The new show features its main character — Sabrina the Witch — attending the School of Unseen Arts, where viewers can see a monument of the goat deity Baphomet.
Lucien Greaves of Satanic Temple (TST), a nontheistic religious and political activist group based in Salem, Massachusetts, argued the image of the deity was stolen from the organization by Netflix.
According to Greaves, the Baphomet statue was specifically designed and built for TST is copyrighted. He even posted a collage of two monuments on his Twitter account for comparison.
For purposes of comparison… pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018
His statement attracted hundreds of comments online, with only a few agreeing to Greaves' argument.
Well, since pictures of you already exist, and any picture of you must necessarily be some version of another picture, I'm sure you don't mind if I use your photo to illustrate a character in a fictional story about a cannibalistic child predator.
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 31, 2018
I think they figured we'd appreciate the nod and PR pic.twitter.com/P9MeSJUO7s
— Chalice Blythe (@ChaliceBlythe) October 31, 2018
TBF, the Sabrina Baphomet is a lot closer to ST Baphomet. Without a side by side comparison, I would've said that they were the same.
— kftgr (@kftgr) November 1, 2018
@LucienGreaves I'm just going to let you know now that you're going to spend a lot of money for nothing, the horns,chest,wings, position of the legs and the clothes of the children are different from yours. And the position that the statute is one that has been used again & again pic.twitter.com/dTcQRYPAAk
— Daniel Rodriguez (@DanielRod1998) November 1, 2018
Yeah, you mean the design that was copied from earlier sources? pic.twitter.com/z9ieUrrkIr
— Jeff Cullen (@Hellfurian) October 30, 2018
Lots of small details in #ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina are irritating & dangerous to actual practitioners of witchcraft & pagan religions (e.g. using a replica of a REAL statue in Detroit's Satanic Temple for Sabrina's cannibal school🙄)
— Bruja Aislada 🌒 (@BrujaAislada) October 28, 2018
but this?!
She's crocheting not knitting😹 pic.twitter.com/8Rsk4lz1qe
TST also disagreed with the way the statue was portrayed in the 'Sabrina' series, which is a remake of the famed US 90s show Sabrina the Teenage Witch about a teenager with magical powers.
"Given the show's utilization of the Baphomet statue to represent an evil cannibalistic cult, a perception falsely associated with Satanism even in modern times, TST would have denied its use to the show creators. Not only does it contradict what Baphomet represents, we owe it to those who identify with us to not allow this image, and by extension them, to be represented in this way," Greaves was reported to say.
Netflix is yet to comment on the pending lawsuit against its show.
