Brain Storm

Had a brainstorm for my Hero and Heroine in the wee small hours
No time for blog --- gotta go gotta write!

TT - Thirteen Ways to detect a witch in 1486.

Okay - lets get this straight - these were used to identify witches during the Inquisition as set out in 1486's Malleus Malleficarum - the Witch Hunters Manual a book in three parts - one- explains who dangerous witches were, and how evil. The second - types of witches and what they did usually deviant sexual practices and luring men to have sex with them. Third part was ways to 'legally' convict them of witchcraft.
It heralded the beginning of the Inquisition at it most terrifying. The last English witch trial was held and repealed in 1736
Please note - no offense is intended to any Wiccans, Pagans or Religious groups.

1. The Devil's Mark : scar, mole, birthmark. mole, wart, pimple, pockmark, cyst, liver spot, wen, insect bite, ulcer, blemish. If nothing is visible the witch was "pricked" (people were employed as Prickers) all over to search for an insensitive spot where the devil had given his blinding kiss.
2. talking to oneself or animals or being overly attached to an animal.
   
3. keeping a black animal - cat or lamb in particular
   
4. spinning around
5. freckles, red hair, odd eyes. Blue and brown you're a gonner.
6. The Witch of Newberry was executed for surfing on a board in the river.according to Allan Maurer and Renne Wright -
7. trail by fire - if you didn't burn holding red-hot irons you were innocent
8. trail by water -"swimming the witch" the innocent sank
   
9. physical impediment such as old, wrinkled, deformed, pale, too skinny, lame
10. any unusual behaviour that followed in the wake of calamities, illness (like getting better or go mad with grief)
    
11. "weighing the witch" - guilty if she weighed less than the massive tombs of the day
12. healing - anything from a septic cut to something that would normally be fatal
13. Money/religion - witnesses could be bribed to say an enemy was a witch and anyone who seemed to be a threat to the Church would soon be accused of witchcraft.
    

Basically anyone outside society's perception of normal for those times. It was easier to accuse someone of being a witch, than to prove you weren't. These people obviously hadn't heard of the Wiccan Crede in which it states: "For what you send out returns to thee times three. "

Sources: The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, Writers Digest Books 1998
Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft (2nd Ed) Denise Zimmerman & Katherine A. Gleason Alpha Books 2003

Baseball

Went to my first ever baseball game yesterday - Blue Jays vs Yankees.... sitting up in the nosebleed seats (oops 500's) under the baking sun as the roof of the skydome was open, Wow! I am hooked, and want to go again, even if the Blue Jays lost 5-4 and hot dogs and soft drinks are way overpriced. I think that was my first hotdog this season too. Man they are so not good for the diet!