Each witch who knew how to write kept a small book, where she wrote down recipes for making potions, spells and the results of her work. For the witches, this book, called The Book of Shadows, was something like a lag on the ship and the laboratory journal of the researcher.
In those days, when they were persecuted for witchcraft, it was unsafe to keep such books, so they were carefully hidden. After the death of the witch, her coven friends were advised to choose everything they needed from her, and burn the original (which may have already happened to her compiler).
According to the information that has come down to our days, one can judge about those proven methods that allowed witches to increase their power.
One of the most popular types of witchcraft was called the "hand of glory"
The recipe was simple. The hanged man's hand was chopped off, wrapped with a rag, and then tried to squeeze the remnants of blood out of it. After that, the hand was placed in an earthen pot and marinated with salt, pepper and saltpeter.
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Two weeks later, the contents were taken out and dried in the sun or, if there was fuel, in an oven, adding fern and verbena.
What is such a “hand of glory” for? It was a universal method of witchcraft. It was necessary to set fire to the fingers, and while they burn, make the most vile desires. Martin Del Rio, a demonologist who lived in the 16th century, said that once a thief lit the "hand of glory" and wished that the owners of the house fell asleep, and in the meantime he could ransack all the boxes. Unfortunately for him, the maid saw the thief set fire to his hand. After unsuccessful attempts to fill the fire with water, and even beer, she still managed to extinguish the smoldering fingers by splashing a jug of milk on them. Why she succeeded is still a mystery. The owners immediately woke up, the thief was captured, and the girl was generously rewarded.
The owners of the house could protect themselves from evil spells using a special ointment. The book "Wonderful Secrets of Natural and Kabbalistic Magic of Little Albert" (1772) teaches that the ointment must be prepared when the constellations of the Dogs are visible in the sky, and use three components: the bile of a black cat, the blood of a long-eared owl and the fat of a white chicken. Having smeared the threshold and other places through which one can enter the house with the prepared potion, the owners protected themselves from the spell of the dried hand.
Witch's Loop
Another homebrew means of witchcraft. Its production was not difficult. This requires a long rope or thread and a handful of white goose feathers. (Sometimes black feathers of crows and rooks were used.)
Weaving the threads into a rope, the witch cast spells against the person she wanted to harm. Each time she made a knot, she would curse him and stuck a feather into the knot. After completing the work, she hid her creation in the bed of the unfortunate victim. However, it is known that a stone could be tied to a rope and thrown into a pond. It was believed that along with the bubbles rising to the surface, an evil spell emerged. It was only necessary to remember that the rope consisted of three threads, meaning the magic number, and the feathers had to belong to the male. Thanks to them, the witch could be sure that her curse would overtake the victim. In Italy, such witchcraft was called "la ghirlanda delle strege", or "witch's wreath", "witch's garland".
Bellarmine Pitcher
Named for Cardinal Bellarmine, whose sullen bearded profile was often depicted on the vessel. These jugs were produced in the Rhineland in the 16th century. Traders brought them to England, where they became widespread. However, they were not always used with good intentions.
Bellarmine's jug is a sturdy earthen vessel, pot-bellied, with a narrow neck, which was easy to plug with a Simple cork. Everything was stored in it: from wine to honey. In addition, the jug could be adapted for a witch's potion for imposing and removing curses, so it got another name - "witch's bottle".
Witches, wishing to spoil someone, filled the jug with clippings of nails, hair and urine of the chosen victim. (In the days when chamber pots were widely used, these components were not difficult to obtain.) Sometimes a heart was cut out of red cloth, pierced with pins, and placed in a jug. A tightly sealed vessel was buried in a secluded place or thrown into the river. Now all that was left was to wait for the victim to feel bad and die.
Bellarmine's jug was also used for enchantment protection. If someone believed that he was bewitched, then he himself could collect nails, hair and urine of the alleged witch and put them in his own "magic" bottle. At midnight, with a prayer to the Lord, the bottle had to be put on the fire and bring the contents to a boil. It was believed that as soon as the boiling point approached, the blood in the witch's veins would also boil. In this case, the sorceress was forced to quickly remove her spell. When the jug exploded (an unpleasant thing, especially if you remember what was in it), it was assumed that the witch died.
The custom of using a witch's bottle has been common for many years. In the 1850s, the famous English astrologer and herbal gatherer James Murrell the Sly used it for healing. The witch doctor lived in a small wooden house opposite the Hadley Church. One day he noticed a girl who was in a fit of hysteria: barking like a dog and crawling on all fours. Her family suspected that these were the intrigues of a gypsy, which the girl found in the shed in the morning of the same day and put out on the street. She got away, but grumbled under her breath: "You will regret it, my dear." After that, the seizures began.
Marrel agreed with the relatives' version. He immediately prepared a bottle for the witch, filled it with herbs, pins, and a small amount of the girl's blood and urine. (Although it was considered unusual to use his own "material," it was sometimes practiced.) Then he put the bottle on fire. The room was darkened, the doors were locked. The attendees were asked to keep quiet, otherwise it would not be possible to remove the spell.
It didn't take long, and everyone sitting around the fire heard someone's footsteps approaching the door, and there was an insistent knock. An old woman's voice begged: “For God's sake, stop! You are killing me! A second later, the bottle burst and everything was quiet. The girl's attacks stopped.
The next day, a traveler passing by found the half-burnt corpse of a gypsy woman on the side of the road three miles from the town.