“The word hag is now used commonly to mean an ugly old woman, but in medieval times it meant a witch. It derives from the same etymological root as the ‘hedge’. This derivation implies that here was a woman who gathered plants and other material from the hedgerow and used them for her nefarious purposes. Take, for example, the broomsticks. They had both occult and erotic powers. The ash handle protected her from drowning and the birch twigs (of the brush) bind evil spirits together. The birch twigs were held together by strips of willow (osier) as this latter tree was sacred to the goddess Hecate, the archetypal witch. This goddess was also thought to ‘own’ certain plants such as henbane, belladonna, aconite,mandrake, cyclamen and mint.”
- M.R. Lee, Solanaceae III: Henbane, Hags and Hawley Harvey Crippen.

“It is, however, difficult to account for the whole fairy-creed by any single theory, for like the spirits with which it was concerned, it was always shifting, nebulous, and many-coloured. It seems to ave evolved from a medley of ancient beliefs in nature-spirits, ghosts, and half-forgotten heathen deities, and confused traditions of vanished Neolithic peoples and their ways of life.

[…]

Many stories show that fairies were often confused with ghosts, some of whose characteristics they shared. They haunted barrows and other ancient burial places. In their underground kingdom time ran strangely, as it did in the land of the dead, so that those who stayed there a day or two, as they thought, sometimes found on their return home that many years had elapsed in the upper world. Some who strayed into that enchanted country returned with their vitality mysteriously drained from them, became silent, morose, and melancholy, and did not live long after. The known dead were occasionally seen in the fairy host. Bessie Dunlop saw the Laird of Achinskeith riding with them, though he had died nine years before, and her own friend among them told her he had been killed at the Battle of Pinkie. Robert Kirk himself, after writing so learnedly about them, was said to have passed in the end to the fairy hill at Aberfoyle, and not to the grave...”
- Elizabeth Hole, A Mirror of Witchcraft(Chapter Four, “The Fairies and the Dead.” P. 75 – 76.)

***
Over a decade ago, I took one of my initial trips into my former home town of Fresno, California with Hermes. I've written about my experiences during the first trip before. But as far as I know, I've never talked about the second experience that occurred that year. It was the winter solstice, and I invoked the deity before exiting my house and then did as I had been instructed on the first occasion.

The fog had rolled in; there was no sky to be seen. A gray length of impenetrable clouds stretched across the sky, even as the white mist rose up across the streets. I startling the sensations of trance were on that day. I was clearly out of it, and I knew it.

As I ventured down the street with my unseen companion, I began to notice something strange. Around me figures were emerging from the mist. They didn't seem to move “normally,” which is to say that as they walked their bodies seemed to stretch or elongate. They were dressed normally, and seemed to take no notice of me. They just “walked sideways,” which is the closest I can come to describing what I saw. It wasn't so much they they weren't moving along the sidewalks or through the street as the average citizen of the city might. It was more that the visual image of their bodies elongating or stretching as they did made them appearas if they were walking sideways.

“Why are those people moving so strangely?” I asked my unseen companion – although I'm not sure whether or not I spoke the words aloud.

The response was almost instantaneous. “They are the dead.”

“They don't seem to notice me,” I noted.

“They won't notice you while you are with me,” the deity seemed to reply. It is rather amusing to note that this comment was lost on me for many, many years.

Above the moving figures hung street lights, which seemed to create incandescent globes of white and yellow above the forms.

“Come along,” I was told, “I want to show you something...”

And that was the occasion that I was taken to me first 'crossroads,' of sort. An underground tunnel that stretched out beneath a street running above it. It was there that I got all kinds of crazy with predictable results, and conducted some of my first thaumaturgical rituals. And it was a great placeto practice.

But I've never forgotten the strange forms shifting in and out of the mist. How they walked, and how, above all else... They didn't seem to be aware that they were ghosts. The first time sticks with you, even years later. The slight terror of realizing that you're not completely alone – ever – in a city.

***

“I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame,
Of earthly, wat'ry, and celestial frame,
Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array'd,
Leas'd with dark ghosts that wander thro' the shade;**
Persian, unconquerable huntress hail!
The world's key-bearer never doom'd to fail;
On the rough rock to wander thee delights,
Leader and nurse be present to our rites
Propitious grant our just desires success,
Accept our homage, and the incense bless.”
- Orphic Hymn to Hekate. (Taylor translation.*)

***
There is this long-running joke that the West forgot its dead, and furthermore, completely forgot how to interact with them. This is counter-acted in a number of ways; first, we have rituals in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1665 CE) that detail how to interact with the Restless Dead. Specifically, the Fairy Sibylla or Experiment of the Dead ritual relies upon a spirit of that category:
“First, go to one that is new buried, such a one as killed himselfe or destroied himselfe wilfullie: or else get thee promise of one that shalbe hanged, and let him sweare an oth to thee, after his bodie is dead, that his spirit shall come to thee, and doo thee true service, at thy commandements, in all dales, houres, and minuts.”

The second ritual is entitled How to Raise up the Ghost of one that hath hanged himself.It is as interesting as the first; the magician or witch even references Hekate during the process, which is explicitly Goetic in the original sense of the word. This process is done so that one will have revealed “why it strangled it self; where its dwelling is; what its food and life is; how long it will be ere it enter into rest, and by what means the Magitian may assist it to come to rest: Also, of the treasures of this world, where they are hid: Moreover, it can answer very punctually of the places where Ghosts reside, and how to communicate with them; teaching the nature of Astral Spirits and hellish beings, so far as its capacity reacheth.”

Finally, on seeks to discover “the cause of thy Calamity, why thou didst offer violence to thy own liege life, where thou art now in beeing, and where thou wilt hereafter be.” At the conclusion of the ritual, the magician or witch is to “out of commiseration and reverence to the deceased, to use what means can possibly be used for the procuring rest unto the spirit.”

Both of these rituals have a specifically Goetic pretext; they involve working with a spirit – possibly even an inimical one – in a context of mutual alliance, followed by the magician seeking to put the spirit at rest. (The ghost sought out at the beginning of the Fairy Sibylla ritual is to be aided in much the same way as the Hanged Ghost in the second ritual.)

***

The issue of whether or not necromancy survived in the West becomes trickier as we come forward in time, too. In 1848 two sisters in New York caused quite a sensation; in fact, it progressed to the status of an international phenomenon in due time. It was the same year that Paschal Beverly Randolph – who would for a time count himself as a member of the Spiritualist movement and whose work includes quite a few references to working with the dead – arrived in New York. I am, of course, referring to the Fox sisters (Kate and Margaret) of New York. They claimed that they were communicating to spirits through the medium of 'rapping' (knocking) with the spirits. One of the sisters later admitted to trickery, but as news of their ability to convince the spirits to knock in answer to them spread, it gained momentum.

A number of different schools of Spiritualism began to make headway, almost all of which claimed to work with the dead. Today we regard Spiritualism with contempt, and occultists generally do their best to avoid referencing it. However French Spiritualism – which rephrased itself as Spiritism– continues without the blatant charlatanry that European Spiritualism degraded into in South America and the Caribbean to this day. Alan Kardec has a stamp, for example, in Brazil bearing his visage.

Kardec's work follows a fairly typical outlook with regards to how the Spiritists viewed spirits themselves. In fact, many of their outlooks were directly inspired by working with the spirits and asking – much like the magician or witch in Reginald Scot's texts – them questions about their world. In fact, in several places the Medium's Bookhas sections where Kardec notes that deceptive spirits are a problem. He also, however, comments on mannerisms and differences between types of spirits. In the Medium's Bookall spirits are regarded as spirits of the dead.****

“Pure Spirits” are ghosts who have achieved awareness of God and the Higher Realms, and lived their lives as befits a good being and with the outlook to get to a “better place”. They are analogous, in Kardec's Spiritism to Angels.

“Lesser Spirits” or “Lower Spirits” are those who are still entrapped by the habits of the flesh. They still want to lie, cheat, and steal – God and his purity be damned! They are very close to the idea of the “Crew That Never Rests,” or the cavalcade of riotous and problematic spirits who seek to drag man closer to their state of affairs. That is if they have any agenda at all, which is assuming something that may not exist.

When asked about whether or not “demons exist,” the spirits being consulted in Kardec's Spirit's Bookrespond in a way that would make any Goeshappy:

“It is only in its modern acceptation that the word demon implies the idea of evil spirits, for the Greek word daimôn from which it is derived, signifies genius, intelligence, and is applied indiscriminately to all incorporeal beings, whether good or bad.”

The spirit answering the medium in the book goes on to note that since God is good, the idea of demons is antithetical to the awesomeness of God – who does not create evil, nor demons or devils. This does not mean that there aren't “bad spirits” from the view of the Spiritists and the spirits they worked with, but that they have made a conscious decision to act as such.

Nonetheless, this is spirit work in a very classical sense despite the Christian accretions that have occurred. The mediums – when they weren't pursuing fraudulent practices for personal gain – are working directly with spirits, and Kardec himself notes that calling up spirits requires the use of evocation. This aspect is especially tantalizing, given that it is coming out of French spiritist circles and the way that French occultism informs the system developed by Paschal Beverly Randolph.

As an aside, Randolph uses a categorization similar to those still used today in Afro-Caribbean and hoodoo circles. In The Unveiling: Or My Thoughts on Spiritualism(the copy I have was scanned from an 1860 edition) Randolph writes that:

“Approach mediums, and in two minutes you can tell whether they be under the influence of good or evil spirits. Sit by them and touch the hand: if you feel an unusual coolness, a blandness of sphere, gentle, wakeful sensation, the indications are good. If on the contrary, you feel a positive glow, an unusual warmth, a soft, seductive, somnolent influence, a tendency to sadness, to love, to endearment, then look out – and run out, for the evil is at work; you must fly, else the morbid gas or effluvium will pervade and taint you, you will carry the poison to others, and so the pestilence will spread.” (P. 49)

Here he is distinguishing between the “cool” or “cold” and “hot” or “warm” spirits! And despite the melodrama – which is quite missing in his later and more calm works – his treatment of these two types is very telling. “Cool spirits” tend to be less potentially hostile, take longer to work with, and are less likely to do something crazy. “Hot spirits” – which is to say fiery spirits – sit on the other end of the pole entirely, and may well burn your fingers. Because where there is warmth, there is a fire of sorts. And as we all know, fire can get out of hand.

These warnings do not recur in Sexual Magic (Magia Sexualis, written in France and not published in the US), although there are hints of them in Seership! (1870). It appears that Randolph had switched from making warnings about the spirits themselves, and begun simply teaching methods for dealing with them. Volantia, Descretism, and his Tirauclairism all must be practiced before the magic mirror is created and anything is conjured. Volantiaestablishes the link between the will and the “force of the thunderbolt,” Descretismallows for one to give unavoidable commands to spirits (it is preferable that the individual also have the backing of an Authority, however), and Tirauclairismis his term for evocation. Taken together, they constitute a means for dealing with potential problems and gaining spiritual allies without the sheer danger that certain schools of Spiritualism failed to account for in Europe.

Tirauclairism also is a means, he explicitly states, for one to interact with the dead:

VIII. “A Pretty Boy in Green Clothes.”
Pittcairn: Jonet Watson's Confession,1661 CE.

Jonet Watson confessed that in April last bypast, or thereby, she being at the burial of Lady Dalhousie, there was a six-dollar given to Jean Bughane, to be parted among a certain number of poor folks, whereof she was one. And the said Jean Bughane did run away with the said money, so that she got no part of it. And she come home to her own house, being very grieved and angry at it, wished to have amends of Jean Bughane. Upon which the Devil appeared to her, in the likeness of a pretty boy in green clothes; and asked 'What ailed her? And what amends she would have, he should give her.' And at that time the Devil gave her his marks; and went away from her in the likeness of a black dog: – And constantly, for three days thereafter, there was a great bee come to her; and upon one morning, when she was changing her shirt, it did sit down upon her shoulder (she being naked) where she had one of the marks.

As also, about the time of the last Bale-fire night, she was at a meeting in Newtown-dean with the Devil, who had green clothes upon him, and a black hat upon his head; where she denied Christ and took herself to be a servant of the devil. Wherefore she acknowledged that she was from her heart sorrowful for the doing of it. And likewise, he gave her a new name, and called her 'Well-dancing Jenot' – and promised her money at the next meeting...
- Chapter II: “Coven and Sabbat” P. 48 – 49.

VI. “The Silver Bullet”
Heanley

It was some years before the cattle plague in the garthman... came to me one morning 'in a great doment', as we say in Marshland: 'Master Robert, hast thee a crookled sixpence?' … and he took me to the pump, which stood just outside the cowshed, in which about half-a-dozen milch cows were stalled and showed me a straw or two, apparently twisted around the handle by the action of the wind. 'Thear,' said he, 'I've fund 'er oot; yon's a witch straw, an' along of t' pump hannel shea's milking aal oor cows; but I'll put a stopper on 'er ef thou'll len' mea yon crookled sixpence. I see 'er run thruff y' yard las' noight as a black bitch, an' shea canna' stan' silver.' So I produced the coin, and he had his shot at the black bitch, and now comes the pathos of the tale. That very night a dear old woman, wife of our own gardener, in getting upon a stool to reach some crockery from a high shelf, fell and broke her leg. But the garthman and many another held to their last breath that they had 'fund t' witch'.
- Chapter III: “Shape-shifting and Familiar Spirits.” P. 62 – 63.

I. “The Healing Powder.”
Webster

It happened in my time, and I was both eye and ear witness of the trial of the person accused. And the first hint of it from the pen of Durant Hotham, in his learned Epistle to the Mysterium Magnum of Jacob Behemen upon Genesis in these words: 'There was (he saith) as I have heard the story credibly reported in this Country a man apprehended for suspicion for witchcraft; he was of that sort we call white Witches*, which are such as do cures beyond the ordinary reasons and deductions of our usual practitioners, and are supposed (and most part of them truly) to do the same by the ministration of spirits (from when under their noble favours most Sciences grew), and therefore are by good reason provided against by our Civil Laws, as being ways full of danger and deceit, and scarce ever otherwise obtained than by a devilish compact of the exchange of one's Soul to that assistant spirit for the honour of its Mountebackery. What this man did was with a white powder which, he said, he received from the Fairies, and that going to a Hill, he knocked three times, and the Hill opened, and he had access to, and converse with a visible people: and offered, that if any Gentleman present would either go himself in person or send his servant, he would conduct them thither, and show them the place and persons from whom he had his skill.' To this I shall only add thus much, that the man accused for invoking and calling upon evil spirits, and was a very simple and illiterate person to any man's judgment, and had been formerly very poor, but had gotten some pretty little means to maintain himself, his Wife, and diverse small children, by his cures done with this white powder, of which there were sufficient proofs; and the Judge asking him how he came by the powder, he told a story to this effect:

That one night before the day was gone, as he was going home from his labour, being very sad and full of heavy thoughts, not knowing how to get meat and drink for his Wife and Children, he met a fair Woman in fine clothes, who asked him why he was so sad, and he told her it was by reason of his poverty, to which she said, that if he would follow her counsel she would help him to that which would serve him to get a good living; to which he said he would consent with all his heart, so that it were not by unlawful ways; she told him that it should not be by any such ways, but doing of good and curing of sick people; and so warning him strictly to meet her there the next night at the same time, she departed from him, and he went home. And the next night at the same time appointed he duly waited, and she (according to promise) came and told him that it was well he came so duly, otherwise he had missed of that benefit that she intended to do unto him, and so bade him follow her and not be afraid. Thereupon she led him to a little Hill and she knocked three times, and the hill opened, and they went in, and came to a fair hall, wherein was a Queen sitting in a great state, and many people about her, and the Gentlewoman that brought him presented him to the Queen, and she said he was welcome, and bid the Gentlewoman give him some of the white powder, and teach him how to use it; which she did, and gave him a little wood box full of the white powder, and bad him give 2 or 3 grains f it to any that were sick, and it would heal them, and so she brought him forth of the Hill, and so they parted. And being asked by the Judge whether the place within the Hill, which he called a Hall, were light or dark, he said indifferent, as it is with us in the twilight; and being asked how he got more powder, he said when he wanted he went to that Hill, and knocked three times, and said every time I am coming, I am coming, whereupon it opened, and he going in was conducted to by the aforesaid Woman to the Queen, and so had more powder given him. This was the plaint and simple story (however it may be judged of) that he told before the Judge, the whole Court and Jury, and there being no proof, but what cures he had done to very man, the Jury did acquit him; and I remember the Judge said, when all the evidence was heard, that if he were to assign his punishment, he should be whipped thence to the Fairy-hall, and did seem to judge it to be a delusion or Imposture.
- Chapter IV: “The Fairies and the Dead” P. 77 – 79.

“Although the familiar is most notoriously associated with offering the witch powers to do harm and revenge herself on her enemies and so on, trial confessions attest that generally the first and most frequent offer made by the familiar was the promise of help to ease the witch's material suffering, a service also offered by the fairies. Although both familiar and fairy could promise great wealth, they more frequently promised something rather less grand. In te majority of cases, particularly in Scotland, the devil offered what was often termed “freedom from want” which in many cases amounted to helping the witch earn a basic living.”

Incidentally, when dealing with certain spirits the pattern of three knocks or three utterances has been a repeated motif in my dealings. I relate this to the triplicity of Hekate, but... I strongly suspect it has another meaning I've yet to figure out.]

VI. “Three Persons Upon Three Broom-Staves.”
Glanvil

Another Evidence was the Confession of Julian Cox herself, upon her Examination before a Justice of the Peace, which was to this purpose: That she had been often tempted by the Devil to be a Witch, but never consented. That one Evening she walk'd out about a Mile from her own House, and there came riding towards her three Persons upon three Broom-staves, born up about a Yard and a half from the ground: two of them she formerly knew, which was a Witch and a Wizard that were hang'd for Witchcraft several years before. The third Person she knew not; he came in the shape of a black Man, and tempted her to give him her Soul, or to that effect, to express it by pricking her Finger, and giving her Name in her Blood in token of it... but she said she did not consent to it.
- Chapter IV: “Fairies and the Dead” P. 85 – 86.

[Comments: You don't see many tales with the ghosts of witches showing up directly in trial records, so I dig this one. Plain and simple. I also like the Blood Pact aspect appearing. Because that is Traditional.]

VII. “Necromancy in Lacashire.”
Weever

[Edward Kelly**] … upon a certain night in the Park of Walton in le dale, in the County of Lancaster, with one Paul Waring (his fellow companion in such deeds of darkness) invocated some of the Infernal Regiment, to know certain passages in the life, as also what might be known of the Devil's foresight of the manner and time of the death of a noble young gentleman, as then in wardship. The black ceremonies of the night being ended, Kelly demanded of one of the gentleman's servants what corse was last buried in Law churchyard, a church thereunto adjoining, who told him of a poor that was buried there but the same day. He and Waring intreated this foresaid servant to go with them to the grave of the man so lately interred, which he did; ad withal did help them to dig up the carcase of the poor caitiff, whom by their incantations they made him (or rather some evil spirit through his organs) to speak, who delivered strange predictions concerning the said gentleman. I was told thus much by the said serving-man, a secondary actor in that dismal abhorred business; and the divers gentlemen and others now living in Lancashire to whom he hath related this story.
- Chapter IV: “The Fairies and the Dead” P. 86.

[Comments: you may recall the second ritual in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft– to raise up the ghost of a hanged man – that I brought up in the last blog entry? While the details of the ritual are not in this account, the act of forcing the corpse – or the spirit of the dead to use it – to speak follows along the same lines as that ritual did. Incidentally, there is a PGM ritual wherein one consecrates a skull to act as a “speaking oracle” by transforming the ghost to whom the skull belongs into a more “powerful” Daimon through the powers of Helios or the Sun... Although, this could often be a fraudulent practice, as Lucian's mockery of Glycon would suggest and Daniel Ogden discusses in one of his two books.]


* A term generally applied to Cunning Folk. See Owen Davies Popular Magic, or Emma Wilby's Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits for more information.
** Yes, that is totally Eddie Talbot, the companion and seer that worked with John Dee.

And in Philostratus we read, when Apollonius and his companions were travelling in a bright Moon-shining night, that the Phantasme of a Hagge met them, and some times changed it self into this shape, & some times into that, and some times vanished out of their sight. Now assoon as Apolloniusknew what it was, grievously reviling it advised his companions to do the like: for he knew that that was the best remedy against such invasions. His companions did as he advised, and the Phantasme presently with a noise vanished away like a shadow: For so fearfull is this kind of spirits, that they are moved, tremble, and are compelled by a feigned terrour, and false and impossible threats. Whence Chereon the holy scribe saith that these are those things by which especially the spirits are compelled. There is moreover as hath been above said, a certain kind of spirits not so noxious, but most neer to men, so that they are even affected with humane passions, and many of these delight in mans society, and willingly dwell with them: Some of them dote upon women, some upon children, some are delighted in the company of divers domestick and wild animals, some inhabit Woods and Parks, some dwell about fountains and meadows. So the Fairies, and hobgoblins inhabit Champian fields; the Naiades fountains: the PotamidesRivers; the Nymphs marshes, and ponds: the Oreades mountains; the Humedes Meadows; the Dryades and Hamadryadesthe Woods, which also Satyrs and Sylvani inhabit, the same also take delight in trees and brakes, as do the Naptæ, and Agaptæ in flowers; the Dodonæ in Acorns; the Paleæ and Feniliæ in fodder and the Country. He therefore that will call upon them, may easily doe it in the places where their abode is, by alluring them with sweet fumes, with pleasant sounds, and by such instruments as are made of the guts of certain animals and peculiar wood, adding songs, verses, inchantments sutable [enchantments suitable] to it, and that which is especially to be observed in this, the singleness of the wit, innocency of the mind, a firm credulity, and constant silence; wherefore they do often meet children, women, and poor and mean men. They are afraid of and flie from men of a constant, bold, and undaunted mind, being no way offensive to good and pure men, but to wicked and impure, noxious. of this kind are hobgoblins, familiars, and ghosts of dead men. Hence Plotinussaith, that the souls of men are sometimes made spirits: and of men well deserving are made familiars which the Greeks call Eudemons, i.e. blessed spirits: but of ill deserving men, hags, and hobgoblins, which the Greeks call Cacodemons, i.e. Evil spirits; But they may be called ghosts when it is uncertain whether they have deserved well or ill. Of these apparitions there are divers examples; such was that which Pliny the Junior makes mention of concerning the house of Athenodorus the Philosopher of Tharsis in which there appeared with a sudden horrible noise the ghost of an old man. And Philostratus tels of the like of a hag of Menippus Lyciusthe Philosopher turned into a beautifull woman of Corinth, whom Tyaneus Apollonius took to be a hobgoblin; the same at Ephesus, the like in the shape of an old beggar who was the cause of the pestilence, who therefore being by his command stoned, there appeared a mastive [mastiff] dog, and presently the pestilence ceased. We must know this that whosoever shall intellectually work in evil spirits, shall by the power of good spirits bind them; but he that shall work only worldlily, shall work to himself judgement and damnation.
- Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Of Occult Philosophy, Book III (Part 3).

“Cunning-folk was just one of several terms used in England to describe multi-faceted practitioners of magic who healed the sick and the bewitched, who told fortunes, identified thieves, induced love, and much else besides. It is employed in a general sense here not just because it was widely used, but also because it conveniently encompasses both sexes. Wizard and conjuror were also popular terms in some regions, but these were masculine titles, and to refer to wise-women and wise-men all the time becomes unwieldy. White witch, although now a part of common language, was actually little employed in popular speech prior to the twentieth century, except perhaps in Devon.” (P. VII – VIII.)

“But the world of magic also had its specialists; and they were those who known as the Cunning Folk, Cunning Men, or Wise-Women. These individuals were those who were known to have special knowledge, over and above the average knowledge of magical practices, and who were often believed to have a special inherent power... often inherited. It was thought to pass in the blood. The Cunning Folk – who were pretty numerous – one survey of known Cunning Folk in East Anglia suggests there was a cunning man within ten miles of any village.”

Later he says: “Again, they were appealed to for the diagnosis of witchcraft. If a person suspected they might have been bewitched, they might go to the cunning-folk for the provision of counter-magic...” […]

“Well: this world of popular magic had long existed, and it was long to endure. You can find much of it still alive and well deep into the 19^thcentury. And it endured because in various ways it helped.

But the problem of witchcraft is altogether more distinctive. That involved a specific kind of magic: the causing of injury or death by the malevolent and malicious use of supernatural powers against another or their property. And that was the practice which was known as maleficium.”

“It [witchcraft fears] was partly because of the loss of the protective magic which had been supplied by the medieval Church. The Church of England allowed the belief in witchcraft to continue, but it wouldn't offer ecclesiastical means of counter-magic and it forbade people to resort to them.”

“In popular cultures where most information was transmitted orally, and only a minority were able to read and write, literacy meant power. It comes as no great surprise, then, to find that cunning-folk made a great show of the fact that they possessed and used books and manuscripts. Not just any books, however, but ones that would impress. Size mattered, as did the appearance of antiquity. It also looked good to display volumes in foreign languages so as to enhance the impression of erudition in the eyes of those who could read a little...” (P. 119)

“The popular mind did not merely associate cunning with the printed or written word, but the figures regarded as their natural enemies, and targets, the witches. One of the traits likely to draw upon a person a suspicion of being involved with bad magical dealings was an apparently unnecessary appetite for reading, especially if (rightly or wrongly) the texts were believed to be connected with the occult. In Sussex one informant of a folklore-collector, recalling a long-dead local suspect, stated that 'that kind of wicked old woman always had books – powerful books, which have a great deal of evil written in them'. […]

This fear of the physical volumes brings home a point that also affected the cunning folk: that books of magical lore were thought not merely contain information but to possess power of their own, which could affect those who opened them. In a still semi-literate society, the written word was credited as intrinsically potent.”
- Hutton, Triumph of the Moon(P. 90 – 91.)

“As we shall find later, Harrison was quite capable of committing rape, but in this instance magic becomes a complicating factor in interpreting what took place in his consulting room. The question is one of whether Harrison physically forced Eliza or whether he used psychological coercion, playing on her yearning for the affections of Stephenson and her fear of his magic powers to induce her to have intercourse. This act of what could be described as consenting rape was not unique to Harrison; there is evidence of other cunning-folk using the same ploy to force clients into complying with their sexual demands. A Cornish contemporary of Harrison's, the bisexual cunning-man James Thomas, generated considerable notoriety for suggesting that male clients would have to sleep with him in order for his magic to work.”
- Owen Davies, Murder, Magic, Madness(P. 190)

Take a piece of Red String, not so different from the Golden Strings of Destiny woven and held by the Fates, encircling it in key places:

Bind the Feet, saying:“I bind you feet, that may not tread upon my paths.”
Bind the Hands, saying: “I bind your hands, that your actions toward me shall be impotent, without craft or agency.”
Bind the Mouth, saying:“I bind your lips, that you may not speak about me.”
Bind the Eyes, saying:“I bind your eyes, that you may not see me, not even reflected within the pools of Memory.”
Bind the Ears, saying:“I bind your ears, that you might not hear of me from the mouth of another.”

Oh, god, I remember now.

She left. I had only work. I'd been staring at a manila envelope, someone else's taxes written on pages inside. And I thought:

I'll just end it all.

Rossetti's Mnemosyne. 1875 - 1876.

“Μνημοσύνην καλέω, Ζηνὸς σύλλεκτρον, ἄνασσαν,

ἣ Μούσας τέκνωσ’ ἱεράς, ὁσίας, λιγυφώνους,

ἐκτὸς ἐοῦσα κακῆς λήθης βλαψίφρονος αἰεί,

πάντα νόον συνέχουσα βροτῶν ψυχαῖσι σύνοικον,

εὐδύνατον κρατερὸν θνητῶν αὔξουσα λογισμόν,

ἡδυτάτη, φιλάγρυπνος ὑπομνήσκουσά τε πάντα,

ὧν ἂν ἕκαστος ἀεὶ στέρνοις γνώμην κατάθηται,

οὔτι παρεκβαίνουσ’, ἐπεγείρουσα φρένα πᾶσιν.

ἀλλά, μάκαιρα θεά, μύσταις μνήμην ἐπέγειρε

εὐιέρου τελετῆς, λήθην δ’ ἀπὸ τῶν δ’ ἀπόπεμπε.”

(“The consort I invoke of Jove divine,

Source of the holy, sweetly-speaking Nine;

Free from th' oblivion of the fallen mind,

By whom the soul with intellect is join'd:

Reason's increase, and thought to thee belong,

All-powerful, pleasant, vigilant, and strong:

'Tis thine, to waken from lethargic rest

All thoughts deposited within the breast;

And nought neglecting, vigorous to excite

The mental eye from dark oblivion's night.

Come, blessed power, thy Mystic's mem'ry wake

To holy rites, and Lethe's fetters break.”)
- Orphic Hymn to Mnemosyne, Titan Goddess of Memory. (Original Greek & Taylor Translation.)

“The trivium and the quadrivium constitute what the ancients and later the medievals call the seven liberal arts. As Thomas Aquinas writes of them, 'these subjects are known as the trivium and quadrivium because by them, as if by certain roads, the eager mind enters into the secrets of philosophy.' The arts of the trivium are the arts whereby one comes to know and express things, the arts of language, or the Logos: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. The quadrivium consists of the four classic disciplines of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.”

“Aristotle's theory of memory and reminiscence is based on the theory of knowledge which he expounds in is De anima. The perceptions brought in by the five senses are first treated or worked upon by the faculty of imagination, and it is the images so formed which become the material of the intellectual faculty. Imagination is the intermediary between perception and thought. Thus while all knowledge is ultimately derived from sense impressions it is not on these in the raw that thought works but after they have been treated by, or absorbed into, the imaginative faculty. It is the image-making part of the soul which makes the work of the higher processes of thought possible. Hence 'the soul never thinks without a mental picture;' 'the thinking faculty thinks of its forms in mental pictures;' 'no one could ever learn or understand anything, if he had not the faculty of perception; even when he thinks speculatively, he must have some mental picture with which to think.'”
(P. 32)

“Again, it will be more advantageous to obtain backgrounds in a deserted than in a populous region, because the crowding and passing to and fro of people confuse and weaken the impress of the images, while solitude keeps their outlines sharp. Further, backgrounds differing in form and nature must be secured, so that, thus distinguished, they may be clearly visible; for if a person has adopted many intercolumnar spaces, their resemblance to one another will so confuse him that he will no longer know what he has set in each background. And these backgrounds ought to be of moderate size and medium extent, for when excessively large they render the images vague, and when too small often seem incapable of receiving an arrangement of images.  Then the backgrounds ought to be neither too bright nor too dim, so that the shadows may not obscure the images nor the lustre make them glitter. I believe that the intervals between backgrounds should be of moderate extent, approximately thirty feet; for, like the external eye, so the inner eye of thought is less powerful when you have moved the object of sight too near or too far away.”

Before it, a small garden within which are growing***

Violets:

Valerian:

And so on.

Before the statue is an offering basin, made from a beautifully crafted copper:

“To Have Conference with Spirits: –

To Speak with any person that is dead:

Go into the churchyard on a Friday at night at 12 or 2 of the Clock And Walk round about in the Alley 6 times And when you come to a Corner Stand still And say the Lord's Prayer and the Creed And before you have gone 6 times about you shall meet them that you would speak with As they were wont to go.”
- The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, Edited by David Rankine. (P. 288)

“To Go Invisible:
Take the water of Fennel and go unto a Ants hillock Saying 9 Times putting down the water on the hillock:
Conjuro te Belzebub hostem domini nostri Jesu Christi ut redeam in Lapidem per quem eum invisibilis.”
- The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, Edited by David Rankine. (P. 300)

“It appears from the evidence that certain changes took place in course of time in the religion; and, as might be expected, this is shown very markedly in the festivals. The ancient festivals remained all through, and to them were added the festivals of the succeeding religions. The original celebrations belonged to the May-November year, a division of time which follows neither the solstices nor the agricultural seasons; I have shown below (pp. 130, 178) that there is reason to believe these festivals were connected with the breeding seasons of the flocks and herds.. The chief festivals were: in the spring, May Eve (April 30), called Roodmas or Rood Day in Britain and Walpurgis-Nacht in Germany; in the autumn, November Eve (October 31), called in Britain All hallow Eve. Between these two came: in the winter, Candlemas (February 2); and in the summer, the Gule of August (August 1), called Lammas in Britain. To these were added the festivals of the solstitial invaders, Beltane at midsummer and Yule at midwinter; the movable festival of Easter was also added, but the equinoxes were never observed in Britain. On the advent of Christianity the names of the festivals were changed, and the date of one – Roodmas – was slightly altered so as to fall on May 3; otherwise the dates were observed as before, but with ceremonies of the new religion. Therefore Boguet is justified in saying that the witches kept all the Christian festivals. But the Great Assemblies were always held on the four original days, and it is this fact which makes it possible to distinguish with certainty between the Sabbath and the Esbat whenever dates are mentioned.”

“For in the year 1544, Martin Crusius, in his Annales Svevici, cites a curious tale, borrowed from an older chronicle. Wandering about the Swabian countryside were certain clerici vaganteswho wore yellow nets draped about their shoulders in the place of capes. They had approached a group of peasants and told them they had been on the Venusberg and had seen extraordinary things there. They claimed knowledge of the past and could foretell the future; they had the power to discover lost objects and possessed charms which protected both men and animals from witches and their crimes; they could even keep hail away. With such boasts, intermingled with fearsome words mumbled ominously through clenched teeth, they shunned both men and women, especially the latter, and extorted money from them. As though this was not enough, they also declared they could call up the 'Furious Horde', made up of children who had died before they were baptized, of men slain in battle and of all 'ecstatics' – in other words of those souls who had had to abandon their bodies, never to return. These souls, they said, were accustomed to gather in the deserted places on Saturday nights of the Ember seasons and on Thursdays of the Advent, wandering about, sorrowing, until the appointed timeof their deaths, when they could be received amongst the blessed.*These clerici vagantesclaimed that they had two lenghts of rope, one for grain, the other for wine: if one of them was buried, the price of grain or wine would increase that year...”
- Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles. (p. 55)

“Still, it can hardly be denied that Ginzburg was onto something. The specific scheme he reconstructed, the journey to the realm of the dead, may have relied on suspect and arbitrary connections across cultures and across millennia. But other scholars, more cautious, are finding material of value in this type of evidence. Deep folkloric beliefs or mythic structures mattered to the way in which the common folk conceptualised witchcraft. There is no need to emulate Ginzburg’s plunge into the archaic past; early modern evidence exists and calls for explanation. What it indicates is that people had relationships with other worlds and other beings that did not necessarily derive from orthodox Christianity. This is inherently probable.

And if so, it is probable for Scotland. Scottish peasants were not provincial; they had a cosmopolitan culture, fully accessible to this deep folkloric material. Orpheus was important to Ginzburg, and Scottish peasants sang Orpheus ballads – in a distinct version in which Eurydice was carried off by fairies, and Orpheus rescued her successfully...”
— Julian Goodare, Scottish Witchcraft in its European Context. (From Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland, edited by Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller.P. 31)

The Fairy Queen by Marjorie Cameron.

“The grass-roots association between fairies and the Devil was also, from a Christian perspective, rather ambiguous. In orthodox theological terms the name 'devil' denoted a purely malevolent spirit who was either the Devil himself or a demon in his service. On a popular level, however, the term was less morally specific. In 1677 a Scottish clergmany refers to a type of fairy familiar whom 'the vulgar call white deviles, which possibly have neither so much power nor malice as the black ones have, which served our great grandfathers under the names of Brouny, and Robin Goodfellow, and, to this day, make dayly service to severals in quality of familiars.'” (P. 17)

“Some contemporary descriptions of fairy familiars make them sound stereotypically demonic. Kirk claimed that 'they are ever readiest to go on hurtfull earands, but seldom will be Messengers of great good to men' and Robert Burton that 'Terrestrial devils are those Lares, Genii, Faunes, Satyrs,Wood-nymphs, Foliots, Fairies, Robin Goodfellowes, Trolli,&c. which as they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm.'” (P. 76)
- Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits.

“Gui also instructed that suspects should be asked what they might know or may have learned about “thieves to be imprisoned” and about “discovering thefts committed or disclosing secrets.” After healing and warding off disease, the discovery of theft and the subsequent divination of the guilty party, or simply the location of a lost item if no theft was involved, were among the standard uses of common magic. Love magic and spells and charms designed to produce affection (or discord) or to aid in conception were also among the standard elements of the common tradition, and Gui included questions about “concord or discord between husbands and wives; [and] also causing the sterile to conceive.” The evidence that most clearly indicates that the inquisitors and judges for whom Gui was writing were dealing with common sorcery,* however, is the passage referring to the implements and devices by which that magic was worked. Gui instructed that inquisitors should ask about “these things which they [the sorcerers] give to be eaten, hair and nails and certain other things,” and about “making incantations or conjuring through incantations, with fruits and herbs, with girdles and other materials.” Here we see the sort of everyday items typically used in common spells and charms, not the costly rings and polished mirrors of ritual demonic magic that Pope John feared. Only at the end of this section did Gui briefly mention baptized images of wax and images of lead and various other devices, which might seem more the tools of learned necromancers schooled in church ritual.”

Epistemon: “[…] This we finde by experience in this Ile to be true. For as we know, moe Ghostes and spirites were seene, nor tongue can tell, in the time of blinde Papistriein these Countries, where now by the contrarie, a man shall scarcely all his time here once of such things. And yet were these vnlawfull artes farre rarer at that time: and neuer were so much harde of, nor so rife as they are now.”

Philomathes:“What should be the cause of that?”

Epistemon: “The diuerse nature of our sinnes procures at the Iustice of God, diuerse sortes of punishments answering thereunto. And therefore as in the time of Papistrie, our fathers erring grosselie, & through ignorance, that mist of errours ouershaddowed the Deuill to walke the more familiarlie amongst them: And as it were by barnelie and affraying terroures, to mocke and accuse their barnelie erroures. By the contrarie, we now being sounde of Religion, and in our life rebelling to our profession, God iustlie by that sinne of rebellion, as Samuelcalleth it, accuseth our life so wilfullie fighting against our profession.”

Philomathes:“Since yee are entred now to speake of the appearing of spirites: I would be glad to heare your opinion in that matter. For manie denies that anie such spirites can appeare in these daies as I haue said.”

Epistemon: “Doubtleslie who denyeth the power of the Deuill, woulde likewise denie the power of God, if they could for shame. For since the Deuill is the verie contrarie opposite to God, there can be no better way to know God, then by the contrarie; as by the ones power (though a creature) to admire the power of the great Creator: by the falshood of the one to considder the trueth of the other, by the injustice of the one, to considder the Iustice of the other: And by the cruelty of the one, to considder the mercifulnesse of the other: And so foorth in all the rest of the essence of God, and qualities of the Deuill. But I feare indeede, there be ouer many Sadducesin this worlde, that denies all kindes of spirites: For convicting of whose errour, there is cause inough if there were no more, that God should permit at sometimes spirits visiblie to kyith.”

“16. [Being] asked what she thought of the new law [the Reformed Religion] , [she] answered that she had spoken with Tom bout that matter but Tom [had] answered that this new law was not good and that the old faith should come home again but not such as it was before. [Being] asked if ever she had been in [a] suspect place with Tom, or had carnal dealings with him, [she] declared - not upon her salvation and condemnation, but [that] once he took her by the apron and would have had her go with him to Elfame.”

- Edinbough Assize records regarding the Trial of Bessie Dunlop. (From Emma Wilby's Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, P. viii.)

“There is moreover as hath been above said, a certain kind of spirits not so noxious, but most neer to men, so that they are even affected with humane passions, and many of these delight in mans society, and willingly dwell with them: Some of them dote upon women, some upon children, some are delighted in the company of divers domestick and wild animals, some inhabit Woods and Parks, some dwell about fountains and meadows. So the Fairies, and hobgoblins inhabit Champian fields; the Naiadesfountains: the PotamidesRivers; the Nymphsmarshes, and ponds: the Oreadesmountains; the HumedesMeadows; the Dryadesand Hamadryades the Woods, which also Satyrsand Sylvani inhabit, the same also take delight in trees and brakes, as do the Naptæ, and Agaptæ in flowers; the Dodonæin Acorns; the Paleæand Feniliæ in fodder and the Country. He therefore that will call upon them, may easily doe it in the places where their abode is, by alluring them with sweet fumes, with pleasant sounds, and by such instruments as are made of the guts of certain animals and peculiar wood, adding songs, verses, inchantments sutable [enchantments suitable] to it, and that which is especially to be observed in this, the singleness of the wit, innocency of the mind, a firm credulity, and constant silence; wherefore they do often meet children, women, and poor and mean men.”

“DER lived a king inta da aste,

Scowan ürla grün

Der lived a lady in da wast.

Whar giorten han grün oarlac

Dis king he has a huntin gaen,

He’s left his Lady Isabel alane.

‘Oh I wis ye’d never gaen away,

For at your hame is d’ol an wae.

‘For da king o Ferrie we his daert,

Has pierced your lady to da hert.’

* * *

And aifter dem da king has gaen,

But whan he cam it was a grey stane.

Dan he took oot his pipes ta play,

Bit sair his hert wi d’ol an wae.

And first he played da notes o noy,

An dan he played da notes o joy.

An dan he played da g’od gabber reel,

Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.

* * *

‘Noo come ye in inta wir ha,

An come ye in among wis a’.’

Now he’s gaen in inta der ha,

An he’s gaen in among dem a’.

Dan he took out his pipes to play,

Bit sair his hert wi d’ol an wae.

An first he played da notes o noy,

An dan he played da notes o joy.

An dan he played da g’od gabber reel,

Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.

‘Noo tell to us what ye will hae:

What sall we gie you for your play?

‘What I will hae I will you tell,

An dat’s me Lady Isabel.’

‘Yees tak your lady, an yees gaeng hame,

An yees be king ower a’ your ain.’

He’s taen his lady, an he’s gaen hame,

An noo he’s king ower a’ his ain.”

“There was a King lived in the East
Green the wood grows early
Who loved a lady in the West
Where the hart runs yearly.

This king he to the West did ride
And he brought home a comely bride
This king is to the hunting gone
He left his lady all alone.

“Oh, I wish ye'd never gone away,
For your hall is filled with woe today.
The king o' Faerie with his dart
Has pierced your lady to the heart.”

The King then called his nobles all
To guard her corpse within the hall
But when the lords all fell asleep
Her corpse out of the house did sweep.

The king is to the wildwood gone
Till he with hair was overgrown.

When he had sat for seven years
A company to him drew near
Some did ride and some did run
He spied his lady them among.

There stood a hall upon a hill
When they entered, all was still
And after them the king has gone
But when he came, t'was a grey stone.

There came a boy out of the hall
“Ye're bidden come in among us all.”
The king did enter in the hall
And he went in among them all.

And first he played the notes o' noy
And then he played the notes' o' joy
And then he played a merry reel
That might have made a sick heart heal.

Then he took out his pipes to play
For his poor heart did pine away
And first he played the notes o' noy
And then he played the notes o' joy.

And then he played a merry reel
That might have made a sick heart heal
The king of faerie then did say
“What shall we give thee for thy play?”

“For my play I will thee tell
I'll have my lady Isabel.”
"Thy sister's son, unworthy thing
Tomorrow shall be crowned king.

“Ye take your lady and go home
And ye shall be king o'er all your own.”
He took his lady and went home
And now he's king o'er all his own.

Meeting with your own Daimon:

“Hail, Tyche, and you, the daimon of this place, and you, the present hour, and you, the present day – and every day as well. Hail, Universe, that is, earth and heaven. Hail, Helios, for you are the one who has established yourself in invisible light over the holy firmament / ORKORĒTHARA.”

“You are the father of the reborn Aion ZARACHTHŌ; you are the father of awful Nature Thortchophanō; you who are the one who has in yourself the mixture of universal nature and who begot the five wandering stars, which are the entrails of heaven, the guts of earth, the fountainhead of the waters, and the violence of the fire AZAMACHAR ANAPHANDAŌ EREYA ANEREYA PHENPHENSŌ IGRAA; you are the youthful one, highborn, scion of the holy temple, kinsman to the holy mere called Abyss which is located beside two pedestals SKIATHI and MANTŌ. And the earth's 4 basements were shaken, O master of all, holy Scarab AŌ SATHREN ABRASAX IAŌAI AEŌ ĒŌA ŌAĒ IAO EY AĒ EY IE IAŌAI.”

Write the name in myrrh ink on two male eggs. You are to cleanse yourself thoroughly with one, then lick off the name, break it, and throw it away. Hold the other in your partially open right hand and show it to the sun at down and [...]* olive branches; raise your right hand, supporting the elbow with your left hand. Then speak the formula 7 times, crack the egg open, and swallow its contents.

Do this for 7 days, and recite the formula at sunset as well as sunrise.

- Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. (P. 131 – 132.)

“Give me all favor, all success, for the angel bringing good, who stands beside [the goddess] Tyche, is with you. Accordingly, give profit [and] success to this house. Please, Aion, ruler of hope, giver of wealth, O holy Agathos Daimon, bring to fulfillment favors and / your divine oracles.” (PGM IV. 3125 – 7)

“And so accept everything which happens, even if it seem disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus (the universe). For he would not have brought on any man what he has brought, if it were not useful for the whole. Neither does the nature of anything, whatever it may be, cause anything which is not suitable to that which is directed by it. For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.”
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Book Five).

“For years in the modern Hellenic polytheist communities, a misconception has been floating around about the idea of the deipnon having been a roundabout way to feed the poor. This has become so prevalent that many people are now donating to homeless shelters and food banks in lieu ofmaking proper deipna, and that’s something I’d like to see changed. There is only a single passage responsible for this issue, and it comes from a comic play (that should tell you something) by Aristophanes called Plutus. His character says:

“Why you may ask this of Hecate, whether to be rich or hungry be better. For she herself says that those who have and to spare, set out for her a supper once a month, while the poor people plunder it before ’tis well set down: but go hang thyself, and mutter not another syllable; for thou shalt not persuade me, even though thou dost persuade me.”

If you understand the context of this conversation, you will see that Aristophanes is not referencing an acceptable religious practice of helping the unfortunate, but rather mocking the fact that the hungry poor are so desperate that they will even steal food from an ominous goddess like Hekate. (I’ll note that even in more traditional sacrifices where the resulting meal is “shared” between gods and worshippers, there are still parts that are expressly reserved for the gods alone – one would never set those out for Them and then eat the same items without fear of serious consequences.)”

“Offerings were made at the grave at the time of the funeral. These always included choai, libations made of honey, milk, water, wine, or oil mixed in varying amounts. There was also a “supper” (deipnon or dais) of various foods; the dead who partook of these sometimes were described as eudeipnoi, which we best can translate, perhaps, as “those who are content with their meal.” The word, a euphemism, seems to reflect the hope that, once nourished, the dead would realize that they had nothing to complain about. There is some evidence that water was also given to the dead person so that he could wash, just a host would give a living guest water in which to wash before a meal. Offerings to the dead might also include jewelry, flowers, and small objects used in everyday life such as swords, strigils, toys, and mirrors (although gifts, like lamentation, were sometimes restricted by funerary laws). It is hard to avoid the conclusion that these gifts were expected to be useful in the afterlife, particularly when ghost stories tell of the dead demanding objects that were forgotten or omitted at the time of burial.” (P. 42)

 “When he talks of initiations, ‘officiating girls’ and ‘strange oaths,’ we may infer that he held meetings of some kind, but I have failed to obtain particulars.”
- Arthur Edward Waite, On Paschal Beverly Randolph's “Rosicrucian Rooms.”

***
“I studied Rosicrucianism, and found it suggestive, and loved its mysticism. So I called myself The Rosicrucian, and gave my thought to the world as Rosicrucian thought…

Nearly all that I have given as Rosicrucianism originated in my soul; and scarce a single thought, only suggestions, have I borrowed from those who, in ages past, called themselves by that name – one which served me well as a vehicle wherein to take my mental treasures to a market, which gladly opened its doors to that name, but would, and did, slam its portals in the face of the tawny student of Esoterics.”

– Paschal Beverly Randolph, Eulis! The History of Love. (1896 Edition; P. 47.)

“One night – it was in far-off Jerusalem or Bethlehem, I really forget which – I made love to, and was loved by, a dusky maiden of Arabic blood. I of her, and that experienced, learned – not directly, but by suggestion – the fundamental principle of the White Magic of Love; subsequently I became affiliated with some dervishes and fakirs of whom, but suggestion still, I found the road to other knowledges; and of these devout practitioners of a simple, but sublime and holy magic, I obtained additional clues – little threads of suggestion, which, being persistently followed, led my soul into labyrinths of knowledge themselves did even suspect the existence of. I became practically, what I was naturally – a mystic, and in the time chief of the lofty brethren; taking clues left by the masters, and pursuing them farther than they had even been before; actually discovering the ELIXIR OF LIFE; the universal solvent or Alkahest; the water of beauty and perpetual youth, and the philosopher’s stone…”
- Paschal Beverly Randolph, Eulis! The History of Love. (1896 Edition; P. 48.)

Herakleitos, Fragments 76-77 (535-475 BCE)
… they roam together – the night-walkers, the magicians, the Bakchai, the Lenai, the participants in mysteries full of unholy rites. Their processions and phallic hymns would be disgraceful exhibitions if it wasn’t for the fact that they are done in honor of Dionysos – that Dionysos who is the same as Haides; it is in his honor that they rave madly and hold their revels.

Proklos’ Commentary on Timaios 3.262f (412-485 CE)
For about the god there are more partial gods; daimones proceeding together with or being the guards and attendants of the god; and the elevated and magnificent army of heroes, repressing in advance all the disorder arising from matter.

Luís Vaz de Camões, Os Lusíadas Book Eight (1524-1580 CE)
So, lower’d the night, the sullen howl the same,
And, ’mid the black-wing’d gloom, stern Bacchus came;
The form, and garb of Hagar’s son he took,
The ghost-like aspect, and the threat’ning look.