At the center of the clearing chosen for the meeting would stand the black altar. A sixteenth-century manuscript described it thus:

A large stone be best, but a wooden table will suffice. On it stands two candles of human fat set in black wooden candlesticks like the feet of a goat; a magical sword with a black handle; a copper vase containing blood; a censer holding perfumes, namely, incense, camphor, aloes, ambergris, and storax mixed with the blood of a goat, a mole and a bat; four nails taken from the coffin of an executed criminal; the head of a black cat which has been nourished on human flesh for five days; the horns of a goat and the skull of a patricide.

Just behind the altar would sit the goat figure representing the devil. According to the grimoires, this could be either a goat tied firmly upright in a chair with a lighted black candle between its horns or a large black cat with its head shorn and a cloak thrown over its tightly restrained body. A huge erect phallus was usually placed between the legs of this figure. On either side would sit two beautiful witch maidens, the symbolic brides of the devil, who would disrobe and join the general festivities after the initial service of adoration.

When the company are assembled in a semicircle facing the altar, the designated "high priest" (wearing a simple black cloak with the Black Magic pentagram on the back) steps forward to the goat figure and presents a black turnip with the words, "Master help us." The man then pauses, takes a further step forward and repeats:

O Satan, thou who art the shadow of God and of ourselves, I speak these words of agony for thy glory.
   Thou who art Doubt and Revolt, Sophism and Impotence, thou livest again in us and round us, as in the troubled centuries when thou didst reign, bloodstained with tortures, like an obscene martyr, on thy throne of darkness, shaking in thy left hand the abominable sceptre of a bloody lingham.
   Today thy degenerate sons are scattered, and celebrate thy cult in their hideouts. Thy traditional pontiffs are blind shepherds, vile jades, presumptuous magi, poisoners and pariahs.
   But thy people have increased, and Satan, thou canst be proud of the multitude of thy Faithful ones, as false as thy will has desired. This world which denies thee, thou inhabitest it, thou wallowest in it as on the dead roses of a mouldy, smelly midden.
   Thou hast won, O Satan, though anonymous and obscure for a few more years yet; but the coming century will proclaim thy revenge. Thou shalt be reborn in the Anti-Christ. The science of mysteries, spurting suddenly in a black wave already quenches the thirst of the curious and the uneasy; young men and women see themselves mirrored in these waves of illusion which intoxicate and madden.
   O charming Satan! I have uncovered thy ignominy to reveal thy wildness. If thy involuntary torment has the noble appearance of being irrevocable, and is illuminated by the honour of becoming a redemption. O scapegoat of the world, thy beating heart of a dead man covets the immense, the final depth—thou utterest the sobs of a Messiah, but thou corruptest and degrades [sic] like a damnation.
   Therefore I will tell of thy infamy, and thy attraction, I will sing of thine infinite lament. Thou art the last ideal of fallen man, but if thy cherub’s wings seem to be impregnated with heaven, if thy woman’s breast drips a soothing pity, thy scaly belly and thy animal’s legs exude stinking idleness, forgetfulness of courage, and consent to abjectness.
   O holy and impious Satan, symbol of the degenerate universe, thou who knowest and sufferest, may thou become, according to the word of the Divine Promise, the atoning genius of Expiation!

This prayer, which can be found in slight variations throughout Europe and must be of considerable antiquity, leads naturally into the initiation of new “disciples,” if such there be. This ceremony contained probably the most obscene element of all, for the new member was required to bring with him or her a liquid made from the flesh of a child. A sixteenth-century manuscript relates how the liquid was made:

Those to be called to the Devil’s service lie in wait for children. These are often found dead by their parents, and the simple people believe that they have themselves overlain them, or that they died from natural causes; but it is we who have destroyed them. For that purpose we steal them out of the grave and boil them with lime, till all the flesh is loosened from the bones, and is reduced to one mass. We make out of the firm part an ointment, and fill a bottle with the fluid; and whoever drinks with due ceremonies of this belongs to our league, and is already capable of bewitching.

Armed with this vial of liquid, the initiate is brought naked and blindfolded into the assembly, “he being made to pass between great fires and alarming noises to test his character,” according to one report. “And when his face was uncovered,” it goes on, “he found himself in front of a monstrous goat and must drink his potion in salute.”

Next the initiate must affirm his belief in Black Magic and from a manuscript of the same period, we find a list of the promises the new recruit had to make, each being echoed back by the assembly after he had spoken [written verbatim, as it would have been in the time of its use]:

I denie God, and all religion.
I cursse, blaspheme, and provoke God with all despite.
I give my faith to the Devil, and my worship and offer sacrifice to him.
I doo solemnelie vow and promise all my progenie unto the Devil.
I sweare to the Devil to bring as manie into his societie as I can.
I will always sweare by the name of the Devil.

This completed the ceremonial. All that remained was for the new adept to perform the osculum obscoenum, a kiss on the goat-figure’s backside. This done, he was allowed to copulate “with whichsoever maid there present did take his eye, and to the delight of all the company.”

For those who wished, dancing took place—during which those who were still dressed took off their clothes—and the shout went up: “Ha, ha! Devil, Devil! Dance here, Dance here! Play here, Play here! Sabbat, Sabbat!” At some gatherings, the outlawed “back to back” dancing was encouraged whilst at others we find reports of the game—played Black Magic style—which we know today as “Blind Man’s B(l)uff.” (This game, now the preserve of small children, was created by the witches, who would play it naked with a young warlock [also naked] blindfolded and set loose among them. Whoever he caught hold of, he was free to make love to. (Needless to say, the men always hoped to “catch” a young girl, as sex relations were obligatory with the witch he caught, regardless of her age or disposition!)

[Exit Orpheum.]