Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

Mark of the Devil 163
“Pricking a Witch” illustration by D.B. Bliss for The Devil in Scotland, published in 1934. (Fortean Picture Library)
“witch-prickers” emerged who claimed expertise at
detecting individuals who had sold their souls to
the Devil. These pseudoprofessionals were encouraged
to commit abuses by the unwise practice of
paying them “by the head” for each person found
guilty of witchcraft. It has been said that at least
some prickers used a trick bodkin, the metallic
shaft of which would retract into the handle as the
bodkin as pressed into the skin of the accused.
When alternated with a real bodkin that evoked
blood and cries of pain when inserted, the spectacle
could be quite convincing. Eventually, so many
innocent people were executed by the false testimony
of prickers that in 1662 “pricking for witchcraft”
was outlawed. After some of the prickers
where imprisoned and, in some cases, executed, the
practice quickly died out.
Witches’ marks or witches’ teats can also refer
to special marks believed to serve the purpose of
feeding familiars or imps, who were believed to
have a craving for human blood. Individuals with
supernumerary nipples—sometimes called
“monkey teats,” a not uncommon condition—
were especially suspect as witches. Tortured by
agents of the Inquisition, accused witches often
confessed to feeding imps by such means. Some of
the witches executed in Salem, Massachusetts,
were said to have had witches’ marks with which
they fed diabolical familiars.
This item of medieval superstition was resurrected
and presented as fact in Michelle
Remembers, the popular 1980 book credited with
setting the ritual abuse scare in motion. In one
ritual Michelle claimed to remember, Satan
himself commanded that marks be made upon
one of his initiates in doggerel verse.
Michelle Remembers also contained a number
of pictures of Michelle’s rashes, identified as
marks made by the Prince of Darkness himself.
One photo caption read, “Michelle experienced
‘body memories’ of her ordeal. Whenever she
relived the moments when Satan had his burning
tail wrapped around her neck, a sharply defined
rash appeared in the shape of the spade-like tip of
his tail.” Given the B-movie quality of the events
described in Michelle Remembers, it is incredible
that so many readers took the book seriously.
Although most modern Satanists have no use
for this particular item of folklore, the tradition of
the Devil’s mark has been reinterpreted and incorporated
into at least one Black Mass ceremony, the
ChaoSatanic Black Mass “Recrucifixion.” At the