Throughout the history of witches and witch hunts, women, more than men, were accused of the crime, tried, convicted, and executed. A book called the Malleus Mallificarum, or The Hammer of Witches, written by Heinrick Kramer, a German Catholic bishop, didn’t help matters much. It was a sordid text detailing, among other things, the horrors of witches and witchcraft, the weaknesses and cruelties of women… as well as why women were most often allied with Satan. Kramer’s dangerous, ignorant and misogynistic views were shared by many of his day and beyond.
“All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.”
~Heinrich Kramer, 1486 Malleus Maleficarum
“(A woman) is frailer than man is, so it is easier to be entrapped by the gross snares of the Devil…”
–King James of Scotland, 1595
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During the dark days of the witch hunts, it was understood that a teat or the devil’s mark would mar some secret spot on the witch’s body. It would be a spot no one would dare expose, not even the lustful witch.
Though it was possible to find the mark on a witch’s forehead or on the back of her hand, it was not probable, and so the accused were stripped bare before examiners and witnesses, their bodies intimately searched and probed. The examiners looked not only for a mark or growth that could only be explained as the work of the devil, but also for spots on the witch’s body that did not respond to even the deepest prick of a pin…literally.
So, while history – and Hollywood – shows how horrible these examinations were, in THE MARK, I’ve turned that horror into arousal… for in my dark fictional colony, the accused are still stripped and searched and probed, but the innocent woman, touched so intimately, will be affected, will be aroused. Yet the witch, with her deadened flesh, will not respond, for the witch cannot feel, no matter how gently caressed, no matter how deeply probed…
Coming Soon:
Book 3 – The Watchman
I’m fascinated by history while appalled at the ignorance and cruelty of many eras. From the Spanish Inquisition to the Salem Witch Trials, to the Nazi concentration camps.
I’m intrigued by the concept of a woman’s enjoyment and awareness of her sexuality releasing her from such cruel intentions and the threat of death.
I imagine I may have been convicted as a witch were I born during those colonial days in Salem. I have a prominent birthmark in a private place. Frightening stuff, huh?
It’s extremely frightening. The rules put in place to determine guilt or innocence actually left no room for innocence. It was truly a damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario. I would have been accused and convicted as well, for several reasons. But you’re right to say ignorance and cruelty spanned many eras. I can’t help but wonder when we’ll learn.
Thanks for coming by!