Inside History: Witchcraft & Folklore

I S S U E N O . 3
V O L U M E N O . 1
INSIDE
HISTORY
W I T C H C R A F T A N D F O L K L O R E
WITCH
HUNT:
PERSECUTING
THE
POWERLESS?
*The pendle witches * Matthew Hopkins: The witchfinder general* nursing and witchcraft*
* Politics and WItchcraft: How Powerful women were not immune*
*malleus maleficarum*James VI & I: HIS Majesty the witchfinder * Wiccans in New York *
*Tarot Cards Through the Ages* Victorian ways to repel witchcraft*

www.cunning-folk.com

Avampato
Christa
Delaney
Kate
Scott Eaton
Dr
Hollman
Gemma
Jobb
Dean
Kevern
Nick
Marshall
Bridget
Pringle
Hannah
Walsh
Robert
Thomas Waters
Dr
was one of William Shakespeare's most famous
Macbeth
The same could be said about the lives of
tragedies.
of its most important characters. The portrayal of
three
Witches in the play is one of those who could foresee
the
future and ultimate downfall of Macbeth. To some,
the
powers represented a danger, to others, a ideal of
these
the time Shakespeare was writing, he would have
By
all too aware of what was really happening in
been
The days of being called "Cunning Folk" were
society.
replaced by something that people thought to be
being
would often seek the assistance of the Cunning
people
to heal. Yet, as society developed and orgainised
Folk"
began to grow, the "Cunning Folk" were now
religion
upon with suspicion for their paganism.
viewed
Malleus Maleficarum would ensure many were
The
throughout Europe, acting as a justification
persecuted
many for their actions towards these Cunning Folk
to
refused to renounce their Pagan ways. However, it
who
produced something even more disturbing with
also
to the nature of humanity. It established a free
regards
to persecute the vulnerable, the outsider and even
reign
whose power and position of authority was
those
desired. In many respects, it was corruption under the
issue of Inside History focuses on the topic of
This
and Folklore. Throughout this issue we will
Witchcraft
the political, religious and social aspects that
highlight
to the persecution of the innocent. Along the way,
led
will meet the fanatical believers who sought, not to
we
but to slaughter and profit in the name of
understand,
will also look at the world of Folklore. From Tarot
We
to a most devilish murder in Nova Scotia. Many still
Cards
in the power of witchcraft and we meet those
believe
do in New York.
who
A NOTE
BY THE
EDITOR
"DOUBLE, DOUBLE TOIL AND
TROUBLE; FIRE BURN AND CALDRON
William Shakespeare. Macbeth BUBBLE."
hope from the natural and supernatural world.
ungodly. It was not always this way. In medieval times,
E D I T O R
Nick Kevern
guise of salvation.
C O N T R I B U T O R S
their ideals.
Louise Wyatt
@inside__history insidehistorymag @InsideHistoryMag

and Nursing: A Blurred
Witchcraft
(Louise Wyatt)
Boundary.
Maleficarum: The "Witch
Malleus
(Robert Walsh)
Hammer".
and Witchcraft: How Powerful
Politics
were not immune. (Gemma
women
Hopkins: Witchfinder General
Matthew
Scott Eaton)
(Dr
Victorian ways to repel witchcraft
7
Thomas Waters)
(Dr
Celtic diaspora: British
The
Wicca's Irish roots and
traditional
I N S I D E H I S T O R Y
16
20
I S S U E 0 3 / W I T C H C R A F T A N D F O L K L O R E
CONTENTS
06
12
16
Hollman)
34
28
42
12 28
20
34
His Majesty the Witchfinder
Salem: Persecuting the powerless
52
North American Wings
The Pendle Witches
24
Tarot Cards Through the Ages
38
A Devilish Murder in Nova Scotia
48
52 38

42

CUNNING FOLK.
WISE WOMAN.
FOLK MAGIC.
HERBAL HEALER.
LAY HEALERS.
WITCH. NURSE.

WITCHCRAFT
& NURSING
A BLURRED
BOUNDARY
WORDS BY LOUISE WYATT

Cunning folk. Wise Woman. Folk Magic. Herbal Healer.
Lay Healers. Witch. Nurse. Just some of the terms that
have been used to describe healing women (and
occasionally men) from time immemorial. Determining
what one term represents and what another one
means, is quite difficult as they often overlap and
boundaries become blurred but a general thread runs
amongst the etymology – convoluted, blurred
boundaries and some assumptions. I have tried my best
to gather the evidence and condense - some of the
facts are worthy of much more investigation.
Cunning folk were usually seen as those who were
relied upon to banish bad spirits and who mastered the
art of beneficiary magic – protection and lifting
bewitchments for example. The word folk is derived
from the Anglo-Saxon folc, meaning common
people/nation/tribe, now superseded by the noun
people. The term nurse is derived from the Latin nutrire,
meaning to suckle, as in wet-nurse, as well as the terms
nourish, nutrition and nursery. The etymology for witch
is a tad more convoluted but basically has its roots in
wicca (male) and wicce (female). As far back as c890 CE,
the Laws of Alfred (the Great) note the terms Lyblaeca
(sorcerer) and Lybbestre (sorceress) and has its root
meaning in the word Lybb, meaning
drug/poison/charm. Historians have declared the
meaning of magic as having a range of meanings as it
has been interpreted differently by different cultures. A
modern-day witch explains magic as the natural
practice of lay healers, herbalists and potion-makers. It
appears to be derived from Old Persian magu relating
to the practices of powerful tribes such as dream
interpretation; a change of context when adopted by
the Ancient Greeks led to magic meaning practices and
improper expressions of their religion and therefore
offensive, which was adopted by early Latin and
therefore early christians. Thus, the negativity associated
with terms witch and witchcraft with early christian
writings deeming them demonic, stems from these
early teachings and anything that represented a pagan
culture (one who is not a christian).
Early Christianity arose during the time of the Roman
Empire where we find wealthy Roman matrons in the
world of early nursing during the fourth and fifth
centuries. Marcella, Fabiola and Paula established
devout practices including the earliest recorded
hospitals and hospices (shelter for the poor, not what
the modern hospice is). They – and their establishments
- nursed the sick and offered sanctuary whilst being
devout christians but the focus appears to be on care
not cure. The early Middle Ages saw the rise of social
constructs such as feudalism whereby the lady of the
manor became responsible for the care of not only her
household but of the whole manor and its relevant
settlements. A large part of these duties included
care of the sick and the need for surgical procedures,
first aid, knowledge of home remedies for a plethora
of ailments; being doctor and nurse and responsible
for empirical medicine. Monastic establishments,
such as the Rule of Benedict established by Basil of
Nursia (480 – 543CE) went onto be the respected
centres of learning and care of the sick and dying
using their knowledge of herbs and medicine.
Anglo-Saxon medicine stems mainly from surviving
medicinal texts such as Bald’s Leechbook and the
Lacnunga. These were Anglo-Saxon charm texts,
consisting of recipes, invocations, an object/amulet
with a specific set of words on it or a potion. In Anglo-
Saxon times these charms were the difference
between health and disease, life or death and were
taken very seriously. The Lacnunga is held in the
British Library (Harley MS 525) and is sometimes
described as more of a notebook, as opposed to the
more ordered, elaborate Leechbook. It is also known
as the Nine Herbs Charm, on how to utilise herbs as
medicine. Indeed, much of this era sees consideration
of folklore, drug lore, mysticism and superstition
utilised in remedies, although some seem plain daft -
“Against Goblin Visitors: work a salve
against nocturnal goblin visitors; boil in
butter lupins, hegerife, bishopwort, red
maythe, cropleek, salt; smear the man
therewith, it will soon be well with him. –
The Lacnunga”
In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII allegedly gave the church
authority to find so-called witches and kill them,
starting a global panic of fear and paranoia regarding
heresy. He did this based on Exodus 22:18 in the bible
– Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live. However, this
has been argued that the Pope ‘does not wish
anyone to believe more about the reality of
witchcraft than is involved in the utterances of the
Holy Scripture’. By this time, women were not
allowed to attend universities to train as doctors so
women with knowledge of local cures that had been
handed down through the generations, were now
feared. The witch hunts focused on the peasantry,
with nobles and royalty enjoying (or not!) the
administrations of their university-trained physicians,
even though they practised by astrology and
alchemy. The common village wise woman had no
right to ease labour pains, for example, as the pain
was God’s punishment for woman’s lust and pain she
had to bear. By easing pain and suffering, the wise
woman was in cahoots with the devil, despite her
knowledge of plants that have a basis in today’s
modern pharmacology.
8/ WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

THOU SHALT NOT
SUFFER A WITCH
TO LIVE.
EXODUS 22:18

This herbal and natural knowledge was the basis of
wise women, village herbalists and midwives, serving
their communities (folcstedeas) and peasant villages
with knowledge being handed down from
grandmother to mother to daughter. According to
Women in Medieval Europe 1200 – 1500 by Jennifer
Ward, men were also witches and their practices
probably overlapped those of women who were
simply practising herbal medicine. Women of the
household were usually responsible for the cooking
of meals and would have had more knowledge of
herbs and what to pick in the forests and fields
surrounding their villages. It is safe to say knowledge
grew from this aspect, including what in the garden
would help with aches, pains, headaches and
digestive problems. Although we now know that
natural does not always mean safe (contraindications
with St John’s Wort, for example)’
stuck in poverty, had. Even royalty never escaped
accusations, such as Joan of Navarre and Elizabeth
Woodville. No doubt some dark deeds using magic
was apparent but so much more was lost by the real
evil in all of this – fear of the unknown.
One can see a common thread – the natural world of
herbs, plants, charms and an ability to care for
strangers – running through history. Today’s nurses
need to have that vocational quality of wanting to
help other people (such as the Roman matrons did)
and need at least a basic understanding of
pharmaceutical knowledge, be that applications of
dressings on wounds or the administration of end of
life drugs. Both of these treatments have a
foundation in the natural world – honey and silver for
example used in wound dressings and many
derivatives of the poppy flower for opiate medicine.
Ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grasses
such as wheat and was used in village midwifery, has
an interesting history. During the Middle Ages,
ergotism, a severe reaction to ergot-contaminated
food (such as rye bread), was common and was
known as St. Anthony's fire. This illness was often
cured by visiting the shrine of St. Anthony, which
happened to be in an ergot-free region of France
(maybe not rocket science to us now but back then
must have most definitely seemed like a miraculous
cure!). Additionally, some historians believe that ergot
played a role in the Salem witch hunt of 1692; they
think that some women in Salem developed peculiar
behaviours and accused other women of being
witches as a result of eating ergot-contaminated
food. Not surprising, seeing as ergot is also the source
of lysergic acid, from which the powerful
hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is
easily synthesized.
Witches, cunning folk, healer … people, mainly
women, that had knowledge and power that was
feared due to the unknown but who worked for their
communities and were often the only help that those
Wyatt is a practicing
Louise
Nurse Sister and the
District
of A HISTORY OF
author
published by
NURSING
books
Amberley
£14.99
RRP:
10/ WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

GREAT HISTORY IN ONE PLACE
www.foxlanebooks.co.uk
@foxlanebooks
fox_lane_books

MALLEUS
MALEFICARUM:
THE ‘WITCH HAMMER’
WORDS BY ROBERT WALSH

Today ‘witch-hunt’ is a by-word for persecution,
brutality and mistreatment. Senator Joseph
McCarthy’s campaign against known or suspected
Communists during the 1950’s revived the
term especially after the executions of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg in 1953. More recently US President
Donald Trump and his supporters described his
impeachment crisis as a ‘witch-hunt.’
In medieval Europe the term was taken far more
literally. Those accused of witch-craft literally
were hunted. The term ‘Spanish Inquisition’ is still
popular when describing either persecution or overlyintrusive
behaviour. The name ‘Torquemada’ is still
used to describe fanaticism, ruthlessness and cruelty.
They are by-words for the very worst forms of
repression.
Often dragged from their homes in the dead of night
suspected witches could expect the same
fate as heretics. First, confessions were demanded. If
demands failed torture was standard practice. That
confessions under torture are usually unreliable was
considered irrelevant. Inquisitors saw exemplary
justice and punishment were the order of the day.
Confessions led to punishments, preferably as public
and brutal as possible.
In 1487 German theologist Heinrich Kramer
published a handbook for detection, investigation
and punishment of suspected witches entitled ‘Der
Hexenhammer.’ Professor of Theology at the
University of Salzburg, Kramer was also Inquisitor for
the Austrian Tyrol and his text was a runaway success.
His European audience was receptive to Kramer’s
ideas. Courtesy of a new technology Kramer’s ideas
were easily and widely disseminated.
Invented in the mid-fifteenth century the printing
press was relatively new. By 1487 Gutenberg’s
device made the text readily-available across Western
Europe. The ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ became widely
known and widely used, eventually running to
twenty-nine editions. Kramer’s ‘Witch-Hammer’ was
a bestseller and as lethal to suspected witches as it
was popular among Inquisitors. Between 1487 and
1520 there were thirteen editions. Between 1574 and
1669 there were sixteen more.
In hindsight it was one of the most misogynistic,
extreme and brutal documents of the period.
Thousands died under torture or were burned as a
result. Today it would almost certainly be considered
hate speech. Even at the time it was considered so
extreme Pope Innocent VIII (whose Papal Bull of 1486
Kramer used disingenuously to claim the Pope’s
endorsement) condemned the text in 1490.
Kramer’s alleged collaborator Johann Sprenger (Dean
of the University of Cologne) also denied any
"By today’s standards
Kramer’s tales were
fantastical, more like
hallucinations than reality."
significant involvement. Pope Innocent and Sprenger
may have condemned the document, but Kramer
and Sprenger remained Inquisitors and members of
the Dominican order. Inquisitors all over Western
Europe enthusiastically followed Kramer’s lead.The
first section of the Malleus dealt with witches, their
depravity (as Kramer saw it) and opposition to his
ideas. To Kramer witches were creatures of the
utmost depravity to be purged from Christian
civilisation by almost any means. They practiced dark
arts, sold their souls to Satan and did Satan’s work.
Anyone disagreeing, according to Kramer, were
heretics;
“Whoever believes that any creature can be changed
for the better or the worse, or transformed
into another kind or likeness, except by the Creator of
all things, is worse than a pagan and a
heretic. And so when they report such things are
done by witches it is not Catholic, but plainly
heretical, to maintain this opinion.”
The Holy Cross, serving as an amulet against plagues, witchcraft etc. Etching on
silk.. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
The second section contained details of the dark arts
witches supposedly practiced. By today’s standards
Kramer’s tales were fantastical, more like
hallucinations than reality. Inquisitors often took
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 13

JJ. Sprenger and H. Institutoris, Malleus maleficarum.. Credit:
Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

them as gospel. At the time science had yet to
encroach on religion as it since has, making
them much more believable. Kramer’s being a senior
theologian only boosted their credibility.
According to Kramer witches routinely had sexual
relations with incubi and succubi (male and female
demons). Metamorphosis allowed them to seduce
and ensnare victims, appearing to people in any
guise they wanted. Witches also practiced
transvection or ‘night riding,’ moving and levitating
objects and people. The first and second parts told
readers what to look for and why. The third was
chilling as it was comprehensive. Kramer believed in
no mercy whatsoever for anyone even suspected of
witch-craft. The third section gave detailed and (to
modern eyes) frightening instruction on handling
suspected witches. Essentially a ‘How-To’ guide for
Inquisitors, Kramer’s process was simple. Suspected
Those still refusing were tortured increasingly cruelly
until they confessed or died. To quote Kramer exactly:
“If he will not confess, he bid attendants make the
prisoner fast to the strappado or some other
implement of torture. The attendants obey forthwith,
yet with feigned agitation. Then, at the prayer of
some of those present, the prisoner is loosed again
and is taken aside and once more persuaded to
confess, being led to believe that he will in that case
not be put to death.”
Fanatic though he was, Kramer was honoured in his
lifetime. In 1491 he became an adviser to the Council
of Nuremberg’s witch-craft tribunal. In 1495 he
lectured in Venice having been summoned
personally by Joaquin de Torres, Master General of
the Dominican Order. His lectures were so popular
Patriarch of Venice Tomaso Dona attended and
granted his patronage.
The execution of alleged witches in Central Europe, 1587
Credit: WikiMedia Commons
witches should be detained and made to confess by
any means. If they could be forced to denounce
others those named would be next on the Inquisitors’
lists. Just as Stalin’s NKVD used confessions and
denunciations to continue his purges Inquisitors
always tried to root out additional suspects.
To be fair to Kramer torture was only for suspects
refusing to confess. First there were demands, then
threats of excommunication, torture, execution and
damnation. Finally the Inquisitors might falsely offer
to trade a prisoner’s life for a confession. According to
Kramer:
In 1500 Pope Alexander VI appointed him Inquisitor
and Papal Nuncio (effectively a Vatican Ambassador)
to Bohemia and Moravia. It was there that he died in
the town of Kromenz in 1505, still defending his
devotion to witch-hunting. Kramer’s text (and the
cruelties resulting therefrom) long outlived him.
Robert Walsh is the author of
MURDERS, MYSTERIES and
MISDEMEANORS IN NEW YORK
published by America through
Time
“The judge may safely promise witches to spare their
lives, if only he will later excuse himself
from pronouncing the sentence and will let another
do this in his place....”
RRP: £18.99
@ScribeCrime
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 15

POLITICS AND
WORDS BY
GEMMA HOLLMAN
WITCHCRAFT: HOW
POWERFUL WOMEN
WERE NOT IMMUNE

In the fifteenth century, four women who were part
of the English Royal Family were scandalously
accused of engaging in witchcraft to try and
influence or kill the King. These accusations all came
about as a result of political machinations at court,
and all were successful – even if temporarily – in
curbing the power of these women and the men
around them. But where did the idea of using
witchcraft as a political weapon come about, and why
was it successful?
Ideas about magic have circulated for thousands of
years in cultures all across the world, but in
fourteenth-century Western Europe ideas began to
develop and solidify around what was possible with
magic and who used it. There were numerous plots
at courts across the Continent, some of which would
have been true instances of people engaging in
magic but nefariously some were clear political
conspiracies to bring down rivals.
way that would damage the king, or for using his
position for his own gain such as stealing money
from the treasury. But as women were at court in a
personal capacity, either as a member of the ruling
family or one of their servants or ladies-in-waiting,
they were not supposed to be engaged in these
kinds of activities. If a woman was deemed to be
getting too powerful, there was little that could be
done to remove her. This was where the idea of using
evil magic became a convenient weapon. It required
little evidence, was something that could be done in
a personal capacity, and was something that women
were known to engage in. It was also an easy way to
explain something that did not make sense to
contemporaries in other ways.
One such example was Valentina Visconti, the wife of
the Duke of Orléans. In the late 14 th century, the
French King Charles VI began to suffer from mental
Valentina Visconti leaving Paris. Illuminated miniature from Jean Froissart's Chroniques
Whilst both men and women were accused of using
magic during this period, a gendered split in
accusations became evident towards the end of the
era. Women started to become associated with
emotional magic such as love magic, as many
believed women to be more tempestuous and
succumb to their emotions more readily than men.
Some people, such as the German author of the
Malleus Maleficarum, even went as far as to suggest
the overwhelming majority of witches were women
for this precise reason, their temperament making
them more vulnerable to the wiles of the devil who
gave them access to their magical powers.
At court, powerful women found themselves
particularly vulnerable to accusations of using magic
by their political rivals. Men at court could be
discredited for plotting against the king with hints of
raising an army, or from carrying out their job in a
illnesses which, amongst other symptoms, made him
believe he was made of glass. Having a King suffer in
such a way naturally fractured the French court, with
different factions vying for power. The Duke of
Orléans was the king’s brother and as such was one
of the most powerful voices in the country. Those
who wished to see him lose his power looked to
discredit his wife, Valentina, for it had been noted by
many that Charles’ mental illness would often calm
when she was in his presence. This led to suspicions
that Charles was under a spell caused by Valentina.
This was a case of contemporaries trying to
rationalise something they did not understand,
but it was also clearly political. By suggesting
Valentina had something to do with the King’s
ill-health, Orléans’ enemies could justify reducing
his role at court.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 17

Elizabeth Woodville: A portrait from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales.

As powerful women were weaker politically than men
and did not have the same authority or protection
afforded to them, when powerful factions at court
wanted to get rid of a male rival it could be easier to
target the women in their life. Trust and loyalty had
strong familial ties during this period and if a female
family member could be shown to have broken the
King’s trust by using magic against him, then her other
family members would automatically be viewed with
suspicion as well. This can certainly be seen in Valentina’s
case, but another example from the next century was
Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester.
Eleanor was married to Duke Humphrey who was the
uncle of King Henry VI of England, but there was a group
of powerful men at court headed by Cardinal Beaufort and
the Duke of Suffolk who wanted Humphrey’s influence
over the young king eliminated so that they could enjoy
sole power at court. Humphrey was the heir to the throne
and had a huge popular support base, and to attack him
directly would be too unwise. By attacking his wife,
however, they hoped to emulate the suspicion placed on
Valentina and her husband.
ROYAL WITCHES: Witchcraft
and the nobility in 15th
Century England
by Gemma Hollman
Published by The History
Press
RRP £16.99
Eleanor Cobham performing penance for her
admittance of involvement in a conspiracy to kill Henry VI
Credit: Wikimendia Commons
In 1441 Eleanor was accused of hiring priests and a witch to
carry out necromancy and witchcraft on her behalf in
order to kill Henry VI, thus placing her husband on the
throne and making her Queen. Her associates were
executed, Eleanor was placed in lifetime imprisonment,
and Henry never trusted his uncle again. Humphey’s
influence at court was demolished, and he too fell under
suspicion of treason just a few years later. Eleanor’s case
demonstrates just how successful these political
accusations of witchcraft could be against even the most
powerful women in the country.
Eleanor was just one of four women in the English Royal
Family accused of using witchcraft this century. Two
decades before Eleanor’s downfall, Humphrey’s stepmother
Queen Joan had been accused of using witchcraft
against King Henry V. This was a ploy by the Crown to
confiscate Joan’s enormous wealth to fund their war
against France. Two more women would be accused after
Eleanor; Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Eleanor’s sister-in-law,
and Jacquetta’s daughter Elizabeth Woodville who
married King Edward IV. Both Jacquetta and Elizabeth
were accused on two separate occasions of using love
magic on Edward to make him marry Elizabeth. The first
accusation was designed to destroy the influence of their
family at court, and the second time was to justify the
usurpation of Edward’s brother, King Richard III. All of
these cases show that there was a growing pattern at the
end of the medieval period to use accusations of
witchcraft and magic as a political weapon against
powerful, inconvenient women. Some would recover their
positions, others would not. But all show how dangerous it
was to be a woman at court in this tumultuous period.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 19

HIS MAJESTY
THE WITCHFINDER

James VI of Scotland would become James I of
England with his coronation on 25th July 1603 and in
doing so he would united the kingdoms of Scotland
and England. For those in England who were
wondering what to expect from their new monarch,
then there were clues from his reign in Scotland. One
thing was certain though, he would bring his belief in
witchcraft with him.
James’s fascination with the dark arts of witchcraft
can be pinpointed to his travels to Denmark, the
homeland of his future bride Anne. She was meant to
travel from Denmark to be with her groom but
during her journey across the North Sea, a storm
gathered. For her own safety her ship was delayed.
James, eager for news and to marry Anne, traveled to
Denmark himself.
Married in Denmark, James made the decision to
stay until the winter had passed and that the
conditions for a safe journey were clear. He was not
idle whilst in Denmark. He believed himself to be an
intellectual open-minded monarch and was keen to
discover more about his new wife and the culture
from which she was from. What he discovered would
change the course of his reign not only in Scotland
but also England. Witch-hunting was common in
Denmark. He would meet demonologist, Niels
Hemmingsen, where James would become
enthralled by debates about the occult.
By the spring of 1590, James had decided to return to
Scotland with his new bride. The waters were calmer
so the journey should have been a straight forward
affair. However, the journey back to his homeland
was anything but simple. A storm erupted on route, a
ship was lost. Whilst James and Anne both made it
home, James’s thoughts had turned to witchcraft
and he blamed witches for the destruction of his
fleet.
It would wrong to assume that James brought the
witchcraze to Scotland. There were cases but James
took it to another level. The North Berwick Witch
Trials that began once he arrived back to Scotland,
were the most brutal and fanatical Scotland had ever
witnessed. James believed that a coven of witches
had plotted against him and caused the storm that
had almost killed him and Anne. More than 70
suspected witches were arrested.
James actively took part in the subsequent trials
listening to their testimonies and confessions. Many
confessed following torture with a number dying
from the injuries inflicted in order to make them
confess. Those that survived the torture, would be
burned at the stake. The North Berwick Witch Trials
opened the door for further hysteria and over the 17th
"The North Berwick Witch
Trials, that began upon his
return, were the most brutal
and fanatical Scotland had
ever witnessed."
century more than 3000 people would be accused of
witchcraft in Scotland alone.
His time in Denmark, along with his experience of the
North Berwick Witch Trials, convinced James that
witchcraft was very real. He ensured that word spread
across his kingdom about the events. In doing so, he
helped to spread and even reinforce, not only his own
fear of witches, but also the population as a whole. In
1597, he would write his own book about witchcraft
and the occult. Daemonologie was his attempt to
disprove the skeptics. With Elizabeth I childless, and
James being England’s heir in waiting, it would only a
matter of time until he would ascend the throne
south of the border. English nobility would have the
opportunity to find out more about James’s
obsession through his writing.
Elizabeth I's passing in 1603 saw James become King
James I of England. With him, he brought a symbolic
union of the two countries under one crown. He also
brought with him his fears of witchcraft.
He aimed to change the English law regarding the
Anne of Denmark, Queen of England. Date circa 1605. Painted by John De Critz.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 21

JJames I: Daemonologie, in forme of a dialogue. Title page.. Credit: Wellcome
Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

issue. He saw the English laws regarding witchcraft
as too lenient.
The Witchcraft Act of 1604 made sweeping changes.
For example, the discovery of the devils mark (a mole,
birthmark, wort) upon a suspected witch would be
enough to condemn them to death. Hanging would
also become the preferred method of execution and
was the punishment for witchcraft even if the
supposed witch had not murdered anyone. Soon the
hysteria would infect England in the same way as it
had in Scotland.
Only a year later, the Gunpowder plot threatened
James. The Protestant Monarch had a new fear.
Seeing Catholicism as largely superstition other than
the word of God, Catholic priests were considered to
be sorcerers. In some cases, members of the clergy
were tried as witches.
King James VI of Scotland brought a hysteria against
witchcraft with him from Denmark. The result of
which was the murder of thousands of innocent
people who were caught up in a period of fear. This
fear would be one of James's own. Wherever James
would go, the same hysteria would follow. Most of
this would come in the form of desperate attempts to
gain the king's affection and favor.
His death on the 27th March, 1625 would not bring an
end to it. His ideas had now become ingrained. The
eruption of civil war would allow law and order to
become manipulated in favor of individuals like
Matthew Hopkins who used the text produced by
James to continue slaying the innocent.
Hopkins influence would travel the Atlantic Ocean to
the New World. The New World would still focus on
old ideas as copies of Matthew Hopkins pamphlets
Wax dolls being given to the devil.. Credit: Wellcome Collection.
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
James's influence would soon be felt in Peddle. Prior
to his ascension to the throne, children's testimonies
were prohibited in English Law. The case of the
Pendle Witches would change that by allowing the
testimony of nine-year-old, Jennet Device.
and Daemonologie would be brought over by the
puritan pilgrims. Even after his death it would appear,
that James VI and I was still hunting witches. His
Majesty the witch-finder's ideas were still alive and
well.
This change would lead to more children coming
forward most notably, in Salem. Nearly 100 years after
the publication of Daemonologie, it's impact would
be felt on another continent. The ideals of the Devil's
mark would be enough to condemn many during the
reign of the self appointed, Witch finder General,
Matthew Hopkins, who would go on to make a tidy
profit from witch hunting during the chaotic English
Civil War.
Kevern is the editor and host
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the INSIDE HISTORY PODCAST
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Whilst attitudes changed it would only be in 1736
when the laws against witchcraft were repealed.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 23

THE PENDLE
WITCHES
Words by Hannah Pringle

The most famous witches in English history are the
Pendle witches that were tried and executed in 1612. The
Pendle witches were known in their community as
healers and cunning folk, led by Elizabeth Southerns
alias Demdike and located in and around Malkin Tower.
This occupation exhibited a vulnerability under the new
rule of King James I. King James had a negative
relationship with witches and developed a paranoia that
witches were plotting against him, following an
altercation with the North Berwick witches of 1590. The
trials of the Pendle witches came shortly after the
Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
The events that took place on 18 March 1612 sparked the
beginning of the witchcraft accusations in Pendle
that stretched to Samlesbury and York. Elizabeth
Demdike’s granddaughter Alizon Device, was accused
of placing a curse on John Law, a pedlar from Halifax.
After he refused Alizon’s plea for pins, Law claimed he
was approached by her familiar and suffered a fall. He
remained paralysed on his whole left side, mimicking
signs of a stroke. This bewildering event brought with it
accusations of bewitchment. Alizon apologised
profusely and admitted to the part she played in cursing
the pedlar. John Law’s son Abraham took the case to
Witchcraft in seventeenth-century England was no
longer a case of white and black magic. Witchcraft was
malevolent and fuelled by fear, suspicion and politics.
These trials possess a uniqueness that became a
catalyst for other witch trials in this period. Jennet
Device was the youngest member of the Device family
and was nine years old when she was approached by Sir
Roger Nowell and Sir Edward Bromley. She was
coerced in to complying with the authorities and
provided a detailed statement of the ways in which her
family were involved in witchcraft and damnable
practices. Jennet’s testimony was an essential part of
the Pendle witch trials in 1612.
Sir Roger Nowell and Alizon was questioned at Read Hall.
She expressed a genuine belief in her magical
abilities and revealed vital information in regards to her
families beliefs and practices.
On 20 April 1612 a meeting took place at Malkin Tower and
saw the whole of the Device family and their
neighbours accused of witchcraft. The reason for this
gathering falls to the hands of Jennet Preston of
Gisburn, a friend of Elizabeth Demdike. Preston had
previously been accused and acquitted of witchcraft at
the York Assizes and required assistance in orchestrating
the murder of Thomas Lister.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 25

The gathering on Good Friday provided the authorities
with a great deal of evidence that was used to convict
the Pendle witches. Attendees were not only subjected
to ridicule of their Catholic faith following their absence
from church, but were accused of performing
maleficium by making clay dolls, stealing cattle, cursing
people in the community and conspiring to murder
men. They were detained at Lancaster Castle and
awaited trial in August.
language and structure of this pamphlet reveal an
inclination towards politics, sexuality and gender. The
accounts were extremely repetitive, detailing the use of
familiars and charms to practice witchcraft.
The most significant text in the Pendle witch trials is
King James I’s Daemonologie (1597). This text opened
up the door for the Pendle witches execution.
Daemonologie acted as a manual on witchcraft
dismissing the division of white and black magic. This
shifted pre-existing views on the Pendle witches known
to the community as healers. The testimony of Jennet
Device was accepted in court as King James I outlined
“in a mater of treason against the
Prince, Barnes or Wives, or never so
defamed persons, may of our law
serve for sufficient witnesses and
proofes...such witnesses may be
sufficient in matters of high treason
against God”
A witch holding a plant in one hand and a fan in the other. Woodcut,
ca.1700-1720.. Credit: Wellcome Collection Attribution 4.0
International (CC BY 4.0)
The Lancaster Assizes met on 18-19 August 1612 and held
the trials of Elizabeth, James and Alizon Device,
Anne Chattox alias Whittle, Anne Redferne, John and
Jane Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt and
Alice Grey. Elizabeth Demdike, the matriarch, died
awaiting trial in Lancaster Castle. The Pendle witches
were questioned by Magistrate Roger Nowell and the
trial was recorded by Thomas Potts who later published
a detailed account of the Wonderfull Discoverie of
Witches in the Countie of Lancaster 1612 in
1613.
The paranoia that King James felt inspired works such
as Thomas Potts’ Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches.
This publication acted as a means of gaining
recognition and patronage from King James. The
The case of the Pendle witches was a turning point for
seventeenth-century witch trials. The testimony of
children became a vital tool in the prosecution of
witches. Attitudes towards witchcraft trials in England
began to change in the 1630s and can be witnessed
with the Lancashire trials of 1634. A young boy made an
accusation and the guilty verdict was rescinded
following an investigation in London. By the time the
East Anglia hunts began in 1645, successful prosecution
relied heavily on psychological torture. As opposed to
oral testimony, this was used as a means of obtaining a
confession. If we turn our attention to witch trials that
took place further afield such as Massachusetts in 1693-
4, a correlation can be found between the Salem
witches and the Pendle witches in regard to the use of
child witnesses and testimony. The children that
testified were between ages four and seventeen - the
youngest being Dorothy Good and the eldest Elizabeth
Hubbard.
The beliefs of King James I enabled the Pendle witch
trials to take place and influenced the witchcraft trials
that came next. When it comes to the Pendle witches,
Jennet Device’s testimony was pivotal in their trial and
execution. The story of the Pendle witches leaves us
with many unanswered questions: Did Jennet hate her
family? Was she malicious? Scared? Was she coerced in
to saying what she thought everyone wanted to hear?
Can she be held responsible for the fate of her family in
1612?
26 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

THE OFFICIAL
INSIDE HISTORY
MAGAZINE
PODCAST
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HISTORY
www.anchor.fm/inside-history
INTERVIEWS &
LONG FORM
NARRATIVES

MATTHEW
HOPKINS:
WITCH-FINDER GENERAL
IMAGES:WELLCOME COLLECTION
WORDS BY DR SCOTT EATON

‘Then said Mr. Hopkin, in what manner and likeness
came he [the Devil] to you? She said, like a tall,
proper, black haired gentleman’. She continued,
claiming to have slept with the Devil, to worship him
at meetings, to owning demonic familiar spirits, and
identified others who did likewise. This extraordinary
confession was made by Elizabeth Clarke in 1645,
during the notorious East Anglian witch-hunt which
claimed the lives of 100-200 individuals, most of
whom were women.
From 1645-1647, two witch finders, Matthew Hopkins
and John Stearne, swept through East Anglia
discovering and trying suspected witches like
Elizabeth Clarke. They were accompanied by a group
of female searchers who helped in discerning witchmarks,
and relied upon residents to identify witches,
long before their arrival. In the 1640s, East Anglian
communities were deeply concerned about local
witches, who had become far too numerous and
particularly dangerous considering that it was a
turbulent period of civil war. Many believed that the
Devil was running rampant in England and punishing
the country for its sin. With an acute fear of the Devil
and his acolytes, witches, rife, the witch-hunt was
able to rapidly spread throughout Essex and the
surrounding counties of Suffolk, Norfolk,
Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and
the Isle of Ely. The trials lasted two years and
represent the most intensive witch-hunting that ever
took place in England. As the trials progressed,
witches’ confessions were recorded in contemporary
printed pamphlets and legal documents, such as
depositions. These records provide remarkable
accounts of witchcraft, familiar spirits, encounters
with and sex with demons and the Devil himself.
Matthew Hopkins’ Discovery of witches (1647) and
John Stearne’s Confirmation and discovery of
witchcraft (1648) are crucial texts for understanding
the witch-finders’ beliefs and motives, and the witchhunt
itself.
In late 1644, witchcraft accusations began circulating
in the small port of Manningtree, Essex – the home of
Matthew Hopkins. Little is known of Hopkins’ life prior
to his brief witch-finding career but we are certain
that he was the son of a puritan minister, that he was
born around 1620 and perhaps worked as a lawyer’s
clerk. By the outbreak of the witch-hunt Hopkins was
in his mid-twenties.
According to Hopkins’ Discovery, at some point in
1644, he started to suspect that diabolic witches were
amassing in his locality - in fact, he claimed that
witches held meetings near his house. Hopkins’ fears
were bolstered by a local tailor named John Rivet,
who was the first to accuse Elizabeth Clarke of
witchcraft. Rivet consulted a cunning person who
confirmed that Clarke had bewitched his wife to
death. Further accusations were levied against
Clarke, the elderly one-legged widow. Historian
Francis Timbers has noted that Susan Edwards
accused Clarke of bewitching her son to death in
August 1644, while her husband, Richard, accused her
"Many believed that
the Devil was
running rampant in
England and
punishing the
country for its sin."
of killing two of his horses. Richard was an extremely
influential man, being the third richest in
Manningtree and had been chief constable of the
Tendring Hundred since 1642. But Susan was much
more important for the trajectory of the East Anglian
witch-hunt. Susan was Matthew Hopkins’ stepsister,
suggesting that he initially got involved in the
witchcraft trials to support his family. Shortly after
this, with the help of townsfolk, Hopkins interrogated
Clarke who implicated others and confessed that the
Devil came to her as a tall, ‘proper gentleman’ to have
sex with her three to four times a week over the
course of six years. She then gave an account of her
familiar spirits (animal-like demons), which
functioned as her source of magical power but also
her chain to the Devil and the demonic pact.
WITCHCRAFT ANF FOLKLORE / 29

Ilemauzar, Pyewackett, Pecke in the Crowne, Griezzell
Greedigutt, Vinegar Tom, Newes, Sacke and Sugar,
Jarmara, and Holt were Clarke’s familiars, whose
names ‘no mortall could invent’, according to
Hopkins. They, alongside the Witch-Finder General,
are depicted on the frontispiece of Hopkins’
Discovery of witches. Familiars were the demons
which carried out the witch’s evil-doing (maleficia),
bewitching or killing children and livestock, and
spoiling dairy. Indeed, both witch-finders were
confronted with familiars as Clarke threatened John
Stearne with a toad familiar and Hopkins was
assaulted by one in his garden.
As a reward for doing the witch’s bidding, familiars
were believed to suck blood from a mark on the
witch’s body to continually renew their demonic pact
with Satan and to further corrupt their soul. The
witches’ mark was described by Stearne as an
outward piece of skin ‘which may be extended or
launched. Local authorities assented to an
investigation into witches and a flurry of additional
accusations ignited the witch-hunt. Spearheading
the witchcraft prosecutions was John Stearne and, of
course, Matthew Hopkins, the Witch-Finder General.
Hopkins’ career was short-lived. By the end of 1647,
the witchcraft trials had all but ceased in East Anglia,
Stearne carrying out the final, unsuccessful search in
the Isle of Ely, and Hopkins died of tuberculosis.
Immediately after Hopkins’ death, his reputation was
being quickly destroyed. It was rumoured that the
witch-finder had himself been swum as a witch,
resulting in his death and a meting out of poetic
justice. Moreover, in the succeeding decades witchhunting,
‘superstition’ and zealous religious beliefs
were considered results of the radicalism produced
during the English Civil War and were to be avoided
at all costs. But Hopkins’ legacy lived on through his
The History of Witches and Wizards, 1720. Credit: Wellcome Collection.
CC BY
drawn out, and wrung, much like the finger of a
glove, and is very limber’.It had ‘at the very top a little
hole, where the blood cometh out’, from which the
familiars fed. But these marks took many forms and
could resemble a red or blue spot like a ‘flea-bite’ and
had ‘a whitish end at the top’. Agreeing with Hopkins,
Stearne believed that this mark ‘was beyond all
natural marks’ and could be identified by testing their
sensitivity by pricking the protuberance(s) with a
knife. Discovery of such a mark on an individual was
thought to be strongly indicative of a demonic pact
and functioned as condemning evidence. After an
interrogation by Hopkins and Stearne and an invasive
examination by female searchers, which uncovered
marks, Clarke’s fate was sealed. With news of Clarke’s
extraordinary confession spreading, fears of witches
abounded, and Hopkins’ witch-finding career was
With news of Clarke’s
extraordinary confession
spreading, fears of
witches abounded, and
Hopkins’ witch-finding
career was launched
30 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

A witch at her cauldron surrounded by monsters. Etching by Jan van de Velde II, 1626, Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder general, with two supposed witches calling out the names of their demons, some
of which are represented by animals.Etching, 1792, after an earlier woodcut. Credit: Wellcome Collection.CC BY

A
WITCHFINDERS:
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY
TRAGEDY by
ENGLISH
Gaskill published
Malcolm
Discovery of witches, in England and New England.
His text influenced future seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century English witchcraft cases and was
consulted for witchcraft trials in New England. In May
1648 the court of Massachusetts Bay stated that it
‘desire[d] the course which hath been taken in
England for the discovery of witches, by watching
them a certeine time. It is ordered, that the best &
surest way may forthwith be put in practice’. The
court even considered locating and hiring a witchfinder
like Hopkins from England. Inspired by this
ruling, the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 also relied
upon the witch-finder’s methods, mostly extracted
from Hopkins’ text.
Interest in Hopkins was rejuvenated throughout the
1800s as antiquarians rediscovered the witch-hunter
and his publication. Focusing on the powerful image
of the Witch-Finder General, scholars slowly
reintroduced Hopkins to the public. Modern
audiences will know of Vincent Price’s infamous
portrayal of Hopkins in the fictionalised Conqueror
Worm (USA) or Witchfinder General (UK, 1968), which
reflects his depiction in A discovery of witches. But
Hopkins’ fame has greatly increased since then. His
image has become internationally synonymous with
the investigation and prosecution/persecution of
witches. He overshadows all others in this category,
recovering his legacy, and cementing Matthew
Hopkins as ...
The notorious East
Anglian Witch-Finder
General.
Follow Dr Scott Eaton on Twitter @StjEaton
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MATTHEW HOPKINS
by John Murray.
Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder general. Etching.
Credit:Wellcome Collection. CC BY
RRP: £8.99

MOST WITCHES ARE
WOMEN...
BECAUSE WITCH
HUNTS WERE ALL
ABOUT PERSECUTING
THE POWERLESS
WORDS BY
BRIDGET MARSHALL
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL

“Witch hunt” – it’s a refrain used to deride everything
from impeachment inquiries and sexual assault
investigations to allegations of corruption.When
powerful men cry witch, they’re generally not talking
about green-faced women wearing pointy hats. They
are, presumably, referring to the Salem witch trials,
when 19 people in 17th-century Massachusetts were
executed on charges of witchcraft.
Using “witch hunt” to decry purportedly baseless
allegations, however, reflects a misunderstanding of
American history. Witch trials didn’t target the
powerful. They persecuted society’s most marginal
members – particularly women.
In my scholarship on the darker aspects of U.S.
culture, I’ve researched and written about
numerous witch trials. I teach a college course here in
Massachusetts that explores this perennially popular
but frequently misinterpreted period in New England
history.
powerless position within the deeply religious Puritan
community.
The Puritans thought women should have babies,
raise children, manage household life and model
Christian subservience to their husbands. Recalling
Eve and her sinful apple, Puritans also believed that
women were more likely to be tempted by the Devil.
As magistrates, judges and clergy, men enforced the
rules of this early American society.When women
stepped outside their prescribed roles, they became
targets. Too much wealth might reflect sinful gains.
Too little money demonstrated bad character. Too
many children could indicate a deal with a devil.
Having too few children was suspicious, too.Mary
Webster of Hadley, Massachusetts, was married
without children and relied on neighborly charity to
survive. Apparently, Webster was not meek and
grateful enough for the alms she received:
She developed a reputation for being unpleasant.
Perhaps the most salient point about witch trials,
students quickly come to see, is gender. In Salem, 14
of the 19 people found guilty of and executed for
witchcraft during that cataclysmic year of 1692 were
women.
Across New England, where witch trials occurred
somewhat regularly from 1638 until 1725,
women vastly outnumbered men in the ranks of the
accused and executed. According to author Carol F.
Karlsen’s “The Devil in the Shape of a Woman,” 78% of
344 alleged witches in New England were female.
And even when men faced allegations of witchcraft, it
was typically because they were somehow associated
with accused women. As historian John Demos has
established, the few Puritan men tried for witchcraft
were mostly the husbands or brothers of alleged
female witches.Women held a precarious, mostly
Webster’s neighbors accused her of witchcraft in
1683, when she was around 60 years old, claiming she
worked with the devil to bewitch local livestock.
Boston’s Court of Assistants, which presided over
cases of witchcraft, declared her not guilty.
Then, a few months after the verdict, one of
Webster’s upstanding neighbors, Philip Smith, fell ill.
Distraught residents blamed Webster and attempted
to hang her, supposedly to relieve Smith’s
torments.Smith died anyway. Webster, however,
survived the attempted execution – much to the
terror of her neighbors, I imagine.
The accused witch Mary Bliss Parsons, of
Northampton, Massachusetts, was the opposite of
Webster. She was the wife of the wealthiest man in
town and the mother of nine healthy children.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 35

But neighbors found Parsons to be a “woman of
forcible speech and domineering ways,” historian
James Russell Trumbull wrote in his 1898 history of
Northampton. In 1674 she was charged with
witchcraft.Parsons, too, was acquitted. Eventually,
continuing witchcraft rumors forced the Parsons
family to resettle in Boston.
This is why witch trials weren’t just about accusations
that today seem baseless. They were also about a
justice system that escalated local grievances to
capital offenses and targeted a subjugated
minority.Women were both the victims and the
accused in this terrible American history, casualties of
a society created and controlled by powerful men.
Prior to Salem, most witchcraft trials in New England
resulted in acquittal. According to Demos, of the 93
documented witch trials that happened before
Salem, 16 “witches” were executed.But the accused
rarely went unpunished.
In his 2005 book “Escaping Salem,” Richard Godbeer
examines the case of two Connecticut women –
Elizabeth Clawson of Stamford and Mercy
Disborough of Fairfield – accused of bewitching a
servant girl named Kate Branch.
Both women were “confident and determined, ready
to express their opinions and to stand their ground
when crossed.” Clawson was found not guilty after
spending five months in jail. Disborough remained
imprisoned for almost a year until she was acquitted.
Both had to pay the fines and fees related to their
imprisonment.
Most Puritans who claimed to be victims of witchcraft
were also female.In the famed Salem witch trials, the
people “afflicted” by an unexplained “distemper” in
1692 were all teenaged girls.Initially, two girls from the
Reverend Samuel Parris’ household claimed they
were being bitten, pinched and pricked by invisible
specters. Soon other girls reported similar feelings.
Some threw fits, crying out that they saw terrifying
specters. Some have suggested that the girls were
faking their symptoms. In a 1700 book, Boston
merchant and historian Robert Calef called them “vile
varlets.”
Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” also casts one of
the Salem girls as the villain. His play depicts Abigail –
who was, in real life, a girl of 11 – as a manipulative 16-
year-old carrying on an affair with a married man. To
get his wife out of the way, Abigail makes witchcraft
accusations.Nothing in the historical record suggests
an affair. But Miller’s play is so widely staged that
countless Americans know only this version of events.
Other Salem stories blame Tituba, an enslaved
woman in the household of the Reverend Samuel
Parris, for teaching witchcraft to the local girls. Tituba
confessed to “signing the devil’s book” in 1692,
confirming Puritans’ worst fears that the devil was
actively recruiting.But given her position as an
enslaved person and a woman of color, it’s almost
certain that Tituba’s confession was coerced.
article was first published by The Conversation. The
This
is an independent source of news and views,
Conversation
from the academic and research community and
sourced
direct to the public.
delivered
more information visit: www.theconversation.com
For
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 37

TAROT CARDS
THROUGH THE
AGES:
FROM CARD GAME TO
FORTUNE TELLING TO
MENTAL HEALTH TOOL
Words: Kate Delany

A little known, circuitous history surrounds the world’s
most famous deck of cards--the Tarot. Hundreds of
different versions of Tarot cards exist. To some, they are
tools of divination, capable of accessing the problems,
potential and possibilities within the individual psyche.
They did not begin as such though. The Tarot deck has
evolved over the centuries from aristocratic pastime to
occult staple to now a novelty item available for
purchase at major box big retailers. In a fascinating turn
of events, Tarot cards are also gaining positive use as a
psychological tool for cognitive behavioral change.
Tarot cards began the evolution to their present form in
Renaissance Italy. Called “Carte de Trionfi,” or Cards of
Triumph, these were common in aristocratic circles
where they were enjoyed as a personalized, allergical
game. There is some evidence to suggest that the
original Tarot Cards were based on one particular series
the triumph of death defeats chastity as Laura falls
victim to the bubonic plague. Fame triumphs over
death as her reputation lives on. Time triumphs over
fame and finally eternity triumphs over time as Petrarch
and his beloved are destined to be reunited in the
afterlife.
In their earliest form, the Tarot cards functioned as a
choose your own adventure mortality game for the
aristocratic card players who enjoyed this game. It
provided a high minded recreational diversion from the
terror of the plague, not so unlike the Decameron which
also incorporates storytelling and morality. The Christian
symbolism of the deck would have made it an informal
source of reflection and engagement with the very
Christian world of the Italian renaissance. The prototarot
cards were often handpainted for wealthy
families.The most renowned artists of the day enjoyed
of poems, “Il Triofini,” by Petrarch. This poem sequence
features the figure of Laura, the idealized beloved who
is a staple in many of Petrarch’s works. The Laura of this
and other Petrarch poems is widely believed to be Laura
de Noves, a married woman who inspired intense love
and devotion in the poet despite their very minimal
contact. Laura de Noves is believed to have died of the
Black Death at the age of 38.
The storyline of “Il Triofini” tells the tale of Petrarch’s
unrequited love for Laura over the course of five
“triumphs.” The triumph of love conquers the human
heart, as Petrarch becomes enamored with his idealized
beloved. The triumph of chastity conquers passion, as
Laura rejects Petrarch’s advances.
these patronage jobs, such as the hand crafted cards
created by Boniface Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza
family. They remain on exhibition in the Morgan
Museum today.
The tarot deck did not become associated with the
occult until much, much later. The Rider-Waite deck,
now seen as the standard, most prolific deck, was first
published in 1910. The deck was created by mystic and
author A. E. Waite, who helped popularize interest in the
occult in the West. A.E. Waite commissioned Pamela
Colman-Smith, who like Waite was a member of the
Order of the Golden Dawn, an occultist group formed in
1888 and continuing into existence today. The standard
tarot deck is divided into two parts. The Major Arcana, or
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 39

greater secrets, consists of 22 cards without suits.
These are: The Magician, The High Priestess, The
Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers,
The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune,
Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The
Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun,
Judgement, The World, and The Fool. The Minor
Arcana, or lesser secrets, consists of 56 cards, 4 suits
of 14 cards each. The suits are: swords, wands,
pentacles, and cups. Standard tarot card reading
spreads include three card, five card and Celtic Cross
spread. For each card layout, the divination includes
untangling the present situation, past influences and
future outcomes. Sometimes readings are predicated
on a particular question or problem that the reading
is geared towards resolving.
In a way, tarot cards have now returned to their
originas e-commerce has helped facilitate the selling
and commissioning of handcrafted decks once again.
Tarot cards have also become ubiquitous, available in
bookstores and other retailers, a novelty item to be
sold alongside cards or hand cream. However, this
hasn’t rendered them obsolete. As tarot cards have
become less a talisman of the occult and more an
artifact of pop culture, they have picked up a new,
fascinating use, finding a use in psychology and
mental health work.
Some therapists are now using tarot cards as a self
reflective tool to assist clients in breaking through
thought patterns and examining past and future
choices. Jessica Dore, who holds a Masters in social
work and has spent a decade in the field of
psychology and mental health, offers what she terms
“tarot therapy” to her over 100,000 twitter. According
to Dore, reflecting on the cards’ iconography can help
individuals get unstuck. Dore notes: “A lot of what
shows up in the cards that just brings something up
for you. You might not know what the card means
but it’s almost like the Rorschach inkblot test. What
are you seeing here? What’s this bringing up for you?
It’s another way to get people to come out of their
rigid narrative.” Tarot for meditation and tarot for
behavior modification for children have also begun
gaining popularity. Tarot groups offer a form of group
therapy, as evidenced by a Detroit tarot group for
women of color. As the facilitator notes, ““Tarot [itself]
is not a spiritual practice...but it is a good tool... [i]t’s
important to me that even though people, and
especially Black women, explore different ways of
finding themselves.The tarot deck’s ability to offer
something of value to the human psyche over the
centuries suggests it is not going anywhere. Whether
it’s a fun diversion, a spiritual exercise or a tool of selfreflection,
the tarot deck has a lasting place in human
history.
40/
40 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

D A R K A R T S I N
M O D E R N T I M E S :
7 Victorian
ways to repel
witchcraft
Magic was not only widely believed in during the period of the witch trials, in the era of the Tudors and
Stuarts. Witchcraft has a fascinating modern history, too, explains Dr. Thomas Waters, Lecturer in
History at Imperial College London and author of Cursed Britain: a History of Witchcraft and Black
Magic in Modern Times.
Did you know that fears about evil
spells, curses, and black magic were
pretty common during the Victorian
era?
It wasn’t only eccentrics or uneducated
country folk who feared the dark arts. In
bustling towns too, individuals with a
fair bit of education and a good amount
of common sense not only blamed
their misfortunes on witchcraft, but also
went to considerable trouble to rid
themselves of its apparent influence.
Many other people took precautions to
prevent themselves from falling victim
to a witch’s ‘evil eye’ or ‘ill-wish’ in the
first place. Defensive magic was creepy,
therapeutic in an exhilarating way, and
also dangerous. Here are 7 Victorian
methods for avoiding, repelling and
fighting witchcraft.
Keep quiet
The first rule of witchcraft is you don’t talk about witchcraft. Not
openly and brashly, anyway.
It frustrated Victorian folklorists, who were eager to uncover
information about everyday beliefs in magic. But many of those
who took witchcraft seriously thought ‘it was not right to talk of
such things’. The reason? Speak of the Devil and he shall appear! In
Victorian Britain, like many places and periods, talking about bad
things was thought to make them more likely to happen. This was
especially the case with witchcraft, because witches didn’t like
being talked about, and were believed to have heightened senses
that allowed them to know when they were being discussed. It
was therefore best to keep quiet, or to talk about witches and
wizards from several generations ago, who no longer posed a
threat.
42 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

Be careful with your nails,
hair and teeth
In Victorian Britain as across much of the world, witches were thought to cast harmful spells
using their victims' bodily cast offs. In early 1900s Somerset, doctors noticed that their
patients burned their removed teeth, to prevent them from falling into evil hands. In
Warwickshire, some rural workers indulged in what one commentator called the ‘repulsive
habit’ of licking their wounds, rather than letting any blood drip onto the floor, just in case.
Guard your home
with apotropaic
(evil averting)
magic.
Shoes in roofs, ritual markings, opened
scissors, mummified cats placed
between walls, silver spoons, and
decorative witch balls were just some of
the very many ways that Victorians
protected their homes and outbuildings
from dark supernatural forces.
Apotropaic markings on a timber in Tudor House, Southampton..
Ethan Doyle White. Creative Commons (4.0)
Carry a
protective
amulet.
In Scotland, luckenbooth brooches were used for this purpose. These
attractive pieces of jewellery were developed in the early modern era
and possessed associations with Scottish national heroes like Queen
Mary and Bonnie Prince Charlie. By the nineteenth century,
luckenbooth brooches had also become connected with magical
protection. Apparently, they could repel fairies’ darts and witches’
spells, but only if they were pinned in a special way, in an atmosphere
of complete silence.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE / 43

Witch Bottles: From Mal Corvus Witchcraft & Folklore artefact private collection owned by Malcolm Lidbury. Creative Commons (3.0)
Get expert
help
Retaliate
magically
Many apparently bewitched people tried to save
themselves by magically attacking the individual who
they deemed responsible. Pamphlets, sold by travelling
hawkers and by booksellers at country-markets, explained
how to do this. One method was to create a witch bottle.
This type of counter- witchcraft was recorded during the
period of the witch trials, and continued to be popular
during the nineteenth and even early twentieth century.
Simply take a glass bottle and fill it with the bewitched
person’s nails, hair, and urine. Next cork it up and wait
until the witching hour of midnight, before placing it over
a fire. Everyone in the house must remain silent, while the
bewitched person reads a biblical passage and
pronounces a spell, wishing that the evil magic be sent
back to its originator. If it works, the responsible witch will
feel agony in his or her bladder, and will be forced to beg
for the magical torture to end.
Another option was to visit professional magicians
known variously as cunning-men, wise-women,
warlocks (in Scotland) or conjurors (in Wales). Alexander
Henderson, alias ‘Young Skarey’, from rural
Aberdeenshire, was a former actor and part-time
shoemaker, who also worked as a cunning-man, and
could endlessly quote the bible. Theatrical and
charismatic characters like him were masters of a
loosely Christian white magic, and were so renowned
that when they died they sometimes received long
obituaries in local newspapers. Occasionally cunningfolk
treated their most impoverished clients for free.
More often though, they were very expensive, and their
clients had to travel great distances for consultations.
For people with little spare time or money, fortunetellers
were a better alternative. Throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain's
towns and cities were home to thousands of fortunetellers,
who like cunning-folk offered many magical
services, including counter-witchcraft. They used
various methods to cure their clients, from potions and
lotions to pseudo-scientific remedies. Above all though,
professional magicians demanded one thing: their
patients must really believe, must summon a powerful
faith that they would be healed. Presumably, this
resulted in a strong placebo effect.
44 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

The Gypsy Fortune Teller. Colour card depicting young girl having her palm read by a fortune teller. A cat and an
owl look on. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Scratch the
alleged witch.
This was the most dangerous method for fighting
witchcraft, both for the bewitched person and for their
alleged witch. As in the early modern period, during the
nineteenth century drawing a witch’s blood was
supposed to break his or her spells. Victorian journalists
reported on hundreds of assault cases, where
bewitched people had used pins, nails and knives to let
the blood of the person who they believed was
tormenting them.
Occasionally, desperate vigilantes resorted to more
than ritualistic violence. Shots were fired at alleged
witches in Westminster (London) in 1831 and
Eastbourne (Sussex) in 1894. In 1875, Ann Tennant, an
elderly woman from Long Compton in Warwickshire,
expired in a pool of blood, after being stabbed
with a pitchfork by a local man who she’d known for
decades, who accused her of witchcraft. In 1888 a
fortune-teller from East Lambrook, Somerset, was killed
by a fellow who thought she’d bewitched him. As
policing became more professional and effective,
during the second half of the nineteenth century,
attacks on witches became rarities. But this did not
mean that belief in witchcraft had disappeared, only
that it took different forms.
Dr Thomas Waters is the
author of CURSED BRITAIN:
A HISTORY OF
WITCHCRAFT AND BLACK
MAGIC IN MODERN TIMES
published by Yale University
Press
RRP: £25.00
46 / WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

John Ruff’s death in 1842 on an island off the Nova Scotia coast was
ruled an accident – until his eleven-year-old son accused his older
brothers of murder. But Benjamin Ruff had other stories to tell, of
seeing the devil lurking on their remote farm. The strange-but-true
story of a murder trial that hinged on a child’s claims of satanic
visitations.
A
DEVILISH
MURDER?
WORDS BY DEAN JOBB

Andrew Ruff’s rowboat slipped into the Nova Scotia
hamlet of Five Islands in the summer of 1842. On board
was the body of John Ruff, the head of the lone family
living on nearby Moose Island. His father, Andrew told
the authorities, had been cutting down a tree when it
fell on him, crushing his skull. There was no autopsy or
inquest. Ruff’s death was chalked up to an accident.
Then eleven-year-old Benjamin Ruff began telling a
different story. His brothers Arthur and Andrew, he
revealed two years later, had murdered their abusive
father as he slept. As Andrew looked on, he said, Arthur
had struck John Ruff on the head with the back of an
axe.
Arthur Ruff could not be found but Andrew was
arrested and charged as an accessory to murder. The
trial that followed hinged on the word of a boy who
claimed to have witnessed not only a murder, but visits
to the island by Satan himself.
Moose Island is about a half-kilometre offshore and the
largest of a chain that gives Five Islands, a village on
Canada’s Atlantic coast, its name. John Ruff and his
wife, Susannah, cleared and farmed forty-five of the
island’s one hundred acres and raised six children. Four
– Andrew, Arthur, Benjamin and Anthony – still lived
with their parents when Ruff died.
Andrew’s trial opened in the fall of 1844. “The principal
witness on the part of the Crown is but a lad,”
prosecutor James Gray told the jury in his opening
address. “If you believe his testimony, you must find a
verdict of guilty.”
Ben testified that his father had returned to the island
the day before he died, leaving his mother on the
mainland to visit with friends. John Ruff had been
drinking – he was “not very sober,” as the boy put it –
and had “jawed a little” at his sons. Arthur, it appeared,
had finally had enough of his father’s abuse.
“Arthur went and got the axe and struck father on
the head,” Ben told the court. “Andrew was standing
by … but never struck him.” Andrew helped Arthur
drag the body out of the barn and the pair cut down
a tree, to make the death look like an accident.
Andrew also chopped a layer of bloodstained wood
from the barn floor.
Defence lawyer George Young began his crossexamination
with questions about Ben’s background.
He could not read, had no formal schooling, and had
never attended church before his father’s death. And,
the boy admitted, his mother often accused him of
lying.
It had been Andrew’s idea to try to pass off the death
as an accident, Ben claimed. “Andrew said they did
not want to get Arthur hung and would cut a tree
and let on it fell on him.”
“We saw something very
strange that night.”
Suddenly, the trial took a bizarre twist. “We saw
something very strange that night,” Ben added.
“What did you see?” Asking a question in the
courtroom without knowing the answer can be risky,
but Young decided to take a chance.
“I think it was the devil. It was black, it looked just like
....” The boy paused as he searched for words. “About
as big as Mr. Craig’s big dog. He came in and sat in
one corner of the barn. He did not stop long. We saw
the devil once before on the island.”
“When was that?” Young was eager to keep the boy
talking.
“When father was going to kill mother with a
jackknife,” he offered. But when John Ruff realized
“the devil was there, he did not do it.”
“Did you see the devil at other times?”
“The devil was in the house another time,” Ben
obliged. “We went to bed and did not leave any wood
on the fire and when we got up in the morning we
found a good fire on.”
Sightings of the devil? A demon who saved a
woman’s life and thoughtfully tended the fire, to keep
the Ruff home cozy? With the credibility of his star
witness shattered, the prosecutor tried to mitigate
the damage. “Were you frightened when you saw the
devil?” Gray asked.
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION / 49

Judge William Blowers Bliss was outraged that a shoddy investigation made it impossible to
prove whether John Ruff’s death was an accident or murder. (Dean Jobb photo)

“We all were.”
“Were you afraid when you saw your father lying
dead?” He hoped the men on the jury would assume
that trauma had triggered Ben’s visions of the devil.
“Yes,” the boy replied.
There was little evidence to corroborate Ben Ruff’s
story. The local magistrate, John Fulmore, took the
witness stand and defended his failure to investigate
at the time of Ruff’s death. “I had no suspicions he
was murdered,” he explained. The presiding judge, a
stickler for procedure named William Blowers Bliss,
was incensed. The coroner should have been
summoned to confirm the cause of death. “Had the
proper officer been called at the time,” the judge
scolded, “his medical skill would have enabled him to
elicit facts which would either have exculpated the
parties charged or fastened the guilt upon them.”
trusted. A witness who knew the boy provided a
knock-out punch, asserting “I do not think him of
sound mind.” After a half-hour deliberation, the jury
declared Andrew not guilty. Based on the flimsy
evidence, it was the only possible verdict.
It is said that Ruff’s ghost still haunts Moose Island,
which has been uninhabited for more than a century
and a half since his death. But the legend is based on
little more than a handful of reports of mysterious
lights spotted from the mainland.
The work of the devil, Ben
Ruff might say.
John Ruff died in 1842 on Nova Scotia’s Moose Island. His young son,
Benjamin, swore he was murdered – and also claimed to have seen the
devil lurking on his family’s remote homestead. (Dean Jobb photo)
Doctor Waddell, a coroner, testified he had exhumed
Ruff’s body the day before the trial. The left side of the
skull was fractured but, as the judge feared, after two
years it was too late to say for certain what had
caused the fatal injury. It could have been a blow
struck with an axe, Waddell acknowledged, or the
impact of a falling tree.
Jobb is the author of
Dean
of Deception, the true
Empire
of a brazen swindler in 1920s
tale
His next book, coming
Chicago.
in April 2021, recreates Scotland
Witnesses who examined the barn at the Ruff
homestead reported finding traces of blood between
the floorboards. But Young, the defence lawyer,
pointed out that there was no evidence it was human
blood and it was common to slaughter livestock in
barns.
The defence witnesses included Susannah Ruff, who
testified that her husband had often beaten her.
Eager to save Andrew from going to prison, she
denounced Ben as “a bad boy” who could not be
hunt for Dr. Thomas Neill
Yard’s
a Victorian-era serial
Cream,
who murdered as many as
killer
people in London, Chicago
ten
Canada. Dean teaches
and
writing at the
nonfiction
of King’s College in
University
Nova Scotia.
Halifax,
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION / 51

THE CELTIC DIASPORA:
BRITISH TRADITIONAL
WICCA’S IRISH ROOTS
AND NORTH AMERICAN
WINGS
BY CHRISTA AVAMPATO

Sam Valadi/Flickr: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Lady Amanita visits New York City. Instead of taking in
historic sites or a Broadway show, she slowly winds her way
down Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue. A small cedar-sage incense
stick burns quietly by her side. Its wisps twirl in the air as she
consciously notes the addresses of the skyscrapers she
passes. She is blessing them, the architecture, and the
people toiling away inside. She’s also asking the universe to
let the just among them rise, and the less-than-honorable to
be held accountable. Such is the life of a witch, a Wiccan,
practicing in secret in plain sight on the streets of New York.
British Traditional Wicca practiced today in North America
shares many traits with Celtic culture and mythology. It is
the purest form of Wicca because it has changed very little
since its origins in the British Isles. During the Irish Diaspora,
over 3.5 million people from Ireland emigrated to North
America from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. They
have had an enormous influence on New York City, where
many of them entered, and on North America as a whole as
they spread to and settled in many other cities.
What is not well-known is that they also brought elements
of British Traditional Wicca with them that are still practiced
today. While many Irish Americans remain devout
Christians,
Wiccans exist alongside them in a sometimes
uncomfortable but respected structure. In many ways,
Christianity initially grew by adopting and incorporating
traditions of the Celts and Wicca, and those shared rituals
continue to connect them today.
They meditate by moonlight. They possess and display
Celtic iconography, and continue to celebrate the holidays
of Celtic culture that track closely to the change in
seasons celebrated and marked by society at-large.
All of the solstice days were sacred points of transition for
the Celts, and continue to be for Wiccans. Yule tracks with
Christmas. Imbolc is that time in mid-winter when we
begin to notice that the days are getting longer, and the
light is finding its way back to us. Common sights, terms,
and traditions such as like Yule logs, Christmas trees and
wreaths, and even spring cleaning all stem from Celtic
traditions. They are revered by those who practice Wicca,
and have been incorporated into popular North American
culture.
While there are many examples of links between the
ancient Celts, Wiccans, and pop culture, Samhain
(pronounced sow-in) provides us with one of the most
powerful historical examples of the connection between
the ancient Celtic traditions, today’s Wicca, and non-
Wiccans. It is the basis of our modern-day Halloween, a
persistent link to our agrarian roots, and a reminder that
we are not separate from nature, but rather just one part
of it.
An examination of
Samhain
Photo by Bee Felten-Leidel on Unsplash
Modern-day Wiccans, and particularly young women who
practice, are rediscovering this rich Celtic history and
making it a potent part of their everyday lives. They spend
time in nature, drawing strength and peace from a practice
known as forest bathing which is exactly what it sounds like
—letting the stillness and quiet of the forest wash over them
as they hike and walk meditatively among the trees. (Or in
Lady Amanita’s case, the trees of human society—
skyscrapers.)
One of the hallmarks of practicing Wicca is a cultivation of
a connection with the world beyond ours. They feel a
visceral connection to people who have passed away, and
feel the continued presence of the dead despite their
physical absence. The divine will come to their aid when
called and work in ways that do not mesh with human
logic. This connection begets a synchronicity that
empowers and comforts those who practice Wicca,
54/ WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE

and those who practice many organized religions. They are
fortified and nourished by a deep belief in their connection
to that other world.
Samhain is a reflection and celebration of that belief.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered
evidence of Samhain in what is now modern-day Ireland
that date back over 2,000 years. In old Irish, the name means
“end of summer”. Though only about 20,000 people today
speak Irish on a daily basis, it is still used today. In Irish the
commonly-used term “mí na Samhain” means the “month
of November”. Samhain was the celebration of the end of
the harvest season and the beginning of a well-deserved
winter rest.
today reflect many of these protection practices. While
Halloween costumes have been coopted by modern
society’s commercialism, they began with the Celts and
Samhain. During Samhain, Celts would don animal skins to
protect themselves from the evil spirits. They lit fires (similar
to our bonfires today) to guide the good spirits to them
during Samhain. Jack-o-lanterns began with the Celts, too.
They carved faces into turnips and other hard root
vegetables, leaving them on their doorsteps, to scare off the
evil spirits during Samhain.
Today, Wiccans still carry magical objects of protection with
them, as do many Christians the world over. Whether they
are medallions of Celtic knots, Wiccan pentagrams, or
In ancient Celtic society, as in early North American history,
everything hinged on the harvest. The strategic planning
and all of the back-breaking work of the winter, spring, and
summer culminated in the harvesting of (hopefully plentiful)
crops in the fall. Until very recent history, this had always
been the case from the time humans transitioned society
from being one of hunting and gathering to farming.
Without a successful harvest, their very survival the
following year would be jeopardized, and so the harvest took
on a sacred spirit all its own, worthy of celebration.
In Mexico and Mexican-American communities all over
North America, the Day of the Dead is a sacred tradition that
aligns with the traditions of Samhain and those of today’s
Wiccans. The Celts believed that on that one night of the
festival, the veil that separated the living from the
dead, the veil between this world and the netherworld, was
so thin that the spirits of our ancestors could once again be
with us. Just as the Celts did, those who mark the Day of the
Dead build alters and homages to family members,
honoring their memories and expressing gratitude.
Just as the ancestors could visit, so could evil spirits. The
Celts devised ways to protect themselves from that evil.
Halloween traditions and traditions practices by Wiccans
Christian crosses, all of them are meant to signify
community, belief, and protection from the evils of this
world by the divinity of another.
Lady Amanita’s incense stick is also a link to the Celts and to
Christianity. All of them used and continue to use it as a way
to cleanse and restore, to honor the sacred in a sensual way,
to ask for protection and healing. A thurible is the name
given to the metal chamber suspended from chains, in
which incense burn during Christian worship services. That
tradition has existed for thousands of years and continues
today.
Along New York City’s Sixth Avenue now, in the times of
coronavirus that have emptied the streets of people and
laughter and life, that wisp of incense lingers as a bridge to
the ancient Celts. A young and faithful witch, Lady Amanita
asks for their protection not only for herself but for all who
call this place home. Wiccan or Christian or any other belief
system, coronavirus has shown the world that unity matters.
This idea of community, interdependence, shared
responsibility, and support is the clearest and most precious
point of connection between the modern world and the
ancient. Then, the survival of the Celts depended upon one
another. People today are learning in no uncertain terms
that ours does, too.
WITCHCRAFT AND FOLKLORE/ /55