Montague Summers renders a colorful description of it in The History of Witchcraft and Demonology. Its purpose was to curse an enemy to death by a slow illness, which wasted him away. One such famous form of the Black Mass is The Mass of Saint-Secaire, which is said to have originated in the Middle Ages in Gascony. The Catholic Church condemned priests who attempted to subvert the Holy Mass for evil purposes, such as cursing a person to death, as early as the 7th century. If the priest can affect this miracle within the Holy Mass, then, it is reasoned, the priest, or magician, could effect similar magic in other masses for other, usually harmful, purposes.
The magical significance of the Black Mass rests in the belief that the Holy Mass involves the miracle of the transubstantiation, that is, the magical or mystical changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
A defrocked generally performed the Black Mass wearing vestments of black or a color of dried blood, and embroidered with inverted crosses, a goat’s head (referring to Baphomet), or magical symbols. Black candles were used instead of white ones. Sliced pieces of rotted turnips, black leather, or black triangles were substituted for communion bread. Urine, supposedly, was at various times substituted for holy water, or for the wine. The Mass may include inverting the cross, spitting and stepping on the cross, stabbing the host and other obscenities. One ritual is that it is performed in entirety, or in parts, backwards. There is no set Black Mass ritual, rather the ceremony is a parody on the holy Catholic Mass. Also, it has no association with modern Witchcraft because most Neo-Pagan Witches do not believe in the Devil or worshipping him. As it will be shown, the Black Mass was more of a ceremony that attracted the more wealthy and educated dissenters of the Church. It is doubtful if any, but only a few witches, ever participated in the celebrations. During the middle ages and in the midst of the witch-hunt mania witches were accused of participating in these ceremonies. Although the Black Mass is erroneously associated with witches and witchcraft it does play a distinct part in witchcraft history.
0 kommentar(er)
