The Power of Blaspheme

Blasphemy is a powerful formula for magical power. It is often empowered by our fears and a dreaded sense of permanence.

Blasphemy is an act or word that insults a deity or that treats the sacred with irreverence. Often the very act changes whether we can associate with a religious community. Once someone has acted in a way blasphemous to a particular religion, the community surrounding that religion may never accept them again. If the person has a particular belief in the deity or simply a fear that the deity might be real then the very act evokes a lot of fear and that fear is a powerful formula for magical practice.

Remember the feeling of a kid’s sleep-over where you did Ouija and “light as a feather, stiff as a board”? It’s the same thing. It’s something naughty and against the host culture and there is a fear that suddenly you’re going to invoke a power that you might not be able to reverse. Like saying blood-mary in a mirror. You can’t undo it. There is a certain power in that fear which if used properly can make ritual very powerful.

Sometimes people do not necessarily believe in the deity they are blaspheming, otherwise, they probably wouldn’t do it, but the fear that the deity might be real is powerful enough. Also, you are often blaspheming the culture you are surrounded by and that’s also a formula in and of itself. The act of blaspheme is an act of rebellion against other people, even if you do not follow the religion that you blaspheme. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy would call this a behavioural action which teaches the client to be freer from other people’s expectations and to avoid seeking their validation. The client learns more than anything that nothing bad happened and they were able to build the strength to face their fears.

It might just be a cultural action that has little relation to the divine but is elevated in cultural expectations. In India, it is considered unclean to touch anything dead or anything in a graveyard. Often tantrikas cover themselves in graveyard dirt and ash from cremated bodies as a form of cultural blasphemy. This frequently completely removes them from the caste system. Some people who still live by the Caste system will no longer touch the blasphemers for fear of being polluted by their tainted souls. Even their very shadows are considered polluted.

In the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Gnostic Mass ritual features a naked woman, which shocks the host culture and blasphemes against many people’s sense of what is sacred. This shock factor acts as a powerful formula among the many formulae involved in the ritual.

Blasphemy IS powerful. Whether or not the practitioner believes in the religion or culture that they are blaspheming. It is not always about deity, it is often about ritual purity or cultural expectations. The act of blasphemy is not something that can be reversed so there is a real sense of gravity about the ritual action taken, but this only really works the first few times it is done.

Exercise

Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson begins with a reading of the Lord’s Prayer backwards. It is suggested that this is read in private, but it is still a reminder of the freedom of the practitioner. I have written my own version of the Lord’s prayer backwards using my linguistic skills. Give it a go if you dare.

dh is the sound of the th in this
th is the sound of the th in thin
h at the end of a word is not normally pronounced
h is the sound of the h in holy. If it’s bold it is still pronounced at the end of a word.

Nemah Revvéd na Revvér off
eerolg eedh na a-wap eedh
Modgnik eedh zi nyadh off
livee morf zuh ruviléd tub
noshyetpmet ootni ton zuh deald na
zuh tsnyega saapsert ooh zwodh veegrof na
dairb eelyed rua yed zeedh zuh vig
Neveh neezee tee za thruh no
Nud eeb liwi-adh
Mock Modgnik yadh
myen yadh eeb dwollah
neveh neet ra ooh rudhaf Rua

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Paul Husons’ Mastering Witchcraft was probably one of the best books of Magic written in the 1970s. In fact, A Witches Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar (the source-works for modern Wicca) refers to it, but they describe it as “amoral” because its magic predates Gardner’s need to make magic more acceptable to other religions by introducing the rule of 3. Mastering Witchcraft features love spells, divination by invocation of a goetic demon, talisman creation, necromancy and more.