Witches Brew

carol · Witches Brew

one for the girls and note not a drink.

Think of things we can throw into the cauldron besides BA, Jimbo, RW etc Wink

although not well read up on it I'm intrigued about hocus pocus etc

One story (unclear if it's a myth) is of Maggie Wall who is said to have been one of the last witches in Scotland to have been burnt at the stake. which strangely enough may not be true as at least 6 witches were burnt in the same locality after her. Her death recorded on 'her' memorial is said to be in 1657.

Her grave to this day is regularly attended by an individual who leaves flowers and a card. It has been said (courtesy of my 12 yr old) that coins are left there. Is this some sort of tradition from many moons ago? What is more intriguing is her death apparently was never recorded. Does this warrant further investigation ? Shocked

Other than BA is there any witch hunters out there? Any others interested in this subject?

Jimbo

carol

she'd be deid Jimbo!!!

Rinty

Another plug for my mates book 'border burnings' by Mary W Craig.

You can buy it at www.bordervoices.org.uk

Many in the independence movement will know Mary as Mary Spowart. She is an exceptional researcher and this book is a fascinating account of the with trials in the Borders.

Blackadder

The late Helen Duncan is credited as the last "witch" to be persecuted in this country, by no less a personage than Sir Winston Churchill himself.

There is a petition online to have her pardoned ... as well as the thousands of women and men who were foully murdered in the name of Religious zealots!

You'll find the petition at ...

http://www.helenduncan.org.uk/

Please sign it and help wipe this bloody stain away.

As an aside ... a correction ... a Warlock is NOT a male witch. A Warlock was ANY witch who betrayed the coven, male or female. It's the Americans who first applied the term to male witches, though this practice is erroneously made out to be Scottish in origin. It isn't.

Wicca was invented in a drunken afternoon on the Isle of Man, by Gerald B Gardner ... and the more intellectually brilliant master of mysticism ... Aleister Crowley. Between them, they perpetrated the greatest joke since the alleged Resurrection of a joiner in Jerusalem! Twisted Evil

Jimbo

Blackadder

mairead

I've always been interested and also horrified by the treatment of these women. Many an innnocent woman was sent to die and as I see it, they, none of them, have any use for a pardon now. It's doesn't give them back their stolen lives.

Rinty, yes I read that book and found it to be very interesting.

Rinty

Mairead,

I aprticularly like the way mary places the burnings aginst the background of the reformation, so that the political and social history link to the facts and pure horror of how it all took place.

I have worked with Mary as she is also a political researcher working for SNP, SSP, Solidarity MSPs over the years. She is a great researcher and the details in the book highlights this.

Blackadder

No, it doesn't, old crone ... but it would go some of the way to clearing their names of this dubious "crime"!

How YOU survived though ... that's the real mystery!!! Twisted Evil

mairead

I survived because they couldnae catch me. heh heh heh, and you'll no catch me either.

Rinty.
Years ago I picked up a small booklet (as opposed to a book) on Scottish witches and wizards by HM Fleming. which gives a short but reasonable account of six Scottish witches and wizards, one of whom was Isobel Gowdie of Auldhearn wose fate was never recorded although she was found guilt of the practice.

Rinty

Have you heard Jimmy McMillan's "confession of Isobel Goudie"?

Although I try hard to like his music as he is from the same place as me and I do like the guy in general, it's a bit crash, bang, wallop for my liking. The thers Alex harveys song too. When McMilan first composed it I read up about Gowdie at the time. Its a fascinating case with her willing detailed confession, unlike the others there was suppsoedly no torure involved.

mairead

No I haven't read about Goudie, but will see what I can dig up on her.

Blackadder

Was that a joke, Mairead???? Shocked

mairead

Nope. get back to your bed Goblin, your brain is now being affected by the headache.
I merely thought Rinty was referring to a witch named Goudie, but I guess I picked him up wrong. (and don't you laugh at me either you git, 'cos you make bloomers too. )

Jimbo

mairead

I used to live on a hill called Stake Moss which was quite high above the village. It was called that because witches were burned there and suicides buried there. Never saw anything out of the ordinary, although I heard plenty of tales.

Blackadder

According to the Wikipedia entry ...

Isobel Gowdie was a Scottish woman who was tried for witchcraft in 1662. Her detailed confession, apparently achieved without the use of torture, offers one of the most detailed looks at European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.

A young housewife living at Auldearn, Highland, Scotland, her confession painted a wild word-picture about the deeds of her coven. They were claimed to have the ability to transform themselves into animals; to turn into a hare, she would say:

I shall go into a hare,
With sorrow and sych and meickle care;
And I shall go in the Devil's name,
Ay while I come home again.
(sych: such; meickle: great)

To change back, she would say:

Hare, hare, God send thee care.
I am in a hare's likeness now,
But I shall be in a woman's likeness even now.

She allegedly was entertained by the Queen of the Fairies, also known as the queen of Elphame, in her home "under the hills."

It is unclear whether Gowdie's confession is the result of psychosis, whether she had fallen under suspicion of witchcraft and sought leniency by confessing, or whether some other plan motivated her to confess to these crimes; it is also unclear whether there was some truth to her remarkable confession and she was moved to admit the crime by remorse. Her confession seems generally consistent with the folklore and records of the trials of witches generally, but is more detailed than most. There is no record of her ever being executed.

In 1955, retired English soldier Robin Green believed that he saw the ghost of Isobel Gowdie while camping alone in Auldearn.

Isobel Gowdie and her magic have been remembered in a number of later works of culture. She has appeared as a character in several novels, such as the biographical novels The Devil's Mistress by novelist and occultist J. W. Brodie-Innes, Isobel by Jane Parkhurst and the fantasy novel Night Plague by Graham Masterton; Isobel Gowdie is also the subject of songs by Creeping Myrtle and Alex Harvey. The Confession of Isobel Gowdie is a work for symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. Furthermore, some of her own literary works have been included in Oxford University Press's Early Modern Women Poets: 1520-1700: An Anthology.