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Five animal hearts arranged in a pattern and surrounded by a circle of candles have been found in a beautiful location as part of an apparent satanic ritual.
The photos show the pieces of meat placed over a triangulation point after an elaborate ceremony atop Stagbury Hill in the New Forest.
A member of the public discovered the hearts and cleaned them before reporting it to the police, who told locals they were patrolling the area in the National Park.
The grim act took place near a church where members of the congregation recently found a dead cat hanging “horribly” from a flagpole, forcing the vicar to issue a warning about the possibility of witchcraft.
Five animal hearts surrounded by candles have been found in a beautiful spot on Stagbury Hill, New Forest, as part of an apparent occult ritual.
The strange occurrence took place near a church in Hampshire, where a vicar recently warned of “sinister occurrences”.
In December, the vicar of the nearby church in Bramshaw, Hants, warned of “ominous” developments after the bodies of dead animals deliberately left there were discovered.
The Reverend David Bacon raised the possibility of ‘witchcraft’ after members of the congregation found a cat hanging from a flagpole just before Christmas.
This followed the discovery of a dead fox on the 12th-century church door just weeks earlier.
Following the latest hilltop discovery, one Facebook user commented: “Strange: connected to the cat hung from the flagpole and the dead fox left on the church steps?”
Another said: ‘Very weird! Probably related to the strange things left in the church recently? while a fellow commenter commented: ‘Maybe the idiots thought Trig Point was a holy druid shrine or something?’
Another said: “Could have poison, some weird ritual,” followed by a witch emoji.
The vicar said: ‘It’s really disturbing and sinister for everyone. We’re not sure what will happen next, if anything.
The Rev. David Bacon raised the possibility of ‘witchcraft’ after members of the congregation found a cat hanging ‘horribly’ from a flag pole
The Reverend Bacon said last year that the group of ladies who found the cat when they came to clean St Peter’s Church in Bramshaw, Hants, and prepare it for Christmas had been ‘unsettled’.
In 2019, the same New Forest village was terrorized by suspected Satanists who stabbed sheep and sprayed pentagrams on them and graffitied Reverend Bacon’s 12th-century church with the same occult markings.
The vicar said he is not sure who is behind this, saying it could be people “just angry at the world” or it could be people concerned about witchcraft.
He said: ‘The rather hideous cat was found hanging from the flagpole. The fox stayed on the threshold, but it is highly unlikely that he died there naturally.
The cat was found by a group of ladies on Monday. They were going in to clean the church for Christmas but found it on the flagpole. It was really annoying for them.
“Once in a while things like this happen. It makes everyone very uncomfortable.
I can’t say definitively if it’s related to the sheep slaughter a few years ago. We have no idea what motivated this. Are they just angry at life in general, or against the church, or is it related to witchcraft? I can not tell
The Reverend Bacon said he is not sure who is behind the “sinister” behaviour, suggesting it could be people “just mad at the world” or people concerned about witchcraft.
But the sheep slaughters were much more sophisticated. The dead fox felt much less organized.
“It’s really haunting and sinister for everyone. We’re not sure what will happen next, if anything.
‘I have no idea why it is happening in our area. If it is related to witchcraft, then the New Forest has been associated with witchcraft for hundreds of years.
‘But they could just be random acts of evil. It’s all pretty gruesome for those who find the dead animals.
A Hampshire Police spokesman said: “We have received a report of meat found on top of Stagbury Hill with candles placed in a circle around it.” This was seen by members of the public at around 7:45 a.m. on January 13.
‘The articles were removed before the report was made.
“We have conducted investigations and will continue to patrol the area.”
Alternative religions, such as Satanism, paganism and shamanism, have seen an explosion in the number of followers in the decade between the 2011 and 2021 censuses.
In 2019, suspected ‘Satanists’ stabbed sheep and sprayed them with pentagrams – they painted graffiti on Reverend Bacon’s country church with the same occult markings.
Millions have abandoned Christianity, mostly because they have no religion, but the number of Satanists in England and Wales has more than doubled from 2011 to 2021, from 1,893 in 2011 and rising by 3,161 (167%) to 5,054 followers in 2021. .
The largest number of Satanists are in the Southeast, with an increase of 165% to 795 in the region in 2021, according to the latest census.
The head of the UK chapter of The Global Order of Satan, Andy Diabolus, said he was “proud” of the increase in followers marked in the census after efforts to encourage Satanists.
Followers say the religion “builds upon self and carries out Satan’s work with humanity” by challenging “authoritarianism and injustice” through “acts of compassion and the practice of empathy.”
Despite common misconceptions, Satanists do not actually worship the Devil, as they are atheists and do not believe in the supernatural.
“We revere ourselves as individuals capable of the highest human expression of compassion and empathy,” the Global Order of Satan FAQ explains.
Satanism’s following in England and Wales has been surpassed by shamanism, which had fewer than 1,000 followers in 2011 but grew more than 12-fold in a decade.
The healing-focused spiritual practice had just 650 followers in 2011, but skyrocketed to 7,889 in 2021, according to the census.