Chapter XI: Witchcraft: Its Facts and Follies

It has frequently been pointed out that, "where there is so much smoke there must be some fire"; also that there is, probably, and almost necessarily, some grain of truth in any popular superstition, no matter how absurd it may appear at first sight. This is not less true of witchcraft--though it would be difficult to convince the average person, in all probability, that there was anything connected with it but the grossest and most repulsive superstition. Taken all in all, it most assuredly is that, and very little else; and, before proceeding to examine the _residuum_ of truth that probably exists in connection with this subject, it will be well for us briefly to examine the other and darker side of this curious relic of mediaeval superstition, and to see it in its most sombre hues. A belief for which more than nine million persons were either burned or hanged since it sprang into being; in whose cause five hundred persons were executed in three months in 1515 in Geneva alone, is not to be put aside as unworthy of a moment's consideration; but should, on the contrary, be considered as a most extraordinary and lasting delusion--helping to colour the times in which it occurred and influence the whole course of a nation's history.

The first trial for sorcery in England was in King John's reign; the last within the past two hundred years. In England, America, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia--every country without exception--witches have lived, flourished, and been burned at the stake. Laws were enacted against witches, and they were condemned on the most trivial and even ridiculous evidence imaginable. If an old woman were seen to enter a house by the front door, and a black cat was seen to leave the house by the back door, it was deemed sufficient evidence that the old woman was a witch, without further evidence or investigation--and indeed much of the evidence was not nearly so good and circumstantial as this! When a witch was caught, she was questioned and generally tortured; but it was soon ascertained that torture was a very unfair and unsafe method of extracting the truth (here as elsewhere), for the reason that a weak soul, even if innocent, might confess, and a strong and stubborn one would hold out and contend for her innocence to the last, whether guilty or not. For these reasons, it was finally given up before the burning was abolished.

Witches were supposed to be possessed of the most extraordinary powers for evil; they could bewitch a man, woman or child--even the cows and flocks--by casting an "evil eye" upon them, by uttering an imprecation, or in other ways casting a spell upon them. This power was derived directly from the devil himself, with whom witches were supposed to be in direct compact; consequently their influence was all for evil. These deeds were practised daily throughout the year; but every year there was a grand meeting of the demons and witches--a "Sabbath," as it was called--and here were recounted all the evil deeds of the past year, and here the witches saw and conversed with the devil himself, and received their instructions from him. It would be almost impossible to conceive a more grotesque and gruesome picture than some of these Sabbaths were supposed to be: every impossible and inconceivable thing that man's mind could invent was apparently attributed to these meetings. In order to form some faint idea of men's beliefs in those days, I quote the following, supposedly from a more or less contemporary account, of what actually transpired at these Sabbaths:

"A witch should be an old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred
brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaky voice, a
scolding tongue, having a ragged coat on her back, a skull cap on
her head, a spindle in her hand, a dog or cat by her side. There
are three classes or divisions of devils--black, grey, and white.
The first are omnipotent for evil, but powerless for good. The
white have power to help, but not to hurt. The grey are efficient
for both good and evil.... The modes of bewitching are: by casting
an evil eye (fascinating); by making representations of a person to
be acted upon in wax or clay, roasting this image before a fire; by
mixing magical ointments, or other compositions or ingredients; or
sometimes merely by uttering an imprecation.... Witches can ride in
sieves on the sea, on brooms, or spits, magically prepared. The
meeting of the witches is held every Friday night--between Friday
and Saturday.... They steal children from the grave, boil them with
lime till all the flesh is loosed from the bones, and is reduced to
one mass. They make of the firm part an ointment, and fill a
bottle with the fluid; and whosoever drinks this with due ceremony
belongs to the league, and is capable of bewitching.... Every year
a grand Sabbath is held or ordered for celebration on the
Blocksberg Mountains, for the night before the 1st of May. Witches
congregate from all parts, and meet at a place where four roads
meet, in a rugged mountain range, or in the neighbourhood of a
secluded lake or some dark forest; these are the spots selected for
the meeting....

"When orders have been issued for the meeting of the Sabbath, all
the wizards and witches who fail to attend it are lashed by demons
with a rod made of serpents and scorpions. In France and England
the witches ride upon broomsticks; but in Italy and Spain the Devil
himself, in the shape of a goat, supports them on his back, which
lengthens or shortens according to the number of witches he is
desirous of accommodating. No witch, when proceeding to the
Sabbath, can go out by a door or window, were she to try ever so
much. Their general mode of ingress is by a keyhole and of egress
by the chimney, up which they fly, broom and all, with the greatest
ease. To prevent the absence of the witches being noticed by their
neighbours, some inferior demon is commanded to assume their shapes
and lie in their beds, feigning illness, until the Sabbath is over.
When all the wizards and witches arrive at the place of rendezvous,
the infernal ceremonies begin. Satan, having assumed his favourite
shape of a large he-goat, with a face in front and another in his
haunches, takes a seat upon the throne; and all present in
succession pay their respects to him and kiss him on his face
behind. This done, he appoints a master of the ceremonies, in
company with whom he makes a personal examination of all the
witches to see whether they have the secret mark upon them by which
they are stamped as the Devil's own. The mark is always insensible
to pain. Those who have not yet been marked receive the mark from
the master of ceremonies--the Devil, at the same time, bestowing
nicknames upon them. This done, they all begin to sing and dance in
a most furious manner, until some one arrives who is anxious to be
admitted into the society. They are then silent for a while until
the newcomer has denied his salvation, kissed the Devil, spat upon
the Bible, and sworn obedience to him in all things. They then
begin dancing with all their might, and singing.... In the course
of an hour or two they generally become wearied of this violent
exercise, and then they all sit down and recount all their evil
deeds since last meeting. Those who have not been malicious and
mischievous enough towards their fellow-creatures receive personal
chastisement from Satan himself, who flogs them with thorns and
scorpions until they are covered with blood and unable to sit or
stand. When this ceremony is concluded, they are all amused by a
dance of toads. Thousands of these creatures spring out of the
earth, and, standing upon their hind legs, dance while the Devil
plays the bagpipes or the trumpet. These toads are all endowed with
the faculty of speech, and entreat the witches there to reward them
with the flesh of unbaptized infants for their exertions to give
them pleasure. The witches promise compliance. The Devil bids them
remember to keep their word, and then, stamping his foot, causes
all the toads to sink into the earth in an instant. The place
being thus cleared, preparations are made for the banquet, where
all manner of disgusting things are served and greedily devoured by
the demons and witches--although the latter are sometimes regaled
with choice meats and expensive wines from golden plates and
crystal goblets; but they are never thus favoured unless they have
done an extraordinary number of evil deeds since the last period of
meeting. After the feast they begin dancing, but such as have no
relish for any more exercise in that way amuse themselves by
mocking the holy sacrament of baptism. For this purpose the toads
are again called and sprinkled with filthy water, the Devil making
the sign of the cross, and the witches calling out [oath omitted].
When the Devil wishes to be particularly amused, he makes the
witches strip off their clothes and dance before him, each with a
cat tied round her neck and another dangling from her body in the
form of a tail. When the cock crows they all disappear, and the
Sabbath is ended...."

There, reader, is a very fair idea of the monstrous form of belief held during the Middle Ages. Scarcely anything that was fanciful and diabolical was not conjured up to the mind and said to happen at these Sabbaths. There was also a certain amount of ingenious theorizing afoot in order to account for certain facts, as, for instance, the cloven hoof, which it was said must always appear, no matter how concealed--it being due to the fact that the devil took the form of a goat so often that he finally acquired the hoof. Sir Thomas Browne explains it to us thus:

"The ground of this opinion at first might be his frequent
appearing in the shape of a goat, which answers this description.
This was the opinion of the Ancient Christians concerning the
apparitions of the ancient panites, fauns, and satyrs; and of this
form we read of one that appeared to Anthony in the wilderness. The
same is also confirmed from exposition of Holy Scripture. For
whereas it is said, 'Thou shalt not offer unto devils,' the
original word is _Seghuirim_, i.e., 'rough and hairy goats,'
because in that shape the Devil most often appeared, as is
expounded by the rabbis, as _Tremellius_ hath also explained; and
as the word _Ascimah_, the God of Emath, is by some explained."

It will be noted that the word "Devil" is invariably capitalized by the mediaeval writers, and to them he must have been a very real personage, and these curious beliefs terrible truths. Indeed, if true, what could be more terrible? Even so learned a man as Bacon, we are told--whose soul was promised to the devil, no matter "whether he died in or out of the church"--endeavoured to cheat the devil out of his due, and had his body buried in the _wall_ of the church--thus being neither in nor out of it--and so he hoped to cheat the devil of his due!

With the coming of Reginald Scott there arose a certain scepticism throughout Europe, which was later echoed in America. Scott wrote a monumental work entitled _The Discoverie of Witchcraft_, in which he bitterly attacked the credulity of the people, and showed himself entirely incredulous of any of the alleged phenomena. Some years before, had he published such a book, it was likely that he would have been burned himself; but the times were probably ripe for just such a publication; there was already much unrest and uneasiness afoot, and his book appeared in the nick of time. Scott attempted to account for the phenomena of witchcraft on a rational basis, and showed himself completely sceptical of the reality of most of the manifestations. He even went so far as to attack many of the older "miracles," which apparently supported the newer, even taking the very bold course (in that day) of attacking some of the Biblical miracles. Thus we read:

"The Pythoness (speaking of the Witch of Endor) being
_ventriloqua_, that is, speaking as it were from the bottom of her
belly, did cast herself into a trance, and so abused Saul in
Samuel's name in her counterfeit hollow voice."

Indeed, something was necessary to check the rank credulity of the times. If an old woman scolded a carter, and later on in the day his cart got stuck in the mud or overturned, it was positive evidence that he and his cart and horse had been "bewitched"! If an old woman kept a black cat or a pet toad, it was most assuredly her "familiar," and she was branded as a witch forthwith. If cows sickened and died, it was because a "spell" had been cast over them; and so on and so on. The superstitions of witchcraft were as innumerable as they were extraordinary. Are there any facts, amid all this superstition and ignorance, tending to show that genuine supernormal phenomena ever occurred at all? And if so, what are they?

It must be remembered that, in the days of witchcraft, virtually nothing was known of hysteria, epilepsy, the varied forms of insanity, hallucination, hypnotism, or of the possibilities of mal-observation and lapse of memory: while such a matter as first-hand circumstantial evidence seems to have been lost to sight entirely. If any mental or extraordinary physical disturbance took place, if the witch went into a trance and described things that were not, this was held to be proof positive that she was bewitched and under the influence of the devil. But we now know that most of these facts really indicated disease--mental and bodily--or the results of hysteria or trance, spontaneous or induced. Possibly there were also traces of hypnotism and telepathic influence, upon occasion. Of course, fraud pure and simple would account for many of the phenomena--the vomiting of pins and needles, for instance. But there remain certain facts which cannot be accounted for on any of these theories. Let us see, briefly, what these are.

First there are the "witches' marks." These were anaesthetic patches or zones on the body that were quite insensible to pain. They were searched for with the aid of sharp needles, and often found! It was thought that these were the spots which the devil had touched; this was his "trade-mark," so to speak, by which all witches were known. Now we know that just such anaesthetic patches occur in hysterical patients, and are not due to supernatural causes at all, but to pathological states.

Then, again, there is the possible occurrence of hallucinations. Edmund Gurney pointed this out in _Phantasms of the Living_, vol. i. p. 117, where he said:

"We know now that subjective hallucinations may possess the very
fullest sensory character, and may be as real to the percipient as
any object he ever beheld. I have myself heard an epileptic
subject, who was perfectly sane and rational in his general
conduct, describe a series of interviews that he had had with the
devil with a precision and an absolute belief in the evidence of
his senses equal to anything that I ever read in the records of the
witches' compacts. And further, we know now that there is a
condition, capable often of being induced in uneducated and simple
persons with extreme ease, in which any idea that is suggested may
at once take sensory form, and may be projected as an actual
hallucination. To those who have seen robust young men, in an early
stage of hypnotic trance, staring with horror at a figure which
appears to them to be walking on the ceiling, or giving way to
strange convulsions under the impression that they have been
changed into birds or snakes, there will be nothing very surprising
in the belief of hysterical girls that they were possessed by some
alien influence, or that their distinct persecutor was actually
present to their senses. It is true that in hypnotic experiments
there is commonly some preliminary process by which the peculiar
condition is induced, and that the idea which originates the
delusion has then to be suggested _ab extra_. But with sensitive
'subjects' who have been much under any particular influence, a
mere word will produce the effect; nor is there any feature in the
evidence for witchcraft that more constantly recurs than the
_touching_ of the victim by the witch. Moreover, no hard and fast
lines exist between the delusions of induced hypnotism and those
of spontaneous trance, or of the grave hystero-epileptic crises
which mere terror is now known to develop."

Unquestionably, hypnotism and hallucination played their part; also perhaps telepathy; and, as Gurney points out elsewhere, "The imagination which may be unable to produce, even in feeble-minded persons, the belief that they _see_ things that are not there, may be quite able to produce the belief that they _have seen_ them, which is all, of course, that their testimony implies" (p. 118).

Doubtless a large part of witchcraft, particularly that portion of it which relates to the Sabbath and the scenes said to be enacted there, can be explained as being due to the morbid workings of the mind while in a trance state. It is asserted on good authority that salves and ointments were rubbed into the pores of the skin all over the body; and that soon after this the witch would feel drowsy and lie down, and frequently remain in a semitrance state for several hours. During that time she would visit the Sabbath,--so it was said; but her body remained on the bed meanwhile, clearly showing that _it_ had not been there.[48]

One of the most curious beliefs prevalent at the time was the belief in _lycanthropy_, that is, that certain individuals can, under certain conditions, change their bodily shape, and appear _as animals_ to persons at a distance! Frequently this animal would be injured, in which case the person whom the animal represented would be found to be injured in the same way, and in exactly the same place. The witch in such cases would frequently be lying at home in bed in a trance state, while her "fluidic double," in the shape of the animal, would be roaming about "seeking whom he might devour." The following is a typical case, which I quote from Adolphe D'Assier's _Posthumous Humanity_, p. 261:

"A miller, named Bigot, had some reputation for sorcery. One day,
when his wife rose very early to go and wash some linen not very
far from the house, he tried to dissuade her, repeating to her
several times, 'Do not go there; you will be frightened.' 'Why
should I be frightened?' answered she. 'I tell you you will be
frightened.' She made nothing of these threats, and departed.
Hardly had she taken her place at the wash-tub before she saw an
animal moving here and there about her. As it was not yet daylight
she could not clearly make out its form, but she thought it was a
kind of dog. Annoyed by these goings and comings, and not being
able to scare it away, she threw at it her wooden clothes-beater,
which struck it in the eye. The animal immediately disappeared. At
the same moment the children of Bigot heard the latter utter a cry
of pain from the bed, and add: 'Ah! the wretch! she has destroyed
my eye.' From that day, in fact, he became one-eyed. Several
persons told me this fact, and I have heard it from Bigot's
children themselves."

How does our author attempt to account for such a fact as this? He says:

"It was certainly the double of the miller which projected itself
while he was in bed and wandered about under an animal form. The
wound which the animal received at once repercussed upon the eye of
Bigot, just as we have seen the same thing happen in analogous
cases of the projection of the double by sorcerers."

Without endorsing such a view of the case, it may be said that recent experiments have shown it to be less incredible than might at first appear. Thus: We read further:

"Innumerable facts, observed from antiquity to our own day,
demonstrate in our being the existence of an internal reality--the
internal man. Analysis of these different manifestations has
permitted us to penetrate its nature. Externally it is the exact
image of the person of whom it is the complement. Internally it
reproduces the mould of all the organs which constitute the
framework of the human body. We see it, in short, move, speak, take
nourishment; perform, in a word, all the great functions of animal
life. The extreme tenuity of these constituent molecules, which
represent the last term of inorganic matter, allows it to pass
through the walls and partitions of apartments. Hence the name of
phantom, by which it is generally designated. Nevertheless, as it
is united with the body from which it emanates by an invisible
vascular plexus, it can, at will, draw to itself, by a sort of
aspiration, the greater part of the living forces which animate the
latter. One sees, then, by a singular inversion, life withdrawn
from the body, which then exhibits a cadaverous rigidity, and
transfers itself entirely to the phantom, which acquires
consistency--sometimes even to the point of struggling with
persons before whom it materializes. It is but exceptionally that
it shows itself in connection with a living person. But as soon as
death has snapped the bonds which attach it to our organism, it
definitely separates itself from the human body and constitutes the
posthumous phantom."

This interpretation of the facts, it will be seen, forms a sort of connecting link between apparitions, ghosts, materializations, vampirism, and witchcraft; it is also in accord with the statements of the theosophists as to the astral body, conforms with certain statements made through Mrs. Piper and others as to the fluidic or ethereal body, and accounts for many of the phenomena of "collective hallucination" and haunted houses. I am far from saying that I think such a theory proved, but it is at least consistent and plausible; it is also in accord with many facts, and explains them as no other theory can or does.

Colonel A. de Rochas, in his article on "Regression of Memory" (_Annals of Psychical Science_, July 1905), claimed that he had experimentally produced one of these doubles in a mesmerised subject. After several seances, and while the subject was in a deep trance, the following occurred:

"The astral body is now complete. M. de R. tries to make it rise,
to send it into another room. The body is stopped in its journey by
the ceiling and the walls. M. de R. tells Mayo to stretch towards
him the astral right hand, and he pinches it; Mayo feels the
pinch."

Experiments such as these could be multiplied _ad infinitum_. There are cases on record in which the astral form has been pricked with needles, while the "sensitive" felt the prick, and so on. These experiments are suggestive, and if they should prove an etheric body, or anything corresponding to it, that would be at least one great step in advance in psychic research. It would also enable us to understand many of the phenomena of witchcraft, which are at present looked upon as mere superstitions.

A word, finally, as to the phenomena of "exteriorization of sensibility," to which reference was made in the last paragraph. Many French observers have, apparently, obtained these phenomena; but there seems to be much scepticism regarding them in England and America, where they are generally considered to be due entirely to "suggestion." For my own part--while I do not uphold past experiments in this direction as being particularly convincing--I must confess that I see no inherent improbability in the facts themselves. If we have an etheric body, this is doubtless more or less detachable, at times--indeed, the ingenious author of _The Maniac_ suggests that the premature loosening of this body is the cause of much insanity. (See also my own remarks along the same general lines in the _Annals of Psychical Science_, October-December 1909, pp. 657-67; "Concerning Abnormal Mental Life.") This etheric body is doubtless highly sensitive to external forces and energies acting upon it, and would also feel physical pressure, etc., when applied. If this were true, we should have a ready explanation for these cases of exteriorized sensibility.

But it would not even be necessary for us to assume this! If the phenomena of exteriorization of _motivity_ be true (the phenomena produced by Eusapia Palladino, for example) then we have here nervous energy or "fluid" existing beyond the periphery of the body--that is, in space, detached from the nerves. And if a motor current can exist and travel in this manner, why not a sensory current? It would only have to travel in the opposite direction. For these reasons, therefore, I am disposed to regard the phenomena of exteriorized sensibility as highly probable, if not actually proved.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] See the article on "Witches' Unguents" in the _Occult Review_, April 1912, pp. 275-77.