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The Witches' Ride

10/29/2016

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PictureThe witches Sabbath by Luis Ricardo Falero (1880). Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
The familiar image of a witch flying through the air on her broomstick is deeply ingrained in  the Western mind. However, other tools - many now largely forgotten - were also believed to be used for transvection or spirit travel. Although most historical and literary depictions of witches flying suggest they do so ‘in spirit’ or ‘in dreams’, there was some confusion in the Middle Ages as to whether or not a witch could travel bodily through the air as well. Thus, we have some clerics and demonologists who believed in the transvection, or physical flight, of the witch (with the Devil’s help, of course). This article will briefly examine some of the more common tools and methods used to engage in witches’ flight.

Flying Ointments

Flying ointments typically refer to fat-based salves containing a mixture of psychotropic substances, applied by witches to their skin or mucous membranes and producing euphoric, soporific and trance-like effects. The ointment produced hallucinations, sensations of flying, or it basically put the user to sleep, and thereby allowed the witch to travel in the form of her Double to the Sabbat, or engage in other activities, such as shapeshifting. Ointments were also believed to be used by werewolves and others to induce metamorphosis.


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The Breton Cult of the Dead

10/10/2016

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Picture'The Day of the Dead' by William Bouguereau (1859). Public Domain.
Brittany is a historical province on the northwest tip of France, famed for its vibrant culture and striking megalithic monuments dating to the Neolithic period. A part of the Armorican peninsula (which at one time also encompassed a large part of what became known as Normandy), the area was settled in waves beginning in the third century by migrants from the southwest of Britain, and thus the region was named after them. Today the Breton people claim a Celtic heritage and Brittany is counted among the six Celtic nations, although the Bretons also hold a measure of Gaulish and possibly ‘Viking’ or Norse cultural ancestry as well. The Breton language is closely related to Cornish, and a bit more distantly to Welsh.

I became more deeply interested in Breton culture when I learned that many of my own ancestors came from Brittany. When I began researching Breton folklore and mythology, I was particularly fascinated by the Breton cult of the dead. Maura Coughlin, in her essay ‘Celtic cultural politics, monuments and mortality in Brittany” found in Marion Gibson’s Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity states “the most remarked upon of folk practices and beliefs, that seemed to most connect Breton popular culture with earlier Celtic ways, was the nineteenth century obsession with the cult of the dead”. Scholars and folklorists recorded a variety of beliefs and practices surrounding the cult of the dead, perhaps none more thoroughly than Anatole le Braz in his works, most notably La Légende de la Mort (The Legend of Death), published in 1902. I thought it fitting to begin October’s blog post line-up with a discussion of the cult of the dead, considering this season for many of us marks not only the beginning of autumn and thus the approaching of winter, but also another ‘season’ of sorts - that dark half the year when the veil between worlds is thin and the spirits of the dead wander among us.


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    The Soul of Bones blog discusses European myth, magic and folklore, with a primary focus on witchcraft and related folk traditions.

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