The
Black Mass
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 spread-eagled
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 wolf skin
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 crucifix
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.
The Black
Mass (Jules Michelet, La Sorcière, 1911)
Definition: A Black Mass is a
parody of the Catholic mass sometimes
practiced by wealthy opponents
of the Church in the Dark Ages.
Some so-called 'black masses'
were performed by priests to curse enemies,
a practice condemned by the church.
While this practice was ascribed
to witches during trials, it is unlikely it was
practiced by common people. Modern
Satanists sometimes perform a 'black mass'
for theatrical effect,
but it is not a standard practice
in Satanism or modern witchcraft.