12 Aug The Dark Side Tour
The tantric perspective is that all is spiritual; all is divine. The light cannot exist without the dark; they are two sides of the same coin. No Guide to Spiritual L.A. would be complete without a visit to the dark side, a place where many worship.
Of course, we have the whole magickal tradition as practiced by Jack Parsons, Cameron, and Kenneth Anger which many designate as black magic. Some consider the Church of Scientology to be up to something demonic. Fingers can be found pointing at just about anything as wrong, dark, or bad — depends which side you’re on. The following LA institutions are either intriguing or “evil,” depending on your point of view:
The original Tongva people warned us: the place has bad energy. They forbid their people to move too close to the Devil’s Face outcropping in the rocks. They claimed that the sound of the rapids rushing through the gorge was the sound of the coyote spirit laughing.
Behind the Devil’s Gate Dam in Pasadena is a concrete tunnel covered in graffiti that may be nothing other than what it is or, some say, a portal to hell. According to legend, Aleister Crowley (see page xxx) recognized the location’s occult power, and Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard performed a ritual to open a “hell portal,” or a gateway to another dimension that allows negative energies and otherworldly entities to pass through.
The profile of the devil can be made out in the rocks, and the water flowing through the gates does, maybe, sound like it’s laughing. Some hikers report stumbling upon people performing Satanic rituals “but they’re really nice.“ (Yelp)
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
The Satanic Temple
A national group, the Los Angeles Division was formed in 2016 and has about 50 members. They claim they don’t actually worship Satan but see him as a rebel saint advocating for personal freedom and independence. The national organization’s headquarters is in Salem, Massachusetts, where in the 17th Century twenty people were executed as witches. You can find the locals on their Facebook page.
Facebook: The Satanic Temple Southern California: Los Angeles Division
A rapidly growing movement worshipping “Holy Death,” this group began in Mexico and Central America ministering to drug dealers, prostitutes, crime lords, murderers and thieves who are also devout Catholics. The local temple is a one-room storefront with a botanica next door selling candles and other offerings. Santa Muerte is depicted as a female skeleton wearing colorful garments.
4902 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90004
© 2020 Catherine Auman
This is an excerpt from Catherine Auman’s book Guide to Spiritual L.A.: The Irreverent, the Awake, and the True
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