million in unpaid school lunch debt. While most Cincinnati Public Schools qualify for free-or-reduced lunch programs, other area schools across southern Ohio have requested and received donations to help reduce the burden of the lunch debt crisis.
“Lunches from Lucifer” is CinSatanas’ answer to that call, a project raising funds, “in line with our belief in food as a basic human right,” said Morningstar.
The group also runs “Lilith’s Lifeline,” named after the first wife of the Book of Genesis’ Adam in Jewish mystic traditions; a figure that was later construed as a feminine demonic entity. The Lifeline seeks to fill the gap in feminine hygiene and sanitary products in area homeless shelters via donation drives. They also collect clothing for distribution at shelters.
In addition to these projects, CinSatanas also hosts regular member meetings and get-togethers, including a Beelzebub’s Bowling league, a Crafty Satanists art night and Belial’s Book Club.
Pride Cometh
During this year’s Pride Month, CinSatanas members attended two Pride events in the greater Cincinnati area, where they set up a booth and distributed informational fliers, bead bracelets and tiny 3D-printed, rainbow-colored statues of the goat-headed figure of Baphomet.
“We gave out around 500 business cards,” Morningstar said, referring to the booth’s popularity at Hamilton Pride.
“We’ve been picking up some new members,” Mistress Vex agreed.
At Clermont County Pride, which CinSatanas invited CityBeat to attend, community members seemed excited by the group’s presence. Many wore the distinctive red and black pronoun pins the organization handed out. According to CinSatanas’ monthly newsletter, one event-goer told Morningstar, “I’m so glad you guys are here; we’ve never had a Satanist group before.”
For Mistress Vex, “the biggest thing for me is being able to get out here and speak with other people in community, hearing other people’s concerns and being able to engage with the public.”
What matters now, she said, is being there for each other.
“Right now, with everything going on in the world, people need to look out for each other more, band together and help each other,” Mistress Vex said. “I’m a big fan of anything that helps people do that.”
This article appears in July 8-21, 2026.
