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Black Mass
(Page 2)
One early account described how
the
marquise de Montespan (who was maid of honor to
Queen Marie Th้r่se and
mistress of
Louis XIV) had a Black Mass said in order to oust the existing
queen and her rival (the
duchesse de la Valli่re) and to win the king's
love. The marquise's schemes came to nothing, but the plot was discovered
during the 'Affair of the Poisons'
scandal. De Montespan was spared, but Catherine Monvoisin a French
sorceress and
midwife commonly known as 'La Voisin' was burned alive.
Gilles de Rais
a French noble, soldier (one time brother-in-arms of
Joan of Arc), and
allegedly a sorcerer as well, who with two assistants practiced diabolical rites at his
castle of Machecoul
was also said to be in the habit of performing Black Mass,
including the slaughtering of children, to aid his search for the
philosopher's stone.
Pierre Aupetit, an apostate priest of the village of Fossas, in Limousine,
France, was also burned for having celebrated the mysteries of the Devil's mass.
His denouncers claimed that instead of speaking the holy words of consecration,
the frequenters of his Sabbaths were on the habit of saying:
" Beelzebub, Beelzebub, Beelzebub."
The Devil in the shape of a butterfly would then appear and fly round those
who were celebrating the Black Mass, who next ate a black host, which they were
obliged to chew before swallowing.
It is possible that the concept of the Black Mass
derived from underground traditions of Cathar heretics, who were put down by
orthodox Christianity during the 14th century. The
Cathars believed in two gods,
the God of light and the Prince of darkness, the maker of all material things.
See
Backward
Blessing,
Heptameron,
Demonology,
Demonomancy,
Grimoires,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing; (2) Spence, Lewis,
An Encyclopedia of
Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (3) Lavey,
Anton Szandor,
The Satanic Bible, Avon Books; (4)
Cavendish, Richard,
The Black Arts: An Absorbing Account of
Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the
Ages, Perigee Trade.
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