A Sacrament of Lips
On the Magick of the Enchanted Kiss
Most parents will be familiar with the nightly ritual of the goodnight kiss. This ritual is of utmost importance and cannot be skipped, and sometimes must be repeated several times as a ploy to avoid bedtime. Why do we put so much importance on a brief touch of lips? A kiss goodbye can mean so much more than a parting act, a kiss o goodnight can be like a lantern to drive away the fear of darkness. We kiss for so many reasons, but each time we do, there seems to be more to it than just the physical act. This unspoken reality pervades our culture, right down to the kiss that wakes the princess from her enchanted slumber.
The earliest mention of a kiss in literature comes from Vedic texts written around 1500 BCE, describing the kiss as being like “inhaling another’s soul.” The kiss is also referenced in ancient Sumerian and Egyptian poetry, like this example from the New Kingdom period1:
Sweet, sweet, sweet as honey in my mouth,
His kisses on my lips, my breast, my hair;
But now my heart is as the sun-scorched South,
Where lie the fields deserted, grey and bare.
Come! Come! Come! And kiss me when I die,
For life, compelling life, is in thy breath;
And at that kiss, though in the tomb I lie,
I will arise and break the bands of Death.
In the ancient Egyptian Book of Going Forth by Day, there are multiple references to kisses, usually kissing the earth, or kneeling. Not quite the touch of lips, but the sentiment is the same. In each case, something intangible seems to pass from one to another. Intangible though it might be, a kiss is a gesture that is filled with potency and power. Remember, Jesus was betrayed by a kiss.
It is no surprise that ancient Christianity picked up on the rich culture of kissing and incorporated it into their rituals. The Kiss of Peace or Holy Kiss is a greeting given by members of the clergy or church to each other. In Greek, it is the ἐν ἁγίω φιλήματι, en hagio philemati. In Latin, it became osculum pacis. St. Augustine mentioned the kiss in his Easter sermon, speaking of it as a sacrament:
After this, the 'Peace be with you’ is said, and the Christians embrace one another with the holy kiss. This is a sign of peace; as the lips indicate, let peace be made in your conscience, that is, when your lips draw near to those of your brother, do not let your heart withdraw from his. Hence, these are great and powerful sacraments.
The Catholic church incorporated this into its rituals and later protestant branches kept the idea but lost the lip contact. If you’ve ever been to a southern baptist church, you will be familiar with the awkward portion of the service where everyone walks around and shakes hands and hugs. As a child, nothing was weirder to me than having to shake some old man’s clammy hands for an incomprehensible reason midway through a boring sermon. Now as adults we can rest easy in the knowledge that the clammy handshake was a direct descendent of the osculum pacis.
The same church patriarchy that conceptualized osculum pacis also projected its opposite onto the alleged witches it persecuted. The osculum infame, or the shameful kiss was the kiss to the anus that marked a witch’s allegiance to the Devil. A 16th-century text remarks the following:
...and seeing that they tarried over long, he at their coming enjoyned them all to a pennance, which was, that they should kisse his buttockes, in sign of duety to him, which being put over the pulpit bare, every one did as he had enjoyned them.
Gregory IX's condemnation of heresy, Vox in Rama from 1123 gives more detail on the Devil’s Kiss:
The following rites of this pestilence are carried out: When any novice is to be received among them and enters the sect of the damned for the first time, the shape of a certain frog [or toad] appears to him. Some kiss this creature on the hind quarters and some on the mouth, they receive the tongue and saliva of the beast inside their mouths. Sometimes it appears unduly large, and sometimes equivalent to a goose or a duck, and sometimes it even assumes the size of an oven. At length, when the novice has come forward, he is met by a man of wondrous pallor, who has black eyes and is so emaciated thin that since his flesh has been wasted, seems to have remaining only skin drawn over [his] bone. The novice kisses him and feels cold, like ice, and after the kiss the memory of the Catholic faith totally disappears from his heart. Afterwards, they sit down to a meal and when they have arisen from it, the certain statue, which is usual in a sect of this kind, a black cat descends backwards, with its tail erect. First the novice, next the master, then each one of the order who are worthy and perfect, kiss the cat on its buttocks. Then each [returns] to his place and, speaking certain responses, they incline their heads toward to cat. “Forgive us!” says the master, and the one next to him repeats this, a third responding, “We know, master!” A fourth says: “And we must obey.”
The idea of cat butt was just as disgusting to people in the 1100s as it is today. Some things are universal and timeless.
Fast forward to modern times, occultist Aleister Crowley wasn’t about to leave the ritual of kissing in the hands of the Christians. In the Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, the word kiss is used numerous times in the first chapter. From chapter 1, verse 14:
Above, the gemméd azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe,the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
The Book of the Law goes on to mention kisses six more times, for a total of seven. Seven is the number of Venus, of desire, and love. A connection there? Maybe! I’ll leave that for you dear reader to investigate.
I think ultimately, a kiss is a connection. Aleister Crowley talks about the Magical Link2 as being required for a magical working to be able to achieve its goal. It acts as a connector through which the Will of the magician flows like electricity to the end result. Whether we are aware of it or not, a kiss is exactly such a thing. I want my child to safely and happily sleep through the night, in order to work this magic I create the magical link of the goodnight kiss to see it through. A pilgrim might kiss a holy relic in an attempt to connect themselves with the spirit of a saint. Many other such examples can be easily found. It is a simple gesture, yet it can convey much. When we kiss, we make a part of ourselves available to the other in a way that is not easily matched with words.
Praxis
Become mindful every time you take part in a kiss. What is the intent behind it? What are you trying to enchant for?
Think about a magical goal you have for your next working. How could you mindfully incorporate a kiss into your ritual? Does it enhance the energy of the working? If so, in what way?
Finally, do you have a magical kiss story you’d like to share with us? Post it in the comments! Let’s learn from each other and push our magical practice forward as a community.
Did you make it here from Reddit, Twitter or Instagram? Do you like this kind of content? I would be absolutely thrilled if you would subscribe to this newsletter, so I can feel better about not just talking to myself. I aim to publish about once a week, depending on what I have to say. Many thanks!
Here are some more, for the interested reader.
In Liber 4, Part 3 chapter XIV, Crowley has a very lengthy discussion on what a magical link is. The chapter is long and somewhat opaque in its language, but the essence of the matter is that the magical link connects the magician to the goal of their working. Sometimes this is physical, sometimes symbolic.