On this
matter, the expert in African magic, Miad Hoyora Korahon, related the
following:
« The African natives call
"sorcerers" and "witches" to individuals who have "the
power to change their skin at will," and this phrase is the local
expression used by the natives to refer to the fact that these people have the
ability to project his astral body, which is said to be an acquirable faculty,
but which is also hereditary in many families.
And it is
also said that all renowned practitioners of Obeah magic can do everything that
witches do, and therefore that they are able to keep witches at bay.
Generally,
this unfolding operation is supposed to be carried out after dark and always in
a cool and unfrequented place.
So first the
witch undresses completely, and having placed herself in a comfortable
position, she sings a song, at the end of which she "changes her skin,"
that is, her physical body remains unconscious, while with her astral body she
moves freely.
And the
individual can then become invisible at will, or assume the form of any person
or thing she wishes, and is also able to fly through the air and pass through
walls and other obstacles without difficulty.
The normal
form of the “skinless warlock,” when visible, is compared to an egg-shaped mass
of dim light. And all the descriptions I have heard (and there are many)
compare this luminosity to the phosphorescence of decaying fish or rotting
wood, when seen in the dark.
This
luminosity is further described as forming a kind of semi-transparent mist
envelope, through which if one is close enough, the characteristics and shape
of the individual can be recognized, only the size being somewhat smaller than
in its ordinary corporeal form.
And among
the descriptions I have heard about this appearance, the following is one of
the most striking:
« Recently,
at night five men were rowing across the sea from a bay to go towards a large
village.
When they
were about a mile from their destination, they saw a mass of faint light coming
toward them at a height of about eight feet above the water.
The men were
very afraid at first, since they did not know what it was, but that luminous
mass passed over their heads, and then they realized that it was a man who
moved through the air as if he were floating, or rather as if he “swims”
through the air moving his limbs.
Then they
knew quite well who it was, but they did not confess to having recognized the
person. However, in that village there are at least two men and several women
who are attributed with more or less frequent actions of this type. »
The witches
The most
feared are the women who practice this “witchcraft”, and in particular the old
women whom the natives look at as witches used to be looked at in Europe; and
the "tricks" for which they are most feared are those they are accused
of performing unseen (i.e., in their astral form).
The
"tricks" they are usually accused of are two:
-
Entering
houses at night invisibly when people are asleep and sucking their blood.
-
And
“draw the shadow” of small children.
1) It has
been proven that on some occasions there has been blood sucking, since traces
of blood have been found on the bed, on the clothes and on the floor, but there
is nothing to prove that the witches did it. And so, so far that accusation
seems to be more of a "superstitious belief."
And from a
scientific point of view, there are no bats in this area, but there are on a
neighboring island that is only separated from it by a strait about seventeen
miles wide. There, bats are quite common and do a lot of damage, sucking the
blood of both humans and animals. And from time to time very large bats have
been killed here, and one night a few weeks ago, at a friend's house, one was
killed in my presence, and from its appearance, I have no doubt that it was one
of those undesirables species.
2) As for
“drawing the shadow” it sounds like an element of quaint old world mischief. And
here it means extracting the shadow (astral form?) of a child. But whatever
effect that procedure may have, I have not been able to learn practical details
of the modus operandi .
What the
natives have told me is that when a witch wants to hurt a family, she chooses
the last baby born as the most vulnerable point, and normally before the child
turns one year old she carries out her attack.
It is said
that by some as yet unexplained procedure, the witch extracts the child's
shadow, and the result is that the child becomes distressed, refuses to eat,
and soon dies. But it is also alleged that the witch can reverse this curse by
kissing and rocking the child, thus restoring her shadow, with which the child
quickly recovers.
This story
is quite suggestive to me. It reminds me of a strange German romance called
"Peter Schimmell" (or a
similar name), by Adalbert V. Chamisso, about a person who sold his shadow to
the devil, and if I remember correctly, made a good deal with that transaction .
And it also
reminds me of a very famous master of antiquity, who is said to have cast no
shadow when he walked outside, probably because on such occasions there was
nothing corporeal enough about him to cast one.
And it also
reminds me of a photographer, who had been in Arabia, and who told me that some
people there flatly refused to be photographed because by doing so, the photographer
would imprison their shadows and thereby gain magical power over them.
And perhaps
these people knew the story told of Nimrood who was once desirous of harming a
king, and for this purpose placed a portrait of the king before him, and by
continually contemplating his face and exercising his power of will, affected
the king's health so seriously that he ended up dying.
And another
interesting anecdote that I have been told about the procedure of changing the
skin through the use of a spell was the following:
« One day in
1875, at the parish school, the children went out to lunch and they were all
sitting in the shade of a tree.
A girl of
about 8 years old named JB, said that she had forgotten to bring her lunch, but
that if the others gave her some of theirs, she would show them how her
grandmother (with whom she lived) changed her skin when she was going crazy.
The children
agreed and after having eaten the girl moved away a little and told them to
watch her.
First he
undressed and then sat on the grass and began to sing a song whose words were
not understood by his audience. The song didn't last long before the singer lay
down to her full length on the grass, and as the last words left her lips, two
little JBs appeared before them: one standing and the other lying down.
The children
were very scared and ran to tell the teacher, but by the time the teacher
arrived at the scene, only one JB remained, sitting calmly on the grass, with
her clothes on. And since the grandmother was a witch with a bad reputation,
the teacher sent JB to her house with instructions not to return. »
JB is still
alive and grown up, and I have met about ten eyewitnesses to that event. And
all the narratives of the act of “changing the skin” have a strong general
resemblance to this story that I just told you, and it would seem that the use
of the “spell” here replaces the use of “projection powders” (that is, drugs).that
are used in other regions.
Or the
strong mental effort that occult students have to make who rehearse this
operation by the process prescribed in Eastern esotericism and which imposes
all the tension on the will of the practitioner when he is not assisted by a
personal guide.
Defense against witches
The natives
employ various methods to avoid the evils supposedly done by witches, and one
of the most common is to draw around a house a wide chalk line, or a circle of
chalk crosses, which are frequently redrawn because It is popularly believed
that no witch inside or outside the skin can cross a chalk line.
And the
Obeahmen (that is, the practitioners of Obeah magic) are considered to be able
to counteract the witches, so parents bring their children to the Obeahmen to
be "washed", so that no sorcerer or other evil power can affect them.
And the water that is used on those occasions to wet the children is a
decoction of roots and other substances whose ingredients I still do not know,
if there are any particular ingredients.
And it is
said that the Obeahmen of past times used a kind of ceremony to capture witches
when they were "skinless", and in part that ritual consisted of the
Obeahman, upon detecting the witch, drawing a small circle of chalk on the
ground and projected a blow towards the witch with a sharp knife or other
weapon, and the movement of the blow was to continue towards the ground until
the weapon became stuck inside the circle.
This forced
the witch to enter the circle and materialize, thus remaining at the mercy of
the Obeahman until she was allowed to leave. But this operation is currently
considered to be "among the lost arts."
Today it is
said that complete control over a witch can be gained by finding and taking
possession of her "skin" (that is, her physical body), as is reported
to have happened to the "swan maidens" and "men."
wolf" from Norse mythology, in similar situations.
And as
mentioned before, skinless warlocks can assume any form they wish; and there
are stories where it is said that they have taken the form of other people; but
there are also stories where it is said that they have taken the form of
animals.
Like for
example:
« On a
neighboring island, an individual who was wanted by the police had been chased
to a dead end, but surprisingly he disappeared and in his place a large black
dog appeared, which flew towards the police officers and directed them. And it
was previously reported that the same individual had escaped from the prison
gang under a similar metamorphosis. »
And many are
the similar stories that have reached my ears about witches and Obeahmen
turning into wild cats, snakes, rocks, ant nests, etc. And although there is
surely a lot of imagination in it, there is probably also an undercurrent of
truth based on the transformation that these individuals manage to effect with
the astral body.
However,
nothing of that kind has yet come within the scope of my own investigations,
and I imagine that even in real cases, an eyewitness would find it very
difficult to distinguish between a true transformation, and a mental spell
where one he made the witness believe that there was such a transformation.
The sorcerers
And having
told you about witches, let me also give you an example of what I have been
told about sorcerers.
« In August
of last year, I was staying in a nearby city, and one night I went to visit my
friend Dr. R who had invited me to dinner, but when I arrived, he was absent,
so I waited for him.
Shortly
afterward he arrived and apologized for keeping me waiting, saying that he had
been called unexpectedly to see a patient. After dinner, he told me that I
might be interested in hearing some details about the case he had handled and
that he would like to hear my opinion on it.
He had been
called to calm a colored woman (a widow, about 35 years old) who was suffering
from a severe nervous shock, which she explained by telling him that she had
been awake in bed the night before, when she suddenly started when she saw him
enter his bedroom, apparently through the window, to a lame, bad-tempered black
man who lived nearby named J.
The man
began to advance towards her with the obvious intention of abusing her. However,
she grabbed a jug of water and threw it at him. And apparently she hit him in
the waist, but the jug went through him and smashed against the wall, while the
man quickly disappeared.
The woman
said the man had threatened and worried her before, but not to that extent. And
Dr. R added that her patient was weak and suffering from some severe fright,
but that there was nothing in her condition that would cause hallucinations,
and he did not know what to make of that story that she had told him counted.
I gave him
my opinion as he had requested (which was that this individual had split) but
Dr. R, being a very incredulous man, naturally maintained that my explanation
was very dubious. On the other hand, I did see it as very feasible and my only
doubt was whether the patient had really experienced it or if she had imagined
it.
But that
dissipated the next morning when I met Dr. P, who was a professional rival of
my friend.
I asked Dr. P.
where he had been, and he told me that he had gone to visit a lame man named J
who had cut himself badly in the groin about two days ago “when he fell among
some broken glass,” in his words. But as Dr. P himself pointed out, the groin
was an unusual place to land, and it was curious that he couldn't find glass
shards in the wounds, which were deep! »
This is an
example of the uses made by witches who are capable of unfolding. And this is
one of the gentlest uses that the wicked would put to such power, if the mode
of effecting it became more popularly known.
The use of trees
The
“Silk-Cotton” tree (Bombax Ceiba),
which is not uncommon here closely resembles its East Indian congener the
“Simal.” It grows to a great height and size, and supports itself by immense
buttresses thrown out from its root. This tree is the one which, in this part
of the world, represents to the black man a combination of the affinities
ascribed by the natives of India to the Pipal and the Seris trees, besides
other qualities.
Few black
men can be induced to fell one of these trees, and that only when supplied with
rum rum, part of which is librated to the “spirit” of the tree, and (the
greater) part drunk; the sacrifice of a fowl at the foot of the tree is
generally also a requisite, and then the felling proceeds amid profuse
apologies to the “spirit” who is supposed to inhabit it.
Besides
being the habitation of some sort of (elemental?) spirit, (which is generally
described as a white woman frequently with a child in her arms, and another on
foot beside her) to which the (Methodist Christian) black men are continually
offering food, cloth, etc., on the sky: the Silk-Cotton tree is of great
importance to Hags.
Its height,
the shape of its huge branches, the hollows formed by buttresses, and perhaps
other points, combine to make it a safe and suitable place for a Hag to change
his or her skin in, and in which to have the empty skin or body. Also, several
very large specimens of this tree in different parts of the country, are
believed to be the meeting places of the Hags, when they gather from time to
time “to consult or to told their sabbats.
Only the other day, it was reported
to me that the night before, one of these trees, a few miles from my house, had
been seen occupied by over a dozen ‘balls of fire,’ each of which was a Hag;
but I regret to say I did not witness the occurrence.
To the smoke
of tinder made from the decayed wood of the Silk-Cotton tree, is attributed the
power of instantaneously turning sick and killing Hags (whether m or out of
their skins) who are brought in contact with it but it does not appear to be
frequently made use of for that purpose.
The
operations of Hags are believed to be in some way influenced by the moon and
the ‘Yellow Sandus’ tree (Bocida Capitata)
which, when dressed is said by the black men to vary its color with the changes
of the moon, is stated to be used by Hags for some purpose, as yet unknown to
me.
But, I have
had the curiosity to have a piece of that wood planed up, and have now had it
under observation for some months, without perceiving any variation of color
whatever during that time. »
(Theosophist,
May 1891, p.474-479)
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