MetaFilter posts tagged with witchcraft

Reports of genital theft have spread like an epidemic

not_the_water — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:08:40 -0800

"Elaborate greetings are the norm, I’ve found, when one enters a Central African village. So it was a surprise when I noticed that many people weren’t shaking hands the morning I arrived in Tiringoulou, a town of about 2,000 people in one of the remotest corners of the Central African Republic, in March 2010. I soon found out the reason: the day before, a traveler passing through town on a Sudanese merchant truck had, with a simple handshake, removed two men’s penises." "Genital theft is neither new nor confined to Africa. Similar panics afflicted Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. (Malleus Maleficarum, a book-length jeremiad against the dangers of witchcraft from 1486, includes a discussion of sorceresses who “take away male members” and keep them in birds’ nests.) And in 1967, an outbreak of koro—the belief that the penis is retracting into the body—overwhelmed hospitals in Singapore. [...] But here I was in Tiringoulou—a dusty, peanut-growing hamlet so small and poor it barely has a market. If penis snatching had previously been a city dweller’s fear, now it seemed that not even the remotest places would be spared." "...Mysterious indeed. But perhaps no more so than certain afflictions that are less strange to us in the West. If penis stealing seems beyond-the-pale weird, consider what people in Tiringoulou might think upon hearing of Americans who starve themselves near to death because their reflection in the mirror convinces them they are fat." Related: 'Perplexed ... Perplexed': On Mob Justice in Nigeria. Malleus Maleficarum previously and previously.

Ex Libris Houdini

filthy light thief — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:53:46 -0800

Ehrich Weisz may not have had much formal education, but he grew up to be Harry Houdini, self-educated stunt performer, escape artist, and owner of "one of the largest libraries in the world on psychic phenomena, Spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, demonology, evil spirits, etc., some of the material going back as far as 1489." Houdini bequeathed much of his collection to the Library of Congress, which received 3,988 volumes from his collection in 1927, including a number of magic books inscribed or annotated by well-known magicians. Archive.org has more of the Harry Houdini Collection online. He also put a great deal of research into his tricks, as seen in his letter to Dr. W. J. McConnell, a physiologist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines, written up after Houdini's watery grave stunt in 1926.

A spurious system of natural law as well as a fallacious guide of conduct

Kitty Stardust — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:29:35 -0800

A critique of Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough by Colin Dickey. "For all its erudition and analysis, The Golden Bough has for more than a century helped cement the idea that magic is inappropriate, wrongheaded thought. Yet what separates magic from religion or science is not its methodology—Frazer himself notes that it 'is therefore a truism, almost a tautology, to say that all magic is necessarily false and barren; for were it ever to become true and fruitful, it would no longer be magic but science'—it’s that ordinary people can do it, transforming their lives with the ambitious power of everyday thought." Via Lapham's Quarterly's Magic Shows issue.

Will we ever know what caused the Salem Witch Trials?

empath — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:22:36 -0800

"I would point out to you that medical explanations are modern. That Americans today want medical explanations for things that in the 19th century would have been explained by hysteria, and in the 18th century would have been explained by religious conversion experiences in the context of the Great Awakening, when people were having these types of fits, and in the 17th century by witchcraft."

Your garlic-related life will be forever changed

DoctorFedora — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:13:34 -0800

How to easily peel a whole bulb of garlic in ten seconds [single-link vimeo]

The Civil War Journal of Nehemiah Wallington

thomas j wise — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:50:48 -0800

The Civil War Journal of Nehemiah Wallington , digitized by the John Rylands Library, is one of the surviving diaries kept by this seventeenth-century Puritan. Although Wallington recorded a number of key events, like the execution of Archbishop Laud, the diary has garnered most attention for its report of the Chelmsford witch trials, overseen by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins (enter "witchcraft" into the search box to see Wallington's account). For more of the intellectual context for early modern witch-hunting in the British Isles, see the Witches in Early Modern England and Survey of Scottish Witchcraft databases, as well as the handy collection of primary texts in Cornell's Witchcraft Collection.

Season of the Witch

naju — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:24:58 -0800

Why does Martha Stewart have a human skull in her kitchen?

Is a black cat a deductable business expense?

reynir — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:45:46 -0800

The Romanian government has changed its labour laws, and in doing so has added a number of professions which weren't previously recognised but which are now subject to tax. Car valets, embalmers and driving instructors are unhappy to be added, but their protests aren't likely to be as scary as those of the...witches. Romanian witches are now regarded as self-employed, and subject to income tax and health and pension payments. Rather than marching or writing stern letters, they have threatened to curse the government, throw poisonous mandrake plants into the River Danube, and conjure spells using cat faeces and a dead dog. This isn't the first time recently that witchcraft has figured in Romanian politics: when Mircea Geoana lost the presidential race in 2009, he blamed supernatural interference: "People who were working for Basescu in this domain were present to the right of the camera [during a TV debate]" Mr Geoana told local television. Mr Geoana was mocked in the press for being a bad loser, but the subsequent publication of photos showing a well-known clairvoyant and parapsychologist (whose specialities are said to include deep mind control, clairvoyance, and hypnotic trance) in the President's close company throughout the campaign. The President and his aides have also been known 'to wear purple on certain days in an attempt to ward off evil'. In 2007 a judge was alleged to have attempted to cast spells on court staff, other judges and prosecutors. She was relieved of her position as court president and had her salary reduced for three months (although it's less clear how much of this was due to sorcery and how much to 'misplacing an important document'. Not all witches are upset about the change, though. Gabriela Ciucur lobbied the government for professional recognition, and has become the first to officially register a company dealing with 'astrology and contacts with the spiritual world'.

Malleus Maleficarum?

jefficator — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:13:44 -0800

"Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers..." Just last week, this post brought our attention to mistreatment of "witches" in Africa. Religious repudiation of "witchcraft" certainly has a long and dismal history. But new video today of public torture of women accused of witchcraft in India is promoting remarkable outrage. Warning: the video is disturbing.

Ritual and Witchcraft in Cornwall

homunculus — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:25:22 -0800

Witches of Cornwall. "Macabre evidence of age-old spells surfaces in an archaeologist's front yard." [Via]

Penis-Theft Victims Get Testy

Navelgazer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:51:12 -0800

Koro, previously, has gripped the streets of Kinshasa, Congo. Unlike the 1967 Koro Epidemic in Singapore, which was blamed on tainted pork, the afflicted men in Kinshasa have blamed the psychosomatic penile shrinkage on witchcraft by a rival sect, and responded with attempted lynchings. In order to prevent bloodshed of the kind seen in Ghana a decade ago, police have responded by apprehending the alleged sorcerers. Note: this post is about the historical epidemics, but I suggest going to the "previously" for greater discussion of the actual disorder. If, you know, that's your thing.

Pre-modern home security

Abiezer — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:18:46 -0800

Apotropaios contains much fascinating information about the (here, mainly British and Irish) folk magic practice of concealing objects in buildings for ritual protection purposes. Yes, mummified Ceiling Cat is averting your evil. One aspect of the practice, the deliberate concealment of garments, has provided us with insight into ordinary costume of bygone days.

Helen Duncan was the last woman to be convicted of witchcraft in Britain. This was in 1944.

Kattullus — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:21:58 -0800

Helen Duncan was the last woman to be convicted of witchcraft in Britain. This was in 1944. British authorities "were alarmed by reports that she had disclosed - allegedly via contacts with the spirit world - the sinking of two British battleships long before they became public." Her descendants still smart from the trial and there is a campaign to pardon Mrs Duncan, who some consider a martyred medium who could regurgitate ectoplasm out of her mouth. More than a decade before her trial legendary psychic researcher Harry Price exposed Mrs Duncan as a fraud in his essay The Cheese-Cloth Worshippers. If you want to judge for yourself you can take a look at the photographs Mr Price took of a séance performed by Mrs Duncan.

Everytime you toss a kitten, God pisses on a parade.

If I Had An Anus — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:14:23 -0800

Kattenstoet, a triennial cat parade is this weekend in Ypres, Belguim. The festival culminates with Kattenworp, the hurling of kittens from the Cloth Hall Belfry, a continuation of Europe's long ambiguous history of fascination with the feline. [more inside]

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

jb — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:01:19 -0800

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft: A searchable database of people accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. Currently, 3,837 people have been identified, 3,212 by name. 113 cases involved fairies, 74 had a known political or property motive, 70 involved some aspect of "white magic". This is the real, and utterly fascinating, history of a hysteria that griped a country and a continent for more than a century. Religion, folk belief, fear and local relations all played out in witchhunts - and we still do not really understand why, why they started or why they ended. Projects like this one are invaluable to help us begin. (Co-developed by mefite Flitcraft)

Ergot Poisoning

OmieWise — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 06:23:20 -0800

Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem? Linda Caporael's 1976 Science article was the first sustained argument that the Salem witch scare was caused by a case of ergot poisoning. Mary Matossian's 1989 book Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics and History makes a more comprehensive argument for the effect that ergot poisoning has had specfically on European history. Barbara Comyns wrote a fabulous 1955 novel called Who Was Changed, and Who Was Dead about a 1927 ergot poisoning outbreak in Manchester, England. Pictures of the dread mold.

Cast the wicked out

SirOmega — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:30:48 -0800

American Family Association is at it again, from their Christian News Media Serivce, Agape Press... "Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.... “New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again.""

occult religion crime conspiracy Levenda

thedailygrowl — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:46:41 -0800

Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft is the 3 volume culmination of author Peter Levenda's 25 years of research into the strange and bizarre undercurrents of American political, cultural and religious history. In his previous effort, Levinda focused on the occult roots of Nazism in an utterly fascinating and unerving book called Unholy Alliance which is discussed in this interview. A radio interview with Levinda is available here.

Alan Macfarlane

TimothyMason — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 05:20:41 -0800

Alan Macfarlane is a historian cum anthropologist. You can find some of his writings and videos on witchcraft, on the family and on English individualism on the site. There is also a collection of video-interviews with anthropologists such as Frith, Geerz, and Richards. In fact, there is so much to read and hear that you won't miss your television.

Dowsing for love and money.

OmieWise — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:02:39 -0800

Dowsing can be used to find water, find caves, find landmines, heal yourself and others, and clear your house of bad energy. There are several studies that purport to prove that dowsing works (one ten year study found a 96% success rate among dowsers in arid regions). There are online lessons for how to dowse, from the Digital Dowsers Society. The Journal of Christian Research thinks it might be a tool of the devil. But the scientific evidence is at best equivocal (as you might expect.) Scroll down on this page for more experiment debunking. Also always check The Skeptics Dictionary.

Carlo Ginzburg

y2karl — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 01:16:57 -0800

On The Dark Side of History - The historian Carlo Ginzburg talks about his publications and his historical method of microhistory which he pioneered. Ginzburg's most famous work is The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller--here's a review from the Journal of Peasant Studies in pdf form. Simon Schama listed it among his favorite history books, saying How can you not love a book which takes the cosmology of a heretical 16th-century miller who believes that God created the world as a kind of indeterminate cheese from which came angelic worms, and makes you believe in its plausibility ? Domenico Scandella known as Menocchio is now a hero in his ancestral village and the subject of Menocchio, a play by Elizabeth Groag. And here is a review of Ginzburg's The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. See also The Benadanti, New Age Travellers and Medieval Night-Riders and On Hereditary Italian Witchcraft and Menocchio's Books--now there's an odd lot of fellow travellers.

Child witches in Africa

SealWyf — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 10:25:43 -0800

Things fall apart Stressed societies move in strange directions. In Angola, shattered by a decades-long civil war, children and even infants are accused of being witches. Burkina Faso is also having a witchcraft epidemic. Are there parallels with conditions in Salem and Early Modern Europe?

Suffer not a witch to live.

archimago — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:10:50 -0800

You dangle in agony. You clutch your faith. You fight for breath. You surrender your spirit. Nineteen “witches” were hanged at Gallows Hill in 1692, and one defendant, Giles Cory, was tortured to death for refusing to enter a plea at his trial. Five others, including an infant, died in prison.

Making Evil Look Innocent

zedzebedia — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:51:35 -0800

The Beast cracks your child's mind when he reads Harry Potter. Yeah, you probably have seen this site before, but with the new movie coming out soon, it's worth revisiting. Incidently, Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged comes out on DVD December 1, with never before seen extra footage.

As Harry Potter tops all box office records,

Rastafari — Sun, 18 Nov 2001 23:38:11 -0800

As Harry Potter tops all box office records, it seems that some parents don't want their kids to watch the film because some think it promotes witchcraft. Are separation of church and state arguments valid here, or are the parents a bunch of wet blankets?