In 16th and 17th century Europe, witchcraft was deemed a serious threat and court records attest to the terror evoked by suspected sorcery. Judges gave serious consideration to the danger posed by...
Devil or angel? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. The concept of demons is an old one, harking back to the confiscation of pagan nature deities by the Roman Empire, which turned them into something more...
Workers discovered a shoe this month behind a wall at a Cambridge University college in England that was probably meant to protect inhabitants of the building from mischievous or malicious spirits...
Witch bottles (known also as ‘spell bottles’) are apotropaic devices (things believed to have the power to avert evil influences). These objects are believed to protect their owners from the negative...
The ancient Romans were obsessed with phallic images in art and architecture. Now, The Collection , a museum in Lincoln, England, will put on display a Roman phallus carved in stone that a family in...
Present day movies show elves as beautiful beings who help people in their times of need. However, the original ancient form of these beings was quite hostile towards humans. Often enough, elves...
The Salem witch trials, which began in 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts bay colony, are one of the most well-known and notorious witch trials in history. Yet, this was not the only case of these...
As long as humanity has had beliefs in deities, the supernatural, and the power of magic, the use of magic, spells, and curses have featured widely across cultures. Very much entwined with human...
In an interview in New York magazine, published on 6 th October, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia declared his belief in a living, breathing Satan . Scalia said that “I believe in the Devil…..Of...
