X
OOPS!
VIEW CART
CONTINUE SHOPPING
X
ADDED!
VIEW CART
CONTINUE SHOPPING
X
OOPS!
MANAGE WISHLISTS
CONTINUE SHOPPING
X
ADDED!
CANCEL
(0)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Our shopping cart, and account area, are temporarily closed. Please check back in a little bit to continue shopping.
Online Reference For Body, Mind & Spirit

Term: Black Mass

DEFINITIONs:
1.  A perversion of the Catholic Mass supposedly performed by Satanists. It required a defrocked priest to run the service and a nude woman as the altar. The communion wafer would be stolen from a church and the Lord’s Prayer would be recited backwards. Although Witches were (and still are) accused of participating in this rite, it is not a part of Witchcraft.
2.  The Mass is a rite developed by early Christians duplicating some of the aspects of Jesus’ “Last Supper” in the garden of Gethsemane. By the Middle Ages, Christians saw Pagans having large celebrations and assumed that they were rituals done in opposition to the Mass and referred to them as Witches’ Black Masses. However, it was not until the 17th century when the Black Mass became associated with an actual inversion of the Christian Mass. Supposedly requiring a defrocked Priest as the presiding ritualist and a nude woman as the altar, it included insulting the image of the cross and reciting the Lord’s Prayer backwards. There is little evidence that such practices were ever performed except for show or by some poorly-educated individuals who thought it was a real ritual. Some authorities also claim that it was any Mass in France performed for magickal purposes as opposed to the policy of the Church. This was supposedly invented by a priest to one of the mistresses of the French King to ensure that he wouldn't desert her for a younger woman.
Related Encyclopedia Articles
Black Mass
Introduction: The so-called "Black Mass" (possibly, at least initially, a literary invention) was to be performed by an ordained priest—Catholic, Anglican, or Episcopal—(in later descriptions he was supposed to a de-frocked priest). It was an ordinary mass with magical ceremonies added, ...
READ MORE  
SHARE:    /   PRINT
IN OUR BLOGS
Author Rachel Pollack Has Passed
by Anna
We are deeply saddened to share the news of Rachel Pollack’s passing. Llewellyn has had the good fortune to work with Rachel on multiple books and decks over the years, all of which greatly impacted the tarot world. Rachel leaves an incredible...
What's New
$16.99 US
  /  
$18.99 US
  /  
$25.95 US
  /  
$23.95 US
  /  
$15.39 US
  /  
       
Copyright © 2023 - Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.