Witch Test Six

Posted by kitperriman on February 24, 2022

The Witch Test #6

The sixth test is the LAYING ON OF HANDS.

If you touch someone throwing a fit –
and they suddenly stop –
they’ll claim you caused their affliction!

(Photo: Public Domain)

Witch Test Five

Posted by kitperriman on February 23, 2022

The Witch Test #5

The PRAYER challenge is the hardest.

If you can’t recite the Lord’s Prayer correctly –
without any error or stumbling –
then you must be a witch!

(Photo: Public Domain)

Witch Test Four

Posted by kitperriman on February 22, 2022

Witch Test #4

Do you send out a ghost in SPECTRAL FORM?
If a familiar spirit –
or spectral self –
or apparition from you is seen by the villagers . . .
then you are a witch!

(Drawing: Public Domain)

Witch Test Three

Posted by kitperriman on February 21, 2022

Witch Test #3

Have you got any TOOLS OF THE CRAFT?

You may be a wizard or witch if you make ointments, poisons, and herbals – or fashion wax dolls into likenesses – or learn from spell books and magic charts.

(Drawing: Public Domain)

Witch Test Two

Posted by kitperriman on February 18, 2022

Witch Test #2

CONFESSION!

If the villagers think you are a witch –
and you make a free and voluntary confession to that effect –
then you may indeed be considered a witch.

(Picture: Public Domain)

Witch Test One

Posted by kitperriman on February 17, 2022

Witch Test: #1

There are ten ways used to detect witches. The first is finding the CAUSE OF FITS.

If a villager behaves moonstruck and odd whenever a certain person is near, that person may be accused of causing their ailment.

(Picture: Public Domain)

Lilith and Eve: Part Two

Posted by kitperriman on February 16, 2022

(Painting: John Roddam Spencer Stanhope)

In the Christian version of Genesis, Adam (meaning literally “man”) is the perfect model of strength and beauty. He donates a rib to create a submissive partner, the naïve Eve. They dwell in the Garden of Eden with two special trees – the Tree of Knowledge (which gives the wisdom to uncover good and evil) and the Tree of Life (which grants immortality). Eve is tempted by the devil (in the guise of the serpent) to eat from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge and is then expelled from paradise alongside her mate, cutting off the Tree of Life and making them both mortal.

Eve, the first woman deceived by a sweet-talking male, becomes the original mother of mankind. In the beginning she is a daughter of nature – a creature half-way between animal and man – beautiful, sensual, emotional, but also fickle, stupid, and weak. This archetypal woman soon becomes the victim, the first person seduced by Satan and therefore the first witch. Indeed, in early iconography, Eve is even physically linked with the serpent through her long twisting hair.

Eve sins in multiple ways – by disobeying God and rejecting divine authority, going her own way, and in seeking the wisdom of the male Gods – implying that all the evil, death, and suffering in the world comes from disobeying your master. Naïve woman is blamed for the Fall, a typical psychological projection onto a convenient scapegoat.

At some point Lilith became entwined with Eve in the minds of the early Christian commentators. Instead of a masculine Satan being culpable for Eve’s ruin, Lilith is associated with the snake in Genesis 3 – a female demon who tempts Eve into rebellion. Even John Milton alludes to the “snake witch” in Paradise Lost. Thereafter, the gullible Eve is portrayed as a calculating, evil, seductress, and the source of man’s carnal desire.

And because the first woman committed the primal sin, all females were forever to be held accountable. For centuries they were considered subservient, lustful, untrustworthy, base, unintelligent, and sly. Small wonder that so many of the witches executed in the Burning Times were female!

Sources:

Brunel, Pierre. Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes, and Archetypes. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions. Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1999.

Witcombe, Christopher: “Eve and the Identity of Women” (7) http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/7evelilith.html

Lilith and Eve: Part One

Posted by kitperriman on February 15, 2022

(Painting: Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

According to the Jewish Midrash’s explanation for the two separate accounts of the Creation Story, Adam’s first wife was a woman called Lilith. She was made of the same soil as man and therefore was his equal. But when Adam tried to dominate Lilith she rebelled, fled the Garden of Eden, and abandoned her mate to consort with more submissive demons instead. So God created another mate for Adam and called her Eve.

From the Sixth Century BC, Lilith was portrayed as a female demon who killed infants and threatened women in childbirth, and perhaps because of this association the scriptures began partnering Lilith with Samael (Satan), making her the Queen of Evil. Her Hebrew name translates into “night creature,” “night monster,” “night hag,” and “screech owl” – and only the three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof can protect against her wicked powers.

In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church identified Lilith (and her daughters, the Lilim) with female succubae – demons who copulate with sleeping men, causing their erotic dreams. Contrasting with the pure, submissive, Holy Mother, Lilith was a disobedient, lustful sinner who used her sexuality to seduce and ruin men. Her evil stems from being willful – a dangerous threat to patriarchal order and stability.

Mirrors were the direct entrance into Lilith’s realm. Vanity allowed Lilith and her daughters to enter an unsuspecting maiden through her eyes, then lure her into all manner of wild, promiscuous behavior.

In some cultures Lilith is the wind-witch. She brings storms, sickness, and nighttime predators. She is bird-like – often depicted with talons and wings – and the name Lil is also associated with the Sumerian word for “wind”‘ “air,” or “storm.”

Today, however, some wiccans and occultists worship Lilith as the “first mother.”

Sources:

Brunel, Pierre. Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes, and Archetypes. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions. Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 1999.

Witcombe, Christopher: “Eve and the Identity of Women” (7) http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/7evelilith.html

Love-Nut Magic

Posted by kitperriman on February 10, 2022

Go Love-Nuts on Valentine’s Day!

If you can’t choose between two lovers, then here’s a trick to try – but it must be done either on Saint Valentine’s Eve or at All Hallows:
“Light a fire and take three walnuts. Name one for yourself and one for each suitor.

Place the three nuts on the fire with yours in the middle of the other two.
If either nut cracks – or jumps away – that union is not meant to be.
The two nuts that blaze closest together will make the best marriage!”

(Traditional Spell)

(Photo: Public Domain)

Nature’s Vampires: 25 Things You Need To Know About Leeches

Posted by kitperriman on February 7, 2022

I read recently that leeches are still being used in plastic and micro surgery. Their first reported use appears in Sanskrit writings that date back 2,500 years. Here are 25 facts that you probably didn’t (ever want to) know:

1. The Ancient Greeks adopted the practice of leeching to balance the four humors in Galen’s theory of the human body.

2. The majority of leeches live in fresh water, although there are a few marine varieties too.

3. They have suckers on each end of their bodies.

4. Leeches are hermaphrodites.

5. Most species have a 3-bladed jaw that slices through the skin of the host.

6. Hirudo Medicinalis – medical leeches – have three jaws with approximately 100 sharp teeth at the rim.

7. They store blood up to 5 times their body mass.

8. Medical leeches only need to feed twice a year because they have a super-slow digestive system.

9. The European variety were so popular in the 19th Century that they actually became endangered.

10. Leeches attach themselves to feed, but fall off naturally to digest the host’s blood once they are bloated.

11.They feed between 20 minutes – 2 hours.

12. The safest way to remove these parasites is by using a blunt object to break the seal of their suckers.

13. If they are shocked from the host they regurgitate their stomach contents, which often causes infection in the bite.

14. Leech saliva makes wounds bleed more readily.

15. The anticoagulant in their spit is called hirudin.

16. Leech bites generally don’t hurt because they also release an anesthetic when they penetrate the skin.

17. Wounds itch as they heal.

18. Leeches come in brown, black, and dark green colors.

19. They vary from 1″ (2.5 cm) – 12″ (30cm) in length.

20. Leeches lay eggs in cocoons.

21. In cold or dry spells they hibernate by burying themselves in the mud until conditions improve.

22. They have poor vision, but a highly-developed response to touch and vibration.

23 Many species are nocturnal.

24. Rainforest leeches are not aquatic. They thrive in vegetation and feed of warm-bodied hosts.

25. The use of leeches in US medical procedures was FDA approved in 2004.

In leech-rich areas these tiny vampires will drop from their hiding places and inch towards you like something from a horror movie . . .

and the thought of plastic surgery drops even further down my to-do list!