This may be the world’s largest ever gathering of Satanists – and it’s about to begin at a Marriott hotel in downtown Boston.
In a candle-lit room set aside for Satanic ceremonies, a neon sign welcomes you to The Little Black Chapel. A raised altar stands at one end, a white pentagram on the floor in front of it.
The ritual being performed here is an “unbaptism”, in which participants symbolically reject religious rites performed when they were children.
“No names,” says a Satanist who agreed to let me witness their ceremony, as long as they aren’t identified.
They wear a floor-length, hooded cloak and a black face mask. Their hands are bound with rope, which is then cast off to represent liberation. Pages are torn out of a Bible to symbolise overturning their Christian baptism.