The Gnostic Mass

Attendance at a Mass of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) is a unique experience. The Gnostic Mass is a ritual of power and beauty, which shadows forth age-old mysteries and affirms the dawning Law of Liberty. Members of the Church take great pleasure in sharing our rites with friends and seekers of wisdom.

The officers do not act as mediators between congregants and their god(s), but rather illustrate a process by which anyone may come to their own direct knowledge (gnosis) of the divine. No part of the Mass requires devotion to any individual, historical or mythological (i.e. Jesus or Aleister Crowley). The Mass does not include a sermon or any ethical instructions beyond the summary of the Law of Thelema.

Attendees at a Mass celebrated at Circle of Star Sanctuary are expected to participate in several important ways. Participation includes recitations, signs, and communication. The Gnostic Mass is a eucharistic ritual, and congregants are expected to “communicate” by partaking of the sacrament, which involves consuming a Cake of Light, drinking a glass of wine (water is available as an alternative), and then proclaiming, “There is no part of me that is not of the gods!”

Our Cakes are made to a special recipe that includes meal, honey, olive oil, cinnamon, galangal, myrrh, and wine leavings. Congregants sometimes prepare their own Cakes, and there is an opportunity just prior to the Mass to include these personal Cakes with the others for consecration during the ceremony.

While participation is expected, memorization is NOT and missals are available for those who need them. The Deacon will go over the details just before the ceremony begins.

Crowley writes in Confessions, “Human nature demands (in the case of most people) the satisfaction of the religious instinct, and, to very many, this may best be done by ceremonial means. I wished therefore to construct a ritual through which people might enter into ecstasy as they have always done under the influence of appropriate ritual.”

We celebrate the Gnostic Mass on Sunday. Please check the calendar for scheduled Masses.