Witchcraft
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft1
Bellarmine jugs, bottles, and drinking mugs were produced by the potteries of the Rhineland area, from the sixteenth century onwards. They were exported in large numbers to this country, where they be...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft2
When used as a witch-bottle, these vessels have been found with highly unpleasant contents, such as human hair entangled with sharp nails, cuttings of human finger-nails, a piece of cloth in the shape...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft3
Believing that a magical link existed between the witch and themselves, they tried to put the magic into reverse, and turn it back upon the sender. They used their own hair, nail-clippings, urine, etc...
Bellarmine Jugs and their Connection to Witchcraft4
In Christian times, sculptors tried to work it into Church decorations by calling it a symbol of the Holy Trinity; but in the sixteenth century, it was banned by the Council of Trent, who declared it ...
Benandanti 1
Participants in the lingering remnants of an ancient agrarian cult in northern Italy, which came to the attention of the Inquisition in the late 16th century because of the cult’s nocturnal battles wi...
Benandanti 2 The Unknown Origans
The origins of the benandanti cult are unknown; the roots are probably ancient. The leaving of the body and doing battle in spirit, in the guise of animals, is shamanic in nature. The benandanti may b...
Benandanti 3 The Church
The benandanti came to the attention of the church in 1575, when a priest in Brazzano heard rumors of a man in Civdale, Paolo Gasparutto, who could cure bewitched persons and who “roamed about at nigh...
Lucius Apuleius1
Lucius Apuleius is best known to us as the author of The Golden Ass, one of the most famous romances in the world, containing as it does the story of Cupid and Psyche. His importance to the study of w...
Lucius Apuleius2 The Golden Ass
His book The Golden Ass was translated into English by William Adlington in 1 566 (Simpkin Marshall, London, 1 930 and AMS Press, New York, 1 893), and in our own day by Robert Graves in 1 950. It pre...
Lucius Apuleius3 The witches in The Golden Ass
The witches in The Golden Ass have many of the characteristics attributed to those of the Middle Ages. They can change their shape by means of magic unguents; they steal parts from corpses to use in t...
Water Elemental Correspondence
Generally called from the west Considered moist and cool and is associated with the phlegmatic temperament Considered feminine and nature Represents the liquid state of matter Corresponds to matur...
Fire Elemental Correspondence
Generally called from the south Considered warm and dry and is associated with the choleric temperament Active and penetrating and considered masculine in nature Represents energy Corresponds to our c...
Air Elemental Correspondence
Generally called from the East Considered warm and moist and is associated with the sanguine temperament Considered hermaphrodite or masculine in nature Represents the gaseous state of matter Correspo...
Earth Elemental Correspondence
Generally called from the North Considered cool and dry and is associated with the melancholic temperament Represents the solid state of matter Corresponds to the physical part of ourselves, our physi...
Invoking Spirit Element
When you feel you are sufficiently adept at using the other Elements, you may begin to use spirit – the fifth Element. This has no special space but is everywhere. It should never ever be used negativ...
The Sigillum Aemeth
The Sigillum Aemeth, or Seal of Truth, illustrated above, was inscribed by John Dee upon a disk of “perfect wax” that was nine inches in diameter (nine is the number of the moon) and one inch thick. I...