Demonology

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The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior. The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters. The physicians called in to examine the girls could find no natural cause of the disturbing behavior. If the source of the affliction was not attributable to a physical malady, the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan. Witches had invaded Salem. In February the village began praying and fasting in order to rid itself of the devil's influence. The girls were pressured to reveal who in the community controlled their behavior. Three women were identified and examined. One, Tituba (a slave), confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog." Even more troubling, Tituba confessed that a conspiracy of witches permeated Salem Village.

In March the afflicted girls accused Martha Corey. The three women previously denounced as colluding with the devil were marginal to the community. Martha Corey was different; she was an upstanding member of the Puritan congregation - her revelation as a witch demonstrated that Satan's influence reached to the very core of the community. Events snowballed as the accusatory atmosphere intensified and reached a fever pitch. During the period from March into the fall many were charged, examined, tried and condemned to death. The hangings started in June with the death of Bridget Bishop and continued through September. As winter approached, the hysteria played itself out as criticism of the procedures grew. In October, the colonial governor dissolved the local Court of inquiry. The convictions and condemnations for witchery stopped. Nineteen victims of the witch-hunt had been hanged, one crushed to death under the weight of stones and at least four died in prison awaiting trial...

A woman in Texas was driven to leave the home she was renting due to a series of paranormal sightings of a little girl that in one session with a local investigator was claimed to be demonic in nature. "One woman says her familylived in fear.

She claims they heard voices and saw shadows in their home. The family was so scared they called a ghost hunter to find out what was going on. "My little girl would see a little girl with dark hair. She said she looked sad. Those were her words," the woman explains." View: Full Article | Source: KRGV.com

A 150-year-old mystery has reared its head after a woman woke to find 'Satan's hoofprints' dotted across freshly fallen snow in her back garden. The single track of cloven-like prints - which appear to have been made by a two-legged creature - precisely resemble footprints recorded in the area in 1855.

The phenomenon, which has never been explained, became known as the 'Devil's foot prints' in a local legend. Grandmother Jill, 76, of Woolsery, Devon, said: 'I looked in the garden and it really intrigued me. 'I couldn't believe it - the footprints were in the shape of a cloven hoof. There were no other marks at all in the snow.

'I was quite surprised by it and I hadn't got a clue what it was, but I thought I would love to know.' Scientists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology inspected the prints which measure 5ins (13cm) long with a stride of between 11 and 17ins (28 and 43cm). Jonathan Downes, who runs the centre, is investigating whether the footprints could have been left by a hare or rabbits hopping on their hind legs.

He said: 'Thousands of people across the world believe in the paranormal, but so far every single thing we have looked into has turned out to have a natural explanation. I'm sure these will as well. 'Do I believe that the Devil comes from the pits of Hell to wander around the gardens of North Devon? Of course not.

'But if you're asking if there are things that can't be explained by modern science, then yes. But human knowledge is expanding all the time. 'I believe that things that are currently put down to the paranormal will one day be explained by science.'

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Anthony North: We are all aware of the term, "pact with the Devil". It means selling your soul to the Devil for favour, but it always requires something in return, resulting in you being lost to good, and coming under the influence of evil. During the Witchhunts, witches were thought to have come under the Devil"s influence. This is usually rejected nowadays -the Devil is a product of monotheism, whereas witches come under the pagan -a totally different spiritual system. Yet philosophically it is not incorrect.: Now, any pagans reading this, please don"t be immediately annoyed. The situation isn"t as bad as I indicate here. We simply have to understand the subtlety of the human mind. Ourstory begins with the first known spirituality.

This was animism. Stated briefly, a physical world and a spiritual world existed in parallel, with the latter influencing the former, with spirits existing in all things from animals, to rivers, to the weather. Spirituality was grounded in nature.: Everything that nature was had its spirits, which were seen by man. Today, this is what we would class as the paranormal, and man realized that in order to gain abundance from nature, he had to treat the spirits well. Holy men, often called shamans, intervened with this spirit world in order to guarantee his tribe didn"t starve. He would make a bargain -or pact -with the spirits, often involving ceremony, and even sacrifice. This was the first known spiritual pact.: The spirits eventually became known asgods, and were usually represented as animals. However, eventually the "chimera" appeared. This was a spiritual representation, half animal, half man. This indicates that man"s mentality was changing. For the first time he began to see himself as "god-like". One explanation for this is the rise of "ego", with man seeing himself, for the first time, as an entity separate to nature. Eventually, the agricultural revolution began.: This required static living, the beginnings of engineering and crafts, and a social hierarchy.

View: Full Article | Source: Beyond the Blog