Javier Cavanilles, journalist: “Millions of Americans see Trump as a messiah who faces the forces of Satan”

Journalist, skeptical disseminator and conspiracy expert, Javier Cavanilles (Valencia, 1969) addresses in his latest book —Satanism. The history of the cult of evil (Almuzara, 2024)—the evolution of the idea of ​​evil over the centuries, and how it has been modulated depending on the political, social and cultural contexts of each era. Moving away from the idea of ​​Satanism of black togas, candles and orgies, the author presents it as a current within Christianity, analyzes it as another religion and reviews the extent to which it has influenced our vision of the world. The result is a totally different overview—exhaustively documented and full of funny anecdotes—about this belief that, he says, is as present today as in the past.

Cavanilles is a member of The Satanic Temple and, since its foundation, of the Satanists of Spain association. “We neither do black masses—although it wouldn’t be bad to organize one from time to time—nor do orgies, which require a lot of effort, nor do we do human sacrifices,” warns the author in this interview with elDiario.es.

Isn’t the devil something from the Middle Ages?

Not at all. The last national comic award, The body of Christis about a woman who believes she is possessed; The Legionnaires of Christ recently premiered in theaters Deliver us from evila documentary about exorcisms; Three weeks ago, in front of the Capitol, thousands of people from all over the United States gathered in Washington in front of the Lincoln monument to perform a mass exorcism ahead of the elections; A few months ago the famous Enrique de Diego published a book saying that Queen Letizia worships the devil… Satan is much more present than we imagine, but it is not that of the Middle Ages or it is not only that of the Middle Ages. Sometimes it is totally desacralized and is only a symbol and other times, an incontestable reality. In between, you have a wide range of ‘satans’ for each type of consumer.

Do satanic sects exist beyond the black legend? Are they dangerous?

To this day, a satanic sect has never been found. The first serious study was done by the FBI in the late 90s, when the ‘Satanic Panic’ in the US was at its highest point, and the conclusion is that they did not exist. Since then there have been quite serious investigations in England, Canada, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands… and the conclusion is always the same: they do not exist. You can look on the Interpol pages and there is nothing. Of the Catholic Church, by the way, the same cannot be said, which is why they like this hoax so much: it is a myth of projection. What happens is that it is a very media threat and when four kids, up to the ears of ‘calimocho’, They jump over the fence of their town’s cemetery to paint a ‘666’, the newspapers already have a headline.


What is dangerous is the extreme right, as the assault on the Capitol demonstrated. Where does the QAnon movement come from and how many people believe in it? Who created the invention?

QAnon, as such, no longer exists, it disappeared four years ago, when it was discovered that Ron and Jim Watkins, founders of the 4Chan page, were behind all of this and they had to close the business. But the idea that a liberal elite dominates the world and that they are satanists, pedophiles and drink the adrenochrome they get from the blood of children, has remained. It was a more desacralized and political Satan, a movement in which not everyone believed in evil as a reality, but they did think that very powerful satanic sects existed. QAnon was a update of what Cathy 0’Brien told in her book in the 90s Trance-formation of Americabut then she was seen as a ‘geek’ and today, as a visionary. They are very radical people, who live in a parallel reality and who supported Trump. In fact, Q flags were seen at his rallies and at the assault on the Capitol.

The obsession with Satan has mutated, it has returned to its origins of the religious extreme right and Christian white nationalism, which is stronger than ever and is much more dangerous

And can QAnon return?

I doubt it, its cycle has passed, and the obsession with Satan has mutated, it has returned to its origins of the religious extreme right and Christian white nationalism, which is stronger than ever and is much more dangerous: there are millions of people and they believe that Trump is the messiah literally, not as a metaphor. If he wins, he will owe a lot to these Satan-obsessed people, who are not Satanists, but rather Satan worshipers, which is something else. The thing is that no one wants to see the American elections for what they are, at least in part: a religious war. What these people want is a theocracy and they don’t hide it. And for the American economic extreme right, these people are ground gold: if they believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs did not exist, they will believe anything if you tell them it is in the Bible. They do not trust the federal government, which they see as atheist and that wants to take their souls, so it is the voter that the most extreme neoliberalism likes the most, its brown shirts.

Nobody wants to see the American elections for what they are, at least in part: a religious war

The theocratic movement is very well funded, you just have to see who sponsors the call Project 2025a kind of unofficial electoral program of Trump and, above all, of his vice president Vance.

How is it possible that religious extremists, so conservative, worship a guy who has been married three times, who has been convicted more than 30 times for sleeping with a porn star, who has a dozen accusations of sexual harassment, fraud…?

These people quote the Bible a lot, but either they don’t read it or they don’t understand it, maybe both. For them, their reference is the writers Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and their series of books titled Left Behindwhich will have sold close to 100 million copies. They believe that the final fight against good and evil is imminent: and that, first, pure people will ascend to heaven. The bad ones will remain on earth, at the service of Satan, and those who, without being so bad, are not good enough to go to paradise without fighting. Their leader, the one in the novels, is Rayford Steele, a guy who has been a sinner and has redeemed himself, he is a reborn Christian. That is the image they have of Trump and that is why they forgive him everything. If a book they bought at the supermarket says it and then they made several movies, it has to be true.

Without these Satan worshipers, who number several million, Trump would not have won a raffle

When Trump says he would use the military against the ‘enemy within’, whether he intended it or not, these people see it as a fight against the demons that will remain on Earth. In reality, he is buying the speech of the New Apostolic Reformation Movement, which believes that the US should be a theocracy and that they organized a mass exorcism before the statue of Abraham Lincoln, in Washington, days before the elections. Of course, not all MAGA [Make America Great Again] They believe in this, but all those who believe in this are MAGA. Without these Satan worshipers, who number in the millions, Trump would not have won a single raffle.

The book includes among the figures with a certain obsession with national Satanism, characters as diverse as Enrique de Diego, Rafa Pal and Lucía Etxeberría: how do the three end up on the same list?

You can’t expect much from Lucía Etxeberría, but it isn’t the most extreme case either. It seems that she read an article on the Internet about satanic elites and became an expert on the subject, but it is not a topic that she gives excessive importance to. Rafa Pal, famous for his journalism for cosmic minds, makes a good joke about Full Pantomimethat there are people who believe everything but the truth and he has been like this since before 9/11. His Satan is religious, but it is a somewhat desacralized version that, like everything he does, has been cut from American websites. Don Enrique de Diego is something else, he is convinced that Queen Letizia is satanic because he once bought a book by Alan Moore and met the artist Marina Abramović, highly influenced by esotericism, who received the Princess of Asturias in 2021. But De Diego’s case, a psychiatrist would have to explain it to you better than me.

Don Enrique de Diego is convinced that Queen Letizia is satanic because she once bought a book by Alan Moore

It also goes back to the great conspiracy theorists of the Spanish extreme right who fed myths of Francoism, such as the obsession with Freemasonry and with satanism. Have you been surprised by their cheapness or were they mere translators into Spanish of what was happening in Europe and the United States?

No, his was a derivative of National Catholicism, it had its originality or, at least, it was adapted to the Spanish sociology of the time. It is true that these ideas, at that time, had been developed in the most ultramontane French sectors, but here Freemasonry was not an obsession, it was pure hatred. They really believed it was a satanic organization.

In Franco’s Spain, Freemasonry was not an obsession, it was pure hatred.

On the one hand, because of the problems that some Masonic obediences, the most progressive, had had with the Vatican. But, on the other hand, they added their own obsessions. Calling the Freemasons satanic suited the regime very well, because it was a difficult accusation to refute, since they were supposed to be a semi-secret organization. So, if you wanted to kill the school teacher, the mayor or your neighbor to steal his land, you accused him of belonging to a lodge and he could be presumed dead.

Given what we have seen, what is it really like to be part of The Satanic Temple or the Satanists of Spain association?

Well, it is not an activity that takes up much time either. I visit the Satanic Temple website from time to time and, when I have money, I might take one of their courses, which are quite interesting. Satanists from Spain is different; We are a lot of people who like the topic, although not all of us see it the same way. Furthermore, the members tend to be quite interesting and we all like movies, history, science fiction, comics… We almost talk about that more than about Satan. Sometimes we get together and have a great time.

Satanists from Spain are a very heterogeneous group but we are not about to dominate the world either…

At the beginning of December we organized a fair in Madrid, but we neither do black masses – although it would not be bad to organize one from time to time – nor do orgies, which require a lot of effort, nor human sacrifices. Some of us don’t even have tattoos nor do we like ‘black metal’ or, as Iker Jiménez said about me, we have the face “as if we hadn’t broken a pencil.” We are a very heterogeneous group and we do what we can, but we are not about to dominate the world either… For now, we have organized the First Sinister Fair in Madrid, on December 1st. Later, we will look for more ambitious goals.


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