MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A famous internet meme tells people to come to the Dark Side because there are cookies. The Satanic Temple of Minneapolis (TST) turned that statement into reality when it hosted its 2nd Annual Bake Sale last Saturday. The bake sale is a fundraiser for the temple, and all money raised went to “combat fundamentalist legislation by supporting reproductive rights campaigns and [its] LGBT friends and family in [the] battle for separation of church and state.”
The event was held at Magus Books & Herbs, a metaphysical shop popular with local Pagans.
![The Satanic Temple Bake Sale 2016 [Courtesy Photo]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/FB_IMG_1464053056853-500x261.jpg)
The Satanic Temple Bake Sale 2016 [Courtesy The Satanic Temple]
Nikki Wakal, a Pagan living in the Minneapolis area reached the bake sale shortly before they sold out of everything. Wakal said that she wanted to support the local Pagan community. “I went for two reasons, to support Magus Books, which does a lot for the Pagan community, and second to support another Pagan organization.”
Ms. Wakal includes Satanists, as well as some other religions not part of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, as being under the wider Pagan umbrella.
She said that when she was there at 11:30 there was approximately 30 people still in line. The brownies and cupcakes were sold out, but she was able to get a cookie.
![[Courtesy The Satanic Temple]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/satan-cookies-500x268.jpg)
[Courtesy The Satanic Temple]
The Satanic Temple is often at the forefront of First Amendment, civil rights, and anti-child abuse issues, using a combination of savvy public relations, humor,.and lawsuits.
In January 2016, TST asked to give the invocation before the start of the Phoenix City Council meeting. The group noticed that the council appeared to prefer only allowing Christian clergy to perform the invocation, which they stated was discriminatory under the US Constitution. After some back and forth, the city council decided to forgo prayers prior to meetings and have a moment of silence instead. TST is currently pursuing the same or similar actions in other cities in Arizona.
Back in 2015, TST made international headlines when they created a large statue of Baphomet specifically to sit alongside the large Ten Commandments sculpture at the Oklahoma State Capitol. Spokesperson Lucien Greaves said, “The entire point of our effort was to offer a monument that would complement and contrast the 10 Commandments, reaffirming that we live in a nation that respects plurality, a nation that refuses to allow a single viewpoint to co-opt the power and authority of government institutions. This is the very essence of our explicitly secular Constitution. Any one religious monument on public grounds is intolerable. However, once one is allowed, it is orders of magnitude better that many should be represented, rather than a single voice claim unique privilege.”
Once the Oklahoma State Supreme Court ordered the 10 Commandments removed, The Satanic Temple felt the matter of religious discrimination was resolved and sought a new place for their statue of Baphomet.
![[Courtesy The Satanic Temple]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/group-500x463.jpg)
[Courtesy The Satanic Temple – Minneapolis Chapter]
In their invitation to the bake sale they noted, “You don’t have to sell your soul, just buy our cookies.”
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<3! Thank you for writing this! I am going to share it on Magus's social media, I hope you don't mind!
Gee glad to know that rumor was true. [Grin] So the dark side really does have cookies, and cup cakes even. I have a lot of respect for the Satanists fighting for religious freedom, and often so effectively.
The Baphomet offer still kills me…
Rock on TST!
I also have great respect for the work Satanists are doing on church/State separation and other issues, but I just don’t accept them as fellow Pagans and I probably never will. I know that hits the ear as a terribly elitist and un-PC thing to say in an age when we’re supposed to accept every idea as equally valid and to fit everyone besides maybe Ted Cruz under the Pagan Umbrella, but there it is.
This distinction to my mind isn’t about judging Satanists Not Pagan Enough or as lesser people. It’s simply that I feel no spiritual kinship with them and no fundamental compatibility between what they do as Satanists and what I do as a Pagan. Our shared use of the Pentagram and common disdain of orthodox Christianity just doesn’t bridge that gap for me, and I see no benefit to pretending it does or in trying to rig and stretch it until it might barely make the span.
I do feel a deep kinship with Satanists as an American committed to the promises of the Constitution and the Enlightenment ideals which inform it. There is no chasm of belief between myself and Satanists in that respect, and in fact there is probably no daylight between us when it comes to the ground level issues they and many of us fight for. The end result is still a natural alliance between Pagans and Satanists, but the basis of that alliance matters to me because meaning matters and because alliances based on true commonalities are stronger.