15. The Sabbath Of The Sorcerers-d

From this two-fold point of view we propose to consider the true Sabbath, that of luminous Magic in the one case and that of darkness in the other. When Christianity proscribed the public exercise of the ancient worships, the partisans of the latter were compelled to meet in secret for the celebration of their mysteries. Initiates presided over these assemblies and soon established a kind of orthodoxy among the varieties of persecuted worships, this being facilitated by the aid of magical truth and by the fact that proscription unites wills and forges bonds of brotherhood between men. Thus, the Mysteries of Isis, of Ceres Eleusinia, of Bacchus, combined with those of the Bona Dea and primeval Druid-ism. The meetings took place usually between the days of Mercury and Jupiter, or between those of Venus and Saturn. The proceedings included Rites of Initiation, exchange of mysterious signs, singing of symbolical hymns, the communion of feasting in common, the successive formation of the magical chain at table and in the dance. Finally the meeting broke up after renewing pledges in the presence of chiefs and receiving instructions from them. The candidate for the Sabbath was led or rather carried to the assembly, his eyes covered by the magical mantle in which he was enveloped completely. He was passed before great fires, while alarming noises were made about him. When his face was uncovered, he found himself surrounded by infernal monsters and in the presence of a colossal and hideous goat which he was commanded to adore. All these ceremonies were tests of his force of character and confidence in his initiators. The final ordeal was most decisive of all because it was at first sight humiliating and ridiculous to the mind. The candidate received a brusque command to kiss respectfully the posterior of the goat. If he refused, his head was covered once more, and he was transported to a distance from the assembly with such extraordinary rapidity that he believed himself whirled through the air. If he agreed, he was taken round the symbolical idol, and there found, not a repulsive and obscene object, but the young and gracious countenance of a priestess of Isis or Maia, who gave him a sisterly salute, and he was then admitted to the banquet. As to the orgies which in many such assemblies followed the banquet, we must beware of believing that they were permitted generally these secret agapae, it is known, however, that a number of Gnostic sects practised them in their conventicles during early centuries of Christianity. That the flesh had its protestants in those ages of asceticism and compression of the senses was inevitable and can occasion no surprise, but we must not accuse Transcendental Magic of irregularities which it has never authorized. Isis is chaste in her widow hood; Diana Panthea is a virgin; Hermanubis, possessing both sexes, can satisfy neither; the Hermetic hermaphrodite pure; Apollonius of Tyana never yielded to the seductions of pleasure; the Emperor Julian was a man of rigid continence; Plotinus of Alexandria was ascetic in the manner of his life; Paracelsus was such a stranger to foolish love that his sex was suspected; Raymund Lully was initiated in the final secrets of science only after a hopeless passion which made him chaste for ever. It is also a magical tradition that panta-cles and talismans lose all their virtue when he who wears them enters a house of prostitution or commits an adultery. The Sabbath of orgies must not therefore be considered as that of the veritable adepts. With regard to the term Sabbath, some have traced it to the name of Sabasius, and other etymologies have been imagined.