The Black Mass19:04 Jan 24 2011
Times Read: 556
The Black Mass combines various elements:
- belief in a pagan deity stigmatized by Christians as the Devil,
- use of the Mass for material ends,
- and parodies of orthodox Christian ritual.
The Black Mass is a magical ceremony and inversion or parody of the Catholic Mass that was indulged in ostensibly for the purpose of mocking God and worshipping the devil; a rite that was said to involve human sacrifice as well as obscenity and blasphemy of horrific proportions. The origin of the belief in the Black, or Satanic, Mass goes back to medieval magic and witchcraft, yet no one really knows the early history of this magical act, for there exists no single reliable, first-hand description.
A witch who said she was present described a Black Mass at a sabbath in France in 1594. She claimed that the ceremony had taken place on St. John's Eve in a field with about sixty people present. The celebrant wore a long black cloak devoid of the customary cross, and his assistants were two girls; while a slice of turnip, black (either stained or putrid), was used instead of consecrated bread.
Other stories of the Black Mass include mention of black triangular or hexagonal hosts and a black chalice;
of mocking screams of "Beelzebub! Beelzebub! Beelzebub !" instead of speaking the holy words of consecration;
of wine that may be either urine or blood drunk from a human skull;
or celebrants naked beneath sleeveless vestments decorated in brilliant colours with such subjects as a naked and spreadeagled woman, a rampant pig or bear or goat;
of sacramental wafers (incorporating menstrual blood and semen) being burnt or stabbed, and consecrated wine being poured contemptuously on to the floor;
of missals bound in wolfskin or even human skin;
of feasts on roasted human flesh;
of frenzied sexual orgies and new-born children being crucified alive or baptized in holy oil, strangled and offered as a sacrifice to Satan;
of naked bodies being used as altars;
of young boys' throats being cut to provide blood for the chalice, with prayers to the demons Asmodeus and Astaroth;
of Christian prayers being said backwards;
of black candles made from human fat;
of parts of the Mass being read backwards;
of "Satan" being substituted for "God" and "evil" for "good";
of crosses being tattooed on the soles of the feet so that the symbol of Christ is continually trodden underfoot.
Eric Maple, a leading authority on witchcraft, goes so far as to assert that the Black Mass is an illusion, fostered by the press, that never played any part in witchcraft.
The Abbe Boullan (1824-93), a defrocked Catholic priest who believed that he was a reincarnation of John the Baptist, is reported to have celebrated a Black Mass in vestments on which an inverted cruifix was embroidered, with a pentagram tattooed at the corner of his left eye (the left being the side of evil). He recommended the ceremonial sacrifice of a child at the high point of the Mass, and the use of consecrated hosts being mixed with faeces as a cure for nuns who complained they were tormented by devils.
The occultist Aleister Crowley devised Satanic rituals, but the intention appears to have been anti-Christian rather than criminal.
The Church of Satan has based its much publicized diabolism upon a rejection of the Christian ethics of self-denial and humility.
Pact with the Devil
19:01 Jan 24 2011
Times Read: 557
1. Lucifer, you are bound to deliver to me immediately 100,000 pounds of money in gold!
2. You will deliver me the first Tuesday of every month 1,000 pounds.
3. You will bring me this gold in current money, of such kind that no only I, but also all those to whom I may wish to give some, may use it.
4. The foresaid gold must be not false, must not disappear in one´s hand, or turn to stone or coals. It should be metal stamped by the hands of men, legal and valid in all lands.
5. If I need a considerable sum of money, no matter when or for what purpose, you are duty bound to deliver to me secret or buried treasure. Nor need I fetch it myself from wherever it may be hidden or burried, but you must deliver it into my hands, without any trouble to me, to wherever I happen to be at one time, to dispose of according to my own wishes and pleasure.
6. You are bound to cause no injury to my body and limbs, and do nothing to weaken my health, but preseve me from human illnesses and injury for 50 years.
7. If, contrary to our expectations, I should happen to become ill, you are bound to procure for me profed remedies to help me regain my previous good health as soon as possible.
8. Our agreement is to begin on this date.. in the year 1676, and to end on the same day in 1727. You are not to tamper with this period or encroach on my rights, or make a false reckoning (as you have often formerly accustomed to do).
9. When my time has finally run out, you are to let me die like all other men, without any shame or disgrace, and be honorably buried.
10. You are bound to make me loves and accepted by the King and all the aristocrats, by high and low, men and women, so that I may always be assured of good will and affection, and that everybody will grant without question what I may desire of them.
11. You are bound to transport me (and any other) without injury to the ends of the world, wherever I desire, no matter how far distant. You are to make me immediately so expert in the language of that place that I shall be able to speak it fluently. When I have satisfied my curiosity sufficiently, you will bring me back again, uninjured, to my home.
12. You are bound to protect me from all harm from bombs, firearms, and other weapons, so that nothing may strike me and injure my body or limbs.
13. Your are bound to assist me in my dealings with the King and help me prevail over my special enemies.
14. You are bound to provide me with a magic ring so that whenever I put it on my finger I shall become invisible and invulnerable.
15. You are bound to give me true and thorough information, without distortion or ambiguity, about any question I ask of you.
16. You are bound to give me advance warning of any secret plot against me, and to give me ways and means to thwart those plots and to bring them to naught.
17. You are bound to teach me whatever languages I may desire to learn so that I can read, converse, and express opinions as perfectly as if I had known them thoroughly from childhood.
18. You are bound to endow me with good sense, understanding, and intelligence, so that I can discuss all problems logically and can give an informed opinion about them.
19. You are bound to protect and look after me in all courts of justice and council chambers of King, Bishop or Pope, before whom I might be summoned.
20. You are bound to protect me and my household from injury, whether domestic or foreign, from theft, and from harm.
21. I am to be permitted to lead my life in outward appearance like a good Christian, and to attend divine service without your interfering.
22. You are bound to teach me how to prepare medical prescriptions and the correct use and administering of them in dosage and weight.
23. If one any occasion, skirmish or fight, I should be attacked or set upon, you are to take up the challenge for me and produce help and assistance against all enemies.
24. You are bound to prevent anyone, no matter whom, for konwing about your accord and compact.
25. As often as I desire your presence, you are to appear to me in a loving and ageeable form, never in a frightening or horrible shape.
26. You are to see that each and every person shall do my bidding.
27. You are to promise me and bind yourself to kepp unbroken these clauses, individually and collectively, and to comply assiduously wiht all of them. If you fal me in the slightest degee or display any negligence, then this pact and accord is null and void and of no force whatever.
28. In return for the foregoing promises, I swear and vow to deliver into your power several men and women. Furthermore, I renounce God, the most Holy Trinity; I wholly renounce the vows made for me at baptism. I step forward with you in a new alliance and submit myself to you both in body and soul, forever into eternity.
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