User talk:Compact Streamer/sandbox/The Witches (Hans Baldung)

Original Poster Compact_Streamer here. I'm transcribing some passages of the book Devils, Demons, Death and Damnation by Ernst and Johanna Lehner here for everyone to read. I had to borrow this book through my college library, and I thought this would be a good place to make their short interpretations of witches available to everyone. Please note that this book was first published in 1971 and information on witches has most likely been updated and changed in the years since then.

Page 57:

Witches and Warlocks

The true practicing witches of the late Middle Ages, Renaissance and later periods (as distinguished from mentally ill or asocial people accused of witchcraft) were most likely stubborn adherents of pre-Christian pagan religious beliefs in which the deity or deities (for Christians, the Devil and his demons) partook of animal forms. (The Celtic enchanter Merlin is included in this chapter as an example of a pre-Christian figure who remained alive in Christian memories.)

Witches and warlocks (a special term for male witches) were supposed to be able to prophesy, cast spells, raise storms, change shape, and much more. They were aided by certain animal "familiars," often cats and toads. They assembled periodically at sabbaths, where they worshipped Satan. As shown in some of the sixteenth-century German illustrations in this chapter, female witches were not always thought of as withered crones.

Page 63, illustration of The Witches by Hans Baldung Grien, credited on page ix of the List of Illustrations as "89. Baldung Grien: Witches concocting ointment for flying, 63"

The illustration description reads as follows:

89. Witches concocting an ointment to be used for flying to the Sabbath. By Hans Baldung Grien, Strassburg, 1514.

That's all for now. November 8th, 2020. Compact Streamer (talk) 04:26, 9 November 2020 (UTC)Compact_Streamer