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Spellbinding history of cheese and witchcraft


Still Waters

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It’s not entirely clear why cheese is seen to have magical properties. It might be to do with the fact it’s made from milk, a powerful substance in itself, with the ability to give life and strength to the young. It might also be because the process by which cheese is made is a little bit magical. The 12th-century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, compared cheese making to the miracle of life in the way that it forms curds (or solid matter) from something insubstantial.

One of the most common uses for magic cheese in the medieval and early modern periods was to identify thieves and murderers. The method could be quite simple. First bless cheese with a prayer. 

Then feed a small piece to each of your suspects. The culprit will be unable to swallow their piece of cheese, thus admitting their guilt.

https://theconversation.com/the-spellbinding-history-of-cheese-and-witchcraft-153221

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3 hours ago, Still Waters said:

Then feed a small piece to each of your suspects. The culprit will be unable to swallow their piece of cheese, thus admitting their guilt.

I feel bad for that one lactose intolerant person in the crowd.

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hum... cheese.. it make me think of the Lizard Shaman in Goblin Slayer anime.
 

 

 

Edited by Jon the frog
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On 1/22/2021 at 1:44 PM, Still Waters said:

It’s not entirely clear why cheese is seen to have magical properties. It might be to do with the fact it’s made from milk, a powerful substance in itself, with the ability to give life and strength to the young. It might also be because the process by which cheese is made is a little bit magical. The 12th-century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, compared cheese making to the miracle of life in the way that it forms curds (or solid matter) from something insubstantial.

One of the most common uses for magic cheese in the medieval and early modern periods was to identify thieves and murderers. The method could be quite simple. First bless cheese with a prayer. 

Then feed a small piece to each of your suspects. The culprit will be unable to swallow their piece of cheese, thus admitting their guilt.

https://theconversation.com/the-spellbinding-history-of-cheese-and-witchcraft-153221

When it comes to witchcraft (and I have looked into this a lot) there is the idea that the mind can attribute properties to objects.

What do I mean by that? Well we know an object is made of matter and energy. But (and while it may be metaphysical) the mind can attribute the properties of good, evil, justice, fairness, pleasantness, basically every mental concept we could imagine to the object.

Its like we infuse objects with our perceptions. And its not the perceptions we intentionally have and try to infuse in an object. Its the ones that automatically arise without any conscious effort. For example, if we are wondering down the road day dreaming away and walk past someone we might automatically attribute to them the property of having a nice or bad personality based on our impression of their appearance. We didnt make a conscious intention to perceive them that way, its our natural perception that got to work and arose in our minds.

The act of blessing the object to make it holy can attribute the quality of holiness to it. Like wise there is the saying that when the whole world rains, it rains on you. And when the whole world shines, it shines on you. So if we are prone to negativity we discover our lives our negative. Not because we see it that way, but because it really does become negative towards us.

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2 hours ago, Cookie Monster said:

The act of blessing the object to make it holy can attribute the quality of holiness to it.

The holy object is only holy because it is believe to be holy. It is the meaning attributed to it. Without that meaning 'holy water' is just water. No special qualities are every added to it. It's all psychological, a placebo or nocebo effect. 

What you're attempting to talk about is sympathetic magick. 

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On 1/22/2021 at 8:44 AM, Still Waters said:

It’s not entirely clear why cheese is seen to have magical properties. It might be to do with the fact it’s made from milk, a powerful substance in itself, with the ability to give life and strength to the young. It might also be because the process by which cheese is made is a little bit magical. The 12th-century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen, compared cheese making to the miracle of life in the way that it forms curds (or solid matter) from something insubstantial.

One of the most common uses for magic cheese in the medieval and early modern periods was to identify thieves and murderers. The method could be quite simple. First bless cheese with a prayer. 

Then feed a small piece to each of your suspects. The culprit will be unable to swallow their piece of cheese, thus admitting their guilt.

https://theconversation.com/the-spellbinding-history-of-cheese-and-witchcraft-153221

Food folklore can be so much fun :)

A bit more cheese. Cheese, along with other dairy products like fresh milk and cream, is said to be favored by many of the wee folk. 

The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese is a Dutch tale of fairies and a boy... https://theskaldscircle.com/dutch-folklore/the-boy-who-wanted-more-cheese-dutch-folklore/

Switzerland has tale of a brides test using cheese too. A similar version is found in Grimm's: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm155.html

And of course, cheese has various dream meanings too. If you're making it or eating it, selling it or gifted with it. Bob Wallace famously said once that if you eat a ham and cheese on rye before bed you will dream about a tall cool blonde, sort of a first-sack attack, you know.

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