Is Elon Musk a Satanist?
His Baphomet occultic Halloween suit has sparked questions about his religious faith. News Detectives goes looking for clues to Musk's views on God, religion, and connections to the occult.
Early in the week, we looked at Elon Musk’s eyebrow raising Halloween costume. The new owner of Twitter proudly donned the demented suit of armor at Heidi Klum’s annual Halloween bash. The outfit was complete with a prominent Baphomet image on the chest and inverted crosses scattered around the costume.
The reactions on social media were all over the place.
What was the purpose of Musk wearing a costume like that? What does it mean? Anything? Is Musk into the occult? Why not dress up as Batman, a clown, a billionaire, or something else?
Some believe the choice of his costume matters. I agree that the questions surrounding his choice of Halloween attire are worth exploring—particularly when Musk has become a darling of the Right—including traditional Christians.
I decided to examine Musk’s beliefs in God and religion to find some answers. Maybe if we dig into his spiritual views, we could find clues that explain why Musk would wear a blatantly satanic costume.
Here’s what I found.
Let’s start with Elon Musk’s Childhood
One of the more in-depth written interviews with Musk occurred in Business Insider in December of 2020.
The interviewer asked Musk: do you believe in God?
Here is what Musk said: “When I was a kid, oddly, my father was like, Anglican, Church of England. I was sent to Anglican Sunday school, but then his partners in his engineering firm were Jewish, so I was sent to the Jewish preschool. It was also nearby, and it was a good school. So, I'm singing "Hava Nagila" one day, Jesus the next day, and as a kid you're like, well I guess I will just sing along, you know. But I would say, from what I see, after reading all the religious documents. I do agree with some of the principles, like turn the other cheek. Basically, forgive people instead of an eye for an eye is a good principle. And love thy neighbor as thyself, I think is a good principle. But do I think all these stories are literally accurate? That seems unlikely.”
Musk does not go into any more detail. When Musk said, “after reading all the religious documents,” that made me wonder what he meant. Has Musk read the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita from cover to cover? There are a lot of “religious documents” out there, and one wonders how much time and effort Musk honestly spent reading religious texts.
As Musk grows up, coding his first video game at age 12 and selling it to a science magazine, he appears to become seriously focused on science—and not much else.
Since becoming a famous adult who does a lot of interviews, the topic of God or spirituality will get asked. Based on his answers, Musk appears to be an atheist or agnostic. He often expresses faith in “humans” or “humanity,” which sounds like a natural precursor to transhumanism, btw.
One of the more revealing windows into Musk’s spiritual beliefs occurred nine years ago when The Office sitcom star Rainn Wilson interviewed Musk on his Metaphysical Milkshake podcast. (Wilson grew up steeped in religion—but that’s maybe for another article.)
The two discuss a myriad of subjects, but about five minutes in—Wilson askes Musk: “What do you worship?”, Musk replied: “Well, I don’t really worship anything, but I do devote myself to the advancement of humanity using technology.”
When asked what he does to unplug and relax—Musk immediately replied, “I go to Burning Man. That’s pretty fun.” When asked if he wears hippie attire, Musk said that he wears costumes, and that he once attended Burning Man as Darth Vader.
Burning Man is an annual event popular with Silicon Valley types that is steeped in new age and pagan rituals and “anything goes” spirituality.
Musk has never prayed before—ever!
One key point worth mentioning that Musk shared in his Metaphysical Milkshake interview is that he has never prayed.
“Do you pray?” asked Wilson?
Musk: “I didn’t even pray when I almost died from malaria.”
“Wow, that’s really not praying,” quipped Wilson.
Also, when asked if Science and Religion can coexist, Musk replied, “Probably not.”
Then Wilson asks Musk, “What is the one big question that you wrestle with?” – Musk references The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
“The question of what is the question…the answer is “the universe.” What is the question?”
Elon Tries Transcendental Meditation
In a 2017 tweet, Musk replied to a little-known Twitter handle named James Buzz—who asked if Musk “really do tm (meditation)? (The page link in the tweet no longer exists.)
Musk said he’s tried TM “7 or 8 times ever.”
(I’ll bet James still loves to tell this story whenever possible.)
Seven to eight sessions of meditation are not much of a “practice.” But apparently during this brief dabble in TM, Musk was a student of well-known TM teacher Bob Roth, Executive Director of the David Lynch Foundation.
Where’s the Satanic Smoking Gun?
In our search to find Elon Musk’s spiritual beliefs, we have not found blatant “aha” evidence that he practices the occult. We have only seen signs of atheism, agnosticism, some protestant and Jewish church attendance as a child, and a brief stint practicing transcendental meditation.
But what if…
Maybe Elon didn’t come up with the idea to choose that devilish suit of armor on his own. Perhaps his satanic Halloween costume was encouraged by someone close to him.
What About Musk’s Girlfriend?
Musk’s most recent romantic relationship that we know of is with the experimental goth-pop artist named Grimes. The two recently had a child together.
The 34-year-old Grimes has been linked to witchcraft. During an interview with The Fader in 2015, Grimes shared that she went through a “Wiccan phase” in seventh grade and wasn’t planning to step away from witchcraft until she cast a spell and “the rosary crumbled in my hands, and it was really scary.”
But a tweet last year indicates she’s still flirting with the witchy thing:
The critics seem to like her music. You be the judge if you are curious with this video. (Side note: what’s on that book cover they blur out at the beginning of the video?)
Grimes music is categorized by some to be part of the “Witch House” music genre. Here is how Indie Mag describes this type of music:
Once hunted, trialed, even slaughtered, the witch has—for centuries—been one of the most controversial and cross-continentally consistent figures in ancient mythology, medieval folklore and contemporary pop culture. Satan’s supposed earth-bound disciple, the witch wielded magic, brewed potions and deceived humankind, all of which left her with little adoration amongst Christian peers. While, as we’ve learned from INDIE’s Dark Issue, the witch has also been interpreted as a helping hand to God, a healer, particularly in Eastern Europe, the ambivalent mystique that is she remains an obscure phenomenon. Occult-symbolism, the metaphysical and feminine power being the witch’s key-attributes, it is no surprise that we find her referenced across all forms of media and entertainment, with Netflix-hit “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina“, Lana Del Rey cursing Trump or Stevie Nicks’ “Rhiannon”-era fashions making a comeback constituting only a fraction of today’s infatuation with the age-old heroine slash villainess.
(Super-)naturally, themes surrounding or explicitly engaging with witches can be found all over music, with the titular Witch House genre protruding as the most literal tribute. Angst-inducing basses, hissing synths and samples of rattling shackles or melodically dishevelled cathedral chants come together in harmony and disharmony, alluding almost cheesily to the dark and ghostly nature of the style’s namesake. The birth of the witch house term took place in New York City’s late 2000’s club scene, most notably by the hands of DJ Travis Egedy (alias Pictureplane) and his friends. Used rather unofficially to describe the sound of his most recent work at the time, his wording and the sound he meant to be described through it would quickly inspire more than a handful of inherently witch house-devoted acts, some of whom even went as far as to create their entire artistic practice around the musical allegory. Nevertheless, artists like Salem, CRIM3S or Sidewalks and Skeletons would (intentionally or not) keep low-profile, the genre evolving into more of a scene laced with creepy, otherworldly aesthetics, with some of its partakers so keen on keeping things under the radar that they’d purposefully write stage names in Unicode symbols (e.g. Glass Teeth stylised as GL▲SS †33†H) to prevent outsiders from “intruding” by way of Google Search.
Conclusion
If Musk keeps his religious practice behind the curtain, there may be more to this.
But we don’t know that for sure. When does a guy like Musk—running multiple companies—have time for religion?
One thing that stands out: Musk does appear attracted to dark characters when it comes to cosplay—wearing his satanic armor for the 2022 Halloween bash and dressing up like Darth Vader at Burning Man are two examples.
But the evidence so far indicates Musk is not a deeply religious person. There is no evidence that Musk practices any occultic-related religion. He appears to be irreligious for the most part. He’s an atheist—or maybe a hopeful agnostic. He does not hold any traditional religious beliefs despite his interview with the Babylon Bee (where they led Musk through a salvation prayer) or his experiences with Judaism or the Anglican church as a child.
However, he does have an artsy girlfriend with a dark edge. She admittedly dabbled in Wicca, and her music caters to the “witch house” genre.
In conclusion—I think it’s plausible that Musk chose to wear the satanic armor costume because Grimes thought it looked hot on him—pun intended.