What Becomes a Legend Most?

I am currently revising the entry I wanted to post after I cam across an article I wanted to include in it. So please excuse the interruption in transmission and enjoy Rasputina's "The Olde Headboard" (Weathered Remix).

The Witch Bottle

The "witch bottle" is one in a variety of container spells whose origins begin roughly in sixteenth century England and was eventually transplanted into early colonial America. Overall the purpose of the device was to trap evil directed towards its owner; this was done by thwarting magical attacks through torment. Fashioned from either glass or earthenware jars they would contain a series of unpleasant items: pins, nails, &c. Commonly found within excavated witch bottles the device would also contain a felt scrap, which usually taking the shape of heart with a series of pins stuck into the material. The whole lot would be added to the bottle or jar and topped off with urine (sometimes hair depending) of its owner.

Common examples of a witch bottle were those that were created from either Greybeards or the so-called Bellarmine jugs; the latter an earthenware container German in origin. It would come to be produced throughout Europe; allegedly named after Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. As a major export of Germany since the medieval period and well into the early modern period the Bellarmine jug was exported to Eastern Europe, Britain, as well as North America. More accurately called the Bartmann jug (Bartmann Gr. "bearded man") they are identifiable by the grimacing face of a bearded man as well as their peculiar shape. An archeological in discovery in 2009 unearthed the remains of an American witch bottle in Essington, Pennsylvania, which contained six pins; additionally buried with it a potsherd and a fragment of bird bone. In an article in Archeology (2009), Marshall Becker posits that the bearded face "resembling the face of a warlock, one probable reason for their use as witch bottles." However, more plausible is the fact they were an easily obtainable item. Whatever the case may be the Bellarmine or Bartmann jugs are exemplar of the housing structure that constitutes a witch bottle; both term are accurate, however, the reason as to why two names no one is completely sure. One possibility is that Bellarmine jars were a sort of ridicule; Bellarmine being opposed to Protestant England and Germany as well as his opposition to alcohol, which the jars usually held.

Historically how the device works is based on the understand that the afflicted party's urine is in someway connected to whoever initiated the attack. With the inclusion of pins and the like it provides torment for the tormentor, sympathetically speaking. This is seen elsewhere in other charms such as the "witch cake". Most notably utilized during the Salem Witch Trails this charm according to lore would reveal witch as well as to cure an afflicted person. A cake was prepared with the urine of one alleged to have been bewitched and fed to a dog. The witch (unknown) would suffer as the urine of the bewitched contained part of whatever the witch had sent, "The Salem justice, at least some of them, do assert, that the cure of the afflicted persons is a natural effect...instructed in Cartesian philosophy and in the doctrine of effluvia...the venomous and malignant particle, that were ejected from the eyes, do, by this means, return to the body whence they came, and so leave the afflicted person pure and whole" (Hill, 87).

Modern witch bottle have the tendency to be kinder than their predecessors containing herbs, sometimes pins, and at times omitting urine; rendering it more of a warding charm than one that is tailor to counteract witchcraft (I prefer the former as oppose to the latter). Deployment of such charms are historically hid on the property, usually the farthest corner of the home, or beneath the hearth, or in an inconspicuous spot in the home. Of course many charm especially those that are English in origins have turned up hidden within the walls of the home or even bricked into the chimney.

This was originally a discussion post that I have edited and expanded on.

Damsel's Plight

Saint Agnes (of Rome) is a virgin martyr who is venerated in most ecclesiastical bodies; a patron of chastity, virgins, and girls. Executed during the tenth persecution of the Emperor Diocletian (304 C.E. or 306 C.E.) she is alleged to have born in Rome to practicing Christians. Though living only a brief life she has gained rather large recognition by way of legend; described as possessing a far surpassing beauty, which drew the affection of the son of the Roman prefect Sempronius. Having devoted herself to service of God, the unrequited suitor when to far as to denounced her as a Christian; Roman law at this time did not permit the execution of virgins thus Agnes was to suffer torture. In an 1849 edition of the Journal of British Archaeological Association, H. Syer Cuming, esq., V.P., and F.S.A. Scot account for the little saint's tribulation:

When her virginity was assailed in the public Bordellos, to which she was condemned, she was miraculously preserved by lightening and thunder from Heaven. When stripped by her persecutors, the angels immediately veiled her who person with her flowing hair [some accounts suggest a mantel]…the next act of her cruel foes was to light a huge pile of faggots, into the midst of which they cast the hapless child; but no sooner was this done than the flames were extinguished (Cuming, P., & Scott, 1849: 268).

All acts that would kill any other, Agnes was at last beheaded at Rome, where a church marks the event. Though veneration of Saint Agnes was uncommon in Germany Naogeorgus recounts of Roman celebratory rites held during the feast of Saint Agnes; he describes as the offering of two white lambs, which were kept by the priest until Holy Thursday, then sheared. The wool was then used to produce palls (known as pallium, which is an ecclesiastical woolen cloak), which were then given to the archbishops. An obscure ritual indeed, yet the lamb is come to be an emblem of Saint Agnes, possibly due to the lore that surrounds Agnes and her parents after her death; eight days after her parents took to visiting her tomb, where they would mourn. Agnes appeared to them in a company of angels with a white lamb at her side. She bade them to no longer grieve for she was united with her savior. Some might attribute her very name, however, this is false etymology. The Latin word agnus meaning "lamb" does appear to be similar to "Agnes" yet the name actually derives from the Greek hagnē (ἁγνή) meaning "chaste".

Saint Agnes has a great popularity in England, however, as it would appear in a very closet capacity, take for instance that “in Cambridgeshire there is a village of Papworth St. Agnes; but its church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.” Agnes’ appeal appears because of association with divining, "it was that pining lovers sought he maiden's aid in solving their doubts, and lulling ehir fears by resorting to strange divination" (Cuming, P., & Scott, 1849: 271). In Faiths and Folklore by William Carew and John Brand (1905) points to a passage in the "Portiforium ad usum Sarum" that declares she was so well versed in magic, she was said to be the spouse of Christ (p. 2). Many texts will make mention a fast called "Fasting Saint Agnes' Fast" which among one of the best documented rituals attributed to the saint:

The proper rite was to take a row of pins, and pull one out after another, saying a Pater Noster, and sticking one pin the in sleeve. Then going to rest, without food, their dreams were expected to present the images of their future husbands (Encyclopedia of Superstitions, p. 1499).

To accompany this little ritual are a variety of lovely incantations to see the Saint's divine assistance, Ben Johnson writes:

And on sweet St. Agnes' night

Please you with the promis'd sight,

Some of husbands, some of lover,

Which an empty dream discovers.

Another such ritual published Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, by George Laurence Gomme (1885) prescribes that for one to divine they must avoid being kissed during the day and when going to bed, which has been dressed in clean linen lay straight as possible with hands place beneath the head repeat this:

Now, good St. Agnes, play thy part,

And send to me my own sweetheart,

And shew me such a happy bliss,

This night of him to have a kiss.

Of course fall to sleep as soon as possible and upon awaking from your first dream you will see him. Keats most gracefully spoke of these practices performed upon the night of before the feast day in his poem entitled "The Eve of Saint Agnes". One could go on with the abundance evidence of this species of divination. The day that commemorates the martyrdom of Saint Agnes is the twenty first of January (and prior to 1962 a feast day commemorating her birth on the twenty eighth).

Mourning: A Lost Art

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

- Benjamin Franklin

I had the fortune of finding this amazing website The Art of Mourning by Australian jewelery historian and graphic designer Hayden Peters. Just full of useful information about the lost art of mourning; death is never easy and for the longest time (especially during the reign of Queen Victoria, who took mourning to the extreme...to say the least) series of customs were in place. They were initiated to express the loss for a loved one as well as memorialize them...to show that they were (or are) loved.

Peters' website is charmingly period and has multiple examples of memento mori, so have a look I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

He-Goat

I found this marvelous image on tumblr last year and saved a copy of it, but come months later I cannot find the original blog where it was posted. To make matters worse I cannot make out the artist's signature in the lower righthand corner; if anyone knows who created this image I would love to know! I remember they did a series of these.

The Artful Thorn: Rosaleen Norton

Rosaleen Norton or the infamous “Witch of Kings Cross” a title bestowed by the popular press was a witch and artist affectionately called “Roie” by her friends; rather unique for her time. The youngest of three daughters, Rosaleen a native of New Zeland was born into a staunch Anglican family who later emigrated to Australia in 1925. Unconventional from the get go Norton would come to oppose authority figures as well as her peers resulting in her spending a bulk of her childhood to herself; keeping a variety of unusual pets such as spiders, cats, lizards, and toads. Norton’s early years began at Church of England Girl’s School, however, would not progress very far and eventually suffer expulsion for creating a series of “disturbing” images of demons, vampires, and the like. In 1953 Norton wrote a series of autobiographical pieces for the Austrialian Post on herself attempting to articulate her philosophy, witchcraft, and life:

To begin with I am what a psychologist of my acquaintance defines as a ‘Psychic Invert’. Which means a person whose basic psychology naturally functions on opposite lines to those considered normal.

In 1934 at the age of sixteen she would become a professional writer publishing a series of horror stories for Smith’s Weekly, yet Norton’s controversial illustrations would lead to her dismissal. She would take on a variety of menial jobs as a mean of supporting herself among them: waitress, kitchen maid, and toy designer. All the while educating herself on topics of esotericism, demonology, and comparative religion. In the 1950s she sought work again as an illustrator for Pertinent a publication edited by poet Leon Batt, who became an admirer or Norton’s body of work. Traveling cross-country from Sydney to Melbourne and back again Norton took up with Gavin Greenless in Sydney’s Kings Cross a well known red light district, whose inhabitants ranged from artists to writers and poets.

Rosaleen's style of witchcraft was one of her own making known as "The Goat Fold", which included among other things sex magic as described in the works of Crowley, pantheism, and veneration of Pan. According to Nevill Drury, "Norton's esoteric beliefs, cosmology, and visionary art are closely intertwined." Inspired by dark aspect of things and emphasizing that darkness in her work; compared with other contemporaries such as Austin Osman Spare and Norman Lindsay. However, Norton's work has a life of its own. The image left, Fohat is one of Norton's most controversial images in her corpus of work. A horned entity holding aloft a swirling swastika-like sun wheel with a crowned serpent phallus. Norton in describing this piece says that, "The goat is the symbol of energy and creativity: the serpent of elemental force and eternity." In terms of occult symbolism the goat headed figure known as Baphomet represents not the Devil but the aspirant who has achieved union with the contrary forces of the universe. Interestingly enough the word "Fohat" is Tibetan in origin; in The Theosophical Movement (1964) it is described as, "[A] term for the energic or motion aspect of the Supreme Spirit."

The the very core Norton's work is surreal, yet her incredible talent to render the physical form rather realistically. We the audience are divorced from this "realism" by the fantastical settings with other than totally human forms. In the case of Fohat (as her other work) is exudes this otherwordliness that is dark. Logically it would seem that we are worlds apart from Norton's magical realm. Yet in the expression of the goat god...his eyes that seem to say we are no so distant.