Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli or is selectively responsive. This state is necessary to carry out a successful travel outside the body and in ancient times, the most used tecniques were an ointment based on allucinogenic herbs and hydromancy.
Ăva PĂłcs, a Hungarian ethnographer and folklorist, reports in her book about tĂĄltos, a folkloric figure with supernatural powers similar to a shaman, âBetween the Living and the Deadâ a very interesting case: in a XVIII trial against three tĂĄltos, a witness claimed to have seen one of them go outside at dawn on the last day of Pentecost, pick up a plate, look into it and transform in a fish.
After that, she disappeared for three days. PĂłcs considers this one of the most interesting details, since it describes a real technique of travel outside the body.
Andrea Romanazzi in his âGuida alle streghe in Italiaâ reports that on the day of the dead it was possible to see the shadows of the dead inside bowls of water. Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg in his âStoria Notturnaâreports that sometimes the Dominae Nocturnae tied to Witchcraft, like Fraw Holt, showed to the mortals the images of the dead and their destiny in basins of water.
Still Ginzburg in his âBenandantiâ, writes about a case that tells us how the procedure for hydromancy could be structured (the accused was trying to contact entities tied with Witchcraft):
The case of Lucrezia Peloso is very similar: during her process in 1582 the accuser affirmed:âIâm sayin that Lucretia, wife of Hieronimo Peloso does the anguistara and she told me that she is sure to be able to see the future and the past, that she did it multiple times and that itâs not against the church, that itâs actually a holy thing to do the anguistara.â
The anguistara (jug) is a rite that put together christian and pagan proceedings: they would have either a virgin or a pregnant woman take water from three wells during the night of St. John and put it aside.
When needed, a jug would be filled with it and either a virgin or a pregnant woman would kneel before a candle, recite three Pater Noster, three Hail Mary, the Prayer to Saint John and look into the jug.
In the case of Giuliano Verdena we just read about a particular formula âWhite angel, holy angelâ. This verse was widespread in multiple variants and employed for different purposes, like finding a lost or stolen possession.
Some of the variants are:
White angel, black angel show me who took my money
White angel and holy angel, for your holyness and my purity, show me who took these money
White angel, Holy angel, for your holyness and my purity, show me the truth and who took [item]
This angel was probably a Spirit associated with water or the personâs guardian angel.
Francesca Medri, a woman that had always live in a small village and grew up in a magic culture that she had deeply assimilated, in one of her testimonies, told the inquisitor to have a sort of elf always around her, that in a precedent recount she had overlapped with the figure of an angel, that could be the same who helped her to find lost items during the anguistara rite.
Sometimes, the scrying happened without a pre-established material base: it was pure and simple eye fixity a point.
Emma Wilby in her âCunning Folk and Familiar Spiritsâ recounts the episode of a man in the 1600s that saw the King and Queen of Fairies by gazing into falling fern seeds.
Robert Kirk in his âThe Secret Commonwealthâ, reveals that scottish clairvoyants could see the Fairies thanks to eye fixity and that some could force it, by keeping said eye fixity for prolonged time.
The pierced stone used to see Fairies that itâs often found in folklore, probably does the same thing.
To wrap it up, the main non-insomniis tecnique of contact with the Other Side in Traditional Witchcraft was tied to scrying either on a specific surface (hydromancy) or even without it, like the british cases.
The aid of virgins, children and pregnant women is obviously not necessary, although the âangel white/black/holyâ formula can be used, adapting certain parts.
[Translated and adapted from https://tradizioneitaliana.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/introduzione-alla-stregoneria-tradizionale-v-la-trance/]
Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age: A Perspective on Seers and Witches in Early Modern Age by Ăva PĂłcs
Guida alle streghe in Italia by Andrea Romanazzi
Storia notturna. Una decifrazione del sabba (published in english as âEcstasies: Deciphering the Witchesâ Sabbathâ) by Carlo Ginzburg
The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Carlo Ginzburg
Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby
The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk
