How to write arcane spells:How to compel love;How a husband can find out his wife’s adultery;How virginal maidens can be forced to love;How to make a hated husband impotent.
How to write arcane spells:How to compel love;How a husband can find out his wife’s adultery;How virginal maidens can be forced to love;How to make a hated husband impotent.
How to write arcane spells:How to compel love;How a husband can find out his wife’s adultery;How virginal maidens can be forced to love;How to make a hated husband impotent.
How to write arcane spells:
How to compel love;
How a husband can find out his wife’s adultery;
How virginal maidens can be forced to love;
How to make a hated husband impotent.
During the Italian Renaissance the women of Italyplayed a dominant and sometimes sinister part in both social and political life. Courtesans, particularly in Rome, had a position somewhat analogous to that of the Greek hetairae. One such courtesan, Imperia, had skill in composing sonnets. Most of them were literate and interested in intellectual pursuits as well as in erotic interludes. Caterina di San Celso played and sang. Many women of this type are described by Giraldi in the novels of theHecatommithiand by Pietro Aretino in hisRagionamenti.
The Italian Renaissance was marked by both literary and social indecencies and lewd lubricities and all kinds of scatological productions and performances. In the lavish public entertainments, in the Carnivals and Masques, apart from contests, reviews, pantomimic presentations, the emphasis was consistently on scandalous songs, with lascivious undertones, innuendoes, suggestions.
In literature, the moral atmosphere of this period is reflected in the depiction of the most common Renaissance features—adultery and cuckoldry, all kinds of illicit amours, lusts resulting in secrecies, gallantries, murder. To satisfy her lusts, a woman poisons her husband. An adulteress has her lover kill her husband, without hesitation, without compunction. Love and lust, poison and death, infidelities and vengeance followed each other in an abandoned, frenzied, amoral sequence.
The Italian strega or witch was a powerful intermediary in amatory affairs of all sorts. With her preparations, her thaumaturgic skills, her secret concoctions, she aided men and women in consummating erotic urges, arousing lustful sensualities, securing the love of hesitant objects of passion, promoting vigor and virility, arranging furtive amatory assignations: acting, in short, as an amatory midwife, an empirical guide in debauchery.
By her magical skill the strega was able to aid men and women bent on amatory consummations. Some of these skills were transferred to the prostitutes. Acquiring thesetechniques, and discovering the secrets of preparing potions, they were able to retain a lover, to lure a new admirer. For their concoctions and brews they used human teeth and the eyes of dead men, skulls and ribs, scraps of the flesh of corpses, hair and nails boiled in oil. They made a fire of burning ashes, in the form of a heart. Piercing the heart, they chanted their goetic invocation, anticipating the surrender of the hesitant lover by this means of sympathetic magic. In this sphere, in fact, the Italian Renaissance had taken over, as it were, the entire corpus of ancient magic rites, love brews, and concomitant procedures in the art of erotic control.
A solemn love conjuration appears in a medieval manual called theTrue Grimoire. The invocation itself is preceded by special preparations during the waxing or the waning of the moon. An inscription is written on virgin parchment, by the light of a taper. The supplication runs:
I salute thee and conjure thee, O beautiful Moon, O most beautiful Star, O brilliant light which I have in my hand. By the air that I breathe, by the breath within me, by the earth which I am touching: I conjure thee. By all the names of the spirit princes living in you. By the ineffable Name On, which created everything! By you, O resplendent Angel Gabriel, with the Planet Mercury, Prince, Michiael, and Melchidael.
I conjure you again, by all the Holy Names of God, so that you may send down power to oppress, torture, and harass the body and soul and the five senses of her whose name is written here, so that she shall come unto me, and agree to my desires, liking nobody in the world, for so long as she shall remain unmoved by me. Let her then be tortured, made to suffer. Go, then, at once! Go, Melchidael,Baresches, Zazel, Firiel, Malcha, and all those who are with thee! I conjure you by the Great Living God to obey my will, and I promise to satisfy you.
A technique involving the separation of husband and wife, the converse of a love-potion intended to attract or cement passion, appears in the following invocation from a magic grimoire called theSword of Moses:
I conjure you, luminaries of heaven and earth, as the heavens are separated from the earth, so separate and divide N from his wife N, and separate them from one another, as life is separated from death, and sea from dry land, and water from fire, and mountain from vale, and night from day, and light from darkness, and the sun from the moon; thus separate N from N’s wife, and separate them from one another in the name of the twelve hours of the day and the three watches of the night, and the seven days of the week, and the thirty days of the month, and the seven years of Shemittah, and the fifty years of Jubilee, on every day, in the name of the evil angel Imsmael, and in the name of the angel Iabiel, and in the name of the angel Drmiel, and in the name of the angel Zahbuk, and in the name of the angel Ataf, and in the name of the angel Zhsmael, and in the name of the angel Zsniel, who preside over pains, sharp pains, inflammation, and dropsy, and separate N from his wife N, make them depart from one another, and that they should not comfort one another, swift and quickly.
National Gallery of ArtDIANAby Renoir
National Gallery of ArtDIANAby Renoir
National Gallery of ArtDIANAby Renoir
Metropolitan Museum of ArtPYGMALION AND GALATEAby Rodin
Metropolitan Museum of ArtPYGMALION AND GALATEAby Rodin
Metropolitan Museum of ArtPYGMALION AND GALATEAby Rodin
In the middle centuries prostitution as a civic institution had its distinction and its privileges. In Venice, all kinds of secondary favors were granted to these practitioners. They were favored with an indulgent and even eulogistic Latin testimonial:nostrae bene merentes meretrices.
In France, there were orgiastic ceremonies in which the participants performed in the nude. These rituals were associated in a contorted sense with primal creation and were known as Fêtes d’Adam.
In one of Boccaccio’s tales there is an instance of a script intended as an erotic provocation:
Quoth Bruno, ‘Will thy heart serve thee to touch her with a script I shall give thee?’
‘Ay, sure,’ replied Calandrino; and the other, ‘Then do thou make shift to bring me a piece of virgin parchment and a live bat, together with three grains of frankincense and a candle that hath been blessed by the priest, and leave me do.’
Accordingly, Calandrino lay in wait all the next night with his engines to catch a bat and having at last taken one, carried it to Bruno, with the other things required; whereupon the latter, withdrawing to a chamber, scribbled divers toys of his fashion upon the parchment, in characters of his own devising, and brought it to him, saying, ‘Know, Calandrino, that, if thou touch her with this script, she will incontinent follow thee and do what thou wilt.’
In Turkey, under the Sultanate, and notably in the sixteenth century, erotic relations in the seraglio were stimulated by a preparation known as pastilles de sérail.
In the sixteenth century there was a religious-erotic cult in Europe whose members were called Loïstes. Their rituals were marked by sexual orgies and erotic aberrations.
The corpus of Shakespearean plays contains numberless allusions and comments on sexual and amatory topics. The language, however, in which these references are couched is sometimes figurative, euphemistic, and seemingly innocuous and ingenuous. Sometimes, again, they are so expressed in the contemporary Elizabethan idiom as to have an immediate and illuminating impact on the contemporary audience: but, on a cursory perusal, the context may not spontaneously reveal the underlying currency.
There is, throughout the plays, mention of the functional processes and their media, of the organs of the human body, including what are usually termed pudenda. Shakespeare touches on the normal sexual functions and also on deviations, on tribadism and coprophilia, on lust and cuckoldry, on adultery and eunuchs, on all manner of erotic encounters, embraces, and circumstances.
InTroilus and Cressida, to take an example, lust, libido, and potency are illustrated:
Cressida: They say all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform: vowing more than the performance of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions and the act of hares, are they not monsters?
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Again:
Troilus: This is the monstrosity of love, lady—that the will is infinite and the execution confined; that the desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit.
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Act 3.2
Troilus: What will it beWhen that the watery palate tastes indeedLove’s thrice repured nectar?—death, I fear me,Swooning distraction, or some joy too fine,Too-subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,For the capacity of my ruder powers:
Troilus: What will it beWhen that the watery palate tastes indeedLove’s thrice repured nectar?—death, I fear me,Swooning distraction, or some joy too fine,Too-subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,For the capacity of my ruder powers:
Troilus: What will it beWhen that the watery palate tastes indeedLove’s thrice repured nectar?—death, I fear me,Swooning distraction, or some joy too fine,Too-subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,For the capacity of my ruder powers:
Troilus: What will it be
When that the watery palate tastes indeed
Love’s thrice repured nectar?—death, I fear me,
Swooning distraction, or some joy too fine,
Too-subtle potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers:
Act 3.2
There are similar references inThe Merry Wives of Windsor,Twelfth Night, andA Midsummer Night’s Dream.
InPericlesPriapus is mentioned as a symbol of virility:
Pericles: Fie, fie upon her!She’s able to freeze the god Priapus.
Pericles: Fie, fie upon her!She’s able to freeze the god Priapus.
Pericles: Fie, fie upon her!She’s able to freeze the god Priapus.
Pericles: Fie, fie upon her!
She’s able to freeze the god Priapus.
François Villon, the fifteenth century French lyric poet, was not too happy in his loves. In hisDouble Balladehe makes his personal confession on amatory exercises, and gives due admonitions as to the possible effects of erotic practices:
Then love until you have your fill,Follow the ball and midnight feast,The end will bring you naught untilYou break your head, to say the least;For foolish loves make man a beast:Idolatrous was Solomon,And thereby Samson’s vision ceased.Happier those who all this shun!And Orpheus, sweet troubadour,Who piped his flute among the dead,Risked mortal peril on its spoorFrom Cerberus of the triple head;And beautiful Narcissus fled,Because of love too lightly won,To seek his peace in a watery bed.Happier those who all this shun!Sardana, once a valiant knight,Who conquered all the realm of Crete,Aped woman’s form and took delightIn girlish chores and things effete;And David, quitting wisdom’s seat,Forgot his fear of God for oneWhose perfumed thighs aroused his heat.Happier those who all this shun!And Amnon, drunk with carnal power,Feigning to gorge himself the while,Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower,A deed incestuous and vile;Herod—and here I use no guile—Had John the Baptist’s head undoneFor a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile.Happier those who all this shun!Of my poor self I wish to speak:Beaten like washing in a stream,Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek—Who made me chew such sour creamBut Kate Vausselles? Noël I deemMade up the three to share the fun.Such wedding mittens costly seem.Happier those who all this shun!But is this hot, young blood to spurnTheir tender love and flee their sight?May God forbid! Such ought to burnAs witches do who ride the night.Sweeter than civets their delight,But not to put your trust upon:For be they brown or be they white,Happier those who all this shun!
Then love until you have your fill,Follow the ball and midnight feast,The end will bring you naught untilYou break your head, to say the least;For foolish loves make man a beast:Idolatrous was Solomon,And thereby Samson’s vision ceased.Happier those who all this shun!And Orpheus, sweet troubadour,Who piped his flute among the dead,Risked mortal peril on its spoorFrom Cerberus of the triple head;And beautiful Narcissus fled,Because of love too lightly won,To seek his peace in a watery bed.Happier those who all this shun!Sardana, once a valiant knight,Who conquered all the realm of Crete,Aped woman’s form and took delightIn girlish chores and things effete;And David, quitting wisdom’s seat,Forgot his fear of God for oneWhose perfumed thighs aroused his heat.Happier those who all this shun!And Amnon, drunk with carnal power,Feigning to gorge himself the while,Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower,A deed incestuous and vile;Herod—and here I use no guile—Had John the Baptist’s head undoneFor a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile.Happier those who all this shun!Of my poor self I wish to speak:Beaten like washing in a stream,Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek—Who made me chew such sour creamBut Kate Vausselles? Noël I deemMade up the three to share the fun.Such wedding mittens costly seem.Happier those who all this shun!But is this hot, young blood to spurnTheir tender love and flee their sight?May God forbid! Such ought to burnAs witches do who ride the night.Sweeter than civets their delight,But not to put your trust upon:For be they brown or be they white,Happier those who all this shun!
Then love until you have your fill,Follow the ball and midnight feast,The end will bring you naught untilYou break your head, to say the least;For foolish loves make man a beast:Idolatrous was Solomon,And thereby Samson’s vision ceased.Happier those who all this shun!
Then love until you have your fill,
Follow the ball and midnight feast,
The end will bring you naught until
You break your head, to say the least;
For foolish loves make man a beast:
Idolatrous was Solomon,
And thereby Samson’s vision ceased.
Happier those who all this shun!
And Orpheus, sweet troubadour,Who piped his flute among the dead,Risked mortal peril on its spoorFrom Cerberus of the triple head;And beautiful Narcissus fled,Because of love too lightly won,To seek his peace in a watery bed.Happier those who all this shun!
And Orpheus, sweet troubadour,
Who piped his flute among the dead,
Risked mortal peril on its spoor
From Cerberus of the triple head;
And beautiful Narcissus fled,
Because of love too lightly won,
To seek his peace in a watery bed.
Happier those who all this shun!
Sardana, once a valiant knight,Who conquered all the realm of Crete,Aped woman’s form and took delightIn girlish chores and things effete;And David, quitting wisdom’s seat,Forgot his fear of God for oneWhose perfumed thighs aroused his heat.Happier those who all this shun!
Sardana, once a valiant knight,
Who conquered all the realm of Crete,
Aped woman’s form and took delight
In girlish chores and things effete;
And David, quitting wisdom’s seat,
Forgot his fear of God for one
Whose perfumed thighs aroused his heat.
Happier those who all this shun!
And Amnon, drunk with carnal power,Feigning to gorge himself the while,Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower,A deed incestuous and vile;Herod—and here I use no guile—Had John the Baptist’s head undoneFor a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile.Happier those who all this shun!
And Amnon, drunk with carnal power,
Feigning to gorge himself the while,
Plucked lovely Tamar’s virgin flower,
A deed incestuous and vile;
Herod—and here I use no guile—
Had John the Baptist’s head undone
For a dance, a song, a dancer’s smile.
Happier those who all this shun!
Of my poor self I wish to speak:Beaten like washing in a stream,Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek—Who made me chew such sour creamBut Kate Vausselles? Noël I deemMade up the three to share the fun.Such wedding mittens costly seem.Happier those who all this shun!
Of my poor self I wish to speak:
Beaten like washing in a stream,
Entirely nude—no tongue in cheek—
Who made me chew such sour cream
But Kate Vausselles? Noël I deem
Made up the three to share the fun.
Such wedding mittens costly seem.
Happier those who all this shun!
But is this hot, young blood to spurnTheir tender love and flee their sight?May God forbid! Such ought to burnAs witches do who ride the night.Sweeter than civets their delight,But not to put your trust upon:For be they brown or be they white,Happier those who all this shun!
But is this hot, young blood to spurn
Their tender love and flee their sight?
May God forbid! Such ought to burn
As witches do who ride the night.
Sweeter than civets their delight,
But not to put your trust upon:
For be they brown or be they white,
Happier those who all this shun!
As late as the eighteenth century, in Central Europe, there were secret cults that drew their basic tenets from ancient priapic rites. Some of these orders practiced nudism but rejected marriage. Some encouraged promiscuities in their ritualistic assemblies. The Ebionites, for instance, were of this type. Also the Basilidians, a Gnostic sect that followed the principles of the founder Basilides, a Gnostic who flourished in Alexandria in the second century A.D.; also the Nicolaitans, an early Christian sect.
In Italy, in the eleventh century and the twelfth, there was a similar sect known as the Patarini. They made obscene obeisance to a black cat, evidently a variant Satanic form, then abandoned themselves to scenes of frantic lubricity.
So too in many regions of France that still recalled ancient pagan Gaul similar orgiastic performances occurred under cover of darkness.
Even the Knights Templars, the military-religious members of the Order that was founded early in the twelfth century and was suppressed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, were reputed to have aligned themselves with foul obscenities that involved anal osculation, as in the case of the witch members of the Satanic Sabbat, and desecration of Christian ritual accompanied by erotic perversions.
Sympathetic magic and the use of wax images were common means of securing amatory ardor compulsively. The ancients were intimately familiar with the procedures. And the grimoires current in medieval times were similarly repositories of dark and occult amatory techniques, and likewise recommended a variety of rituals. Involved in the ceremonials were of course darkness, the burning of incense, the construction of special pentagrams and magic circles, the shaping of the figurine, and the Latin invocation which gave final assurance to the erotic effects.
Amatory intimacies, especially but not exclusively in the Middle Ages, were believed possible between human beings and disembodied creatures, incubi and succubi, sylphs and undines or water spirits, salamanders, various types of Satanic emissaries and subordinates in the infernal hierarchy, such as Isheth Zemunin, who presided over prostitution.
Some of these mystic, occult unions, on the other hand, were associated with beneficent spirits, with angelic embodiments, saints, and similar personalities.
In the malefic traditions of the Black Arts and demoniac relationships, there was widespread credence in intercourse between witches and the members of the Satanic legions, between sorceresses and Satan himself, and between the practitioners of magic and all kinds of bestial and obscene creatures. The medieval demonographers are soberly voluble in recounting many such instances. They chronicle, with precise supporting confirmatory testimony, tales that brought the participants, the old and the young women so accused of diabolic intimacies, to trial, to torture, and finally to the gallows.
Ready and voluminous evidence comes from Guazzo and Johannes Anania and Jean Bodin, from Henri Boguet and Delrio, from Tartarotti, Stridtbeckh, Sinistrari and Ricardus, Molitor, de L’Ancre, Elich, and Daugis.
At the Sabbats, the assemblies of witches and Satanic forces, there were, according to the medieval chroniclers and the old European folk traditions, frantic performances of the most obscene nature, monstrous rituals, weird banquets, culminating in lewd orgies characterized, according to the grave testimonies of the demonographers, by copulation of witches and materialized demoniac spirits.
The Aphroditic force and influence are all-pervasive. Hence, in the field of astrological lore, Venus represents love, in its most extended sense, normal, illicit, and aberrational. Certain symbols, creatures, forms are regularlyassociated with her functions. The lubricities of the goat and the bull are under her sway, while, botanically, many plants, among them vervain and myrtle, are endowed with aphrodisiac qualities.