Witchcraft, Sorcery, Occult & the Magic

© EyeWitness to History

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...

Police in Dorset have consulted with a warlock in an effort to unravel the mystery of horses having their manes plaited, it is believed that this is being done as part of a ritual pertaining to "knot magick"."A police force hasconsulted a "warlock" in an attempt to unravel a spate of mysterious incidents of horses having their manes plaited...

police officers investigating the incidents said there had been no thefts, and instead their enquiries led to the world of pagan ritual."

View:Full Article | Source: Telegraph

By Andrew Mann

Macbeth was written in the early 1600's (most likely sometime between 1604 and 1606) by William Shakespeare. According to legend, it was performed at Hampton Court in 1606 for King James I and his brother-in-law, King Christian of Denmark, and was clearly designed to appeal to King James. Not only was Banquo, who just happens to be a part of the Stuart family tree (as was James), portrayed favorably, but the play itself was fairly short, probably because King James preferred short plays. Most importantly, James himself had previously published a book on witches and how to detect them. Because of this, Shakespeare decided to give his play a supernatural twist in another effort to please the King. For the opening scene of Act IV, he reproduced a sacred black-magic ritual in which a group of witches danced about a black cauldron, shouting out strange phrases and ingredients to be thrown into it. The practitioners of rituals such as this one were not very amused by Shakespeare's public exposure of their witchcraft, and as punishment they decided to cast their own spell on the play Macbeth that still haunts it to this day.

Supposedly, saying the name "Macbeth" inside a theater will bring bad luck to the play and anyone acting in it. The only exception is when the word is spoken as a line in the play. In order to reverse the bad luck, the person who uttered the word must exit the theater, spin around three times saying a profanity, and then ask for permission to return inside. There are several other variations of this ritual that involve spitting over your shoulders or simply letting out a stream of cuss words. Some say that you must repeat the words "Thrice around the circle bound, Evil sink into the ground," or you can turn to Will himself for assistance and cleanse the air with a quotation from Hamlet. Whatever steps that you choose to take, failing to do anything to prevent the curse from taking effect will ensure that you will in for some trouble...

Encounter Southern Africa Magazine

Although regarded with extreme skepticism by many, the uncanny healing power of the witch doctors (M'ganga) of Africa are widely treated with respect by the medical profession. A witchdoctor in Dakar, Senegal was once able to save the lives of many yellow fever patients doomed to die where medical graduates from Paris stood by helplessly. Once too, along the banks of the Congo River, a French doctor observed African surgery being performed. His friends were treating a man with a very deep cut in the forearm. They secured a number of large black ants over the wound. As each ant bit into the flesh, the cut was drawn together. The body of each ant was removed and the wound closed as neatly as though done by a surgeon's needle.

During the smallpox epidemics of the eighteenth century in Southern Africa, there were no Bushman fatalities. They knew how to build immunity to certain diseases and poisons. Bushmen used to demonstrate this by for instance placing a tarantula spider on their hands, allowing themselves to be bitten and yet showing no trace of suffering afterwards. A Bushman's consumption of food and water has astounded doctors. A Bushman swells visibly as he consumes a small buck. And yet he will be able to compete quite comfortably in a marathon in that state. They will overtake a buck in the desert heat or chase a zebra for several kilometers with hardly any rest. It is claimed that the Bushmen has a sixth sense. They have a very highly developed and uncanny sense of direction, far superior to an European or African. A Bushman may turn, circle and zigzag for hours when hunting, but when returning to camp he will head exactly in the right direction. A tribesman was teted by blindfolding and leading him through various paths for several hours. When the cloth was removed, he pointed to the exact direction of his camp. Children too, never lose their way. Together with this "guiding instinct", they apparently see a vision of the trail ahead...