It will be especially valuable to those studying the history of witchcraft, medieval and early modern legal history, religion and theology, magic, and esotericism. Download a PDF sample chapter here: Introduction. Early Modern. History of Religion. Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Rembrandt's engraving, 'Dr Faustus', is a late and relatively sober image of the magus in action. Unalarmed, the mage scrutinises the magical apparition levitating in front of him, which is covered with occult or cabbalistic signs.
The source of unease in the picture is the watching figure at the window, a possible informant against the Doctor. A skull also seems to look on. The unfinished engraving leaves obscure just what Faustus is resting his weight on, or where he is standing in this sunken lumber-room.
Less artistic is this book cover, from the German 'Wagnerbook'. So popular was the 'Faustbook', that a companion volume dealing with the antics of Faustus's scholar appeared. While Faustus confronts Mephostophilis, Wagner interacts with an ape:. Israel has been invaded by the Philistines, and Saul can get no response from God. Seeking to know the future, even though he has 'put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land' verse 4 , Saul seeks out the witch to know the future.
Note that the translation here is the AV's characteristically 17th century English version: other translations might read that Saul seeks out a 'medium': here, it is a 'woman that hath a familiar spirit' verse 7. The woman protests when Saul goes to consult her in disguise, with two followers, saying that Saul has 'cut off' prophets like herself, 'wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? As soon as he appears, the woman realises that her client is actually Saul himself.
Samuel complains about being 'disquieted' in death; Saul asks what will become of his kingdom, and Samuel's spirit makes a prophecy of his doom, that tomorrow both Saul and his sons will 'be with me' verse 19 : this proves to be true in Chapter Saul falls to the ground in despair.
The woman, saying 'Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand' verse She succours Saul with food, and he afterwards goes on his way, without molesting her.
In the Dutch artist's imagining of the scene, we see various elements of the developing story in the one image. The scrolls in the air may well be Bible passages. At the left, Saul arrives for his consultation. Witches often inhabit ruins like this one. Centrally, the woman, holding a torch aloft, and seated in a magic circle pronounces charms from a book held open by a faun. Her wand is wrapped with written spells, a taper burns beside her.
Her partly naked body is typical of the way witchcraft scenes focus on the non-beautiful, aged female body. Nothing in the Bible suggests that the 'Witch of Endor' is an old woman. In the archway, in the background, Saul is defeated 1 Samuel 31 , and the prophet Samuel rises from his grave. At the right are witch scenes more typical of the European witchcraft scare than anything in the Bible. A coven of women, old and young, cooking on a brazier, and drinking, have gathered: two are still sitting astride their goats.
Meanwhile other witches arrive by transvection, bearing food to the feast. One is drawn astride a skull, towed through the air by two cockerels, another flies on a goat, a third rides a long pole possibly a baker's peel? At the right, the tempests invariably associated with witch activities are seen. Another faun, with a hurdy-gurdy, is there to supply the music. The artist decorates his scene with Brueghel-esque demons, transitional and jumbled in form. One stalks over the ruined archway, and sports a horned face where it should have a bottom.
The splendid creature lower left holds up a scrying glass for the witch, through the smoke of her censer she will see the future in the glass.
The three owls could be 'familiars', though that notion is more English than Dutch. Creatures of the night, whose shrieking cries herald doom, the owl stands ambiguously between its ancient associations with wisdom and 16th Century associations with folly.
A youthful witch, depicted in the late Medieval Gothic unanatomical style with implausible breasts and the characteristic belly Gothic art found beautiful, had woven a love spell. Her incantation is captured in the scrolls which float in the air, a heart is at her mercy in the opened chest in front of the fire. Unsurprisingly the charm has worked, and the young man has arrived at the door.
Her pet dog it doesn't look like a familiar spirit is unimpressed by these human goings-on. On a tree near the clearing where the witches perform their Sabbath, John Alden and Isaac Walton found the skeletons of children hanging on the branches, "unborn children offered to the Devil himself" in the words of Isaac. If the skeletons are warnings or simple offers is not known; However, the Seer of the hive unleashes his familiars around the place of the ceremony because they act as guardians, warning the witches in case of intruders.
Witchcraft, punishable by death, was practiced by members of all social classes so it was necessary not to be recognizable, although precisely this confidence to show one's own identity to the other witches can be considered an act of trust toward the hive, especially to the Samhain who's responsible for protecting the witches of her hive. The masks wear in the ceremony, however, have also a ritual significance; the heads of animals sacred to witchcraft and Paganism as wolf, deer or pig are worn by those who appear to be the most important witches of the hive like Mary Sibley or John Hale, and are the same animals mentioned in Tituba's spell to fly to the Sabbath.
In Western culture, the four principal lunar phases are: first quarter, full moon, last quarter also known as the third quarter , and new moon. In a year there are thirteen full moons, to which the various traditions and cultures of the world have attributed significant and several names. The full moon is traditionally associated with the supernatural, and in historical records, Sabbaths took place during full moon nights.
The Hunter's Moon, also known as Harvest Moon , is the full moons occurring during late summer and in the autumn, and in Salem's mythology is the night when the thirteenth victim must be sacrificed in order to complete the first step of the Grand Rite.
After Tituba reminded to Mary that the moon was with them, the two women went to Mary's boudoir to perform an erotic ritual in which Mary, reaching climax with a wooden shaft , projected her astral double out of her body, headed to a clearing in the woods. Meanwhile, Captain John Alden and Isaac Walton entered the woods, as Isaac wanted to show his old friend that witches were a real threat, not a fairy tale. They hid when a man in a pig mask, later revealed to be Magistrate John Hale enters with a torch.
The apparition tosses the torch onto the ground and a circle is set alight. Figures rise from a pool of black tar and begin to dance and fornicate. Some other witches, also in animal masks — a horse, a bear, a wolf, the aforementioned pig, and a deer — stand above the rest. Mary Sibley, wearing a deer mask, recites an incantation whilst killing a white dove.
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