What a Witch: Witchcraft in Scotland

"To understand the word witch is to understand anthropology, history, the history of religion, the history of relations between the sexes, to understand, above all the unconscious of the human being." -Jong

Laws

• how these stories become codified in law
• what counts as evidence
• recounting evidence
• how are stories told?
• the Highlands
• belief in witches was still prominent in the 18th century

Witches Executed

Figure 11. Scottish Highlands. https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iOWtbr8GWyoc/v1/-1x-1.jpg

Figure. 10. Witches. https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1440&bih=782&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=erica+jong+witches&oq=erica+jong+witches&gs_l=psy-ab.3...102249.110637.0.110944.46.35.3.0.0.0.272.4324.3j17j7.27.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..23.13.2101...0j0i13k1.Hhr432yOApI#imgrc=s1g23JTkPQctZM:

-Janet Cook

-executed for witchcraft in November 1661

-used charms to cure people

-Helen Cass

-executed in August

-sexually promiscuous

-Janet Horne (1722 or 1727)

-last execution to take place

Figure 9. Daemonologie. https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/YRDtfnl_O-gjkdXd6HQv8cWcZfLyV26uBHycvzbqJDWznpvlbhUrUEBMdKvbfi-Orf30hv6EF0NNOlXNE55k0d6rSS2RXPIyht0aBfuCyBMUk9zsO7hEg7zJ

Sexuality

Figure 13. Penny Dreadful Skull. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-47C4YZr5UP0/VtCPDGPIO7I/AAAAAAAGDsE/1lNZDT5PWuA/w800-h800/PennyDreadful_Skul.jpg

Figure 12. Dalkeith Palace. https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0b/f9/d5/c3/dalkeith-palace.jpg

• demonic pact
• if not a wife or mother: threatening established order
• four considerations
• magical practices
• healers
• moral deviance
• sexually promiscuous
• fornication
• personal temperament
• economic circumstances

Figure 8. Sabbath. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vh5zsabVkvA/VAdXihHOT5I/AAAAAAAAESI/qFa3guulWNc/s1600/sabbath.jpg

"...for the study of witchcraft not only teaches us how religion can supersede another, but also how official chroniclers may so distort historical records that the truth of religious evolution becomes almost impossible to trace." (Jong 37)

What is Magic?

Figure 4. Bacchus celebration. https://progressivepaganismdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/la_jeunesse_de_bacchus_detail20_centre.jpg

• Popular (Low Magic) vs Intellectual (High Magic)
• the term Witchcraft
• Prehistoric vs Early Modern Period

Works Cited

Uses of Magic

The Aftermath of Scottish Witchcraft

Jong, Erica. Witches. Granada Publishing, 1981.

Levack, Brian P. Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics, and Religion. Routledge, 2008.

Miller, Joyce. Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland. Goblinshead, 2004.

-beneficial uses of witchcraft

-to treat illnesses; folk healers

-Paganism to Christianity

-Prehistoric vs Early Modern Period

-Scottish criminal legal system

-comparison to European witchcraft

-Scottish witchcraft today

Figure 6. Folk Healer. http://folkhealers.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/4/6/10463176/9525765.jpg?382

Figure 1. Nature of Scotland Award. http://www.greenerscotland.org/sites/default/files/image%20-%20nature%20scotland%20awards.png

Figure 5: Horned God & Mother Goddess. https://maisappho.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/god-and-goddess-comparative-religion-25093396-1542-1188.jpg

Figure 2. AHS Coven. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/71/4f/98/714f98a13719473b2c4fddb098c0d7ab.jpg

Figure 7. Stained Glass Window. http://folkhealers.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/4/6/10463176/9525765.jpg?382

Figure 14. Scottish legal system. http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/Police-513314.jpg

Figure 3. Goat. http://elhorror.com.mx/quehorror/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/the-witch-trailer.jpg

Figure 15. Witches in Scotland. http://sarahannelawless.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/north-berwick-witches.jpg

Its Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus: An Overview of Witchcraft in Scotland

Bernadette Marie Flores