ROLANG

ROLANG
"192-Thibetan ROLANG—Sorcerer (or NGAGSPA) reanimates a corpse by holding it in a dark room—lying on it mouth to mouth and repeating a magic formula with all else banished from his mind. Corpse slowly comes to life and stands up. Tries to escape—leaps, bounds, and struggles—but sorcerer holds it. Continues with magic formula. Corpse sticks out tongue and sorcerer bites it off. Corpse then collapses. Tongue become a valuable magic talisman. If corpse escapes—hideous results and death to sorcerer."
H.P. Lovecraft, Commonplace Book

"Another mysterious rite is called rolang (the corpse who stands up)."

"The celebrant is shut up alone with a corpse in a dark room. To animate the body, he lies on it, mouth to mouth and while holding it in his arms, he must continually repeat mentally the same magic formula excluding all other thoughts. After a certain time the corpse begins to move. It stands up and tries to escape; the sorcerer firmly clinging to it, prevents it from freeing itself. Now the body struggles more fiercely.It leaps and bounds to more extraordinary heights, dragging with it the man who must hold on, keeping his lips upon the mouth of the monster, and continue mentally repeating the magic words. At last the tongue of the corpse protrudes from its mouth. The critical moment has arrived. The sorcerer seizes the tongue with his teeth and bites it off. The corpse at once collapses. Failure in controlling the body after having awaked it, means certain death for the sorcerer."
Alexandra David Neel, Magic and Mystery In Tibet

MESSENGER FROM THE DEVIL

MESSENGER FROM THE DEVIL 
"Another man, Jonathan Lowder, said Bishop tried to choke him, and she took on the forms of a black pig and a monster with the body of a monkey, the feet of a rooster, and the face of a wizened old man. The creature told him it was a messenger from the Devil, and promised him riches in exchange for allegiance."

 Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Haunted Salem

THING LIKE A BLACK DOG

THING LIKE A BLACK DOG 

"Such creatures appeared almost monstrous, a physical manifestation of the moral distortion of the witch. Agnes Francis kept as a familiar a toad, or ‘a thynge lyke a blacke dogge with a face like an ape, a short tail, and a peyre of hornes.’ During her trial, Agnes’ daughter described how she had seen her mother carrying ‘the thing’ in her hands."

Helen Parish, “Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils”: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials

TUPILAQ

TUPILAQ
AKA
ᑐᐱᓚᒃ
"Originally the tupilak was a creature composed of different materials from the natural world – animal, bird and human remains – even parts taken from a child’s corpse. Those who knew about witchcraft gathered these bits and pieces together in a secret, isolated place, tied them together, chanted magic spells over them and allowed them to suck the energy from their own sexual organs. The tupilak was then ready to be put into the sea and sent off to kill an enemy. This way of getting rid of your enemies was, however, not entirely without risk because if the would-be victim had greater powers of wizardry than the initiator, his power could reverse the tupilaks strength and potency like a boomerang. In other words, it was a dangerous game."
Eastgreenland.com

"The tupilaq was a magic animal, created through witchcraft, which everyone could use if you followed the correct instructions and learnt to master magic, says Lange. It was witchcraft, but it was not restricted to people with shamanic powers.To make a tupilaq, you had to collect parts from different animals, bones from both animals and people—preferably from a child. It was also a good idea to add something that had a connection to the person who you wanted to inflict disaster on. Lastly, you would place the tupilaq in the sea to allow it to swim away and find its own way to the victim.But it was a risky business. If the tupilaq were to fail its mission, then it would head straight back to its creator and kill him instead."
Charlotte Price Persson, ScienceNordic

"If magic words had power, nothing in Inuit society was as potent as a tupilait. Some thought them to be living creatures though they were human-made and used to do harm or bring misfortune. They were tiny sculptures made of various substances—a combination of animal parts—seal and dog bones, pieces of skin from seals, bears, and dogs, bits of moss and long pieces of sinew. The shamen or an apprentice would gather the materials, stash them in some secret place
—a cave, or up along a stream, or on the beach at night
—then go to that place before dawn and prepare to create something evil."
Gretel Ehrlich, This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons In Greenland

ILOMBA

ILOMBA

“In an interview, Boniface Liwanga noted that during their divining sessions, diviners searched for evidence of witchcraft and sorcery, the devices which gave witches and sorcerers immense energy, or supernatural powers that enabled them to perform their practices. Such devices include charms, herbs, and objects such as human bones, and night guns such as Kaliloze. Some used familiars such as owls, and nightjars, and animals such as jackals and hyenas, while others used creatures such as Ilomba as mediums through which they performed their witchcraft activities. According to White, the Ilomba was a spirit in the form of a snake with human head in the likeness of the owner and was found in various versions. During  its early stages, it was harmless and fed on eggs, However, as it grew, it became more demanding, killing peopled that its owner targeted, feeding on their blood. As it grew fatter and sleeker, its owner also flourished and this continued for as long as the snake existed. Thus, some people became witches or sorcery for the purpose of prosperity or in order to become rich.”

Friday Mufuzi, The Practice Of Witchcraft And The Changing Patterns Of Its Paraphernalia

“It is the custom of a snake which is made by a person. It is the custom of the Malunda to make a Lilomba when they wish to kill a person. They take a small piece of skin and place in it “medicine” which they obtain from a certain tree. Afterwards they made an incision in the chest and back, and taking the blood thus obtained they mix it with the medicine. They then sew the mixture up in the skin so as to make a packet of it, get a certain other medicine from the bush and drop it into the packet thus made. They then place the skin on the ground, saying, “Take our breath and take life from our breath.” in the morning when they go there they find the skin changed into a baby Lilomba.”

“This continues every month, the snake killing a person named to it by its owner, and getting bigger, until it stretches from here to the other side of the river (about 300 yards).”

G.A. M’Gregor, The Story Of The Lilomba Snake As Told By The Malunda

PORRIDGE HYENA

PORRIDGE HYENA

“The BaKgatla clan of the Tswana believed that witches made their own hyenas moulding the body from porridge and bringing them to life by means of special medicines.” 

Keith Somerville, Humans and Hyenas: Monster or Misunderstood

WITCH'S FAMILIAR

WITCH'S FAMILIAR

"Vinegar Tom, who was like a long-legg'd Greyhound, with an head like an Oxe, with a long taile and broad eyes, who when this discoverer spoke to, and bade him goe to the place provided for him and his Angels, immediately transformed himselfe into the shape of a child of foure yeeres old without a head, and gave halfe a dozen turnes about the house, and vanished at the doore."

Mathew Hopkins, The Discovery Of Witches

PROPHETIC HEAD

PROPHETIC HEAD

“Belonging to them are many strange things... Among these is the head, in which fortune-tellers from among them believe. They set it up under caput draconis. They find a hairy, blue-black eyed man with knotted eyebrows. They lure him with whatever he wants until they bring him to the house of the temples. He is stripped and seated in a trough filled with sesame oil up to throat. It is then sealed at the top just from where the head stretches out. They fasten the cover with nails and seal it with lead in such a way that his head remains outside and his body in the oil. Then they feed him dried figs soaked in sesame oil each day. They suffumigate his nose and face with an incense they call the incense of amazement. They recite invocations [special] to them and they keep doing this for 40 days without giving him water while the effect of the oil takes place until his nerves are softened, his joints are relaxed, his veins break, and he becomes pliable as wax. On the appropriate day, they congregate and recite special invocations, and suffumigate with an incense. They grab his head and pull it from the first vertebrae. It is pulled out along with the veins attached to it until they all exit from the vertebrae, and the body remains in the oil. Then they seat him in an embrasure over sifted ash that they make from olive ash, containing a little ash from the remains of [burnt] bodies. They wrap him with some fluffed cotton and suffumigate him with an incense of theirs and the head would tell them about the rise and drop of prices, the alteration of states, and what happens in the world, while his eyes are still seeing but not blinking. If perhaps they ignore planetary devotions, he would demand them, chastise them, and tell them about what goes on in their very selves, and if they perhaps should ask him about the sciences and arts, he would answer." 

Ghāya, Brahmans (II.12)

COCO MACAQUE

COCO MACAQUE

“The mambo carried her Coco Macaque, which is a magical walking stick carved with a human face near the top. People believe that some, but not all Coco Macaques have spirits that live inside them. A mambo or hougan who possesses one of these can send it on magical errands at night and striking someone with the stick will ensure their deaths within 24 hours.”

Patrick Richard Wilkinson, Cave Vodou in Haiti: The Use of Caves as Sacred Space in Modern Haitian Ritual

“The Coco macaque, or as it is sometimes called a haunted Voodoo Zombie Stick, is said to be magically prepared only on November 1st, and many who know of it's dark magical secrets will tell you that they believe that a ghost or Lwa controls it with unseen hands. Sometimes describes as a heavy jointed or knuckled wooden cane or rough hand carved wooden stick or a simple looking walking stick. They might have a knob as a handle or just be simply tied with strings or strips of red cloth or a goats tanned and dyed hide braided with bones or religious holy medals or voodoo amulets.

Coco macaque is what many refer to as a very real magical Haitian vodou implement or black magicians helping tool. Made of Haitian Coco-macaque palm wood or what ever wood one has at hand it is basically just simple thick 1 to 2 inch wooden palm tree stick, which is supposed to be possessing one of many magical powers, The strangest one is that to be able to stand up and walk on its own. Though it's appearance of walking is described more like a hopping or bouncing action. This Voodoo Magic walking stick is not bound by gravity and is said to bounce off of houses and homes and even roofs as it travels to it's commanded destination. Sometimes many people might refer to them as Voodoo Zombie Canes and swear that by all known accounts and means that they or it is possessed by the spirits of the dead. By all old Haitian accounts many will tell you that it is a simple design or sometimes crudely hand carved by a voodoo black magic priest using what ever found wood is available to them at the time. And it is a cursed or controlled by specific spirit that causes the walking stick to appear to move all by itself.

A real coco macaque is not just a common found skull-topped walking stick that so many people find in large quantities in the New Orleans French Quarter. These sticks are usually for decoration or entertainment purposes only and are often confused with real magical sticks made by the real voodosants of the city. Many people who buy them mistake them for the true magic weapon or wand of old and often pay high prices for theses poor often imported imitations.”

Lisa Lee Harp Waug, The Story Of the Real Ghost Stick

TUYUL

TUYUL

“Tuyul is believed to be the spirit of a [fetus]. Tuyul can be owned by purchasing them from a shaman or taking them from their dwelling place.”

“Tuyul is a supernatural creature that takes the form of a little child with a big head, small hands, clouded eyes, and greenish or sometimes grayish skin. It has a protruded bully, long nails and sharp teeth.”
Aulia Khairunnisa & Mira Wardhaningsih, The Book Of Indonesian Ghosts

TILBERI

 

TILBERI

“To acquire a tilberi, the woman has to steal a human rib from a churchyard in the early hours of Whitsunday, wrap it in gray wool and keep it between here breasts. The next three times she takes holy communion, she must spit the sacramental wine over the bundle. The third spurt of holy wine will bring the tilberi to life. When it grows larger and the ‘mother’ can no longer conceal it in her bosom she must cut loose a piece of skin on the inside of her thigh and make a nipple which the tilberi will hand on to, and draw nourishment from her body fluids.”

Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft

WHITE SALAMANDER

WHITE SALAMANDER

“Mormon mythology states that Joseph Smith was led to a book of golden plates which contained the text that would become the Book of Mormon in 1823 by an angel named Moroni. The Salamander Letter was a document Hofmann claimed was written in 1830 by Martin Harris, the scribe of the founder of the Mormon Church Joseph Smith. It stated that Joseph Smith was led to the gold plates by a spirit who ‘transfigured himself from a white salamander’ rather than an angel. Not only did a salamander contradict the Church’s version of its history, it also transformed Mormon history from a traditional Christian narrative involving angels to one that involved a folk magic lizard.”

Lauren Kranc, Esquire; The Salamander Letter

"the spirit transfigured himself from a white salamander in the bottom of the hole & struck me 3 times & held the treasure & would not let me have it because I lay it down to cover over the hole"
Excerpt from the Salamander Letter forged by Mark Hofmann

CONFERMENT

CONFERMENT
“The implanted substance was perceived to be ‘round, hairy ball with teeth’ passed on from parent to child, with all the sons of a male witch and all the daughters of a female witch being witches. The substance allowed the members to be activated into their world and also permitted the soul to engage in errands during  meetings or group's activities. The substance symbolized the source of power of a witch and the  group’s linkage to all her members.”
Dr. M.S. Jayeola-Omoyeni, Dr. Eunice M. Oyetade, Mr. J.O. Omoyeni, Witchcraft In the 20th and 21st Centuries in Nigeria

DISEMBODIED CREATURE

 DISEMBODIED CREATURE

“They sent forth disembodied creatures, in one case a man’s head connected to a white cat tail by several feet of nothingness––a Cheshire cat centuries before Lewis Carol.”

Stacy Schiff, The Witches: Salem, 1692