Black and white witchcraft

Persons, usually female, who practise magical arts activated by association with supernatural powers. Black witches enter into a compact with Satan and cast spells with the help of demons and other evil spirits. White witches dedicate themselves to the Supreme Being and derive their mysterious powers from saints, angels, and the spirits of the faithful departed. Male witches, generally known as warlocks, tend to be white rather than black.

The English word witch derives from the Anglo-Saxon 'wit', meaning 'to know'. Witchcraft is therefore the seeking of knowledge and wisdom, approached by the path of good or evil. A witch, like a scientist, is devoted to study and research for their own sakes, regardless of their efforts upon human beings.

A principal difference between black and white witches is that the latter adheres to a reputable form of religion. In some communities, a white witch may actually create and lead a branch of such a religion and administer it for the good of the populace. But a black witch worships Satan and is devoted to the whole assemblage of demoniacal creatures such as Lilith, Queen of the Night.

Black witches seek a more complex knowledge than the simple truths revealed in the sacred writings of acceptable religions, but if they are left alone they may never use this knowledge except in a purely experimental form. A witch who casts a spell upon a farmer's cattle, causing them to speak in Latin, may do so purely to satisfy her own curiousity.

But even a black witch has to make a living, and she does so by selling spells and charms. It is the effect of these, in the hands of bloody-minded human beings, which has brought witchcraft into ill repute. Like an armaments manufacturer, a black witch does not see why she should be held responsible for the uses made of her products.

A white witch usually works for the good of the community, in such ways as the preparation of folk medicines. White witches limit their communication with the other world to acting as mediums, and to such straightforward activities as crystal-gazing. They never attempt to conjure up dead, or to affect natural forces in such ways as bringing down thunderbolts upon their enemies.

In times of trouble they may find themselves condemned as black witches, but at least they escape the eventual fate of a black witch. The latter carries such a burden of illicit knowledge that she cannot ascend to heaven and must be snatched by Satan.

White witches are usually self-taught. They gain their knowledge from a close study of nature and the sacred books, and reading in herbals and other approved documents. Occasionally a white witch accepts a pupil, but she generally tends to keep her knowledge to herself.

On the contrary, black witches are quite willing to accept students in the long and difficult craft. They offer the initial rewards of physical beauty and irresistible sexual attraction, with the side effect of inability to reproduce. A black witch cannot produce offspring. Other rewards include that of prolonged life, because a black witch may live a century more. The witchmistress does not, however, tell a pupil that the early beauty fades quickly and that a witch's destiny is not appealing. Satan may return her to earth in some form after death, but this is likely to be a toad, viper, or earthworm.

A witch may commence her studies at any age after puberty and proceed through numerous degrees of achievement. The aspiring witch commences with relatively minor witchcraft, such as the mixing of love potions and the casting of blights and murrains, and proceeds slowly to the final degrees. These include the gift of prophecy with the aid of a familiar; levitation or flying through the air with or without the use of a broomstick and flying ointment; lycanthropy, or transformation into the form of an animal; and the casting of runes to gain power over human beings.

Witchcraft is taught by word of mouth. The only written instructions have long since been burnt by the public hangman. An aspirant witch spends a great deal of time in learning spells by heart, but cannot actually make them work until she has sworn her soul to Satan.

Isobel Dowdie, a beautiful young redheaded Scottish witch of the seventeenth century, told her prosecutors much of what we know about the introduction of young witches into the craft. An aspirant must stand naked before witnesses, place her right hand on her head, raise her left foot and place her left hand on its heel, and vow to surrender to Satan all that lies between her hands.

The young witch becomes an associate memeber of a coven of thirteen witches, but cannot gain full membership until one of the other witches has been exorcised, snatches by Beelzebub, burnt at the stake, or otherwise robbed of witchly powers.

Covens assemble once a month at the full moon, and organise Witches' Sabbats four times a year; on Candlemas in February, Walpurgisnacht or May Eve, Lammas in August, and Halloween or November Eve. Those who fear witches may easily avoid them by staying indoors during the full moon or on Witches' Sabbats, although witches often welcome outsiders to these assemblies. The only rules are that all attendants must strip themselves naked, worship Satan, and join wholeheartedly in swinish guzzling, public fornication, the defilement of maidens, and congress with goats.

Despite the fear and disgust which many well-meaning people feel towards witches, an accomplished witch may be an asset to the community. It is useful to have a source of such staples as 5 centimetres or so of hangman's rope to cure skin blemishes, graveyard mould gathered at midnight to silence a nagging mother-in-law, or the pubic hairs of a mummy to bring home an errant wife.

Witches do not presume to judge comminity morals. If you have an enemy, then a single gold piece will buy you a mannequin gris: a wax doll fashioned in the form of your enemy, so that you may torment him mentally and physically by thrusting needles through the doll. The thirteenth needle brings death.

Regardless of your age or character, a witch will sell you a love potion guaranteed to make the most modest maiden surrender. If you belive that a seducer has administered such a potion to your wife, you may purchase an antidote which will cause your wife to devote herself to you with renewed ardour.

A witch is also willing to cast beneficial spells, ensuring a good harvest, increased milk yields, success in business or public affairs, or other advantages. The only drawback is that the price is a tiny portion of your soul, and that such witchboons are addictive. The temptation to succeed in every venture becomes overwhelming, and you sell fragment after fragment of your soul until it is entirely in the witch's possession. She, of course, will pass it on to her master Satan.

A witch's great problem is the jealousy and prejudice of her neighbours. She has no spells efficacious against these superior powers of evil. Many male members of the community enjoy nothing better than tormenting women, and they use the Biblical injunction 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' as the excuse for an agreeable programme of persecutions including stoning, ducking, flogging, and preaching against from the pulpit.

This persecution turns the witch against the community and she becomes actively dangerous. She causes epidemics, storms in harvest time, and infestations of flies, weeds, frogs, and toadstools. She turns strong men weak and maidens reluctant, forces babies to cry all night and dogs to howl at the moon, curdles the milk and sours the butter, and inflicts rheumatism upon the elders of the village.

Soon, the villagers decide to settle all their problems at one stroke. They set out on a witch hunt to pull in all likely and suspected witches in the neighbourhood, and haul them before a summary trial. Usually there is ample evidence, even if it is no more than the possession of a 'familiar' such as a dog or cat. If an old woman possesses a cat to which she talks at all hours of the day or night, it is obviously a familiar spirit which helps her in witchcraft.

When the witch hunters have satisfied themselves then their duty is clear. They must burn the witch on a fire of seasoned oak, carry her ashes outside the parish, and scatter them to the four winds. This of course leaves a vacancy in the local coven, to be filled by one of the student witches.