Many people have risen to the heights of fame and fame due to their supposed knowledge of magic and arcane knowledge. For some, laying parquet is something secret and incomprehensible, but some, thanks to their talent, have become rich and famous, others have become victims of violent death.
The people in the list below came from different walks of life and from different periods of history, some with a friendly disposition and some creepy. But they all had one thing in common and the world still remembers these people as witches and sorcerers.
10. Mall Dyer
Moll Dyer is a 17th century woman in St Mary's County, Maryland. Much about her is shrouded in mystery, but everyone knew that she was a strange woman. A herbal healer and outcast who survived on the generosity of others, she was ultimately accused of witchcraft and her hut was set on fire on the cold night. But she fled into the forest, and for several days no one saw her … until a local boy found her body.
Moll Dyer died of cold on a large rock, kneeling with her hand raised, cursing the men who attacked her. Her knees left a mark on the stone. The villagers quickly found out that they had disturbed the wrong woman. The curse of the Mall Dyer fell on the city, and for several centuries, it caused cold winters and epidemics.
Her ghost, often accompanied by various strange animals, has been seen many times and is still said to haunt the place. Her macabre reputation ultimately became the inspiration for The Blair Witch. Although Moll Dyer is an influential folk figure in American witchcraft, no reliable historical evidence of her existence has been found.
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9. Laurie Cabot
Laurie Cabot was a popular sorceress in the United States. A Californian girl with a legendary history as a dancer, her keen interest in the arts of witchcraft led her to New England. After studying witchcraft for several years, she opened a shop in Salem, Massachusetts, the historic epicenter of the witch hunt. Initially, she was wary of declaring herself a witch.
But when her black cat got stuck in a tree and sat on it for many days, and the fire brigade refused to rescue her, she was forced to say that she needed a cat for rituals. The year was 1970 and the word "witch" was like a stigma in Salem. The cat was immediately rescued by extremely meek and polite firefighters.
Cabot has become a national celebrity. She created a coven of witches and opened a witchcraft shop, which instantly became popular. The store, which later moved to the Internet, became a favorite destination for tourists. Cabot has become one of the top-class witches in the world. Even the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, declared her the official "Witch of Salem" for her positive influence and good work in society.
Cabot claims that any evil curse sent by the witch will return to her and her evil intent will not be fulfilled. According to her, witchcraft is all together magic and astrology and a sense of nature.
8. George Pickingill
George Pickingill sounds like he stepped out of the pages of a horror novel. A tall, intimidating 19th century man with a hostile demeanor and long, sharp nails. He was a famous cunning man who practiced folk witchcraft. Old George, as they called him, was a farm laborer who claimed to be a hereditary witcher.
Its magical lineage can be traced all the way back to the 11th century, to the witch Julia Pickingill, who was a kind of magical assistant to the local lord. Pickingill was a vile, unsympathetic person who often terrorized other villagers for money and beer. However, he was respected as much as feared. George was said to be a skilled healer and sometimes settled disputes between villagers.
In secret circles, Pikinjill was a superstar - essentially Aleister Crowley of his day. He was recognized as an assistant to the ancient horned god, a frequent ally of the Satanists, and wielded the main power in the arts of witchcraft. Even his lawyer was wanted by other witches. However, this power was somewhat tainted by the fact that Pickinjill was something of a fanatic (he could approve of a coven if the members could prove they were of pure descent), and something of a misogynist (all work on his coven was made by women who also had to submit to some rather dubious conditions).
7. Angela de la Barte
Angela de la Barte was a noblewoman and notorious witch who lived in the 13th century. She was burned at the stake by the Inquisition for a series of atrocious deeds. Her crimes were limited not only to sexual relations with a demon, the birth of a demon of a snake and a wolf, accused of the disappearance of children, but also to the fact that she was generally an unpleasant person.
In reality, of course, Angela was possibly a mentally ill woman, and her main crime was to support a religious sect of Gnostic Christianity that the Catholic Church denied. Her unusual behavior led to accusations of witchcraft, which in turn resulted in a gruesome death. In those days, this fate was quite common.
6. Magician Abramelin
The true story, about such a 15th century personality as the magician Abrmelin, has been lost. However, his legacy continues to live on in the form of thousands of followers and imitators. Abramelin was a powerful sorcerer who is described by Abraham Würzburg, a disciple of the magician who convinced Abramelin to pass on his secrets to him. Abraham did painstaking work on the Abramelin magical system, which includes complex processes of commanding the spirits, evil and good.
The system was based on magical symbols that could only be activated at certain times and using certain rituals.
In 1900, the manuscript was printed as a book called The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin. The book became an instant hit in the occult community, and had a direct impact on notorious practitioners such as Aleister Crowley.
5. Alice Kiteler
For a long time, Ireland was less stressed about witchcraft than mainland Europe. Ultimately, the witch hunt arrived there too. One of the earliest and most famous victims was Dame Alice Keeteler, a wealthy usurer whose husbands had an unpleasant habit of dying and leaving her everything. The fourth husband began to feel sick, and the children began to stink like rats - just when they saw that their father was going to leave Kitteler.
In 1324, the church recognized Lady Kiteler in a conspiracy with a secret heretical society. She was not only the first Irish woman to be accused of witchcraft, but also the one to have a relationship with an incubus. The authorities tried to jail Alice several times, but she had many allies and, each time, avoided the sentence.
Ultimately, Kiteler disappeared, leaving her son and servant behind. She is said to have fled to England, where she lived in luxury for the rest of her days. Whether she really showed herself in the dark arts or not, she is remembered to this day as the first witch in Ireland.
4. Tamsin Blythe
A famous 19th-century figure in Cornwall, England, Tamsin Blythe was a highly respected healer and natural witch. The term natural witch came from the fact that European villages were surrounded by a fence or forest, and acted as a symbol of the border between this world and another. Blythe was said to be particularly good at removing spells and curses, as well as healing. She could go into a trance and predict the future.
Either way, she also had an arsenal of bad fetishes, and her reputation was tarnished by her husband, James Thomas, a magician just like her. Although Thomas was a respected magician, he often drank and began to bully, for which everyone did not like him. Ultimately, Tamsin broke up with him, but they reunited at the end of her life.
Tamsin Blythe's curses have been effective in practice, due to her reputation and respect. Tamsin cursed the shoemaker for not fixing her shoes - she was not going to pay for it - as a result, she said that he would be out of work. When there was a rumor about this, no one began to do business with this man, as a result of which he was forced to leave his place.
3. Eliphas Levi
Alphonse Louis Constant was known as Eliphas Levi Zahed. He demanded that the name given from birth be translated into Hebrew. Alphonse was the man in charge of the mystical arts as they are known today. During the 19th century, Eliphas Levi explored a variety of faiths, from Christianity to Judaism, to combine beliefs such as the Tarot and the writings of historical alchemists into a strange hybrid that became known as "Occultism."
A trained theologian who almost became a priest, Levi was always more of a scholar than a practicing magician. However, he was extremely charismatic and had extensive knowledge in many areas of witchcraft. He has written many books on ritual magic. Levi was especially famous for his work Baphomet, a satanic deity allegedly worshiped by the Knights of the Templar Order.
He considered this figure to be a representation of the "absolute." Eliphas painted the famous painting "Baphomet" as a winged, female figure with a goat's head. One of the first pictures anyone will think of when occultism is mentioned.
2. Raymond Buckland
Raymond Buckland, "Father of American Wicca" was deeply impressed by contemporary Gardnerian Wicca. He took the teachings of Gerald Gardner in The New World and eventually refined it in his own variation called Six-Wicca.
A veteran of witchcraft, Backland has been involved in covens since the 60s, usually as a leader. He is a Vican priest and a respected expert on all neo-pagan things. Until his retirement from active witchcraft in 1992, he spent decades as the most recognized and foremost expert in the magical craft. He now lives in rural Ohio, where he writes books on witchcraft and continues to practice a secluded version of his magical craft.
1. Agnes Waterhouse
Agnes Waterhouse, commonly known as Mother Waterhouse, was one of the most famous witches England has ever known. The crimes she was charged with were pretty heinous - Mother Waterhouse and two other witches were put on trial for fun with the devil, cursing people, and even bodily harm and multiple deaths due to their black magic.
The amazing thing is that the church didn't do anything about Agnes. She was the first English witch to be sentenced to death by a secular court. In her testimony, Agnes openly admitted to practicing the dark arts and devil worship.
Agnes had a cat, which she called Satan, which she claimed to send to kill the livestock of her enemies, or, on occasion, the enemies themselves. She was a sinner and claimed that Satan told her - she would die, hanged or planted alive, and Agnes could not do anything about it. Waterhouse's mother was indeed sentenced to be hanged, despite the fact that two other witches facing similar charges were released (one was found innocent, the other was sentenced to a year in prison - although later charges led to her death).
Her satanic bravado vanished somewhere after the verdict. On her way to the gallows, Waterhouse made one final confession - she once did not kill a man because his strong faith in God prevented Satan from touching him. She went to her death praying for God's forgiveness.
