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Uriel Seraphim Io Potesta, Zati Zata Galatim Galata. The final two lines of the Sussamma Ritual, as spoken by the Duke de Richleau DUKE: Yes, take any of them. So says the duke, moments after informing us that the curator of the British Museum is a good friend of his
Given the title of this novel, and the fact that the antagonists in the plot are Satanists, it seems incongruous that Wheatley puts into the Duke's mouth the claim, "There is no such person as the devil..." (Chapter 7). But that makes sense given the worldview he's taking here as his premise. Satan, of course, is a creature of God, a fallen angel who's rebelled against his Maker; he's not God's co-eternal and co-equal opponent. But Wheatley is consciously basing his picture of reality here, as laid out in great detail in Chapter 3, on the schema of Zoroastrian dualism (which he explicitly refers to there) with its co-eternal and co-equal powers of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, perpetually warring for control of the universe and mankind. (With some writers of supernatural fiction, this would simply be a literary conceit, but Wheatley apparently actually believed in something like this.) All of his research --which was quite considerable-- into occultism and primitive/ancient religion is interpreted in that light, and all religions (including Christianity) are re-interpreted and homogenized into harmonious expressions of that idea. The goal of all "true" religions of "the Right Hand Path," supposedly (as he also states explicitly) is progress towards "perfection" through successive reincarnations. Not surprisingly, to paint this picture (through the Duke's lectures at various places in the book, which can have an info-dumpy quality), he misinterprets and garbles factual and historical material in significant ways, sometimes makes outright factual errors, and at times makes use of spurious or intellectually discredited sources. I did a lot of eye-rolling during this read, in quite a few places. He also treats astrology, palmistry (in which another character is conveniently but improbably well-versed) and numerology as legitimate sciences to be taken seriously --which I don't. To me, the rather long numerology lesson was particularly eye-glazing. The appearance of the Goat of Mendes at the sabbat, the already-mentioned pentacle scene and the climactic ritual of the child sacrifice on the altar can all justifiably be called iconic. As noted in my previous Wheatley blog, a 2019 Daily Mail story about devil worshippers in the English countryside used a ‘Goat of Mendes’ still as a photo to accompany the text. After the rescue of Simon the duke takes him to the ancient sanctuary of Stonehenge to see out the night safely. (Tanith is also rescued in the film, though not in the book.) We learn that Simon is Mocata’s gateway to acquiring the Talisman of Set, which will allow him to summon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse into the world. In a twist to what we read in the history books, it appears that the horsemen were last summoned in 1914 and that Germany is therefore absolved of all guilt for causing the First World War: If that isn’t enough, there is also cannibalism. Mocata and ‘half a dozen masters of the Left Hand Path’ sit at a head table before the Goat where they feast upon the flesh of ‘a stillborn baby or perhaps some unfortunate child that they have stolen’. The Duke’s suspicions are confirmed when a human skull is cast into a cauldron before the throne of the beast.Casting began in 1967 and Christopher Lee did not want to take the role of Mocata: ‘I told Hammer, ‘Look, enough of the villainy for the time being, let us try something different and let me be on the side of the angels for once.’ The Duke de Richleau, a.k.a., Greyeyes, is an elderly French exile (due to his involvement in the 1890s Royalist rising), art connoisseur, and dilettante one can count on in all things. He has studied the Right Hand Path, White Magic. Max is the duke’s man. Birkenhead, 1973. The eighteen-year-old Paul O'Grady gets ready for a big Saturday night out on the town. New white T-shirt, freshly ironed jeans, looking good. As he bids farewell to his mum, who's on the phone to his auntie, and wanders off down the street in a cloud of aftershave, he hears her familiar cry: 'Oh, the devil rides out tonight, Annie. The Devil rides out!' With increasing tension, we perceive the ensuing chaos, no longer directed at just a few; not random acts of rape and carnage, cannibalism, mutilation of babies and so on, but now applied on a massive scale across all humanity and time. Nature now no longer a neutral force, but twisted to an evil purpose.
It must be truly important for Simon to miss the reunion dinner with the duke and Rex. And the duke is even more worried as Rex discovers. Since their friend is too important to them both, the men repair to Simon’s new house where they discover the depths to which he has sunk. Heaven and Hell are only symbolical of growth to Light or disintegration to Darkness. There is no such person as the Devil, but there are vast numbers of Earthbound spirits, Elementals, and Evil Intelligences of the Outer Circle floating in our midst. But anyone who accepts Satanic baptism does exactly the reverse. They willfully destroy the barrier of astral Light which is our natural protection and offer themselves as a medium through which the powers of Darkness may operate on mankind.”Ah, the Sussamma Ritual, to utter which is to do a thing which shall never be done except in the direst emergency when the very soul is in peril of destruction [italics added by Wheatley, presumably in case we didn’t grasp how dire things need to get before it can be called upon]. Its words are right up there with ‘Klaatu barada nikto’ from The Day the Earth Stood Still as truly iconic gibberish: Up to this midpoint of the story, the later film (very) roughly follows the original book: Simon Aron, young friend of the Duke de Richleau and Rex Van Ryn, has become embroiled with a group of satanists and must be rescued before his satanic baptism. Though Rex is ignorant in these matters, the duke is something of an expert. The film script — aided by Christopher Lee’s wonderful delivery — conveys gravitas but not pomposity: “Though I have never mentioned it, I have made a very deep study of these esoteric doctrines.” Tanith was a pain. She comes across as an intelligent woman, but her reasoning for following the Left Hand Path is so immature. She’s a nasty-minded person with her desire to have power over people. Doesn’t she realize that this is an evil desire? What’s wrong with helping people? I do wish Wheatley hadn’t been so cryptic about the Malagasy and the Goat. Did the Malagasy give himself over to the demon, was he the demon, or what? Those who have criticised the Hammer film’s finale as being somewhat anticlimactic might have to be careful what they wish for when reading the novel. Instead of rescuing Peggy/Fleur from the occultists’ house which Rex discovered earlier in the film, our heroes head straight from Cardinal’s Folly (the Eaton’s Kidderminster home) to France in Richard’s private plane, and from there they follow a lead to Greece, which involves a twelve-hundred-mile journey across the alps to Yanina, after which ‘we’ll have to use horses’!
What I enjoyed most about this book is that it hasn’t fallen into the trap that most lazy celebrity autobiographies do; it is not ghost-written. You can hear Paul O’Grady saying every single word you’re reading; not only has he got a very distinctive speaking voice and turn of phrase, but also a totally distinguishable writing style. This book isn’t about settling old scores (a certain Mrs Osbourne springs to mind here) or boring us to death with mind-numbing details. Paul writes about this period of his life as he sees it; sometimes it’s funny, sometimes moving, always honest. To locate the talisman he needs the unwilling assistance of Simon Aaron and hypnotises him into becoming a satanist. He wrote adventure stories, with many books in a series of linked works. His plots covered the French Revolution (Roger Brook Series), Satanism (Duc de Richleau), World War II (Gregory Sallust) and espionage (Julian Day). Why, exactly? Well, instead of the aforementioned house, the temple where Mocata plans to sacrifice Fleur to Satan is an abandoned monastery on Mount Peristeri (hence the horses). The movie’s deus ex machina reveal that the Satanist’s temple is a former Catholic church seems a little forced, but in the source material it makes more sense. The ritual must take place at the monastery, because this is where the Talisman of Set is buried. What is the Talisman of Set? Saruman: And this is rightly considered a part of the horror genre, and we should also consider a comparison to Arthur Machen’s excellent treatise The Great God Pan.
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Osiris’ wife, Isis, managed to find thirteen of those parts and successfully restored Osiris to eternal life. The missing fourteenth part? Osiris’ phallus. Yep. That’s what Mocata is searching for – an Egyptian God’s penis! This was the first time I came across a book by Dennis Wheatley & I am glad to say i was not disappointed.
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