Ritual

People sometimes ask us what we do in our rituals. I generally don’t answer, or at least I don’t say much. I have learned that people are generally only interested in the most salacious details, and even then they are not really interested in why those things may sometimes occur. In this post I want to say why ritual is an important aspect of our Satanic life; what it means and what it does for us. I am not going to write down a ritual for others to copy but I may give a flavour of some aspects of rituals our family and coven members perform.

When I was a Buddhist there was a small amount of simple ritual in my daily routines. For example; chanting at certain times of the day, ringing a bell or banging a gong before or after chanting, meditating in certain positions at different times for different reasons. I understood the reasons behind these rituals but was not keen on the more extravagant rituals I associated with Christianity and other religions. And then I became a Satanist!

Satanic rituals can be as plain or extravagant as you choose to make them. The most famous Satanic ritual is probably the Black Mass. This is, in large parts an inversion of a Christian/Catholic Mass. It is generally misunderstood. Most Satanic groups and covens have their own version of the rite. As far as I know there isn’t one special version that all others are derived from, although because it is an inversion of a Christian ritual there are bound to be similarities from group to group and person to person.  In our coven we only use it once a year as a sign and part of a continuing process of rejecting orthodoxy. We sometimes use a version of it to induct or confirm new members. It is probably the most extravagant of our rituals and it scared me the first time I witnessed such a thing. That is part of the reason for doing it…

Anton LaVey, understood the psychological underpinning of ritual. It is a drama that is intended to change your mind-set. It is absolutely supposed to change the way you think about things. I think you could call it a form of brain-washing. That sounds rather scary and sinister. Well, as a Left Hand Pather, the “sinister” part is deliberate. The difference with this kind of brainwashing is that we enter into it willingly, already knowing to a large degree what the desired effects will be. It is brain washing in the sense that you are washing out unwanted thoughts, hang ups and impediments to growth. But a more positive way to look at it is Brain Training. You are training your mind to think differently and more powerfully. Often you are replacing unhelpful thoughts and habits with more constructive and positive ones.

Let’s go back to the gong in Buddhism…

The sound resonates at a certain frequency. You can choose the gong or the bell that pleases you most. You sit in a meditative pose you have learned and let the sound go through you. You are aware that the sound itself has healing properties. You hear the sound through your whole body (the body is a good conductor of sound). The sound resonates physically and mentally. You know through practice and deliberate habit that the sound induces another state of mind. You breathe slowly and deliberately. Your mind is calming. You observe unwanted thoughts and let them go. The electrical rhythms of your brain change. You are ready to focus…

You begin to chant. Depending on the type of Buddhism you follow the chant may be quite long, difficult and in another language or it maybe a simple repetition of a phrase such as “Om”. In any case, you know what it means to you because you have learned it and practiced it many times. And you repeat it again. You hear your voice. You feel your voice. You enter an auto-hypnotic state. You are acting on autopilot. You are your voice. Your voice is you. You are the chant. You are the meaning. You are the outcome you desire. The electrical activity in your brain has entered a state some people never experience. There is no separation between you and the objective of your focus.

This is a very simple ritual but the effects can be quite dramatic as anybody who seriously practices any similar form of meditation will testify. But you have to learn it. You need to be disciplined. You need to learn how to focus.

More elaborate rituals build on these simple truths that have been known to spiritual practitioners for hundreds of years and to modern psychologists for a slightly shorter time.

In our coven and in our personal lives we use techniques I learned as a Buddhist, combined with things Cassie learned as a Pagan and new things we have discovered through Satanism. But it is all really about invoking a different state of mind through the psychology of drama and repetition. It is about associating ideas with visual and aural clues; about creating pathways in the brain that lead to desired outcomes. It is about creating and manipulating energy within the group. And for the theistic Satanists it is also about opening connections and paths to energies and entities that usually can’t be experienced in other ways.

So the dressing up or undressing, the pictures and statues, the way the location is prepared, the light and the dark, the sounds and the words, the smells, the actions all combine to shed the vestiges of the mundane world and enter a deeper more spiritual and magical state of mind. It is learned. It is practiced. It’s meaning becomes inseparable from the act.

In our coven we usually begin our rituals robed, we ask our members to wear black or red robes. During the ritual most members disrobe at various stages but it is not compulsory and nothing is said if somebody prefers to remain dressed (there can be many reasons for this). However, most of our members will be naked for at least part of the ritual. We usually begin, as many Pagans do, by ceremonially sweeping the area to be used with brooms. This part of the drama reminds us we are witches creating a sacred space to do our work. We are normally silent during this phase but there may be some music or sound playing in the background to heighten the mood we want to create. We then call the quarters and form a magic circle, but as Satanic witches we do it in the reverse direction to that which Wiccans usually do. For privacy and convenience most of our rituals are done indoors. Once the circle has been formed one person is chosen to set up what we call the Ceremonial Altar on a table near the centre of the circle. We have two Altars. The High Priestess or somebody chosen by her is deemed to be the Spiritual Altar; her body becoming The Chalice, a channel to Satan and the entities we commune with, while The Ceremonial Altar is a table on which a ceremonial knife (athame), a statue of Baphomet, other ceremonial objects, Candles (usually 5 black and one white) and any special things needed for the ritual are placed. While the chosen person is setting up the Ceremonial Altar the rest of us chant names of The Hosts Of Hell; getting louder and louder until the High Priestess signals us to stop.

By this stage, the drama, the atmosphere, the darkness, the words used, the sights and sounds around us have already re-aligned our thought patterns. Often at this point we do a ritual of blasphemy. This might just be shouting out things our enemies would dislike or disapprove of. It might involve some physical actions. People are usually free to use their own imaginations at this point. After a fairly short time, The High Priestess again signals us to stop. At this point we don’t care what others might think of us. We are in the Devils domain and we are happy to be there and to be free of the false doctrines that infuse the mundane world. We are in another place now and another state of mind.

In many religious rituals there is an invitation or invocation to the deity the group believe in. In our case that is Satan, and there are particular words and actions we will use every time.

The shape of the ritual after that will depend on the purpose of the gathering. Sometimes words, incantations and spells will be chanted. Sometimes magical work will proceed with both Altars employed in different ways. Some rituals are for praise and alignment to chosen Satanic goals. Some rituals mark the passing of the seasons or celebrate landmarks of the year. Some are very theatrical with all members having learned the parts they will play. Some are short and simple.

The channelling of energy in various ways is often an important component of our rituals. This can include sexual energy which as Satanic witches is not something we are shy about. I get the impression it is the part that some outsiders are most interested in. I will not go into details except to say that any sexual activity in ritual has a purpose and has the full consent of everyone involved. Most sexual content is highly (sometimes only) symbolic. In many rituals there is very little use of sexual energy and more emphasis on other types of energy.

In our particular coven we focus a lot on the creation and use of sigils as the focus of magical work and clarifying unified intent and purpose. The creation, use and sometimes burning of these sigils often forms the main part of the ritual. Coven members take it in turns to write parts of the rituals. Cassie and I go through them and sometimes suggest changes before the ritual takes place.

Thus, the ritual becomes a piece of drama. It has a script. Everybody has a part to play. We learn our lines. Everybody learns and discusses the meaning of what we aim to do. Everything from planning to execution of the ritual is a team effort which binds us in purpose and understanding. We go into everything knowing what we want to achieve. We develop trust in each other. It is a team building exercise among many other things.

It is group and personal psychology. We all know this. We understand that every element of the ritual is intended to change pathways in our brains and induce a state of mind that is different from the everyday. While ritual serves similar purposes and works in similar ways in all religions; I feel it is very important as Satanists that we go into ritual fully understanding and utilising the psychological processes involved.

This was just a taste of what ritual is and what it means to us.