WITCHCRAFT IS IN THE NEWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 382, 18 October 1946, Page 14

WITCHCRAFT IS IN THE NEWS

| Written for "The Listener" |

by

J.C.

P.

WITCHCRAFT is still in the air-even the local air. It has made two appearances in the cable news recently, as the result of agitation to abolish the Witchcraft Act of 1735 which still stands in British law. It is the subject of an exhaustive new book. And it is the theme of a series of six radio talks starting from 2Y A on Monday morning, October 21. In this article, a contributor examines the tradition ‘of legislative scepticism which stands behind the Witchcraft Act. But it needs to be read in the light of the British Home Sectetary’s statement that there is at present no hope of repealing the Act, because "relaxation of the laws would be dangerous when there was so wide a field for the exploitation of personal loss and bereavement."

Tests to distinguish genuine mediums from fake performers are to be drawn up for consideration by Parliament. . . . General ability to be a medium, through whom the spirits make contact with the living, will be tested by a formula and probably diplomas will be issued to accredited mediums who will be registered for ‘scientific purposes. This is the maifi purpose for an attack against the two-centuries-old Witchcraft Act.- Cable Item from London. F the Bill to achieve this ever becomes law, that Act will be a landmark in the history of witchcraft, and occultism. For the first time practitioners of the spiritualistic art will then be sanctioned by the British Parliament: a complete reversal of an attitude which is older than Parliament itself. The stages in this change of view mark chapters in the birth of the scientific spirit of man; one of the most enthralling, hopeful, and often terrible tales ever told. A judge of France once began a now classic book on witches thus:It is astonishing that there should be found to-day some who do not believe that there are witches. I am not sure that I dare not go so far as to say that it seems more likely than not that such people are of the witches’ party: in any case I have no doubt that the rest are unwilling to admit the existence of witches because, perhaps, they are descended from them, and, in defence of their ancestors, would have men firmly believe that there are no witches in the world. This attitude was the accepted opinion for many hundreds of years. Moreover, the official belief in witchcraft, demons and devilish practices was not expunged from the Statute Books, until as late as 1863. Strange, too, seem the burnings and hangings which went on in those days. In a country the size of New Zealand the quota for deaths

for the heresy of. witchcraft would average perhaps five a week-and that went on year after year. Now, when, as Goethe said, "men are able to disprove all things," we wonder how people, who were after all very much the same as ourselves, could tredt each other in this way. Then perhaps we remember Buchenwald or Dachau and think it not so strange. A tale of the deception of virtue by itself is one comment on the

War against Witches and the moral is still pointed two hundred years after the last burning. F Palms and Tea Leaves . However, in some ways we do seem to have grown up. If you have ever pondered over your life-line you might be interested to know that in the days of Henry VIII there was An Acte conc’nying Egypsyans (i.e., gypies) which laid it down that anyone using "greate subtyll and crafty means to deceyve the peple, Beryng them in hande, that they by Palmestre coulde relle menne and women’s fortunes, and so deceyred the people of their money" was to leave the country within 16 days. Or, perhaps, when friends have dropped in for the afternoon cup of tea you've tried your hand with the tea leaves (Now turn it round three times. That’s right . . .), have dabbled in the .mysteries of horoscopes and dreams, or made other "fonde and phantasticall Proyshesys." Then it is as well you were not alive in 1597 when "All idle persons

going about in any countrey either begging or using subtile craft, or fayging themselves to have knowledge in Physiognomie, Palmesry, or other like crafty science, or pretending that they can tell destinies, fortunes or such other like fantasticall imaginations" were to be "striped naked from the middle upwards, and openly whipped until his or her body be bloody, and be forthwith sent from Parish to Parish, by the officers of every the same, the next straight way to the Parish where hee was ‘borne. . . . After which whipping. the said person to have a testimonial subscribed with the hand, and sealed .... meritioning day and place of his or her punishment, and the place whereunto such person is limitted to go, and by what time the said person is limitted to passe thither at his perill." "Furthermore, should the fortune-teller or ‘Egyptian’ appeare to bee dangerous to the inferior sort of people where they shall be taken, or otherwise be such as would not be reformed of their rogish kind of life, they were to be banished out of this Realme .... and conveyed into such parts beyond the seas... or otherwise judged perpetually to the Galleis of the Realme." Not Children Under Seven For some long forgotten reason that Act excepted "the poore people in S. Thomas Hospital, in the Borough of Southwarke," one "John Dutton of Dutton," and, rather unnecessarily but com--passionately nevertheless, children under seven. But the two acts which an attempt has been made to remedy are the Vagrancy Act of 1824 and the Witchcraft Act of 1735. The 1824 Act made pretenders to fortune-telling or anyone using "subtle Craft, Means or Device to deceive and impose on any of His Majesty’s subjects" iiable to hard labour for three months. And incidentally under this Act, which is still in force, fortunetellers, palmists, or mediums may be arrested by "any person whatsoever" who can "deliver him or her to any Constable or other Peace officer." It is not known whether anyone ever accepted the invitation. Presumably the genuine -for-tune-tellers' would be forwarned anyway. Or would they? The Act of 1735 objects to persons being on speaking terms with the spirits. The penalty for pretending to be a

medium was one year’s imprisonment "without Bail or Mainprize" and an hour in the pillory every quarter-day! Court cases involving mediums make entertaining reading. Thus, in one sum-ming-up, a magistrate strongly advised the medium "to get rid of a disembodied spirit who wants to know the time when the hour of lunch or tea approaches!" During another trial the Judge chanced to point to the medium who, lost in a trance, said in deep tones "Hearken to my voice, Brother Judge." On the other hand, in Europe the police have achieved some remarkable results with the assistance of mediums and on one occasion Scotland Yard toyed with the idea. This is not the first time an attempt has been made to modernise the law affecting mediums. In 1930 a similar but unsuccessful Bill was introduced in the British Parliament. The object of the attempt now reported will be to repeal the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and parts of the Vagrancy Act, 1824, thereby giving official sanction to tested mediums and the scientific study of psychic phenomena. No one can doubt that the public has been duped and fleeced by, as the well-known investigator Harry Price put it, "a large army of charlatans who prey on credulity and make a fat living out of the bereaved, the diseased, the ignorant and the morbidly curious." Yet there is left a collection of evidence, of claims and counter-claims, stories of odd happenings which "seem" to be authentic, and the results of the few trained investigators who have studied these matters. This evidence should, oné way or another, be sifted out, so that the cheap fraud which thrives on the present doubt may be cut to a minimum. The great body of scientists do not accept any psychic phenomena, for none of them has been investigated with the rigour which scientists demand. But, on the basis of their own experience, some noted scientists are personally convinced, and certainly many famous persons such as Dr. Joad, Julian and Aldous Huxley, William McDougall, Dr. Tillyard, and E. N. da C. Andrade, have been interested enough to take part in seances. ‘During one of these seances Julian Huxley, it is said, very nearly passed into a trance state himself.