SATANIC

PHALLUS

The 1865 publication of Richard Payne Knight’s infamous ‘A Discourse on the

Worship of Priapus’ included an additional discourse by Thomas Wright subtitled
‘The Witches’ Sabbath.’ This extended the theme of Priapic worship to include
the witch trials of the Basque region of Labourd. Pierre de Lancre presided over
the investigations which were instituted into these notorious events and
documented the appearance of the satanic phallus.

The central theme of Wright’s analysis of these witch trials is that the celebrations
of the sabbath were a continuation of the ancient Priapic orgiastic worship that
had been repressed by the onset of the Christian era. He states that “The vows
which the people of antiquity addressed to Priapus, those of the middle ages
addressed to Satan...We look upon it as not admitting of doubt, that the Priapic
orgies and the other periodical assemblies for worship of this description...were
continued long after the fall of the Roman power and the introduction of the
Christian religion." (The Worship of the Generative Powers)

THE SATANIC PHALLUS

“A Hellene, of mean condition, came, first, into Etruria, not with one of the many
trades which his nation, of all others the most skilful in embellishing the mind and
body, has introduced among us, but a low operator in sacrifices, and a
soothsayer; nor was he to be ranked with those who, publicly professing to give
instruction for hire, make use of open rites and ceremonies, to imbue men’s
minds with religious tenors, but a teacher of secret mysteries. These mysterious
rites were, at first, imparted to a few, but afterwards communicated to great
numbers, both men and women. To their religious performances were added the
pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure the greater number of proselytes. When
wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the mingling of sexes, had extinguished
every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be
practised, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was
disposed by the passion most prevalent in his nature. Nor were they confined to
one species of vice, the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women;
but from this store-house of villainy proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals,
false evidence, and pretended discoveries. In the same place, too, were
perpetrated secret murders; so that, in some cases, even the bodies could not be
found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery,
but most of them by force; and this force was concealed by loud shouting, and
the noise of drums and cymbals, so that none of the cries uttered by the persons
suffering violation or murder could be heard abroad.

When once the mysteries had assumed this promiscuous character, and men
were mingled with women with all the licence of nocturnal orgies, there was no
crime, no deed of shame, wanting. More uncleaness was wrought by men with
men than with women. Whoever would not submit to defilement, or shrank from
violating others, was sacrificed as a victim. To regard nothing as impious or
criminal was the very sum of their religion. The men, as though seized with
madness and with frenzied distortions of their bodies, shrieked out prophecies;
the matrons, dressed as Bacchae, their hair dishevelled, rushed down to the
Tiber with burning torches, plunged them into the water, and drew them out
again, the flame undiminished, as they were made of sulphur mixed with lime.”

(Titus Livius - History of Rome 39.8)

“Others say that he seems to be a goat, with two horns in front and two in
back...But the general opinion is that he has only three horns, and that the one in
the middle has some kind of light that serves to illuminate the sabbath, giving off
fire and light, even illuminating the witches who carry lit candles to the ceremony
as if to mass, which they want to imitate...In front he has an erect member, which
he shows fully extended, and in the back he has a long tail, with some kind of
face below it. From this face come no words; rather, he presents it to be kissed
by those whom he deems worthy, honouring in this way certain special witches,
male and female, some more than others.”

(Pierre de Lancre - On the Inconstancy of Witches)

“Now the ancients record in their myths that Priapus was the son of Dionysus
and Aphrodite and they present a plausible argument for this lineage; for men
when under the influence of wine find the members of their bodies tense and
inclined to the pleasures of love. But certain writers say that when the ancients
wished to speak in their myths of the sexual organ of males they called it
Priapus. Some, however, relate that the generative member, since it is the cause
of the reproduction of human beings and of their continued existence through all
time, became the object of immortal honour.“

(Diodorous Siculus - Library of History 4.6)

“Marie d’Aguerre and several others reported that at such assemblies a great jug
is placed in the middle of the sabbath, from which the Devil emerges in the form
of a goat. After he comes out of the jug, he grows to such a large size that he is
frightening. And at the end of the sabbath he returns to the jug.” 1

In this magical Arcadian garden infused with the spirit of Dionysus, Osiris and
Pan existed the fauns and satyrs. Part human and part animal the satyrs were
formed with the legs and hooves of the goat with an equine tail and an equine
phallus. By being part human and part animal the satyrs allowed the human mind
to gain access to this archaic magical world.

“These mixed beings are derived from Pan, the principle of universal order; of
whose personified image they partake. Pan is addressed in the Orphic Litanies
as the first-begotten love, or creator incorporated in universal matter, and so
forming the world. The heaven, the earth, water, and fire are said to be members
of him; and he is described as the origin and source of all things, as representing
matter animated by the Divine Spirit.” 2

These satyrs are depicted on Greek amphorae and vases as bearded humans
with the tail of a horse, equine ears and a phallus which is a fusion of the human
and equine. The satyr thus exhibits an erect hybrid phallus that is part human
and part equine. This allowed a bestial sexual energy to emerge and depictions
of lustful satyrs often show them in a state of heightened sexual arousal.

“In Crete, not only these rites (the Orgies), but in particular those sacred to Zeus
(the Kouretes) were performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of
ministers who were in the service of Dionysus, I mean the Satyroi (Satyrs).” 3

Later in myth the satyr acquired goat-like legs and hooves. In myth the Faunus,
an associate of Pan, was fused with the equine characteristics of the satyr.
Satyrs now acquired the form of the human fused with the goat. This hybrid of a
hybrid multiple had the legs, hooves, horns and phallus of the goat moulded onto
the human form.

This hybrid being was a creature like the Chimera formed of disparate parts. The
Chimera had the head and body of a lion or lioness, with another head of a goat
that was mounted onto the middle of the body, and the tail of snake or serpent at
the rear. The mouth of the head of the goat was a flaming cauldron of fire.

According to Homer the Khimaira (Chimera) was a “thing of immortal make, not
human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the
breath of the terrible flame of bright fire.” 4

The Chimera was therefore a creature formed of different animals to create a

monstrous multiple hybrid. This was the diabolical Chimera that stood at the
gates of hell and is referenced by Virgil.

“There in the middle court a shadowy elm

Its ancient branches spreads, and in its leaves
Deluding visions ever haunt and cling.
Then come strange prodigies of bestial kind;
Centaurs are stabled there, and double shapes
Like Scylla, or the dragon Lerna bred,
With hideous scream; Briareus clutching far
His hundred hands, Chimaera girt with flame,
A crowd of Gorgons, Harpies of fowl wing,
And giant Geryon’s triple-monstered shade.”5

The mythical Chimera came to embody the concept of an apparition while losing
its concrete form to ultimately become an abstract concept and metaphor. Satyrs
were similarly hybrid creatures that had an illusory form and could be described
as chimeras.

The goat was fused with the human form to create a hybrid being or chimera that
expressed the divine nature of prolific procreation.

“They have deified the goat, just as the Greeks are said to have honoured
Priapus, because of the generative member; for this animal has a very great
propensity for copulation, and it is fitting that honour be shown to that member of
the body which is the cause for generation, being, as it were, the primal author of
all animal life. And, in general, not only Egyptians but not a few other peoples as
well have in the rites they observe treated the male member as sacred, on the
ground that it is the cause of the generation of all creatures; and the priests in
Egypt who have inherited their priestly offices from their fathers are initiated first
into the mysteries of this god. And both the Pans and the Satyrs, they say, are
worshipped by men for the same reason; and this is why most peoples set up in
their sacred places statues of them showing the phallus erect and resembling a
goat’s in nature, since according to tradition this animal is most efficient in
copulation…”6

In the sacred rituals at Mendes in Egypt humans copulated with goats in order to
achieve union with the deity. The phallus representing this hybrid creature, being
a fusion of the animal and human, was likewise a chimera.

“At Mendes a living goat was kept as the image of the generative power, to whom
the women presented themselves naked, and had the honour of being publicly
enjoyed by him. Herodotus saw the act openly performed, and calls it a prodigy.
But the Egyptians had no such horror of it; for it was to them a representation of
the incarnation of the Deity, and the communication of his Creative spirit to
man.”7

The Mendesians regarded all goats as sacred and deified the phallus of the goat.
Pan was depicted as having the head and legs of a goat thus uniting the sacred
qualities of humans and goats in one hybrid being or chimera. Herodotus
witnessed this archaic sacred rite still being performed in his own lifetime.

“In Egyptian, Mendes can mean both ‘male goat’ and ‘Pan.’ Within my own
lifetime, an astonishing incident took place in this province: a male goat had sex,
publicly, with a woman.”8

By copulating with the goat in these rites the human participants were able to
fuse with the deity and so with the sacred creative impulse that infuses all matter.
By this fusion with the deity they formed a duality and were part of a sacred
chimera.

“In copulation with the goat, they represent the reciprocal incarnation of man with
the deity, when incorporated with universal matter: for Deity, being both male and
female, was both active and passive in procreation; first animating man by an
emanation from his own essence, and then employing that emanation to
reproduce, in conjunction with the common productive powers of nature, which
are no other than his own prolific spirit transfused through matter.” 9

Excavated from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum is the sculpture of ‘Pan
and goat’ which is the embodiment of the Mendesian rites. In this case the
human symbol (Pan) performs the active role while copulating with the deity. This
means that “the goat is passive instead of active; and that the human symbol is
represented as incarnate with the divine, instead of the divine with the human:
but this is in fact no difference; for the Creator, being of both sexes, is
represented indifferently of either.”10

According to legend it was the pans and satyrs that witnessed the slaying and
dismemberment of Osiris and communicated the event to the world. They are
thus inextricably bound to his cult and gave us the concept of human panic.
“According to legend it was Isis who was responsible for the phallic worship of
Osiris. After killing Osiris his brother Typhon dismembered the body and
scattered the various parts around Egypt...The first to learn of the deed and to
bring to men’s knowledge an account of what had been done were the Pans and
Satyrs who lived in the region around Chemmis, and so, even to this day, the
sudden confusion and consternation of a crowd is called a panic…” 11

Isis had commanded that the recreated image of the phallus of Osiris be set up in
the temples and venerated as a god. The genital parts of Osiris had been hacked
off and thrown into the Nile. The other parts of the body of Osiris were recovered
but the phallus remained lost in the waters of the river.

“Yet Isis thought them as worthy of honours as the other parts, for, fashioning a
likeness of them, she set it up in the temples, commanded that it be honoured,
and made it the object of the highest regards and reverence in the rites and
sacrifices according to the god. Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch as they
received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies and the festivals connected
with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the initiatory rites
and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’” 12

In Pierre de Lancre’s 1612 publication documenting the Labourd witch trials, ‘On
the Inconstancy of Witches,’ he describes the festivities of the sabbath. Here he
refers to Plutarch’s ‘Life of Numa’ to provide the template of a comparable feast.
This demonstrates the play of illusion and reality that marked these chimerical
feasts. “The feasts of Numa described by Plutarch and those of Pases described
by Appian, those of Tiridates, the king of Armenia, who invited Nero to a feast
entirely prepared and ordered by magic - all three described in literature as being
witches…”13

De Lancre’s invocation of this text by Plutarch therefore provides the context to

the modern imagination of a satanic banquet. ”By such training and schooling in
religious matters the city became so tractable, and stood in such awe of Numa’s
power, that they accepted his stories, though fabulously strange, and thought
nothing incredible or impossible which he wished them to believe or do. At any
rate, the story goes that he once invited a large number of the citizens to his
table, and set before them mean dishes and a very simple repast; but just as
they began to eat, he surprised them by saying that the goddess with whom he
consorted was come to visit him, and lo, on a sudden, the room was full of costly
beakers and the tables were laden with all sorts of meats and abundant
furniture.”14

One of the witnesses interrogated by the investigation described the proceedings

as a type of great fair. This chimerical fair was populated by a multitude that
changed their shapes during the course of the festivities. “She said that the
sabbath was like a famous fair of all sorts of things where some people walked
about in their own bodies and, for reasons that are not known, others were
transformed into dogs, cats, asses, horses, swine, and other animals...She said
that she saw Ansugarlo, from Hendaye, who was later put to death as an
infamous witch, play the tambourine there, and she saw Gastellore play the
violin. She told us that people were seen leaving the sabbath, one woman flying
through the air, another towards heaven, another towards earth, and another
sometimes towards the large fires that were lit in this place, like flares that many
people throw into the air, or like lightning.” 15

This again is similar to the specific text of Plutarch that is referenced by de

Lancre. “But nothing can be so strange as what is told about his conversation
with Jupiter. When the Aventine hill - so runs the tale - was not yet a part of the
city nor even inhabited, but abounded in springs and shady dells, two demi-gods,
Picus and Faunus, made it there haunt. In other ways these divinities might be
likened to Satyrs and Pans, but they are said to have used powerful drugs and
practised clever incantations, and to have traversed Italy playing the same tricks
as the so-called Idaean Dactyli of the Greeks. These demi-gods Numa is said to
have caught, by mixing wine and honey with the water of the spring from which
they were wont to drink. When captured, they dropped their own forms and
assumed many different shapes, presenting hideous and dreadful appearances.
But when they perceived that they were fast caught and could not escape, they
foretold to Numa many things that would come to pass, and taught him besides
the charm against thunder and lightning…”16

The recurring theme of the disturbance of the heavens dictates the timing and
atmosphere of the sabbath. This heavenly upheaval distorted earthly reality and
allowed fantastical chimerical events to materialize. “And he said that the
sabbath was almost always held around midnight...and that the Devil sought the
darkest and stormiest night he could find, so that the winds and the
thunderstorms would carry the powders the farthest and to where they could do
the most damage.”17
According to the witch trial testimonies Satan was said to have created a great
cloud that concealed the more graphic acts of the worship. This was another
device that separated the banal mortal realm from the sacred and fantastical.
According to de Lancre in these testaments the witches “say that they see those
whom the Devil wants to know carnally separate themselves from the group,
moving away a bit with him; and they said that they could not see this
unspeakable act because he places some thick cloud in front of them.” 18

In these accounts he records that Satan exhibited a reptilian or serpentine

phallus which was covered in scales that rose up and tore the flesh when the
phallus was withdrawn.”She further said that when the Devil knew them carnally,
they experienced a sharp pain. She heard them cry out, and when the copulation
was over, she saw them return to the sabbath all bloody and complaining of pain,
which comes from the fact that the Devil’s organ is covered with scales that are
like a poison: they tighten up as the Devil enters her and they lift up and pinch
her as his organ is withdrawn.”19

In other testimony the satanic phallus assumes a bestial form where the shape
can be taken from any animal by choice. Some testified that Satan had a mule’s
organ which was chosen because this animal was considered to be the best
endowed. The witness “testified that the Devil, whether appearing as a man or as
a goat, always had a mule’s organ, which he chose because he thought it was
the best endowed. She says that his organ is long and as big as an arm...And he
never appears at the sabbath doing anything without having his organ fully
exposed, its shape and size both imposing.” 20

Other participants describe the satanic phallus as a twisting serpentine coil fused
with the form of an alder bush. They testified that “If extended, the Devil’s organ
would be about as long as an alder bush, but he has it twisted and wound up like
a snake.”21

The twisting form is also related to the satanic horns which also inspire the shape
of the phallus. Another witness to the sabbath stated that “the Devil has an organ
made out of horn, or so at least it seems. This is why he makes women scream
so.”22

This shape-shifting quality allows the phallus to appear in a combination of

disguises. It can be formed of disparate and inconsistent materials that are
combined into a chimerical form. A witness “said that it seemed that the evil
demon had an organ that was divided, half-iron and half-flesh all along its length.
The same was true of the rest of his genitals, and she testifies that she saw this
on several occasions during the sabbath.”23

These accounts of the satanic phallus visualize its shape-shifting nature. Its
ability to transform into multiple chimerical guises demonstrates the inconstancy
of demons. “The Devil does not keep the same appearance, throughout, all his
actions consist of changing his appearance, since he never assumes a
consistent identity; he is nothing but illusion, deception and fraud.” 24

Because the phallus is demonic rather than formed of mortal flesh and blood it
has a cold presence. Some of the testimony refers to the penetration of an ice-
like instrument. This freezing demonic characteristic is reflected in the cold
semen that is emitted.

One testament states that “she fled from copulation with the Devil because his
organ has scales on it and is extremely painful. Moreover, his semen is extremely
cold, so much so that it never makes a woman pregnant…” Another of these
witness accounts states that “she never felt that he had any semen, except when
he deflowered her, on which occasion it felt cold.” 25

The coldness of the semen is the consequence of its demonic quality and the
chimerical image that it comes from. This is the result of copulation with an
apparition.

“Taking this etymology as the true one, the Lycaean Pan of Arcadia is Pan the
luminous; that is, the divine essence of light incorporated in universal matter…
Upon the same principle, the figure of Pan is represented pouring water upon the
organ of generation; that is, invigorating the active power by the prolific element
upon which it acted; for water was considered as the essence of the passive
principle, as fire was of the active; the one being of terrestrial, and the other of
aetherial origin.”26

The satyrs performed the function of initiates or ministers to this god and
celebrated the rites that were associated with deities such as Osiris, Dionysus
and Priapus. They imparted to humans the mysteries of the religion.

“Such are the fawns and satyrs, who represent the emanations of the Creator,
incarnate with man, acting as his angels and ministers in the work of universal
generation. In copulation with the goat, they represent the reciprocal incarnation
of man and the deity.”27
By being part human and part animal the shape-shifting phallus of the satyr
represents copulation with the deity. The phallus of this hybrid creature became
worthy in itself of veneration and underlies the structures of established religions.
The chimerical nature of the phallus also underlies the descriptions of the satanic
phallus that are recorded by Pierre de Lancre in his investigation of the witches
of the Basque region of the Labourd.

“This gives meaning to the blackness that the condemned eroticism of the
Christian ages was to assume. The sabbath was the blackest form, wherein the
play of nocturnal terrors and the play of licentiousness were combined.” (Bataille)

1. Pierre de Lancre - On the Inconstancy of Witches

2. Richard Payne Knight - Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
3. Strabo - Geography 10.3.11
4. Homer - Iliad 6
5. Virgil - Aeneid 6
6. Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.88
7. Richard Payne Knight - Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
8. Herodotus - Histories 2.46
9. Richard Payne Knight - Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
10. Ibid.
11. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 14
12. Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.22
13. Pierre de Lancre - On the Inconstancy of Witches
14. Plutarch - Life of Numa
15. Pierre de Lancre - On the Inconstancy of Witches
16. Plutarch - Life of Numa
17. Pierre de Lancre - On the Inconstancy of Witches
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Richard Payne Knight - Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
27. Ibid.