Category Archives: Magic and Occult

Witches on Broomsticks

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The earliest known depiction of witches on broomsticks (c. 1440).

The earliest known depiction of witches on broomsticks (c. 1440).

One of the most common ideas about witches is that they fly through the sky on broomsticks – although very few are known to spell out messages like “Surrender Dorothy!” as they do so. Even the students at Hogwarts learn to fly on broomsticks. The assumption is that anyone magical MUST fly around on a broomstick!

But the original reports of witches flying through the air focused more on the ointments they used than on the implements involved. Most often, the ointment was to be rubbed by the witch onto his or her own skin. Sometimes the ointment was to be rubbed on the implement the witch would straddle. These instruments were always the tools used in maintaining a fireplace, so witches would ride pokers and tongs as well as brooms. The flights were also always at night, so the Wicked Witch of the West’s smoke-written message would not have been visible in the night sky.

What was in these magical ointments that made it possible to fly? The ingredients vary from recipe to recipe but always include at least one drug that is now called “hallucinogenic” in addition to several other gruesome ingredients like human fat, so the modern theory is that the ointment caused the witch to experience flying. (If the ointment was applied directly to the skin or was first applied to the fireplace tool and then absorbed through the witch’s skin as he or she straddled the poker or tongs or broom, it would still have the same effect as the witch would typically be nude while straddling the anointed implement.)

The reports of flight would also describe the witches leaving their material bodies in bed or sitting asleep in front of the fireplace as their spiritual bodies rode the brooms and tongs through the sky. This distinction between “earthly” and “astral” bodies was vital to the accusations brought against witches at their trials. During the great witch hunts, none of the accused were thought to practice anything so tawdry as simply jumping onto a broomstick to fly away into the night. It was always the astral body which went flying and the earthly body which remained at home. (It is only in the more recent movies and television shows that witches bring their earthly bodies “along for the ride.”) So the traditional broom-lore and the modern theory of drug-induced hallucinations that would mimic flight mesh rather well.

 

The Golem and the Jinni

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The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker

I was recently at the Midwinter meeting of the ALA and picked upr The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and was very impressed. She first introduces us to the Golem, a woman made of clay and brought to life by Kabbalistic magic, who arrives alone in turn-of-the-century New York City. Then we meet the Jinni, who also arrives alone in Manhattan. We follow parallel storylines that are both complicated yet easy to follow as we discover the “back story” of these two characters even as we follow their adventures in New York. In an amazing series of twists and turns, all the storylines are brought together in the final confrontation of the book.

Ms. Wecker describes the magic in wonderfully understated terms. She also is very creative in filling in the gaps or “unpacking” the legendary origins of golems and jinn, unting her own imagination to traditional lore. The portrait of immigrant New York is also exquisite.

My only difficulty with The Golem and the Jinni was making myself read it slowly enough to appreciate the language and the story when I wanted to rush ahead to see what happens next!

Happy birthday, Pamela Colman Smith!

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Tarot cards with the famous images designed by Pamela Colman Smith.

Tarot cards with the famous images designed by Pamela Colman Smith.

Pamela Colman Smith, c. 1912; she died on September 18, 1951.

Pamela Colman Smith, c. 1912

Pamela Colman Smith, best known for her illustration of the tarot deck that now bears her name [Rider-Waite-Smith] and has become the standard deck nearly all readers begin and learn with and continue to use throughout their reading careers, was born on February 16, 1878. Born in England and raised in New York, she studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She returned to England when her father died in 1899 and continued her work as an illustrator which she had begun in the US. Her work included illustrating works by Bram Stoker and she began designing costumes and stage sets for the theatre company Stoker was affiliated with.

Her friend Yeats introduced her to the Heremetic Order of the Golden Dawn and she joined in 1901. Having met Waite, he commissioned her to produce a tarot deck in 1909. Published by William Rider & Son of London, the deck was the first to depict illustrations for all the cards, Minor Arcana as wellas Major, and has remained the most popular and easily available deck.

The images she designed for the Major Arcana were evidently based on Waite’s detailed instructions but he simply gave her a list of the meanings associated with the Minor Arcana cards and left her to design the images for those herself. Most likely, she drew all the images in pen-and-ink and then used watercolor to complete the work.

Shortly after the publication of the tarot deck, Pamela converted to Roman Catholicism. She died in Cornwall, 18 September 1951 penniless and in debt, evidently having received no royalties from the card images she had produced and for which she had been paid a flat fee.

Illustration for the first edition of Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm in 1911

Illustration for the first edition of Bram Stoker’s Lair of the White Worm in 1911