North Berwick witches

In 1590, the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland involved accusations that witches had raised storms against King James VI. The trials became notorious for torture, coerced confessions, and royal involvement. 

Interesting...

An illustration titled "A witch of about the middle of the fifteenth century" from Sir Walter Scott's 1830 book, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. It depicts a witch riding ahead of a storm...

According to folk belief, #witches, unlike fairies, are unable to shed tears. Tears were an offence to the devil who would do whatever was possible to prevent witches from crying. Recorded in Medieval witch hunter guide MALLEUS MALEFICARIUM 1486

Very interesting...I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that weather (rain/storm) magic was the main female (witches) magic? 

Witches tears = rain?

The main "Evil Magic" witches were accused of was weather magic used to cause cold, wet, stormy weather. 

Two witches conjuring a hailstorm. Did you know that the sudden climate change which resulted in the medieval mini ice age was blamed on the weather controlling witches and was the excuse for the subsequent witch-hunt? 

I talked about this in my post De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus...

I also talked about this in these two articles, Weather stones and The last megalithic ritual in Europe about the use of "weather stones" among Slavs. Like in Belarus, where women (Yin, dark, wet, cold) raise Dabog's stone during drought to get cool and wet weather...The last megalithic ritual in Europe? And could it be that (at least some) standing stones were raised as weather stones during past sudden climate changes?   

May Day Eve is across Northern and Central Europe known as Walpurgis Night, the night when everyone is trying to "ward off, scare, witches". Why? 

Maybe this has something to do with the old calendar which divided year into winter and summer...And the fact that "The Witch" here is "The Winter Earth"...

Which is why we "burn" (effigies of) "The Witch" (fire of the late spring/summer sun destroys the cold of winter/early spring earth)...

I talk abou this in my post Walpurgis night...

Slavs have preserved the true nature of this ritual, because they don't burn "The Witch". They burn "Marzana" (Frost Goddess, Winter Earth) or "Morana" (Goddess of Death)...

Slavs equated The Goddess of Death, Morana (mor=death) with The Winter Earth, Marzana (marz=frost). She is ceremonially burned (warmed) or drowned (thawed) or both (to be sure to be sure 🙂) during Slavic spring festivals...

This painging called "Maslenitsa" by Simon Kozhin depicts exactly that, people celebrating the burning (ending) of Winter Witch (by the spring sun)...  

Here are some articles in which I talk about this ritual and related customs and beliefs in Slavic, Germanic, Celtic Europe: Gryla, Party, Bannock, To kill a witch, Baba's day, Living stone, Baba - cold, winter...

Slovenians preserved the actual origin of "The Witch"...

Originally people believed that it was Mother Earth that controlled the Yin half of the climate (Dark/Cold/Wet) half...

This bedrock outcrop near the village of Rodik in Slovenia is known locally as "Baba" (Grandmother)... Locals believed that "Baba" controls the (bad) weather: Baba’s urine turns to rain, her fart to wind, and when she raises her skirt, the weather gets nice...🙂

Bedrock is in the Balkans known as "živi kamen, živa stena" (living stone, living rock) because it is believed to be still part of the living body of the Mother Earth which gives birth to all life...

I talk about it in my post Living stone...

This pic is a great illustration of this fact...

Mother Earth has been symbolically linked with women for who knows how long...

They both give birth to living things.

They both produce life giving liquid (water/milk).

Which is why (dark/wet/cold weather and fertility) magic became female magic...

The knowledge how to perform this magic was passed from mother to daughter...

Originally it was all the old women that preserved and performed the weather magic...

In Serbian we have these words: nevesta (ne vešta) = not skilful (knowledgable, wise) = maiden, vešta (the skilful one, married woman, the one who "knows") and veštica (the witch, the old woman, the one who knows everything, the preserver of sacred knowledge)...

And this is how "The Witches" were born...

I talked about this in my post The skillful one and Wrach...