DEATH BY SORCERY

Killing by an act of sorcery was practised in the remote past. Surprisingly, it has been practised in more recent times as well. The method is to use an image or effigy of the enemy who is to be destroyed and inflict harm on them by way of the image.

A conspiracy is said to have been aimed at Duff, King of Scotland from 962 to 966. The king was suffering from some ailment without any obvious physical cause. He had painful sweats, could not sleep, and was wasting away. A group of sorceresses or witches in the town of Forres was suspected of planning to assassinate him. They were caught in the act of basting an effigy of the king over a fire and reciting spells as they did so. The image was destroyed, and the witches were themselves brought to trial, condemned, and burned. King Duff recovered sufficiently to lead his army against the rebels who had conspired against him and deliver retribution.

In the Middle Ages, effigies used for death by sorcery were usually made of wax, which melted easily in a flame. Presumably the idea was that by magic this would cause a wasting of the victim’s flesh. The witches described these effigies as “pictures.” In later times, the effigies were more commonly made of clay. Thorns, pins, and needles were pushed into the soft clay, as if sticking knives into flesh. “Elf-arrows” (crude flint-flake darts) were thrown at the clay image to the accompaniment of spells. Finally the clay image was broken up. At this point it was expected that the victim would give up the ghost.

A few decades ago one of these clay effigies was found in a Highland stream. It had been placed there so the water would gradually wear it away, implying that the sorcerer wanted his enemy to suffer a long and slow decline.

Another clay effigy, in the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, came from Inverness and was donated by a “Major G” of that county. It was “intended for the Major,” and had been stuck full of pins and nails and left at his house.

A minister in the Scottish Highlands had a similar experience. He appeared to be suffering from some sort of wasting disease and when his friends investigated they found a clay effigy in the stream beside his house.

Within the last century or so, sheeps’ hearts fioll of pins have been discovered stuck up the chimneys of cottages in both Scotland and Wales.

These things happened in modern communities that professed to be Christian, yet ancient pagan Celtic practices still went on. And perhaps they still do.