WITCHCRAFT

WITCHERY HERE AND EVERYWHERE

In the 1650s one of thousands of witches was said to be operating around Shepton Mallet, England. Jane Brooks once called on the young boy Richard Jones. Giving him a bewitched apple, the boy began suffering fits, including flying over walls. Soon reported for witchcraft, Jane was hanged in March 1658 after being found guilty at Chard assizes.
The above is a classic example of witchcraft, one of the darkest of supposed supernatural dark forces. However, not all witches were said to be this malevolent. For instance, John Tatterson went to the Yorkshire witch Ann Greene to be cured of pains in the ear. The year was 1654, and Ann took off her garter and passed it three times over John’s ear. The pains immediately disappeared, and so happy was John that he immediately went to the authorities concerning Ann’s witchcraft.
Cases of witchcraft were still going strong well into the l9th century. For instance, during a case for assault in Norwich in 1843, a Mr and Mrs Curtis testified that a Mrs Bell had lit a candle, stuck in pins and uttered a curse, following which Mrs Curtis suffered paralysis.
Witches often had helpers in the form of animal familiars. During the famed Chelmsford Witch Trial of 1566, Elizabeth Francis spoke of her familiar – a cat called Sathan. To do a deed for her the cat required a drop of blood from her pricked finger. Also among their arsenal of malevolence was the flying broomstick, upon which they would ride off to Sabbats where they would kiss the Devil’s anus and indulge in devil worship.
The broomstick angle almost certainly comes from the practice of women leaving their broom outside the front door when they went out. Such stereotypes of the witch were validated by the likes of Shakespeare and the Brothers Grimm, offering the idea of a witch as an old crone with pointy hat and evil laugh. When infact, witchcraft. or wicca as it is known today, had nothing to do with the Devil. The Devil was a Christian creation …

This essay has now moved to Anthony North’s new website. Read more of it here, including his own theories and more data including the Witchhunts.

© Anthony North, November 2002

RT One