Who's Who - AHV Ritual

This is where I talk about the real people and events that have inspired characters. In AHV Ritual, Lady Gaga’s character, Lilith Levay is a performance artist, a practicing witch, and a high priestess in the Temple of Thoth. In this blog I talk about some of the inspiration behind the character.

Performance Artists

Performance art reached the height of popularity in the 1970’s. Artists would use their bodies and actions as a form of artistic expression, crossing boundaries, and often involving the audience. This is the idea behind Lilith Levay’s performance in Episode 1, Scene 7 of Ritual. The main topics at the time were feminism, taboo, and the female form. A performance artist big in the 1970’s was Carolee Schneemann, her controversial work Interior Scroll first performed in 1975, was typical of the shock value used to make a point at the time. The performance involved extracting a typed scroll from her vagina which she read out aloud. The work addressed topics such as objectification, challenging taboos, and asserting female control over expression. 

Yoko Ono was another world-famous performance artist, her work entitled Cut Piece was first performed in 1964 where she invited members of the audience to cut off pieces of her clothing while she remained motionless and impassive. Her last performance was in 2003, and then it was later recreated by the singer Peaches in 2013.

 One of the most famous performance artists of the era, and still is today, is New York based Serbian, Marina Abramovic. In her work Rhythm 0 first performed in Naples in 1974, she discovered the darker side of humanity if the audience is left unchecked. The performance piece involved Abramovic standing motionless for six hours while the audience was invited to do whatever they wanted to her. There were 72 objects placed on a table that were meant to represent pleasure and pain and included knives, razor blades, roses, feathers, honey, and even a gun. It started off quite tame, but then she found that once the audience realised there were no consequences for their actions, they pushed boundaries further to the extremes of cutting her and putting a gun to her head.

While I was doing some research for this Season, I discovered that Lady Gaga considers Maria Abramovic to be an important influence in her work. In fact, in 2013, she studied under Abramovic at a four-week retreat learning her methods - this explains a lot about Gaga. This was just after I had decided to use Abramovic as part-inspiration for the character, so it all fell into place why Gaga’s character should be a performance artist.

There was also some other controversy around 2016 about Maria Abramovic having occult connections with her performance art piece Spirit Cooking – this was meant to be about the relationship between food, the body and spiritual transformation. Guests were

encouraged to participate in meal preparation at Abramovic’s house and then there would be a bit of chanting and meditation to induce a state of trance, and the meal would be shared. Unfortunately, some conspiracy theorists and tabloids reported that a dinner party invitation meant that guests would be participating in occult sex rituals linked to satanism. This was too strange not to include as inspiration for one of the Scenes in AHV Ritual.

The Witch

Another influence for the Lilith Levay character was Louise Huebner who was given the title of ‘Official Witch of Los Angeles County’ by the mayor in 1968 for promoting a series of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. She first gained fame as a psychic and astrologer and was often on talk shows. She wrote articles and numerous books on witchcraft and participated in crime detection, assisting the LAPD with her psychic ability. She claimed to be a sixth-generation witch and that her skills were passed down. She managed to upset members of the neo-Pagen Wiccan movement who thought that she was a self-promoter that perpetuated negative stereotypes of witches. Although not a direct influence for the character Samantha in the 2016 film The Love Witch, Louise Heubner embodied the seductress witch archetype and there are similarities, especially her 1972 recording Seduction Through Witchcraft. This was the inspiration for Lilith Levay’s book in Episode 3, Scene 2.

The Priestesses

In the 1970’s there were two major esoteric churches of Satanic worship. The Church of Satan founded in 1966 by Anton LeVay, and later the Temple of Set founded in 1975 by Michael Aquino, a former high-ranking Church of Satan member (more on these two later). There was a bit of backlash from Church of Satan members for the artistic license given to the portrayal of Anton LeVay in AHS Season 8 Apocalypse.

 Lilith Sinclair was the wife of Michael Aquino and was also a high-ranking member and Priestess in The Church of Satan and Temple of Set, respectively. Prior to this she ran an occult bookstore in New York city called The Magician, spoke on various radio and talk shows about occultism, and was interviewed by Time Magazine. 

Zeena LeVay Schreck was the daughter of Anton LeVay and was raised since early childhood in the Church of Satan. She became a high priestess in 1985 and was spokesperson for the Church throughout the late 80’s and 1990’s appearing on various talk shows such as the Phil Donahue Show, Sally Jessy Raphael Show, The Late Show and Entertainment Tonight and did much to debunk the Satanic Panic phenomenon at that time (this is perhaps the reason why the Church of Satan members were so upset). Zeena later joined the Temple of Set in 1990 where she also became a High Priestess. I have been inspired by these two ladies for the Lilith Levay character and have also used a good measure of artistic license.

Thank you, more to come on Who's Who