Dictionary of Witchcraft

Hand of the Hanged Man

The hand of a man who has been hanged should be wrapped in a strip from a mortuary shroud. It should be wrapped tightly enough to squeeze out any remaining blood, then put into an earthen container, together with salt, saltpeter ... and pepper. It should be left in the container for fifteen days, then exposed to bright sun during dog days, until completely dried. Then a sort of candle should be prepared, using grease from the hanged man, virgin wax, and sesame from Lapland. The hand of the hanged man is used as a chandelier to hold the lighted candle. Wherever one goes with this fatal instrument, those present will remain motionless, just as if they were dead.

A Norman named Harppe was at the point of death. He ordered his wife to bury him in a standing position in front of the kitchen door in order that he might not be completely cut off from the smell of her stews ... and might see what was going on in the house. The wife docilely and faithfully executed his command. But a few weeks after his death, he began to appear frequently in the form of a hideous ghost who killed workmen and molested the neighbors to such a degree that no one dared remain in the village. One peasant, named Olaus Pa, was bold enough to attack the vampire. He struck him a hard blow with a lance and left the weapon in the wound. The specter disappeared, and Olaus had the dead man’s tomb opened the next day ... and found his lance in Harppe’s body.

A gentleman wrote that he had gone, on Sunday, New Year’s Day in 1623, to Notre-Dame in Paris to talk about the conversion of his lackey, Jean Hélias. “I finally found him half-asleep by the fire,” the gentleman wrote. “His head was propped against the wall and his eyes and mouth were open. I said to him: ‘Get up, you sot!’ ‘Sire,’ he answered, ‘I am lost, I am dead, the devil has just tried to make off with me.’ He reported that he had heard a voice which he had at first assumed to be mine, but that on discovering the truth, he had made the sign of the cross, saying: ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and may the Virgin Mary help me.’ The persistent devil disappeared. He came back several times, but had no success. Hélias was converted, and everything turned out well.”

The ancients, most of our contemporaries, and cabbalists especially locate hell in the center of the earth. Dr. Swinden in his research on fire and hell assumes that hell is in the sun “because the sun is everlasting fire.” Others have added that the damned are forever engaged in keeping the fire burning, and that the spots that appear on the round surface of the sun following great catastrophes are produced simply by the excessive number of people sent there... . We read in the Bible that no mortal has returned from hell, but we have testimony from several pious chroniclers that several other trustworthy people have made the journey in flesh and bone and have returned with their reports on events in hell. Among these is the account of an English monk whose activities are related in the first person: “I had St. Nick as my guide. He led me down a flat road to a huge, horrible place teeming with dead people that were being tormented in a thousand terrifying ways.”

Son of Catherine de Medici rumored to be a sodomite and a sorcerer. Seditious pamphlets were written about him. One of these accused him of conducting lessons in magic at the Louvre... . He was also accused of procuring a prostitute for his favorite devil... . Here is an extract from a seditious pamphlet entitled Witchcraft of Henry of Valois, which appeared a few months before his assassination: “He ... made public profession of his witchcraft. In his house was found a trunk filled with writings on witchcraft... . Recently in the forest at Vincennes two silver satyrs were discovered, along with the skin of a child.”

Daughter of Diophantus, born in Macedonia. When she had reached nubility, her father gave her in marriage to a man named Samiades. After he had been married one year, Samiades went on a long voyage. During his absence his wife Heraides came down with a strange sickness: her sexual organs became like a phlegmon... . On the seventh day the rupture of the phlegmon suddenly occurred, and out came a male organ. Heraides ... returned to her father’s house and continued to dress as a woman... . Samiades returned from his voyage and went to the father’s house. The father ... wanted Heraides to divorce him, but the court ordered her to return to her husband. Rising, she disrobed in the presence of the judges, showed them that she was a man, and asked them if the law required a man to serve as a wife to another man... . She renamed herself Diophantus, and followed Alexander, the king of Syria, to war.