DOCSLIB.ORG

The Malleus Maleficarum

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Malleus Maleficarum THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM OF HEINRICH KRAMER AND JAMES SPRENGER TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION,BIBLIOGRAPHY &NOTES BY THE REVEREND MONTAGUE SUMMERS DRAFT Layout Design, Editing & Formatting by Marc J. Driftmeyer Adobe Acrobat 1.4 PDF Compliant Copyright © July 2005. All Rights Reserved 1 Contents Contents 2 List of Figures 5 Editor’s Note 6 Preface 9 Introduction—1948 Edition 12 Introduction—1928 Edition 18 Part I 49 Questions I ..................................... 50 Question II .....................................DRAFT 60 Question III ..................................... 72 Question IV ..................................... 81 Question V ..................................... 89 Question VI .....................................103 Question VII .....................................115 Question VIII ....................................123 Question IX .....................................128 Question XI .....................................139 Question XII .....................................140 Question XIII ....................................146 Question XIV ....................................150 Question XV ....................................155 Question XVI ....................................159 Question XVII ....................................162 Question XVIII ...................................165 2 3 Part II 170 Question I ......................................171 Chapter I ...................................180 Chapter II ...................................184 Chapter III ...................................191 Chapter IV ..................................197 Chapter V ...................................205 Chapter VI ..................................209 Chapter VII ..................................211 Chapter VIII ..................................216 Chapter IX ..................................219 Chapter X ...................................225 Chapter XI ..................................232 Chapter XII ..................................236 Chapter XIII ..................................239 Chapter XIV ..................................245 Chapter XV ..................................248 Chapter XVI ..................................252 Question II .....................................259 Chapter I ...................................269 Chapter II ...................................274 Chapter IIIDRAFT...................................278 Chapter IV ..................................282 Chapter V ...................................285 Chapter VI ..................................291 Chapter VII ..................................305 Chapter VIII ..................................308 PART III 311 General Introduction ................................312 First Head ......................................327 Question I ...................................328 Question II ..................................332 Question III ..................................334 Question IV ..................................335 Question V ..................................336 4 Second Head ....................................337 Question VI ..................................338 Question VII .................................342 Question VIII .................................344 Question IX ..................................347 Question X ..................................350 Question XI ..................................352 Question XII .................................355 Question XIII .................................358 Question XIV .................................361 Question XV .................................364 Question XVI .................................368 Third Head .....................................371 Question XVII ................................372 Question XVIII ................................375 Question XIX .................................377 Question XX .................................382 Question XXI .................................384 Question XXII ................................386 Question XXIII ................................389 Question XXIV ................................391 Question XXV ................................394 Question XXVI ................................398 Question XXVII ................................401 Question XXVIII ...............................404 Question XXIX ................................408 Question XXX ................................410 Question XXXI ................................412 Question XXXII ................................416 Question XXXIII ...............................421 Question XXXIVDRAFT...............................425 Question XXXV ...............................430 Online HTML Introduction 436 Online Introduction II ................................438 Editing Parameters .................................440 Notes on References ................................441 Notes on Deleted Links ...............................442 Transcription vs. Scanning .............................443 Acknowledgements 444 Letter of Approbation 445 The Bull Of Innocent VIII 447 A Note Upon the Bibliography 451 Bibliography 451 Index 455 List of Figures 0.1 Fig 1. Pencil sketch of accused Heretic ...................... 9 DRAFT 5 Editor’s Note “DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW” The motivation behind this undertaking stems from the needs of the Occult Sciences to have an adequate, albeit incomplete, typeset copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, both as an accessible historical resource and to know some of the ongoings that History reveals when dogma enters the realms of Individual Freedom, effectively suffocating the Human Experience to be nothing but a shell—a Qlipphotic piece of excremental waste. It is thus my ethical duty and honor to make sure in this Digital Age we have as complete a version of the Malleus Maleficarum possible: translators credited rightfully so are included in this digital document. I chose to offer my LaTeX skills to reduce the over 700 page html version down to 431 pages currently. As the completion of the translation comes to its culmination, so to will this PDF version. Regarding the use of SMALLCAPS and Italic glyph enhancements, I have made the concerted effort to make it clear that all DEIFIC references, in all Religions cited, are in smallcaps and that Latin, Greek, Germanic and other languages cited in italic. Also, I have italicizedDRAFT the references to Saints. I have taken the liberty of structurally combining passages to give it a more readable presentation, so if any part of this tomb seems to drain your eyes feel free to send me feed- back and I will be sure to address those issues and when it seems to make sense modify the layout and produce the changes in subsequent revisions. I also took it upon myself to apply all footnotes to their proper place—at the foot of the page noted—replacing the need for a separate web page for each footnote. This leads to a much more readable publication. All typos, and other extraneous grammatical errors are welcomed critiques and will be in- cluded in subsequent revisions to reflect a more correct edition. I have also taken the liberty to utilize small cap font substitution with the Palatino Type 1 Font that Adobe recognizes within Adobe Acrobat Reader. For Linux KPDF, GPDF and XPDF all recognize this font via LaTeX as mathpazo (Palatino Family glyph). The version of PDF included is Acrobat Writer PDF 1.4 compliant. This production is done with the LATEX 2" Publishing Frameworks and TEX Publishing System. The following packages were used to produce this publication: • documentclass[twoside,english,letterpaper] {memoir} • usepackage{babel} 6 Malleus Maleficarum 7 • usepackage[square,curly,comma,sort] • usepackage{natbib} • usepackage{calc} • usepackage[T1]{fontenc} • usepackage{textcomp} • usepackage{layouts} • usepackage{alltt} • usepackage{fixltx2e} • usepackage{setspace} • usepackage{url} • usepackage{color} • usepackage{graphicx} • usepackage{pdfcolmk} • usepackage[draft]{pdfdraftcopy} • usepackage{fancyheadings} • usepackage[pdftitle={The Malleus Malefi— carum},colorlinks=true,linkcolor=red,url— color=red,bookmarks=true,letterpaper] {hyperref}1 DRAFT • usepackage{memhfixc} • usepackage{wrapfig} This document is written in LATEX 2", on the Debian Linux Sid distribution, within the KDE 3.3 Desktop Environment and Kile LATEX 2" Editor. The LyX Publishing Editor was first chosen but the current version does not have full support for the Memoir Macro pack- age that I selected to use which managed most of the typeset functionality seen in this publication. Future versions of LyX currently in development will address this and more. All are freely available at the following websites: • http://www.tug.org (TEX User Group) • http://www.tug.org (LATEX 2" Base & Third-Party Frameworks) • http://www.tug.org (GNU/Linux Operating System Distribution) • http://www.tug.org (Konqueror Desktop Environment) 1This is not a complete attribute list used but should suffice Malleus Maleficarum 8 2 • http://www.tug.org (Kile LATEX 2" Graphical Editor on Linux, BSD ) • http://www.tug.org (WYSIWYM LATEX 2" Graphical Editor Environment on Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris Unix, BSD Unix and Windows NT/2K/XP)3 For interest in all matters LATEX 2" I recommend subscribing to the mailing groups available from the User Group website. The User List specifically if you want to learn LATEX 2" and the Developer List if you want to contribute to the continued progress of LATEX 2" originally developed by Leslie Lamport, as an Abstract Layer on top of TEX , developed by Dr. Donald Erwin Knuth, professor of Computer Science, Stanford University,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The 400Th Anniversary of the Lancashire Witch-Trials: Commemoration and Its Meaning in 2012
    The 400th Anniversary of the Lancashire Witch-Trials: Commemoration and its Meaning in 2012. Todd Andrew Bridges A thesis submitted for the degree of M.A.D. History 2016. Department of History The University of Essex 27 June 2016 1 Contents Abbreviations p. 3 Acknowledgements p. 4 Introduction: p. 5 Commemorating witch-trials: Lancashire 2012 Chapter One: p. 16 The 1612 Witch trials and the Potts Pamphlet Chapter Two: p. 31 Commemoration of the Lancashire witch-trials before 2012 Chapter Three: p. 56 Planning the events of 2012: key organisations and people Chapter Four: p. 81 Analysing the events of 2012 Conclusion: p. 140 Was 2012 a success? The Lancashire Witches: p. 150 Maps: p. 153 Primary Sources: p. 155 Bibliography: p. 159 2 Abbreviations GC Green Close Studios LCC Lancashire County Council LW 400 Lancashire Witches 400 Programme LW Walk Lancashire Witches Walk to Lancaster PBC Pendle Borough Council PST Pendle Sculpture Trail RPC Roughlee Parish Council 3 Acknowledgement Dr Alison Rowlands was my supervisor while completing my Masters by Dissertation for History and I am honoured to have such a dedicated person supervising me throughout my course of study. I gratefully acknowledge Dr Rowlands for her assistance, advice, and support in all matters of research and interpretation. Dr Rowland’s enthusiasm for her subject is extremely motivating and I am thankful to have such an encouraging person for a supervisor. I should also like to thank Lisa Willis for her kind support and guidance throughout my degree, and I appreciate her providing me with the materials that were needed in order to progress with my research and for realising how important this research project was for me.
    [Show full text]
  • The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, by Margaret Alice Murray This Ebook Is for the Use of Anyone Anywhere at No Cost and with Almost No Restrictions Whatsoever
    20411-0 The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by Margaret Alice Murray This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Witch-cult in Western Europe A Study in Anthropology Author: Margaret Alice Murray Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20411] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE *** Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Irma THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE _A Study in Anthropology_ BY MARGARET ALICE MURRAY OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921 Oxford University Press _London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_ Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY PREFACE The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but have confined myself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe. The New England records are unfortunately not published _in extenso_; this is the more unfortunate as the extracts already given to the public occasionally throw light on some of the English practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Constructing the Witch in Contemporary American Popular Culture
    "SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES": CONSTRUCTING THE WITCH IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE Catherine Armetta Shufelt A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2007 Committee: Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor Dr. Andrew M. Schocket Graduate Faculty Representative Dr. Donald McQuarie Dr. Esther Clinton © 2007 Catherine A. Shufelt All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Angela Nelson, Advisor What is a Witch? Traditional mainstream media images of Witches tell us they are evil “devil worshipping baby killers,” green-skinned hags who fly on brooms, or flaky tree huggers who dance naked in the woods. A variety of mainstream media has worked to support these notions as well as develop new ones. Contemporary American popular culture shows us images of Witches on television shows and in films vanquishing demons, traveling back and forth in time and from one reality to another, speaking with dead relatives, and attending private schools, among other things. None of these mainstream images acknowledge the very real beliefs and traditions of modern Witches and Pagans, or speak to the depth and variety of social, cultural, political, and environmental work being undertaken by Pagan and Wiccan groups and individuals around the world. Utilizing social construction theory, this study examines the “historical process” of the construction of stereotypes surrounding Witches in mainstream American society as well as how groups and individuals who call themselves Pagan and/or Wiccan have utilized the only media technology available to them, the internet, to resist and re- construct these images in order to present more positive images of themselves as well as build community between and among Pagans and nonPagans.
    [Show full text]
  • OCCULT BOOKS Catalogue No
    THOMPSON RARE BOOKS CATALOGUE 45 OCCULT BOOKS Catalogue No. 45. OCCULT BOOKS Folklore, Mythology, Magic, Witchcraft Issued September, 2016, on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Opening of our first Bookshop in Vancouver, BC, September, 1986. Every Item in this catalogue has a direct link to the book on our website, which has secure online ordering for payment using credit cards, PayPal, cheques or Money orders. All Prices are in US Dollars. Postage is extra, at cost. If you wish to view this catalogue directly on our website, go to http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/category/Catalogue45.html Thompson Rare Books 5275 Jerow Road Hornby Island, British Columbia Canada V0R 1Z0 Ph: 250-335-1182 Fax: 250-335-2241 Email: [email protected] http://www.ThompsonRareBooks.com Front Cover: Item # 73 Catalogue No. 45 1. ANONYMOUS. COMPENDIUM RARISSIMUM TOTIUS ARTIS MAGICAE SISTEMATISATAE PER CELEBERRIMOS ARTIS HUJUS MAGISTROS. Netherlands: Aeon Sophia Press. 2016. First Aeon Sophia Press Edition. Quarto, publisher's original quarter black leather over grey cloth titled in gilt on front cover, black endpapers. 112 pp, illustrated throughout in full colour. Although unstated, only 20 copies were printed and bound (from correspondence with the publisher). Slight binding flaw (centre pages of the last gathering of pages slightly miss- sewn, a flaw which could be fixed with a spot of glue). A fine copy. ¶ A facsimile of Wellcome MS 1766. In German and Latin. On white, brown and grey-green paper. The title within an ornamental border in wash, with skulls, skeletons and cross-bones. Illustrated with 31 extraordinary water-colour drawings of demons, and three pages of magical and cabbalistic signs and sigils, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • 3 Die Materialität Des Teufels Und Ihre Wir- Kung Auf Hexenverfolgung Und Hexenprozeß in Ausgewählten Europäischen Ländern Und in Den Neuenglischen Kolonien
    3 Die Materialität des Teufels und ihre Wir- kung auf Hexenverfolgung und Hexenprozeß in ausgewählten europäischen Ländern und in den neuenglischen Kolonien Kernpunkt vieler Hexenprozesse der frühen Neuzeit in Europa und in den neuenglischen Kolonien war die Frage nach der materiellen Existenz des Teu- fels und ihr Nachweis. Teufelspakt, Teufelsbuhlschaft und Hexenflug - alles Elemente des Volks- aberglaubens - waren für einen großen Teil der Hexenprozesse zentrale An- klagepunkte in den Gerichtsverfahren und trugen sowohl in Europa als auch in den neuenglischen Kolonien zu einer Intensivierung der Hexenverfolgung in der frühen Neuzeit bei. Martin Pott bezeichnet diese Elemente des Volksaberglaubens als „Penta- gramm des Hexenwahns“. Er sieht den Hexenglauben als ausgefeilte Theorie, deren Inhalte im Begriff des Teufelspaktes kulminieren.196 Seit Menschengedenken gehörte die Vorstellung einer den Menschen nicht immer freundlich gesinnten, real existenten Parallelwelt zum alltäglichen Le- ben. Einerseits war sie in vorchristlicher Zeit eine durchaus wertfreie Möglich- keit, unerklärliche Erlebnisse verständlich zu machen, andererseits diente sie später dem Christentum als spirituelles Gegengewicht zum göttlichen Wir- ken. Vor allem in kontinentaleuropäischen Ländern, wie zum Beispiel in Deutschland, gewann das Übernatürliche in der frühneuzeitlichen Hexen- verfolgung an Bedeutung. Die Verhandlung von Hexenanklagen vor Gericht mußte dieser Entwicklung Rechnung tragen. Zeugenaussagen und Geständ- nisse der Angeklagten, welche die Existenz des
    [Show full text]
  • Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) and the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus
    Portland State University PDXScholar Malleus Maleficarum and asciculusF Malleus Maleficarum Temporum (1490) 2020 Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) and the Summis desiderantes affectibus Maral Deyrmenjian Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/mmft_malleus Part of the European History Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Medieval History Commons, and the Medieval Studies Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Deyrmenjian, Maral, "Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) and the Summis desiderantes affectibus" (2020). Malleus Maleficarum. 1. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/mmft_malleus/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Malleus Maleficarum by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Maral Deyrmenjian Spring, 2020 Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) and the Summis desiderantes affectibus At the end of the fifteenth century, Dominican friars were authorized to persecute practitioners of certain local customs which were perceived to be witchcraft in the mountains of Northern Italy.1 A landmark in the chronology of these witch-hunts was the papal bull of 1484, or the Summis desiderantes affectibus, and its inclusion in Heinrich Kramer’s witch-hunting codex, the Malleus Maleficarum. While neither the pope nor the papal bull were significantly influential on their own, the extraordinary popularity of Kramer’s Malleus draws attention to them. Pope Innocent VIII, born Giovanni Battista Cibó, was born in Genoa in 1432 into a Roman senatorial family.2 Cibó did not intend to become a member of the clergy and, in fact, fathered two illegitimate children: Franceschetto and Teodorina.
    [Show full text]
  • Against the Reproduction of Continental Philosophy of Religion
    ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0207-4 OPEN Hexing the discipline: against the reproduction of continental philosophy of religion Marika Rose1 & Anthony Paul Smith2 ABSTRACT There has been a generalised anxiety concerning the future of continental philosophy of religion as a discipline, with a number of books, articles, conferences, and presentations taking up this theme. This anxiety exists because as a discipline continental 1234567890():,; philosophy of religion lacks a clear claim to an identity. This article analyses the anxiety concerning the future of continental philosophy of religion as an anxiety of reproduction. By locating the philosopher’s anxiety within a wider anxiety of reproduction we begin to understand this anxiety through the queer anti-social critique of Lee Edelman. This anxiety is traced through three processes of reproduction: intellectual reproduction, disciplinary reproduction, and institutional reproduction. The article goes on to sketch out a position against the reproduction of continental philosophy of religion by taking on and celebrating the discipline’s improper nature. Appealing neither to secular reason nor to established traditions, we draw on the Malleus Maleficarum (as read through queer theory and non-philosophy) to craft various models for thought. Here we find abortion prized over the future of the race, miscegenation over blood purity, and impotence and infertility over the sovereign power of the father. These models are explored both in terms of their historical context and as pro- viding a different image of the work that can be carried out in the discipline of continental philosophy of religion. The article concludes by suggesting other perverse lines of relation that may be opened up when one gives up on the reproduction of the discipline.
    [Show full text]
  • The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, by 1
    The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by 1 The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by Margaret Alice Murray This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Witch-cult in Western Europe A Study in Anthropology Author: Margaret Alice Murray Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20411] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE *** Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Irma Špehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE A Study in Anthropology BY MARGARET ALICE MURRAY The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by 2 OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921 Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY PREFACE The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but have confined myself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe. The New England records are unfortunately not published in extenso; this is the more unfortunate as the extracts already given to the public occasionally throw light on some of the English practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Images and Witchcraft Studies: a Short History
    IMAGES AND WITCHCRAFT STUDIES: A SHORT HISTORY Charles Zika Our understanding and use of witchcraft images has changed dramatically over the last four decades. The two editions of the source collection edited by Alan Kors and Edward Peters, Witchcraft in Europe 400–1700, published almost thirty years apart, clearly exemplify some of these changes.1 The first edition of 1972 contained seventy-two illustrations, and of these more than one-third were only very loosely related to the theme of witchcraft. Many depicted the origins, temptations and other activity of devils, their role at the last judgment and in administering the punishments of hell, and their exorcism by Christ and the saints. Of the remaining two-thirds, approximately half (twenty-three) were illustrations from three witch- craft treatises: Francesco Maria Guazzo’s A Compendium of Witches of 1608 (fifteen), Olaus Magnus’ History of the Northern Peoples of 1555 (four) and Ulrich Molitor’s On Female Witches and Fortune-tellers of 1489–1500 (four).2 As the introduction to the later 2001 edition openly admitted, this was a very limited image base, one based on the very limited investiga- tion by art historians and others of the visual lexicon of magic, sorcery and witchcraft. The earlier edition of Kors and Peters’ collection was alert to the importance of media in the development of this lexicon, arguing that a basic pictorial vocabulary was created in the twelfth to the four- teenth centuries, and developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies largely through the greater circulation, synthesis, standardization and repetition of images facilitated by the newer media of woodcuts and 1 Alan C.
    [Show full text]
  • King James's Daemonologie: the Evolution of the Concept Of
    Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Lingue Moderne per la Comunicazione e la Cooperazione Internazionale Classe LM-38 Tesi di Laurea King James’s Daemonologie: the evolution of the concept of witchcraft in Scotland Relatore Laureando Prof. Alessandra Petrina Stefano Melta n° matr.1038982 / LMLCC Anno Accademico 2018 / 2019 1 Table of Contents FOREWORD ...................................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER I: The Scottish social and political situation in the second half of the sixteenth century............................................................................................................................... 13 I.I. A social geography of the Reformation in Scotland .......................................... 13 I.II. Witchcraft as an enemy of the State ................................................................... 17 I.III. The shaping of the new Kirk and the concept of authority ................................ 21 CHAPTER II: Biographical background .......................................................................... 25 II.I The political situation in the 70s and 80s ........................................................... 28 II.II Marriage and witches ......................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER III: The books behind Daemonologie ............................................................ 41 CHAPTER IV: Daemonologie
    [Show full text]
  • From Decadent Diabolist to Roman Catholic Demonologist: Some Biographical Curiosities from Montague Summers’ Black Folio
    From Decadent Diabolist to Roman Catholic Demonologist: Some Biographical Curiosities from Montague Summers’ Black Folio Bernard Doherty Introduction The history and practice of black magic, witchcraft, and Satanism have long held a deep fascination in British—and indeed international—popular culture. Beginning with the gothic literature of the eighteenth century, through to the nineteenth century occult revival and Victorian “penny dreadful,” and then into twentieth century pulp fiction, tales of the supernatural involving maleficent magic have been authored some of Britain’s most popular—if not always critically acclaimed—writers including, among others M. R. James, Arthur Machen, William Somerset Maugham, Agatha Christie, Charles Williams, and Dennis Wheatley. These writers, as well as various other short story writers, novelists, and journalists, have all played an important role in shaping, recording, and reflecting popular beliefs about these topics. Indeed, not a few occult practitioners, most notably Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, Gerald Gardner, and Doreen Valiente, even turned their hands to writing popular occult fiction. Despite this, the frequent blurring of the often porous boundary between actual occult practices and groups, and the imagined worlds of the purveyors of popular and literary fiction, has been seldom explored outside of highly specialised academic literature dedicated to the history of gothic or weird fiction and the burgeoning study of what has come to be called Western Esotericism.1 Bernard Doherty is a lecturer in the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University. 1 See, for example, Nick Freeman, ‘The Black Magic Bogeyman 1908–1935’, in The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947, ed. Christine Ferguson and Andrew Radford, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Witches' Sabbath in Scotland
    Proc Soc Antiq Scot 142 (2012), 371–412 THE WITches’ SABBATH IN SCOTLAND | 371 The Witches’ Sabbath in Scotland Laura Paterson* ABSTRACT There are ample surviving references in the witchcraft trial material to indicate that the witches’ sabbath became an important feature of the crime of witchcraft in Scotland. Comparison of the trial material has revealed numerous discrepancies between individual and group accounts of the witches’ sabbath. The frequent inability of the witches to agree upon a time, date or place that the witches’ sabbath took place have indicated that, in the cases studied, the witches’ sabbath was not a genuine historical event. Elite beliefs and ideas about the witches’ sabbath were frequently introduced during interrogations, and certainly left their mark upon the witchcraft records. However, the examination process was often a negotiation between witches and their interrogators, and as such, allowed many witches to incorporate their own beliefs and ideas into their descriptions of the witches’ sabbath. Close reading of the trial material, combined with an analysis of contemporary presbytery records and popular ballads, provides evidence that many witches were drawing upon popular beliefs about fairies, magic and the supernatural, as well as their experiences at real life celebrations and festivities, to compose their descriptions of the witches’ sabbath. The majority of confessions that contain descriptions of the witches’ sabbath are the product of this interrogation and negotiation process, but this research has also explored the possibility that the witches’ sabbath might have been a real visionary experience for some witches, and that these visionary experiences were fantasies induced by psychological trauma, or a waking or sleeping vision similar to those experienced by tribal shamans.
    [Show full text]