#european witch craze

[quasi-normalcy]

[ouroboros8ontology]

Prior to the inception of the Inquisition in the thirteenth century, excesses attributed to sorcery had been punished by the secular authorities simply as criminal acts. When the church undertook to stamp out sorcery it branded its practitioners as devil-worshiping anti-Christians.

Sorcerers and witches, brought before the bar of the Inquisition, were accused of, and confessed to, the adoration of Satan, the desecration of the host and other consecrated objects, the sacrifice of infants, cannibalism, the use of human ingredients, particularly blood and fat, in their salves and potions, affecting the death of their enemies by means of waxen images baptized in their names, poisonings, all the details of what came to be a stereotyped catalogue of crimes… It is these charges that determined the character of the sorcery propaganda against the Jews. 

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Legend of Jewish Sorcery

[nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius]

Typo of the week: rife suspicion ➡️ rice suspicion

[shelivesinthatlibrary]

days spent doing coursework and research, and it will all be worth it in the end

[crunchcasual]

my college counselor/gym partner made the mistake of asking how i was

[were-rabbits]

Something inspiring about most witchcraft accusations being by women against other women. The European witch craze passed the Bechdel test

[dwellordream]

Cats, the Black Death, and a Pope

“...Despite the popular perception of plague being a normal part of life throughout the Middle Ages, the era was actually marked by a centuries-long period where the disease was not seen at all.  After the major epidemic of (probably) bubonic plague in the sixth century there do not seem to have been any such plague epidemics until the visitation of the Black Death in the late 1340s.  As a result, few Europeans had any natural immunity.  The plague revisited Europe periodically from the 1340s onward – usually at generational intervals – and then the 1660s saw another major outbreak.  But increased levels of immunity meant that these re-visitations were not as devastating as the “Great Dying” of the 1340s. Obviously, no-one had any clear idea of what caused the disease and the Church certainly did attribute it to the wrath of God, the way natural disasters were then and often still are to this day.  This did not mean there was no attempt at natural explanations for the disease by churchmen and scholars, who accepted that while it may be a manifestation of divine displeasure, it was still a natural phenomenon.  In the absence of any understanding of germ theory, they fell back on the ancient Greek idea of “miasmas” or “bad air” as the cause.  While this was wrong, it resulted in the practices of quarantining victims and disposing of dead bodies quickly (even burning them en masse, despite religious taboos about cremation), which went some way toward containing the disease.  But, as with any such epidemic in the pre-modern world, there was little else anyone could do other than let the disease run its course.

…The group most often scapegoated were western Europe’s Jews, given that they were a separate, non-Christian community that was easily identified. Pogroms against Jews broke out mainly in the Rhineland, which had seen large scale murders of Jews in earlier manifestations of mass hysteria, such as the beginning of the First Crusade in the 1090s.  So hundreds of Jews were massacred or burned alive in Strasbourg in 1349, but there were similar pogroms elsewhere in Europe, including Toulon in France and Barcelona in Spain.   Of course, the meme above is keen to blame the Church for these massacres, but actually the Church spoke out strongly against them and instructed local authorities to suppress them.  Pope Clement VI issued two papal bulls – the first on July 6, 1348 and another on 26 September 1348 – condemning the pogroms and forbidding the persecution of Jews.  Modern Jewish accounts often claim that Jews were targeted because they had better hygiene than their Christian neighbours and so suffered much lower mortality in the epidemic, though this seems to be based largely on modern misconceptions about medieval hygiene.  

Contrary to popular belief, all medieval people washed their hands before meals, washed and bathed regularly if not daily and washed dead bodies before burial, so these practices were not unique to medieval Jews.  Clement VI’s first bull also counters any claims that Jews could have been responsible for the plague by noting that Jews were dying as rapidly as everyone else, which indicates that the Jews did not have some kind of lower mortality rate anyway. So the meme’s claim that certain people were targeted as scapegoats is correct, but the implication that this was due to encouragement by “the Church” is not. The group that is missing in the accounts of victims of these revenge attacks, however, is “witches”.

Again, contrary to popular belief, the idea that alleged witches were regularly victimised by the Church in the medieval period is largely incorrect.  The heyday of the Witch Craze came much later, with its peak in the sixteenth century.  The position of the Church for most of the Middle Ages was that “witches” did not exist and even that it was sinful to claim they did. This changed in the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, but this change seems to have been, at least in part, a reaction to the Black Death and only came much later in the fourteenth century.  Fear of supposed witches does not manifest itself in any substantial way until long after the plague of the 1340s and there is no official Church acceptance of the existence of witches until 1484. So while there is plenty of evidence for pogroms against Jews in the wake of the plague and clear evidence of revenge against other marginal groups, there is no evidence at all that I know of that “witches” were blamed.  Which brings us to the claim about massacres of cats.

...did Gregory IX declare all cats evil or order their destruction?  Actually, no.  The “1232” reference seems to be to Gregory’s papal bull Vox in Rama, issued in that year, which addressed an alleged outbreak of devil worship in Germany.  This bull gives a description of the ceremonies of this group of “Luciferians”, which includes many standard tropes found in lurid medieval ideas about heretical practices. This involved visions of a giant toad, initiates kissing an emaciated pale man and finally a statue of a black cat coming to life and speaking with the initiates.  Nowhere does the bull associate this diabolical cat with cats generally, condemn all cats or call for their slaughter.  Yet the claim that this bull somehow did cause massacres of cats continues to be made, usually with no reference to any supporting evidence at all.  

…not only do we have repeated references to cats being kept as pets – especially by nuns, showing that unmarried “cat ladies” have a long history – but, as the illuminations above show, cats were actually prized because they were good at controlling rodents.  Medieval bestiaries talk about how useful cats are for catching mice and rats.  Isidore of Seville thought the Latin name for the cat – cattus – came from the verb “to catch (mice)”.  Most households kept cats both as mousers or simply as pets and etiquette books on how formal meals and feats should be conducted talk about how “dogs and cats” should be driven out of the hall before food was served.  The thirteenth century Ancrene Wisse – a guide for female hermits – advises “[you] shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat”.  Far from being “virtually eliminated”, medieval people rather liked cats.

…So where did this idea of a medieval cat massacre come from?  Like many myths that are projected back onto “the Middle Ages” (witch burning, an aversion to bathing), it seems loosely based on some much later incidents of killing animals as a reaction to other outbreaks of epidemics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  And the targets of these examples seem to have been dogs more than cats, though they could include both.  One thing that was notable about the Black Death and later European manifestations of the plague is that it seems to have affected many animals and livestock as well as humans. This means it killed rats in large numbers (possibly causing their fleas to seek human hosts), but we also have descriptions of dogs, cats and cattle dying.  

As a result, the main mentions of cats and dogs in accounts has them as victims of the epidemic, not as its cause. Despite this, we do have some evidence that dogs and, sometimes, cats were killed in reaction to later outbreaks.  In Edinburgh in 1499 a city ordinance required stray dogs, cats and pigs be killed in reaction to an outbreak of disease, and this law was repeated in 1505 and 1585.  We find a similar reaction in Seville in 1581 and in London in 1563 and again in 1665, where the victims were again mainly stray dogs rather than cats.  The reason seems to have been the medical belief that stray animals spread the plague.”

- Tim O’Neill, History for Atheists 

[niuniente]

When speaking about the fact that we don’t know everything yet and science is constantly evolving, my favorite example are European witch hunts. Not as “people went crazy” but as how law and medical science treated people who were accused as witches.

Some examples of a book I’m reading now (in Finnish), which is based on mid-17th century (1650′s-1680′s) witch trial court record from Stockholm, Sweden. Mind you that compared to other witch ridden countries, Sweden and Stockholm had a much more skeptical approach to witches and children’s testimonies - and yet these things happened.

It was a scientific fact in the 17th century that witches exist. Point blank serious thing and 100% real. As real as all scientific facts, which we believe in now and now about, in year 2023. To battle this problem, Sweden made multiple jury groups from most scientifically educated people containing lawyers, priests, doctors and heads of the Swedish law system. Some complains were sent to the king, who also took a legal stance to help Sweden to deal with these horrible crimes.

Now, it was also a scientific and a legal fact that if there are enough people testifying against you, you are a witch. If you have 2 neighbors, 10 random children and your own 2 daughters telling in the court that you’re a witch, then you are a witch. Point blank. If you say that you don’t know what they are talking about and you are not a witch, then it means the Devil is preventing you from telling the truth. In fact, many of the people testifying against you are screaming that they see The Devil sitting on your throat and preventing you from telling the truth of you being a witch. The jury will press you to confess for the name of God, as it’s scientifically and legally a completely clear case that you are a witch by this point. If you testify, you will be executed before your body is burnt. If not, you might be considered such a vile criminal for the downfall of the whole society that you’re burned alive.

No matter what you say to protect yourself and tell you’re innocent will not work, because it is a scientific fact that the devil is causing this lying. Has he promised you eternal salvation after death? Is he choking you as we speak? Why don’t you confess, we know you did it.

It’s also a scientific fact that some people don’t remember witches taking them to Blåkulla (the place where witches go to party with the Devil). Some people don’t even remember that they are, in fact, witches themselves. It is scientifically proven than these memories can surface when someone else says that they saw you in Blåkulla or how you took children there.

While some scientists ponder if some of the visions people have are just illusions caused by the Devil, when so many people testify about you being a witch, it can’t be delusion. Children can’t make up stories, as it’s scientifically proven thing that children are innocent and can’t lie.

It’s also scientifically proven fact that visits to Blåkulla might leave marks on your body, or on the victims body. If someone accusing you being a witch says that you whipped them on the hand with snaked in Blåkulla, and indeed wounds or red marks are found on their arm, then it’s a scientific proof that you are a witch.

What is remarkable is that the law system, the scientists, the most educated people of the time, took these seriously and constantly made sure that they are following laws and won’t overdo anything. They didn’t want to judge innocent people or sentence wrong people to die. They did their best to prevent these wrong-doings from happening. And yet, this all happened.

Based on all this made-up nonsense, which we now understand not being possible at all, keeps my mind humble and thirsty for more scientific findings. It makes me wonder what people will see in our current time as same kind of (dangerous) nonsense as people during Witch Craze saw as the unshakable truth.

[haggishlyhagging]

[Note to self: Compare the female suicide attempts of modern day to those of women during the height of the witch craze. Compare the environment women were forced to survive in then to the one we must endure now. Compare the patriarchal explanation for mass suicides then to modern psychological explanations.]

Another form of scholarly mystification is illustrated in the work of social historian/ anthropologist Julio Caro Baroja, The World of the Witches. In the last section of his book, adopting a modern "psychological" approach, Baroja presumes to describe "the personality of the witch." He sagely informs us that "a woman usually becomes a witch after the initial failure of her life as a woman; after frustrated or illegitimate love affairs have left her with a sense of impotence or disgrace." Hags may successfully "double-double unthink" this statement to mean that "a woman usually becomes a witch after the initial success of her life in overcoming the patriarchally defined role of 'woman'; after seeing through the inherent contradiction of 'romantic love'—a clarifying process which enriches her sense of gynergy and grace." Baroja's book concludes:

In conclusion, it seems to me, as a historian, that witchcraft makes one feel pity more than anything else. Pity for those who were persecuted, who wanted to do evil yet could not do it, and whose lives were generally frustrated and tragic. Pity, too, for the persecutors who were brutal because they believed that numberless dangers surrounded them.

This pitiful analysis reveals the pitfalls of "pity." Since there is no reason to think that good witches—Spinsters, midwives, healers—"wanted to do evil," this "pity" is perverted and deceptive. Hags may well feel grief and anger for our tortured foresisters, but pity for their/our persecutors is not the appropriate response. Righteous anger is more in accord with the reality and can generate creative energy.

Just as social historian Baroja has recourse in the end to feeble psychologizing so also does moralist W. E. H. Lecky in his two-volume History of European Morals. He writes revealingly (in the sense of unveiling and re-veiling at the same time) of the conditions that drove some witches to suicide:

In Europe the act was very common among the witches, who underwent all the sufferings with none of the consolations of martyrdom.

Without enthusiasm, without hope, without even the consciousness of innocence, decrepit in body and distracted in mind, compelled in this world to endure tortures, before which the most impassioned heroism might quail, and doomed, as they often believed, to eternal damnation in the next, they not unfrequently killed themselves in the agony of their despair.

This is a perfect description of the condition to which the lords of patriarchy desire to see defiant women reduced. It is an announcement of androcratic intent. How would Lecky know that the witches were "without even the consciousness of innocence"? The expressions "decrepit in body" and "distracted in mind" are deceptive because not accompanied by any description of the christian torturers' methods.

On the following page, this "historian of morals," having admitted the fact of unspeakable torture of witches, actually manages to write that "epidemics of purely insane suicide . . . not infrequently occurred [emphases mine]." Lecky here refers specifically to the women of Marseilles and of Lyons. He then goes on.

In that strange mania which raged in Neapolitan districts from the end of the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century, and which was attributed to the bite of the tarantula, the patients thronged in multitudes towards the sea, and often, as the blue waters opened to their view, they chanted a wild hymn of welcome, and rushed with passion into the waves [emphases mine].

By naming this phenomenon a "mania" and failing to note the significance of the dates, Lecky makes its meaning invisible to most readers. Hags, however, knowing something about the history of The Burning Times, can see that this was a completely sane decision. Multitudes of women rushed into the sea, precisely because they refused to be "patients" for the witch doctors/torturers and chose to be agents of the one Self-affirming act possible under the Reign of Infernal Justice. Otherwise, they would have been forced to submit their minds and bodies, to accuse themselves, their daughters, their mothers, their dearest friends, of impossible crimes. Moral historian Lecky legitimates this horror by deleting the context and the agents of gynocide from his text. He writes that such cases "belong rather to the history of medicine than to that of morals." Thus no one is to blame. The Fathers are exonerated, since there is nothing in this picture relevant to the history of "morals."

-Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology

[the---hermit]

12|05|2022

Thesis diary #18

Yet another day of reading historiographical articles on the European witch craze, today's read was all about the social status of the accused, and the differences in the magical belifs in different social classes. I also continued my reading and annotating on Ginzbur's I Benandanti, of which I have almost finished the first part.

Other things I did today:

Continued reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Journaled

Practiced Irish on duolingo

Practiced self care

Organized my travel journal with the informations for my next trip

Had a small writing session

Worked in my garden

[gefdreamsofthesea]

I just finished The Devil's Dozen: Thirteen Craft Rites of the Old One. It's what it says on the tin: a bunch of rites for both coven and solitary witches.

Once again, the book has very evocative photographs.

If I had to sum up the rituals in this book in three words I would say "interesting, but impractical" many involve traveling to remote areas alone to do witch things. One requires the use of a churchyard at night (assuming you have access to a churchyard and privacy and also most Christians frown on conjuring the Devil in their yard), a bunch of rites make use of a human skull, which is probably actually illegal here. However I do feel like even if you can't follow the letter of the rites, you can get the spirit of the rites. For instance she talks about the significance of the head as a vessel of divine power, you don't need an actual skull to make use of this idea (she does also mention using animal skulls). She talks about witchcraft being about "inversion and return": going outside to the wild places, feasting and dancing and fucking (things the Church has historically been weird about) and then returning to normal life, but empowered. Everything else is window dressing. Also you better get used to seeing a group of witches referred to as a "companie" or "covine" because you're going to be seeing both a lot.

I think one of the more controversial aspects of this version of traditional witchcraft is the reliance on lore from the European witch craze. The last chapter has a bunch of "one witch from [place] confessed that they did x because the Devil said so" when the vast majority of folks accused of witchcraft weren't actually witches or even cunning folk. That said, I think I agree with her that many of the stories from the period share common elements that I don't think can be chalked up to "uptight Christian authorities pulled this out their asses" (which is not to say that they never did nor does it mean that Murray was right). One aspect I found interesting is how the spirit world (whether as the devil or faeries or other otherworldly entities) showed compassion for the poor (unlike in church where suffering was seen as a virtue). She also points out that many practitioners (then and now) used Christian rites and paraphenalia due to their power. I am reminded of a Medieval sermon story where a woman uses the consecrated host to rid her garden of disease. It's likely this wasn't actually something the priest experienced personally (sermon stories taught people moral truths and such) but the fact that it needed to be said is interesting.

Anyways, interesting book, I think I actually prefer it to Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways by the same author.

[hexandbalances]

Hi!

My name is Ash and I´m an A-Level student that has to hold a presentation as one of my final exams. The topic I chose is the Salem Witch Trials and whether modern day Witches, such as yourself, still have to deal with prejudices and superstitions due to the Trials. I hope I didn´t offend you in any way and would really appreciate it if you could tell me your point of view on these things.

In hopes of a timely answer.

Ash

Hi Ash,

I have been away from Tumblr for quite some months so I doubt this is reaching you in a timely manner, but in case the topic still interests you I shall endeavor to be of some use.

This is a complicated question, in part because it presumes that the women accused during the Salem Witch trials were, in fact, witches and that there is a line of causality between modern prejudices and the Salem witch trials as a specific, singular event. I don't agree with that premise.

While historians have not satisfactorily identified the trigger of the witch trials - unlikely ergot poisoning, tensions with indigenous Americans spurred on by King Phillip's War, disputes between farmers and ministers within Salem Town and Salem Village, etc, - we can most certainly conclude that those who were targeted were not practioners of magic (with perhaps the exception of Tituba, who may have practiced her people's native religion and was released). The accused were predominantly women (of the 19 hanged four were men, and one Giles Corey was pressed) and inconvenient to the Putnam family in some form. I recommend the following reading for specifics:

Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials by Marilynne K. Roach

The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K Roach (this is a very thick volume)

A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W. Baker

The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F Karlsen

Certainly prejudice against witchcraft and any non-dominant religion persists within America. We experienced a renewal of mania, "the Satanic Panic", building in the mid 1970's as a reaction to growing acceptance of Vedic practices, Wicca, Eastern religions, etc., and peaking in the 1980's to 1990's with wide scale false accusations of ritual child abuse. This mania, while not yet quite ended, is rooted in perceived threats to societal norms (i.e. power) dictated by a predominantly white Christian culture. Try:

America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem by Owen Davies

Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980's by Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe

In general, neo-pagan religion (if I might include witchcraft in this broad category, and as I suspect many Tumblr users use witchcraft interchangeably with Wicca) continues to flourish in America. Our most consistently cited issues are: 1) a lack of religious acknowledgement and ministry available to servicemembers in the military and to prisoners and 2) social ridicule. What forms of prejudice practioners experience here - while still very real and significant - are mild compared to the burnings and stoning of women accused of witchcraft in other parts of the world.

In the last decade women have been burned alive for accusations in Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Paraguay, Peru, Tanzania, Romania - in February of this year a woman in Bihar, India was set on fire then stoned to death for allegedly bringing on the unnatural death of a boy in her village. These women were targeted because they were vulnerable - not because they were witches.

And we see that misogyny has consistently been a prime motivator in the selection of victims of witchcraft accusations. See:

Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany by Lyndal Roper

Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts by Anne L Barstow

The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to Present by Ronald Hutton

In short, I see the Salem Witch Trials as separate from current religious prejudice. "Witchcraft" is the vehicle by which one group justifies the seizure of property and/or murder of the vulnerable in their community. Whether or not the victim is actually a witch seems to have very little to do with it.

[yxxxxxx1]

Thread about Joanna of Castile: Part 1: Her Education

… any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at. —Virginia Wolf, A Room of One's Own

Diverse thoughts flood one's mind upon hearing the name Juana of Castile, or as some may recognize her: Juana la Loca. Countless historians have debated her story. Was she truly insane? Did she battle with a mental disorder? Or was she tragically victimized by the very men she held dear? In my forthcoming posts, I delve into Juana's life, drawing from historical sources. I will write about Joanna's life based on historical sources in my upcoming posts. Enjoy the readings, everyone.

Juana was born in Toledo on November 6, 1479. She grew into a lively, pretty, and graceful little girl who was to develop into a beautiful woman. Juana had a regal and dignified presence, befitting her royal lineage as a member of the powerful Spanish Habsburg dynasty. She was, the Venetian ambassador would write, “very handsome”. According to other authors, she had auburn hair and a fair complexion. Her nose was long and straight, her blue eyes were large, deep, and soulful, her mouth was an almost perfect cupid's bow, her lips were full, her fingers slim and delicate.

Other sources wrote that she was known for her fair complexion, typical of the European nobility during that era. Her face was oval-shaped, with a high forehead, delicately arched eyebrows, and a well-defined jawline. Juana had large, expressive eyes that were often described as melancholic or sorrowful. They were of a deep colour, commonly portrayed as dark brown or hazel. Her eyes were said to possess a certain intensity, reflecting her emotional state and the turmoil she faced throughout her life.

In terms of attire, Juana would have dressed according to the fashion of her time and status as a queen. She wore elegant gowns made from luxurious fabrics, often adorned with intricate embroidery, jewels, and furs. The style of her clothing would have followed the trends of the Spanish court during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

When Juana was seven, her parents appointed Andres de Miranda as her first tutor. It was his task to teach her Latin, a language in which she became proficient, and Catholic doctrine—essential skills that Deza also taught to Juan, her brother. She was taught to ride, she was taught music and dancing, she learned how to behave in public. And, just like her mother, Juana learned housewifely tasks like baking, spinning, weaving, and sewing.

Ever mindful of her experiences, the queen was determined to give her girls the best start available, and by the standards of her time, she did. Her daughters were not the only educated noble women among the European aristocracy, but they were certainly better educated than most women of their era. There was one omission, though: the study of foreign languages, surely useful for girls destined to marry foreign princes, was largely neglected.

Sources: Fleming, G. B. (2018). Juana I: Legitimacy and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Castile (1st ed. 2018 edition). Palgrave Macmillan.

Fox, J. (2012). Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile. Ballantine Books.

Gómez, M. A., Juan-Navarro, S., & Zatlin, P. (2008). Juana of Castile: History and Myth of the Mad Queen. Associated University Presse.

[femme-witching]

An Introduction to Witchcraft History

What is Witchcraft?

Witchcraft is traditionally defined as the “exercise or invocation of alleged supernatural powers to control people or events, practices typically involving sorcery or magic.

Modernly defined by global practices of magic, western 14th-18th century beliefs, and Wicca

Derived from the old English word ‘wiccecraeft’

Different cultures did not share a coherent pattern of belief in witchcraft

Blended concepts of magic, sorcery, religion, folklore, theology, technology, and diabolism

Witches were commonly believed to work at night

Sorcery

Sorcery historically predates witchcraft as a concept, and is defined simply as ‘attempts to influence the world through occult.’

Prior to the 1300s, western perceptions of sorcery and magic were in alignment

Early western witches used incantations, divination, amulets, potions, and dolls/ figurines to perform magic

Magic aiming to gain or preserve health, gain property, to help others, for revenge, and for protection from natural disasters of harmful spirits

Magical reliance on deities or spirits influenced future belief of witches working with demons or Satan

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Early Recordings

The earliest recording of witchcraft was found in the 1 Samuel passage of the Bible (931-721 BCE).

King Saul sought the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of Samuel, the dead prophet, who would help defeat the Philistine army

Samuel prophosized the death of Saul and his sons, who died in battle by suicide

Old Testament- Exodus 22:18 translated from the Torah 

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”

passages against divination, chanting, or contact with the dead

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

European Witch History

Witchcraft was perceived in the west as cannibalism, orgiastic rites with the devil/ Satan, and performance of black magic. Despite being written off as devil worshippers, many early European witches were just hurbalists and healers.

European Witch Craze

Malleus Maleficarum was a book that spurred European hysteria surrounding witches, written in Germany in 1486. “Malleus Maleficarum” translates to “The Hammer of Witches”, and was written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. It acted as a guide to identifying, hunting, and interrogating witches, and greatly influenced European witch hunts and paranoia.

 Accused witches gave forced confessions after being tortured

Accused witches were executed by burning or hanging

Witch hunters targeted widows, single women, and societal outcasts

Between 1500 and 1660 CE, 80,000 accused witches were executed

Witches were associated with lust and the devil

The “Malleus Maleficarum” also greatly influenced King James VI of Scotland, who was one of Europe’s most noutorious witch hunters. In 1589 James went to Denmark to meet his new bride, Princess Anne. On their return to Scotland, a raging storm damaged several of James’ ships, casuing one of them to be lost at sea. A woman in Denmark confessed to using magic to cause the storm, and she was executed alongside several others accused of witchcraft by Anne. This spurred the prosecution and deaths of 3,000 accused witches in Scotland.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

American Witch History

This section discusses European-based perception of witchcraft, and is not related to indigenous cultural practices. 

The Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The trials occurred due to Puritain religious paranoia and witches were used as a scapegoat for smallpox and conflict with Naumkeag Native Americans. The trials began through this series of events:

9 year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11 year-old Abigail Williams had fits of bodily contortion and uncontrolled screaming 

Symptoms spread to more young women, and hysteria spread

Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn, and Tituba- a slave of the Parris family- were accused of witchcraft

Tituba confessed to cursing the girls and accused others of black magic

Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for being a witch in Salem on June 10, 1692 by hanging

Though modern research suggests the bodily contortion and screaming was likely caused by fungal poisoning, the hysteria was attributed to witchcraft and black magic. Over the course of the Salem Witch Trials, 150 people were accused and 18 were executed. 

Connecticut Witch Craze

Alse Young was the first American executed for witchcraft, killed in Windsor, Connecticut in 1647. In Connecticut, 46 people were accused of performing witchcraft and 11 were executed for it prior to 1697.

Virginia Witch Craze

In Virginia, 24 witch trials occurred from 1626-1730. In Lower Norfolk County, Virgina, a law was passed against false witchcraft accusations in 1655. The most famous accused witch from Virginia was Grace Sherwood, who was said to have slaughtered pigs and hexed cotton. Sherwood was brought to trial in 1706, and tested as a witch using the ‘sink or float’ method. Sherwood was convicted as a witch and imprisoned for 8 years.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Thank you for reading!!

[poisonerspath]

Doing some new research which has me feeling really inspired! Looking at the connection between the Black Death and the European Witch Craze and how that ties into the history of poison. I came across this engraving of the crucifixion memorabilia in Folkard, which depicts a sponge on a reed where the Jews were said to have given Christ “vinegar and gall” which was likely some kind of solanaceous preparation and soporific sponge intended to act as an anesthetic. - #plantlore #occultbotany #occulttoxicology #darkherbalism #soporificsponge #toxicology #poisonpath #solanaceae https://www.instagram.com/p/CoEEguILUZ3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thehellsitenewsie]

Secret history: Even before the revolution, America was a nation of conspiracy theorists (AP News)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A brutal conflict in Europe was fresh in people’s minds and the race for the White House turned ugly as talk of secret societies and corruption roiled the United States.

It was 1800, and conspiracy theories were flourishing across America. Partisan newspapers spread tales of European elites seeking to seize control of the young democracy. Preachers in New England warned of plots to abolish Christianity in favor of godlessness and depravity.

This bogeyman of the early republic was the Illuminati, a secret organization founded in Germany dedicated to free thinking and opposed to religious dogma. Despite the Illuminati’s lack of real influence in America, conspiracy theorists imagined the group’s fingerprints were everywhere. They said Illuminati manipulation had caused France’s Reign of Terror, the wave of executions and persecutions the followed the French Revolution. They feared something similar in America.

From the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, to fears of the Illuminati, from the Red Scare to the John Birch Society to QAnon, conspiracy theories have served as dark counterprogramming to the American story taught in history books. If a healthy democracy relies on the trust of its citizens, then conspiracy theories show what happens when that trust begins to fray.

Change a few details, add in a pizza parlor, and the hysteria surrounding the Illuminati sounds a lot like QAnon, the contemporary conspiracy theory that claims a powerful cabal of child-sacrificing satanists secretly shapes world events. Like the Illuminati craze, QAnon emerged at a time of uncertainty, polarization and distrust.

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