SHOW LINKS

• TRANS LIFELINE SUPPORT, SATANIC CIRCLE
• FORMULA DRIVE, RENO SATANIC
  • From Explicit and Implicit Measures of Black Cat Bias in Cat and Dog People Greg C Elvers et al, Journal of Animals, 2024: The precise significance of a black cat depended on the circumstances: In superstitions from the 17th century on, to see it walking toward you is a good omen, but if it crosses your path it is a harbinger of evil, especially in the morning. Those in dangerous professions, such as miners and fishermen, would often refuse to go to work that day if a black cat ran in front of them. ‘This fear of a black cat crossing one’s path persists in the United States and certain other parts of the world, and in some places spitting is said to be the only way to avert the bad luck it brings. Whether lucky or unlucky, the black cat has long been seen as having special powers, and the black cat as a witch’s familiar is an image common in folklore and storybooks, often believed to be the witch herself in animal form. Folk remedies from the seventeenth century often feature a black cat: rubbing its tail into the eye was a traditional cure for a sty, and drinking its blood was believed to restore health. The idea that a cat may “die” nine times goes back at least to the sixteenth.century and, although its precise source is unclear, it probably has its origins in the belief that a witch could take on the body of a cat nine times. This fear of cats is reflected in the old tradition of entering a house with the greeting “God bless all except the cat.” When a dead family member was laid out in the house prior to the funeral, cats were kept well away to prevent them from jumping onto or over the body, or else the spirit of the dead person would be endangered or the next person to see the body would die. A cat can supposedly foretell a death and will refuse to stay indoors if a member of the family is about to die. They are also reputed to have the ability to “suck the breath” out of infants, and therefore must never be left alone with one. Records show that this belief was so widespread that, in the eighteenth century, one coroner actually ruled a cat responsible for the death of a child.
    • • While a common superstition in the United States is that black cats bring bad luck, that is not universally true across cultures and times: Until 1975, black cats were required to be onboard British ships as a good luck charm. Some of the negative superstitions associated with black cats may arise from the belief that black cats are associated with witchcraft and heresy. After looking at adoption records of over 29,000 cats, black kittens took about 4 days longer to be adopted than kittens who were not primarily black, while black adult cats took almost six days longer on average. In our studies, superstitious behaviors, belief in witchcraft, and religiosity were expected to be directly correlated with black cat bias measured both explicitly and implicitly. These relations are predicted to be stronger in dog people than in cat people. Belief in witchcraft was a predictor of explicitly measured black cat bias for dog people with a medium effect size but not for cat people. As belief in witchcraft increases in dog people, black cat bias tends to increase. Religiosity is also a predictor of black cat bias for dog people. Because self-identified cat people have, on average, more cats than dog people, cat people may have more experience with black cats that offers protection from bias. Given the correlation between religiosity and belief in witchcraft, it is not surprising that black cat bias can also be predicted from dog people’s religious point of view. Partially consistent with the predictions, the bias is more extreme around Halloween, which, in the United States, is a holiday associated with superstition and witchcraft. This finding is important because it suggests that black cat bias might be malleable—it might be changed by external factors. Future research could look at whether an intervention designed to reduce belief in witchcraft could influence black cat bias. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11640230/pdf/animals-14-03372.pdf 
    • From THE CAT IN THE MYSTERIES OF RELIGION AND MAGIC, Mary Oldfield Howey, 1956: The Luciferans worshipped god’s eldest son, who had power over wealth and worldly happiness. They are said to have adored a black cat as the symbol of Satan when celebrating their mysteries, and to have sacrificed children at their nocturnal orgies, and used the victim’s blood in making the Eucharistic bread of their Order. The Gnostic sect of the Manicheans were accused by their persecutors of many terrible and incredible crimes, and were said to worship the devil in the form of a black cat. Confessing witch Rolande de Vernois acknowledged “The Devil presents himself for the Sabbath in the form of a great black cat.” Such beliefs are still prevalent in the remoter parts of Europe. We may instance the peasants of Southern Slavonia who are firmly persuaded that the devil dwells in a black cat. They try to keep clear of such felines by night, as during the hours of darkness the Fiend has power suddenly to resume his proper form and seize and destroy the unwary traveller. To illustrate the survival of the old beliefs in our enlightened land, the well-known ghost-hunter Mr. Elliott O’Donnell assures us that “there are, at the present moment, many houses in England haunted by phantasms in the form of black cats, of so sinister and hostile an appearance, that one can only assume that unless they are the actual spirits of cats, earthbound through cruel and vicious propensities, they must be vice-elementals, i.e. spirits that have never inhabited any material body.”  In the legend of Lilith we recognise the origin of the widespread superstition that cats will suck the breath of a sleeping child, and it is also clear why black cats are banished from children’s cradles. In mediaeval times witches were thought to assume cat form to play the part of vampire, and seem to have usurped the role of Lilith. We may see the lingering remains of this belief among all classes of the population to-day, in the numerous black cats named “Satan,” and images of black cats carried by the superstitious; all so many flags of truce held out to the Lord of the World.
    • From Many Faces of Evil, Pasi Klemettinen, Studies In Folkore & Popular Thought, 2002: Literary sources for European Christian beliefs dealing with the devil and witchcraft usually identify the cat as a faithful ally of the witch. We must remember, however, to make a distinction between animals given to witches by the devil, and demonic creatures in which the devil materializes. In Scandinavian folklore, horses and dogs are more commonly associated with the devil than are cats; in Finnish folk belief, the cat is deemed an unclean animal, thus, the appearance of a black cat, an especially heinous creature, generally foretells unhappiness and warns of imminent danger.. Lencqvist refers to an incantation in which the sorcerer summons a demon cat to his aid. The animal, by causing pain, impels the thief to return stolen goods: “Mistress of Pain, demon cat, give the legs a splendid claw, pain will make him hurry.” In the minds of many, the demon dog and cat are virtually interchangeable as images associated with the kingdom of the dead. Archival materials related to folk beliefs also reveal accounts of the devil himself assuming the form of a black cat. Likewise, one of the most frequent incarnations of the devil in Russian folklore is a black dog or cat. There was a haunted house in Impilahti. At night something would rattle objects indoors and during the day it would cause a ruckus in the attic and even in the hayloft. The people of that household soon had no peace of mind and were growing more and more desperate by the day. Finally, one Sunday after church, the owner of the house went to talk to the priest. The priest went to the house with his holy water and wine and held a sermon, and then walked around the house sprinkling holy water on the walls. They then noticed a huge black cat leave the house and head for the woods. After this the house was no longer haunted, and the people believed that the devil himself – as a black cat – had abandoned the house and stopped haunting it and troubling the inhabitants.
    • From Sketches of Old Dublin, Ada Peter, 1907: The proceedings of the Hell-Fire Club, whether on the summit of Mount Pelier, or within the walls of the Eagle Tavern on Cork Hill, were whispered among the plainer folk with awe and horror. It was told how blasphemous toasts were followed by the sudden death of the speaker on more than one occasion, while the sulphurous flames and fumes which were produced at their gatherings caused any country person who happened to witness them to be convinced that they saw the infernal regions. Among the beverages consumed by the members of the Dublin HellFire Club was a mixture made by brewing whiskey and butter together, and as the making of this was an art in itself, they employed a special scaltheen maker. From this man have come many stories of the doings of his wild masters, who, as they imbibed the burning drink so carefully prepared, used, he said, to stand in impious bravado before blazing fires till they dropped down dead from the heat. Again, he related how brimstone certainly was perceptible to the senses and how the very horses showed a dislike to draw their hearses. Of a certain black cat there are several accounts: This animal belonged to the Club, and had a place at the dinner table, when it was always served first, and any insult or neglect to it was regarded as an offence to be punished by the life of the offender. A country clergyman, his curiosity aroused at seeing the cat helped first, inquired as to the reason, and received for answer that it was out of respect for age, as they believed it to be the oldest individual in the company. The clergyman replied that he believed so too, as it was not a cat but an imp of darkness, which had the effect of making the cat assume its proper form of a fiend and forthwith flew away. 
    • From Spinsters, Old Maids, & Cat Ladies, Katherine Barak, Bowling Green State University, 2014: Using Foucault’s notion of “containment strategies,” representations of the crazy cat lady, the spinster, and the old maid negatively frame independent, single women as models of failed white womanhood. These characters must be contained because they intrinsically transgress social norms, query gender roles, and challenge the limitations of mediated womanhood. The cat lady in popular culture has become a shorthand signifier for non-normative femininity. The cat lady addresses the same gender concerns as her predecessors in Spinsters and old maids. Historical context dictates the manner in which they are depicted, but the message has been resoundingly the same: women must adhere to heteronormative gender expectations. Be desirable, flirt, catch a husband, marry, have children, and you will have succeeded as a woman. Whether by choice or situation, spinster, old maid, and cat lady characters neglect their feminine duties and become cultural models for failure. The domestic cat’s nature is marked by ambivalence: They’re wild animals that enjoy the comforts of civilization. Despite claims of domestication and dependence on human intervention, the cat is still resolutely independent. Cats have come to symbolize opposing forces: domestic and wild, dependent and independent, good and evil, innocence and promiscuity, and so on. The same can be said of women – they might be depicted as benevolent or beguiling. 
      • Woman and cat, goddess and sacred animal, witch and feline familiar: the relationship has existed for centuries and the connotations range from domestic home and hearth to the supernatural. Women and cats’ ambivalent iconographies, some of which still exist today in Euro-American popular imagination, took root during the Middle Ages. Sacred animals were not adopted into the larger European religions. This is true of all Christianity, but Protestantism in particular. The cornerstone to Protestantism lay in the relationship of an individual to god. Rather than mediated by saints, sacraments, animals, or the church, the connection should be direct. Medieval European culture shied away from conceptualizing animals as anything more than their use-value in aiding labor, their exchange-value, or a food source. Animals were non sequiturs in worship. This notion was paralleled by animals’ importance within pagan religious rituals. When pagan beliefs were deemed unacceptable alongside sanctioned religious practices the animals associated with those beliefs suffered. Folklorist Katharine M. Briggs blames failed syncretism for the longstanding cultural discomfort with cats. Christianity was on the rise and female deities and their feline companions were no longer respected. In fact, women gathering or participating in rural religious rites or traditions were now indicative of nocturnal ceremonies, sorcery, and witchcraft, and cats, especially black cats, became agents of devilish acts and witches’ familiars.
    • From Witches & Poison Cats, Wu Haiyun & Wang Mingke, Sixth Tone, 2023: In the course of his fieldwork, Wang Mingke, one of the world’s foremost experts on Chinese minority groups, has explored one of the most marginalized groups within these villages: women accused of witchcraft. Known in the local language as “poisonous cats,” villagers are hostile toward these women out of a belief they can transform into animals and perform magic. It’s a near universal form of violence across humanity, one that Wang, always interested in the broader applications of his work, has linked to current hot-button issues like social media “tribalization” and anti-Asian hate. The legend of the “poisonous cat” is widespread in villages in northern Sichuan. The accused typically possess several marginal characteristics: They are female, usually elderly, and many have married into the village from elsewhere. Caught between the village’s fear of external enemies and its suspicions about internal foes, these individuals occupy a complex position: neither fully assimilated nor wholly excluded. Consequently, they become convenient scapegoats for various ills. They can be targeted at any time to alleviate intra-village tensions and unify the community. Poisonous cats may exhibit a defiant and antisocial mentality. For instance, within a traditional Chinese extended family, there may be a daughter-in-law who is treated as an outsider and unfairly blamed when problems arise. In traditional novels or dramas, this young daughter-in-law often resorts to tearful threats of self-harm, but she also might seek revenge through various means, such as spreading rumors about family scandals or inciting chaos by leaving the household. In such circumstances, she transforms into a “poisonous cat.” There are certainly similarities between European witches and poisonous cats: both are invented enemies. However, the difference lies in the fact that the phenomenon of poisonous cats is limited to the internal dynamics of a village, often appearing as idle gossip that eventually fades away. On the other hand, in the case of witches, Europe witnessed a widespread witch-hunting hysteria. Many women accused of being poisonous cats are socially ostracized, and even their daughters have difficulty finding marriage prospects. However, these poisonous cats did not endure the same level of persecution as found in the witch-hunting campaigns in European history. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1013535 
    • From Did Mass Cat Killings Help Spread the Black Death, Jack Izzo, Snopes, 2023: According to some social media posts, during the Middle Ages, cats were considered Satanic and evil because of a 1233 papal decree, so Europeans rounded up cats across the continent and dispatched them in mass killings. But the cats had their revenge from beyond the grave — their pest control prowess would have led to fewer rats had their population not decreased, and in the next century or two, more cats and fewer rats could have saved people from the Black Death. “Vox in Rama” is a real document written as a letter in the year 1233 by Pope Gregory IX. It did indeed target heretics in that area of Germany, who, according to the decree, had formed cults worshipping the devil, and it does mention the use of cats in the rituals. “There is no evidence beyond “Vox in Rama” itself to suggest that these rituals actually took place. Did ‘Vox in Rama’ Lead to Europeans Thinking Cats Were Evil? Not really. While “Vox in Rama” did have papal authority, it wasn’t widely shared. Even if churches did preach about the evils of cats, that would be their fault for misinterpreting the decree, which again does demonize cats per se or compare them to Satan. None of the evidence suggests that mass killings of cats happened. Bubonic plague is caused by a bacteria which infects fleas. These fleas do live on rats, which are carriers of the plague. But cats are actually highly susceptible to plague themselves. According to historian Mike Dash, like many common myths found on the internet, this originated in the late 90s or early 2000s. “The story about the cats is almost certainly a modern internet-based fabrication,” Dash told Snopes via email. Snopes found a reference to the myth in Donald Engels’ book “Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat,” published in 1999. Dash, found a book reference to the idea in “The Cathars” by Malcolm Lambert, published in 1998. The claims likely originated from these books, then spread to blogs on the internet, then beyond. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/11/08/cats-mass-killings-plague/ 

The post Episode 207: Black Cats & Devils appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

SHOW LINKS

• UNHOLY ROSARIES

• From Geometric Symbols & Divine Proportions, Douglas C. Youvan, 2024: The pentagram is one of the earliest geometric symbols used by human civilizations, with its origins traced back to Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE. In Sumerian and Babylonian cultures, the pentagram was often inscribed on clay tablets, amulets, and other artifacts. The pentagram was associated with directions and the known world, often used to represent the five regions of the earth or the five visible planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—each of which was associated with a particular god in the Sumerian pantheon. The points of the pentagram were thought to correspond to these celestial bodies, symbolizing the unity of heaven and earth in a single, harmonious design. This use of the pentagram reflects the early Mesopotamian belief in a cosmology where the earthly and the divine were inextricably linked. In Babylonian culture, which inherited much of Sumerian symbolism, the pentagram was also linked to cosmological and astrological concepts to symbolize the movements of the planets and their influence on earthly affairs. The pentagram’s five points may have been seen as a symbol of the cyclical nature of the universe, with each point representing a different phase of a celestial cycle. This interpretation aligns with the Babylonian understanding of the cosmos as an ordered system governed by divine laws.

• As Christianity began to spread in the early centuries of the Common Era, the pentagram found new meanings within the context of Christian symbolism. In early Christian art and literature, the pentagram was used to represent the five wounds of Christ—two on the hands, two on the feet, and one on the side— inflicted during his crucifixion. This association gave the pentagram a deeply sacred significance, symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice and the redemption of humanity through his suffering. In addition to representing the wounds of Christ, the pentagram was also associated with the five senses, which were seen as gifts from god that allowed humans to experience and appreciate the divine creation. The use of the pentagram in this context reflected early Christian beliefs about the sanctity of the human body and the importance of maintaining spiritual and physical purity. The pentagram was also employed as a protective symbol in early Christian communities, believed to have the power to ward off evil spirits and to protect the wearer from harm. This protective use of the pentagram may have been influenced by earlier pagan practices, where the pentagram was seen as a powerful talisman against negative forces.The pentagram’s use as a Christian symbol gradually declined as the cross became the dominant symbol of Christianity. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Douglas-Youvan/publication/383214202_Geometric_Symbols_and_Divine_Proportions_The_Pentagram_Hexagram_and_Their_Religious_Significance_Across_Cultures/links/66c28591145f4d3553663e40/Geometric-Symbols-and-Divine-Proportions-The-Pentagram-Hexagram-and-Their-Religious-Significance-Across-Cultures.pdf 

• • From A Slip of the Tongue In Salutation, Lucian, 2nd Century CE: The admirable Plato would have us reject the salutation Joy altogether; it is a mean wish, wanting in seriousness, according to him; his substitute is Prosperity, which stands for a satisfactory condition both of body and soul; in a letter to Dionysius, he reproves him for commencing a hymn to Apollo with Joy, which he maintains is unworthy, and not fit even for men of any discretion, not to mention gods. The divine Pythagoras, although he did not see fit to leave us any writings of his own, still, as far as can be judged from the writings of his disciples and other companions, did not begin letters with the traditional ‘be joyful’ or ‘do well’, but exhorted them to begin with ‘be healthy’. All of his followers, at any rate, in writing letters to each other, when they were writing something serious, would exhort (each other) to be healthy at the very beginning, as the thing most fit for the soul and the body. And their pentagram, drawn to each other in five lines, which they used as a token for the like-minded, was called ‘health’ by them. They believed that doing well and being joyful were wholly part of being healthy, but not that being healthy was entirely part of doing well or being joyful. Some also called the tetractys — their greatest oath, which for them completes the perfect number — the beginning of health. And it was true wisdom, in my opinion; that all other good things are worthless if health is wanting. 
  • From The Witch, Ronald Hutton, 2016: The distinctive contribution made by Christian Europe to the magical tradition seems to have been geometric: the use of the consecrated circle as the normal venue for a magical operation, with special significance often given to its four cardinal directions, and the identification of the pentagram as the most potent symbol of magic. Pentagrams are found in ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman art or on coins, and also in the Christian early Middle Ages, but without any single tradition concerning their meaning and use: in many contexts they seem simply to have been decorative. There is no real evidence that the pentagram had any special association with magic in the ancient world. It appears once on a warrior’s shield painted on a Greek cup, which may have reflected a belief in its protective qualities…or it may just have been a decorative star. The most careful study of its ancient significance concludes (reluctantly) that its wide distribution in ancient times may have been ‘simply a question of decorative motif, with or without any particular meaning. The magic meaning of the pentagram was not yet apparent before the later Middle Ages. 

• As soon as Western Europeans acquired complex ceremonial magic in the twelfth century, seemingly as the result of their translation of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic texts, they showed their preference for the pentagram, and it was especially associated with Solomon, the wisest of biblical kings, who had been reimagined in the late antique period as a mighty magician. The Sworn Book of Honorius, from its earliest surviving manuscripts of the fourteenth century, put the pentagram at the centre of the ‘Seal of God’ which was the most important work in the achievement of the divine vision. The pentagram also penetrated popular culture, as it appears in many parts of Western Europe by the end of the Middle Ages, on houses, cradles, bedsteads and church porches, as a protective symbol. The reasons for the new importance of the design are easy to propose: One of the prime concerns of the considerable intellectual ferment of Western Europe in the twelfth century was the reconciliation of ancient learning with creative literature, Christian beliefs, and study of the natural world. Honorius asserted that the human body is constructed on a base formed by the number five, having five senses, five limbs (including the head) and five digits on hands and feet. This made the pentagram an obvious symbol of the microcosm that the human form represented, of the divine image in which it had been shaped. 

• From Sir Gawain & The Green Knight, Anonymous, 14th Century, Translated by JRR Tolkien: Then they brought him his shield that was of brilliant jewels, with the pentagram depicted in pure hue of gold. By the baldric he caught it, and about his neck cast it: right well and worthily it went with the knight. And why the pentagram is proper to that prince so noble I intend now to tell you, though it may tarry my story. It is a sign that Solomon once set on, a figure that in it five points holdeth and each line overlaps and is linked with another, and in this way it is endless; and the English, I hear, name it the Endless Knot. So it suits well this knight and his unsullied arms, forever faithful in five points, and five times under each, Gawain as good was acknowledged as gold refinéd, devoid of every vice and with full virtues adorned. So there the pentangram painted new he on shield and coat did wear, as one of word most true and knight of bearing fair. Faultless was he found in his five senses, and in the five fingers he failed at no time, and firmly on the Five Wounds all his faith was set that Christ received on the cross, as that Creed tells us; and wherever the brave man into battle was come, on this beyond all things was his earnest thought: that ever from the Five Joys all his valor he gained that to Heaven’s courteous Queen Mary once came from her Child: free-giving and friendliness first before all, and chastity and chivalry ever changeless and straight, and piety surpassing all points: these perfect five were hasped upon him harder than on any man else, fixed at five points that failed not at all, coincided in no line nor sundered either, not ending in any angle anywhere. Therefore on his shining shield was shaped now this knot, royally with red jewels upon red gold set: this is the pure pentangle as people of learning have taught. 

• From Medieval Mythbusting Blog, James Wright, 2021: In a recent post on the online forum Mediaeval and Tudor Period Buildings, a user uploaded a photograph of a five-pointed star carved onto a piece of stone at St Mary & St John (Somerset), and asked the deceptively simple question: “Would anyone know what this symbol might mean? If we discard the facetious suggestions by amateur comedians (18.7%), the remaining people had explanations which included: pagan symbol, holy star, Star of David, Satanic symbol, graffiti associated with boredom, builder’s sign to show structural problems, Seal of Solomon, mechanism to express proportional geometry, hobo mark, Knights Templar, Freemasonry or Illuminati symbol, etc. Some of the more outlandish identifications – including signs left by the Knights Templar, Freemasons or Illuminati – can perhaps be laid at the door of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, where Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor in the fictional discipline of “symbology,” intones: “The pentacle is a pre-Christian symbol that relates to Nature worship. The ancients envisioned their world in two halves— masculine and feminine… This pentacle is representative of the female half of all things— a concept religious historians call the ‘sacred feminine’ or the ‘divine goddess.” The pentagram IS a pre-Christian symbol, but in that period it was not associated with the attributes assigned by the fictional Langdon. His explanation seems to more closely align with the thinking of magical practitioners from the late nineteenth century onwards. This went on to influence later neo-pagan and Satanic beliefs. 

• Prior to the introduction of Christianity the pentagram was a symbol variously associated with the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar or Greek notions of health, wellbeing or geometrical purity. However, these explanations do not bear much relevance to how the symbol came to be carved on the walls of a parish church in Somerset. So, what is going on here? In the theology of mediaeval western Christianity, god gave King Solomon a seal ring which had the power to repel demons. This story was originally told by the Jews and, in their iteration, and as the story of the ring passed down through the Abrahamic faiths, the ciphers were subsequently re-interpreted by Arabic Muslims as a six-pointed star and European Christians as a five-pointed star. The mediaeval Christian belief that the pentagram was a powerful repellent of evil was apparently widespread. A reliance on such iconography can also be seen, physically, in fourteenth century ecclesiastical architecture – including pentagrams set out in the great west window of Exeter Cathedral and on the tower at Hannover. The pentagram has been noted as a motif found during historic graffiti surveys of mediaeval buildings. At one site a pentagram has been carved directly over a graffito of a demon – perhaps explicitly linking the symbol to its perceived function of warding off evil. Although the pentagram was an important shape in Classical theories of proportion, its use in mediaeval architectural design was rare. Consequently, when we encounter regular, chisel-cut examples of the pentagram, the symbol is less likely to be part of an architectural drawing and will often be a stonemason’s mark.

• From the Oral Talmud, Gittin 68, Third Century CE: Why was it necessary for Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, to gather demons? The answer: As the temple was being built, Solomon said to the sages: How shall I make it so that the stone will be precisely cut? They said to him: There is a creature called a shamir that can cut the stones, which Moses brought. Solomon said to them: Where is it found? They said to him: Bring a male demon and a female demon: It is possible that they know where, and they will reveal the place to you. Solomon brought a male demon and a female demon and tormented them together, and they said: We do not know where to find the shamir. Perhaps Asmodeus king of the demons, knows. He is on such-and-such a mountain. He has dug a pit for himself there, and filled it with water, and covered it with a rock, and sealed it with his seal. And every day he ascends to Heaven and studies, but he comes back and checks to ensure that nobody has entered his pit, and then he uncovers it and drinks from the water. Solomon sent for Benayahu, a member of the royal entourage, and gave him a chain onto which a sacred name of god was carved, and a ring onto which a sacred name of god was carved. What did Benayahu do? He went down the mountain, drained the water, and poured wine into the pit. When Asmodeus came and found the pit to be filled with wine. He said that it is written: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is riotous; and whosoever wallows in it is not wise, I will not drink this wine.” But when he became thirsty, he was unable to resist the wine and he drank, became intoxicated, and fell asleep. Benayahu threw the chain around Asmodeus, and when he woke Benayahu said to him: The name of your master is upon you, the name of your Master is upon you, do not tear the chain. And they brought him to Solomon after three days. 

• From Transcendental Magic, Eliphas Levi, 1854: The pentagram signifies the domination of the mind over the elements, and by this sign are enchained the demons of the air, the spirits of fire, the phantoms of the water, and ghosts of earth. Equipped with this sign, you will be ministered unto by legions of angels and hosts of fiends. Spirits are subservient to this sign when employed with understanding, and, by placing it in the circle or on the table of evocations, they can be rendered tractable. The intelligence of the wise man therefore gives value to his pentacle, as science gives weight to his will, and spirits comprehend this power immediately. Thus, by means of the pentagram, spirits can be forced to appear by themselves or their reflection, which exists in the astral light. Pregnant women are influenced more than others by the astral light, which concurs in the formation of the child, and perpetually offers them reminiscences of the forms which abound therein. This explains how it is that women of the highest virtue deceive the malignity of observers. The Kabbalistic usage of the pentagram can therefore determine the appearance of unborn children, and an initiated woman might endow her son with the characteristics of Nero or Achilles as much as with those of Louis XIV or Napoleon.

• We must, however, remark that the use of the pentagram is most dangerous for operators who are not in possession of its complete and perfect understanding. The direction of the points of the star is in no sense arbitrary, and may change the entire character of the operation. At this point, let the ignorant and superstitious close the book ; they will either see nothing but darkness, or they will be scandalised. The pentagram, which, in gnostic schools, is called the blazing star, is the sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. It is the star of the magi ; it is the sign of the Word made flesh; and, according to the direction of its points, this absolute magical symbol represents order or confusion, the divine lamb of  St John or the accursed goat of Mendes. It is initiation or profanation; it is Lucifer or Vesper, the star of the morning or the evening. It is Mary or Lilith, victory or death, day or night. The pentagram with two points in the ascendant represents Satan as the goat of the Sabbath ; when one point is in the ascendant, it is the sign of the Saviour. The pentagram is the figure of the human body, having the four limbs, and a single point representing the head. A human figure, head downwards, naturally represents a demon ; that is, intellectual subversion, disorder, or madness. Now, if magic be a reality, if occult science be really the true law of the three worlds, this absolute sign, this sign ancient as history, and more ancient, should and does actually exercise an incalculable influence upon spirits set free from their material envelope.

• From the Golden Dawn, Israel Regardie, 1940: The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram: Take a steel dagger in the right hand. Face east. Touch thy forehead and say (thou art). Touch thy breast and say (the Kingdom). Touch thy right shoulder and say (and the Power). Touch thy left shoulder and say (and the Glory). Clasp thy hands before thee and say (forever). Dagger between fingers, point up in the air towards the east and, bringing the point of the dagger to the centre of the pentagram, vibrate the deity name, imagining that your voice carries forward to the east of the universe. Holding the dagger out before you, go to the south, make the pentagram, and vibrate similarly the deity name. Go to the west, make the pentagram, and vibrate. Go to the north, make the pentagram, and vibrate. Return to the east and complete your circle by bringing the dagger point to the centre of the first pentagram. The Uses of the Pentagram Ritual include as a form of prayer: The invoking ritual should be used in the morning, the banishing in the evening. The names should be pronounced inwardly in the breath, vibrating it as much as possible and feeling that the whole body throbs with the sound. Also as a protection against impure magnetism: The banishing ritual can be used to get rid of obsessing or disturbing thoughts. Give a mental image to your obsession and imagine it formulated before you. Project it out of your aura with the saluting sign of a Neophyte, and when it is about three feet away, prevent its return with the Sign of Silence. Now imagine the form in the east before you and do the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram to disintegrate it, seeing it, in your mind’s eye, dissolving on the farther side of your ring of flame. It can also be used as an exercise in concentration. Seated in meditation or lying down, formulate yourself standing up in robes and holding a dagger. Put your consciousness in this form and go to the east. Make yourself “feel” there by touching the wall, opening your eyes, stamping on the floor, etc. Begin the ritual and go round the room mentally vibrating the words and trying to feel them as coming from the form. Finish in the east and try to see your results in the Astral Light, then walk back and stand behind the head of your body and let yourself be reabsorbed.’

• From The Purpose of Your Altar Pentacle, Sable Aradia, Patheos, 2018: I make and sell altar pentacles at my Etsy store.  I started doing this several years ago because I noticed that you couldn’t find them anywhere.  There was a plethora of wands, numerous chalices, and even a handful of athames available at most metaphysical stores in the late eighties and early nineties, and there were hundreds of silver jewelry pentacles available, but pentacles intended for your altar were nowhere to be found.  At the time I chalked that up to the Satanic Panic; the pentacle is the most obviously “Wiccan” of the four traditional altar tools, and big pentagrams made people nervous. I was taught that there is a difference between a pentagram and a pentacle, though a dictionary will often give them as synonyms: a pentagram is an equilateral five-pointed star, and a pentacle is such a star within a circle, or a similar object used in magic, such as the Earth Pentacle used by the Golden Dawn and various of the Seals of Solomon. Typically Wiccans and witches use the upright pentacle, and Aleister Crowley made use of the inverted pentagram in Thelema.  The association with the Horned God of Wicca in the inverted pentagram is largely due to tradition, stemming from the Goat in the Star from The Key of Black Magic, an 1897 grimoire. This was [incorrectly] thought to be a secret symbol of the Templars in their (alleged) secret worship of Baphomet.  The pentacle is usually placed at the center of the altar; and some books will tell you to place objects on it when you’re consecrating or enchanting them because you’re using it as a focus to direct all of those energies into your sacred and magickal work; manifesting the powers of the gods and the cosmos into physical reality. Sometimes the pentacle is used as a tangible, magical shield to protect you against danger and attack.  Just as vampire hunters in all the movies present crosses to the Undead boldly in order to drive them away through the power of faith, witches can aim their pentacles boldly against psychic attack. This is a simple method of calling upon the gods and the Universe to lend their formidable powers to your protection. You could use it as a focal point for meditations that make use of the pentagram; such as the Iron Pentacle or an elemental pathworking; you could hold it aloft towards Venus at sunset or sunrise to invoke the Goddess, Lucifer, or any goddess associated with Venus; you could hold it to your body with a point directly facing the ground to invoke the Horned God. It is a holy symbol of the powers of the Universe coming together, a celebration of the integration of spiritual and material. 

• From Satanism Today, James R Lewis, 2001: Richard Ramirez, better known as the Night Stalker, was a sadistic serial murderer who terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid-1980s. He was captured by civilians on August 31, 1985, following an all points bulletin in which his mug shot was broadcast on television and printed in newspapers. After a fourteen-month trial, he was convicted of thirteen murders and thirty other felonies. A self-identified Satanist who had read Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible, Ramirez’s crime spree was one of the few cases that might legitimately be called “Satanic crime.” His “calling card” was the inverted pentagram, which he left drawn on a wall, or, in one case, carved into the body of a victim. In 1983, he made a special trip to San Francisco to meet LaVey personally. LaVey was later reported as commenting that, “I thought Richard was very nice—very shy. I liked him.” Because Ramirez was a fan of the rock group AC/DC—a group that at one stage of their career adopted Satanic imagery and incorporated infernal references into their music—the case was given special attention from people concerned about the negative influence of rock music. Ramirez would engage in such antics as flashing a pentagram he had drawn in the palm of his hand, shouting “Hail Satan!” and holding up his fingers alongside his head in imitation of devil’s horns. It is clear that Satanic ideology is not an independent motivating factor that somehow transforms otherwise nice people into criminals. Rather, as reflected in the remarks Ramirez made at his sentencing, such individuals are criminals who adopt Satanism as a way of justifying their antisocial actions. Many police officers ask what to look for during the search of the scene of suspected satanic activity. The answer is simple: Look for evidence of a crime. A pentagram is no more criminally significant than a crucifix unless it corroborates a crime or a criminal conspiracy. If a victim’s description of the location or the instruments of the crime includes a pentagram, then the pentagram would be evidence. But the same would be true if the description included a crucifix.

• From No Converse Didn’t Replace Its ‘All-Star’ Logo with a Satanic Symbol, Bethania Palma, Snopes, 2021: In July 2021, Christian news outlets reported that sneaker brand Converse had replaced the iconic “All-Star” label on its shoes with a satanic symbol. “Converse Unveils Designer Shoes with Satanic Symbol Replacing Brand’s Star Logo,” Faithwire reported. “More Corporate Satanism: ‘Converse’ Unveils New Occult Shoe Line,” the Media Research Center reported. Converse hasn’t replaced the All-Star logo, which famously adorns its classic Chuck Taylors. The new symbology is instead the result of a collaboration between Converse and DRKSHDW, the brand run by goth-inspired fashion designer Rick Owens. The logo for DRKSHDW contains a pentagram, or five-point star. A spokesperson for Nike, which owns Converse, told Snopes in an email: “Converse’s collaboration with fashion designer Rick Owen’s DRKSHDW brand incorporates the DRKSHDW pentagram logo design, which has been used in his line for many years. The pentagram, which has many different associations, is in no way a comment from Converse on religion, nor does it replace the iconic All Star logo on our shoes.” In an Instagram post promoting the brand collaboration, Owens explained why he uses the pentagram in his own work: “I’ve been using this pentagram for a long time because obviously, it has adolescent occult associations. But I like geometric diagrams like that because, in a very primal way, they are a culture’s grasp for control. And a way to organize thoughts and systems. And a pentagram, in this day and age with all of its associations… I like the fact that it refers to an alternative system. And that suggests openness and empathy. It suggests the pursuit of pleasure, this pursuit of sensation. But one of the main things that I think it suggests is empathy and a consideration of systems of living that might not be standard. So that leads us to be more accepting and tolerant of other systems, which I think is a good thing.” 

The post Episode 205: Oops, All Pentagrams Edition appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

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The post Episode 180: Frankenstein appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

Satanic Bay Area has our very own Satanic ‘Chick’ Tract celebrating the real history of Halloween, but the actual Jack Chick spent decades hatching fabrications about our favorite holiday. To help us with some of these comic misconceptions, we welcome Satanic artist Jason Lenox back to the show.

SHOW LINKS

• Jason Lenox Art Emporium on Etsy
• Satanic Bay Area’s Halloween “Chick” Tract — Preorder now!
• NPR: Christian Majority To End
• Women Write About Comics: Jack Chick’s Unhappy Halloween
• Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s, by Kier-La Janisse, Paul Corupe
• Snopes: Cat O Nine Tales
• University at Albany: Origins of Halloween
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Did Druids Perform Human Sacrifice?
• Snopes: Pins & Needles
• Vox: The Myth of Poison Candy
• Learn Religions: Samhain Is Not a God
• Smothsonian: History of Trick Or Treating

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The post Episode 129 – A Jack Chick Halloween appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

It’s time for the Com-passion of the Anti-christ, as Seattle Satanist Lilith Starr’s new book Compassionate Satanism explores the beliefs and practices of Modern Satanists in the 21st century.

SHOW LINKS

• Snopes: Converse Didn’t Replace Logo
• LilithStarr.com: Compassionate Satanism

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The post Episode 103 – Compassionate Satanism appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

When we imagine the devil, he often takes the form of an animal, like the snakes or goats we’ve talked about in previous episodes. But when it comes to a devilish temperament, no animal is quite so naturally Luciferian as the common housecat. Here to chat about those times when a cat has crossed the devil’s path and why Satanists love our feline familiars so much.

SHOW LINKS

• Satanic Temple Idaho’s diaper drive
• Screenrant: What Sons of Sam Gets Wrong
• Dr. Andrea Kitta’s Mis-Purr-Ceptions
• Ash’s recommended cat charity: Kittens First
• Washington Post: How Cats Bewitched Us
• Archive.org: Trifles of Courtiers
• History Collection: Why the Pope Implicated Cats
• MDPI: Witches, Familiars, & Humans
• Iowa State Univesity: Reformers On Sorcery
• The Great Courses Daily: Myths Around Templars
• The Templar Knight: Templars & The Head of Baphomet
• Snopes: Murderous Moggies
• Snopes: Cat Sacrifices?
• My Cat From Hell’s “Butter Cat” episode

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The post Episode 98 – The Inevitable Satanic Cat Episode appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

It’s time we say ‘to Hell with you all,’ with our history of Satan’s final resting place. The road to Hell is paved with questionable theology, so we’re here to do an infernal inventory of its harrowing history and discover what this most devilish destination is really all about.

SHOW LINKS

• Salon: My Night In Judgment House
• NPR: Heaven & Hell Not What Jesus Preached
• Washington Post: Hell On Earth
• Plato’s Republic
• Apocalypse of Peter
• Harrowing Of Hell
• The Gospel of Nicodemus
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
• Weird Historian: Hell For Children
• The Sight of Hell
• Snopes: The Well To Hell

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The post Episode 97 – History of Hell appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

We’ve got a playdate with danger, as we return to the days of the Satanic Panic and its ironically formative attitudes about child’s play. The hysteria invaded every facet of American culture, including, strangely, the playroom. Over the years, American society has toyed with devil scares about your favorite childhood playthings, and so with the holiday season near we’ve brought in our friend Kyle from Super 7 to help us unbox those fears.

SHOW LINKS

• Jezebel: Thank the Satanic Panic for Beetlejuice, The Addams Family, and the Golden Age of Creepy Kids’ Shit
• Super 7 toys website, Instagram
• Kyle Wlodyga website, Instagram
• Snopes: Pokémon Was Originally Designed for Satanists
• Gawker: The Duggars’ Homeschool Cult: Cabbage Patch Dolls Are Possessed By Satan
• DemonBuster.com: Troll Dolls
• Gizmodo: Don’t Make Toy Genitals Interactive
• Gizmodo: The Real Reason Chucky Is a Robot Now

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The post Episode 83 – The Devil’s Playthings appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.

Evil is relative — but in our case it’s more like immediate family. Over the centuries, different cultures have used Satan-like figures to justify and explain their ideas about evil in the world, and to help us justify and explain those beliefs, we’re joined by professor Nick Brittin. Also, Satanic Bay Area is giving voice to the voiceless, and in the news, someone has been putting the screws to the Screwtape Letters.

SHOW LINKS

• Snopes: CS Lewis Quote Not From Lewis
• Nick Brittin’s “Demons to some, angels to others: An introduction to the class“
• Nick Brittin’s “Expressions of Evil” 
• The New Yorker: What do we mean by evil?
• Zoroastrianism and the Cosmic Conflict between Good and Evil
• Zoroastrianism, The Battle Between Good and Evil
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Messianic views
• John Edwards Le Bosquet: The Evil One
• The Center for Inquiry: The Lovecraft Theodicy: Cthulhu Has No Problem Of Evil

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The post Episode 70 – The Evil Aye appeared first on Black Mass Appeal.