Scottish Witches and Warlocks

DescriptionMichael Howard‘s Scottish Witches and Warlocks examines the folk beliefs and magical practices of early modern Scotland, constellated especially around witchcraft. Treating matters of spirit-conjuring, herb-magic, and the Diabolical pact itself. Accounts of peculiar personages such as: Isobel Gowdie, the Aberdeen Witches, Dr. John Fian, the North Berwick coven, Sir Robert Gordon of Gourdeston, and the Witches of Auldearn.In the village of at Cullen in Forfarshire. An arrest warrant was served in 1657 for one Margaret Philp, accused of practicing witchcraft. Her servant Isobel Imblaugh, testified she had seen her mistress have dealings with a spirit. Taking the form of a talking hare. She had also seen Philp put out bannock, a jug of beer and a piece of meat for the sprite. The next morning all was gone. On another occasion the spirit-hare allegedly entered the house through an open window and drank beer left out for it in a bowl.Far from an isolated account, magical traffic with such spirits, was well-documented into the 19th century. Highlanders left offerings of milk at prehistoric burial mounds and standing stones, for the faeries known as brownies. Magical intercourse with fairies was but a small part of Scottish witchcraft belief. It also held that witches stole milk from their neighbours’ cows, and raised storms to drown those they disliked. They produced wasting diseases to make their enemies fall ill or die or they could keep a baby inside its mother’s womb beyond her normal term. They could transform into animal forms so they could roam the countryside causing mischief and mayhem.Three Hands Press ✢ Softcover