ANT 3241 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Pentagram, Wiccan Rede, Salem Witch Trials
Document Summary
Females: nature, left (sinister, moon, water, witches, males, culture, right (dexter, sun, fire. It is thought most medieval witches were probably herbalists, midwives, or peasant women: however, anthropologist margaret murray argued in the 1920"s that they actually practiced a survival of pre-christian goddess fertility religions, they were not devil worshippers. Tales of the witches: while being questioned, many witches told their inquisitors (often under torture) of travelling on a broomstick through the air to sabbats where they would dance with a black, horned god. Sometimes these rites would be sexual, but not always. However, the inquisitors were often clinically concerned with what intercourse with the devil felt like. The witches cauldron/ witches brew: we read of the witches brewing herbs in a cauldron and then sometimes applying this to their skin with a broomstick. What were the ingredients: henbane, deadly nightshade/belladonna, mandrake, thorn apple/ jimsonweed, all of these are hallucinogenic plants.
