Irish Witchcraft
The most famous single case of Irish witchcraft is that of Lady Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny. The Bishop of Ossory charged her with witchcraft under the new Bulls issued by Pope John XXII, and she was tried in 1324. The court obviously believed she had been practising witchcraft, but saw no particular harm in it Though supposed to convict her they let her off as lightly as possible and discharged her, much to the Bishop's disgust much as a Manx court in 1659 found Mrs. Jane Ceasar not guilty of...
Out of the Land of Egypt
In Mr. Pennethorne Hughes's book we have the following interesting passage on page 23 'Studies of the magic and ritual of Africa have in the last few years established with some certainty that all the systems for the disturbance of consciousness practised by the African Negro are derived from ancient Egypt. Thousands of Africans were transported to the New World and many of those who went to Haiti from 1512 onwards were of the finest African stock and perhaps carried with them a synthesis of...
The Witches and the Mysteries
I had always believed that witches belonged to an independent Stone Age cult whose rites were a mixture of superstition and reality and had no connection with any other system. But during my short stay in New Orleans, though I did not succeed in getting into Voodoo, I noticed some suspicious resemblances which made me think that Voodoo was not solely African in origin but had been compounded in America out of European witchcraft and African mythology and when I visited the Villa of the...
There have been Witches in all Ages
There have been witches in all ages and countries. That is, there have been men and women who have had a know-ledge of cures, philtres, charms and love potions and at times poisons. Sometimes it was believed they could affect the weather, bringing rain or drought. At times they were hated, at times they were loved at times they were highly honoured, at times persecuted. They claimed to be, or were credited with being, in communication with the world of spirits, the dead, and sometimes with the...