The Ancient Art of Magic
Early 19th-century witch bottle from Lincolnshire, England ( CC BY 2.0 )
The Ancient Art of Magic, Curses and Supernatural Spells
As long as humanity has had beliefs in deities, the supernatural, and the power of magic, the use of magic, spells, and curses have featured widely across cultures. Very much entwined with human nature, such beliefs and practices have continued to the present day. Archaeological finds show evidence of a plethora of ancient curses and protective spells, such as the discovery of cursed tablets, evil eye talismans and warding items.
The history of curses varies between cultures, locations, religions or beliefs, and times. However, the intention of the curse has consistently been to conjure a supernatural power to inflict misfortune or punishment on a target. A curse, sometimes called jinx, hex, or dark spell, can be verbalized, written, or sometimes cast through elaborate ritual. The aim is to see harm befall the recipient - bad luck may dog them, death may take them, or any number of dire (or annoying) fates may plague them. In antiquity a curse was a powerful phenomenon, often viewed as the summoned wrath of gods, or the presence of evil forces.
It was believed that those finding themselves cursed could seek help from magic practitioners, shamans, religious leaders, healers or witchdoctors, and have the curse reversed through counter rituals or prayer. A way to avoid being cursed in the first place was to possess certain items of protection or warding.
The purpose of spells and curses were, and remain today, aimed at punishing or changing behavior, warding off disaster, and controlling the actions of other people.
Pharaohs Curse
Ancient Egyptian curses are probably the most notorious. They gained infamy in 1922 when the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was opened. The mysterious deaths of some of the archaeology team and prominent visitors to the tomb soon after it was opened, and the subsequent publicity, caused a firestorm of speculation as to the power of the curses. Journalists and authors of the day fanned the flames.
In reality, deadly curses in royal tombs in Egypt are rare, as the idea of invaders or raiders breeching the tomb and desecrating the contents was unthinkable and even dangerous to inscribe. Warnings or wards were more frequently used to preserve the ritual purity of a tomb, or for generalized protection. Wikipedia notes that some curses can be found in private tombs of the Old Kingdom. One tomb from the 9th to 10th dynasty warns "any ruler who... shall do evil or wickedness to this coffin... may Hemen ([a local deity]) not accept any goods he offers, and may his heir not inherit".
The Royal Cobra (Uraeus) on the mask of Tutankhamun represented a protector goddess, and not a curse. (Wikipedia)
Warnings and Wardings
Curses, or the threat of cursed objects, was a clever method used to protect valuables. During the Medieval period, book curses were widely used and effective at keeping thieves away from precious tomes and important scrolls. The Medieval Catholic Church possessed many of the books, and the penalty for defacing or stealing books was high. Curses written in the tomes warned would-be thieves of dire repercussions, such as excommunication or damnation. This practice dated back to pre-Christian times and was used in the earliest libraries. The books in a collection at the library at Ninevah in Mesopotamia were marked with various curses. In what reads as a threat against copyright infringement, one text has the warning, “Whosoever shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name on it, side by side with mine own, may Ashur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land.”
The idea of curses and jinxes is found in various holy books, as in the Christian Bible. The Generational Curse is one mentioned, appearing multiple times, notes Got Questions “(Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9). God warns that He is “a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” The recommended way to break the generational curse is to repent and find salvation.
The infamous Devil's Bible, a massive manuscript that legend says was written in a single night by a monk in a pact with the devil, is said to be cursed and brings misfortune to any who possess it.
Malevolent Hexes and Witchcraft
While history shows that pre-Christian beliefs included the power of both light blessings and curses, the concept of dark curses is now often associated with witchcraft and dark spirits.
Cursing Tablets were one way the people of the ancient Greco-Roman society attempted to harness malevolent spirits and the wrath of powerful gods to damn their foes. Binding spells would be scratched into the surface of thin, lead tablets. The tablets would then be rolled up, nails were driven into them, and they were placed underground. They ended up at the bottom of wells, nailed to temple walls, or buried with the dead. Sometimes tablets appealed to underworld gods, Pluto, Hekate, or Persephone, while other times the text simply named the victim and the misfortune or death that was to befall them. One tablet found in London reads: “I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus, may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able.”
1600-year-old tablet curses were found in Italy and recently translated. LiveScience reports that the malevolent words and frightening images were meant to spell the end for both a Roman senator and a veterinarian named Porcello. A drawing of the Greek goddess Hekate was scratched into the lead plate, with snakes writhing on her head. The curse read: "Destroy, crush, kill, strangle Porcello and wife Maurilla. Their soul, heart, buttocks, liver ..."
The practice of magic, or witchcraft is often associated with cursing and evil hexes. Historically in Europe it was assumed that if crops suffered blight, or food spoiled unexpectedly, that a curse was behind it. Other ‘evidence’ of cursing were horses going lame, or milk cows going dry. Accusations of witchcraft were a product of the tension created by such occurrences, and innocent people were frequently killed as a result of witch trials. With the death of the accused ‘witch’, it was believed the curse was broken.
The Evil Eye
The Evil Eye is a very ancient curse known around the world. It dates back to the upper Palaeolithic period, and it is still warded against today in many cultures, especially the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Central America, Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean. This malevolent glare, or evil look, is the cause of back luck or injury, and is a curse sometimes believed to be caused by feeling jealousy, possessing certain eye colors, or being over-complimentary or covetous.
Because belief in the power of the evil eye is so pervasive around the world, in many countries talismans or amulets designed to ward off the curse can be found readily.
This Ruby Eye Pendant from an ancient Mesopotamia was used as a warding amulet to protect against the evil eye curse (Danieliness, Creative Commons)
While curses and magic might seem to be the superstition of the ancients, there are many today who still arm themselves with amulets or wards of protection against the effects of curses. Our rational, scientific world now scoffs at the idea of curses being a danger to anyone, and yet medical science can show that the Nocebo Effect – an adverse psychogenic reaction to a perception or expectation - remains a powerful psychological and physiological phenomenon. If you truly believe you’re cursed, and that belief is powerful enough, you may succumb to the curse whether it exists in reality or not.
In this way, perhaps curses from ancient times remain powerful to this very day.
By Liz Leafloor
- See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-myths-legends/ancient-art-magic-curses-and-supernatural-spells-002253#sthash.nVypfZ0W.dpuf
Hedge Rider by Eric de Vries
Posted by Quasizoid
The term Hedgerider must have been almost universal in the Germanic languages. It appears in Old Norse as “Hagzissa”, but also in Old English as “haegtesse” - shortened in the modern day as “hag”. The continental Germanic words for Witch clearly come from words meaning Hedgerider. However, all this talking about Hedgeriders doesn't answer our question immediately. The meaning is a bit vague: what is this riding a hedge? What does Hedgerider mean? And what does it have to do with Witchery?
The answer is found in the symbolism of the hedge. To our ancestors the hedge separated the village from the wild, outside world. Within the village you were protected by law and things were, more or less civilized. At this side of the hedge everything was nice, humane and protected by Law and most important, it has culture. Outside everything was wild, dangerous and could be attacked by animals and perhaps angered wood-spirits or other demons. Chaos was everywhere, waiting with its dark sinister hands until you walk by. The hedge is the Boundary, separating the two and was thus an “in-between” place. All this is symbolic of Middle-Earth and the Otherworld, as well as culture and the wild.
In the Swedish Law of Vastgotaland it is said: “Woman, I saw you riding on a fence with loose hair and belt, in the troll skin, at the time when day and night are equal.” All this points to the Otherworldly nature of the Witch and the Hedgerider. The fence is the hedge, the boundary. The “troll skin” is, obviously, some kind of mask or guise in which the Witch dressed herself, as to be recognized by or invoke the Otherworldly powers. At the time when day and night are equal, the boundary is thought to be the thinnest. It isn't the Day, but not yet the Night, meaning it is the in-between time, the Otherworldly time.
Middle-Earth or Midgart, this world, is symbolized by the village while the Otherworldly is the outer world, the wild and dangerous forests. When you ride the hedge, one of your legs is hanging on the left while the other is on the right. You're in both worlds, you're on the boundary, being part of both worlds at once. Now things are starting to get clearer; the Hedgeriders weren't just people who enjoyed sitting on hedges all day, but who were able to travel between the worlds. They could be in Middle-Earth and the next moment in the chthonic spirit-realm. That is the true meaning of Hedge-Witchery, Witchery of the Otherworld.
Hedgeriders didn't think of the UnderWorld as a realm of punishment, but more as a place full of secrets to be uncovered and where wisdom was to be found. The Hedgeriders were the heirs of a long-forgotten cult of priest(ess)s and travellers to the Underworld. With the passing of time, the ruthless persecution and the high deathrate in Medieval and Renaissance life, this cult was wiped out.
Hedge Witchery, as much as every other true form of Paganism, offers a form of spirituality that breaks the boundaries placed upon us by modern materialistic and scientific thinking. This thinking pattern completely rules out he spirituality, the divine and our personal soul. Hedge Witchery offers a way of believing and living which makes us part of the earth, which acknowledges our emotions and dedicates importance to them. Just like the other Pagan religions, it has never been at war with science and can therefore remain far from the superstitious beliefs held by older religions, but also has the ability to stress the importance of science as a tool for a better world.
Hedge Witchery leads to a deeper understanding of culture itself and thus identity, culture is better understood when the boundary between culture and wilderness is crossed. This is exactly what the Hedgeriders do. They cross the hedge, which is, among other things, the boundary between the Wild and the Civilised. A better perspective upon culture is gained through the temporary abandonment of culture, the journey to the Underworld. Practical result? The better appreciation and ethics of life.
by Eric de Vries
Popular Misconceptions about Traditional Witchcraft
Traditional witchcraft is neither a coven craft, nor a temple craft in the “old country”. As a nature-based tradition its societies are tribal, hence the use of the term “Clan” or “Kindred”. However, in that sense the term “witchcraft” applies to the art of creative genius, just as much as psychic ability, in what one crafts. In essence, to transform an idea into physical reality with the utmost cunning and skill was considered a magical art, albeit farming, sword making, music, verse, healing, cleansing or even preparing food. A clan worked together, each of their own skill to the benefit of the whole. It was about improving the quality of an otherwise wretched struggle for survival. Thus, truly understanding the nature of traditional witchcraft begins with learning bush craft. It also helps us realize that our ancestors did not always have the convenience of books to guide them through this process, rather, passed on their experience or “kenning” through oral traditions of cleverly worded riddles or allegorical verse; that only one who had grown up in that environment could understand. This is why traditional witchcraft cannot be simply taught, rather must be experienced to even begin to understand this. It is not simply a practice, but a way of life.
Just the same, there is no initiation other than the “coming of age” traditions practiced by most tribal societies to this day. It is where youth is put to the test of its ability to survive on its own, in order to truly understand the needs of responsible adulthood. Under these conditions it was also where any exceptional skills amongst them usually became evident and were singled out by the adept for special apprenticeship. A typical example of this in oral tradition is the story of Wieland the Smith.
Does it Matter What Our Ancestors Would Do?
Hrafnkell Haraldsson is the author of A Heathen’s Day, which since 2005 has addressed the life and thoughts of a modern day Heathen. He is also the founder of the Mos Maiorum Foundation (www.mosmaiorum.org) which is dedicated to the study and support of Paganism as ethnic religion and writes for PoliticusUSA.There is a difference between exhaustively researching the past to find out how our ancestors lived and what they believed, and exhaustively researching the past so that we can live how they lived and believe what they believed. This is a critical difference and for one reason: the past is gone. We are solidly in the present.
Yet the attitude of WWOAD (what would our ancestors do?) is also solidly with us in the 21st century: What Would the Founding Fathers Do? has become as important as What Would Jesus Do? (and conservatives often assure us on the basis of American Exceptionalism that the questions are identical). Recently, it’s even been asked what Thomas Jefferson would do to fix the problems being experienced by the university he founded. I have covered these exhaustively as they pertain to the First Amendment, over at PoliticusUSA. We all want approval from the past for our present; for our own views to be legitimized by a time that in many ways is no longer relevant.
The world of Jesus (first century Galilee) is long gone, as is the world of our Founding Fathers (the 18th century Eastern American Seaboard). So too, significantly, is the Heathen world (pre-Christian Northern Europe). An industry has sprung up around answering all these questions, generally tending to cherry-pick and selectively quote (often times out of context) things said by long-dead people. Dismayingly, modern day Pagans have done it too in search of a historical Paganism most congenial to their preconceptions.
That is how we ended up with an Old Religion that is anything but. We have ended up with monstrosities: Paganisms which, rather than reflecting historical Paganism reflect Christian ideas about what Paganism was, and Paganisms where the sublime (sacrifice) is replaced by the wretched (magic). We have ended up with reconstructed ancient religion more influenced by the nineteenth century romanticism than by first-century realities.
But the spatial and temporal should never be dismissed from our thinking. Cultures are very time and space specific. So are religions. Religions reflect culture and geography. And because time flows and is not static, religions also flow. They change over time, just as do cultures. If they did not change, we would not have conservatism, which is all about maintaining the status quo even as it dissipates into the mists of the past. If things never changed, people would need to worry about them changing.
One of my problems with religious reconstructionism is that if you are reconstructing an ancient religion you have to decide on what exact period you are talking about, because the same religion is going to be different in 500BCE and a thousand years later in 500CE and at most every point in between. Factor in syncretism; no religion and no culture escape outside influences.
The thing is, in real life – that is, history – religions and cultures evolved. Sure, there was a specific point in 500BCE where say, Heathenry, was one thing. The people alive at that time probably did not even know anything about what it might have been in 1000BCE. What they lived seemed, in all likelihood, timeless to them – they ways of their ancestors; what the religiously conservative Romans called mos maiorum.
Things were just the way things were and had always been. But time rolled on. Five hundred years down the road, that Heathenry was just a memory, and it was something different again from place to place. There was never a monolithic Heathenism, something that was the same all over and at all times. Along the way, Heathenism and all those other Paganisms were destroyed. By the time another five hundred years had passed, Heathen religion(s) was on its way out, being persecuted out of existence by the followers of the White Christ. Little was handed down to us and none of it by Heathens. I have examined that problem here many times. And now we dig into the past, trying to discover what we can, sometimes in exhaustive detail. Some, when they find what they are looking for, say, that is Heathenism.
But it is the Heathenism of a specific time, sometimes of several specific times and several different places. It is a far from complete picture of any one of those places, let alone of the whole patchwork that was ancient Heathendom. Added to our problem is the passage of time and the change of place.
This isn’t Norway, or Iceland, or Sweden, or Germany. This is the United States. Some of us live in areas that look a bit like the old country. Some of us live in deserts or near tropical beaches and some of us live on a great flat plain. Others live among towering steel and glass towers never imagined by previous generations. And we do it in an entirely different culture, speaking an entirely different language than Old Norse or Old Saxon. Concepts are different. Languages are expressions of a culture and most of us don’t speak the language even while we argue its minutiae.
I am not arguing against the effort: I am arguing against the purpose. I guess you can call me a progressive Heathen. If there are progressive Christians and conservative Christians, then there must be progressive and conservative Heathens, because the question is the same: should a religion be backward looking or forward looking, or live in the present? Should a religion express and embody the outlook of modern society or embrace a thinking that is sometimes wholly out of place in the modern world?
To be more pointed: should Jews still be stoning people? Should Heathens still offer up human sacrifices in trees to the High One? They are both deeds our ancestors embraced; they are both devoted expressions of religion. But we don’t do that anymore, do we? Nobody, so far as I know, even suggests that we should do those things. And if blood sacrifice, important in both Judaism and Heathenry as the highest expression of devotion to God or the gods, is so critical, what of today’s vegetarians and Vegans?
Are we saying that if you don’t eat meat, if you abhor the slaughter of animals, that you cannot worship our gods and that if you do, you are not really a Heathen?
I’ll use another example: what about attitudes toward homosexuality?
First off, this is problematic because the term itself is representative of 19th century pathology, and not ancient thinking. Secondly, our Heathen religion had nothing to say about it: ancient attitudes toward same-sex relationships were not religious but cultural.
Significantly, we are of a different culture. Now I went to some lengths here to illustrate ancient Heathen attitudes toward same-sex relationships, trying to show that stigma did not attach to the penetrator regardless the sex of the penetrated, and that disapproval was directed only at men who allowed themselves to be penetrated because this was a woman’s role as the submissive gender.
Gender was more fluid in the ancient Heathen mind. A woman could render herself a man through her behavior and a man render himself a woman through his. A woman who acted like a man could be admired but no man who acted the part of a woman could be. The modern mind does not differentiate between the aggressive and submissive partner in same-sex relationships – both partners are ether gay or lesbian.
I did not argue that we should adopt those ancient Heathen attitudes: I made the comparison solely to point out that modern Heathens (and other Pagans) who claim being homophobic is part of their religious identity are full of shit. It is not. First of all, it is culture, and secondly, it is apples and oranges. My answer is this: we should not view same-sex relationships as our ancestors did. We should view them as modern science tells us to view them; that same-sex attraction is natural, exhibited in thousands of animal species besides humans.
We should be tolerant of what is natural simply because it makes no sense to be intolerant of nature. We should think in terms not of clear-cut gender lines and roles but of fluidity, because science teaches us that sexual fluidity is a fact. There is nothing wrong with tradition. Tradition is important. But falling too in love with tradition can be a bad thing. The Romans, for example, were so wedded to the idea that what is old is good that they tended to disregard new, updated and far more accurate knowledge in favor of information 500 or a thousand years out of date. The old was more congenial; it was also much less helpful. And that makes no sense.
We must be cognizant of the world we live in. Our beliefs if they are to live, must reflect these spatial and temporal realities. A religion centered on the Heathenism of 500CE is an unnatural construct, a static image of a thing that was both alive and vibrant – and ever changing. Just as a photograph of a Dakota village in 1870 does not represent centuries of Dakota life, so a “snapshot” of Heathenism in 500CE cannot represent centuries of Heathenry.
And we must keep this warning in mind: that modern Heathens living in 500CE are just as much Heathens living in 1000CE or those living somewhere in between. Heathens who look backward are Heathens just as those Heathens who look forward, reconstructionists, revivalists, and every other “ist” we might imagine. What makes us Heathens is the troth we have pledged to our gods.
We should leave it to monotheists to argue over who is a “real” Christian or Jew or Muslim. But they are prisoners of revealed religion, of a book. God, in the Bible, left commands. Odin, in the Hávamál, left advice. And that is another lesson for us: they are also prisoners and of an arcane and convoluted doctrine that is tied to that book and to a specific time. They are the ultimate prisoners of tradition; anchored to it by the supposed command of God not to deviate from what was the perceived wisdom of a time long past and a view of the world and of nature long proven to be false. If there is not a lesson there for modern Heathens,I do not know where one is to be found: that the past and what our ancestors did should inform our present; it should not dictate it.
- See more at: http://aheathensday.com/2012/11/does-it-matter-what-our-ancestors-would-do.html#sthash.UcPOvuC6.dpuf
Understanding the Nature of Energy and Magic Spells
It may be beneficial for you to understand a few things about the nature of energy and how it relates to spells.
Energy remains constant in that it can change or alter but will never increase or diminish in strength. Energy is the building block of the universe, in fact, it is the universe and everything in it. Energy is universal.
All magical spell work is governed by intent, the spoken purpose of a spell, and a spell powered by energy, the mental and allied energies inserted into a spell during its casting, meaning mental energy, plus help from the spirits.
By its nature, energy, including the energy of a spell, can be affected or influenced by other energies it may encounter along its way to its destination. As the energy of a spell can be altered or changed, occasionally it will arrive somewhat differently than originally intended. Of course, this is not always the case. Nevertheless, some Crafters, or witches, use preamble and postscript prescriptions to enwrap a spell to help prevent alternation. However, the tendency for energy to change is always there. Such devices are taught to seekers as they are learning the basics of spell working.
Energy is also subject to the Law of Cause and Effect, which says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, the energy of a spell will eventually return to the sender, in some form. This may not be the form expected. So, whatever the outcome of the spell that you intended, there is the additional effect of the returned energy that comes back to the sender. Spellcasting is always done with this in mind. This is another benefit or problem of casting spells. For positive spells, that is usually not a problem. For negative spells, well this is the cost.
Traditional Witches, or Crafters, will at times practice defensive magic. This is because it is considered ethical and responsible to use curses and hexes for protection against a those who wish to inflict intentional harm.
Some with less experience in witchcraft and those not from traditional families (usually Wiccans) are fond of saying that spells must "do no harm."
Spell craft has always been used as a defense from the intentional harm of others. In fact, not to respond to an external threat to oneself, family or friends by the use of defensive magical techniques is clearly being negligent of one's fundamental responsibilities to oneself and those we love and protect.
Magic spells are not innately good nor bad. They exist as a tool, just like all the other tools we own. They are used as is necessary for our good and protection. Learning to use spells correctly is a skill that can be learned, just as we can learn to use any tool correctly.
http://www.blue-moon-manor.com/index.html#axzz7Kss5cfyB
Historical use of the term “Witch”
Posted by Quasizoid
I often hear new age authors say that it comes from the Anglo-Saxon “wicca” and “wicce” for wise man or woman, but this is appearing to be entirely of modern romantic license. Anglo-Saxon arose as a mix of Frisian dialects between Norse and West Germanic. However, there is the old English word "wytch" from "wice" meaning crooked in the literal sense. Hence "wytchwood" and "wytchhazel". It is also used in reference to the "crooked path" of English "hedge-riding" tradition. As for “Cunning-folk”, that came directly from the German “Kenning” (to know or recognize) and not necessarily to describe seers; rather, expert know-how; albeit farmer, healer or weather forecaster etc.
Followers of the OTO will tell you that the idea of the witch originated with the Babylonian legend of Lilith. However, that story was quite unknown to early Christians in Europe before the Crusades. It had already been excluded from Holy Roman teachings by the Nicene Council back in 325AD. The idea was to present “God” as the one and only supreme being of divine intervention, and not like his forerunner who had to come to terms with the fire Djinn by allowing his daughter to seduce Adam to conceive the lord of the wilderness Cain. While the Greco-Roman academia envisioned ancient Babylon as the root of all civilization; in order to present their own as something higher involved the censorship of what they considered to be barbarism. Also, being a patriarchal society excluded the role of women as anything more than a domestic compliment. The fact is that men in the Roman republic could legally kill a wife or daughter who dared to question their authority. Hence the Christian story of Genesis begins with mythical Eden and Eve being fashioned out of Adam's rib to be his faithful companion. The Djinn is portrayed as a serpent to beguile Eve into eating from the “forbidden fruit”; role modeling the feminine into the ideally passive-submissive. Cain and Abel are born of Eve after she and Adam flee from Eden. Cain's murder of his brother is made to seem synonymous with the sibling rivalry between Remus and Romulus.
Through much of the European Middle Ages, to even suggest that sorcery existed was considered heresy, as the real evil was believed to exist in superstition itself. While visionary experiences were accepted as divine revelations; omen seeking, divination and trying to contact the dead were regarded as demon mongering. That doesn't say that rich nobles didn't consult a medium, or that false prophets didn't maraud pilgrimages for tokens of charity, whereas the peasantry was just as apt carry on with their old folk traditions by naming it after a saint.
Whenever the papal coffers weren't full enough because feudal kings had their own concerns, there was always the crusades, for the spoils of war and expansion of the Holy Roman Empire. That also didn't spare these nobles from losing everything at home in their absence, nor were they really rewarded for their efforts. Such was the story of Robin Hood. Those that did make it to the Holy Land and learned the truth about the Babylonian legends, evolved quite different ideas about Christianity. Some brought back the teachings of Zoroaster, while the Templars and other mercenaries became their own secret societies of middle eastern mystery to preserve that knowledge from papal censorship. Indeed, papal authorities were quick to call this heresy, hoping to confiscate further spoils upon burning the heretics. Such was the fate of the Waldenses and Albigenses. but let's not confuse heresy with witchcraft. Heresy meant defying accepted Christian dogma.
The real witch hysteria didn't actually start until plague pandemics visibly decimated large communities over the14th to 17th Centuries. This inclined many to believe biblical judgment day was nigh. If the pious weren't flagellating themselves, they were usually doing it to somebody else. Of course, wherever jurisprudence fails, fanaticism and zealotry see the opportunity to justify themselves. Self-proclaimed inquisitors and exorcists were abound, selling the belief that purging humanity of the “Seven Deadly Sins” was their only hope of salvation. Manuscripts such as the “Witches Sabbat”, Formicarius and the Malleus Maleficarum, completely distorted the image of old folk traditions beyond the grotesque. Yet, despite what authorities argued about their veracity, it still meant death for adulterers, hoarders and hedonists- often on mere suspicion. Women were particular targets, especially if they were unmarried or midwives. Being raped or having children outside of wedlock, was usually seen as self-inflicted. In that effect the label “witch” and its German equivalent “Hexe”seems to imply promiscuity, as it was all too commonly believed to have “special” powers over men. As for the “Sabbats”, they belong to the Jewish faith, and it was always subject to persecution for denying Christ.
Such confusion and ignorance is what Nostradamus had to face as an aspiring apothecary and medical practitioner in 16th century France. Even assisting such Renaissance men as Jules-Cesar Scaliger and Louis Sarre in seriously combating the plague, the biggest problem was getting people to understand the need for domestic hygiene. When he finally turned to astrology and alchemy to make a better living in Italy, it was quite fashionable among the elite of the Renaissance era, although Vatican authorities did not necessarily approve of it. Rather, they had much bigger problems abroad with the escalating demands for religious reformation; and that while the Turks were encroaching trade routes through the Bosporus. While Luther's reforms were acceptable to the Council of Trent, other factions were quite contentiously divided between esoteric and puritanical perspectives. In essence, the whole thing was erupting into a huge, complicated mess of conflicts all over Europe; not only with their Catholic oppressors, but each other as well. At this point, it's hard to say whether those accused of witchcraft actually were into the occult, or this was just another convenient excuse to eliminate the competition. Perhaps a simpler example of the madness can be seen in the Salem Witch Trials of 17th century New England- namely fanatical obsession to the point of the paranoid delusional. And there again, what was perceived as witchcraft had more to do with promiscuous behavior. Some historians suggest the hysteria may have even been brought on by ergot infested rye, which is highly probable given the living conditions. Nowadays neophytes often refer to the witch-hunts as “the burning times” when actually hanging was more the common practice, because “trial by fire "was usually a fate reserved for heretics and martyrs.
Eventually civil law became more humane. Fortune tellers and mystics were more likely scrutinized for whether they were conning people or abusing their trust. Mind you, that wasn't the only thing one had to worry about as things progressed into the modern age. The fact is, all kinds of quacks are still about, selling miracle concoctions, health and beauty potions and all kinds of bogus therapies. We hear of people suffocating in new age sweat lodges, vegging out from too much chakra meditation or looking like “Chucky” after cosmetic surgery. It seems the madness these days comes in the form of narcissism to make up for what we'll never be anyway; namely- Perfect. As for the occult, what calls itself a craft these days, has grown into a virtual supermarket of plastic ethnoculture, say nothing of the archetypes borrowed from the worst possible literary sources in history. So, if you want to talk to me about cunning craft, save the besom-riding cauldron-stirring concoctions of taxidermy. Eye of newt and toe of frog were actually Shakespeare's mockery of how the peasantry named their herbs.
cheers, Q.
Witchcraft, Women & the Healing Arts in the Early Modern Period: Wise-Women & Cunning Folk Healers
Illustration of women delivering their concoctions, from Compendium Maleficarum (1609, Reprint 1929).
During the early modern period, university-trained physicians were fewer, further between, and more expensive than the various types of unlicensed healers of the community. Therefore, many people resorted to local wise women, also known as cunning folk (including both men and women), herbal folk healers whose knowledge was passed down through generations or learned through exploration of the nearby field and forests. Many of these such healers were illiterate, and so they came up with rhymes and songs to remember their concoctions, which may have inspired the witches’ spells found in literature and myth, such as the one chanted by Shakespeare's Weird Sisters.
If anything went wrong with their treatments, and sometimes even when things went well, these healers ran the risk of being accused of witchcraft. In 1613, a wise-woman named Barbe Barbier of Saint-Nicolas in Lorraine, France, agreed to supply a remedy to a neighbor with reluctance after women of the same occupation had gone on trial for witchcraft. According to the record, “She feared to do it because as soon as old people teach some treatment for the sick they are said to be witches” (Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbours, p. 242).
Women were more common in the roles of the cunning folk. As they got older, their former responsibilities of caring for the health of a family often extended to the community. Some historians have proposed that the witch-hunts represented a concerted effort to drive women out of health care, and certainly this period shows a significant shift towards licensures and educated male practitioners. However, others have argued this “campaign” had less to do with gender than professionalization of the medical field (Briggs, p. 241).
This illustration of digitalis comes from the Reynolds-Finley Library’s copy of Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in Naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit Kurz Erläuterndem Texte (vol. II, 1890).
Female Midwives: The Most Witchy Demographic
Herbal remedies for childbirth, from George Wateson’s Rich Storehouse... (1631).
Healers of all sorts found themselves vulnerable to accusation during the witch hunts. As historian Mary Kilbourne Matossian explains, “The role of the healer was a perilous one, for people were afraid of his or her seemingly magic power over the living body. They might think that someone who could cure disease by magic could also cause it by magic. Restoring health was ‘white’ magic, taking it away was ‘black’ magic” (Matossian, Poisons of the Past, p. 79).
At the same time, a new sociological group, the single woman, was on the rise, increasing from 5 to between 15-20 percent during the sixteenth century, with widows forming 10-20 percent of taxpayers (Blumenfeld-Kosinski, not of a Woman Born, p. 107). These newly independent spinsters and widows threatened the paternalistic society, and it is no coincidence that women constituted 85 percent of those executed during the witch-hunts (ibid, p. 105). The popular belief was that witches remained unmarried because they had been seduced by the devil.
In this setting, female midwives trained to assist in childbirth became a particularly vulnerable group, with their knowledge of procreation, fertility, successful delivery, and most dangerously, contraception and abortion. Consulted on the most intimate aspects of life, midwives knew about a patient’s adultery, sexual problems, and had the earliest possible access to their infants. Therefore, it is no wonder that they were perceived as having the ability to cause a great deal of harm, and numerous historians have drawn attention to the many horrendous acts ascribed to midwives during the witch craze.
Witches were often accused of killing babies or stealing them from their mothers and handing them over to the devil. Midwives were often accused of the same offense. These stolen babes were replaced with “changelings” which may have been children with birth defects. Robert Burton (1577-1640), author of the famous treatise on mental diseases, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1628), expresses these typical claims against witch-midwives within a section titled “Of Witches and Magitians, how they cause Melancholy,” stating that:
“[Witches] hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corne, cattle, plants, make women abortive, not to conceave, barren, men and women unapt and unable, married and unmarried, 50 severall waies, saith Bodine: flye in the ayre, meet when and where they will… steale young children out of their cradles, minsterio daemonum [in service of demons], & put deformed in their rooms, which wee call changelings…” (p. 51).
These concerns expressed so aptly by Burton continued throughout the period. An 18th century oath for midwives in England, reprinted within J. H. Aveling’s English Midwives (1967), indicates “You shall not in any wise use or exercise any manner of witchcraft, charm or sorcery…” The fact that these statements kept showing up in midwifery oaths late in the early modern period provides evidence of this persistent suspicion against midwives (Forbes, "Midwifery and Witchcraft," p. 281).
Wise-Women & Cunning Folk: Doctors of the People
During the early modern period, university-trained physicians were fewer, further between, and more expensive than the various types of unlicensed healers of the community. Therefore, many people resorted to local wise-women, also known as cunning folk (including both men and women), herbal folk healers whose knowledge was passed down through generations or learned through exploration of the nearby field and forests. Many of these such healers were illiterate, and so they came up with rhymes and songs to remember their concoctions, which may have inspired the witches’ spells found in literature and myth, such as the one chanted by Shakespeare's Weird Sisters.
If anything went wrong with their treatments, and sometimes even when things went well, these healers ran the risk of being accused of witchcraft. In 1613, a wise-woman named Barbe Barbier of Saint-Nicolas in Lorraine, France, agreed to supply a remedy to a neighbor with reluctance after women of the same occupation had gone on trial for witchcraft. According to the record, “She feared to do it because as soon as old people teach some treatment for the sick they are said to be witches” (Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbours, p. 242).
Women were more common in the roles of the cunning folk. As they got older, their former responsibilities of caring for the health of a family often extended to the community. Some historians have proposed that the witch-hunts represented a concerted effort to drive women out of health care, and certainly this period shows a significant shift towards licensures and educated male practitioners. However, others have argued this “campaign” had less to do with gender than professionalization of the medical field (Briggs, p. 241).
https://guides.library.uab.edu/c.php?g=1048546&p=7609198
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