Course Description:
There were many forms of witches in Medieval Europe and several different covens. One form of witches were called the Tempestarii. During the witch hunts the belief in witches who could raise storms was not limited to the Tempestarii. Depending on a witch's preference, they were believed to cause tempests, hailstorms, and lightning. In the psychological sense the Tempest is the headache or stomachache caused by arguing with the screeches of a woman or initiated by a guilt trip caused by her communication styles that create confusion in the mind.
The disturbance of the air by witches (by flight or weather-witching); riding out on beehives, brooms, fences, cats, or other vehicles; animals prowling by night in the witch’s service; witches changing themselves or others into animals; the use of ointment to effect the changes; nocturnal gatherings (Hindu witches, for example, flew naked through the air at night and consumed human flesh); the witch meetings taking place on Christian holy days, themselves replacements of the old pagan holidays (Hallowe’en, for example, replaced the Eve of All Saints’ Day, November 1, originally a Teutonic fire-festival day); the belief that bees are evil spirits; the association of black complexion, clothing, or other objects with witches or evil spirits; witches using boats; witches leaving their bodies to roam about; the use of brooms by the witches, against the witches, or as a test of witchcraft (witches in some places could not step across a broom); cannibalism by witches; the association of witches with animals, especially cats, dogs, frogs or toads, lizards, snakes, mice, owls, pigs, horses, and wolves; witches having special power over children, and especially their propensity for eating children; the circular dance, often naked; the fear of seeing the witch dance; the use of crossroads as a place where demonic powers are especially strong; a conscious relationship with the Devil (much more emphasized in European witchcraft than in other cultures. It is also not to be omitted that some wicked women perverted by the devil, seduced by illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess themselves, in the hours of night to ride upon certain beasts.
Witchcraft is a composite phenomenon drawing from folklore, sorcery, demonology, heresy, and Christian theology. The chief individual components defined as witchcraft in the classical period were: (1) those generally derived from sorcery (approximately 31%)-shapeshifting, riding or flying, cannibalism, child murder, the use of salves, familiars, invocation of demons, and the choice of night at 3 a.m. as the time for witch activities; (2) components generally derived from other folklore traditions, wild dances, the “Good Society,: the wild man and the wild chase, incubi, and passing through closed doors or walls; (3) components deriving mainly from heresy, the definition of witchcraft as a sect, secret meetings, desecration of Cross or sacraments, formal repudiation of church, synagoga, sex orgies, and feasting; (4) components added for the most part by theologians, the pact, Devil’s mark, worship of, sacrifice to, or homage to the Devil; the obscene kiss, and the sabbat . The sabbat appears in medieval witchcraft only at the end of the 15th century.
First, that those to whom phallic castration happens to are adulterers or fornicators. For when they fail to respond to the demand of their mistress, or is they wish to desert them and attach themselves to other women, then their mistress, out of vengeance, causes such a thing to happen, or through some other power causes their members to be taken off. Secondly, it can be distinguished by the fact that it is not permanent. For if it is not due to witchcraft, then the loss is not permanent, but it will be restored some time.