De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus

The other day I came across this illustration from the 1489 book "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" by Ulrich Molitor...It depicts "two witches conjuring up a destructive (hail) storm"...

Ulrich Molitor wrote his book as a response to Heinrich Kramer's 1486 book "Malleus Maleficarum" which "elevates witchcraft to the criminal status of heresy"...And which pretty much ignited "the witch-hunt craze in Europe"...

Now Molitor didn't dispute the existence of witches and witchcraft. He just claimed that "witches couldn't have any powers without god giving it to them"...You can read the analysis of "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" in this article...

What I found very interesting is that apparently the activity most witches engaged in most of the time was "conjuring of destructive (rain, hail, snow) storms"...Basically making wet and cold weather, which would then destroy crops and kill livestock and people...

Have you ever heard of the "Little Ice Age"? It is a climate change which stared hundred years before but descended into "Ice Age" territory around the time the above two books were written, and which caused temperatures in Europe to drop, causing havoc...

BTW, we are just now coming out of this "ice age" and the temperatures today are about the same as they were just before "the witches screwed the climate up and caused the world to freeze"...

It is interesting that it was only when the weather started turning too cold and too wet that (weather) witchcraft was "elevates to the criminal status"...Before that weather witchcraft was obviously practiced and tolerated...

It still was practiced until very recently...Among Slavs...

It is also interesting that this weather witchcraft, which was performed to bring wetness and coldness...was performed by women...

For instance Balkan rain making ritual performed during summer droughts, was performed by a naked girl covered in greenery, called Dodola, Dodolka, who was followed by an entourage of young girls and boys...

This is the last megalithic ritual in Europe, performed until recently (by women) during severe draughts in Belarus to appease the Slavic god Dabog (Giving god) who was also known as Daždbog (Rain giving god)...I talked about this in my post "The last megalithic ritual in Europe"...

In Slovenia, as part of the White Cross ceremony, four young girls span around the circle interconnected by ivy branches, singing prayers for "sun, rain and abundant crops"...

This is the reconstruction of the Beli križ (White Cross) shrine which was once located in the valley southeast of the village of Prelože, Slovenia, and which was used in weather manipulation ceremonies...From the article "White cross" about Slavic weather stones...

In Slavic folklore, it is a female dragon, ala, that brings hailstorms and unseasonably cold, wet weather during summer months, which destroys crops...I talked about this in my post "Pozoj"...

And the male, fire breathing dragon, zmaj, brings hot, dry weather during summer, causing droughts...The main worry of the Bulgarian farmers at the beginning of the summer (Apr/May) is drought. Traditionally people thought that drought was caused by a winged dragon (zmey), who "stole and locked up" the waters...I talked about this in my post "Scaring off the dragon"...

Why is cold and wet female domain? 

Ever seen this before?

Yang - up, light, warm, dry...man...Sun...

Yin - down, dark, cold, wet...woman...Earth...

I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang"...

In Slavic folklore, cold and wet weather was believed to be controlled by "Baba" (Grandmother)...This Baba is Mother (Grandmother) Earth...The Mother Goddess...

In the Balkans shepherds used to pray to Baba (Mother Earth) stones (rocky crags, exposed bedrock) for good weather. Rocks were seen as body of Baba (Mother Earth, Yin) who was also seen as the source of cold, wet (bad) weather. 

This belief is imbedded into Slavic languages...Example from Croatian and Serbian, where "Baba" (Grandmother) is directly linked to winter, cold, damp weather...

I talked about this in my post "Gryla", "Living stone", "Babe(le)", "Sawing the old hag"...

But not just in Slavic folklore...

The Old Sky Woman controls the snowfall across North Cornwall and children were told when the snowflakes began to fall, the Old Woman was up in the sky plucking her Goose....

Here she is again...The Hag of Winter...Winter, Cold, Wet, Earth...

Scottish goddess Beira, Queen of Winter, appears as a blue-skinned hag carrying a magical staff that freezes the ground & a hammer for shaping hills & valleys. At the end of her seasonal reign, & she drinks from the Well of Youth to become young again...I talked about this in my post "Holy water"...

And again, the Ugly Old Witch (winter) killing her Beautiful Young Daughter (spring, summer, autumn) with red (crab) apples, the only fruit to remain on tree branches when the winter arrives...

Crab apples covered in snow...I talked about apple as a calendar marker in the story about the Snow White, and few other interesting things found in various versions of this old story in my post "Snow White"...

This too...

Indian summer is in many parts of Central Europe known as "Grandmother's summer" because grandmother is the euphemism for winter. 

Check these articles out: "Grandmother's summer", "The old woman of the mill dust", "Grandmother's mill"...

In the Earth (Yin) - Sun (Yang) system, in the areas of the northern hemisphere with continental climate, winter is pure yin...In Slavic mythology, this was the domain of Baba, Grandmother, The Old Hag...The Goddess of Cold (Marzana) and Death (Morana)...

But every spring, The Witch, The Old Hag (Winter Earth) dies and gets reborn as The Bride, The Young Maiden (Spring Earth)...

And every Spring, Slavs perform a ritual in which they "Burn the Old Hag, The Witch, The Goddess of Winter, The Goddess of Death, (Barren) Winter Earth"...This symbolically represents the heating up of the Earth by the Sun...

Sometimes, the Old Hag, The Witch, The Goddess of Winter, The Goddess of Death, (Barren) Winter Earth is drowned...Or burned and then drowned (to be sure🙂)...In flowing water... This symbolically represents the snowmelt...The first "period" of the Young (fertile) Spring Earth...

It is really interesting that during the Little Ice Age witch-hunt, witches, whose (apparently) main sin was causing bad, cold, wet, destructive weather, just like The Old Hag, The Witch of Winter...were burned and drowned...Just what the Slavs did with with the Old Hag Winter...Coincidence probably...🙂

Ok, amazing, I can hear you say, but slightly disappointing, cause you didn't get any Animal Calendar Markers into this article...

Funny you should say that...I was just about to talk about animal calendar markers found in the depiction of the ice storm making witches...🙂

The two witches depicted conjuring a hailstorm on the original image from De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus, are depicted burning a cockerel (symbol of sun's light) and a snake (symbol of sun's heat)...

Two things you need to get rid of if you want to bring forth darkness, coldness, wetness...Coincidence again (probably)...🙂

That's it. That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...