Sabbath (witchcraft)

In Christian tradition the Sabbath (or witch Sabbath to some people) is the name given to the reunions celebrated by witches and warlocks to honour the Devil, offend God, Jesus, the sacraments, the cross, and perform unholy rites.

Table of contents 1 The Sabbath in History 2 What is said about the Sabbath 3 Places and Dates for Sabbaths. Types 4 What is known about the Sabbath 5 The Sabbath in Art

The Sabbath in History

Although allusions to Sabbaths were made by the Catholic Canon (law) since about 905, the first book that mentions the Sabbath is, theoretically, Errores Gazariorum (1452). In 905 the Catholic church wrote about certain women that believed they could fly in the company of the Pagan goddess Diana by means of an illusion induced by Satan, often when sleeping, in the form of a dream. In the 13th Century Sabbaths began to be a motivation for a serious accusation, and in 1335 a tribunal in Toulouse, France mentions one of these gatherings. Some allusions to meetings of witches with demons are also made in the Malleus Maleficarum (1486). Nevertheless, it was during the Renaissance when Sabbaths were most popular, more books on them were published, and more people lost their life because of them. Commentarius de Maleficius (1622), by Peter Binsfeld, cites to have participated in Sabbaths as a proof of guiltiness in an accusation for the practice of witchcraft.

What is said about the Sabbath

There is no agreement among authors on what actually happened during a Sabbath. The Compendium Maleficarum (1608), by Francesco Maria Guazzo[?], aka Guaccio, Guaccius is a book published by an Italian priest with some illustrations of what he imagined could be a Sabbath, and gives a description of it; a brief summary can be cited as an example: "the attendants go riding flying goats, trample the cross, are made to be re-baptised in the name of the Devil, give their clothes to him, kiss the Devil's behind, and dance back to back forming a round". According to Hans Baldung Grien[?] (ca 1484-1545) and Pierre de Rostegny[?], aka De Lancre (1553-1631) human flesh was eaten during Sabbaths, preferably children, and also human bones stewed in a special way. It was also said by some authors that salt, bread and oil were prohibited because the Devil hated them, meanwhile different testimonies told about delicious dishes. Other descriptions add that human fat, especially of non-baptised children, was used to make an unguent that enabled the witches to fly; it was also believed that witches could fly by themselves, ride a broom, or be carried by demons to the place of the meeting. The most common belief on which authors agreed is that Satan was present at the Sabbath, often as a goat or satyr, and many agreed that more demons were present; other belief said that sometimes a person could offer his/her own body to be possessed by some demon serving as a medium (see demon possession). It was believed that the Sabbath commenced at midnight and ended at dawn, beginning with a procession[?], continuing with a banquet[?], then a Black Mass, and culminating with an orgy in which sexual intercourse with demons in male or female form was practised. Hallucinogens were cited as means to favour the climax during the meeting and sometimes alcohol was mentioned.

Places and Dates for Sabbaths. Types

The general belief is that the Sabbath was celebrated in isolated places, preferably forests or mountains. Some famous places where these reunions were celebrated are Briany[?], Carignan[?], Puy-de-Dome[?] (France), Blocksberg[?], Melibäus[?], the Black Forest, (Germany), the Bald Mount[?] (Russia), Vaspaku[?], Zäbern[?], Kopastatö[?] (Hungary), and more, but it was also said that Stonehenge (England) was a place for Sabbaths. In the Basque country the Sabbath (there called Akellarre 'field of the goat') was celebrated in isolated fields.

Concerning the dates on which the Sabbaths were celebrated there is no agreement among authors. Meanwhile most of them called Sabbath these reunions thinking they used to take place during the night of the Sunday before the time the Christian mass was celebrated, some authors disagreed telling that Satan was less powerful on holy days but this opinion did not prevail. There were, nonetheless, several dates on which authors agreed: February 1 (to some February 2), May 1 (Great Sabbath, Walpurgis Night), August 1, November 1 (Halloween, commencing on October 30's eve), Easter, Christmas, and less, Good Friday, January 1 (day of Jesus' circumcision), June 23 (St. John), December 21 (St. Thomas), and Corpus Christi[?]. It was said that many people attended these Sabbaths, but that minor Sabbaths, called Esbats, were celebrated on no particular date, in isolated places or the house of a member of the group; the Esbats were said to have a lesser number of attendants.

What is known about the Sabbath

According to what was asserted by some inquisitors, "the acts of the witches/warlocks are only known by us for the confessions they make when tortured". All the descriptions about the Sabbaths were made and published by priests, jurists and judges who (theoretically) never took part in these gatherings, or written in the acts of the tribunals that carried out the processes. All of them were based on the confessions made by people accused of practising witchcraft. Here is necessary a quotation: no voluntary confession was taken as valid for, according to the Christian belief regarding heresy and witchcraft, people who practised either one or the other (later witchcraft was considered heresy) only could say the truth under torture, for that was the only way to oblige the helpers of the Devil to speak the truth, so all confessions were made under torment. It is a matter of fact that commonly persons lie and say what they think the interrogator wants to hear to stop suffering; besides, generally the answers were suggested to the prisoners because the church had a previous conception of what was a Sabbath. The negation to answer or to the accusation was taken as a proof of guiltiness, as well as to say that nothing was known about what happened in a Sabbath. As many people suffering insanity was said to be demon-possessed and interrogated on the subject, it is easy to imagine the kind of answers that could be obtained. The use of hallucinogen drugs, often extracted from plants, was known since ancient times, and people who consumed these substances could have given descriptions of their hallucinations more than any other thing.

What is really known about the Sabbath is very little, and less is related to devil worship or witchcraft. It is true that Satanism was and is practised, but it could be never be truly associated with these type of Sabbath described by Christian churches (not only Catholic). The description of the Sabbath seems to be more the product of the imagination of people influenced by ignorance[?], fear, drugs and insanity than a reality. It happened that individuals like Gilles de Rais aka Gilles de Retz, and La Voisin were found guilty of killing hundreds of children in Satanic rituals and Sabbaths, but nothing is known about the mental health of those persons (who could be real assassins, despite the number of victims seems to have been exaggerated), and the proofs were all in power of the ecclesiastical tribunals; the castle of De Rais was intentionally burnt and only parts of the external wall survive; the process against La Voisin (which caused the death of thirty-six persons and the imprisonment of near ninety) made Louis XIV put an end to the tribunals of the Holy Inquisition in France ca 1682.

It is interesting the coincidence between the dates of the main Sabbaths and those of the most important pre-Christian Heathen festivals, as well as that Scandinavians, Anglo-Saxons and Druids practised their rites in forests and mountains, what seems to imply the continuity of the ancient religion of those nations more than devil worship; those dates are still commemorated by Neopaganism, Neodruidism[?] and Asatru (see also Wheel of the Year). The description of the Esbats also seems to coincide with the Pagan and Neopagan Esbats.

The Sabbath in Art

Besides of the drawings on several ancient books like the Compendium Maleficarum, De Laniis et Pithonicis Mulieribus by Ulrich Molitor[?], the Dictionnaire Infernal by Collin de Plancy[?] and many other, famous painters like Luca Signorelli have been inspired by the Sabbath, but perhaps the most known on the subject is Goya.

See also Herodias and an Early Dianic Cult.