The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Brossier, Marthe 33
that can be used in sympathetic magic: Smear the blood
on a victim or his or her clothing to CURSE the victim with
a death as agonizing as that of the hen.
ALEISTER CROWLEY sacrificed animals in his magical
rituals. In 1909, while working with his assistant, Victor
Neuberg, Crowley had a formidable encounter with a
DEMON named CHORONZON. The demon was evoked in a
ritual that involved slitting the throats of three pigeons
and pouring their blood upon the sand.
Human Blood
Some sources of blood are considered to be more powerful
than others. Human blood is identified with the soul
and carries the greatest power. Ingesting human blood is
believed to confer the powers and strengths of the victim
upon the conqueror. Possessing a few drops of a person’s
blood gives a witch or magician power over that person or
enables the magician to harness that person’s emotional
state. By the principles of sympathetic magic, a person
may be bewitched or cursed.
The blood of executed criminals is said to be a powerful
protector against disease and bad luck, because of the
energy of resentment and fury, which is released upon execution.
Spectators at public executions such as beheadings
sought to obtain the victims’ blood on handkerchiefs
or bits of cloth for later use in magical rituals.
Human blood also is used to seal pacts of oath and
brotherhood. During the European witch hunts of the
Inquisition, it was believed that witches signed blood
PACTs with the Devil to pledge servitude and obedience
to him. The magical power of a witch could be neutralized
or destroyed by burning her blood in fire—hence
the common European method of execution by burning
at the stake—or a practice called “blooding.” The witch
was scored above the breast and allowed to bleed, sometimes
to death.
Human blood was believed to strengthen the foundations
of buildings, and sometimes sacrificial victims were
walled up in temples, forts, and other structures.
Menstrual Blood
Menstrual blood, which is linked to the phases of the
Moon, is particularly potent. The blood of the Goddess,
also called wine, milk, mead, and “wise blood,” appears
universally in mythologies; it is drunk as a charm for wisdom,
fertility, regeneration, immortality, and healing. The
blood of ISIS, symbolized in an ambrosia drink, conferred
divinity on pharaohs. According to ancient Taoism, red
yin juice, as menstrual blood was called, conferred long
life or immortality.
Menstrual blood has a long history of being feared by
men, and proscriptions have been given against associating
with, touching, or having sex with menstruating
women, for their blood has the power to harm. Ancient
Romans believed the touch of a menstruating woman
could blunt knives, blast fruit, sour wine, rust IRON, and
cloud MIRRORs. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 18:19
states, “You shall not come near a woman while she is
impure by her uncleanness to uncover her nakedness.”
The Talmud instructs that husband and wife are to be
sexually separated during menstruation and for a week
later in order to ensure cleanliness.
In Christianity, menstrual blood was believed to
spawn DEMONs and to defile altars. Up to the late 17th
century, menstruating women were forbidden to partake
in communion or, in some cases, even to enter church.
FURTHER READING:
Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts. New York: G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, 1967.
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft,
and Wicca. 3rd ed. New York: Facts On File, 2008.
bogey In English folklore a horrible evil spirit or hobgoblin,
usually big and black, who scares children. The
“Bogey-Man” or “Boogie-Man” arrives at night and appears
in bedrooms and at the sides of beds. In appearance the
bogey often looks like the dark silhouette of a man.
The bogey is called the bwg (ghost) in Welsh, bogle
in Scotland, and Boggelmann in German. Among other
names are bug-a-boo, boo, bugbear, bock, and boggart.
The Irish puca is similar. Bogey also is another name for
the DEVIL.
Botis (Otis) FALLEN ANGEL and 17th of the 72 SPIRITS
OF SOLOMON. As a great president and earl of HELL, Botis
commands 60 LEGIONs of DEMONs. He appears in the
shape of an ugly viper but will take on human form with
large teeth and horns when commanded to do so. He carries
a sharp sword. He sees past, present, and future and
reconciles friends and enemies.
Brossier, Marthe (16th century) Fraudulent POSSES-
SION case. Used as a vehicle for raising money from the
gullible, Marthe Brossier’s alleged possession by BEELZE-
BUB also served as a means for the Catholic Church to try
to undercut the religious reform of the Huguenots, members
of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. The
case stands as the first where accusations of fraud in an
alleged possession were backed up by detailed physical
evidence.
Reported as both the eldest and the youngest of four
daughters of a poor draper in the town of Romorantin,
Brossier first showed signs of unusual behavior at the age of
25 in 1598. Still without a husband, she cut her hair, wore
men’s clothing, screamed, and contorted. She attacked her
friend Anne Chevion (also known as Chevreau) in a fit of
jealousy, accusing Anne of bewitching her. Although no
records exist detailing Anne’s fate, other possessed persons
in Romorantin successfully used the WITCHCRAFT
defense. Brossier’s career as a demoniac also may have
been influenced by an account of the MIRACLE OF LAON.
In any case, she demanded EXORCISM by her local priest
and began exhibiting fits, impossible body contortions,