Gilles was a wealthy man, having inherited extensive domains from both his father and maternal grandfather. In addition, he had recently married Catherine de Thouars, a rich heiress. So well off was Gilles that he earned a reputation for keeping a more lavish court than the king.

Young André was taken in by Gilles and made a herald, but the boy’s personality grew on Gilles, who soon took the adolescent into his confidence.

In July of 1435, the Rais family secured a decree from the king that restrained Gilles from selling or mortgaging the rest of his properties. This financial setback turned the desperate Gilles to alchemy, eventually leading to his burgeoning interest in Satanism. Having lost much of his wealth, Gilles hoped to regain his riches through the knowledge and power of the Devil. Over the next five years, he and André would delve into witchcraft and the occult, worshiping Satan in ceremonies later termed the ‘Black Mass.’

At the Black Mass, the celebrants would don vestments similar to those of the Christian priests, except the chasuble had the addition of a goat’s figure, an animal associated with the Devil. Other parodies of the Church included crosses suspended upside down, inversions of Christian prayers, a blessing with filthy water, animal sacrifices, and the use of a naked woman’s abdomen as an altar. The Black Mass culminated in a ritualistic orgy, and occasionally—a human sacrifice.

It was André Rafelo, one of the cult’s high priests, who introduced this new blasphemy into the ceremony.

In September of 1440, Gilles de Rais was arrested and brought to trial in Nantes. There he was condemned for heresy and the abduction, torture, and murder of more than 140 children.

André Rafelo fled France for the Harz Mountains of Germany. There, he established secret covens, which formalized the supernatural traditions of Devil worship, witchcraft, and the ways of the Black Sabbat. Years later, he would travel to Africa, where he would learn the secrets of eating from the skulls of the dead to steal their souls.

Rafelo would father twelve children by three wives and live to see the births of seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. After his death, his clan’s influence would spread overseas when his great grandson, Etienne Rafelo, set sail aboard a supply ship bound for New Spain (Mexico).

The history of the Central American people traces back long before the arrival of the first Europeans. The first ‘true’ Mexicans were seminomadic tribes who first appeared in Mesoamerica around 4000 b.c. Eventually they settled and became farmers, growing avocado, tomatoes, squash, and corn—a hybrid of wild grass.

Then, sometime around 1500 b.c, He arrived.