Transcript of Dictaphone recordings found in the house of Mr Michael Dalby
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From The Aisling Chronicle 1245, translation into modern English by Dr F. Machen
“And it was said that this Father Ambrose wouldst not receive a nomination for sanctity for it was said that he promiseth that a great miracle would come and he would return to life and walk the world once more. And yet weeks and months have elapsed and none can say that they have seen any appearance of a saintly return or any other species of resurrection bodily or otherwise. There is not even, they doth argue, a solitary rude stone or tomb where pilgrims may come to pay graces, nor any relic bequeathed to the holy church’s keeping that may give the faithful an object for their prayers and supplications.
Yet others did argue most passionately, that did not the good brother heal the sick and giveth alms to the needy. Didst he not prophecy the very day upon which, come Hallowtide, would the emissaries of the Holy come to bid him part from the mortal ways? And most important over aught else, did not the good brother give strict instructions as to prayers and litanies to be recited to petition the Almighty that he might return once more and demonstrate the powers of the remembrance of the world and its true Creator? And is it not also the truth, that these prayers were not said, that these litanies were not performed, for plague and illness did decimate and scatter his followers. Should their weakness and failure be judged instead? Those whose lack of faith, courage and devotion did give succour to the Enemy and prevent the working of a miracle in this very land in this very age.”
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Passage from Chapter 3 “Of The Dead” from The Remembrances of Amon by Dr Thaddeus Fell, Sublunary Press 1920
“There are many survivals if the magician has the wit to investigate. In ancient cemeteries, there will be certain signs heralding the habitation of the tomb-folk, the burrowers beneath. It is their office to feast upon the dead and keep their secrets. They are of unclean aspect, and frequently bestial and dangerous to approach. However their knowledge, gleaned from the dreams of the dead may be of great use to the seeker of Truth, and with the correct charms and protections they may be employed as servitors or minions. But beware, for their appetites are vast and unpredictable, and many an adept has ended up on a tomb slab to feed their young which are particularly loathsome and feral.
Through chance and by intent, hybridisation has been possible, but the resulting children frequently revert fast to the ghoulish side of their heritage.
They are resilient, and seemingly free from mortality unless meeting physical accident, harm or injury. For some this option for survival will suffice. For it is possible, through certain rites, to join their kin, but as a method for survival for the True Initiate, it has little to recommend it.”
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Passage from The Sussex Manuscript, itself a transcription of an occult text from the Renaissance called Cultus Maleficarum. The text is dedicated to Frederick I, Baron of Sussex, and is dated 1598.
“The nethermost caverns are not for the fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange and terrific. Accursed is the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil is the mind that is held by no head. Truly did the wise man say that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes”
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Not sure if this is relevant but anyway…
From Nursery Rhymes or Mother Goose Rhymes Set to Music (1918) edited Samuel Barber
I do not like thee Dr Fell
The reason why I cannot tell
But this I know, and know full well
I do not like thee Dr Fell
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Quote from a letter dated October 27th 1723 from Franklyn Haining to Cuthbert Bowen.
Taken from Monograph On The Trial and Execution of the Redvale Witch by Thaddeus Fell, Dresser Limited 1901
“When the goodly men did break down the cottage door, to arrest the witch Hemdyke,
many strange anatomies were discovered herein, some humankind, some of beasts, and others seemingly betwixt the two. Of these the witch only claims, “they are dead and perished now and naught else should matter to thee. None shall walk as some do”
.
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From The History of Witchcraft by Julian Karswell published by The Sublunary Press 1889
It would seem that in recent years an idea is gaining ground among various scholars that many figures, customs and other historical ephemera, often piled under the banner of folklore, are in fact relics and survivals of pagan times. This fledgling hypothesis, not yet a full theory, but that will surely be coming, claims that assorted legendary figures, from great heroes to local hobs and bogeys are distorted remembrances of ancient heathen gods. Various quaint customs and local traditions are dim echoes of forgotten pagan rites.
And some have gone further still, alleging that those unfortunates accused of practising witchcraft were the secret adherents of a surviving pagan faith, which Mother Church, in her great compassion and Christian forgiveness, sought to ruthlessly and bloodily exterminate. German historian Franz Josef Mone in 1839 published his ideas in a paper in which he asserted that the pre-Christian religion which degenerated into Satanic witchcraft was not Germanic in origin, but had instead been practised by slaves who had come in contact with the Greek cults of Hecate and Dionysus on the north coast of the Black Sea.
In 1862, French historian Jules Michelet published La Sorcière (The Witch), entertained similar misguided ideas, postulating a didactic struggle between working class peasants who worshipped Pan and a Roman catholic aristocracy. This was a truly courageous writer and thinker who would not be held back by petty matters such as a lack of corroborating historical sources or the slight wisp of anything resembling evidence. Crude and inconsequential speculations of this kind go far to justify those who deny Comparative Mythology the name and dignity of a science.
So called witchcraft it should be clear from my previous presentations is in fact a variety of different practises. To summarise what we have learned so far then. Firstly those unfortunates who confess to flying off to wild sabbats on the backs of rams, goats and various household utensils, if they were not simply deluded, seem to have been mere party to some illicit indulgence, to whit the knowledge of a recipe of commonly acquired herbs that brought on hallucinations and delirium of flight and fancy. Secondly others appear to have merely concocted wild tales of Satanic practises thanks to the forceful and cruel application of torture. The fact that these confessions deliver under duress match the accusations and wild ravings of the zealots who apprehended them speaks volumes, and indeed it is not coincidence that the truly learned men of these earlier eras sought to rule out testimony given under torture.
However where we approach firmer territory is the testimonies of witches given freely at trial. These fall into two main varieties. Firstly there appears to have been many so-called witches who happily confessed to maleficarum, although it should be noted that they very rarely talk of meetings with devils or being part of a coven. Rather they operate on their own, and in fact seem highly ignorant of anything resembling a religious rite or magical incantations. In fact they do not possess any skills in magic at all, for all their witchcraft is performed by a familiar. Usually taking the form of a small animal or bird, these familiars possess all the magical powers to change the world for good or ill. Furthermore they are not usually conjured up through rites or charms. Sometimes the witch was given the creature by another, but more often than not they merely turn up unbidden. The price for performing magical service for their adopted owner is not the worshi[p of Satan, but usually simply supping their alleged owner’s blood. I am given to think that these unfortunates were not truly witches as such but rather victims of predatory supernatural entities.
But in the second category, whose numbers are far fewer, we do discover actual practitioners. Here we have folks, often dubbed cunning men or women, who were learned in their way. They studied what would become botany, herbalism and medicine. Many had no knowledge of goetia or ars arcana. However some did, and indeed as we see in the history of alchemy, in ages past there was little to distinguish magic from science. And indeed, true magic, the real witchcraft is the pursuit of sciences, some now accepted, others still not.
Clear historical evidence for this is found in the trial of Marianne Agnes, and recently documented in remarkable detail in a monograph by the antiquarian Dr Thaddeus Fell. From the transcripts of the court hearing, it becomes very clear that Ms. Agnes was a skilled healer, a knowledgeable herbalist, and I would suggest from her testimony, a student of anatomy and surgery too. Indeed the key evidence in her conviction was not dubious and childish talk of imps and Satan but the fact she had illicitly procured cadavers which I believe she was using not for morbid black magic but for study and dissection.
Evidence presented in court included drawings she had made of “disassembled folk”, and various organs and body parts stored in jars and containers. In this regard, she was very much the forerunner of pioneering doctors and surgeons who later in the century would have legal troubles of their own for the methods they employed to acquire human specimens for study to give us the medical marvels we enjoy today.”
*sound of an owl hooting*
Bloody owl! Hope that didn’t get picked up
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Passage from Chapter 7 “Of Time and Memory” from The Remembrances of Amon by Dr Thaddues Fell, Sublunary Press 1920
Time is not to be overestimated. It is uncertain, and indeed may depend upon the individual initiate, how long one may spend on the other side of the great disc, walking the great gardens there, before corruption and damage ensue. The first one who made the transition was called back too late, and little but bones, malevolence and a great hunger for terror remain. A mere shell now of a former powerful magus.
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Court records taken from Monograph On The Trial and Execution of the Redvale Witch by Thaddeus Fell, Dresser Limited 1901
“Judge Asquith - Thou seems a learned woman, a benevolent lady who hath healed many. What I cannot fathom is, why thou wouldst do these appalling things, wilfully take life whence thou has saved so many others?
Agnes - To be remembered, milord
Judge Asquith - But surely thy long and virtuous service to this community and the folk of this region wouldst ensure thou wouldst be not forgotten for many a long year!”
Agnes - Ah milord, good deeds never linger long. Doth thou remember the holy man of Thistle Forest? Nay, despite the stone in yon churchyard that bears his name. No small wonder is it that his bones are so agitated and hateful!
Judge Asquith - But why this vexation, this obsession with the matter of memory and the worry of the remembrance of others after thous hast departed this mortal world?
Agnes - Milord, while yet the memory of myself and my deeds walk in the thoughts and fancies of men, whilst tales are still told and ballads sang, so to shall I walk. And I shall be young and full of vigour as I walk again. Should my memory linger long and strong, the great keepers of the wheel may yet let me walk upon the earth again. For only when one is truly forgotten is thou truly dead to this mortal world.
Judge Asquith - Ah but while others may have remembrances, they shall be of no benefit to thou!
Agnes - But where doest we truly live and thrive milord if not in a land of thoughts, our mortal clay might move and abound in this petty world of flesh, but our truest home is the secret countries of our minds
Judge Asquith - I do believe this line of enquiry is becoming unduly philosophic! To more earthy matters please! Doest thou dispute what testimony good farmer O'Donnell has given? Doest thou dispute what he solemnly swears he did see?
Agnes - Nay milord, how canst I account for what he perceives. Why only Thursday last he did claim to see ye Boney Grinner stalking by Molesworth Copse, and he hath said he hast seen the faeries since in Thistle Forest. Farmer O'Donnell is inclined to see an awful much it would seem milord.
Judge Asquith - Silence in court! ‘Tis no place for jests and jolly japes!
Agnes - I darst say he might be seeing something else, in the dim watches of the night, over his crib, afore this week is out…
Judge Asquith - Hold thy tongue! We have no time for idle threats, and thou art in no position to issue them. For truly before tomorrow is done, thou shalt be dead and gone. From the evidence presented here today, I hath no other option!
Agnes - You shall not see me dead this Hallowmas, but I shall be seen standing o'er thy cold tomb on many Hallowtides to come”
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Martin just got in touch. He recalled an old record by an obscure Brichester band called Bone Machine. Apparently they only released one EP as both band members died when a fire broke out at one of their gigs in October 1974. He wondered if this song is a rare reference to our notorious resident. He sent over the lyrics -
Concocting eldritch elixirsOut of books from occult bazaarsHe played with bright test tubes,Boiling flasks, leyden jars,But he was too dangerous,So Dr Fell was marooned on MarsChorus -Dr Fells’ on MarsDr Fell’s on MarsBrains in jarsDr Fell’s on MarsHe still yearns for the old morgueDespite being stuck in the starsHe misses stitching flesh,Making things out of scars,But he still dreams of the labDoes old Dr Fell marooned on MarsChorus -Out of the starsOut of the starsDr Fell is comingBack from Mars
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Passage from Chapter 9 “Of Remembrances and Returning” from The Remembrances of Amon by Dr Thaddues Fell, Sublunary Press 1920
Amon was rightly recognised as the prime deity in the Lower Kingdom of Egypt, being set over life and reproduction. He was, in his form as Amum-Ra, to uphold the plume of Maat, and hence was the keeper of divine Truth. Foolish magi of Classical antiquity thought his powers were limited, that he merely a lowly deity. And later students of Goetia thought him a mere Marquis, a minor daemon commanding a mere forty legions of Hell. These are falsehoods, and a profound misunderstanding of Amon’s vast and mighty dominions. The writers of the old grimoires accredited him with merely knowledge of the past and the future, but he hath a greater dominion yet, over the great flat disc of time itself. For the Initiate who would conquer all bounds and all limits, Amon shall be his ultimate foe.
*knocking *
What's that?
*A louder knocking*
Who is that?
*sound of footsteps, a curtain being drawn*
Oh lord, no, no! Not you!
*sound of a window breaking, the sound of wings perhaps*
*silence
*owl hoots*
*silence
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