diseases that would lead a person to waste away and die. Sexual afflictions, such as impotence and frigidity, were routinely ascribed to having been “overlooked,” another way of describing the evil eye, and during childbirth the woman’s house would be sprinkled with urine as a preventive measure.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the witch craze was sweeping Europe, the evil eye was a charge often leveled at the unfortunates on trial. It was generally believed that when a witch made her compact with Satan, in return for doing his bidding on earth she received, along with other favors, the ability to cast spells with her eyes. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, the witchcraft manual compiled by two Dominican friars (and containing instructions on the torture, interrogation, and execution of the accused), “there are witches who can bewitch their judges by a mere look or glance from their eyes, and publicly boast that they cannot be punished.” As aresult, many of the people charged with witchcraft were led into the courtroom backward.
Theoretically, the evil eye had its most devastating power when it first landed on the object of its intent. In other words, if you could avert a direct gaze for an instant, you could deflect its power; for that reason, people in some parts of Europe wore amulets, in the shape of a toad or a hunchback, which were thought to soak up some of the venom. In ancient Greece, they wore talismans of Medusa or the caduceus of the god Mercury; Romans wore beads made to look like a human eye or gold, silver, or bronze phalli (symbolic of the life force). Even such seemingly harmless customs as wearing a bridal veil and a boutonniere can be traced back to the belief in the evil eye: by wearing the veil, a bride is protected from the envious gaze of any ill-wisher, while the colorful flower in a man’s lapel will surely draw any eye first to the blossom instead of the face of the man wearing it.
But there were other ways, too, to ward off the evil eye. Spitting three times was a good precaution, as was carrying salt, a symbol of life and purification, in the pocket. Touching iron or carrying iron keys was recommended, as iron was credited with supernatural powers. The color red was useful, too: in England, homeowners sometimes nailed a red ribbon over the door, and in Scotland, farmers tied a red ribbon to the tails of their cattle.
A couple of hand gestures were popular remedies, too: one, called the mano fica (roughly translated, the “poking hand"), was made by inserting the thumb between the first and second fingers while making a fist; the other, the mano cornuta ("making the Devil’s horns") involved holding down the two middle fingers with the thumb while sticking up the index and little fingers. Parents could protect their children by making the sign of the cross with their tongues on the children’s foreheads or by tying little bells around their necks; the jingling of the bells was a sign of good luck. By one account, a Yorkshireman who was burdened with the unwanted power to throw the evil eye was very careful, first thing every morning, to look out the window at a pear tree in the yard. That first look of the day is considered themost lethal, and though the pear tree withered and died, his friends and family were spared the deadly rays.
THE BLACK MASS
The Mass, the sharing of the holy sacraments with the Christian faithful, is a ritual of such significance and power, its every element, from the words to the wine, so infused with meaning, that it would be surprising if it had not been altered or desecrated for occult and unworthy purposes.
And, of course, it has.
The Black Mass, the unholy parody of the Christian ritual, has been used for centuries by witches and sorcerers, to invoke not God, but Satan, to promote not good, but evil, and to achieve not sacred goals, but profane ones. Among these unholy aims, undoubtedly the worst has been the actual killing
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the witch craze was sweeping Europe, the evil eye was a charge often leveled at the unfortunates on trial. It was generally believed that when a witch made her compact with Satan, in return for doing his bidding on earth she received, along with other favors, the ability to cast spells with her eyes. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, the witchcraft manual compiled by two Dominican friars (and containing instructions on the torture, interrogation, and execution of the accused), “there are witches who can bewitch their judges by a mere look or glance from their eyes, and publicly boast that they cannot be punished.” As aresult, many of the people charged with witchcraft were led into the courtroom backward.
Theoretically, the evil eye had its most devastating power when it first landed on the object of its intent. In other words, if you could avert a direct gaze for an instant, you could deflect its power; for that reason, people in some parts of Europe wore amulets, in the shape of a toad or a hunchback, which were thought to soak up some of the venom. In ancient Greece, they wore talismans of Medusa or the caduceus of the god Mercury; Romans wore beads made to look like a human eye or gold, silver, or bronze phalli (symbolic of the life force). Even such seemingly harmless customs as wearing a bridal veil and a boutonniere can be traced back to the belief in the evil eye: by wearing the veil, a bride is protected from the envious gaze of any ill-wisher, while the colorful flower in a man’s lapel will surely draw any eye first to the blossom instead of the face of the man wearing it.
But there were other ways, too, to ward off the evil eye. Spitting three times was a good precaution, as was carrying salt, a symbol of life and purification, in the pocket. Touching iron or carrying iron keys was recommended, as iron was credited with supernatural powers. The color red was useful, too: in England, homeowners sometimes nailed a red ribbon over the door, and in Scotland, farmers tied a red ribbon to the tails of their cattle.
A couple of hand gestures were popular remedies, too: one, called the mano fica (roughly translated, the “poking hand"), was made by inserting the thumb between the first and second fingers while making a fist; the other, the mano cornuta ("making the Devil’s horns") involved holding down the two middle fingers with the thumb while sticking up the index and little fingers. Parents could protect their children by making the sign of the cross with their tongues on the children’s foreheads or by tying little bells around their necks; the jingling of the bells was a sign of good luck. By one account, a Yorkshireman who was burdened with the unwanted power to throw the evil eye was very careful, first thing every morning, to look out the window at a pear tree in the yard. That first look of the day is considered themost lethal, and though the pear tree withered and died, his friends and family were spared the deadly rays.
THE BLACK MASS
The Mass, the sharing of the holy sacraments with the Christian faithful, is a ritual of such significance and power, its every element, from the words to the wine, so infused with meaning, that it would be surprising if it had not been altered or desecrated for occult and unworthy purposes.
And, of course, it has.
The Black Mass, the unholy parody of the Christian ritual, has been used for centuries by witches and sorcerers, to invoke not God, but Satan, to promote not good, but evil, and to achieve not sacred goals, but profane ones. Among these unholy aims, undoubtedly the worst has been the actual killing
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