STREGONERIA E MEDICINA. - Among primitive peoples, the priest-sorcerer receives, in a particular state, whether natural or induced (shamanism, alcoholic intoxication, mediumism), a so-called "light of revelation" for therapeutic purposes; in demoniatry, whoever is capable of "marking" certain diseases was born under determinate conditions. At first the healer is only the link between divinity and man, a priest who stands between the divinity and the patient; at a later stage he himself arrogates to himself the power of good and evil, transforming himself into a magician and deriving his power from special rites or maneuvers; as such he is found both among primitive peoples and among the present-day inhabitants of the countryside. Among primitive peoples the sorcerer, at the head of the entire population of the village, is the center of veritable rites for driving out demons, in cases of epidemic or of illness of a member of the community; at other times, in secret or in public, he performs rites or ceremonies to cause diseases.
In demoniatry, alongside the religious element is placed the magical element; accordingly, to determinate persons is attributed the faculty both of causing and of removing harm, both of provoking and of curing diseases. Witches have such power by birth or by initiation and apply it by means of "spells," generally through an operation with a criminal background, whether acting directly on the victim (bewitchment) or on some figure or thing that represents her (transfert). By the same methods they can undo what they have accomplished.
Alongside that linked to "spells," the work of witchcraft was directed to the preparation of amulets, talismans and philtres that would grant youth, honors, love, riches, but in particular it was linked to the cure of diseases. Peasants and common folk, when, in their opinion, official medical science failed to achieve the goal, resorted (and still do!) to the witch who well knew the virtues of simple medicines and administered juices of herbs, especially those with a soothing effect, such as the solanaceae. Witches, besides having a remedy for every ill, also possessed deadly ones and knew well how to manipulate poisons; they were also midwives and gynecologists, often not with good intent; for every occasion they had a remedy, from abortive methods to chastity waters or aphrodisiacs. To diseases attributed to the work of witchcraft are assigned particular characteristics, above all those of not being identifiable with a characteristic nosographic picture and of presenting a symptomatology extraordinary in its developments and not explicable by common pathogenesis; such as, for example, a dietary disorder, a traumatic toxic or infective cause, etc. It is a question of an inexplicable and progressive wasting away (one of the most characteristic forms of the "spell") or of loss of sexual faculty or of memory. Such a pathology from witchcraft is not, as is clear, susceptible of experimental control; it therefore remains unverifiable and undefinable in a scientific manner, assumes a vague and debatable physiognomy that lends itself very well to a subjective and fantastic interpretation. On the other hand, from such a pathology must be distinguished the disturbances and diseases really provoked by poisonous substances subtly administered, or by suggestion or staged by vulgar tricks.
Witchcraft acquired dark hues particularly in the Middle Ages, an epoch in which it was not judged as it deserved also from the psychopathic point of view, but only from the religious one, as a grave sin of impiety and demonolatry. At present this medieval form of witchcraft is considered a toxic psychosis, often collective, linked to the abuse of stupefacient substances by inhalation, by friction, or in drinks. Indeed, in a closed environment saturated with fumigations of stupefacient substances, the witches anointed the entire surface of the body with an ointment based on the same, sometimes adding also their internal use in the form of philtres and decoctions. Such toxic substances, used by witches, were aconite, mandrake, belladonna, henbane, opium, Indian hemp (hashish) and other substances today identified as stupefacients (v.). Thus, in a state of delirium, the witches really believed they had gone to the infernal "sabbaths" and on awakening were ready to swear to the reality of what they had seen in the delirium and even to end their existence at the stake.
The initial ceremony of the career was the pact with the devil, signed with one's own blood on a virginal parchment of a child's skin, in an environment saturated with narcotics, in a delirious atmosphere of satanic nightmare. In such circumstances the devil appeared to grant, in exchange for the soul of the woman being consecrated as a witch and for her submission to his will, a first period of happiness and of
(courtesy of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Rome) STREIT, ROBERT - Portrait.
wealth. On the other hand, the witch would acquire a power superior to any human power, through particular ceremonies involving bloody sacrifices culminating in ritual murders, with a liturgy in honor of Satan, mimicking the very rituals of divine cults; often an apostate priest was required for such rites. The crime was thus joined to the most foul sacrilege. In reality, often their work, apart from any presumed diabolical intervention, was capable of marvelous effects, since they were knowledgeable about human nature, the powers of physical substances, and the virtues of herbs.
Popular tradition has depicted witches in art as types of old women of ugly and repulsive appearance; on the contrary, they were generally very beautiful women and full of riches derived from their often shady and illicit earnings. Regarding the moral judgment of witchcraft, v. MAGIA. - See plate C.
Bibliography7 works
Gustavo M. Apollon