Witches Tools - Incense
Incense is a powerful and easy to use tool in the witches arsenal. It comes in several varieties; loose, resin, sticks, and cones. There are also endless varieties of ingredients for an amazing array of smells. This makes it fairly easy to find an incense that supports your current spell or intention. The only real caveat is that some people are allergic to smoke ( as well as some pets), in which case you could use essential oils in candles ( which you also have to be careful with if you have pets).
Incense is used in the east part of the altar for air. It can be used for cleansing, powering your spell, putting you in the magical mindset, or simply for making your house smell good.
Incense itself may have been around since 6000 B.C., somewhere around ancient Sumer. It was used in ancient Egypt as well as China. Incense is often made from the resins of trees and herbs. Sandalwood is a very common and popular incense from a tree and can be used for purifying, sanctifying, and creating a sacred space.
I personally love incense, the variety and ease of use is so wonderful to me.
The Warboys Witches & the Throckmorton Children
This tale takes place in the town of Warboys in the Fens of England. The trials took place in Warboys Huntingdonshire. The story of Alice Samuel and her family is an odd one. Once you hear of it you may come to see why in that time period the act of witchery seemed very real. Not all of these events are sure to be accurate but I’ve done the best I could to weed through what I found.
It all began with two families, the Samuels and the Throckmortons who had recently moved to the area September 29,1588. The first pointing of the fingers occurred in 1589. The Throckmortons had a large family and were of a wealthy class as best as I can tell. Which automatically COULD point to political motivations in this story like all others but it isn’t proven. Robert Throckmorton, father of Jane Throckmorton (the first child to take ill only one month after they moved to town) was good friends of Sir Henry Cromwell “one of the wealthiest commoners in England” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches_of_Warboys).
Out of good neighborliness 76 year old Alice Samuels on Sunday November 12, 1589 visited the Throckmortons to express wishes of good health for the child and a visit with the family. Not long after Alice’s arrival the child (9 year old Jane) seemed to take more ill and yelled out ‘Look where the old witch sits. Did you ever see one more like a witch than she is?’(The Witches of Warboys sig.A.3.r). Now initially this was dismissed as that of the child being ill and under duress until later when four of the other sisters and some of the household servants also showed signs of the same symptoms. The servants were sent away and replaced but those servants became similarly afflicted. When Alice was brought before the children they seemed to worsen and claimed to want to scratch her.
The affliction came in the guise of physical fits where bodily parts would flail each individually, sneezing fits that lasted at times for a half of an hour and other times silently lay like in a coma or trance while the stomach area would heave up and swell but couldn’t be forced back down. Other symptoms that presented were like that of palsy (paralysis, especially that which is accompanied by involuntary tremors. Google dictionary). In some instances the eldest (seen as the strongest) would have fits which would thrust her out of her bed or if sitting in a chair even break the chair in more than one instance. The accounts given have the daughters not being able to recollect hearing, seeing or feeling while in these states nor what they were saying. These ongoing events happened several times per day.
After inquiring with doctor Barrow on three different occasions and after medications were sent for healing, to no avail, the doctor inquired about the potential for sorcery or witchcraft (now urine was sent out as a part of this attempt of diagnosis but it doesn’t say in what manner it was used for). After that this urine was sent to Master Butler, a family acquaintance, and he sent along the same treatment as Doctor Barrow had. “Exactly a month later, on the same day almost to the hour, two more of Master Throckmorton's daughters fell sick to the same illness that was afflicting Jane.” This lends itself easily to the beginning of believing the possibility of something supernatural at play. “These daughters, two to three years older than Jane, cried out: "Take her away, look where she standeth here before us in a black thrumbed cap it is she that hath bewitched us and she will kill us if you do not take her away.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches_of_Warboys The eldest daughter had even predicted her death and that of the others!
In March 1590 Lady Cromwell conversed about the accusations against her (Alice Samuels). It is said that a locke of Alice’s hair was taken by Lady Cromwell and given to Mrs Throckmorton to burn in order to “weaken the witch’s power”. This was a known folk remedy. According to the accounts given, Lady Cromwell experienced nightmares, got sick and died in 1592. After this occurred Alice was convinced, not via any known torture, to confess. The next day she retracted her statement but she had done this on more than one occasion. The reason for that is unknown. She was then presented to the Bishop of Lincoln and taken to Huntingdon to be imprisoned along with her husband and daughter. They were all tried in the death of Lady Cromwell in April 1593 and her following words from the trial were used against her "Madam, why do you use me thus? I never did you any harm as yet". All three were declared guilty and hanged sometime thereafter.
Please go on to read “The Text, Fact and Fiction” from the Bloomsbury collection for further information about what of this could pertain to political motivations.
Oddly there is no exact date of the hangings that I could find.
Celtic History and Magic
Celtic culture was prominent between 1,000 BCE and 0 AD. They actually ranged throughout Europe, tied together by language rather than ethnicity. Unfortunately a lot has been lost to time, Christianisation, and the Celts own penchant for not writing things down. That doesn’t mean, though, that we have nothing, as archaeology has been able to give us info, on top of the often biased records of the Romans.
The Celts believed in many Gods and Goddesses as well as heroes, I will only list a few here. Anu was the Earth goddess, a goddess of fertility. Cernunnos was a god of nature as well as a god of the underworld. Cerridwen was a moon goddess. Lugh was a sun god. The Morrigan was a war goddess associated with crows. There are many more, some were associated with specific places or landmarks. Often healing deities were associated with water, wells, streams, etc. And it was another popular pattern to see three deities in one or closely associated with each other.
Moving on there is some debate as to whether the Roman reports of human sacrifice by the Celts were true or were propaganda to make the Celts seem barbaric and thus in need of conquering. Animals were sacrificed as well as weapons and jewelry to deities and other ritual contexts. Talking about jewelry, apparently torcs worn around the neck were used as magical talismans.
According to Caesar, the general belief in death was that there was a reincarnation of sorts. One of the things he talked about was that they would have a funeral at a birth to honor the soul that died in the otherworld so that it could be born in this world. One Roman writer thought that the belief in reincarnation was the reason for the fierceness of the celtic warriors.
In a place of power, in the Celtic culture, were the druids. The druids were advisers, poets, holy men that were secretive with their knowledge. All their knowledge was passed on by mouth. I’ve read that training for one person could take up to 20 years. There were also the Fili which were poets and musicians often thought to have magical powers wrapped up in their abilities to create songs or poems. A satire written about someone could be considered a curse.
The Ogham was a Celtic script dating back to the 4th century in Ireland. Each ‘letter’ in the script is associated with a tree or plant. While Oghams are currently often used for divination there is only one ancient story in which it is found. It isn’t described how it was done, only that it used yew branches with the oghams written on them.
This was a challenging research topic as there isn’t a ton of info on the ancient Celtic practices, but I hope you enjoyed what I found and maybe look into it farther yourself.
Tarot
The Six of Swords. It’s time to leave disagreements behind and move on. Take the high road as it were but even more than that just let it go altogether. Pack your bags and take those near and dear with you and leave the rest behind, it’s just not worth the effort to try to prove any point you were attempting to make. Find yourself like minded people and even make new connections if the opportunity presents. However, don’t leave the essence of the argument behind because there is always something to be learned from any given interaction. Ask yourself what you can take away from this experience? I believe there are very few black and white situations and therefore it is good to be open minded about what others have to say even if you don’t agree with them.
In terms of our podcast I think it’s good to know when the time is to leave a bad situation, when it’s no longer advantageous to stand your ground and make your point. Know when to say, “Uncle” especially if the odds are stacked against you. This may just be the excuse to make a change in your life, release and move on.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches_of_Warboys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Celtic_religion#Votive_offerings
https://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/193
https://atlasmythica.com/celtic-magic-spells-rituals-charms/
https://www.theirishroadtrip.com/who-were-the-celts-a-no-bs-guide-to-their-history-and-origin/
https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/celts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham
https://www.carrementbelle.com/blog/en/2019/11/13/origin-incense/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incense
https://bytheriverdesigns.com/blogs/news/the-history-of-incense
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