Cultus Sabbati

Abstract

The Cultus Sabbati is an initiatory esoteric order established by the Englishman Andrew D. Chumbley in 1991. Chumbley, who was from rural Essex, claimed that he had been introduced to two separate occult groups while a teenager in the 1980s. The first, he maintained, was called the Red Snake and had originated in the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire borderlands prior to the Second World War. The second reportedly came from around southwest Wales and could be traced to the 1880s or 1890s. Chumbley alleged that his initiation into these occult currents provided much of the basis for what became the Cultus Sabbati, although firm evidence for these earlier groups and their influence on Chumbley's ideas has not become publicly available. The Cultus subsequently grew from its Essex base, attracting a small group of initiates in Britain and thence also in the United States and Canada. Chumbley died in 2004, with the group's leadership passing to the California-based Daniel Schulke. The tradition promoted by the Cultus is often called Sabbatic Witchcraft or the Sabbatic Craft. The group maintains the existence of a wide range of gods and spirits with whom practitioners can interact. Drawing on earlier currents within Western esotericism, it presents its rituals as revolving around the manipulation of etheric cosmic forces for practical effect, a process it terms "magic." As suggested by its name, which is Latin for "cult of the sabbath," the Cultus Sabbati places great emphasis on the witches' sabbath. It views this not as a physical gathering but as an etheric or astral conclave of spirits, to which an initiate can travel whilst in a dreaming state. Group membership remains small, and initiation is by invitation only, although the Cultus has exerted a wider influence through its publications – especially among those occultists who call themselves "traditional witches."