474 Hjelm

Chapter 59 Satanism in Finland Satanism in Finland

Titus Hjelm

Satanism entered the Finnish public consciousness in the mid-1980s. Per­ haps not surprisingly, the first people who were interested in and concerned about Satanism were Pentecostalist Christians, namely the Finnish preacher/ prophet Leo Meller. Meller’s book Rock (1986) “exposed” the “satanic” content of contemporary rock and Heavy Metal music, very much in line with the con- temporary discussions in the USA. Although little discussed in the mainstream media at the time, Meller’s role set an example for later religious commenta- tors who posed and were received as experts on Satanism. Whereas the public attention generated by Meller and others denouncing the “satanic” popular culture of the times was regarded more or less sceptically or even with mild amusement in the media, Satanism acquired a more sinister image in the early 1990s with the church burnings and homicides connected to Satanists in Norway. Mainstream newspapers discussed the possibility of satanic cults in Finland and some murders were linked − no matter how tenu- ously − to an allegedly satanic motivation (Hjelm 2005a). The reality of Satanism was finally “proven” in the public eye when some people, namely the Finnish rock singer Kauko Röyhkä, publicly professed to be practising Satanists.

Finnish Satanism in the Early 1990s

Some anti-Satanist commentators (such as the abovementioned Leo Meller) have suggested that satanic ritual groups existed in Finland already in the 1970s, but this allegation hardly stands the test of critical scrutiny. There may, however, have been magical/occult groups or individuals in Finland at that time, but there is no knowledge of explicitly satanic involvement by any of these. Therefore, it is safe to say that religious Satanism first came to Finland in the early 1990s. The most famous self-professed Finnish Satanist was the rock singer Kauko Röyhkä mentioned above. He was frequently interviewed about his satanic beliefs and became the “face” of Satanism for a short period in the early 1990s. Röyhkä’s Satanism was mainly influenced by the writings of Anton LaVey and

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/9789004325968_061 Satanism in Finland 475 in his public appearances he consistently denied having anything to do with alleged satanic crime, such as human sacrifice. Röyhkä tried to organise a pub- lic satanic ritual in 1993 but that came to nought. Therefore, Röyhkä’s Satanism was more a public expression of a private belief than an example of organised Satanism in Finland. It was also relatively short-lived, since already in the late 1990s he described Satanism as a phase that he had since passed. Another “satanic” figure sometimes featured in the media was the eccentric Pekka Siitoin (1944–2003), an occultist, neo-Nazi, and self-professed Satanist. Siitoin’s Satanism was, however, a (minor) part of his eclectic occultism and not influenced by organised Satanism or left hand path groups such as The Church of Satan or The Temple of Set. Also, plain shock value probably played no small part in Siitoin’s public declarations of practising Satanism. On the less visible grassroots level, a few individual Satanists attempted to organise a satanic group in Helsinki in the early 1990s. In a time before the emergence of the Internet, recruitment campaigns by word of mouth had little success, despite the fact that Hans K., the main persona behind these early attempts, also appeared in a very popular talk show on Finnish television. Apart from a few card-carrying members of the Church of Satan and some self- professed Satanists drawing on the philosophy of Anton LaVey, Satanism had few followers and did not manifest itself as an organised religion in the early 1990s in Finland − despite the fact that it was presented as such in an influen- tial book on religion in Finland, written by the late Harri Heino, director of the (Lutheran) Church Research Institute (Heino 1998). The Temple of Set is the only organisation that has actually had an active, albeit numerically small, membership in Finland since the late 1980s. Although the Temple was originally an offshoot of the Church of Satan, the Setians have been reluctant to call themselves Satanists, preferring the notion of the “left- hand path”. The Temple of Set and other Finnish left-hand path organisations are covered elsewhere in this book in Kennet Granholm’s chapter on occultism in Finland.

The Finnish Satanism Scare

Considering the lukewarm reception that actual practising Satanists had in their early attempts to recruit members, it is perhaps a bit surprising that by the end of the 1990s, Satanism was one of the most widely-discussed public issues in Finland. Despite the fact that actual practising Satanists were only a handful, the Finnish media, and through it large segments of the population,