Maleficarum Modernus-- A Survey of Witchery in the 21st Century

WE ARE THE WITCHCRAFT.

We are the oldest organization in the world. When man was born, we were. We sang the first cradle song. We healed the first wound, we comforted the first terror. We were the Guardians against the Darkness, the Helpers on the Left Hand Side. Rock drawings in the Pyrenees remember us, and little clay images, made for an old purpose when the world was new. Our hand was on the old stone circles, the monolith, the dolmen, and the druid oak. We sang the first hunting songs, we made the first crops to grow; when man stood naked before the Powers that made him, we sang the first chant of terror and wonder. We wooed among the Pyramids, watched Egypt rise and fall, ruled for a space in Chaldea and Babylon, the Magian Kings. We sat among the secret assemblies of Israel, and danced the wild and stately dances in the sacred groves of Greece.


--Jack Parsons





There was a time, not so long ago, when religion was indistinguishable from witchcraft. In fact, most modern traditions can trace a crooked path back through the ages to a variety of bloody and strange Gods. Humans have been dressing up and brewing potions and muttering incantations and throwing flesh on the braziers for several thousand years now.

Once heads of state began co-opting shamanic traditions to secure divine sanction for their regimes, independent practitioners (i.e. women) became a threat to hegemony. The scariest thing about witchcraft, from a political perspective, is its subversive nature.

Performing magic outside of the state-sanctioned priesthood is an act of rebellion: those who challenge the state, especially through metaphysical means are, by default, evil-doers, malefactors, enemies of Order.

The priest caste, with no sense of irony whatsoever, counters sorcery with incantations (prayers, mantras, etc.), potions (holy water and the like) and paraphernalia (someone explain to me how a saint’s fingerbone is any different from a witchdoctor's shrunken head)? There is no essential distinction between witchcraft and theology; save that some witches enjoy the backing of the ruling establishment, while others are stake fodder waiting to go on the burn pile.

Moreover, witches provide a perennial outlet for the rage of a disaffected populace. Operating outside the circle of protection cast by the law, they make a legitimate target for those who are experiencing economic hardships, bad weather, swollen joints… you name it. Any problems beyond the control of the common man can be judas-goated away on the stake.

As far back as Babylon, witches have been subject to persecution. Three hundred years after Salem and the rise of scientific empiricism, both witchcrafts and witch-hunts still happen on every continent; the pro and con stances continue to be codified into our law. That witches still exist, have always been with us, is beyond dispute.

Let’s hop on a broom and take a tour around the world, where we will look at who practices witchcraft, and how it is punished in the modern era.

Question V

What is the Source of the Increase of Works of Witchcraft? Whence comes it that the Practice of Witchcraft hath so notably increased?

-Malleus Maleficarum

Taking a look at means and execution, it becomes clear that not much has changed since Mather, or since Sumer, for that matter. Witches are still blamed for impotence, bad crops, lousy luck, and miscarriages; they are still condemned for murder, sexual deviancy and the summoning of demons. From Saudi Arabia to South East Asia, from Mexico to China, from England to the U.S.; they are still lighting candles, brewing potions, putting on funny costumes, playing with knives, muttering incantations, and shooting the evil eye, and they still inherit their profession and their powers through the family line.

Above all, witches still mainly do it for the Benjamins (or bhat, or Euros, or w/e).

The divide between healer and hexer remains slim in certain parts of the world. Indonesia for instance, is home the dukun. Slight of figure and red of eye, the product of generations of shamanic ancestry; he is appealed to by folks in all walks of life for medicine and vengeance. Even under the rule of Islam, the dukun retains a very important position in Indonesian society. In some remote areas, it is even rumored that the practice of head-hunting is alive and well.



In fact, using human heads for ceremonial purposes is common to hoary old Druids and contemporary black magicians alike. It’s a theme one finds cropping up again and again in the study of magic, an atavistic throwback from our most ancient forms of governance when the head was ascribed oracular powers, and law was handed down by a Voice issuing from the hallowed skull of a dead king, ordering the lives of his subjects from beyond the grave.

In China, lurking under overpasses and in dark alleyways, you will find busking shamans known as “villain hitters”. Through a variety of sympathetic magical techniques, villain hitters help their clients get even with their enemies.

Report (稟告)：Write down the name and the date of birth of the client on the Fulu (符籙). If the client request to hit a specific villain, then write down or put the name, date of birth, photo or clothings of the specific villain on the villain paper.

Villain hitting (打小人)：Make use of a varieties of symbolic object such as the shoe of clients or the villain hitter or other religious symbolic weapon like incense sticks to hit or hurt the villain paper. Villain paper can also replaced by other derivative such as man paper, woman paper, five ghost paper etc.

winterinnyc.blogspot.com...

The villain hitter may barely scratch out a living, but in the New World, one Mr. Gomez put out radio and print ads offering his services to Montrealers in need of supernatural intervention. For a fee in excess of $10000, he claimed to be able to lift curses, perform healings, and more.

And in Romania, witchery is such a major cottage industry that its’ been assigned legal status as a business by the government-- so that it may be taxed, of course. Here is an excerpt from an interview with a Romanian “white witch”:

Does the president use magic?

He is president because he had help from a witch or a sorcerer who uses black magic, and he had the confidence that that person was near him and would give him strength to control the country.

(Indonesia’s Sudhartu also patronized dukurs. And Duvalier had his bokors. And President Reagan had a personal astrologer… -- ed)

How did you become a witch? Are there schools for witchcraft?

I learned from my mother. She learned this from her mother, because her mother was a witch, the mother of her mother was a witch, and all her ancestors. My mother was the personal witch of Nicolae Ceauşescu, you know Ceauşescu, right? The president of Romania who was executed, my mother was his personal witch.

(more generational witchcraft-- ed)

Has a black witch ever cast a spell on you?

You cannot use a spell on another witch. It’s impossible because witches have armor. Not real armor, they have like protection shields.

And sometimes -- particularly in the States, for some reason-- witchcraft leads to murder. In 1928, in Pennsylvania, where the barns are tricked out with hex signs to this day; John H. Blymire, a pow-wow doctor, had a mean streak of bad luck he attributed to the malefic workings of fellow witch Nelson D. Rehmeyer. Resolving to steal his Book of Shadows, he pulled a B&E on Rehmeyer’s house. Unfortunately, his enemy was very much on the premises, and he and his teenage apprentices were soon discovered. Panicking, they fell upon Rehmeyer, killing, dismembering (one wonders if they kept the left hand?), and burning him. Blymire, despite his subsequent arrest and conviction, considered the curse dispelled once his rival was reduced to ashes.

And the mayhem doesn’t stop there. This links to a site which compiles a mind-numbing litany of ritual killings taken from recent newspaper accounts, taking place mainly in the U.S. and Mexico.



One of the most threatening aspects of witchcraft to monotheistic societies in particular, is the tendency of witches to pray to displaced deities. Often the old Gods are transmogrified into demons, or take on the trappings of the overarching theocracy in order to survive. For instance, although nominally falling under the umbrella of Catholicsm; Brazilian Candomble
comes from African Animism, and the cult of Santa Muerte revolves around the worship of a 3000 year old Aztec death god disguised as a Catholic saint.



And like latter-day witchcraft the world over, such cults enjoy members from every walk of life-- including academia and government.

ctnd...

Her lengthy CV lists countless qualifications, civic achievements, books and publications – but Raquel Rolnik makes no mention of dabbling in witchcraft. Yet the architect and urban planner appears to be an avid follower of Candomble, an African-Brazilian religion that originated during the slave trade.

The academic, brought up a Marxist, actually offered an animal sacrifice to Karl Marx when she was studying for her Masters degree in architecture so ‘he would leave her alone’ to study in peace…

According to her elder sister Suely, a well-known Brazilian psychoanalyst and intellectual, Raquel had become ‘contaminated’ by other philosophies and offered the sacrifice to appease the German revolutionary socialist.

The UN special rapporteur’s fascination with Candomble rekindled memories of another controversial figure’s links with the religion that worships African gods.

In 2001, Peter Mandelson was ridiculed when reports emerged that his Brazilian partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, had engaged a Candomble witch doctor to put a hex on political enemies in a ceremony involving the slaughter of a chicken.

It was claimed that the Labour spin doctor – now a peer – held a live chicken by the neck while a priest in Rio de Janeiro cut off its head, splashing Mr Mandelson with blood.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

No doubt Marx would have failed to appreciate the irony.

And in Saudi Arabia, a region seething with witches, so much so that an Anti-Witchcraft task-force has been formed, sightings of airborne women abound, and reports of found objects like the severed head of a wolf wrapped in women's lingerie occur with some regularity.

So much for the witch, now how about that hammer?

O Girra who burns the warlock and witch,
who kills the bad offspring of warlock and witch,
who destroys the bad people, that is you!
I have called on you, like Šamaš the Judge,
right me, make my decision!
Burn the warlock and witch,
eat my enemies, consume the ones who wish me evil!

-Maqlu Tablets, 1st cent. B.C.

In 1729, the last public with burning took place, ending a tradition of thousands of years standing. But although burning has always been regarded as the most effective solution for witch infestations, there’s more than one way to skin a sorceress. Trials and hangings persisted well into the 20th century all across Europe. One is appalled to note that the Inquisition was disbanded only a little over a century ago.

And today? Witches are still drowned and hanged.

In 2007, Egyptian pharmacist Mustafa Ibrahim was beheaded in Riyadh after his conviction on charges of "practicing magic and sorcery as well as adultery and desecration of the Holy Quran." The charges of "magic and sorcery" are not euphemisms for some other kind of egregious crime he committed; they alone were enough to qualify him for a death sentence. He first came to the attention of the religious authorities when members of a mosque in the northern town of Arar voiced concerns over the placement of the holy book in the restroom. After being accused of disrupting a man's marriage through spellwork, and the discovery of "books on black magic, a candle with an incantation 'to summon devils,' and 'foul-smelling herbs,'" the case -- and eventually his life -- were swallowed by the black hole of the discretionary Saudi court system.

www.theatlantic.com...

It has been previously noted that most anti-witchcraft measures are taken on the part of the state to ensure a religious monopoly. Saudi Arabia’s Anti-Witchcraft taskforce has been specifically mandated to “combat manifestations of polytheism and reliance on other Gods.” The Sauds have also banned the “Harry Potter” series, so it’s not all bad news.

Anti-witchcraft legislation in the East operates on the assumption that witchcraft works, that witches can cause harm to others through magical means; and the penalties, whether exacted by the legal system or the mob, are dire:

Under a bill proposed in March, anyone found guilty of using witchcraft to bring about "someone's illness, death, mental or physical suffering" could be punished with up to five years in jail or more than $30,000 in fines. Backers of the bill say it would prevent fraud by self-advertised shamans.

Five years ago, in early 2007, Mrs Basumatary was driven from her original home in a nearby village after her neighbours accused her of being a dain—the local term for a witch. Around 100 villagers surrounded her home and beat her with sticks, leaving her badly bloodied and bruised. After receiving death threats she fled, accompanied by her husband and her three young children.

stream.aljazeera.com...

It is worth noting that witchcraft is treated as real under the law and punished most harshly in regions that do not enjoy a separation of church and state.



From the land of the Dalai Lama comes this gruesome account:

Dragged to a Buddhist monastery, beaten and forced to eat human feces: this is what happened to two ethnic Tamang women, accused of witchcraft by some villagers in Sindhupalchok district in northern Nepal. The event took place on July 22. The police have arrested two persons, but are on the trail of the other culprits. Buddhist monks in the area have distanced themselves from the torture inflicted on women.

The victims are Maili Tamang, 40, and Kanchhi Tamang, 27, from the village of Ichok. On the night of July 22, a group of people - mostly Buddhists - dragged the women to the local monastery where they began to torture them. "When we got there - Maili tells AsiaNews - we were beaten and tortured before they forced us to eat human feces."

www.asianews.it...

The worst excesses of witch hunting occur in South Africa; often at the hands of vigilante villagers and professional witch-finders whose methods are indistinguishable from those of the sorcerers they claim to sniff out. While some come in the traditional trappings, increasingly witchfinders are donning fashionable European suits and using accoutrements that invoke the authority of the colonial bureaucracy; stamping documents for petitioners waiting in orderly lines.

The most worrisome permutation of the South African scourge, however, is the trend toward targeting children:

The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall. His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse.

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria’s 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

web.archive.org...://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-af-nigeria-child-witches,0,5276725.story

And again, in Nigeria:

Children dubbed “witches” are facing increasing abuse in Nigeria and elsewhere, advocates say. “They would take my clothes off, tie me up and beat me,” said a 14-year-old, whose grandfather concluded he was a “witch” 2 years ago when he cried at the threat of being beaten with a broom. “Nigerian witches are terrified of brooms,” the grandfather tells CNN.

www.newser.com...

ctnd...

In the West, anti-witchcraft legislation is geared toward protecting the credulous from fraud:

365. Pretending to practise witchcraft, etc.

365. Every one who fraudulently
(a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration,
(b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or
(c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
yourlaws.ca...

And in some regions, there is pushback from the witches against proposed legislation:

Maharashtra will be the first Indian state to adopt anti-black magic measures in the country.

The bill was not passed for a long time because of opposition from radical Hindu groups, who called it "anti-Hindu" and "anti-religion", this in a country where mysticism and spirituality are part of everyday life and tradition.

However, Dabholkar had always rejected such accusations. "In the whole of the bill, there's not a single word about God or religion. Nothing like that. The Indian constitution allows freedom of worship and nobody can take that away," he explained. "This is about fraudulent and exploitative practices," such as animal sacrifices, which the activist rejected.

www.asianews.it...'terrified'-after-murder-of-Narendra-Dabholkar-28806.html

It is astounding that the hexing and the lynching should still persist in the face of positivism and the triumph of science. To understand why, we must look to the underlying causes, finding them to be all too mundane and familiar: political jockeying, social oppression, economic disparity, and misogyny.

The historical record indicates that pogroms tend to occur during times of scarcity-- when the crops fail due to inclement weather. The Salem trials prove no exception, occurring during a rash of extremely cold years.

Although three Indian states have instituted legal injunctions against witchcraft, accusations and convictions are rare. Villagers fear supernatural retaliation.

In a recent Papua New Guinea lynching, the victims were well-to-do (comparatively) government employees, subject to the envy of fellow villagers. P.N.G. has recently enjoyed a new-found economic prosperity, leading to a widening class gulf.

Local authorities failed to arrest or prosecute, out of fear of retaliation by the enraged mob.

Neighboring Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands (where economic conditions are much better--ed), where belief in black magic is also widespread, haven't seen the same level of extreme violence against accused witches.

It is very clear that witch hunts have more to do with entrenched poverty than evil spells.

Question VII

Whether Witches can Sway the Minds of Men to Love or Hatred.

If Mather were alive today he might conclude that every PR rep, Psyoperative, or spin expert is a practicing witch.



Wicca and satanism have both been incorporated into the US Chaplain’s manual, and psyops which wield native superstitions regarding witchcraft have been employed by the US military since the 50's.

Now, Wicca (and call me psychic, but I can already sense I’m gonna get flamed for this one) can trace its lineage directly back to Crowley through Gerald Gardner. Check out this adorable wee sprite of a man giggle over his own nudie joke like a kid who knows he’s getting away with something.



@1:05



The Cornwall Council ruled in favor of including “pagan beliefs” in the secondary school comparative religion curriculum. Cornwall, birthplace of Morgan LeFay is riddled with sites indicating witchcraft was used even up to the late 17th century. Artifacts include:

... the remains of a spring-fed pool, carefully lined with white quartz, and containing 128 textile scraps, six medieval straight pins, shoe parts, heather branches (associated with luck), fingernail clippings, human hair, and--it doesn't get more witch-like--part of a cauldron.

archive.archaeology.org...

Opponents point out that pagans account for a sliver of the demographic pie in Cornwall, and that given the funding shortage for religious education, there simply isn’t room. “'Introducing paganism is just faddish and has more to do with the political correctness of teachers than the educational needs of children.”

The battle continues.

The official Catholic guide on converting witches was released in 2011, and has consistently sold out on Amazon in the UK; where 70% of pagans are young women.

In Angola, the Vatican has demanded the government establish strong anti-sorcery laws. Intended to curb the lynchings, the Church’s primary motivation for bringing the pressure to bear on civic authorities is to eliminate “practices that are incompatible” with Christianity.



South of the border (and some claim more northerly than we care to think of) there’s an alarming intersect between the drug trade and the occult. When poor people are press-ganged into narco-trafficking, they are often simultaneously indoctrinated into sects such as the Santa Meurte cult or Palo Mayombe. It has become difficult for law enforcement to sort the gang hits from the sacrifices.



In 1989, student Mark Killroy went down to Mexico for vacation-- and disappeared. The subsequent investigation uncovered the activities of Adolfo de Jesus Constanza and his cult/narco-trafficking ring:

In custody, Serafin Hernandez freely admitted participating in Kilroy's abduction and murder—one of many committed over the past year or so at Rancho Santa Elena. The slayings were human sacrifices, he explained, executed to secure occult protection for various drug deals. "It's our religion," Hernandez explained. "Our voodoo."

Hernandez identified the leader of his cult—El Padrino, the Godfather—as Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a master practitioner of the African magic called "palo mayombe." It was Costanzo who ordered the slayings, Hernandez explained, and El Padrino who tortured and sodomized the victims prior to killing them and harvesting their organs for his ritual cauldron.

www.trutv.com...

More politics:

Malaysia, 1993: assemblyman Mazlan Idris appeals to pop-star-turned-witch Mona Fandly for supernatural assistance with his upcoming campaign. Fandly took his money, axed him in the back, harvested his body parts, and paid for a facelift out of the proceeds.



She and her two accomplices were hung shortly after their crime was discovered. She wore that too tight, too toothy smile right up to the moment the noose was tightened around her neck.

Question VI

Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils. Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions?

Since [in the Middle Ages] the psychic relation to woman was expressed in the collective worship of Mary, the image of woman lost a value to which human beings had a natural right. This value could find its natural expression only through individual choice, and it sank into the unconscious when the individual form of expression was replaced by a collective one. In the unconscious the image of woman received an energy charge that activated the archaic and infantile dominants. And since all unconscious contents, when activated by dissociated libido, are projected upon the external object, the devaluation of the real woman was compensated by daemonic features. She no longer appeared as an object of love, but as a persecutor or witch. The consequence of increasing Mariolatry was the witch hunt, that indelible blot on the later Middle Ages.

--Psychological Types (1921), CW 6. P.344

We have explored several trends that appear to contribute both to pathological manifestations of witchcraft, as well as equally pathological retaliatory measures: social strife, economic turmoil, and misogyny.

It is my opinion that hatred of women, particularly of women with no immediate utility or those possessing money and property, is the single greatest contributing factor to witch hunts past and present.

In rural Assam the ojha, a traditional medicine man also known as the kabiraj, is revered for his supposed skills at countering black magic... "When a woman practices [traditional medicine] it's considered to be something evil," says Anjali Daimari, an expert on witchcraft at Gauhati University in the state's noisy capital, Guwahati.

www.economist.com...

Aggression is part of the traditional culture of the Hindu and Buddhist communities of Nepal. Often older women or widows are accused of practicing black magic and are beaten, tortured and sometimes burned alive.

www.asianews.it...

Interviewed by AsiaNews Dan Bahadur Chaudhari, Minister for Women, Children and Welfare, said he was "saddened" by the tragic event and confirms that "the law does not do enough" because "for many years the traditional Hindu practice recognized witchcraft" . "In many villages, several women - he adds - suffer from this terrible practice and ask for it to be repressed with the appropriate standards." Nepalese society, in fact, is still inspired by the Hindu religion and sees women as the "second class" sex, more so if widows.

www.asianews.it...

Dr. Renu Rajbhandari, human rights activist, told AsiaNews that only a few cases come to light, but still hundreds of women are killed on fake charges of witchcraft and magical practices. "Hinduism - he said - has subjugated women in societies dominated by this religion, like Nepal. And many elderly are even burned alive over a charge of witchcraft."

www.asianews.it...'terrified'-after-murder-of-Narendra-Dabholkar-28806.html

Women who sling crude language (i.e., talk like men), fail to dress with the proper degree of feminine decorum, or are too self-sufficient have always borne the greatest brunt of misdirected fury.

...There was a large increase in the amount of witch accusations for those over the age of forty. Although women under forty might be accused, less than a quarter would face a trial. On the other hand, forty percent of women over the age of forty would face a trial and more than half of these women would become convicted.

angela-michelle.hubpages.com...

According to Al-Jazira newspaper Monday, the police spokesman in the region Misfir Al-Ju’eid said that 74 percent of those detained were females and their clients mostly women teachers “with the financial capability” to meet the fees asked.

www.saudigazette.com.sa...

After being repeatedly slashed with knives, Rumbali's older sister and two teenage nieces were released following negotiations with police. Rumbali, a 40-something former schoolteacher, was beheaded.

Her assailants claimed they had clear proof that Rumbali had used sorcery to kill another villager who recently died of sickness: The victim's grave bore the marks of black magic, and a swarm of fire flies apparently led witch hunters to Rumbali's home.

She said villagers were envious because Rumbali's husband and son had government jobs, they had a "permanent house" made of wood, and the family had tertiary educations and high social standing.

She and other experts on witchcraft in the Melanesia region believe Papua New Guinea's newfound prosperity and the growing inequality in its traditionally egalitarian culture is a significant cause of the violence. Neighboring Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, where belief in black magic is also widespread, haven't seen the same level of extreme violence against accused witches.

news.msn.com...

And what are we to make of the fact that rich elderly women are most frequently accused and disposed of by their own relatives?

Question VIII

Whether Witches can Hebetate the Powers of Generation or Obstruct the Venereal Act.

Fear of women’s sexuality, castration anxiety, and repression are also major driving factors:

When the old woman knew that he was befriending another woman, she got angry and nearly cut my brother’s right finger. Then the rashes and insect bites began itching. She took care of my brother for nearly a year until the woman discovered. My brother said that he never use the old woman, sexually. Although, he had memory lapses, he claimed that the only thing clear to him is his work.

travelman1971.hubpages.com...

Question IX

Whether Witches may work some Prestidigatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body.

One, a tea vendor, was attacked by a stranger who only had to grab his hand. "The tea seller felt an electric tingling course through his body and immediately sensed that his penis had shrunk to a size smaller than that of a baby’s," writes Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley.

The second victim said he lost his genitals "in the fray" as yells erupted from the crowd.

According to Lombard, rebels who govern the tiny hamlet said they later gunned down the alleged penis thief after he escaped from a holding cell. Lombard explains that the belief in "penis-snatching"—a form of witchcraft—is a manifestation of anxieties caused as villages grow into cities. So it's more commonly seen in larger population centers such as Nigeria, Lagos, or Cameroon. "If penis stealing seems beyond-the-pale weird," writes Lombard, "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."

www.newser.com...enis-snatching-report-startles-visitor-in-africa.html

And what, if not positivism, monotheism, or atheism, can bring this malignant cycle to a close? It has been part of us for so long, and is tied so inextricably to our deepest woes that it may be we will take it with us wherever we go-- to space or oblivion.

ok, I have always believed that at one point in time when the world was a different place, there were people that had an elevated state of being than average normal people.
Be them witches,wizards, warlocks or heroes that have been placed into mythical legends such as Achilles or audacious.
At some point that tap to hero power was turned off so to speak and what we have today is some amazing athletes,actors,musicians,scientists etc. being created on the power that still makes it through.
As for occult conjurors, well, all they are left with is hexes and a peek through the veil into the other side. they can light all the candles they want, wear all the stupid make up, and recount all the useless chants but things will never be like the ancient world.

It's a wonderful presentation and consideration of behavioral patterns, as i mentioned to you i've been looking at Mandaean beliefs, and they would always have it that what is manifest within human society has taken first form within the spiritual realm, and that these wil develop in those who are most pre-disposed toward making manifest the patterns from within the ether, for which reasons the Mandaeans would always practise ritual cleanliness to avoid the unclean spiritual, and partake of the wholesome.

Instruction usually takes the form of a description of a rite celebrated by spirits in the divine ether-world as a pattern for future priests in an as yet uncreated earthly world.

The image of the mirror is employed again and again in this poetical religion. Water mirrors light; one being reflects or is the image of another. To the mystic the reality is not the reflection hut the Reflecter, not the material hut the Immaterial.

Mysteries


It's with such considerations that i wonder if numerous elements within society can become disposed toward acceptance of untoward spirits, it's the principles that intrigue me, the ritual dance first performed in the realm of Chaos, how one sows the seeds of Demonic invasion

Amazing. Great job on a perfect thread. I will def favorite this.

What an amazing thread...will be back later for a good read. Thank you for this, very well researched and put together.

Thanks OP .S&F good work . I still have a few of the links to read through but wanted to mark this thread and see what others have to say .In one sense its a simple subject but it does have a lot surrounding it .I have been looking for this thread to appear because I want to understand ....peace

Fantastic thread! S&F and subscribed for further reading.

There is so much info here! It will take me a few hours to do it justice.

Thanks for a quality thread OP.

CdT

Thanks for the kind words, Ms. K.

Kantzveldt
... and that these will develop in those who are most pre-disposed toward making manifest the patterns from within the ether, for which reasons the Mandaeans would always practise ritual cleanliness to avoid the unclean spiritual, and partake of the wholesome.

Something I found striking, and you will find it a prominent feature in contemporary myths surrounding the Illuminati, is the idea that witchery is a heritable trait. If we consider the possibility that psychic abilities, the capacity to manifest patterns from chaos, and the ability to communicate with extra-human forces are handed down genetically; it makes sense that traditions oriented toward cultivating those traits (for good or ill) would have evolved in tandem with them.

Perhaps some families (or cults, or religions) use trauma, others use training. Perhaps some grimoires are handed down from witch to witch. Perhaps the more a thing is driven underground, the larger its shadow grows.

To the mystic the reality is not the reflection hut the Reflecter, not the material but the Immaterial.

It has also struck me that the state of witchcraft reflects the health or sickness of society as a whole.

It's with such considerations that i wonder if numerous elements within society can become disposed toward acceptance of untoward spirits, it's the principles that intrigue me, the ritual dance first performed in the realm of Chaos, how one sows the seeds of Demonic invasion

If that's the goal, apparently it helps to work within a framework where people are stressed, starving and sexually frustrated.

Thanks very much to those that have given such kind feedback on the thread. It was a labor of love, and I hope all who read it come away glad for it.

Excellent info OP!!

Just my little piece to add...

When I was younger I grew up in New Orleans, so I had exposure to several " alternate" religions which WERE simply integrated into daily life and common. It wasnt so shocking when I went to Mexico in the 80's and encountered Santisma Muerte in all of her macabre glory The Vatican has issue with the followers of the Nina Blanca because it surged in popularity in response to the catholics making off with the hard earned money of the people and not showing real religious leadership in the area Most Holy Death is a protector and family orienter. She is the "last ditch" healer. VERY interesting that she has been smeared with association with narcotraffickers and etc... since the attributes of this one is in direct opposition to what they would want. Americans flinch when they see skulls and the mention of DEATH... they refuse to look further and cultural insecurities create religious prejudices. Look deeper..

Like many religions.. folks religions nad regional saints.. the truth is muddied beyond belief and used to suppress people's spiritual expression. Contrary to most BS youll read about the cartels, Holy Death has exploded in the US and Mexico for PROTECTION FROM the cartels and violence. Funny how things get twisted to suit...


Most Holy Death seems to be public enemy number one to Journalists, Xtians, and law enforcement.

traditionalwitchcraftandoccultism.wordpress.com... nalists-christians-and-law-enforcement-agencies/

www.amazon.com...

John Whiteside Parsons
aka Jack, is an extremely enigmatic character heck there are most likely several threads about him on here.




You have to wonder about a guy who follows Aleister Crowley into creating an american (O.T.O.) Ordo Templi Orientis all while creating and building the premier U.S.'s rocket engineering groups by being one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Corp.

Can you imaging NASA doing chants before any launch of a rocket? Believe it or not Jack demanded it!

From my Heart and From my Hand
Why don't people understand
my intentions...

Now his death to me was a bit of Alchemy gone awry. Fascinating man...but more so.

Facinating Post! BRAVO!

Now his death to me was a bit of Alchemy gone awry. Fascinating man...but more so.

Or, he was another casualty of the latest incarnation of the Inquisition.

Advantage
Americans flinch when they see skulls and the mention of DEATH... they refuse to look further and cultural insecurities create religious prejudices. Look deeper..

Like many religions.. folks religions nad regional saints.. the truth is muddied beyond belief and used to suppress people's spiritual expression. Contrary to most BS youll read about the cartels, Holy Death has exploded in the US and Mexico for PROTECTION FROM the cartels and violence. Funny how things get twisted to suit...

Thanks for the additional insight, Advantage, mucho appreciated.