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S2 E10 History of China & Witches of England
This episode History of Magic in Ancient China and we’ll throw in a couple witches
The Magic of Ancient China
Little is known of the early days of the Chinese, just stories that went from mouth to mouth. As it started around 2000 BC, and writing started there around 1400-1200 BC in the Shang Dynasty from what we can tell. What is left of the writing is turtle shells and bone fragments, generally used for divination by writing your question on one, throwing it in the fire, and then seeing where it cracks. The location of the cracks would tell you the answer to your question.
Religion in the Shang Dynasty was centered around ancestor worship. Ancestors being good men that were deified. The greatest among these were the emperors and the greatest among them was Shangdi, The Highest Lord. Other great powers included the Sun, the Moon, and Earth itself.
Wu, or what we might call shamanism, began somewhere in the Shang Dynasty (which ran from 1556 to 1046 BCE). These were both men and women that acted as intermediaries between the spirit world and the mundane world. They were spirit mediums, exorcists, fortune tellers, and healers. One of the functions of Wu was rain dances in drought. Sadly sometimes a Wu or a disabled person would be sacrificed to appease the god(s) during a drought.
In the later Zhou Dynasty ( 1045-246 BC) Wu referred to a woman shaman, or sorceress, and Xi referred to a male shaman, or sorcerer. Religion turned from the ancestor gods of the Shang to agricultural gods of nature for the Zhou. Here we had the balance between Earth(Di) and Heaven(Tian).
The later Zhou Dynasty is when the IChing was primarily used as a system of divination. The IChing is a collection of wisdom divided up into 64 hexagrams. They are called hexagrams because they are divided up into six lines, one stacked on top of the other in parallel. Originally the prediction and the resulting hexagram was found, but we’re not exactly sure how that was done then. Eventually yarrow stalks (or sticks) were used.
One piece of magic cast was by the emperor Wang Mang in 23 CE, he was not emperor at the time though. He directed the power of the big dipper against his enemies using a device made for finding the position of it.
Originally magic was done to bridge the gap between the spirit world and the mundane. But during the subsequent ages ( 403 BCE-220CE) magic proliferated and branched out from it’s original purpose. During this same period though, the Wu’s prestige went into decline. Instead fangshi or “Master of Recipes” were now becoming the new purveyor of magic and occult practices as well as the Daoist clergy. There is also some evidence that magic pervaded everyday life.
Some Han emperors were particularly interested in magic and kept wu and Fangshi around. This is a boon for us as records kept help show the state of magic. One Han in particular, Liu Che ( after his death known as Wu Di, 140-87 BCE) kept fangshi and wu. One fangshi in particular, Li Shaoweng gained favor by conjuring up a deceased concubine of Wu Di, but was put to death later after it was found that he faked portents.
At the end of Wu Di’s reign there was an outbreak of dark shamanic magic known as Gu. Some accounts have the Gu being made by putting a ton of animals in a jar and then waiting till there was only one left and that was the Gu. Ingesting a Gu could make it so that you die and would then serve the shaman. Other accounts of Gu say it’s a demonic affliction that attacks its victim, because of witchcraft. There’s also accounts of wooden effigies buried at the court that were meant to harm Wu Di.
Sometime after the Han Dynasty magic and religions not under the power of the state became seen as subversive and also seen as usurping the power of the emperor. These unsanctioned practices were labeled “abusive worship” and called the “way of the left”. This is one possibility for how we got the wording of the “Left Hand Path”. But in China “the way of the Left” was seen as unsanctioned magic and religion rather than what we think of as dark magic today here in the west.
Daoist and Buddhist clergies also despised witchcraft that did not follow their own practices. Which is funny because they often practiced what they condemned in others.
This is only the very beginning of magic in China. We may later go into later ages and explore how magic evolved.
Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester
Eleanor Cobham (c.1400- July, 07 1452) She was in 1425 a lady-in-waiting to Jacqueline d'Hainault; during this time she became the mistress to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. It was in January of 1428 when she became the second wife to the Humphrey Duke of Gloucester when his marriage to Jacqueline was annulled. According to some accounts “Eleanor was beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious and Humphrey was cultivated, pleasure-loving, and famous”. Through various events over the next several years, she (in 1436) was pronounced as a duchess. By this point she held some influence in the court at La Plesaunce in Greenwich.
She was eventually accused of witchcraft by King Henry VI. King Henry believed that Eleanor had it out for him and was trying to assassinate him. This was based on a consultation she had held with astrologers telling her the king would get sick and die. News of this traveled to his ears and he had the astrologers questioned. Naturally they denied they had actually predicted this, rather it was Eleanor who had instigated the necromancy. She quickly escaped to Westminster Abbey before they were able to arrest her, by the courts of law she was unable to be tried while there. However, she was questioned by religious men and although she denied most charges she did confess to getting “potions” from Margery Jourdemayne. These had nothing to do with what she was being questioned for rather she claimed they were mixtures to help her conceive. She was eventually captured and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1441 she was sentenced to do public atonement by having to walk to three churches during “market days” so as to publicly humiliate her as much as possible. Then she was forced to divorce her husband to strip her of any titles she had thus taking away any claims to inheritance she could’ve had and finally she was to be sentenced to prison. Over the years she was moved from one castle to the next until her demise at Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey on July 7, 1452.
Margery Jourdemayne
Not much is known about Margery but she was married to yeomen William Jourdemayne who was in fact a cowherd (a yeoman is a person who cultivates a small farm according to Merriam-Webster). The last name Jourdemayne is possibly from old French meaning day laborer, jour de main. What is unusual about her was that despite being a peasant she had connections to astrologers, clerics and courtiers. One of her ties was that of a ten year relationship with Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester. Some of the other significant ones were with John Hume, Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke (Eleanor’s personal clerk) who were all astrologers of the time. Two of these astrologers (Southwell and Bolingbroke) were the ones who helped Eleanor in the prediction of King Henry VI’s demise. They were later found guilty of sorcery and put to death. Bolingbroke was “hung, drawn and quartered at the Tower of London, Southwell did not suffer the same fate but nonetheless died in the Tower. The ‘Witch of Eye’ aka Margery Jourdemayne was burnt at the stake in Smithfield.
The Witch's Broom
The witch's broom nowadays is a tool for sweeping out bad energies during ritual or in the mundane world sweeping out dirt.
The first instance of a witch riding a broom in art is in the margin of a 1451 French manuscript called Le Champion des Dames by Martin Le Franc.
The first person accused of riding a broom was actually a guy. Guillaume Edelin was an Augustinian priest that was accused after he rejected the churches warning that witches were running amok. He was tortured and subsequently confessed to making a pact with the Devil and riding on a broomstick.
During the middle ages there were also flying ointments made with psychoactive and often poisonous plants. To avoid getting poisoned, the ointments were applied to the skin of sensitive areas.
Tarot
The Eight of Pentacles. Here we have financial success through hard work done. Well earned wealth attained through skill. This is a sign that you have honed in on what you are capable of and are applying it in your life. If you haven’t experienced this yet it is likely that you will soon. You can manifest this reality quite easily if you have confidence in yourself.
In terms of today’s episode, be sure you’re not being a show off about your success, be humble. All too often people can get jealous and thwart your efforts. Lay low and keep on doing what you’re doing because you’re on the right path. What is it that you are good at, in your life, that affects your monetary situation? How can you apply it in more ways to further that application and your prosperity? Delve into that area more to continue to receive what you deserve.
Please rate us on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you’ve found us.
https://xyuandbeyond.com/witch-trials-in-england/#:~:text=The%20most%20infamous%20witch%20trials,the%20area%20around%20Pendle%20Hill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor,_Duchess_of_Gloucester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Jourdemayne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_shamanism
https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/magic-magic-east-asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)#Wu_in_Shang_oracular_inscriptions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamans_in_Ming_China#:~:text=Shamanism%20(wushu%20%E5%B7%AB%E8%A1%93)%20in%20China,tellers%2C%20healers%2C%20and%20exorcists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty
https://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/writing-and-technology-china#:~:text=The%20earliest%20writings%20in%20China,by%20the%20Shang%20royal%20house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching
https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/brooms-and-besoms-history-and-lore/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/witch-symbols-broomstick-cauldron-history-meaning#slide-3
https://thevalemagazine.com/2022/10/28/witches-and-their-brooms-a-fascinating-history/
View all episodes
By Tatjana Riedel, Sylvia Short
3
22 ratings
This episode History of Magic in Ancient China and we’ll throw in a couple witches
The Magic of Ancient China
Little is known of the early days of the Chinese, just stories that went from mouth to mouth. As it started around 2000 BC, and writing started there around 1400-1200 BC in the Shang Dynasty from what we can tell. What is left of the writing is turtle shells and bone fragments, generally used for divination by writing your question on one, throwing it in the fire, and then seeing where it cracks. The location of the cracks would tell you the answer to your question.
Religion in the Shang Dynasty was centered around ancestor worship. Ancestors being good men that were deified. The greatest among these were the emperors and the greatest among them was Shangdi, The Highest Lord. Other great powers included the Sun, the Moon, and Earth itself.
Wu, or what we might call shamanism, began somewhere in the Shang Dynasty (which ran from 1556 to 1046 BCE). These were both men and women that acted as intermediaries between the spirit world and the mundane world. They were spirit mediums, exorcists, fortune tellers, and healers. One of the functions of Wu was rain dances in drought. Sadly sometimes a Wu or a disabled person would be sacrificed to appease the god(s) during a drought.
In the later Zhou Dynasty ( 1045-246 BC) Wu referred to a woman shaman, or sorceress, and Xi referred to a male shaman, or sorcerer. Religion turned from the ancestor gods of the Shang to agricultural gods of nature for the Zhou. Here we had the balance between Earth(Di) and Heaven(Tian).
The later Zhou Dynasty is when the IChing was primarily used as a system of divination. The IChing is a collection of wisdom divided up into 64 hexagrams. They are called hexagrams because they are divided up into six lines, one stacked on top of the other in parallel. Originally the prediction and the resulting hexagram was found, but we’re not exactly sure how that was done then. Eventually yarrow stalks (or sticks) were used.
One piece of magic cast was by the emperor Wang Mang in 23 CE, he was not emperor at the time though. He directed the power of the big dipper against his enemies using a device made for finding the position of it.
Originally magic was done to bridge the gap between the spirit world and the mundane. But during the subsequent ages ( 403 BCE-220CE) magic proliferated and branched out from it’s original purpose. During this same period though, the Wu’s prestige went into decline. Instead fangshi or “Master of Recipes” were now becoming the new purveyor of magic and occult practices as well as the Daoist clergy. There is also some evidence that magic pervaded everyday life.
Some Han emperors were particularly interested in magic and kept wu and Fangshi around. This is a boon for us as records kept help show the state of magic. One Han in particular, Liu Che ( after his death known as Wu Di, 140-87 BCE) kept fangshi and wu. One fangshi in particular, Li Shaoweng gained favor by conjuring up a deceased concubine of Wu Di, but was put to death later after it was found that he faked portents.
At the end of Wu Di’s reign there was an outbreak of dark shamanic magic known as Gu. Some accounts have the Gu being made by putting a ton of animals in a jar and then waiting till there was only one left and that was the Gu. Ingesting a Gu could make it so that you die and would then serve the shaman. Other accounts of Gu say it’s a demonic affliction that attacks its victim, because of witchcraft. There’s also accounts of wooden effigies buried at the court that were meant to harm Wu Di.
Sometime after the Han Dynasty magic and religions not under the power of the state became seen as subversive and also seen as usurping the power of the emperor. These unsanctioned practices were labeled “abusive worship” and called the “way of the left”. This is one possibility for how we got the wording of the “Left Hand Path”. But in China “the way of the Left” was seen as unsanctioned magic and religion rather than what we think of as dark magic today here in the west.
Daoist and Buddhist clergies also despised witchcraft that did not follow their own practices. Which is funny because they often practiced what they condemned in others.
This is only the very beginning of magic in China. We may later go into later ages and explore how magic evolved.
Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester
Eleanor Cobham (c.1400- July, 07 1452) She was in 1425 a lady-in-waiting to Jacqueline d'Hainault; during this time she became the mistress to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. It was in January of 1428 when she became the second wife to the Humphrey Duke of Gloucester when his marriage to Jacqueline was annulled. According to some accounts “Eleanor was beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious and Humphrey was cultivated, pleasure-loving, and famous”. Through various events over the next several years, she (in 1436) was pronounced as a duchess. By this point she held some influence in the court at La Plesaunce in Greenwich.
She was eventually accused of witchcraft by King Henry VI. King Henry believed that Eleanor had it out for him and was trying to assassinate him. This was based on a consultation she had held with astrologers telling her the king would get sick and die. News of this traveled to his ears and he had the astrologers questioned. Naturally they denied they had actually predicted this, rather it was Eleanor who had instigated the necromancy. She quickly escaped to Westminster Abbey before they were able to arrest her, by the courts of law she was unable to be tried while there. However, she was questioned by religious men and although she denied most charges she did confess to getting “potions” from Margery Jourdemayne. These had nothing to do with what she was being questioned for rather she claimed they were mixtures to help her conceive. She was eventually captured and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1441 she was sentenced to do public atonement by having to walk to three churches during “market days” so as to publicly humiliate her as much as possible. Then she was forced to divorce her husband to strip her of any titles she had thus taking away any claims to inheritance she could’ve had and finally she was to be sentenced to prison. Over the years she was moved from one castle to the next until her demise at Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey on July 7, 1452.
Margery Jourdemayne
Not much is known about Margery but she was married to yeomen William Jourdemayne who was in fact a cowherd (a yeoman is a person who cultivates a small farm according to Merriam-Webster). The last name Jourdemayne is possibly from old French meaning day laborer, jour de main. What is unusual about her was that despite being a peasant she had connections to astrologers, clerics and courtiers. One of her ties was that of a ten year relationship with Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester. Some of the other significant ones were with John Hume, Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke (Eleanor’s personal clerk) who were all astrologers of the time. Two of these astrologers (Southwell and Bolingbroke) were the ones who helped Eleanor in the prediction of King Henry VI’s demise. They were later found guilty of sorcery and put to death. Bolingbroke was “hung, drawn and quartered at the Tower of London, Southwell did not suffer the same fate but nonetheless died in the Tower. The ‘Witch of Eye’ aka Margery Jourdemayne was burnt at the stake in Smithfield.
The Witch's Broom
The witch's broom nowadays is a tool for sweeping out bad energies during ritual or in the mundane world sweeping out dirt.
The first instance of a witch riding a broom in art is in the margin of a 1451 French manuscript called Le Champion des Dames by Martin Le Franc.
The first person accused of riding a broom was actually a guy. Guillaume Edelin was an Augustinian priest that was accused after he rejected the churches warning that witches were running amok. He was tortured and subsequently confessed to making a pact with the Devil and riding on a broomstick.
During the middle ages there were also flying ointments made with psychoactive and often poisonous plants. To avoid getting poisoned, the ointments were applied to the skin of sensitive areas.
Tarot
The Eight of Pentacles. Here we have financial success through hard work done. Well earned wealth attained through skill. This is a sign that you have honed in on what you are capable of and are applying it in your life. If you haven’t experienced this yet it is likely that you will soon. You can manifest this reality quite easily if you have confidence in yourself.
In terms of today’s episode, be sure you’re not being a show off about your success, be humble. All too often people can get jealous and thwart your efforts. Lay low and keep on doing what you’re doing because you’re on the right path. What is it that you are good at, in your life, that affects your monetary situation? How can you apply it in more ways to further that application and your prosperity? Delve into that area more to continue to receive what you deserve.
Please rate us on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you’ve found us.
https://xyuandbeyond.com/witch-trials-in-england/#:~:text=The%20most%20infamous%20witch%20trials,the%20area%20around%20Pendle%20Hill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor,_Duchess_of_Gloucester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Jourdemayne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_shamanism
https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/magic-magic-east-asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)#Wu_in_Shang_oracular_inscriptions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamans_in_Ming_China#:~:text=Shamanism%20(wushu%20%E5%B7%AB%E8%A1%93)%20in%20China,tellers%2C%20healers%2C%20and%20exorcists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty
https://asiasociety.org/china-learning-initiatives/writing-and-technology-china#:~:text=The%20earliest%20writings%20in%20China,by%20the%20Shang%20royal%20house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching
https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/brooms-and-besoms-history-and-lore/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/witch-symbols-broomstick-cauldron-history-meaning#slide-3
https://thevalemagazine.com/2022/10/28/witches-and-their-brooms-a-fascinating-history/