Sabbat (Witchcraft)
Alternatively Sabbath.
The witches' Sabbat was supposed to be a weekly midnight convention of witches, warlocks and demons, a combination of cannibalistic feast, sexual orgy and blasphemous Satan worship.
It was believed that Lucifer appeared in the form of a black goat to preside over the hellish proceedings, and coupled with all or some of those present.
According to witchcraft confessions — certainly most extracted by torture — the Sabbat started with the lighting of a fire from which the witches lit torches or black candles. Lucifer would then appear, and one by one the participants would make some form of obeisance to their master; usually this took the form of the osculum obscenum, kissing the Devil's anus.
The central feature of the Sabbat was always a feast followed by an indiscriminate sexual orgy, between demons and witches, witches and warlocks and warlocks and demons. The pleasure in these occasions cannot have been high, however: in confessions the food and wine is often described as vile smelling and tasting, and sex with demons icy and painful. If such occasions ever took place, it was only as elaborate fantasies in the minds of the theologians, demonologists and witch-hunters themselves.
See Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath, Guide to the Sabbat, Agrippa, Diviner, Divination, Wizard, Pythagoras, Acutomancy, Agalmatomancy, Coscinomancy, Cleidomancy, Augur, Stoichomancy, Dowsing, Tarot, Heptameron, Demonology, Sortilege, Idolomancy, Demonomancy, Tephramancy, Anemoscopy, Eromancy, Austromancy, Chaomancy, Roadomancy, Capnomancy, Pyromancy, Meteormancy, Ceraunoscopy, Zoomancy, Love Spells -- Use these powerful love spells to help you find and keep your true love, Unbroken Curses, Mystic Gifts and Charms - New Age Gift Shop & Wicca and Pagan Supplies, The Chakra Store, The Tarot Store, Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies, Unique Amulets, Talismans, Good Luck Charms, and Love Tokens, Powerful Witch Doctor Spell Kits, Powerful Spells - Cast by Andreika the Witch, Webmasters Make $$$, AzureGreen - Celebrating All Paths to the Divine, ISIS - Tools for Your Soul's Journey, and The Pyramid Collection - Myth, Magick, Fantasy and Romance.
Sources: (1) Spence, Lewis, An Encyclopedia of Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (2) Pickering, David, Cassell Dictionary of Witchcraft, Cassell Academic; (3) The Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Handy Volume Edition, Oxford University Press.
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