The Witch's Bottle

A Bellarmine, also known as a Witch's Bottle, was prevalent in 17^th century England but was used right up to relatively modern times. The use of the Bellarmine can be traced back to the 16^th century when it was likely to contain rusty nails, urine, thorns, hair, menstrual blood and pieces of glass, wood and bone. More modern examples contain items such as rosemary, wine, pins and needles. A Bellarmine was a charm used to break a spell or curse cast upon a person by a witch, or as a sort of spirit trap. The Bellarmine was also believed to be a charm against bad luck in general. 

A 17th century witch's bottle containing hair, fingernails and pins (Original)

 

It is believed by some to have been named after the Catholic inquisitor, Cardinal Bellarmine, who persecuted Protestants and was known as a demon to his victims. This theory has, however, been disproved by M. R. Holmes, who has pointed out that some of these bottles actually pre-date the Cardinal. According to the Museum of Witchcraft, the original name of a Bellarmine was actually Bartmann, which translates to 'Man with a Beard' in German and they were apparently made in Frechen near Cologne in Germany. Wooden Witch Boxes were also a way to trap a witch.

Bellarmines were especially popular in East Anglia, where the belief in witches was strong and were often made of green or blue glass, although those imported from Germany into Britain were more often made from brown or grey salt-glazed stoneware. They ranged in size, from around 3 inches to 9 inches in height. Those larger Bellarmines were also known as Greybeards due to the bearded faces that were etched into them. These bearded faces were believed to scare off evil.

16th/17th century witch's bottle and contents (Original)

Although the Bellarmine was used to break a curse cast by a witch, they were often prepared by a witch or cunning man or woman. To prepare a Bellarmine the victim's hair, urine and nails were placed inside along with thread, pins, material from the victim's clothing, and other items. Urine was a way of making the Bellarmine 'contain' the victim. Sticking pins into a heart soaked in the victim's urine was believed to fool the witch into believing the victim's heart was inside the bottle. Once detected, the witch was believed to enter the bottle to retrieve the victim's heart, only to become impaled on the pins, trapping them inside.

There were several ways to dispose of a Bellarmine. One way was to bury it beneath a house's hearth or threshold. When this method of disposal was used the spell was believed to have been nullified and the witch apparently suffered great discomfort. This counter-spell was believed to be active as long as the Bellarmine remained intact.

However, the most popular method of disposal was to place the Bellarmine on a fire. When the bottle exploded, the spell supposedly rebounded on the witch that cast it, killing them. In Joseph Blagrave's book, Astrological Practise of Physick (1671), he described the use of pins and urine in the charm as a way to 'stop the urine' of the witch, again causing great discomfort. An example of this can be found in the book, Saducimus Triumphatus (Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions – 1681) by Joseph Glanvill who describes the making of a Witch's Bottle and its subsequent use. Apparently the wife of William Brearley, a priest and fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge, fell ill when they stayed in Suffolk and was supposedly haunted by an apparition shaped like a bird. A Bellarmine was prepared for her containing her urine, pins, needles and nails. The bottle was then corked and placed on the fire. The spell was apparently removed and the wizard said to have cast the spell allegedly died.

Bellarmines were also used to prevent witches or their familiars from entering the house by hanging them in the chimney, near doors and windows or plastered into walls above doors. They were also used in commercial buildings, on rail lines, bridges and other structures to ward against evil and to prevent disaster.

James Murrell, one of England's best known cunning men, was famous for his Bellarmines, some of which were made of iron. According to some stories, the local blacksmith encountered difficulties whilst forging the first iron Bellarmine for Murrell. In order to draw the fire, Murrell apparently had to say a prayer. Another local story tells us that a boy was made to drink from this first bottle in ignorance of its true purpose. When he discovered that it was, in fact, a witch's bottle, he went home filled with dread and later died. 

 

Murrell was known to instruct his clients to place their Bellarmine onto the fire, prompting the blacksmith to make a tiny hole in the top of the iron bottles. This enabled the steam to escape, preventing lethal explosions. The steam exiting the Bellarmine caused Murrell to tell his clients that this steam was actually the spirit of the witch escaping.

One story of the supposed victim of a curse involved a young woman who upset an old gypsy. The gypsy placed a curse on her and, when the woman acquired a Bellarmine and placed it on the fire, footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by furious knocking. A woman's voice was heard, pleading 'Stop, you're killing me!' When the bottle exploded, the voice faded and the girl recovered. The gypsy's badly burned body was allegedly discovered three miles from the house of the victim.

Modern witch's bottles by Kitchen Witch

Why not make your own witch's bottle?  Here's how:

 You'll need:

• A small glass jar or bottle with a lid
• Sharp, rusty nails and pins
• Sea Salt
• Red ribbon
• A black candle  

First of all, fill your bottle or jar with the nails and pins.  According to folklore, this is meant to avert bad luck and hardship.
Next, add the sea salt, which is believed to purify.
Finally, add your red ribbon, which is supposed to bring you protection.
Once your bottle or jar is half full, you can either fill the remainer with your own urine, which determines that it belongs to you, or you can use wine.  If you decide to use wine, you can spit in it first, which, as with the urine, identifies that it is yours.
Once this is done, put the lid on, making sure it is properly screwed on, then use your black candle to seal it.  Black is believed to banish negativity, however, if you cannot find a black candle, you can use white, for protection.

Next you need to hide your bottle or jar and there are two choices for where to hide it.You could hide it somewhere in your house, be it behind a cupboard, up a chimney, beneath a doorstep.  It is believed that any malicious magic directed at your home will then go straight into the witch's bottle, rather than to you or others in your house.

And that's it.  Easy.  Your own witch's bottle.

 

Pre-Classical, Classical and Biblical Origins of Witchcraft

Enuma Elish

Aspu, the First Begetter, and Tiamat, the First Mother, made a generation of dragons from Chaos.  Some time later, another generation rose, one of which was Ea, the god of wisdom.  Ea soon killed Aspu, and Tiamat, wishing to avenge his death, with the help of one of her sons, Kingu, made another race - scorpion-tailed monsters.  Tiamat, with eleven of these monsters, went to do battle with Ea's son, Marduk.  However, Marduk was armed with seven winds, a storm chariot, and a strong coat of mail.  He wore upon his lips a red paste and, on his wrist, a herb protecting him from poison, and his head was crowned with flames.

When the two met, Marduk captured Tiamat in a net, sending the wind into her belly which tore her open.  Then Marduk shot her full of arrows and beat her about the head until she was dead.  Following this, he bound Tiamat's body and stood on it, before shackling the eleven monsters which he imprisoned beneath the ground.  These monsters became the gods of the underworld.

The battle between Tiamat and Marduk (Original)

Marduk then split Tiamat's corpse in two, using one half to hold back the waters from above, and using the other half as a foundation for the earth and the sea.  He made the sun, moon, constellations and planets, going on to kill Kingu, whose blood he used to create the human race.

The Sumerian-Babylonian hero Gilgamesh  was one of the first of the humans to encounter the underworld gods.  He sought a magical herb which would make him immortal, only to find his way blocked by two fearsome monsters, one male, one female.  These monsters, which were part human, part dragon and bore scorpion-like tails, recognized that Gilgamesh was part divine and allowed him to pass.  Gilgamesh soon found himself in a heavenly garden, where he met a woman who was making wine.  However, he didn't find the herb of immortality.

So, Gilgamesh spoke with Utnapishtim, the Sumerian Noah, who himself had already attained immortality.  At last, he learned that the herb could be found beneath the sea and went to retrieve it.  Now that he had the herb in his possession, Gilgamesh believed that he no longer needed to fear death.  Unfortunately, a serpent stole the herb and Gilgamesh was forced to accept the inevitability of death. 

 Gilgamesh, 8th century (Original)

Enuma Elish is one of the earliest creation myths, dating from around 2000 BC and being Babylonia-Assyrian in origin.  Many of the themes found in this myth - scorpion-tailed dragon monsters, the underworld, a heavenly garden, magical plants, and women bringing mischief into the world - are seen consistently through 4000 years of occult belief.  For example, Aztec mythology echoes Sumerian themes when describing a heavenly garden which is guarded by a serpent, and the Norse beliefs tell of a great snake which coils around the world tree, Ygdrasil.  The role of the serpent in Eden is another well known similarity to these ancient beliefs, as well as the weakness of Eve, who brought suffering to the world.

Less well known is the Jewish teaching where Eve is created from Adam's barbed tail, rather than Adam's rib, showing us how the demonic element of Adam is converted into the female form.  This is probably the first evidence of misogyny, which presents itself in late medieval portrayals of the serpent in Eden, which was given the face of a woman.

Adam and Eve (Original)

While Eve brought suffering, she was considered an improvement on the Jewish Lilith, Adam's first wife.  Lilith was the original loose woman.  First she objected to her supine role in intercourse, asking Adam, ''Why must I lie beneath you?''  Adam tried to force her, so she left him to live beside the Red Sea with the more compatible wanton demons.  Before leaving Adam, Lilith bore Asmodeus and other demons, with some saying that she went on to be the queen of Zmargad and Sheba.  Apparently King Solomon believed that the Queen of Sheba was a night-demon as she had hairy legs.  Lilith can also be found as the Babylonian-Assyrian wind-demoness Lilitu, and in Sumerian writings as Lillake.  She was believed to strangle children and was also a succubus which preyed on sleeping men.

Famous relief from the Old Babylonian period, believed to be Lilitu or Lilith (Original)

In Isaiah 24:11-15 Lilith, who is referred to as ''screech-owl'' in the King James Bible, was believed to suck the blood of children, and was related to striga, a word meaning witch.  She was simply a ''night-demon'' in the Hebrew Bible, and lived in the ruined desert of Edom.  Lilith was believed to keep company with pelicans, hedgehogs, owls, ravens, jackals, ostriches, kites, wildcats, hyenas, vipers, and satyrs, many of which were attributed to ''Devil worshippers'' in later times.  Lilith can also be found in the book of Job 18:13-15, where she is seen as domestic, but she also kept company with what sounds like the Devil.
He [the wicked man] is torn from the shelter of his tent, and dragged before the King of Terrors.
Then Lilith makes her home under his roof, while people scatter brimstone on his holding.

Satan identifying with the serpent of Eden and with Lucifer was not established until the end of the first century AD, with the Book of Revelations telling us:
The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.
From this point on, the scaly-tailed, claw footed, bat or dragon-winged representation of Satan becomes an important point of Christianity and develops as a fundamental  preoccupation of those hunting witches. 

Yahweh made sorcery and divination something which should by punishable by death, with Exodus 22:18 telling us, ''You shall not allow a sorceress to live.''  The Greek Septuagint translates ''sorceress'' to ''pharmakos,'' meaning ''poisoner.''  Leviticus 20:27 tells us, ''Any man or woman who is a necromancer or magician must be put to death by stoning; their blood shall be on their own heads.''  And Deuteronomy 18:10-11 tells us, ''There must never be anyone among you... who practices divination, who is a soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, who uses charms, consults ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead.''

However, the Egyptian Exodus could not have been achieved if not for numerous acts of authorised magic.  The most famous of these acts involved a contest with Egyptian magicians, and can be found in Exodus 7:9-13:
Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ''If Pharaoh says to you, 'Produce some marvel,' you must say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and let it turn into a serpent.'
To Pharaoh then Moses and Aaron duly went, and they did as Yahweh commanded.  Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh, and it turned into a serpent.
Then Pharaoh in his turn called for the sages and the sorcerers, and with their witchcraft the magicians of Egypt did the same.
Each threw his staff down and these turned into serpents.  But Aaron's staff swallowed up the staffs of the magicians.
Yet Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold, he would not listen to Moses and Aaron.
Moses and Aaron follow further instructions given by Yahweh, using the staffs to impose plague upon Egypt.  Pharaoh's magicians match this, turning the rivers into blood and creating a plague of frogs.  But they find themselves outdone when Moses and Aaron bring plagues of mosquitoes and gadflies, the death of livestock, an affliction of boils, locusts, darkness and the death of Egypt first-born children.  Moses later uses his staff to make water flow from a desert rock and during the Israelites battle with the Amalekites they would prevail as long as Moses held his staff aloft.

In critical situations it was extremely important that freelance diviners and magicians not be allowed to obstruct legitimate policies.  When King Saul were pushed by the Philistines, he enforced the ban on necromancy and expelled the sorcerers.  He then asked Yahweh for advice but, when Yahweh didn't answer, he was forced to find himself a witch, who raised the ghost of Samuel.  Samuell then correctly predicted Saul's approaching death. 

Apart from necromancy and wand-power, other magical practices were well known in the ancient middle east, including the interpretation of dreams, the casting of lots (urim and thummin), and forms of sympathetic magic involving magical models, the ''poppets'' that are traditionally part of the witch's armoury.

One of the most influential and successful magicians found in the ancient world was the pharaoh Nekhtanebt II, who was said to have protected his kingdom with witchcraft from 359 to 342 BC.  He did this in the following way.  News of an attack comes : an invading fleet is standing off the Nile delta.  The King is unconcerned, soon going to his secret room where he practices magic.  He pours water into a huge bowl.  On its surface floats small wax ships of his own and the enemy fleet.  He says the magical words to summon demons of the wind and other elements.  The waxen fleets begin to move, meeting one another on the surface of the wave roughened water.  Soon the enemy's wax fleet begin to founder and, as they do, their counterparts also founder and sink in the Mediterranean, and Egypt is once again saved.
However, a day comes when a Persian army gather against Egypt.  The pharaoh again goes to his secret room and tries the magical words, but finds that his power is insufficient.  He foresees his army's defeat, sees Egypt taken by Artaxerxes Ochus, the butcher.  Nekhtanebt has no further choices, so he puts on a disguise, packs up his gold and books of magic and runs away.  In time he crosses the Mediterranean, settling in Macedonia.  Here his reputation as a seer and a doctor spreads.  He has brought the Egyptian art of magic and divination to Greece.

God Horus Protecting King Nekhtanebt II (Original)

This story includes three elements which are seen throughout the subject's history- political crisis, the use of supernatural powers, and an exploitation of a mystical connection between things which are similar yet different - in this case , the wax models and the real ships they represent.

The basic political element of ancient witchcraft was divination, with state oracles being well established throughout the classical world.  Among the Mesopotamians, haruspication, or the study of the internal organs of sacrificed animals, seems to have been the most common method of prophecy.  However, abnormal births of both a human and animal nature, were also closely examined by entrail specialists known as baruas.  Dreams were also studied for their predictive power.  And so the earliest method of divination required either ritual sacrifice or the invocation of supernatural beings.

In China, amongst other places, similar techniques were used to predict future events.  They would do this by reading the lines on tortoise shells, the flight of birds, the cracks appearing in burned bones or the way in which a handful of sticks and stones fell.  We can see this technique used today when we have our tea-leaves or playing cards read.  In all methods of divination, either a connection with the cosmological or with some superior being is assumed.

All major oracles of Ancient Greece had enduring political or social weight behind them.  The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi is probably the most famous today, but there were others which were equally notable.  What is now Libya was once known as the temple of Ammon, in the territory known as Nubia.  This was one of the most famed.  The oak grove at Dodona was sacred to Zeus and was just as acclaimed.  Every oracle had their own priests and, while these were open to the public for a fee, they were also subsidised to some degree by the state.  Their methods of divination varied.  At Dodona, the most popular form was kleromancy, in which a question would be asked and a stripe of lead would be chosen, on which a yes or no answer would be written.  An Ammon, the movements of the god's statues would be interpreted by a priest for an answer.

At Delphi, where the god of light, Apollo, is said to have defeated a great serpent, oracular statements were given by the Pythia, a priestess.  In some accounts, the Pythia sat on a tripod above a crack in the ground, where she would inhale the volcanic fumes and the smoke from a burning mixture of barley, marijuana and chopped bay leaves.  She would speak in verse and her words would be interpreted by a priest.  During the fourth and fifth centuries BC, private citizens would pay a fee equal to two days' wages for the average Athenian for a consultation. The state could pay anywhere up to ten times as much.  An emergency consultation could be arranged for a premium amount.

Odysseus and Circe (Original)

Non-institutional advice on hidden things was available, although the psychic risk was believed to be higher, with the witch or necromancer's procedures being dangerous.  When the hero Odysseus needed prophetic advice, he was forced to go to the enchantress Circe who had turned several of his soldiers into pigs because the great seer Teriesias had died.  Circe tells him that, if he wished to find Teiresias he first had to visit Persephone's groves of willow and black poplar which skirted the House of Hades.  Odysseus followed Circe's advice, digging a pit one cubit square, before pouring a concoction of honey, milk, wine and water into it.  Next he sprinkled white barley meal on top before filling the pit with the blood of a ram and ewe which had been sacrificed to Hades and Persephone.

The oracles of Apollo and Zeus were relatively typical of established Greek religion.  However, another impulse, this one being personal, chaotic and elated, was expressed in the worship of Dionysus, the horned god of wine and fertility.  Dionysus was as important to Greek religion as Hecate, the patron of necromancers.  During this religious worship, rather than the careful removal of animal entrails, devotees tore living creatures, including humans, to pieces with their teeth and hands.

Dionysus (Original)

Dionysus was god of the earth, specifically of the vine.  His name means ''sprout (or shoot) of god, with his main festivals taking place at the end of a harvest.  Dionysus was half human, half divine, having a mortal mother, Semele, and a divine father, Zeus.  In all of the myths about Dionysus, we again find recurrent themes - this time of a god with strong connections to humans, who experiences violent outbursts and who goes through great suffering (he is dismembered and resurrected, like the crops whose fertility he oversees).  He is usually horned and is followed by horned familiars, with his main follows being wild women, worshipping the fields, woods and ravines instead of the temple.

In the Eleusinian mysteries, which were dedicated to Dionysus and Demeter, a mystifying religion was established which gave its followers faith and confidence in the afterlife.  As late as 80 BC, Plutarch the historian wrote soothing words to his wife when their daughter passed away:
About that which you have heard, dear heart, that the soul once departed from the body vanishes and feels nothing, I know that you give no belief to such assertions because of those sacred and faithful promises given in the mysteries of Bacchus (the Roman name for Dionysus) which we who are of that religious brotherhood know.  We hold it firmly for an undoubted truth that our soul is incorruptible and immortal.  We are to think that they pass into a better place and a happier condition.  Let us behave ourselves accordingly, outwardly ordering our lives, while within all shall be purer, wiser, incorruptible.

Dionysus, unlike many other ancient gods, was powerful and popular enough to survive until modern times, although only in rural and unfamiliar fragments, as a type of horned, anarchic god, much like Satan.

As you can see, many of the factors found in ancient myths have found their way into modern religion, although perhaps not in the form they were once known as.  The themes that we have seen here have been twisted and changed throughout history to fit in with newer religions, such as Christianity.

Next time: I will tell you about the Burning Times.

The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials

The girls of Salem had a taste for the occult, and Reverend Parris' Caribbean slave, Tituba, seemed happy to tell them stories of witchcraft and Barbados magic on the long winter evenings. But then the excitement got out of hand. Nine year old Elizabeth (Betty) Parris and her eleven year old cousin, Abigail Williams began to experience fits of sobbing and convulsions. And their behaviour worsened. Abigail would run around to the fireplace before throwing flaming sticks around the house. This strange behaviour soon seemed to spread to their companions: Ann Putnam (12), Mary Walcott (16), Elizabeth Hubbard (17), Susan Sheldon (18), Elizabeth Booth (18), Mercy Lewis (19) and Mary Warren (20). 

Map of Salem in 1692 (Original)

On 25^th February, Mary Sibley, the aunt of Mary Walcott, requested that Tituba and her husband, Indian John, bake a witches cake: a mixture of mean and the urine of the afflicted children, which was then fed to the Parris family dog (a supposed familiar of demons). Apparently this worked and the girls were able to name those responsible for their ''illness''. On 29^th February, warrants were issued for the arrest of Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba.

Tituba and the Children (Original)

In modern times, these symptoms would probably be diagnosed as clinical hysteria. However, the diagnosis of the time was entirely different and the girls were believed to be demonically possessed. By the end of the summer, nineteen had been hanged on Gallows, or Witch's Hill, and one man had been pressed to death.

Three years before the girls of Salem began exhibiting these symptoms, a leading New England minister had published an account of similar phenomena, titled Memorable Providences Relating To Witchcrafts And Possessions. Cotton Mather, the author, was the son of the famous preacher Increase Mather, had studied medicine and was a member of England's scientific association, the Royal Society. He had considerable ability in writing and his book, which was extremely popular, could be credited in part to the atmosphere in Salem during the witch trials which took place there.

Cotton Mather (Original)

Cotton Mather's account of the events which took place, which he described as notable humane, helps to explain why the girls' symptoms would be considered something supernatural, along with the girls' testimonies of their being supernaturally afflicted adding enormous weight to the following accusations. Mather's book described the case of a young woman named Martha who became similarly 'ill' when the family bed-linen went missing. A young laundry girl was suspected and Martha accused her of witchcraft. The laundry girl's mother defended her and ''bestowed very bad language'' on Martha. The effects of this were immediate, with Martha beginning to have ''strange fits, beyond those that attend an epilepsy or a catalepsy...'' Soon Martha's seven year old sister began to show similar symptoms, with doctors unable to diagnose an illness, instead believing the symptoms to be the effect of witchcraft. If one children experienced an attack, the others immediately experienced the same symptoms in the same parts of the body. Mather described the symptoms as follows:

Sometimes they would be deaf, sometimes dumb, and sometimes blind, and often, all at once. One while their tongues would be drawn down their throats; another- while they would be pull'd out upon their chins, to a prodigious llength. They would have their mouths opened unto such a wideness, that teir jaws went out of joint, and anon they would clap together again with a force like that of a strong springlock. The same would happen to their shoulder-blades, and their elbows, and hand-wrists, and several of their joints. They would at times ly in a bennumed condition; and be drawn together as those that are ty'd neck and heels; and presently he stretched out, yea, drawn backwards, to such a degree it was fear'd the very skin of their bellies would have cracked. They would make most pitteaous out-cries, that they were cut with knives, and struck with blows that they could not hear. Their neck-bone would seem dissolved into them that felt after it; and yet on the sudden, it would become again so stiff that there was no stirring of their heads; yea, their heads would be twisted almost round; and if main force at any time obstructed a dangerous motion which they seem'd to be upon, they would roar exceedingly. Thus they lay some weeks, most pitiful spectacles...''

On the mention of witchcraft, the magistrates arrested Mrs Glover, the laundry girl's mother, for examination. She failed their various tests: when asked if she believed in God, her reply was so blasphemous that Mather's wouldn't print her answer, and she failed to recite the Lord's prayer. Glover was jailed and the girl's symptoms improved. Glover's case was brought forward and she confessed to witchcraft. Her house was then searched, with ''several small images, or puppets, or babies, made of raggs, and stiff't with goat's hair and other such ingredients,'' brought to the court and Glover admitting that these items had been used to torment her victims by spitting on her finger and rubbing it on the chosen doll. An experiment ensued where the children were brought into court and one of the dolls was handed to Mrs Glover. While she held this doll, one of the children would fall into a fit. Glover was condemned to death but, on the way to the gallows, she said that the children would not regain their health as others were involved.

Her prediction was correct, with the children continuing ''in their furnace as before, and it grew rather seven times hotter than it was.'' They would bark at each other like dogs, or purr like cats, and would complain of intense heat or cold. At times their limbs appeared to be made of rubber, with the boy sometimes saying that his head was nailed to the floor, where ''it was as much as a strongman could do to pull it up.'' Their worst agony came when preachers were taken to them. When the preachers ''bestowed some gracious counsils on the boy'' he would go completely deaf. If they prayed or read the Bible ''this would occasion a very terrible vexation to them; thhey would then stop their own ears with their own hands; and roar, and shriek, and halla, to drown the voice of devotion.'' Mather took Martha into his own house but her symptoms persisted. She would complain that she was painfully chained by her invisible assailants, and was seen attempting to dive through the floorboards, telling Mather that ''They'' had told her there was silver ''plate'' at the bottom of the well. Martha did, however, seem to find some relief from her symptoms when in Mather's study, although getting her there was a real struggle.

Then a day came when Martha said that she would, on the following day, cease to be afflicted and that she could now tell Mather the names of those who had afflicted her. Mather, however, never published or reported their names. Martha recovered, but the brother remained seriously troubled.

Martha Goodwin and the girls of Salem were all seen as the victims of demonic assault. When the first women went to court on the accusation of witchcraft, two magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, examined them. Sarah Good's husband testified that she was a witch and her daughter, Dorcas claimed that her mother had familiars: three birds, one yellow and one black, which ''hurt the children and afflicted persons''. Sarah Good then accused Sarah Osborne. Already, the questioning magistrate, Hathorne, had the opinion that Good was guilty, asking questions such as, ''Sarah Good, what evil spirit have you familiarity with?''

The afflicted children were present in court and were asked if Sarah Good was one of those which had afflicted them. They agreed that she was before falling into a bout of fits. On their recovery they revealed that, while Sarah Good was not physically there, she was there ''spectrally'' tormenting them. Good protested, saying that she had not. This same procedure was repeated with Sarah Osborne, with more ''spectral evidence'' being admitted.

Sarah Good cursing the judge (Original)

Finally, Tituba came to the stand and she soon admitted that she knew the Devil – a tall man in black, with white hair, sometimes appearing as an animal. He had asked Tituba to do his bidding and she had made her mark of agreement in red in his book which had nine other names in it. Tituba claimed that she had seem Sarah Good's and Sarah Osborne's names there, also having seen them in the company of the Devil, along with two other Boston witches whose names she didn't know. Apparently Good had two familiars; a cat and a yellow bird, which sucked her between the fingers. Osborne had two familiars; one with wings, two legs and a head like a woman; the other being hairy with a long nose, which was two or three feet high and walked like a man. Tituba claimed to have seen this last standing by the fireplace in Reverend Parris' house the previous night. The 'witches' had rode together through the air on a sticking, searching for children to torment.

Throughout this evidence, the children had fits and Tituba was asked if she could see who tormented them. Tituba claimed that it was Sarah Good, before herself falling into convulsions. The women were again examined on 3^rd and 5^th March, then, on 7^th March, were jailed in Boston. On 11^th March a day of prayer and fasting was announced in Salem. The girls threw fits, with one of them, Ann Putnam accusing Martha Corey, a reputable church member, of being spectrally responsible of these convulsions. When asked what the specter was wearing, Ann replied that she didn't know as she had been blinded. Martha Corey was taken to the magistrate, where she asked if her accuser had said what she was wearing, with the magistrate asking how Corey knew this question had been raised. Corey was unable to give a satisfactory answer, and was heard to comment that ''we must not believe all that these distracted children say.''

During Corey's examination, she is said to have bitten her lip and that when she did, the children complained of being bitten. Reverend Noyes of Salem Townsaid that this was a form of image magic in which Corey used her own body to inflict harm. Corey was sent to jail pending further examination. At this point there was a pause in the examinations, although the spectral harrassments continued.

On 19^th March, the former minister of Salem Village, Deodat Lawson, came to town, spending his first night in Ingersol's tavern where she saw Mary Walcott experience a fit. From her Lawson went to Parris' house to pay his respects, where Abigail Williams also experienced hysterics. The next day, being a Sunday, Lawson preached a sermon, ''Chirst's Fidelity the Only Shield Against Satan's Malignity,'' but not without interruption. One of the afflicted complained that his text was very long, and another claimed to see a yellow bird perching on his hat which hung on a nail by the pulpit. Lawson was, however, undeterred, urging the magistrates to prove they were ''a terror of and punishment to evil-doers.'' He also warned them that there was no dependable way to discover a witch, there were ''no means of God to make a trial of witches.'' Lawson then went on to caution the congregation against false accusations and rash condemnation, which was considered by him to be behaviour of the Devil.

On the day of Lawson's return, another woman was accused. Rebecca Nurse had an entirely different background to the others which had been accused; Good was a destitute beggar, Osborne was old and sickly, Tituba was a black slave. Nurse, however, was a god-fearing woman who owned property and had good standing in the community. Petitions were drawn up by prominent people on Nurse's behalf before the first investigation on 23^rd March and before her trial, and Nurse protested her innocence. While the jury believed Nurse was innocent, Chief Justice Stoughton reminded the jury that one piece of evidence needed to be taken into account: an accused woman called Hobbes had been brought into the court to give evidence against Rebecca. Nurse had protested, saying Hobbes was ''one of us,'' meaning that she was a fellow prisoner and therefore not in a positon to testify. However, this was taken to mean that both Nurse and Hobbes were part of the same coven. When Nurse was asked to explain what she meant, she didn't answer and this silence was taken as an important factor in the trial.. Nuse was convicted of witchcraft on 30^th June.

Petition for the freedom of Rebecca Nurse (Original)

Nurse's later written explanation was that ''I being something hard of hearing, and full of grief, none informing me how the court took up my words, and therefore had not opportunity to declare what I intended when I said they were of our company.'' Governor Philps granted her a reprieve but the afflicted ones began to claim renewed spectral attacks by Nurse. On 19^th July Nurse was hanged.

On the day of Nurse's examination, Dorcas Good, aged 4, was also examined. She voluntarily confessed that she was a witch, claiming to have her own familiar; a small snake which sucked her blood from a spot on her forefinger. There was a small, red mark, around the size of a flea-bite on her finger. Dorcas claimed that her mother Sarah had given the snake to her. . Dorcas spent seven months in prison before her case was dismissed by the Superior Court of Judicature. In 1710, Dorcas' father requested compensation from the General Court as ''being chained in the dungeon [she] was so hardly used and terrified that she hath ever since been very chargable, having little or no reason to govern herself.''

The magistrates, having discovered grounds for believing that an organised conspiracy of witches was at work and confirming the validity of specral evidence, were two steps away from unleashing a torrent of accusations. On 31^st March, a day of public fasting was held on the afflicted girls' behalf. During the course of fasting Abigail Williams claimed that the witches had decided to have ''a Sacrament that day at a house in the village, and that they had Red Bread and Red Drink.'' On the following day, Mercy Lewis, the maid of Thomas Putnam, said that ''they did eat Red Bread like Mans Flesh, and would have had her eat some but she had turned away her head and Spit at them, and said, 'I will not Eat, I will not drink, it is Blood'.''

On 3^rd April, Sarah Cloyce, Nurse's sister, stormed out of the meeting house when Reverend Parris chose ''One of them is a Devil'' as his sermon. The afflicted girls caught the scent of scandal and accused Cloyce of witchcraft. She was examined the next day and jailed for eight months before her case was dismissed in the following January by the Supreme Court Judicature.

On 10^th May, Magistrate Hathorne, during his examination of George Jacobs Sr, declared that while the Devil might choose to appear in someone's form, he could only do so if the person had consented. Following this announcement, the accusations came in droves. The accused were usually jailed on the grounds provided by the afflicted girls during the first examinations. Among the newly accused was a former minister of Salem, George Burroughs, who was brought from Maine. He gave a speech from the scaffold which touched his audience before reciting the Lord's prayer, which was believed impossible for a witch. However, he was still executed.

Another man, Giles Corey, refused to plead guilty or not guilty, nor would he agree to a trial. Therefore, as the law then allowed, he was tortured by having heavy weights piled onto his body until he either answered the allegation or died. He chose to die, taking two days to do so. 

The torture and death of Giles Corey (Original)

 

Having seen such success in court, the afflicted girls became somewhat famous, with other communities such as Andover and Gloucester seeking their visionary help. However, not all communitires respected their so-called insight. When on the way to Gloucester, at a stopover at Ipswich, the girls threw a fit or two but were completely ignored. As others leared of the methods used in the Salem, accusations became more and more numerous and were increasingly directed at the ruling classes. Among those accused were the clergy, (Reverend John Willard of Boston), politicians (the Secretary of Connecticut), judges and justice (Nathaniel Saltonstall and Dudley Bradstreet), merchants (Hezekiah Usher and Philip English), military men (Captain John Alden), and the wives of prominent men (Margaret Thatcher, widow of a Boston divine and mother-in-law of Judge Corwin). The wives of the governor and Increase Mather were also rumoured to be witches. As the charges became more absurd, it became obvious that the legal procedures were hurting rather than helping the problem.

A surprisingly successful method was soon discovered which could be used against the accusers. A man from Boston who had been accused of witchcraft by people from Andover hired agents to ask publically about those who had accused him. In the course of these inquiries, the agents announced that the accusers would find themselves facing a lawsuit for defamation of character and would be fined £1000 in damages. Accusers quickly dropped their charges.

Theologians also waged war on the accusers. Increase Mather, president of Harvard and the Bay's premier divine, published a pamphlet called Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men which was widely distributed. He started by saying that no one was immune to the charges of witchcraft, no matter how virtuous they were, and stated that ''It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than that one innocent person be condemned.'' Most importantly, he ised his education and moral authority against the use of spectral evidence in obtain convictions. This publication saw many witchfinders without their previous power and the afflictors were believed to be possessed instead of bewitched.

On 12^th October, Governor Phips ordered that the trials be suspended and then, on 26^th October, the Court of Oyer and Terminer (''Hear and Determine'') was ended. During its time, the court had heard thirty-one cases of witchcraft, giving the death sentence to every one of them. Of the eleven yet to be executed, five were pardoned after confessing, two died in prison, two had their executions suspended as they were pregnant, with them later being pardoned, and one escaped. Tituba was held until the court decided that they were unable to reach a conclusion about her and she was later sold as a slave to pay for her imprisonment. 

The Old Witch House in Salem, as it was until 1856 (Original)

 

In total, 19 people were hanged on Gallows Hill, one man was pressed to death, several people died in prison and alsmost 200 people overall were accused of practicing ''the Devil's magic.'' Following the trials, on 21^st February 1693, Governor William Phips wrote:

When I put an end to the Court there were at least fifty persons in prison in great misery by reason of extream cold and their poverty, most of them having only spectre evidence against them and their mittimusses being defective, I caused some of them to be lettout upon bayle and put the Judges upon consideration of a way to reliefe others and to prevent them from perishing in prision, upon which some of them were convinced and acknowledged that their former proceedings were too violent and not grounded upon a right foundation... The stop put to the first method of proceedings hath dissipated the blak cloud that threatened this Province with destruction...

Another contemporary writer, Robert Calef, summed up the results of the trials as follows:

And now Nineteen persons having been hang'd, and one prest to death, and Eight more condemned, in all Twenty and Eight, of which above a third part were Members of some of the Churches of N. England, and more than half of them of a good Conversation in general, and not one clear'd; about Fifty having confest themselves to be Witches, of which not one Executed;above an Hundred and Fifty in Prison, and Two Hundred more accused; the Special Commision of Oyer and Terminer comes to a period...

Next time:

The Origins of Witchcraft

The Origins of Witchcraft

Everyone has heard about the witch-hunts and persecution of witches which occurred mostly between the 14^th and 17^th centuries, a period known as the The Early Modern period, but where does our modern perception of witchcraft come from? In fact, where did our 14^th century predecessors get their concept of witchcraft? In other words, where did witchcraft originate and how has it evolved?

The word 'witch' originates from the Anglo-Saxon word 'wicca', which was derived from the word 'wicce' meaning wise. The word 'witch' also means to 'twist' or 'bend', and relates to psychogenesis or telekinesis. The word 'witch' dates back thousands of years, to when people worshipped Mother Earth or Nature as goddesses. Women were revered as creatures of new life. Witchcraft means 'the craft of the wise' and is the oldest religion in the world, remaining in existence through the oral transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. It was primarily practiced by women as they stayed at home while the men worked. Witchcraft incompassed not ony magic - home medicines and remedies including potions, herbs, stones, oils, and massages were important factors.

Earth Mother by Shere Crossman (Original)

Essentially, witchcraft was created along with human civilization due to fear of the unknown, and because of the role magic was believed to play in making day-to-day life easier. Witches were the mediators between humans and mysterious super powers, such as spirits and angels. When a witch succeeded in solving someone's apparently mysterious problem, it was labelled magic: a process which couldn't be easily explained using logical analysis. Witchcraft was practiced in almost every society and culture across the world, although beliefs and traditions differed from place to place. According to scholars, it predates the majority of well-known religions and goes back to the Paleolithic period.

Archaeological discoveries have shown us how people worshipped the hunter god and fertility goddess during this period. The presence of cave paintings, estimated to be 30,000 years old, which protray a man with the head of a stag, along with another showing a pregnant woman standing in a circle made up of eleven other people, proves that witchcraft is one of the oldest religions in the world. These relics are evidence that witchcraft predates Christianity by thousands of years.

 Dancing Witch Doctor Cave Painting Copy by Abbe' Breuil (Original)

While it was more often practiced by women, men were also witches, although this was less common. Witches were considered highly valuable, providing vital services for the health of the family. They healed the sick and suffering and were respected for how wise they were.  Witches had a range of different uses, being capable of inducing hypnosis, making childbirth and other health problems pain free; they could use telepathy, clairvoyance, intuition, dowsing, crystals, and trance as means of communicating with the dead. At this point, religion and magic were inseparable. However, as people flocked to witches with the health problems, the Christian Church began to feel threatened. 

 

The Wise Woman from Catkin (Original)

While witches and their craft were once respected, it has evolved massively since its creation. As we come to the growth of Christianity, witchcraft changed to suit this new religion, which portrayed the practice of magic as evil and those practicing it as heathens and heretics. Many of the ideas incorporated into the practise of witchcraft were taken from popular folklore, with the development of these beliefs being the responsibility of the Christian intellects of the time, before being filtered back to the common people through indirect means.

When looking at the old beliefs in witchcraft, one of the common elements is involvement with the Devil and demons. During the Middle Ages, the Devil was usually known as Satan, meaning 'the adversary'. Satan did not play a particularly big role in the Old Testament, but he was far more apparent in the New Testament, where he tempted those with a belief in God, trying to get them to turn their backs on their religion. In the New Testament, the war between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan began, each trying to gain control of the souls of mortal men.

You may wonder what this has to do with the evolution of witchcraft and that Christianity has little to do with witchcraft.  However, the growth of Christianity had a great deal to do with the later views on witchcraft. As Christianity spread, it encontered other beliefs and other religions, all of which those following Christianity would try to convert to the 'one true faith.' Those seen to be denying the word of God and to be leading souls away from God were seen to be a part of the Kingdom of Satan.

Before long, Christianity began to demonize the gods belonging to other religions, especially those which had converted to Christianity. Pagan deities were some of the most often used to describe the Devil, along with Roman and Celtic deities. People were taught to fear and hate these deities, with fertility gods most often being recognised as demonic. The Greek deity Pan and the Celtic Cernunnos gave the Christian Devil his goat-like appearance, with the Roman Diana adding the sometimes described woman''s breasts to his description. In the confessions of accused witches, these details were often described, although they were probably prompted by the inquisitor.

 The Persecution of Witches (Original)

In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, demons were creatures of spirit – much like angels, these were the fallen angels. If a demon were to be visible, its body was said to be made from the vapours of the earth, with this control of the air later becoming an imporant theory for the flight of witches.

The Christian religion maintained that only God could cause a miracle. Any claim that the Devil could control creation or free will was considered heretical, and any 'miraculous transformations' were considered to be an illusion, with illusion being one of the Devil's supposed powers over the material world. Where the Devil was considered to have power over the material world, God was believed to provide humans with free will. So, if you were seen as being possessed by demons, it was believed that it was through your own choice. According to Malleus Maleficarum, the Devil could influence a person's choices through bibery and tricks. This meant that accused witches maintained their moral responsibility, especially is a pact with the Devil had been made.

This brings us to another important element in accepted witch traditions. A pact with the Devil meant that not only did you practise harmful magic, you were also considered to be a Devil worshipper. This idea was developed over many centuries, with the earliest documentation of such pacts being by St. Augustine, although the belief didn't become widespread until the descriptions were translated into Latin during the 9^th century. It was, by this point in time, believed that all magic practisioners received their powers from pacts with the Devil, although not all Devil worshippers were granted magical powers. A pact with the Devil was seen as some kind of legal contract with the Devil promising a reward in exchange for the witch's immortal soul. This reward may be a promise of wealth, power, sexual indulgence, or happiness in the afterlife. In some instances the witch would be bestowed with magical powers.

A portrayal of Devil worship and cannibalism committed by witches (Original)

The practice of magic increased in the 12^th and 13^th centuries with the transaltions of Greek and Islamic texts. One popular magical practice was necromancy, or communication with the dead, where demons would be apparently summoned so they could be trapped, meaning the witch could learn from their hidden knowledge. As the practice of magic became more common, so did condemnation of these practices, with demonologists stating that while necromancers may not mean to worship the Devil, their communications with demons must come with a price. They concluded that the witch must need to offer some form of bait for the demon, or do some service for the Devil in exchange for the demons knowledge. This meant that even if the practisioner didn't intend to worship the Devil, anything considered the practice of magic was condemned as evil.

This was not the first condemnation of magic, but a pact with the Devil was an imporant addition to witchcraft traditions, making the label of witch applicable to peasants who practiced magic with little or no understanding of the implications of their actions – a pact with the Devil, whether it was was intentional or not. This connection between magic and heresy was then used to condemn other so called heretics, including those found to be involved in secret, group worship and abnormal, inhumane behaviour. Witchcraft became a sort of religious mockery of Christianity, which was best expressed during the witches' sabbath, the next element in the concept of witchcraft.

At this point there was a shift of focus from the upper-class, educated, male magician to the poor, unknowledgable, female witch. There was a corresponding change in the attributes of the pact, from equal partnership where the magicial could fight for the advantage, to a role of subservience, where the witch submitted voluntarily. This was pointed out by King James VI of Scotland, when he said, ''Witches are servants only, and slaves to the Devil; but the Necromancers are his masters and commanders.''

A gathering of witches was known as the sabbath and was a place for those Devil worshippers to debase themselves, taking part in sexual activities with demons, cannibalism and the murder of innocent infants. In some parts of Europe, including France, Spain and Italy, witches were believed to take part in parodies of the Catholic Mass. When all of these activities were connected they provided fulfilled Christians worst fears. This society of so-called witch lore may have been invented by monks during the 12^th and 13^th centuries as propaganda in the war against other beliefs, such as those held by the Waldensians and Cathars, before being applied to other heretics. These intense accusations became a huge burden for accused witches as knowledge of heretical practices grew.

Belief in the sabbath was not universal, although it was widespread and an important addition to those who hunted witches. The assumption that witches gathered to worship the Devil led to many endless hunts for those connected to the accused witches, and was probably a contributing factor in the scale of the exhaustive searches.

Coven in Flight (Original)

Another belief that was often included in witch lore was the claim that witches were capable of flight. One way of doing this was through the Devil's material control over the air, which could propel a witch for great distances through the air. Another theory was that the Devil used his power of illusion, making the witch believe that they had flown. This second idea was also used in claims that the sabbath itself was an illusion. Regardless, flight was used to explain how witches were able to attend sabbaths which were believed to be held in remote areas. Origins of this concept may go back to pagan beliefs which were still followed by many peasants. One of these beliefs held that women could transform into strigae, or abhorrent screeching owls. Another belief was of the Dianic 'wild hunt, when a witch was said to ride through the countryside on the backs of various beasts.

Metamorphosis was another element in Early Modern witch lore. It was said that a witch was capable of transforming themselves or others into animals, with a particular favourite being the wolf. While this too was supposedly another of the Devil's illusion, it was a common assumption. To us, these beliefs may seem far-fetched but, at the time, they seemed like rational explanations. These beliefs were often challenged, although no one dared to deny the central theme of the Devil, which held the entire movement in one piece.

So, when looking at the origins of witchcraft, one has to understand that it had been present in society since the dawn of time, with witches being considered wise and important. However, with the growth of Christianity, fear of witches and the practice of magic was instilled into the public, pushing them to convert from their life-long religion to the 'one true faith', Christianity. What followed was the accusation and murder of many innocents who had often committed no crime or wrong doing.

Fortunately, with modern witchcraft, respect for this practice has once again grown and is now followed by many people in the modern age, without the fear of persecution. It attracts people from all walks of life, bringing them together in an understanding of the life, nature, evolution and mysteries of the universe through witchcraft. Unlike other religions, witchcraft allows a huge amount of freedom, with the only real rules being that you should harm none unless you wish it to be returned to you three times three, nor should nature be misused the generosity of nature by distrupting its balance. 

Next time: We will take a closer look at the persecution of witches during the Salem Witch Trials.

The Witch's Familiar

The Witch's Familiar

During the Medieval and Early Modern periods, belief in witchcraft was rife and predominant in the evidence used against witches during the witch trials was the familiar, or familiar spirit, although the belief in familiars goes back much further. A familiar was believed to be a supernatural entity, essentially a demon, which assisted witches and cunning folk in the practice of their craft and was said to be given to witches or cunning folk by the devil, although ancient lore says that they came from the Otherworld. The basic idea of a familiar probably emerged due to a need for humans to communicate with the unseen world of spirits, with the familiar first serving as a mediator between the physical and spiritual world. This concept later evolved, with the familiar becoming a companion and ally. With the rise of Christianity, the familiar became a servant, given by the Devil, and was considered to be a 'partner in evil' who helped the witch in casting evil spells. These supernatural entities appeared in many forms; often as an animal but were also believed to appear as human or as a humanoid figure. Cats, especially black cats, were favoured, with the fear of all cats being witches familiars resulting in cat massacres which swept through Medieval Europe. The demon helper was also said to inhabit dogs, toads and other small animals. Some sources also say that 'traditional vessels for such spirits were the cat, mouse, ferret, hare, bat, snake, hound, or bird – particularly a raven or an owl.' 

The Witch's Familiar (Original)

 

This connection between humans and animals can be traced back to Palaeolithic (2.5 million and 20,000 years ago) and Neolithic (4000-2500BC) notions, and can be seen in old shamanic practices associated with animal guides. Cave art, including etchings and drawings, depicts scenes that are believed to represent magical themes, along with artefacts from these periods representing different animals and creatures. Many of the animals represented in these periods are identical to those that have later appeared as familiar spirits, suggesting that they are related to ancient beliefs and practices. 

 

The earliest writings associated with witches and familiars show the similarity of a chthonic nature, with many of them being creatures of woodlands, wetlands, and caves which links them to Underworld themes and deities including Hecate, Diana, Pan and Proserpina. These deities are often associated with certain animals: Diana with the hound, Hecate with the toad, Pan with the goat and Proserpina with the serpent. The various types of familiar are often the same creatures associated with moon goddesses, mother goddesses and ancient chthonic deities. Our ancestors believed the night and the moon to be closely connected to the Otherworld and Spirit World, with folk beliefs holding that supernatural entities of the night lived in the dark and wooded places.

Diana and the Hound (Original)

The physical senses, hearing and sense of smell, are stronger in animals than in humans, and, from an occult perspective, their psychic senses are also stronger. So it is believed that a close relationship with a familiar strengthens the sense of a witch. Witches are said to have taken great care of their familiars. Emile Grillot de Givry, in Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy (1931), describes how witches 'baptised their toads, dressed them in black velvet, put little bells on their paws and made them dance.' The familiar also benefits from this relationship, which supposedly provides the familiar with an expanded view of reality and reinforces the familiar's energy pattern. And so the familiar becomes the mediator between worlds. With both parties benefiting, a connection between the human consciousness and nature's consciousness are said to join, forming a magical consciousness. With both consciousnesses joined, the witch and familiar are said to be capable of opening portals to other realms, accomplishing magical outcomes in both the physical and astral plane. Legends of shapeshifting witches probably originates from these beliefs. In a Lancaster trial written by G. B. Harrison, we are told: 'But the spirits which appear now as men, now as animals, are, at first sight, more difficult to explain until it is remembered that in the witchcraft ritual the members of the coven disguise themselves as animals... (the familiars) are nothing more than the evil humans who were responsible for the whole business.' Owls were often associated with witches, giving us an example of how a witch was believed capable of changing their form. The Romans actually called the owl a 'strix', which translates as 'witch', with another term used during the Middle Ages being 'night hag', referring to the belief that the owl was a witch in bird form. In reality, the familiar is the magical partner and companion of the witch, and vice versa.

Owls were often believed to be a shape-shifted witch (Original)

The oldest idea of the familiar was that it was a spirit animal of an entire species of animal, represented by a single form. This is, in some cultures, called an animal guide or a power animal. These entities can supposedly be used as a link to Nature. This belief is often connected to shamanic practices . One of the earliest signs of the relationship between animal guides and humans can be seen in the Ver Sacrum, a religious practice pre-dating the rise of the Roman Empire which is connected with the Sacred Springtime of the ancient Italic tribes. This rite required the tribe to split up in order to form new colonies, during which their sacred animal was said to guide them. For example, the Sabellians were guided by a bull , the Piceni were guided by a woodpecker and the Lucani were guided by a wolf.

Over time, these supernatural beings, along with fairies, were combined into a common mythos. Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, tells us: 'The small demons that became the Witches' Familiars of the later Middle Ages were originally dwarves, trolls, fairies, elves, kobolds, or the fertility spirits called Green Men...' He goes on to say that black and green were the favoured colours of witches, with green being the colour of the fairies. Richard Baxter, a Puritan cleric, was an earlier figure that viewed familiars as nature spirits. In his treatise, The Certainty of the World of Spirits, which was published in the year of his death, Baxter argued for the belief in 'invisible powers and spirits,' with the belief that familiars, or spirits of some kind, helped witches with the casting of spells and the raising of storms. He was, however, uncertain whether these spirits 'are neither Angels, good or bad,' or whether 'those called Fairies and Goblins are not such.' The fact that fairies were often believed to be familiars of witches shows the survival of Pagan beliefs in later periods.

 Quaker Witch with Demon Familiar (Original)

Another persistent theme within the belief of witchcraft is of the witch being transported to the Sabbat with help from their familiar. Fairy lore shows similarities to this belief with the transportation of humans to the Fairy Realm, which is suggestive of the Otherworld, with the crossing between the mortal and spirit realm with the help of a supernatural entity. Oral tradition tells us of how witches avoided detection by meeting in the astral plane to hold their Sabbats. This was aided with the use of 'flying ointments' which were smeared onto the skin and, within Fairy lore, the use of some magical dust or potion.

Witches often used the induction of trances to connect with other realms and here we can see the

connection of animal spirits as the magical partner of the witch. One ancient technique to induce a trance was to listen to the croaking of frogs. The frogs movement between land and water was possibly suggestive of a supernatural power possessed by the frog, giving it the capabilities to lead the witch to and from the spirit realm. Some folklorists of the 19^th century, such as Charles Leland, have pointed out the addition of bronze frog images that have been used by witches to aid them in the working of spells and magic, indicating a close connection between witches and frogs. Fairies and imps were also said to aid witches to travel 'in spirit' due to the belief that they lived within the spirit realm. They allowed the witch to enter into the Otherworld by locating the doors that link the physical to the spiritual, which is possibly why fairies and witches are often associated in folk beliefs throughout Europe and the UK. 

The Egyptian Dog Anubis (Original)

 

Another familiar believed to help a witch in their travels was the dog which was believed to be a guardian and keeper of the passage between the physical world and the Underworld. While the dog is often seen as a guardian of Underworld treasures, it is actually the guardian of secret knowledge associated with death and resurrection. The Egyptian dog, Anubis, is the attendant of the dead and the soul guide of the spirit land. Dogs are also associated with messenger gods and gods of destruction. The dog is often placed in the company of mother goddesses and healers. Like cats, dogs were regarded as witches' familiars and, according to J. C. Cooper, author of An Illustrated Encyclopaedia on Traditional Symbols, 'represent witches as rain-makers, hence 'raining cats and dogs.''

It was believed that a familiar could be used to trace a witch when dealing with curses and bewitchment. One witch trial held in 1665 for Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, both from Lowestoft, was concerned with the bewitchment of a child. It was noted that 'One of the sick child's blankets was hung up and anything found in it thrown into the fire. A toad obligingly appeared and exploded when put in the fire, after which the suspect was discovered and much scorched.' Medieval Christians believed toads to be 'familiars of witches, symbols of avarice and lust, and tormentors of those in Hell for these and other sins.' European folklore shows that the toad had a much darker position than the frog. The toad was regarded as an emissary of the 'Evil One' in 16^th century England, and was often burned to death as a result. In Norway, opinions were much the same, with the toad being regarded as evil, or as the representation of evil, with unfortunate frogs and toads being thrown onto the bonfire which people had danced around and jumped over on St. John's Eve. Killing toads in this manner was believed to ward off evil spirits and trolls which were active on that night. 

In parts of Scandinavia, familiars were often associated with spirits of the land and nature. Fairies, dwarves, and other supernatural beings were believed to live within the bodies of animals. With the coming of Christianity, the practice of witchcraft went underground due to the assumption that any spirit, other than an angel, had to be a demon. During the witch trials, many domestic animals were killed due to their association with heretics and witches.

Shamanistic beliefs of animal familiars is that they are not physical beings, but are thought-forms or purely spiritual entities. They are said to travel astrally, serving as magical guardians against those who may try to psychically attack the shaman.

In 1318, Pope John XXII is said to have had nine alleged witches prosecuted for assorted magical crimes, including their contact with a familiar with the help of a polished glass. The Church made use of a collection of scriptures from the Old Testament involving familiars, although it is difficult to say what these Christian interpretations of the scriptures may have meant to the ancient Hebrews. The 'Witch of Endor' from the Old Testament (Samuel 28: 3-25) was often used as the foundation of the Church's opinion on familiars. There is, however, nothing within the original language to suggest that the woman in the story was actually a witch. The original script was translated from ba'alath ob, meaning 'mistress of the Ob', to Latin mulierem habentem pythonem, meaning 'a woman possessing an oracle spirit' which was, in the King James version, translated to mean 'possessing a familiar spirit.' The Hebrew word 'ob' was used in reference to sorcerers and necromancers who conjured the dead to answer their questions. The King James Bible translated this to 'familiaris', changing the meaning of the original scripture to that of a 'household servant'. This portrayed such spirits as being the personal servants of a witch or sorcerer. Literal translations of the Bible do not discuss familiars, dealing mainly with those that practice the arts of the occult. For example, the Book of Deuteronomy 18:10-11 tells us to avoid keeping company with a 'fortuneteller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, spell-caster, a spirit medium, or anyone who seeks oracles from the dead. The Book of Leviticu 20:27 encouraged strict punishment for anyone connected to the occult: 'A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to death by stoning.' The King James Bible simply replaced these original ideas with the use of the word 'witch'.

Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, declared that anyone proved to have invoked or conjured 'evill and wicked Sprites' would be punished, while King James, in 1604, expanded on this and was more specific, saying: That if any person or persons... shall use practice or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration of any evill and wicked Spirit, or shall consult convenant with entertaine employ feede or rewarde any evill or wicked Spirit (will be punished). Court officials were often keen to convict those that were a part of the occult, often coercing the accused in order to shape the evidence in such a way that made it look as though the suspect was in clear violation of the law. 

 

The Malleus Maleficarum (1486), the witch inquisitor's handbook, gives no actual instruction concerning the familiar in the questioning and trial of a witch. This book does,however, mention familiars, stating that an animal familiar 'always works with her (witch) in everything.' It also cautions inquisitors to never leave the suspect witch alone because the Devil 'will cause her to kill herself', possibly accomplishing this through a familiar. If, during these trials, so much as a fly came in through the window during the questioning of a witch, it was believed to be a familiar. 

 Matthew Hopkins, the Witch Finder General (Original)

 

The main period for the focus of witches having relationships with animal figures was between 1550 and 1650, with Matthew Hopkins, the notorious 'Witch Finder General', using the possession of a familiar as primary evidence to prove a suspect guilty of witchcraft. As a result, many were executed simply for their ownership of an animal, along with their having a strange mark, which was believed to be a nipple used to feed their familiar. The courts often exchanged the term 'familiar spirit' with words such as 'imp', 'devil', and 'demon', so it is not difficult to understand how the oldest beliefs of familiars mutated under the direction of such religious authority.

Despite the widespread belief in familiars, the Salem witch trials gives very few accounts of animal familiars. In 1692, John Bradstreet was accused of 'inciting a dog to afflict.' As a result, the dog was tried and hanged for being a witch.

The Familiar Spirit (Original)

Descriptions of familiar spirits by witches or cunning folk who had been accused of witchcraft had similar characteristics. Despite the supposed supernatural nature of these familiars, the accounts of them are surprisingly ordinary. They often had normal and affectionate names. For example, Bessie Dunlop, one cunning woman accused of witchcraft named her familiar Tom Reid. Another accused witch, the 17^th century Jane Wellis from Huntingdonshire named her familiars Grizell and Gridigut. There are accounts telling us that the familiar often arrived with its name already established, meaning that the witch was not believed to have named the familiar. Matthew Hopkins declared that 'no mortall could invent' such names, which, to him, was suggestive of something diabolical. This indication fits with the beliefs of the time, with many from this era believing that all spirits possessed names, therefore it only made sense that familiars had their own exclusive names. Familiars were described by those that had supposedly witnessed them as clearly defined, three-dimensional....forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound. With their later descriptions of their smoky, undefined forms, they sound more like ghosts. 

 

They were often believed to be malevolent when working for a witch, while they were believed to be benevolent when working for cunning folk, with a witch's familiar being identified as a demon, while the latter are often classified as fairies. A familiar's main purpose is to protect and serve the witch, as they inherit their new skills. Once the relationship between witch and familiar was established, the familiar actually served a variety of purposes. Witch trials show that familiars were believed to inflict injury and to cause death to both animals and humans. They were believed to haunt and harass people, although this was limited to verbally abusing, jeering and/or threatening the victim.

In accounts taken from British cases, witches and cunning folk generally had three different ways in which a familiar would come to them. The first was that the familiar would impulsively appear in front of the individual, inside or outside of the home. For example, Joan Prentice, interrogated for witchcraft in 1589, claimed that she was 'alone in her chamber, and sitting upon a low stool preparing herself to bedward,' when her familiar first manifested before her. A cunning woman from Cornwall, Anne Jeffries, claimed that her familiar appeared when she was 'knitting in an arbour in our garden.'

The second common appearance of the familiar to a magical practitioner was that they were gifted to them, sometimes by a family member or, supposedly, by a powerful spirit. Margaret Ley from Liverpool, questioned in relation to witchcraft in 1667, claimed that her familiar was given to her by her mother when she died. Another example comes from Joan Willimot, a Leicestershire cunning woman questioned in 1618. Willimot claimed that a mysterious figure, who she referred to only as her 'master', 'willed her to open her mouth and he would blow into her a fairy which should do her good. And that she open her mouth, and that presently after blowing, there came out of her mouth a spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and form of a woman.' Other examples include a trial that took place in Chelmsford in 1556, where the accused confessed to possessing a white-spotted cat called Satan which was passed down from witch to witch and a trial in 1582, where a 12 year old girl admitted to receiving her familiar, a cat, from her grandmother, which she later gave away to a woman named Agnes Waterhouse.

 

In some accounts, witches or cunning folk are said to have experienced difficulties in the practise of their magic until a familiar appeared to them and offered them aid. It has been noted by Emma Wilby, historian and author of Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, that 'their problems... were primarily rooted in the struggle for physical survival – the lack of food or money, bereavement, sickness, loss of livelihood and so on.' The familiar apparently offered them a way out of this, solving their problems by gifting them with magical powers. Some lore states that a witch received their familiar following their initiation into the Witches' sect Witches and cunning folk often made some form of pact or agreement with their familiar. This would state a length of time for which the familiar remained with the practitioner, varying between weeks and, in some cases, decades. It seems common for witches and cunning folk to summon their familiar when they were in need of assistance, although the methods varied. Joan Cunny from Essex, in 1589, claimed that she had to kneel within a circle and pray to Satan for her familiar to manifest, while, in 1653, the cunning woman, Anne Bodenham, from Wiltshire claimed that she could summon her familiars by reading books. However, in some accounts familiars are said to have had the ability to manifest even when they were unwanted or when they had not been summoned. Elizabeth Chandler, a witch from Huntingsonshire, claimed in 1646 that she had no control over her two familiars, Beelzebub and Trullibub, and is said to have prayed to God that He would 'deliver her therefrom.'

As I have noted briefly above, witches were believed to feed or nourish their familiar. It was believed that the familiar needed the nourishment of breast milk or blood, although some witches are reported to have fed their familiar on bread and milk. However, most theories of the time suggested that a familiar often craved and required blood in order to maintain a physical body, as they were believed to be spirits. While familiars were believed to take blood straight from the witch, witches were sometimes believed to provide other sources to feed the craving of their familiar. In 1324, Alice Kyteler from Kilkenny, Ireland, who was convicted as being a witch, confessed that she sacrificed red cocks to her familiar, providing it with a source of blood. Familiars, according to trial transcriptions, obtained blood by pricking the witches body and sucking out the blood. This was believed to leave a mark, which was identified as the 'witch's mark' or 'devil's mark' by witch hunters. This mark could be anything from a bruise, mole, or any skin abnormality. Most often accused were the elderly, who often had the common dark spots which we attribute to old age. These marks were believed to be insensitive to pain caused by a pin or needle pushed into them.

Outside of the witch trials, it was believed that some magicians and village healers were aided by more benevolent familiars which could diagnose illnesses and sources of bewitchment. They were also used to divine and find lost objects and treasures. During rituals, magicians would conjure these spirits, locking them into bottles, rings and stones which were sometimes sold as charms, with the magician claiming that they would ensure success in whatever the buyer sought. This was not technically illegal, with England's Witchcraft Act of 1604 specifically outlawing evil and wicked spirits.

Modern witches have their own views on familiars and no longer accept the Judeo-Christian opinion of the familiar as either accurate or valid. Familiars are now more often perceived in much the same way as some American Indians view animal guides or power animals. They are now seen as messengers that move between the mortal and spirit realm, healers and powerful allies to those with whom they form a relationship which are gifted to a witch by the Great Spirit. There are, to a modern witch, essentially three types of familiar spirit: the physical, the astral and the artificial. A physical familiar is a pet or animal to which you feel drawn. An astral familiar is considered to be an entity which exists within the spiritual realm. The artificial familiar is one that is created by the practitioner with the use of magic. In modern times, the familiar assists the witch by carrying energy for the use of healing, communicating and spell casting. They are also believed to protect both the home and personal property. Familiars can also defend a witch during astral projection and dream-work, as well as carrying information to or from the spiritual realm.

 

In conclusion, familiars have evolved and changed through the years and, in modern times, have pretty much come full circle back to the beliefs of the ancients. Familiars have been considered to be guides and helpers, aiding a witch, magician or shaman in the practice of their magic. They are said to take many forms, often as animals, with the favourites being cats. They are, however, not limited to being only animals, with many beliefs stating that the familiar is a spirit capable of living within the body of an animal or creature. They can be a readily evolved spirit or can be created through the use of magic by a witch. The evolution of Christianity saw familiars condemned, linking them to demons and the Devil and giving a primary source of evidence against an accused witch. While they have often been linked with evil, cunning folk were also said to possess benevolent familiars which could aid a person with any matter. In this case, the spirit was sometimes bottled and sold. Modern times, however, bring us back to the belief that the familiar exists to protect and aid it's witch by carrying the additional energy needed during healing, communication with other worlds and spell-casting. It is now believed that the familiar spirit connects us to the spirits of nature, much like the beliefs of our ancestors before us.

Next time: We'll take a closer look at the origins of witchcraft.