From Coven to Grave

The witch's mark is an intimate marker that warns of an unholy alliance. Very few will have opportunity to see that nipple from which the familiar suckles blood. Those who need to discover a witch before it is too late must look for more external signs. Some are very blatant and others more subtle. When the witch is discovered then he or she must be captured, a job best left to the witch hunters. That requires special equipment if the witch is very powerful, and sometimes even when not. After that there is the trial, which has its own equipment needs. The capture in many ways is the easy part thanks to the skill of the hunters. The confession is paramount but not easy to attain. These are the devotees of the Adversary (the Devil) after all--lies come to them naturally. The last step, passing sentence on a confessed witch has the simplest parts requirement.

In the dead of the night they gather. Travel out to the woods, away from prying eyes. Around the fire they dance and cavort. No special garments denote them for they must be skyclad, their nakedness full and complete beyond mere skin, their wicked souls fully on display. The nudity strips them of rank and importance; they are all supplicants to their evil Master. The rituals of which they partake are dark and ominous, many of them in stark contrast to proper behaviour, such as the Witch's Sabbath. Their vileness knows no bounds as exemplified by the Unholy Water--made in a hole in the ground from the urine of the Master and the members of the coven. They fornicate with all abandon at these gatherings. Yet by day their wantonness remains hidden just as the rest of their fiendishness. No, they must be caught in small lies and tiny sick acts.

The hunt begins once a witch is discovered. Oddly enough holy water doesn't play into our hunter's bag of tricks, due to these hunters not being Catholic--though they have their share of hunters--think instead Protestants, Quakers, or perhaps for a change of pace, Mormons. Other holy items are used. Some of them are not your run of the mill crosses. They include pieces of the cross from Calvary and in the same vein nails from the crucifixion, perhaps even the famed missing fourth nail. There may be other reliquary of more esoteric history. The equipment of the trial includes dunking devices, stocks and legs irons among other painful bindings, and different torture chairs such as the pyramidal Judas Cradle. In the field all it may take is a length of rope and a stream. When it's all done it's off to the stake to burn in the soul cleansing fire.

Mood: judgemental.

Music: One by Metallica and Let Me Hear You Scream by Ozzy Osbourne.

Or get MP3s.

Buy these at Amazon.com Click Images to Buy CDs

Or get MP3s.

Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-9: Let’s Get Physical

The topic of physical components for use in spells cast in horror settings has been touched on only briefly so far. Where the spells are cast and the rituals performed can be a very important first step. A first requirement can be an altar. An altar sounds like a pretty specific thing. They are found in churches of all kinds and not just the forte of evil religions or cults. However, for magic, an altar can mean any separate staging area. The area must be properly set up, or ‘blessed’ as it were. Blessing methods range anywhere from special chants or prayers during the construction of the area, to anointing it in blood or other substances, to cleansing it of the exterior world and its energy. The blessings may even need to be kept up regularly.

Returning to physical components there are staples such as virgin’s blood, eye of newt, frog’s warts--anyone can find warts on a toad--wax, and incense. Some spells and rituals may call for holy water. Others call for unholy water. Unholy water is differentiated from the holy kind beginning with the fact that it has ingredients, only one of which is usually human or animal urine. Changing gears there are different roots and herbs. Mandrake root is a good example of an ingredient that has something innately magical about it from the start. Mandrake is said to scream when pulled from the ground. Then there is the magical component, the Hand of Glory. Initially the Hand of Glory was an alternate name for mandrake root. Since then it has become something vastly different.

A magical object known as a Hand of Glory starts with the severed left (or sinister) hand of a criminal, which is often turned into a candle. Symbolically a Hand of Glory might serve the purpose of a cross, Star of David, staff or sceptre, or even a knife. Knives often hold their own purpose and frequently are blessed similarly to altars. A knife need not only be used for bloodletting or sacrifice. What’s left then, aside from a laundry list of ingredients, are the one other common materials of casting spells, narcotics. Often the practitioners of rituals require being in a specific state of mind. Taking drugs, quite often hallucinogens, helps achieve these altered states. This is traditional to the magic of medicine men around the world, but some still see it as a modern, lackadaisical trend.

Mood: pleased.
Music: Too Young to Fall in Love by Motley Crue and Game of Fear by Royal Hunt.

Buy these at Amazon.ca Click Images to Buy