Historical Witchcraft
Dr Raven Dolick MsD
January 6, 2017
All rights reserved
This entry deals with the historical reality of Witches its basic premise is to take claims of witchcraft seriously from a magic and academic standpoint.
Etymology of Witch
Various etymologies of the word Witch have been proposed, all agree it comes from an Anglo-Saxon word and an Indo-European Root. The Anglo-Saxon word for Witch was Wicce(f), Wicca(m) or Wiccan (pl). The c is believed to have a ch sound in most dialects. The modern term Wiccan thus being arguably based on linguistic illiteracy.
*Wei - Robert Graves popularised the notion that Wicce came from *Wei meaning to bend, and so a Witch was someone who bent or twisted reality. However this doesn't seem to be the way the term is used in Anglo-Saxon accounts, so this view is now considered poetic rather than a serious etymology. The modern word 'wicker' referring to the material, as in Wicker Man, is derived from this root.
*Wikke- Christian opponents of Witchcraft have tried to show that the word Wicce derives from *Wikke, meaning 'wicked'. But no known k to c transformation exists in Anglo-Saxon word shifts.
*Witta - Pagan apologists for Witchcraft have sometimes attempted to prove that Wicca is a variant on *Witta, meaning 'wisdom' or 'wits'. But while this is undeniably the origin of Wizard (Witz ard) and Wise Woman (Witz/Wiz Woman), as well as the Anglo-Saxon wise council known as the Wittan, it does not appear to be related to Wicca. The t does not appear in Witch till the 16th century.
*Wigon- Some academics have tried to demonstrate a connection between Wiccan and *Wigon, meaning 'to divine or prophecy', implying Witch meant fortune teller originally. There is in fact a linguistic transformation from *Wigon to Wiccan and Wicce, though not to Wicca. The German 'wicker' meaning 'fortune teller' derives from this root. However the Anglo-Saxons had the term Wiglera for 'diviner', and as it exists alongside Witch in texts and in phrases like Witch-Wiggling for 'water divining', its unlikely that the same root would have evolved in two different ways in the same language, though its not impossible in a hybrid language like English.
*Weg - American scholars (American Heritage Dictionary) have defined the root of Witch as *Weg (the origin of Wake) and the subsequent Wikk in Wikkjaz, meaning to 'wake the dead', implying that Witches were all Necromancers, something far from the truth.
Wiccian - Most linguists think the term Wiccan derives from Wiccian, meaning 'to divide' or 'separate' something or someone. Derived from *Weik, meaning 'separation' or 'division'. The meaning of this is unclear, but some see in it 'the separation of lots' related to 'the casting of lots' of Sortilege, from where we get Sorcery. Thus Witch and Sorcerer could have parallel evolutions. Others believe it just meant Witches were separate or separators in some sense.
The origin of a word could be said to be irrelevant to its later or current meaning. However in the case of a concrete referent, no matter how much the target and context may change, the basic reality denoted by the term remains at a deep level. Etymology is thus useful for getting to the core meaning of a concept despite subsequent overlays. In reference to which misuses of the term can be identified. However all the etymologies reveal subconscious memories and associations with the notion of a Witch and so are valid magically.
Earliest References to Witches
Note: We are concerned here with the English concept of a Witch, not alleged parallels with other names.
The first written reference to 'Witchcraft' is in a sermon by Theodore, Archbishop of Cantebury in the 7th Century. Which denounces both Pagans and Christian Magicians in the clergy, 'Hexcasters' or 'Black Magicians', Storm Raisers, Fortune Tellers, Diviners and 'Practioners of Witchcraft'. The first known written reference to Wicca And Witches (called such in Anglo-Saxon) is in the prohibiting list of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York in the 8th Century. Ecgbert lists punishments to be meted out to Enchanters (Galdra workers), 'Hexcasters' and Witches. 'Hexcasters' are also denounced in pagan texts, though not of course Galdra workers, while the term Witch is absent. Witches are to be banished from the Kingdom. Following the English understanding of Deuteronomy which states 'Enchanters (spell casters), Charmers (hereditary psychics in English tradition), Diviners, Necromancers, Pythonesses and Consulters with Familiars (here meaning 'spirit guides') are to be cast out of the Kingdom. Ever since this the Church has pushed this line with varying degrees of sympathy from their Monarchs.
The same approach is reflected in early Roman Law, which states that Diviners be expelled from the City, apart from those divining the fate of the Emperor, who are to be executed, while those practising magic or owning magic books are to be beaten and expelled, professional Magoi (magicians) are to be burnt alive and Diabolic Magic-users crucified (giving the real lowdown on Jesus perhaps). This demonstrates the fear factor involved and the political element.
The first Monarchic legal reference to Witches (as opposed to denunciations of pagans) is found in the Laws of Alfred and Guthrum (King of the Danelaw) in the 9th Century. Which officially states that Enchanters, Hexcasters (Scinlaece) and Witches (Wicce) are to be banished from their Kingdoms and executed if they return. Other commentaries in the same period add Hellruna (Necromancers) and Lyblaeca (Herbal Magicians and Potion Brewers). Later Edward and Guthrum's Laws add Morthdaeds (deathdealers), Wigleras (diviners) and associate Wiccan with adulteresses. Athelstan's Laws add the Lyblaeca, while Ethelred and Edgar further clarify the laws associating magic-users and diviners with whores and perjurers. Seith workers are not mentioned, probably because the Danes regarded it as a form of Galdra and the English only used the term for Elf Magic. Seith Magic was practised by Finns and Sami in the Danelaw, who were sometimes thought of as half Elvan.
The Normans did not use the term Witch, but prefered the Latin Sagam (Wise Woman) and Malefici (Black Magicians) or Venefici (Poisoners, Herbalists, 'Witches', literally 'Venom Users'). This was passed on into the Middle Ages. Sometimes the Latin terms Magoi or Magus (Magician) was used in the Medieval period, as well as Pharmacutes (from Pharmakon, Medicine/Poison) and Voltivoli (referring to Imagemagick). A more popular term was Sorcerer and Sorceress, the famous 'witch' Galiena was actually accused of Sorcery.
Later Medieval Legal terms were confused by the use of Old English, Norman and Latin terms for the same thing. With the Anglo-Saxon term Wiccan translated varyingly as Wicches or Sorcerers, and Venefici variously translated as Sorcerer / Sorceress or Poisoner. It was not until the 1590s that a standard definition emerged, and by that time much superstition had been absorbed. William West's legal definition in Symbolaegraphie (written while he was a lawyer in the Inner Temple in 1594) distinguishes Devil Worshipping Black Magicians and Necromancers, Soothsaying Wizards and Conjurers, Diviners and Cunning Folk, Enchanters and Charmers and Jugglers and Talismanic Spellcasters from 'Witches and Hags', who are defined as malefics who harm people and crops, raise storms and attend the Sabbat. The term Witch from then on is always bad. Later White Witches are referred to, referencing Cunning Folk but never Black Witches, just Witches. It was in this period that the Bishop of Salisbury declared all Witchcraft the work of the Devil, particularly during the period of a woman's travels (suggestively). An extremely technical set of definitions is found in the 1702 trial of Sarah Morduck who was acquitted of the charges of: Sagam (Witch), Magiam (Witch), Incantamentium (Enchantment), Incantamentium (Charming) and Facinationum (Sorcery).
The Evil Witch or Hag
This stereotype reflects the popular prejudice against those identified as Witches.
The notion is partly that of a wicked Wise Woman, the village herbalist, midwife, fortune teller and low level magic user, usually valued by the community. But sometimes vilified through fear or grief when she fails to deliver (Midwives were often blamed for high child mortality, and accused of infanticide, often being abortionists too, they were also feared for their secret poisons and hexes) or if from a rival village, particularly if they developed a 'malicious' personality, as arguably some seemed too. Some have argued for aging, menopausal or abuse causes of this latter phenomena, or simple misogyny.
A plausible alternative psychological explanation for this is that certain unorthodox, eccentric and marginal Wise Women, or other Magic Users / Witches, were employed by villagers to assist them in achieving their 'anti-social' desires. When successful guilt and self hate was often projected onto the Witch, who became the carrier of the Villages 'shadow'.
Moreover however it was the conflation of a Witch and a Hag that finally confirmed the image. The latter was originally a supernatural demonic entity, related to the Crone, the Furies and the Wyrd Sisters, said to be derived from Hagtesse, or Hedge Rider, from Hag (Hedge) and Tessa/Tysja (Female Fey). The Hedge was the boundary and the Hagtesse rode that boundary, dwelling in the liminal spaces. However from about 1530 itinerant, lay priests, craftsmen and travelers were referred to as 'hedgers' (those who slept under hedges), creating hedge-priests, and hedge-traders and even 'hedge-wenches'. Wise Women sometimes became known as Hedge Witches. This combined with the above and their own liminal haunts, led to them being called Hagtesse or Hags. This was further fixed by the use of Witch for Pythoness in Aelfric's text and also the use of Hagtesse for Pythoness as well.
Thus the Hag Witch enter folklore as the great bogey and slowly evolves into the archetypal Malefici.
Who were the Witches?
A popular theory is that the Witch is another name for the village Wise Woman or Sagam. Certainly most magical cultures worldwide repeat a five or six fold category pattern of Magician, Magical Herbalist, Necromancer, Evil Sorceress, Fortune Teller and Wise Women, and if we look at the Anglo-Saxon descriptions the Wise Woman seems to be the only one not mentioned apart from 'Wicce'. However the term Witch always seems to have been regarded as negative. So at best we have the Hag Witch here.
However some 'Witches' were young Sorceresses or even Sorcerers, and the term Witch has been equally applied to Wizards, outlaws and horse trainers, and others who know the language of animals, in Anglo-Saxon literature. Wicca being a definitely male Witch. So there is clearly more to it. Wise Women were no doubt part of it and their plight has been well highlighted by the Women's Movement, but there was always more.
Some people think that Witch is just a catch all for those not included in the other categories, but this doesn't seem right. One theory suggests the term Wiccan, 'separated', means the 'banished ones' or those 'outside' the community (including Gypsies). But then this doesn't explain the wicked Wise Women who were always part of the Village. It may simply mean 'freaks'.
One problem is we only know of those Witches dragged before the courts. Most scholars take these to be paradigmatic Witches, however they may not be completely representative.
Actual Witchcraft
The records of court cases and trials, as well as of the Puritan witch hunters do give a picture of some common forms of witchcraft though. Though it is uncertain how represented of Witchcraft as a whole such trials may have been. They usually highlighted 'antisocial' members of a village, be they 'bad tempered', 'parasitic', 'reclusive' or just 'different'. At other times jealousy seems a motive, whether for the accusation or for the real hex. There are however lots of indications that many witches were social and never put on trial, perhaps most were. The recurrence of the same family names as both Witch and accuser may indicate some kind of feud factor as well. At other times religious persecution figured in Witch Hunts, particularly against Catholics thought to harbour superstitious practices such as cunning folk (many of whom were Catholics themselves). Thus it is hard to generalize from the trials. However we can identify common features and filter out various types from the evidence, as well as the various later hybrids that seem to have emerged.
English Familiar Witches
Familiar Witchcraft is unique to England and seems concentrated around the Essex and East Anglian region (which could either be a product of the high activity of witch hunting in the area or an inheritance from the Danelaw).
It consists of the acquisition of a magical ally in the form of an animal, which is sent out to do the bidding of the Witch, usually to gain information, to heal or to harm. The animal form is most often a cat, a dog, a toad or snake or some small mammal. Bird forms are sometimes found, typically an owl or a crow, occasionally large animals like boars, bears and horses are mentioned (though often in miniature form). But any suitable form is utilized. The simplest and most basic are the insect familiars, spiders, flies and bees especially. The spookiest are perhaps those that appear to be hybrids (much like Lovecraft’s Brown Jenkins). Most Witches had more than one familiar, and quite often they were arranged in pairs, male-female, black-white etc, and given specific functions. The relationship with the familiar was one of ‘friendship’ or ‘commerce’, with the Witch making offerings of milk or blood to it, often allowing it to drink from their own body. It was claimed that in addition live sacrifice had to be offered once or twice a year.
How the familiar was attained is something of a mystery, witch hunters claimed they were given to the Witch by the Devil, who they met alone in the form of a Dark Man or giant Black Goat (‘talk of the devil and his imps will appear’). The familiar was thus in fact a demon in flesh rather than a real animal. This belief is similar to that held by Gypsies and Balkan sorcerers, who claim they are given ‘Spiridush’ guides by their supernatural initiator, often in animal form. Another story was that the familiar is constructed by a Witch in a magical process, in which a ‘demon’ or ‘spirit’ is bound into a living animal (or occasionally a fetish or doll). This form was found amongst some Cunning Men who sold both familiars and fetishes, which were believed to bring good luck. The common form here being the fly familiar (obviously affordable and easy to manage!).
The use of dolls and fetishes as familiars is a typically Slavonic exercise, but English familiars were more often living flesh and blood animals. This last observation has led some to theorize, with some circumstantial evidence, that they were simply the ‘pets’ of the Witches, who were their ‘magical partners’. There is a tradition that some of these pets were strays who ‘adopted’ their owners, and that this had magical significance. It was thought that animals could also become possessed by spirits more easily than humans. Some social historians claim that ‘pets’ were unheard of in early English history and that those that kept them were considered odd. Gypsies claim to have always kept pets in their caravans etc (particularly unusual ones, such as snakes and toads, which they associated with the Lord of the Underworld, Bang), and to have introduced this to gadjos (perhaps with magical aspects). Though it is known that the Romans, like many other civilizations, kept dogs and cats as pets and introduced this to their colonies, pet animals, particularly cats, are also recorded as being kept by Celtic Monks. So the tradition may also be a Romano-British heritage at the lower social scale alien to Anglo-Saxons and their descendants.
Though by the 16th Century Royals were keeping pets, following a Continental tradition. The 16th century familiar of witch trials and court cases was largely a folklore concept of the inquisitors called Imps and so may have differed from the actual Witch belief. What familiars actually were was probably an evolved combination of the above, or may have involved different forms and various hybrids (Witchcraft initially being a lone pursuit in England, based on personal study and often creativity). The common feature being that they drank the blood of the Witch from a secret teet or witch mark which gave them their magical powers. Curiously at least one account exists of a familiar being harmed when on a mission, with the Witch herself suffering as a result. While there is no hint that the Witch was the familiar in some shape shifting sense, this does indicate an identity link between the two. Something that may preserve Nordic lore of the Fetch, a part of a sorcerer’s soul that can be sent out in animal form. Further emphasizing the Danelaw link.
It should also be added that the term Familiar was also misused or had different applications. The ‘familiars’ mentioned in English translations of the Bible, typically that of the ‘Witch of Endor’ (actually a Pythoness, or pagan prophet), seem to be akin to the spirit guides of mediums or familiar possessing entities. While in the West Country the term familiar is used to denote a spirit servant conjured up in a circle.
Basically the term ‘familiar’ initially literally meant any serving entity the magician was familiar with, and consistently utilized, their ‘familiar spirit’, before gaining a specific meaning in some localities.
British Faerie Witches
The West Country, and Celtic Fringes, exhibits a somewhat different form of Witchcraft. This is Witchcraft via Fey. The general idea seems simple; find a tumulus, on a hill, or deep in the woods, enter trance (or in some versions physically enter the hill) and meet the neighbours. This usually involves a Feast (of which it is unwise to partake if you want to leave) and an audience with the King or Queen of the Fey. Following which a magical alliance is made. The details of this process have however always been vague and mysterious.
Some name the Fey Queen as Diana, who is also Queen of the Witches; in this form she was the Leader of the Wild Hunt, Freya to the Nordics, who was also Queen of the Elves. The Gypsies variously know her as Dina, Sina and Gana. Traditionally she is known as Queen Mab, and classically Titania. Christians denounced her as Lilith, or even as a transgendered Satan. Though the Devil was more often her partner, more traditionally known as the Lord of the Forest, or classically Oberon (from Alberich, literally Elf Ruler) and through mythology, Frey. The queen also had a daughter, variously named, in London known as Kenna (after whom Kensington, Kenwood, Kentish Town and Kenley are believed to be named). It is claimed however that these are not their real names as to know a Fey’s real name is to have power over them.
A traditional form of Fey magic found in the West Country is to discover the name of the Fey you wish to call (by some unrevealed means) write it on three hazel wands, stripped of their bark, bury them in a tumulus then return to find it a week later. These then act as a Fey wands for calling that particular entity.
Entry into the Hall of the Fey, within the hollow hill or tumulus, is traditionally said to be achieved by certain ‘keys’ to the gate. This was a certain chant or call. The correct key was said to be given in a dream while the initiate slept in the Woods.
The Lord of the Fey, like the Devil, can also be encountered at the crossroads. More often however this contact is with Puck, or the Pooka, aka Robin Goodfellow. Who appears to be the chief messenger of the Fey, and a kind of psychopomp. The crossroads like any liminal space is seen as an alternative gateway into Faerie.
There is some indication from Gypsy tradition that an alliance with the Fey often took the form of sexual exchange, with them taking on the form of succubi or incubi. This in its ultimate form seems to have been a ‘marriage’ between a human noble and the Fey Queen, which mirrors the Royal ‘land sovereignty’ Goddess Marriage tradition. If in Great Rite format a priestess would become possessed of the Queen.
Once an alliance of some kind had been achieved the Fey would help the Witch achieve their desires, though may also ask for favours in return. This was normally covered by regular offerings made to them as gifts. Usually in the form of libations, though also sometimes material offerings or even small sacrifices. This echoes the Nordic tradition of offering Blot (blood, mead or milk) to the Elves to win their favour. There is a folk tradition that without this the Fey become vampirific.
Early tradition divides the Fey or the Sidhe as the Celts call them, into the Seelie Court (sacred) and the Unseelie Court (unholy). In witch trials these are often referred to as White (or silvery) Fey and Black (or dark) Fey, which may be rooted in the Nordic concept of Light and Dark Elves. Though in the case of John Walsh of Dorset, he claims to be able to call on three families of Faerie, Black, White and Green. Adding that the Dark Faerie are the most dangerous and death dealing and often attack randomly of their own accord. Later sources add other families; a full list would include Black, White, Green, Blue and Red Fey. The latter are said to be highly aggressive and blood drinking. Such beings were sometimes identified by the caps they wore, hence were called Blue or Green Caps, or the dangerous Red Caps of the Scottish borders. Witches were often named after the kind of Fey they worked with, thus Camden’s Mother Damnable (who lived where the World’s End Pub now is) was also known as Mother Red Cap.
A more modern classification (traditionally attributed to W B Yeats) divides them into Trooping Fey, who dwell in communities, swarm and seem to be able to unite in a group mind, and Solitary Fey, associated with wells and springs etc. There is some overlap here between Light and Dark Fey as well (though the Wild Hunt tradition may invert the usual correspondence unless, we attribute it to the Dionysian rather than the Diabolic).
There is also a tradition that Solitary Fey can be ‘bound’ as servants. This leads to the Brownie and Hobgoblin concept of Solitary Fey who enter a house and become domestic or magical servants. Often taking the form of invisible poltergeists. More often though this seems to have been more akin to a stray cat adopting a new home.
The actual identity of the Fey is controversial, their association with tumuli supports the tradition they are ghosts of the ancient tribes of Britain and our ancestors. Some Witches have claimed direct descent from them (or even to be Fey changelings). Similarly the recent dead may return as Fey, giving rise to the theory that either Fey can shape shift and mimic, or that those who traffic with the Fey become them after death. On the other hand some Fey appear bestial or animalistic, like the Pooka, or may be associated with the Wild Wood, like the ‘Green Men’, or even specific trees and herbs, indicating they are really nature spirits. Some say the Fey came from the stars or heaven originally, but this may be a case of conflation with the Fallen Angel or Watcher tradition as was the case in some more Christianized places. Some Fey seem more like robots or thought forms of course, or perceived elements of the self. The truth maybe a combination of all of these if we are really dealing with energy forms of different origin and complexity all operating within the same local force field.
It should be noted that those Witches who trafficked with Fey were also the first to adopt the Goetic conjurer tradition, indicating some parallel perhaps.
Tales of Necromancy
This is simply magic involving the dead and seems to have existed in small pockets all over Europe.
It can cover mediumship, or ventriloquism, raising the spirits of the dead to ask questions, or immorally ‘binding’ them into service. The latter could be achieved by obtaining the bones, skull or ashes of an ‘earthbound spirit’ (traditionally a murder or suicide) who would be in a confused and trance like state and so suggestible. Alternatively this may have involved gaining control of the mindless shade or ghost of the dead. It was achieved by an appeal to a higher power - the great ancestors, the angel of death, the lord of the underworld, or divine powers - to hand over the spirit to them, then often raised in a Goetic way. The spirit then became their ‘familiar spirit’. More benignly a dead spirit or a relative or ancestor might simply adopt them and assist them voluntarily.
There was also a tradition where upon the dead were appealed to, and perhaps an alternative body generated, to assist in an afterlife survival for the Necromancer.
Tales of Possession
Puritan Witchfinders seemed to have a special fascination with possession and exorcism. From this emerged two traditions, the most common was that an evil spirit could be sent by a Witch to possess someone. The other was that a Witch was in fact someone possessed by an evil spirit. This tradition largely died out with Puritanism.
Continental Sabbatic Witches
The traditional Witches Sabbat seems to have been unknown in Britain before 1590. Just as the use of familiars was largely unknown on the Continent until recently.
Its classic form was an invention of the Dominicans and the Inquisition, but there was a real tradition beneath this that had become distorted by Catholic fantasy born of sexual repression.
The genuine article was actually a fusion of Shamanism and Pagan Rites found in the Alps and Pyrenees that later spread into surrounding areas. It was probably first brought to the area by the Visigoths who had adopted the Scythian Bacchic Cult, a fusion of popular Balkan and Siberian Shamanism from the shores of the Black Sea, merged into the Thracian version of the Dionysian Mysteries, adopted by the Scythian nobility. This was later augmented by the Shamanic rites of the Huns, and hybrid Hunnish Germans, the main enemies of the Visigoths, who like them would end up isolated in mountain retreats, as the more powerful Frankish and Saxon tribes, and their relatives, carved up Western Europe between them. Even today people of Burgundian descent (a hybrid Gothic tribe) from the Champagne region, renowned for its Witchcraft (as well as the birthplace of the Knights Templar) have a sacral black spot, that is believed to be a trait found mainly in Mongolia, but is locally held to be a witch mark.
It is no doubt the case that this Dark Age cult had mutated greatly by the Middle Ages and was also reshaped by the semi Christian mindsets of its practitioners. This was further distorted by the fantasies of the Inquisition. What demarcated the two is now difficult to discern, not least because the Sabbatics themselves utilized sexual energies in their workings, which no doubt were elaborated further by repressed Christians.
The following is the classic account of a Sabbat:
The attendees would fall into a trance and either fly to the location of the Sabbat or dream they were. The flight would take place in the form of an animal, or on the back of an animal (traditionally their demon lover) or would be performed on a broom or fork. A ‘witches ointment’ was associated with this flight, believed by some to be an hallucinogenic (allegedly applied to the genitals by the broom handle). Once at the site of the Sabbat they would pay homage to the Devil in the form of a giant Black Goat and copulate with demons. This would culminate in an ecstatic, orgiastic feast often ending in ritual sacrifice or cannibalistic infanticide (a complex of various ‘horrors’, but probably meaning oral sex). Neophytes would be told to renounce their former faith and kiss the ass of the Devil, entering into near sexual slavery to him. This was known as the Osculum Infame, the kiss of shame. A pact would then be made ‘selling their soul’ and promising to commit exciting ‘acts of evil’ in exchange for magical power. How much of this ‘evil’ was originally the product of an escape from poverty and how much was Catholic fantasy is unknown. But it entered the mythos as a package. Soul selling simply meant a change of religion and afterlife fate, as well as an act of power exchange plus the idea that one was no longer in control of one's own actions.
It is interesting that in a genuine pagan cult discovered in the foothills of the Alps in Northern Italy, a group calling itself the Benandanti, claimed to enter into trance or dream and travel to the Feast of Diana in the form of animals. After being initiated in this cult they would take part in nocturnal aerial battles with demons and Malandanti, who corresponded to the Hagtesse image. No hallucinogens were used however and no Diabolic elements were present. The cult was in fact heavily Christianized with Diana seen as a Saint like being, once known as Abundia, but later referred to as the Abbess. Some have argued this was the original form of the Sabbat, though there is no guarantee that there was only one form of Sabbat and certainly when it became disseminated different forms seem to have emerged.
Likewise in the Pyrennes we have tales of Werewolf Witches, who had sold their soul to the Devil. This seems to have been a Balkan tradition. Some have suggested that they were the outcast victims of a drug poisoning, as certain of the herbs used in the flying ointment could cause the disease known as Lycanthrope if taken in excess. This was supported by the lunar crescent tattoos found on some convicted Werewolves, also claimed as witch symbols. Others have suggested they represent a conscious Shamanic tradition.
The mode of the dissemination of the Sabbat is unknown. It appeared in Scotland in 1590 under the alleged guidance of a Cunning Man called Dr Fian who organized local Witches into a Cabal which attempted to assassinate the King. Making James I a lifelong opponent of Witchcraft. How it got there is unknown some claim it was carried by Romany Gypsies, but this seems unlikely outside of a few basic traditions, others that it was based on the Inquisitional claims known to the Scottish nobility, and either fabricated in the trial, or genuinely reconstructed by Fian and his backers on the fringes of the Stewart dynasty. Whatever the case over half a century later Scottish Witch Isobel Gowdie was confessing to trafficking with the King and Queen of Fey in great Feasts, transforming herself into an animal and having sex with her Master the Devil, as well as using hexes to curse her enemies as a result of the power obtained by her Covenant with the Devil. Others entered into this Pact and the Cabal so formed was know as The Covenant or Coven. A term later generalized in fiction to all Witch cabals, even though it is only heard of in the Gowdie case. Meanwhile around the same time in Jacobean England there are rumours of secret Witches Sabbaths, and a few years earlier Northamptonshire Witches had been accused of flying to a Witches gathering on the back of a pig. How much of these accusations and sometimes confessions were contrived is unknown, but it does appear the elements of the Witches Sabbat were being adopted in certain regions.
Black Magic and Devil Worship
This is a controversial and sensitive area. What can be said however is that many Witches revered a Horned Lord, though he was not considered evil. Some though happily equated such a figure with the Devil, particularly when he was identified as their Lord by the Church that persecuted them, and given that they were largely Christianised themselves. It should be borne in mind that Paganism was almost non existent by the 16th Century at the latest and all known Witches identified with Christianity, albeit a very old ‘semi pagan’ Catholic form, full of supernatural interventions and 'extra-biblical' entities. Most were therefore relatively moralistic. However there are always cases of extreme poverty, epidemic, civil warfare and domestic abuse which lead people to desperate means of survival and cynical attitudes.
Elements of the Sabbat tradition may have been influential here, but more often a simple inversion of Christian practise was the extent of ritualisation later known as the Black Mass (originally simply a Catholic Mass said for the living believed to be a curse).
Cunning and Conning Folk
Cunning Folk are more anti-witch than Witch. In essence an entrepreneurial privatization of the priestly Exorcist and Magician following the Reformation. Combined with traditional Seer. Though they seem to have quickly learned some Gypsy trickery and were soon in league with some of the Witches they were supposedly opposing, with some Witches in turn becoming Cunning Folk (called White Witches in Devon). Much the same way as as Thieves and Thief Takers or Pirates and Privateers tended to overlap. Perhaps partly because the Church seemed keener to persecute them, as their rivals, than the Witch or Wise Woman.
Prof Ronald Hutton has popularized the view that Witches were bogies invented by Cunning Folk to support their trade, and that our concept is a mixed memory of this mythology and the Cunning Folk themselves. But as we have seen this is very far from the truth. However Cunning Folk are complex subject in their own right best covered elsewhere.
