It is certain that the devils have
a profound knowledge of all things.
No theologian can interpret
the Holy Scriptures better than they can;
no lawyer has a more detailed knowledge
of testaments, contracts, and actions;
no physician or philosopher can better understand
the composition of the human body,
and the virtues of the heavens, the stars, birds and fishes,
trees and herbs, metals and stones.
A LIST OF DEITIES BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN WORSHIPPED BY ACCUSED WITCHES DURING
THE
MIDDLE AGES THROUGH THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD.
Aside from worshipping the Devil, witches were purported
to have abased
themselves to a bevy of other deities. Many of these goddesses, gods, devils,
and demons (the classic horned devil included) were simply familiar deities
of
antiquity, sometimes given different names. Where an old god was deemed
useful
by the Church, it was simply converted into a saint.
The following did not make it into the Christians' good books:
Abonde, Abundia, Aradia, Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Beelzebub,
Belial, Cernunnos,
Diana, Fraw Fenus, Fraw Holt, Fraw Selga, Gulfora, Hecate, Herodias, Holda,
Leonard, Lilith, Mephistopheles, Minerva, Perchta, Put Satanachia, Satan,
Satia,
Venus, Verdelet.
Abonde
Intrinsically linked with the classical goddess Diana,
Abonde also went by the
names Abundia, Perchta, and Satia. Abonde led nocturnal hordes of witches
through homes and cellars, eating and drinking all they could find. If food
and
drink were left as offerings, Abonde would bestow prosperity upon the occupants
of the home. If nothing was left out for her and her followers, she would
deny
the denizens of her blessings and protection.
The Thesaurus pauperum of 1468 condemned "the idolatrous
superstition of those
who left food and drink at night in open view for Abundia and Satia, or,
as the
people said, Fraw Percht and her retinue, hoping thereby to gain abundance
and
riches." The same practice of offering drink, salt, and food to Perchta,
"alias
domine Habundie," on certain days had been taken note of and subsequently
condemned in 1439 by Thomas Ebendorfer von Haselbach in De decem praeceptis.
According to Roman de la Rose, written at the end of
the thirteenth century,
third born children were obligated to travel with Abonde three times a week
to
the homes of neighbors. Nothing could stop these people, as they became
incorporeal in the company of Abonde. Only their souls would travel as their
bodies remained behind immobile. There was a downside to this astral
projection: if the body was turned over while the soul was elsewhere, the
soul
would never return.
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 40-42)
Abundia
See Abonde, Diana, or Perchta.
Aradia
A corruption of Herodias, Aradia was identified with
Diana. Herodias was
directly responsible for the death of John the Baptist. According to C.
G.
Leland, Aradia was worshipped by Italian witches. Aradia is still worshipped
today by some neopagans.
Bibliography. (King 25)
Ashtaroth
Also known as Astaroth, Ashtaroth was usually depicted
as an ugly demon riding a
dragon and carrying a viper in his left hand. He was the Treasurer of Hell,
and
was also the Grand Duke of its western regions. He encouraged sloth and
idleness.
Ashtaroth was one of two demons prayed to in the Black Masses of Catherine
Monvoisin, Madame de Montespan (mistress of Louis XIV), and a 67-year-old
priest
by the name of Guibourg. (The other demon prayed to was Asmodeus.)
In 1678, Nicolas de la Reynie, Louis XIV's Lieutenant-General
of Police,
arrested these people along with 215 priests, sorcerers, and fortune tellers
who
had dabbled in black magic. 110 of these people were tried and sentenced.
Some
were hanged, some were exiled, and some were imprisoned for life. Of Guibourg,
La Reynie said:
A libertine who has traveled a great deal...and is at present attached to
The Church of Saint Marcel. For twenty years he has engaged continually
in
The practice of poison, sacrilege and every evil business. He has cut the
throats and sacrificed uncounted numbers of children on his infernal altar.
He has a mistress...by whom he has had several children, one or two of whom
he has sacrificed.... It is no ordinary man who thinks it a natural thing
to sacrifice infants by slitting their throats and to say Mass upon the
bodies of naked women.
It seems quite likely that Madame de Montespan was one
of the living altars for
Guibourg's masses. In one such mass, "at the moment of the bread and
wine a
child's throat was cut and its blood drained into the chalice. Simultaneously,
a prayer was recited to the demons Ashtaroth and Asmodeus: 'Prince of Love,
I
beseech you to accept the sacrifice of this child...that the love of the
King
may be continued...'"
Shortly before the arrest of Guibourg and his cohorts,
a sorcerous attempt was
made upon the life of Louis XIV. An altered consecrated wine was prepared
to be
slipped into Louis XIV's food. In the wine was dried powdered bats, menstrual
blood, semen, and, "to give consistency," flour.
Bibliography. (Masello 26) Bibliography. (King 110, 111)
Asmodeus
Asmodeus was one of the busiest demons. He was not only
the overseer of all the
gambling houses in the court of Hell, but the general spreader of dissipation.
On top of that, Asmodeus was the demon of lust, personally responsible for
stirring up matrimonial trouble. Maybe it was because he came from the original
dysfunctional family. According to Jewish legend, his mother was a mortal
woman,
Naamah, and his father was one of the fallen angels. (Or, possibly, Adam
before
Eve came along.) Characterized in The Testament of Solomon, the great manual
of
magic, as "furious and shouting," Asmodeus routinely did everything
he could to
keep husbands and wives from having intercourse, while encouraging them
at every
turn to indulge their pent-up drives in adulterous and sinful affairs. When
he
condescended to appear before a mortal, he did so riding a dragon, armed
with a
spear; he had three heads--one a bull's, one a ram's, and one a man's--as
all
three of these were considered lecherous creatures by nature. His feet,
on the
same theory, were those of a cock.
For information on a black mass held for Asmodeus, see
Ashtaroth.
Bibliography. (Masello 26)
Beelzebub
Part of the Christian mythos, Beelzebub was one of the
powerful seraphim first
recruited by Satan. From his new home in Hell, Beelzebub discovered how
to
tempt people with pride. He became associated with flies because he had
sent a
plague of the insects to Canaan. He may also have become known as the "Lord
of
the Flies" because of the popular belief that decaying corpses generated
flies.
Regardless, when summoned by sorcerers or witches, he
would appear in the form
of a fly.
Bibliography. (Masello 25)
Belial
Much has been made of Belial, one of the Devil's most
venerable demons. As the
demon of lies, he was immortalized in Milton's Paradise Lost (Book II):
A fairer person lost not Heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low;
To vice industrious, but to noble deeds
Timorous and slothful.
Before Satan had been the established leader of the forces of evil, Belial
had
been the undisputed regent of darkness. This view is reinforced in The War
of
the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
"But for corruption thou hast made Belial, an angel of hostility. All
his
dominion is in darkness, and his purpose is to bring about wickedness and
guilt."
Magician and necromancer Gilles de Rais attempted to
summon both Belial and
Beelzebub by using the severed body parts of a murdered child.
Bibliography. (Masello 27, 28)
Cernunnos
A Celtic god whose physical attributes came to be applied
to those of Satan.
Known as the Horned God and as Hu Gadarn, Cernunnos was the god of nature,
astral planes, virility, fertility, animals, sex, the underworld, reincarnation,
and shamanism.
Bibliography. (van Hattem)
Diana
The classical moon goddess, Diana, is still worshipped
by neopagans today. Long
after Christianity's triumph over classical paganism, her worship is still
going
strong. St. Kilian, a Celtic missionary to the pagan Franks, was martyred
when
he attempted to persuaded the peasants to abandon their worship of this
goddess.
A writing on the life of St. Caesarius offhandedly mentions "a demon
whom simple
folk call Diana."
Diana was the personification of the positive aspects
of lunar forces. She was
also believed to have led groups of nightriders (known as the "Wild
Hunt" or the
"Furious Horde") who flew through the air. The "Wild Hunt"
was comprised of
"people taken by death before their time, children snatched away at
an early
age, victims of a violent end." The goddess would accompany her followers
as
they wandered at night among the houses of the well-to-do. Whenever they
would
arrive at a home that was particularly well-kept, Diana would bestow her
blessings upon it.
Many benandanti (from the Italian for "those who
go well" or "good-doers") were
followers of Diana. The benandanti were members of a fertility cult who
were
basically anti-witches and practicers of white magic. Nonetheless, they
were
tortured by the Inquisitors just the same as practicers of the black arts
were.
Diana was intrinsically linked with several other witch
deities, including
Abonde, Abundia, Aradia, Hecate, Herodias, Holda, Perchta, Satia, and Venus.
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 40-46) Bibliography. (King 24)
Fraw Fenus
See Venus.
Fraw Holt
See Holda.
Fraw Selga
Fraw Selga is yet another goddess believed to have led
the "Furious Horde." A
Germanic deity, Fraw Selga was said to be the sister of Fraw Fenus (Venus),
and
like Venus and Diana, was referred to as "the mistress of the game."
The
processions following Fraw Selga "were composed of souls in purgatory,
as well
as of the damned who were suffering various punishments."
Fraw Selga could impart wisdom to her followers. She
knew where buried
treasure intended for the God-fearing could be found.
During Fraw Selga's conventicles (which took place during
the Ember Days),
followers would partake in scrying. They stared into a basin "in which
the
fires of hell appeared," and they saw "likenesses of the members
of the parish
who were destined to die within the year."
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 51)
Gulfora
Gulfora, also known as the Queen of the Sabbat, was
another goddess in the same
vein as Holda, Perchta, and Diana. She led the Wild Hunt, which is also
known
as "the days of Jupiter."
In 1519, Girolamo Folengo wrote Maccaronea, which says,
Not only do old hags bestride cats and goats and pigs, but many
dignitaries too, and civic officials and those who administer justice
to the people in the august senate range themselves to be governed
under Gulfora's sway. They observe the days of Jupiter; they anoint
their limbs, hurrying to pay court to the Mistress, who is called
Gulfora.
Bibliography. (Wedeck 126)
Hecate
Perhaps the most notorious of all witch goddesses, Hecate
was a dark
manifestation of Diana. Hecate is the patron goddess of witches and sorceresses
because of her skill in the arts of black magic. She is the queen of darkness,
perverse sexuality, and death. Classically, she is the goddess of "roads
in
general and crossroads in particular, the latter being considered the center
of
ghostly activities, particularly in the dead of night. . . . Offerings of
food
(known as Hecate's suppers) were left to placate her, for she was terrible
both
in her powers and in her person--a veritable Fury, armed with a scourge
and
blazing torch and accompanied by terrifying hounds."
The followers of Hecate were rumored to have strange
powers, such as that of
being able to draw down the moon in order to employ the averse aspects of
lunar
forces. Followers could metamorphose into animals and birds, had insatiable
sexual appetites, and had an intrinsic understanding of aphrodisiac and
poisonous herbs. Witches in the service of Hecate had intense scatological
interests, and in one classical account, were known to have "pissed
long and
vigorously" on the face of a man they captured. Indeed, one of the
epithets of
Hecate was "excrement-eating."
According to Apuleius, (a classical author who once
stood trial himself on
charges of black magic), witches' dens contained many questionable materials:
incenses, the skulls of criminals who had been thrown to wild animals, metal
discs engraved with occult signs, small vials of blood taken from the murdered
victims of the witches, the beaks and claws of birds of ill omen, and various
bits of human flesh, particularly the noses of crucifixion victims.
Bibliography. (Morford & Lenardon 182) Bibliography. (King 16,
17)
Herodias
See Aradia or Diana.
Holda
Also known as Fraw Holt, Holda became virtually synonymous
with Abonde, Diana,
and Perchta. Originally, Holda had been a Germanic goddess of vegetation
and
fertility, much like Perchta. Holda was also the goddess of spinning and
weaving.
She, like her other manifestations, was the leader of
the "Furious Horde" or
"Wild Hunt" (Wütischend Heer, Wilde Jagd, Mesnie Sauvage)--"namely
of the
ranks of those who had died prematurely and passed through village streets
at
night, unrelenting and terrible, while the inhabitants barricaded their
doors
for protection."
Holda had two forms, that of a beautiful girl dressed
all in white, and that of
a hideous crone with fangs, a hooked nose, and long, tangled gray hair.
In the
latter form, she looked just like the stereotypical image of a witch or
the evil
stepmother of fairy tales. As the White Lady, she was a fertility goddess
who
granted prosperity to home, family, and field. As the Hag, she offered those
who ignored or insulted her death, illness, and misfortune. In this form,
she
was responsible for fog and snow.
Many animals were sacred to Holda: birds of prey, bears,
horses, goats, wolves,
pigs, and hounds. Along with her sometimes partner the Wood Man, she was
the
guardian of wild animals.
Holda may be part of the origin of the Santa Clause
mythos as well. She treated
children ambivalently.
If they behaved themselves during the year then at Christmas she
rewarded them with gifts and good luck. If they had been naughty they
would be severely punished. Sometimes Holda was used as a bogey
figure and mothers threatened their children that if they did not
behave then she would come and take them off to the woods and teach
them good manners. Holda allegedly kept the children in a well,
endowing the good ones with abundant luck, health and wealth, and
turning the bad ones into Faerie changelings.
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 40) Bibliography. (Hilton)
Leonard
Although he had a rather unlikely name for a demon,
Leonard was a kind of
quality control expert for black magic and sorcery. He was also the master
of
sabbats, presiding over them in the form of an enormous three-horned black
goat
with the head of a fox.
Bibliography. (Masello 43)
Lilith
Lilith is a kabalistic demon who appealed more to magicians
than to witches.
According to legend, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, and the first social
feminist. Made from filth before the creation of Eve, Lilith believed herself
to be Adam's equal and objected to "missionary style" sex. She
believed that
sexual relations should take place with the two of them lying side by side.
Adam
objected to this, so Lilith left him to mate with fallen angels.
Together with the fallen angels, Lilith parented a huge
family of female demons
called lilim. Lilim are identical to succubi for all intents and purposes.
Both
seduce men and take away men's strength in the night hours.
Bibliography. (King 95)
Mephistopheles
The name Mephistopheles comes from the Greek for "he
who does not like light."
Mephistopheles is perhaps most famous for being the demon summoned by Faust.
Faust had summoned Mephistopheles to teach him great knowledge and to grant
him
immense power.
Mephistopheles fulfilled all of Faust's desires. Nevertheless,
at the end of
the twenty-four year contract, it was Faust's turn to please Mephistopheles.
All
that was left of Faust at the end of the contract was his torn and bloodied
corpse. The soul had been consigned to Mephistopheles in Hell.
Bibliography. (Marlowe)
Minerva
Minerva (known by the Greeks as Athena) is yet another
goddess thought to have
led the Wild Hunt. Like Holda, Minerva was traditionally thought of as the
goddess of weaving, spinning, and of women's household arts in general.
Perchta
Perchta or Percht was yet another manifestation of Diana
and was synonymous with
Abonde as the leader of the host of the dead. Perchta was originally a southern
German goddess of vegetation and fertility. She had many different names
(and
changed her sex) depending on the geographical region. In "southern
Austria, in
Carintia, among the Slovenes, 'Quantembermann' (the man of the four Ember
Days)
or 'Kwaternik'; in Baden, in Swabia, in Switzerland, and with the Slovenes
again, 'Frau Faste' (the lady of the Ember Days) or similar names such as
'Posterli,' 'Quatemberca,'" and 'Fronfastenweiber.'
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 189, 190)
Put Satanachia
Put Satanachia was the commander-in-chief of Satan's
army of darkness. Aside
from having profound power over mothers, Put Satanichia had an immense knowledge
of the planets. He also provided witches with their animal familiars.
Bibliography. (Masello 40)
Satan
Satan, of course, was the deity of choice during the
witchcraze. Witches'
sabbats, also known as "Synagogues of Satan," were held in dedication
to him.
Physical adoration and submission to the Devil were necessary parts of every
sabbat. Satan most often appeared at these sabbats in the form of a black
billy
goat or tom cat and would copulate with almost everyone present.
This copulation was unappealing as the Devil's genitals
are not only unbearably
huge, but also hard and scaly, with the semen being as cold as ice. Sometimes
Satan was represented as having a two-pronged member, a characterization
that
would certainly have stimulated the prurient imaginations of repressed
Inquisitors.
Sabbats were basically prayer meetings for Satan. At
these congregations, the
Devil would baptize new initiates with a smelly fluid which had, as a main
ingredient, urine. He would also issue forth black sacramental bread (probably
dung) and fouled water. At the Sabbat, witches would offer the osculum infame
(the infamous kiss) by kissing Satan's anus.
Another integral part of Satan worship was the trampling
on of the cross and the
desecration of the Holy Host. Many witches purportedly retained the wafer
in
their mouths after Mass and would spit them on the ground in honor of the
Devil.
Satia
See Abonde or Diana.
Venus
Venus was originally the Roman goddess of love, but
by the time of the
witchcraze she was relegated to demon status. She became synonymous with
Diana
in terms of being followed at night by a retinue of women. Witches knew
her as
Fraw Fenus, stating they visited her at night-time.
Venus could grant to these witches the power of astral
projection. Witches
could fall into "swoons which rendered them insensible to pricks or
scaldings."
When the women revived, they said they had been to heaven and "spoke
of stolen
or hidden objects."
Bibliography. (Ginzburg 43, 44)
Verdelet
"Verdelet was something of a cross between a maitre
d' and a transportation
coordinator. He was master of ceremonies in Hell, and also shouldered the
responsibility of making sure witches on Earth got to their sabbats safely
and
on time.
Bibliography. (Masello 44)