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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
 Posted: 17-04-2008 14:23 Post subject: |
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Of course, the good ol' US of A would never stoop to anything so vulgar, would it?
Oops!
| Quote: | Experience Reenactment of the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts
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• Fear spread throughout the village
• They truly believed the Devil had come to Salem, Massachusetts
• The witch trials lasted for thirteen months
• One hundred and fifty-six people were accused.
• Nineteen of these were hanged.
• One man was pressed to death.
• Two dogs were hanged because the children said the dogs gave them the "evil eye."
http://ezinearticles.com/?Experience-Reenactment-of-the-Salem-Witch-Trials-in-Salem,-Massachusetts&id=1021195
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But, boy, does it bring the tourists in!  |
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Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 6061 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 17-04-2008 14:29 Post subject: |
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And of course there's Salem!
Edit: Bugger, Ryn got there first!
| Quote: | | Many people associate the city with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, which the city embraces both as a source of tourism and culture: Police cars are adorned with witch logos, a local public school is known as the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School |
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| PeniG Proud children's writer Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Total posts: 2920 Location: San Antonio, Texas Age: 52 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 17-04-2008 15:31 Post subject: |
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Salem isn't actually where the witch trials took place. Salem Village changed its name to Danvers to avoid the notoriety.
If witch trials are remembered as a grave injustice that could (and does) happen again, that's a good thing. Remembering it with pride - ugh.
(I should perhaps add that, as I am a citizen neither of Salem Village/Danvers, Salem, or Warbury, I don't suppose my approval or disapproval matters much to people who are.) |
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| markbellis Great Old One Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Total posts: 540 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 16-05-2008 16:14 Post subject: |
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| PeniG wrote: |
(I should perhaps add that, as I am a citizen neither of Salem Village/Danvers, Salem, or Warbury, I don't suppose my approval or disapproval matters much to people who are.) |
 Notice how she doesn't mention if she weighs less than a duck. |
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| staticgirl Following my fish Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Total posts: 478 Location: Hertfordshire Age: 41 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 30-05-2008 11:07 Post subject: Cat turns into woman in Nigeria |
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full story here: http://www.tribune.com.ng/22052008/news/news2.html
| Quote: | WHAT could be described as a fairy tale turned real on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as a cat allegedly turned into a middle-aged woman after being hit by a commercial motorcycle (Okada) on Aba/Port Harcourt Expressway.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that three cats were crossing the busy road when the okada ran over one of them which immediately turned into a woman. This strange occurrence quickly attracted people around who descended on the animals. One of them, it was learnt, was able to escape while the third one was beaten to death, still as a cat though.
According to a source who witnessed what happened, the cat-woman said she and the two other cat-fellows had travelled from Abuja to Port Harcourt to kill three people. “The woman said they came to Port Harcourt from Abuja and that they came to kill three people. She said they had succeeded in killing two people, but the third person, whom I guess might be a pastor, was difficult for them and that they were preparing to go back to Abuja,” said the source.
Another witness, who gave his name as James, said the woman started faking when she saw that many people were gathering around her. “I have never seen anything like this in my life. I saw a woman lying on the road instead of a cat. Blood did not come out of her body at that time. When people gathered and started asking her questions, she pretended that she did not know what had happened," he said.
When the Nigerian Tribune got to the scene of the incident near Garrison Junction, the cat-woman was seen sitting on the ground with blood all over her body. The right side of her face had a deep cut from what was gathered to be from a cutlass.
She was later taken to a hospital for medical attention. It took the intervention of policemen to prevent the mob from killing her.... |
Interesting how it is reported in the newspaper, reinforcing the mindset.
I am sorry if there is a thread that this could have been attached to. I did a search and didn't find one but might not have used the best search terms.Hopefully the mods can transport this report for me. |
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| JamesWhitehead Piffle Prospector Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Total posts: 5779 Location: Manchester, UK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-05-2008 15:13 Post subject: |
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There is a Witches thread in Esoterica where this would sit quite happily alongside other tales of African shape-shifting, even though the term witchcraft is not used.
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15454
Looking at the sources of these modern cases tends to suggest that Witchcraft is a developmental phenomenon. Not that it helps much.  |
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| stuneville Administrator
Joined: 09 Mar 2002 Total posts: 10230 Location: FTMB HQ Age: 46 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-05-2008 20:59 Post subject: |
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| Good choice - duly merged. |
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| DougalLongfoot Great Old One Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Total posts: 451 Location: New England, NSW, Australia Age: 39 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 12-09-2008 00:13 Post subject: 'Witch' attacked for causing PNG floods: report |
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| Quote: | An elderly Papua New Guinean woman was attacked by local villagers after they accused her of using witchcraft to cause deadly floods, a report said.
A local official in a remote area of Morobe Province north of the capital Port Moresby said that a woman had been beaten on Tuesday after flash floods killed one person, demolished 21 homes and destroyed crops in the region.
"That is the way it is here," councillor Raphael Yasi said, the Post-Courier newspaper reported.
The waters which swept through Morobe's remote Garaina region, where the woman lived, after the Wisi River flooded more than a week ago have left 90 people homeless.
Malaria and dysentery have reportedly broken out in the province on Papua New Guinea's north-eastern coast, where thousands have been left homeless following widespread flooding.
- AFP |
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/10/2361200.htm?section=world |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 05-10-2009 15:46 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Wing wizard Ronaldo may have match
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/1005/1224255889275.html
“IT’S the kind of craziness we deal with on a daily basis”, said a Real Madrid spokesman when asked last week about a letter sent to Spanish newspaper El Mundo by a “wizard” who claimed to have been paid to cast a nasty spell on Cristiano Ronaldo.
“I have nothing against this great club,” wrote the man who described himself as “a mixture of priest and doctor”. “I am a professional and someone has paid me very well to use my powers. I have been hired to make Ronaldo suffer a serious injury. I can’t promise that it will be a serious injury, but he’ll certainly be out of action more than playing.”
Using photos of Ronaldo spread around his “laboratory” the wizard set to work. “It’s a step-by-step process and depends on various factors, so the result you are looking for is achieved sooner or later,” he said, claiming to have ended the player’s goal-a-game run in the league match against Tenerife.
Ronaldo must have had a right chuckle at this mumbo-jumbo bunkum. Until he limped out of Wednesday’s Champions League game against Marseille after being flattened by Souleymane Diawara (who was sent off). He was ruled out of yesterday’s game against Seville with the resulting ankle injury. Uh oh. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-10-2009 12:33 Post subject: |
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Vid at link.
| Quote: | Village 'witches' beaten in India
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8315980.stm
By Salman Ravi
BBC News, Ranchi
Footage of 'witches' being abused by a mob in India
Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers after being branded as witches in India's Jharkhand state.
Local police said the victims were Muslim widows who had been labelled as witches by a local cleric.
The incident occurred on Sunday in a remote village in Deoghar district.
Correspondents say the abuse of women who are branded as witches is common, but rare footage of the incident has caused outrage across India.
Police went to Pattharghatia village after being informed about the incident by a group of villagers.
'Possessed'
They have lodged a case against 11 villagers, including six women. Four people have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The victims were taken to a playground where hundreds had assembled to watch
Murari Lal Meena
Deputy police inspector general
Armed police have since been deployed to the area.
"On Sunday morning the victims were taken to a playground where hundreds had assembled to watch the ghastly incident," deputy inspector general of police Murari Lal Meena told the BBC.
"No one in the mob came forward to rescue the victims as they were being stripped and beaten up," he said.
The victims are now under police protection.
Police say that people in Pattharghatia believe that certain women in their village are possessed by a "holy spirit" that can identify those who practise witchcraft.
"These women recently identified five women from the same village as being witches who practised witchcraft and brought miseries to the area," a police official said.
Soon, an unruly mob broke into their huts, dragged them out and started beating them up.
Footage of the incident has been aired on television channels in India prompting outrage.
Hundreds of people, mostly women, have been killed in India because their neighbours thought they were witches.
Experts say superstitious beliefs are behind some of these attacks, but there are occasions when people - especially widows - are targeted for their land and property.
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-11-2009 18:22 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Saudi Arabia urged to quash witchcraft death sentence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8378483.stm
Riyadh street scene
Many Saudi executions are beheadings by the sword in public places
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to overturn a death sentence given to a man convicted of practising witchcraft.
The organisation said Ali Sibat appeared to have been condemned because of psychic predictions he had made on Lebanese TV from his home in Beirut.
He was arrested during his pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Medina last year.
There is no legal definition of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia - a deeply conservative Muslim nation.
The country's religious authorities condemn any practices deemed un-Islamic, including horoscopes and fortune telling.
map
But BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says there is still a thirst for such services in a country where widespread superstition survives under the surface of religious orthodoxy.
Human Rights Watch accused Saudi courts of "sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police".
"The crime of 'witchcraft' is being used against all sorts of behaviour, with the cruel threat of state-sanctioned executions," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East director.
Human Rights Watch also said reports in Saudi media suggested that two other people had been arrested for witchcraft in the past month.
In addition, a Saudi woman remains on death row after being sentenced for the same crime last year. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 16-10-2010 19:48 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Call for release of 'witchcraft' prisoners
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1016/1224281250334.html
BILL CORCORAN in Cape Town
Sat, Oct 16, 2010
A MALAWIAN rights group has called on the country’s president Bingu wa Mutharika to order the release of 80 predominately elderly women from prison who have been jailed for up to six years for practising witchcraft.
The Association of Secular Humanism (Ash) says the recent conviction of 61 elderly women, seven elderly men and 12 younger relatives by the local courts are illegal, as witchcraft is not recognised as a criminal offence under Malawian law.
Ash representative George Thindwa said that although witchcraft was not recognised by the statute books, various magistrates’ courts were refusing to abide by the law and throw the cases out. He said this was because some members of the judiciary are prone to believing in sorcery.
Most of the women that have appeared before the courts on charges relating to witchcraft were sentenced to between three and six years’ imprisonment with hard labour. According to Ash all the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“We want to secure the release of some 80 prisoners labelled as witches,” he told local reporters earlier this week. “We want to take up their causes with authorities and if legal action fails, we want to petition for their pardon and release. They are 100 per cent innocent.”
Mr Thindwa went on to say that some of the charges related to the accused teaching witchcraft to children. He added the defendants were given little or no support by the courts during their trials as they were seen as outcasts of society. He appealed to the chief justice and inspector general of police to inform their staff that witchcraft cases “should not be entertained”.
“The problem is that our police and our courts; most of them are witchcraft believers. This belief is very strong in Malawi,” he said.
Malawi is a deeply religious and conservative country in many respects, so a genuine fear of witchcraft is not uncommon.
Earlier this year, the courts jailed two gay men for 14 years after they were convicted of buggery and indecent practices. After widespread international condemnation the men were eventually pardoned by the president.
This fear of witchcraft has led the government to recently establish a committee to look into making it a criminal offence.
Mr Thindwa said he was trying to raise €30,000 to pay for the women’s appeals process in the event the president refused to order the release of the accused. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 06-02-2012 01:24 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Healing rituals and bad spirits on a Philippine island
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16871785
By Kate McGeown
BBC News, Philippines
Islanders gather earth and dust to use in rituals to protect their homes
Siquijor is one of more than 7,000 islands in the Philippines - it has tropical sun, white sand and an azure sea, but it is also famous for witchcraft.
How do you go about looking for a witch?
It is not a question I had ever thought to ask before, so I rang the Siquijor tourism department to see if they were able to help.
"We don't have any witches," was the first reply, which did not seem all that promising.
But after a bit more discussion, it seems that Siquijor's witches - well, the good ones anyway - have recently undergone a rebranding exercise. They are now called traditional healers.
But what about the bad witches, I asked? "Oh we don't promote them," came the rather sensible answer.
Traditional healer Consing Achay treats Kate McGeown
So, armed with a list of approved witches, I set off. My first call was to a woman who is by far the most famous healer on the island.
At 86 years old, Consing Achay is the only person still practising bulo-bulo - a technique to remove evil spirits.
Her heavily-lined face reflects the ancient history of her art.
Murmuring a special language, she adds a small stone to a glass of water then moves it around her patient's body, blowing air into it through a bamboo straw.
The water gradually becomes cloudy - apparently that is the sickness coming out.
She then repeats the ritual, continuing until the water stays clear - which took three attempts in my case, making me wonder just how many bad spirits had been attacking me recently.
Consing is not quite what I imagined a witch to be. She is devoutly Catholic and sees no contradiction between her religious faith and her traditional spells.
Continue reading the main story
From Our Own Correspondent
Broadcast on Saturdays at 11:30 GMT on BBC Radio 4, and weekdays on BBC World Service
Listen to the BBC Radio 4 version
Download the podcast
Listen to the BBC World Service version
Explore the archive
In fact, she says she received her powers from the Christ child in a dream and she does a quick sign of the cross before starting each treatment.
She does have a black cat, but it did not seem to have an essential role in the proceedings - it fell asleep behind my chair during the treatment - and her consultations are held in a small room behind her son's karaoke bar.
Francisco Aladad is even more of a contradiction than Consing, because he is essentially living the life of a modern Filipino.
When I visited, he was just having a new window fitted. A motorbike was parked by the porch and a scarf with the word "Holland" emblazoned on it was pride of place on the wall, a gift from his daughter's Dutch husband.
But Francisco's most important possession is a large stick, which he claims can identify bad spirits.
He believes these spirits are everywhere - on the side of the road, floating around in the air and even under the ground - just waiting to get into people to cause illness of body or mind.
Francisco says they are the ghosts of the dead or fallen angels.
When his services are called upon, he identifies what is wrong with the patient by seeing how the stick reacts to suggestions of different diseases. I did not see much reaction myself - it looked, well, like a stick - but then of course I was not ill.
If it is a psychological problem - a change of behaviour, or a bout of anger or depression - Francisco has a different approach. He prods the stick in the ground around his patient's house to try to identify the spirits causing the malaise, and tells them to go away. Through the power of the stick they do.
On the opposite side of the island, another family is also busy tackling evil in a different way.
Dios Dada proudly showed me her father's herbal potions which, since his death, she alone can administer.
These ointments are only made once a year - more than 150 different types of herbs and tree roots are needed, and all of them must be gathered between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
They are then rubbed into the affected areas of the patient's body through a cloud of smoke to ward off yet more of these ever-present bad spirits.
By this point, I was wondering what it is that makes Siquijor so full of malevolence.
After all, the palm trees swaying softly in the wind, the sun-drenched paddy fields and the white sand beaches seem anything but threatening.
Francisco Aladad uses a stick to tackle evil spirits
Perhaps it is because, despite the government's rebranding efforts, almost all the healers I spoke to said that bad witches did still exist, putting curses on people out of jealousy or rage.
Or perhaps it is the more practical reason suggested by Francisco - that because the island did not have its own hospital until recently, traditional beliefs about illness and disease have stood the test of time.
Or perhaps it is just a fiction that has been repeated down the centuries to become the stuff of myth and legend.
But if so, the queue of people waiting for treatment from Consing shows it is a myth that is very much alive today.
As for whether I believe it, well, it is better to be safe than sorry.
If I had any bad spirits living inside me, the good witches of Siquijor have hopefully sent them on their way.
How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:
BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 11:30 GMT.
Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 11:00 GMT (some weeks only).
Listen online or download the podcast
BBC World Service:
Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online.
Read more or explore the archive at the programme website. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-04-2012 19:52 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Sri Lankan woman held for witchcraft
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0419/1224314924791.html
Thu, Apr 19, 2012
A Sri Lankan woman has been arrested on suspicion of casting a spell on a 13-year-old girl during a Saudi family’s shopping trip, a police spokesman said yesterday, and may face death in a country where convicted sorcerers are beheaded.
The spokesman confirmed that details of the woman’s arrest published in local media were correct. The daily Okaz reported that a Saudi man had complained his daughter had “suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman” in a large shopping mall in the port city of Jeddah.
“He reported her to the security forces, asking for her arrest, and the specialised units dealt with the situation swiftly and succeeded in arresting her,” Okaz reported.
Saudi Arabia, a US ally, is an absolute monarchy that has no written criminal code and where court rulings are based on judges’ interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. “The punishment is always beheading for anyone found guilty of witchcraft,” a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist, Waleed Abu al-Khair, said. – (Reuters) |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-08-2012 00:36 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Walkers set witches record on Pendle Hill
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19307228
Four hundred and eighty-three people set the witches record
Related Stories
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Secret life of modern-day witches
Duffy poem remembers witch trials
A new world record for the most people dressed as witches in one place has been set on the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials in Lancashire.
Four hundred and eighty-two people set the new record, which has never been previously attempted.
More than 1,000 people joined the Pendle Witch Walk to raise money for the Pendleside Hospice, Burnley.
To qualify for the record all witches had to be wearing a black pointed hat, black cloak and have a broom.
Guinness World Records said there was currently no similar record in place. The attempt was made under Guinness stipulations.
Continue reading the main story
Lancaster witch trials
Held at Lancaster Castle in August 1612
Eleven Pendle people charged with murder by witchcraft
Additional alleged Pendle witch tried at York Castle
Ten found guilty and hanged, one died while awaiting trial, one found not guilty
Trials made famous by publication of The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (by clerk of the court Thomas Potts)
Organiser Julian Jordan said the witch trials were a sombre part of the area's history but the walkers wanted to show off the best of Pendle including "our glorious countryside, our magnificent hill and our tumultuous history".
He said the organisers hoped the walk would raise £30,000 for the hospice.
The walkers made a five-mile circular trek including the summit of the hill.
The two-day trials in 1612 led to 10 people being hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster, after being found guilty of causing death or harm by witchcraft.
Commemorative activities include the launch of a sculpture trail in the woods near the village of Barley.
There will also be guided tours at Lancaster Castle, where the accused were imprisoned. |
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