apotropaic magic

An excavation in Pompeii, a Roman city along with Herculaneum frozen in time on 24 August in year 79 AD when with the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius it became buried under tonnes of pumice and hot ashfall, has uncovered a trove of charms and amulets believed to have been the repertoire, arsenal of a sorceress and also serves as a repository of very intimate personal items that fleeing residents might leave in the custody of the sorceress for safekeeping and retrieval upon return.
Each of the items collected in a wooden box that had all but decayed away represents not only its peculiar wish-fulfilment but by extension narratives too intriguing not to limn complete, not to mention what each talisman and totem might signify or hold power over. Included among the evil-eyes (the virtue of keeping away like with like), phalluses, skulls and scarabs were figures of Harpocrates—a Greek syncretisation of the Egyptian Child Horus who represented the new dawn and hope to conquer the day, who matured to adult form by twilight and represented the resilience to come back again as well as discretion and confidence-keeping.

a sigil of jupiter in taffeta with a fair ribbon

Via Miss Cellania’s Links, we are directed to a curated trove of medical records with notes by attending the physicians, astrologers royal Simon Forman (*1552 – †1611) and Richard Napier (*1559 - †1634), that’s been transcribed and catalogued by pathology: witchcraft, venereal disease, demonic possession, blunt trauma, infertility, etc. Contraindications, diagnosis and treatment are usually indicated, gleaned from astrological charting (see also) in most causes—though not always transcribed, spelling modernised and standardised for reference and readability.

Not to betray patient confidentiality but these records are a fascinating look at the state of medical science on the cusps of two ages—the late, late medieval times just before a period of enlightenment and is an interesting contrast between what we’d consider magical thinking and superstition and the wholistic approach to healing. Here’s an example below—with five hundred others to peruse at the site above, a consult the accompanying astral images to divine a treatment plan:

Richard Cowly of Tinswicke, 30 years.
Tuesday 30 April 1605, 9.00 am. A bachelor.
[In chart] afflicted in mind. Frantic & lunatic.
Trine between Saturn and Venus.
7 trine with Jupiter and Mars.
Conjunction between Sun and Mercury.
Square between Jupiter and Venus.
Trine between Jupiter and Mercury approaching May 2.
He came yesterday to Mr Gerent when I was from home & he willed him to be let blood & he is somewhat mended ever since. Keeps his bed. Tuesday was seven nights. Has taken great grief touching one whom he loved & promised marriage & is now married. & he has much thought & grief. Very wild & as one frantic. Much tormented in mind & very sick. Talks idly. Cannot sleep.

häxan

Based on the filmmaker’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum (previously), Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 silent “Witchcraft Through the Ages” is sometimes accorded with the recognition as the art form’s first documentary work—though there some elements of classic horror are established as well, the film is one of the first not based solely on fiction and included meticulous research over a long period of production, and goes about dispelling superstition, misunderstanding and misogyny which can result in witch hunts. Censored in many places during its initial release in Scandinavia, Häxan saw something of a revival in 1968 when an abbreviated version premiered set to an eclectic jazz soundtrack featuring Jean-Luc Ponty and intertitles read by William S Burroughs.

subtle allegory or indistinguishable from magic

This short synopsis of the premise of a science fiction premise really resonated with us: first serialised in 2006, Liu Cixin’s award winning (and recently adapted into film) The Three-Body Problem (三体) proposes that humans have encountered no alien races because extra-terrestrials conspire to contain one another, lest they advance and become a threat.
Introducing this dominant race dispenses neatly with the other reasons aliens are not visiting. Rather than actively disarming and disabling their machines and modes of exploration, the only thing aliens would need to do to humans or any other planet-bound denizen would be to bring in an element of woo and superstition and pseudoscience, maybe a peppering of miraculous events that defy logical explanation to really enforce and cement beliefs. Playing the long-game, the dominant races’ containment-policy ensures it has no competition by undermining trust in science. Given our violent regression to primitive charms and preserving appearances, however, I think that perhaps blaming a technologically superior alien race for keeping humanity relegated to the cosmic backwaters also violates the principal of Ockham’s Razor, lex parsimoniae. We certainly hope that this message is preserved in the theatrical release.

sympathetic and contagious magic

Writing for the Slate blog, The Vault, Rebecca Onion presents a selection of some fantastic forgotten American superstitions, collected by a teaching-college professor in 1907. The professor asked a large sampling of students to share all the rituals and beliefs for courting good luck or warding off bad that they could think of and then rank them by personal credulity.
One can read the entire study here, but I did like quite a few of Onion’s choices: if a fire puffs, then the neighbours are quarrelling. If you find a hairpin and hang it on a nail, the first person to speak to you afterwards will marry you. If you drop a dishrag and it does not spread out, you can expect a gentleman-caller. Carrying an axe through the house will bring bad luck. If you see a white horse, you will see a red-headed woman. Never leave a loaf of bread upside down, for it will be sure to cause ships to sink. If you throw a horse’s skull over your right shoulder without looking back, you will never get the smallpox. Ivy is an unlucky plant. Straight hair will go curly if cut in the dark of the moon. There’s also quite a few bizarre little rhyming incantations to repeat upon seeing fortuitous events. This endeavour makes me think of the Brothers Grimm collecting, aggregating and classifying folk tales