Witches and devils dancing in a circle. Woodcut, 1720. Artist unknown. Public Domain. The witches’ sabbath motif is familiar to us all - witches would smear themselves with noxious ointments and ride through the sky on brooms, staffs or the backs of animals, or in the shapes of animals themselves, and travel to a designated place where they would dance, feast and fornicate with demons and pay worship to the Devil in various forms. In addition to cannibalistic orgies and diabolism, witches’ sabbath activities also included the practice of harmful magic (maleficium), such as spreading plagues, raising storms, killing innocents or causing famines and war.
Many contemporary scholars now agree that the stereotype of the witches’ sabbath was (rather than constructed purely out of the fantasies of demonologists) based partly on a folkloric complex of beliefs surrounding the nocturnal spirit flights of individuals who later came to be accused as witches. Originally, these night journeys were related to agrarian rituals, as well as processions of both benevolent and malevolent spirits of the dead and other divine beings (such as fairies or goddesses). It has been argued that only later did they come to be associated with the practice of witchcraft and the notion of a witches’ sabbath, when this complex began to be merged with conspiratorial rumours of cannibalism, orgies and general evil-doings that were attributed to Jews, lepers and other marginalized groups of the time period.
Many contemporary scholars now agree that the stereotype of the witches’ sabbath was (rather than constructed purely out of the fantasies of demonologists) based partly on a folkloric complex of beliefs surrounding the nocturnal spirit flights of individuals who later came to be accused as witches. Originally, these night journeys were related to agrarian rituals, as well as processions of both benevolent and malevolent spirits of the dead and other divine beings (such as fairies or goddesses). It has been argued that only later did they come to be associated with the practice of witchcraft and the notion of a witches’ sabbath, when this complex began to be merged with conspiratorial rumours of cannibalism, orgies and general evil-doings that were attributed to Jews, lepers and other marginalized groups of the time period.
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