It seems suitable this Halloween to turn to our favorite exemplar of the Medieval mind, Solange Hertz, who asks the not unserious question “Does attendance at the black Mass satisfy my Sunday obligation?”
Now some groups, whether out of ignorance or dissimulation, regard the Black Mass as merely a parody of the Catholic mass. But why, then, bother? Parody is the sincerest form of flattery. That is why millions will watch a roast of Charlie Sheen, but no one is interested in your imitation of your Uncle Charlie at Thanksgiving dinner.
But a real black mass has true power. Mrs. Hertz follows the history of the Black Mass back to the age of witchcraft and even further to the the secret cult of Mithras and the Gnostics of the early ages of Christianity. It reappeared in Manichaeism and its later offshoots, the Albigensians, and Cathars. Yet even Satanists have their heretics, that is, those who revert to nature worship. A true Satanist, however, understands its supernatural origins. Satan does not ignore God, rather he puts himself at the same level. Hence the Satanist is faced anew with the perpetual choice first offered to Adam and Eve. One can choose to obey the God or one can side with Satan, and gain the knowledge that will open your eyes and make you one of the gods. For the Satanist, that is the Primordial religion: to know as the gods know, and thereby becoming free to know good and evil without the interference of a higher power.
In some descriptions, the black mass employs hosts consecrated at a Catholic mass. That alone won’t make the black mass valid. What we have in mind is the legion of illicitly but validly ordained priests, who can offer gnostic or black masses in a valid way. For a Catholic, then, such a mass can satisfy the Sunday obligation in a way that no Protestant service can. Even the Norvus Ordo mass may be suspect. Certainly, many black masses are performed with more reverence than popular masses today. In our day, with no licit masses available in much of Europe, the irony may very well be that the only valid masses may be black. The choice would then be between the Light of the World and the Light Bearer. Tread cautiously this Halloween and remember what Jesus said: Be as innocent as the Holy Spirit and as cunning as Lucifer.
Update 2018
For more on Gilles Rais, mentioned by Solange Hertz, and a detailed description of a black mass in 19th century Paris, see La-Bas, by Joris-Karl Huysmans.
I assume it is a habit here to revive old posts from time to time. A curious thing I’ve noticed as I was shuffling through the pages of “Meditations”: In La Bas, the pseudonymous Canon Docre was the Canon of the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, and Huysmans insists that it is precisely there, in a Crusader church, that he performed his Black Masses and congregated with all sorts of epileptics and what not.
The same church was the place of mystical revelation for no other than Tomberg:
“No, I would never write of the mystery of blood as the source of sacred magic—even if I “knew” these things—if I had not visited and returned many times to the Chapel of Holy Blood at Bruges. There I have had the unsettling experience of the reality of the Holy Blood of the God-Man. It is this experience, with the effect of rejuvenating the soul—what am I saying!?—not only rejuvenating the soul, but even elevating it in the sense of the healing of Aeneas effected by St. Peter: “Rise, and make your bed!”—it is this experience, I say, which has revealed to me the mystery of the Holy Blood and the source of the power of sacred magic”
Black mass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmlRzPlf290
White mass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKxos8unle4
Catholic mass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdWZWDqhCdA
Orthodox mass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DcUK3rXXx4
Manichaeism is still around: http://www.manichaean.org
Did it ever entirely disappear?
i think this raises the biggest dilemma for both the initiated, who by definition have had their blindfolds removed – they’ve ‘seen the light’, gained wisdom, experienced revelations and so on…..or have they just eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as we’re specifically exhorted NOT to do? Even without being initiated in a supernatural sense, gnostics have the same problem. They’re constantly striving for more and more knowing, more and more light, which as you rightly pointed out can lead merrily to Lucifer unless the individual in question is of truly iron will, has total purity of intention, moral incorruptibility, a spotless mind and so on – is, in fact, saintly, as so few of us are or can even hope to be in this lifetime. So what next, off the holy mountain and into the mundane world of humble, heartfelt action? My guess is yes, although that doesn’t make it any easier to accept for those who love questing for knowledge….at any rate then a problem of the kind suggested by VT in MoTT is raised with respect to the Judas effect, where an initiated disciple renounced the Royal Road in favour of throwing his lot in with the masses. Sometimes there just isn’t an answer, I guess we just have to do our best and tread carefully, though the temptations of Lucifer remind us to always keep love as king rather than simply ‘light’.
One thing makes me curious though, why would sects like Cathars and so on need a black mass? Why call themselves one thing but be an other, seeing as they were damned by the church either way??
Also, “the sons of this world are more cunning than the children of light”. What the hell does this mean? But he said it.