It can be a challenge and it’s certainly the true that we don’t all have the time, space or ability to make our own. The craft site Etsy can be on solution.

Take a look at this black candle from Witchcrafts. Isn’t it impressive?

You can buy more from Myfanwy’s shop here.

In Pure Spirit

Where do you buy your witch candles? Any tips for readers?

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In the Northern Territory, Australia, David Laurin has been sentenced to three years for burning a woman’s house down.

Laurin, 31, pleaded guilty to the charges as the court heard he believed the woman was a witch who had cursed his sex life.

In the NT Supreme Court, Chief Justice Dean Mildren heard how David Laurin met his girlfriend Kelly on the internet.

His relationship with Kelly went down hill and they split up in January 2009. Kelly’s since given birth to their child.

A psychiatrist told the NT court that Laurin had a “borderline personality disorder“. The psychiatrist also blamed the role of “internet wars games” played in Laurin’s life; suggesting they helped form his identity.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think Laurin got what he deserved? Is the psychiatrist did the right thing by pointing a finger at the internet?

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A Scottish city is set to burn a 16th century witch and is giving people the chance to meet the gaoler before hand.

The re-enactment will be held on Saturday the 18th of July at 11am, 12 noon, 2pm and 3pm at The Tolbooth Museum, Castle Street, Aberdeen.

The council’s press release notes that burnings were rare in Aberdeen except in 1597 when King James the VI encouraged a witch hunt. That year 20 people were executed for witchcraft.

The witches of Aberdeen often ‘confessed’ to dealings with the Devil and Castlegate and Fittie turned out to be the best two places to sign a demonic deal.

The council, in typical council style, also point out that it cost on average £3 for Aberdeen to burn a convicted witch but this price did not include the barriers often needed to hold back the crowds who flocked to watch the executions.

Aberdeen City Council assistant keeper (research) Chris Croly said: ‘It was a very dangerous time, suspicions were rife in Aberdeen and no one knew who would be accused of being a witch next. Even if someone was arrested on suspicion of the charge and found not guilty they would still be branded and banished from Aberdeen”.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? A good tourist offering from Aberdeen, historical insight or a bad example?

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Police questioned a group of nine suspects on Saturday in Freetown after a recent spate of deaths in Sierra Leone’s capital city.

The nine people are believed to be practising witch doctors and police found masks, goat horns and ritual robes during their raid.

The police action was assisted by The Indigenous Traditional Healers Association in Sierra Leone who helped with the investigation.

Speaking to the press, Sulaiman Kabbah, spoke of the extreme tension in the city and the anger towards the suspected witch doctors; “hundreds of bystanders wanted to lynch them but they were restrained by the police presence.”

In Pure Spirit

What do you think of organisations like the ITHA (Indigenous Traditional Healers) working with local police like this? Is this a good idea or could it lead to problems?

Do you think the nine suspects are now more likely to be found guilty of the deaths in the city because the police found ritual items on them?

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The city of Rome will stage a witch-hunt, music and a feast in order to celebrate St John the Baptist. The San Giovanni (Saint John) festival is traditionally held on the night of the 24th and midsummer.

A tradition in the city of Rome is that the night before, the 23rd, is the “Night of the Witches”. To mark this occasion there will be a night of song, verse and a musical witch hunt in the gardens adjacent to Via Sannio.

Stands in the gardens will offer party goers free samples of snails – to eat. It is believed that eating a snail would prevent a man’s wife from committing adultery on him.

The night ends with Romans symbolically leaving rosemary, juniper, laurel and olive branches outside their houses to fend off witches.

In Pure Spirit

Is it a good thing that the citizens of Rome are re-creating traditional festivals? Should witches be portrayed in a negative light like this?

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The remains of a teenage witch who was sentenced to death and her head removed for being a witch more than 700 years ago are to be given both a Christian funeral and burial.

Decapitation was used as a method to prevent eternal life in the dark ages. When the remains of the body were discovered two years ago, in unconsecreated ground near Hoo Saint Werburgh church, experts suggested that the teenage girl had been executed for being a witch.

Rev Andy Hardy, the vicar of Hoo, requested that the remains be given a Christian burial after he heard the story. It is also possible that the girl killed herself and killed up to die.

The Daily Mail has quotes from Harding;

‘We don’t know exactly what happened to her but what we do know is that her life came to an horrific end and even in death she was treated appallingly.

‘When I found out about it, I thought it was a tragic story and I felt a need to give her what had clearly been denied to her all those years ago, and that is a proper burial.

‘We want to put her back where she should have been when she first died, and we will be placing her with her head on her shoulders as it should be.

‘There was a belief in those days that you were buried facing east so that you were facing the resurrected Christ but in this case her head was removed to prevent her from eternal life.

‘Execution in those days would have been for such things as witchcraft, so if they had gone so far as to take her head off, she would have had to have committed a mortal sin.’

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is Andy Hardy doing the right thing by giving the remains a Christian burial?

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The popular Kenyan singer Nyota Ndogo is reported to have gone into hiding after reports that witches and witchdoctors had been approached to kill her.

According to Ndogo she received a call from a man who identified himself as a witch and who had been asked to trace and kill her. The witch, however, refused the contract as he saw no evil in the singer.

Ndogo told Kenyan newspaper The Standard, “I was so shocked. Somebody called me saying that he had been ordered to kill me but could not trace a good reason to do so as, according to his findings, I had not wronged anyone. He asked to meet me at my residence in secrecy to deliver the full message.”

Police in Mombasa are now investigating the incident.

A school drop-out, Nyora Ndogo has now released three albums and won Best Female Singer in the Kisima Awards n 2005.

In Pure Spirit

How would you react if someone approached  you, explained they were a witch and although they had refused to kill you that they were sure others would accept the contract? Really scary stuff!

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A debt collecting firm based in Vilnius in Lithuania has appointed Vilija Lobaciuviene – a self proclaimed witch – to use her arts and techniques to hunt down those individuals who are failing to pay their credit crunch debts.

“There are certain people, who are using this crisis situation and refuse to pay back banks or other companies,” said Amantas Celkonas, director of the Skolu Isieskojimo Biuras, or debt collecting bureau.

“Our new employee will help them to understand the situation, reconsider what is right and wrong and act accordingly,” he said. “We will also help those who are in real trouble, suffering from psychological impact of bankruptcy and depression.”

Happy to call herself “Lithuania’s leading witch,” Lobaciuviene is famous in the former Soviet republic for her divination abilities and spells. Her techniques include herbal medicines, hypnosis and the manipulation of the bio-energy field.

Associated Press columnist Monika Bonckute is quoted mocking the agency’s appointment, “This is return to the Dark Ages. If they really believe that this woman may help someone get money back, then there’s something very wrong with this country,”

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Bidston, just west of Birkenhead and south of Liverpool, is an area of Merseyside with a dark history.

One of the worse murders of the 19th century can be attributed to the area. The discovery of the remains a family of five was found buried in the cellar of a building near Rain Hill. Emily Williams and her children; Bertha, Marie, Lilla and Syndey had been cruelly butchered.

Suspicion soon fell on the surviving member of the family – the father and husband – who had fled. Police investigated and discovered that Williams had a dark past. Williams true name was likely to be Deeming. Deeming was also suspected for murder – his wife Marie. He had grown up in the Bidston area of Birkenhead before going on to travel the world and using such esoteric aliases as Baron Swanston.

Journalists writing at the time compared the knife slayings to those of Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel just a few years earlier. Some papers even speculated that Williams/Deeming may have been Jack.

The area also has associations with witches and witchcraft. Alex Sanders – who was born Orrel Alexander Carter in 1926 at Birkenhead – was known as King of the Witches. Alex Sanders practised a form of witchcraft that was a blend of Crowley’s magic and Masonic symbolism.

Bidston Hall has a history as a Masonic Lodge.

Alex Sanders once attempted to summon a demon in front of an audience at the Hendon Classic Cinema, London, in 1971. The stunt went wrong and Sanders blamed the failure on one of the audience members wearing a silver Christian cross. To this day some people suspect that that audience member was none other than Sean Manchester*.

Bidston Hill sits on top of a warren of tunnels. Some suggest that these tunnels are used to connect the houses of witches together and that the cellar of Bidston Hall acts at the nexus.

Hauntings

Visitors to Bidston Hall’s bedrooms – especially women – have reported unwelcome attention from paranormal entities during the night. Could this be Williams/Deeming again? He certainly seemed to favour women.

Other guests wake only to discover that they cannot move with some feeling an oppressive weight on their chest or a force holding them down.

The Bidston Hall cellars are also reported to be haunted. Mediums have suggested that the lodge has been the scene of more than one death.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think Bidston Hall could be haunted? Or is the building simply unlucky with its association to withcraft, Alex Sanders and his demon summoning attempts?

The Williams/Deeming murders are only a few years removed from the Whitechapel murders. Whereas both used knives and Deeming seemed to target women… was the Press right to speculate that there may have been a connection?

Most Haunted Live visited Bidston Hall (but called it Bidson Lodge) in January 2009. This post was published before the program aired but we welcome any insight or opinions from any of the audience.

Disclaimer: Links marked with a star* are revenue links.

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Liverpool’s Central Library is a complex set of buildings, some of which are grade II listed and others due for demolition and replacement.  The library’s eldest building is the William Brown Library and Museum, which was extended in 1879 to the Picton Reading Room and then the Hornby Library in 1906.

Central Library is part of the William Brown Street conservation area. This area includes the unusual St John’s Gardens and St John’s Church.

St John’s Church was designed by Thomas Litoller and construction started in 1767 in an area which was once used as the general burial ground of a small mortuary chapel. St George’s Hall‘s west elevation backs against the Church.

St John’s Gardens was conceived as an area to display art to the public. As such it contains a number of monuments; Balfour Monument, Regimental Monument, Gladstone Memorial, Nugent Monument, Lester Monument, Forwood Monument and the Rathbone Monument.

Witches and witchcraft

The father of modern day Wicca Gerald Gardner was born in Liverpool. Gardner (1884 to February 12th, 1964) authored the famous Witchcraft Today, a book which help revive public attention in Wicca and Witchcraft in 1954.

In his life Gardner used the craft name Scire, acted as High Priest of the Bricket Wood coven and met Aleister Crowley who announced Gardner as being able to perform the rites of the Ordo Templi Orientis.

Gerald Gardner travelled often and did not stay in Liverpool, however, perhaps because of his association with the city and the gothic appearance of St John’s Gardens and the Central Library the area has been associated with witchcraft.  Locals sometimes speak of a history of rites or rituals occurring in the gardens or from inside Central Library itself.

Hauntings

Central Library is believed to be haunted. The Picton Stacks, a separate building from the main area, actually contains an isolation ward and mortuary.

Visitors to the William Brown Library have reported the feeling of menace originating from unusually dark shadows towards the corners of the room.

A black cat with glowing eyes is sometimes seen in the International Room and the sounds of cat screeching are occasionally heard late at night throughout the library. Whereas cats screech all the time and the reflective nature of their eyes often result in a glow like appearance some occult commentators have noted the connection between witches and demonic familiars which often take on a cat-like appearance.

The names Sal or Sally have been reported by more than one psychic while in the library. One theory links the name to a missing librarian, murder and possible demonology.

The mortuary is, of course, strongly associated with death and deaths. Stories of demonic rats or ghosts remaining near the autopsy slab remain are often shared by visitors to the historic building.

Most Haunted Live visited Central Library in 2009. The program coincided with the 45th anniversary of Gerald Gardner’s death.

In Pure Spirit

Have you been to either Central Library in Liverpool or St John’s Gardens? Did you sense anything while you where there?

People continue to confuse Wicca and witchcraft. Do you think this will change any time soon and do programs like Most Haunted help the situation?

The information in this article is commonly available online or from books like Haunted Liverpool*.

Diclaimer: Links marked with a star* are revenue links and go towards hosting and admin costs.

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