An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Sabbat

There are eight Sabbats in the witches’ year, four Greater Sabbats and four Lesser Sabbats.

The four Greater Sabbats are Candlemas (2nd February), May Eve (30th April) Lammas (1st August), and Halloween (31st October). These occasions correspond to the four great yearly feasts celebrated by the Druids and by our Celtic ancestors. The Druidic names for them were Imbolc or Oimelc (Candlemas), Beltane (May Eve), Lughnassadh (Lammas) and Samhain (Halloween). May Eve was also known as Walpurgis Night.

The Lesser Sabbats were the two solstices at midsummer and midwinter, and the two equinoxes in spring and autumn. These may vary by a day or two each year, as they depend upon the sun’s apparent entry into the zodiacal signs of Capricorn (winter solstice), Cancer (summer solstice), Aries (spring equinox) and Libra (autumn equinox). These occasions also were celebrated as festivals by the Druids.

SABBAT, THE. A fifteenth-century French miniature showing witches meeting (reproduced by courtesy of the Bodleian Library, Oxford).

Some modern witches believe that a certain psychic impulse, or magical current or tide, commences at the equinox or solstice, reaches its peak at the following Greater Sabbat, and then declines until the next station of the sun, when a new magical tide commences, and so on. Thus, for instance, the tide which is set in motion, coursing invisibly through all Nature at the spring equinox, reaches its peak on May Eve, and then slowly ebbs until the summer solstice, when a new impulse commences; and so on.

Witches celebrated (and continue to celebrate) these old ritual occasions with dancing and enjoyment, drinking the health of the Old Gods, and generally holding high revel. In the olden times, they lit big bonfires outdoors in some lonely place, and several covens might gather together on the Sabbat night.

Sometimes they met in houses belonging to some member of the cult. It is notable that one of the most detailed descriptions we have of such a meeting in a house comes from Sweden, where the cold climate would have made such shelter particularly welcome. In 1670 some Swedish witches confessed that their meeting place, which they called Blockula, was situated in a large meadow; it had a gate before it, painted in various colours.

“In a huge large Room of this House, they said, there stood a very long table, at which the Witches did sit down; And that hard by this Room was another Chamber in which there were very lovely and delicate Beds.” (Sadducismus Triumphatus, London, 1681). In other words, this was someone’s well-appointed country house, as seen through the eyes of poor peasants. In more southern latitudes, the accounts of the Sabbat by confessing witches more often describe outdoor meetings, though with a good blazing bonfire to provide light and heat, and to cook food.

The word ’Sabbat’ has caused much speculation as to its origin. Some think it is simply the witches’ ’Sabbath night’, as opposed to the Christian day of rest, However, the latter is more properly Sunday. The Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, the seventh day that was kept holy. It takes its name from Shabbathai, Saturn, the planet which rules the seventh day. Sunday is the first day of the week; so to call it the Sabbath, though often done, is not really correct.

However, the word, ’Sabbat’ has associations which are older than Christianity; and there is no reason whatever to connect the festival of the witches with the Jewish Sabbath.

Sabadius or Sabazius was a title of the orgiastic god Dionysus, the god of ecstasy, who was worshipped with wild dances and revelry. The celebrants of his Mysteries raised the cry of Sabai! or Evoi Sabai!

This seems the most likely derivation of the word ’Sabbat’. We find, centuries later, accounts of the witches’ dancing, in which this word is used as a cry: “Har, har, Hou, Hou, danse ici, danse la, joue ici, jou la, Sabbat, Sabbat!”) “Har, har, Hou, Hou, dance here, dance there, play here, play there, Sabbat, Sabbat!”)

This old chant is given by the French demonologist, Bodin; and Margaret Murray in her book The God of the Witches (Faber, London, 1952), has pointed out how in Bodin’s version he substituted ’diable’ for the word ’Hou’. The version which was used by the witches of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, is identical with Bodin’s, save for containing this old Celtic word Hou, which is a name of the god who appears in British myth as Hu Gadarn, Hu the Mighty. This shows how anti-witch writers substituted devils for any mention of the witches’ gods, because they wanted to prove witches guilty of devil worship. Some present-day journalists still make use of the same technique.

Other old names for the Sabbat are the Basque Akhelarre, the French Lanne de Bouc, and the Spanish Prado del Cabron, all of which mean the same thing, ’The Field of the Goat’. Another Spanish name for the Sabbat is La Treguenda.

A curious detail in many old accounts of the witches’ Sabbat, is the statement that there was never any salt at their feasts. This would have made the meal very savourless and uninviting, if it were true. Priestly commentators explained it by saying that salt was the symbol of salvation, and therefore witches hated it; but I think there is quite another explanation.

SABBAT, THE. The seventeenth-century idea of a witches’ Sabbat from Tableau de L’Inconstance des Mauvais Anges by Pierre De Lancre.

What was missing from the food table at the Sabbat was not the salt, but the salt-cellar, or salt-vat as it used to be called. The reason for this was, that the placing of this object upon the table was a mark of social distinctions: and at the Sabbat there were no social distinctions. All members of the witch cult were brothers and sisters.

Chamber’s Book of Days has some relevant observations on this subject: “One of the customs of great houses, in former times, was to place a large ornamental salt-vat (commonly but erroneously called salt-foot) upon the table, about the centre, to mark the part below which it was proper for tenants and dependents to sit.”

The account states further: “This practice of old days, so invidiously distinguishing one part of a company from another, appears to have been in use throughout both England and Scotland, and to have extended at least to France. It would be an error to suppose that the distinction was little regarded on either hand, or was always taken good-humouredly on the part of the inferior persons. There is full evidence in old plays, and other early productions of the press, that both parties were fully sensible of what sitting below the salt inferred.”

Chambers quotes an old English ballad, as containing a pointed allusion to this humiliating practice:

Thou art a carle of mean degree,

The salt it doth stand between me and thee.

This quotation shows further how the word ’salt’ could mean saltcellar. It was only in this sense that the salt was banished from the witches’ feast.

Some writers have stated that there are no real accounts of the Sabbat being held in Britain, and that it only appears in the stories of Continental authors, who were dedicated witch-hunters and demonologists. This statement, however, is against quite a reasonable amount of evidence.

It is true that the stories of Sabbats in England are less detailed than the accounts from Scotland, or from the Continent. One reason is, obviously, that in England witches were not subjected to torture (legally, at any rate) in order to make them confess; whereas in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe, torture was applied mercilessly. However, it does not necessarily follow that English witches did not meet in covens, or attend Sabbats, the same as witches in other places did.

The description of Sabbats held in Somerset, as given by Joseph Glanvil in the seventeenth century, are fairly detailed. He tells us of two covens, one at Wincanton and the other at Brewham. Both consisted of thirteen people, whose names are preserved in legal records. They met by night, either in each others’ cottages or in the open air. Two named meeting-places are “the Common near Trister Gate” and “a place called Hussey’s-Knap” in Brewham Forest.

At these meetings, according to one of their number, a witch called Elisabeth Style, “They have usually Wine or good Beer, Cakes, Meat or the like.” This meal was set out on a white tablecloth, and the leader, the Man in Black, presided over the feast. After the meal, the witches danced to the music of a pipe or a cittern (an old-fashioned stringed instrument, played with a plectrum).

The chief also instructed them in magic, showing them how to make and use wax images. He gave them a greenish-coloured ointment, with which they anointed themselves on the forehead and wrists. This seems to have been a ’flying ointment,’ made from narcotic herbs.

Glanvil gives an interesting detail: “At their parting they say A Boy! Merry meet, merry part.” This is almost certainly a worn-down version of an old pagan cry: ’Evohe! It would have become on the lips of English witches something like ’Ah Voy!’ And the plain Somerset magistates, who took down the evidence in 1664, wrote it down as ’A Boy!’

It is notable that traditions of Sabbat rites linger in Somerset to this day. This fact has been recorded by Ruth Tongue, in her remarkable first-hand collection of ancient lore, entitled Somerset Folklore (The Folk-lore Society, London, 1965). She records how she was told that, up to within the last 100 years or less, Beltane rites took place at certain time-honoured spots, on May Eve and Midsummer Eve.

There is also a clear enough story of how the Lancashire witches met in 1612 at Malking Tower, held a feast of stolen mutton and discussed their future plans. This meeting was on a Good Friday, seemingly about the middle of April. This is not a usual date for a Sabbat; but the coven was in trouble. Some of its members had been arrested; so perhaps the May Eve meeting was brought forward to deal with the emergency. The fact that they met regularly like this, is indicated by their making an arrangement that the similar meeting next year was to be held at the house of another member of the coven.

In 1673 a servant girl named Anne Armstrong gave a long and detailed account of Sabbats she claimed to have witnessed in the Northumberland area. Her story was that the witches had tried to lure her into joining them, but that she had resisted, and eventually escaped. However, she added so many fantastic things, such as having been turned into a horse and ridden by a witch, that it is hard to know when, if ever, fantasy ends and fact begins. She may have been drugged or hypnotised.

Anne Armstrong stated that on one occasion five covens, of thirteen persons each, met together for a feast. The Grand Master of the district presided over these meetings, sitting at the head of the table, and she describes him as “their protector, which they called their god”. The food was good and plentiful, but provided by magic.

The magistrates made some enquiry into Anne Armstrong’s allegations; but the people whom she named as witches denied everything, and very little seems to have come of it. It seems curious, however, that an illiterate servant girl should have had such a detailed knowledge of the alleged organisation of witches if there was no substance in her story at all.

What really did (and does) happen at a witches’ Sabbat?

If the Sabbat is held outdoors, there will certainly be a fire burning. Also, the statement by many old-time writers, about witches liking to hold their Sabbat at a place where there is some natural source of water, is true. The reason is that water is one of the Four Elements of Life, the others being fire, air and earth. So with the ritual bonfire and perhaps a lake or a running stream nearby, the witches have all the sacred Four Elements, being already surrounded by air and standing upon earth.

Upon a solemn occasion, the leader of the coven will use a consecrated magical sword to draw the circle. However, in the old days covens did not always have a sword, because a sword was an indication of rank, and only a nobleman would normally possess one. So the magical knife, or Athame, tended to take the place of the magical sword.

There will certainly be dancing; the old hand-in-hand round dance probably to begin with, eventually warming up into swifter and wilder measures as the spirit of the Sabbat begins to take over the participants. There will be either music or chanting, according to the individual talents of the coven members for providing it.

It is remarkable how in the present day, time has turned full circle. The old formal ballroom dancing has today been largely superseded by individual free movement to rhythm, precisely like the dances of the witches’ Sabbats. Even rhythmic chanting has come back into popular favour; for example, ’Hare Krishna’, which is in fact a magical mantram, a form of chanted words or sounds to raise magical power—something witches have been doing for centuries.

There will be food and drink, with a libation of wine to the Old Gods of Nature. If there is any specific magical work to be performed the matter will be discussed and explained if there are people present who are not fully cognisant of it. Then all will be asked to concentrate upon the object of the working, forming a kind of battery of wills, in order to bring it to pass. The power of thought is a potent force; especially in the excited, worked-up atmosphere of the magical circle. However, sometimes the Sabbat will not concern itself with a specific magical working, but be held simply for the enjoyment of communion with the Old Gods and to further the power of the Craft.

When the Sabbat has to be held indoors, the ritual is modified accordingly. Then there is usually a small altar in the centre of the circle. This altar must have fire and water upon it, in some form; and witches of the older traditions sometimes include a skull and crossed bones, or a representation of them. This is a symbol of death and resurrection, and therefore of immortality. It is sometimes called ’Old Simon’.

There is a very curious old Christian belief that so long as a skull and two leg bones of a man remained, that was enough to secure him a place in the general resurrection at the Last Day. This belief may well have originated from the real symbolism of the skull and crossed bones emblem. The Masonic fraternities also make use of the skull and crossed bones, in their ceremonies; which are descended, if not actually derived, from the ancient Mystery cults.

Outsiders might consider this emblem somewhat awesome and grim, especially when viewed by the flickering light of candles. However, the proceedings at most Sabbats I have attended were cheerful and spontaneous. They afford some of my most enjoyable memories.

It has been alleged that nothing was ever heard of witches’ Sabbats surviving into the present day, until Gerald Gardner published his now famous book Witchcraft Today (Riders, London, 1954). Nevertheless, anyone who makes a close study of witchcraft will find that this is not so; though very little information found its way into public print before the last Witchcraft Act was repealed in 1951.

One very intriguing story that did get printed, appeared in a weekly periodical called Illustrated Police News, under the dateline of 28th April, 1939. This was admittedly a sensational publication, as was evidenced by the story’s headline: “Satan Cult’s Sex Orgies in Rural England”. However, shorn of the blood-and-thunder embellishments of sensational journalism, the story was substantially this: that a reporter had heard about the forthcoming celebration of May Eve, or Walpurgis Night, planned to take place in a number of districts in England that year.

His informant, who had been given a pledge that her name should not be revealed, was a 22-year-old woman, an artist by profession. “A complicated series of introductions” had allegedly led the reporter to this contact.

She informed him that the Sabbat would be held at a lonely place, somewhere in Sussex. She gave no precise details, except that it was among thick trees, near a stream, and a mile from the main road.

The man who would be in charge of the ceremony she described as being about 30 years old, and well known in the West End of London and in Bloomsbury. She believed him to be a Finn by birth. He would be assisted by an older woman. The artist herself was a comparative newcomer to the cult, having only been a member for six months (which explains how she came to be gullible enough to reveal so much to a reporter).

It is, of course, difficult to know how much of the lurid detail of the expected ’orgy’ of feasting, drinking and dancing in the nude, followed by sexual intercourse by all who desired it, was actually given by this young woman, and how much was supplied by the reporter. The account reads to me as if it has been ’worked-up’ from a very little given information, with the reporter’s imagination filling up the rest.

The meeting itself is erroneously termed a “coven” instead of a Sabbat; and the cult is referred to throughout as “Satanism”. I would therefore dismiss the whole account, were it not for certain points of detail which cause me to think, as stated above, that this particular reporter had got a genuine contact, extracted a little real information and worked it up into a sensational story—as reporters have been known to do, before and since.

One remarkable statement made in the article was that the worshippers were hoping for an actual manifestation of the Horned God to appear. At the climax of the ceremony, when the leader uttered an invocation, a great shadowy form, they hoped, would take shape gradually above the altar.

It was added that there were whispers of other meetings, beside the one in Sussex, which would be held in Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire. The number of people who would be celebrating the rites of this Walpurgis Night in England was described as “hundreds”.

Later in that fatal year of 1939 the Second World War turned the attention of the British press to other things. They had no shortage of headline stories; and witchcraft was temporarily forgotten. Little was heard of the subject again until 1949, when there were press reports of a Sabbat held at the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds. (See COTSWOLDS, WITCHCRAFT IN THE.) It was not until 1951 that the Witchcraft Museum at Castletown, Isle of Man, was opened, with the attendant publicity about present-day witches and their meetings.