Magic Part 2

BLACK MAGIC

Black Magic

Demonology- Definition of Demons

Necromancy- Fumigations, exorcisms,invocations and talismans; revival of Hermetic tradition

Witchcraft and persecution- Change from toleration of white magic. Opposition to the social good and the inversion of Catholic practices

Demonology

Demons 'are prevaricator angels of whom the devil is the ruler' (Isidore, Etymologies) ' and they foretell many things to come, whence they are accustomed to give some answers.

Indeed, they have more knowledge of things than does human weakness, partly through a more subtle acuity of sense, partly through experience of an extremely long life, and partly through angelic revelation at God’s command’. Demons have an ‘aerial quality’ and are ‘said to love blood’ and so are ‘called more easily by the gore of blood’.

Necromancers (literally mages who raised the dead so as to prophesy the future), witches, and evil magicians all used demonic magic. They made demons carry out their bidding, bring them treasure, foretell the future, bring evil to their enemies and make people love and/or obey them.

Why did people turn to Necromancy and Black Magic?

There were many things that people could not get from the Church such as the ability to kill someone, they cannot force people to love you and they cannot bring people from the dead.

However, many people who performed Black Magic believed that their demons could perform any of their wishes and perhaps kill someone that they wanted to take revenge on.

A key example of this is John Lydgate's 'The Pilgrimage of the life of Man' which depicts a medieval imagining of magic, a literary text. It describes an account of a magician who uses a magic circle to bring him treasure.

'[I] would know to this estate where I shall be fortunate… with my sword upon the ground and make a circle large and round with patterns and figures…Spirits should obey me and by my invocations, answer any questions and such spirits do I call… '

Necromancy

Necromancy usually imitated the concept of the mass but instead of exorcising evil, necromancers welcomed it. Just like the Catholic Church, if the rites were performed correctly with the right objects and performed at the right time then the Black Magic would work.

So if Necromancy was an imitation of the Mass and clerics would perform Black Magic who was to say that people who performed White Magic in terms of healing and astrology and alchemy that there white Magic would be tainted and seen as Black Magic, it is tnerefore, no surprise that many of the people who performed works of healing and such risked the accusation of being guilty of heresy such as Witchcraft.

What are the forms of Necromancy?

Isidore- 'necromancers summon demons and slay people by evil arts, using the blood and bodies of the dead. By their incantations the dead, brought back to life, seem to prophesy and to answer what is asked, but they do not just use spells, the blood of a corpse is also required [ibid.]. They also practise hydromancy which is calling up demons by gazing into water and watching their images or illusions, or hearing something when they consult demons by the use of blood.'

Picatrix

Picatrix is an arabic text from the 11th Century which was translated into Spanish and Latin in the 13th Century.

The work was incorporated into many other works on necromancy, along with alchemical and astrological information and enchantments for conjuring demons to do one’s will, sometimes but not always confining them or the conjuror within magic circles, or making magic mirrors like this one.

Picatrix writes: 'But I wish to speak to you of the composition of the mirror, and how it is used and watched, because all of human nature enters into it. Temper the mirror with fresh and natural blood, then suffumigate it; then write on it the names of the seven planets; the seven names of the seven planets are Zohal, Mustari, Marrech, Xemz, Zohara, Hotarid, Alchamar. [variants of Arabic planetary names: Zuhal, Saturn; Mustari, Jupiter; Mirrikh, Mars; Shams, the Sun; Zuhrah, Venus; 'Utarid, Mercury; Qamar, Moon;] 

And these characters are written in a circle around the edge of the names and they are in a circle. Then, within the polished and gilded circle are written the names of these seven angels: Captiel, Satquiel, Samael, Raphael, Anael, Michael, Gabriel. 

This being done, the names of the seven winds are written in a part that is not polished; and they are the winds of the powers, and these are their names: Barchia, Bethel almoda, Hamarbenabis, Zobaamarrach, Fide arrach, Samoresmaymon, Aczabi. 

Then hang the mirror in silk for seven days over water and suffumigate it there; and let it be suspended by the branch of a bramble. And for three nights suffumigate it with good and pleasant odors such as may be found in the Book of Moses. And if you gaze into the mirror and watch it well, know that in it will appear men, winds, spirits, demons, the dead and the living and all of them will be obedient to your command.'

Hermes Tresmegistus

The pagan traditions of neo-platonic ideas such as the mirroring of visible and invisible words were linked to an inner spiritual enlightenment associated with Hermes Tresmegitus, the 'thrice great ' because he knew and understood the three parts of wisdom.The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy (practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself).

Ficino who translated the rediscovered work in 1460 emphasized the oneness with the universe and its three layers, aspects also found in the works Giordano Bruno and the Elizabethan magus, Dr John Dee.

Witchcraft

Changing attitudes to magic and persecution

Two German Depictions of Witches’ Sabbat’s by Dürer in 1497 and Baldung in 1510 (whose work has been discussed in Stuart Clark’s Thinking with Demons)

In the Dürer print note the devil in the corner, the inscription on the globe above and skull below the women in Dürer’s print, drawn before the Three Graces was known; and the freedom of movement and expression in Baldung’s work, making it look fun to fly backwards on a goat., despite the malevolent overtones.

1. Dürer: 'The subject of this work, the earliest dated engraving by Dürer, has remained something of a puzzle. The date, 1497, is inscribed on a mysterious hanging sphere with the letters O.G.H. underneath. Numerous interpretations have been given to these letters, but given that the presence of the devil on the left and the human skull and bone on the floor indicate that the women are engaged in some fiendish activity, ' O Gotthüte' (O God protect) as Joachim von Sandrart first suggested in 1675 is a reasonable explanation. Sandrart first expressed the opinion that the women represent a group of witches. The subject may be linked to a description in a deeply mysogynist and highly popular guide to witch-hunting, the Malleusmaleficarum (‘The Witches’ Hammer’ ) written by Dominican inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger and first published in Strasbourg in 1487. It was printed in Nuremberg by Dürer’s godfather, Anton Koberger in 1494 and again in1496, the year before this print was made. There is also a tradition going back to the sixteenth century of interpreting the print as a mythological scene. By altering the lettering on the sphere to 'DeturPulchrior' ( ‘To the fairest’) Nicolettoda Modena intended his reversed copy of the print ( dated 1500) in which the devil and the bones are omitted, to represent a 'Judgement of Paris' (see A.M.Hind, 'Early Italian Engraving', v, p.134). Karel van Mander described the print as ‘three or four naked women, after the type of the Three Graces’ and mistakenly assumed that Dürer's print was copied after the engraving by Israhel van Meckenem (cat.no. 177; see van Mander, I, p.90). The poses of the figures are reminiscent of classical sculpture - although in 1497 Dürer would not yet have known the antique ‘Three Graces’, which was first displayed in Siena in 1507. Various early copies and variants, such as SebaldBeham’s 'Three Naked Women and Death' (Bartsch 42) of c.1525-7 attest to the large appeal of this print.'

This print is probably Baldung's best-known work, and was one of the first single-leaf woodcuts that he produced as an independent artist after his arrival in Strasbourg. Its radical approach in terms of expression and technique established him as an artistic personality to be reckoned with.
The technique of colour printing in woodcuts was developed by Hans Burgkmair and Lucas Cranach from c. 1507 to 1510 (see Bartrum 1995 cat. nos 132, 134, 1895,0122.379 and 1895,0122.264). The intention was to simulate a particular type of drawing commonly seen in different regions of Germany in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, which was executed in pen and ink and heightened with white on a dark-coloured ground. This manner of drawing was familiar to Baldung from his youth, since it is seen in Swabian late fifteenth-century drawings (see Rowlands 1993, 42) and was used by him throughout his career. It is not known precisely from whom Baldung learnt of the technique of printing woodcuts in colour, but to judge from the striking prints made at this time, 1510 was a year in which it was particularly fashionable. Baldung's compatriot Hans Wechtlin also produced his group of colour woodcuts at about this date (see 1834,0804.39; 1842,0806.90 and 1834,0804.38) although, surprisingly, the two artists did not influence each other at all. Baldung, Cranach and Burgkmair would clearly have been well aware of each other's work by the time they contributed drawings to Emperor Maximilian's joint 'Prayer-Book' project in 1515.
Representations of witchcraft were common during the early sixteenth century, and much has been written about the obsession with which the subject was regarded in this period of emerging moral reform and religious fervour (see C.Zika, 'Fears of Flying: Representations of Witchcraft and Sexuality in Early Sixteenth-Century Germany', 'Australian Journal of Art', VIII, 1989/90, pp. 19ff; and for further literature on the subject see Koerner, p. 507, n. 15). Baldung would have known of Dürer's engraving of c.1500 (Dodgson 41), done in an Italianate style, of a 'Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat', and also seems to have been aware of the work of Albrecht Altdorfer, whose drawing 'Witches' Sabbath', dated 1506 (Paris, Musée du Louvre), inspired the type of tree seen on the right of Baldung's composition and is also executed on a dark-coloured ground. The comparison ends there, however, for Altdorfer's drawing is controlled by his sensitivity to landscape and atmosphere, subjects which are not of prime importance to Baldung, whose principal subject matter was the human figure. The originality of Baldung's image is perhaps more closely connected with his own personal obsession with the evil power of female sexuality than with any outside influences. It is useful to note in this context that the violent and deeply misogynist 'Malleusmaleficarum' (The Witches' Hammer), written by the Dominican inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, was first published in Strasbourg in 1487 and had been reprinted fourteen times by 1520. Representations of women with sinister or malevolent connotations are a particular feature of Baldung's work, as is the association of women with vulnerability and death. He made a number of drawings of witches during 1513-15 which all possess bizarre, strikingly unusual compositions. Some were executed on a coloured ground and others have been recorded in workshop copies (see Koch 59-64).

Frans Francken

FransFrancken,

FransFrancken the Younger (1581-1642) was the most famous of a family of artists. He was likely trained by his father FransFrancken the Elder and perhaps also in Paris by his uncle Hieronymus I. In 1605, he was a member of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. He rapidly had a large studio that produced many replicas of his extensive output. He was the inventor of the 'monkey kitchen' compositions, a genre that was subsequently widely disseminated by David Teniers (1610-1690) and was renowned for his innovative imagination.

This painting is a typical example of FransFrancken's representation of witchcrafts that he produced in series. The iconography recalls the traditional conception of the witches oscillating between beauty and horror, sensuality and lust. The witches' Sabbath takes place at night alluding to the illicit character of their activity and the whole scene gives the impression of chaos, a concept of suffering but also of regeneration alluding to the magical power of the witches.

A Witches Sabbath; a fireplace and chimney at right with a witch on a broomstick emerging from it, a woman climbing onto a table in front with cats around her, a group of men and women seated on the ground, with devilish figures and a man dancing in a magic circle behind

Chelmsford Witch Trial, 1589

The first witch trial to appear in a secular court in England resulting in a series of witch trials in Chelmsford, Essex. The prosecution of women as the main victims of witch hunts are further explained in details of the trials and those prosecuted

·  The First of the Chelmsford 'witches' was the decrepit Elizabeth Frances. Elizabeth Frances confessed to using a familiar cat called Sathan in order to harm various people. The cat was given to Agnes Waterhouse and her daughter Joan Waterhouse. Elizabeth Frances was sentenced to one year in prison but poor Agnes Waterhouse was hung. Her daughter, Joan, was found not guilty

·  The Second Chelmsford Witch trial of 1579 once again brought the unfortunate old Elizabeth Frances to answer accusations of witchcraft, along with several other women ' They were  found guilty and hanged

·  The third Chelmsford Witch trial of 1589 saw the hanging of Joan Prentice, Joan Upney and Joan Cunny for using familiars

 IN Primis, Joan Prentice saith and confesseth, that about sixe yeeres last past, betweene the feastes of all Saintes, and the birth of our Lord God, the de+uillappeeredvnto her in the Almes house: about ten of the Clock in the night time, being in the shape and proportion of a dunnishcullouredFerrit, having fiery eyes, and she being alone in her Chamber, and sitting upon a low stoole, preparing her selfe to bedward: the Ferrit standing with his hinder legs vpon the ground, and his fore legs setledvpon her lappe, and setling his fiery eyes vpon her eyes, spake: Ioan Prentice giue me thy soule, She said, that her soule appertained onelyvntoIesus Christ.

Ferret replyed, I must then haue some of thy blood, which she willingly graunting, offered him the forefinger of her left hand, the which the Ferrittooke into his mouth, suckt blood therout, in so much that her finger did smart exceedingye: she asked the Ferrit what his name was: It answered Bidd, and then the Ferrit vanished out of her sight sodainly.

  Item, seuen weekes past the Ferrit leapt vpon her left shoulder, and sucked blood out of her lefte cheeke, and demanded what she had for him to do? She answered, ‘goe vnto Maister Glascocks house, and nip one of his Children a little, named Sara, but hurt it not,’ and the next night he told her he had doon as she willed:  and that she should dye, and she saide, ‘thou villaine what hast thou doon, I bid thee not to hurt it, and hast thou killed the childe?’ Then the Ferrit vanished suddenly, and never came to her since

  Item, the daye before she went [to] Maister Glascok, to begge his almes, and one of his seruantes said that her Maister and Mistress were from home, and she departed greatly discontented, and sent her Ferret to nip the childe

 Item, [to] haue her Ferret do any thing , she used these wordes, ‘Bidd, Bidd, Bidd, come Bidd, come bidd, come bidd, come suck, come suck, come suck’, and he would appear: suck blood and then perform any mischeef she willed  for her or against any of her neighbours.