Satan: Deity of Witches

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Satan

Note: Satan is not worshipped, or even recognized, by modern witches.

Satan, of course, was the perceived deity of choice during the witchcraze. Witches' sabbats, also known as "Synagogues of Satan," were held in dedication to him. Physical adoration and submission to the Devil were necessary parts of every sabbat. Satan most often appeared at these sabbats in the form of a black billy goat, a feathered toad (Givry 74), or a tom cat and would copulate with almost everyone present.

This copulation was unappealing as the Devil's genitals are not only unbearably huge, but also hard and scaly, with the semen being as cold as ice. Sometimes Satan was represented as having a two-pronged member, a characterization that would certainly have stimulated the prurient imaginations of repressed Inquisitors.

Sabbats were basically prayer meetings for Satan. At these congregations, the Devil would baptize new initiates with a smelly fluid which had, as a main ingredient, urine. He would also issue forth black sacramental bread (probably dung) and fouled water. At the Sabbat, witches would offer the osculum infame (the infamous kiss) by kissing Satan's anus.

Another integral part of Satan worship was the trampling on of the cross and the desecration of the Holy Host. Many witches purportedly retained the wafer in their mouths after Mass and would spit them on the ground in honour of the Devil.

To common medieval imagination...the Devil was no figure of speech but a life and blood reality, prowling about everywhere, suggesting temptations and creating all kinds of evil; he could usually be sent packing by a dash of holy water or other sign of the cross, but he left an awful odor of burning sulpher behind him. He was a great admirer of women, used their smiles and charms as bait to lure his victims, and occasionally won their favors--if the ladies themselves might be believed. So a woman of Toulouse admitted that she had frequently slept with Satan, and had, at the age of fifty-three, given birth, through his services, to a monster with a wolf's head and a serpent's tail. The Devil had an immense cohort of assistant demons.... The monk Richalm described them as "filling the whole world; the whole air is but a thick mass of devils, always and everywhere in wait for us.... It is marvelous that any one of us should be alive; were it not for God's grace, no one of us could escape (Ashley 43).

Deformed children were said to be the spawn of Satan, and women were occasionally put to death for bearing them (Ashley 86).

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Satan: Deity of Witches is copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.