Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling - Illustrated by Numerous Incantations, Specimens of Medical Magic, Anecdotes and Tales

Charles Godfrey Leland

Description

This vintage work contains a collection of the customs, usages, and ceremonies used among gypsies, as regards fortune-telling, witch-doctoring, love-philtering, and other sorcery, illustrated by many anecdotes and instances, taken either from works as yet very little known to the English reader or from personal experiences. Within a very few years, since Ethnology and Archaeology have received a great inspiration, and much enlarged their scope through Folk-lore, everything relating to such subjects is studied with far greater interest and to much greater profit than was the case when they were cultivated in a languid, half-believing, half-sceptical spirit which was in reality rather one of mere romance than reason. Now that we seek with resolution to find the whole truth, be it based on materialism, spiritualism, or their identity, we are amazed to find that the realm of marvel and mystery, of wonder and poetry, connected with what we vaguely call “magic,” far from being explained away or exploded, enlarges before us as we proceed, and that not into a mere cloudland, gorgeous land, but into a country of reality in which men of science who would once have disdained the mere thought thereof are beginning to stray.

Sujets

• Divination
• Tarot
• Spirituality

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473370760
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

GYPSY SORCERY AND FORTUNE TELLING
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS INCANTATIONS, SPECIMENS OF MEDICAL MAGIC, ANECDOTES AND TALES
By
CHARLES GODFREY LELAND

First published in 1891



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This edition is published by Obscure Press, an imprint of Read & Co.
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Contents
FOR TUNE TELLING
PREFACE
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI


FORTUNE TELLING
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person’s life. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination, however in practice the two differ substantially. The disparity results from the fact that divination refers to predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term ‘fortune-telling’ implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture. In the latter environment, belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.
Historically, fortune-telling grew out of the folklorist reception of Renaissance magic, specifically associated with the Romani people. During the nineteenth and twentieth century, methods of divination from non-Western cultures such as the I Ching (a classic Chinese text) were also adopted as methods of fortune-telling in Western popular culture. Common methods used for fortune telling in Europe and the Americas include astromancy (by the stars), pendulum reading (by the movements of a suspended object), spirit-board reading (by planchette or talking board), tasseography (reading tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot reading, and chiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms).
Tarot reading is one of the more common types of fortune telling, and practitioners are split as to the exact nature of the process. Some claim they are guided by a spiritual force while others believe the cards help them to tap into a collective unconscious or their own creative, brainstorming subconscious. The divinatory meanings of the cards commonly used today are derived mostly from cartomancer Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as Etteilla) and Marrie-Anne Lenormand (1776-1843). Their history delves much deeper however and many involved in the occult arts have traced their practice back to ancient Egypt and divine hermetic wisdom. ‘Hermeticism’ is an especially old and venerated tradition, based primarily upon the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, who greatly influenced Western esoteric tradition during the Renaissance and the Reformation. Its doctrine affirms that a single, true theology exists which is present in all religions, and was given by God to man in antiquity. Despite this long history, the first documented complete tarot deck only dates from fifteenth century Nor thern Italy.
One of the other most widespread methods for divining the future is astromancy; based on the premise that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. Many cultures have attached importance to astronomical events, and the Indians, Chinese , and Mayans developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. In the West, astrology most often consists of a system of horoscopes purporting to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict future events in their life based on the positions of the sun, moon, and other celestial objects at the time of their birth. Most newspapers and magazines carry predictive columns based on these celestial influences – although it should be noted that no scientific studies have shown support for the ir accuracy.
Western fortune-tellers typically attempt predictions on matters such as future romantic, financial and childbearing prospects as well as more specific ‘character readings.’ In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune-tellers more than men, and some build substantial, life-long relationships with their ‘tellers.’ Despite this popularity, there is often extreme opposition against fortune-telling in Christianity, Islam and Judaism based on biblical prohibitions against divination. It is banned in the Book of Micah (5:12) and many civil laws have also forbidden the practice. This has caused discord in the Jewish community especially due to prevalent views o n mysticism.
As is evident even from this incredibly brief introduction to the art of fortune telling, it is a branch of human mysticism and belief that has an incredibly long and intriguing history. Over the centuries, and across the globe, some form of ‘divination’ has always been practiced. We hope that the current reader is inspired by this book to find out more about this fascinat ing subject.


PREFACE
THIS work contains a collection of the customs, usages, and ceremonies current among gypsies, as regards fortune-telling, witch-doctoring, love-philtering, and other sorcery, illustrated by many anecdotes and instances, taken either from works as yet very little known to the English reader or from personal experiences. Within a very few years, since Ethnology and Archæology have received a great inspiration, and much enlarged their scope through Folk-lore, everything relating to such subjects is studied with far greater interest and to much greater profit than was the case when they were cultivated in a languid, half-believing, half-sceptical spirit which was in reality rather one of mere romance than reason. Now that we seek with resolution to find the whole truth, be it based on materialism, spiritualism, or their identity, we are amazed to find that the realm of marvel and mystery, of wonder and poetry, connected with what we vaguely call “magic,” far from being explained away or exploded, enlarges before us as we proceed, and that not into a mere cloudland, gorgeous land, but into a country of reality in which men of science who would once have disdained the mere thought thereof are beginning to stray. Hypnotism has really revealed far greater wonders than were ever established by the fascinatores of old or by mesmerists of more modern times. Memory, the basis of thought according to Plato , which was once held to be a determined quantity, has been proved, (the word is not too bold), by recent physiology, to be practically infinite, and its perfect development to be identical with that of intellect, so that we now see plainly before us the power to perform much which was once regarded as miraculous. Not less evident is it that men of science or practical inventors, such as Darwin, Wallace, Huxley, Tyndale, Galton, Joule, Lockyer, and Edison , have been or are all working in common with theosophists, spiritualists, Folk-lorists, and many more, not diversely but all towards a grand solution of the Unknown.
Therefore there is nothing whatever in the past relating to the influences which have swayed man, however strange, eccentric, superstitious, or even repulsive they may seem, which is not of great and constantly increasing value. And if we of the present time begin already to see this, how much more important will these facts be to the men of the future, who, by virtue of more widely extended knowledge and comparison, will be better able than we are to draw wise conclusions undreamed of now. But the chief conclusion for us is to collect as much as we can, while it is yet extant, of all the strange lore of the olden time, instead of wasting time in forming idle theori es about it.
In a paper read before the Congrès des Traditions populaires in Paris, 1889, on the relations of gypsies to Folk-lore, I set forth my belief that these people have always been the humble priests of what is really the practical religion of all peasants and poor people; that is their magical ceremonies and medicine. Very few have any conception of the degree to which gypsies have been the colporteurs of what in Italy is called “the old faith,” or witchcraft.
As regards the illustrative matter given, I am much indebted to Dr. Wlislocki , who has probably had far more intimate personal experience of gypsies than any other learned man who ever lived, through our mutual friend, Dr. Anthon Herrmann , editor of the Ethnologische Mitteilungen , Budapest, who is also himself an accomplished Romany scholar and collector, and who has kindly taken a warm interest in this book, and greatly aided it. To these I may add Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss, of Vienna, whose various works on the superstitions and Folk-lore of the South Slavonians—kindly presented by him to me—contain a vast mine of material, nearly all that of which he treats being common property between peasants and the Romany, as other sources abundantly indicate. With this there is also much which I collected personally among gypsies and fortune-tellers, and similar characters, it being true as regards this work and its main object, that there is much cognate or allied information which is quite as valuable as gypsy-lore itself, as all such subjects mutually explain one of the others.
Gypsies, as I have said, have done more than any race or class on the face of the earth to disseminate among the multitude a belief in fortune-telling, magical or sympathetic cures, amulets and such small sorceries as now find a place in Folk-lo