The Lore and Myths of Witches Chapter 5: Witch Worlds Beyond Europe

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, travelers. Our broom has carried us out of

0:02 Speaker 1: Europe's courts and caves, across deserts, jungles, and oceans. Witchcraft

0:08 Speaker 1: isn't a European monopoly. Every culture has wrestled with unseen power, misfortune,

0:13 Speaker 1: and the temptation to bend reality. So let's spread our wings.

0:18 Speaker 2: Middle East and North Africa, gin sorcery and sacred words.

0:25 Speaker 1: In Babylonian and Talmudic writings spells against disease and envy,

0:29 Speaker 1: mixed with prayers to archangels. Early Islamic law treated seer

0:34 Speaker 1: sorcery as real but morally dangerous. The Qur'an mentioned Solomon

0:39 Speaker 1: commanding gin with divine permission, proof that magic could be

0:43 Speaker 1: holy or heretical, depending on who signed the contract. Cairo's

0:48 Speaker 1: medieval markets sold love filters, protective amulets, and gin inviting bowls.

0:53 Speaker 1: Moroccan storytellers spoke of witches writing hyenas. Yemeny folk tales

0:58 Speaker 1: described sorcerers using knots and winds to lure spirits.

1:02 Speaker 3: Need reliable gin containment, lamplock keeping mischievous spirits sealed since

1:08 Speaker 3: nine hundred and fifty CE.

1:10 Speaker 2: Africa south of the Sahara power, morality, and mystery.

1:16 Speaker 1: Across Africa, witchcraft explains fortune and calamity, shaping community ethics.

1:22 Speaker 1: Among the Yoruba, Aja is a female spiritual power, dangerous

1:27 Speaker 1: if abused, but also protective when honored. The river goddess

1:31 Speaker 1: Assun blesses healers who channel wisdom with care. The Azondae

1:36 Speaker 1: of Central Africa describe mangoo, an inherited essence that can

1:41 Speaker 1: harm unintentionally when envy flares oracles, sometimes using poisoned chickens

1:47 Speaker 1: help decide if someone's mangoo is out of hand. Colonial

1:51 Speaker 1: powers often misunderstood these systems, branding everything witchcraft. Yet local

1:57 Speaker 1: stories still cast witches as moral referee. They remind society

2:02 Speaker 1: to behave or else.

2:04 Speaker 3: This morality moment is brought to you by envy begone,

2:07 Speaker 3: ethically sourced talismans for keeping jealousy in check.

2:11 Speaker 2: South Asia spells spirits and village justice.

2:16 Speaker 1: India, Nepal and Sri Lanka team with stories of Dayan's

2:20 Speaker 1: seductive women turned malevolent and chew Dale's ghosts with backward feet.

2:27 Speaker 1: Rural councils sometimes punished suspected witches, especially during outbreaks or

2:32 Speaker 1: cattle deaths. Alongside tantric healers offered countermagic chanting mantras over

2:38 Speaker 1: fire or drawing diagrams on packed earth. Medieval court records

2:42 Speaker 1: tell of royal astrologers jailed for whispering treason to the stars.

2:48 Speaker 1: Even now, village healers blend Sanskrit prayers with folk remedies

2:52 Speaker 1: to protect newborns from the evil eye.

2:55 Speaker 2: China, fox spirits and imperial crackdowns.

3:00 Speaker 1: China's witch history is a tapestry of philosophy, folklore, and policy.

3:05 Speaker 1: Early chronicles praise wu spirit mediums, but emperors occasionally launched

3:11 Speaker 1: purges against sorcery. Societies worried about rebellion, cloaked as ritual

3:16 Speaker 1: literature gave witches sly charm. Liao jaiji. Seventeenth century Strange

3:22 Speaker 1: Tales features Houli jung fox spirits who seduce scholars or

3:27 Speaker 1: repay kindness with treasure. The line between which and spirit

3:31 Speaker 1: friend was thin and sometimes romantic.

3:35 Speaker 3: Protect your scholarship from sly foxes with scroll shield now

3:39 Speaker 3: with anti seduction coding.

3:41 Speaker 2: Japan and Korea mountains foxes and shamans.

3:46 Speaker 1: In Japan, Yama Uba haunt lonely peaks, offering stew before

3:51 Speaker 1: possibly making you the stew Kitsunitsuki fox masters gained wealth

3:57 Speaker 1: through sly familiars. Courtapo pointed on myoji, calculated auspicious dates,

4:03 Speaker 1: and deflected curses with star charts and chants. Korea's Mudang

4:07 Speaker 1: shamans bridged worlds with drums and dance, blessing households or

4:12 Speaker 1: if accused of ill will, earning the label witch. Jose

4:16 Speaker 1: On elites sometimes outlawed ecstatic rights, but commoners kept calling

4:21 Speaker 1: mudang for weddings, healings, or even pest control.

4:25 Speaker 2: Indigenous Americas shape shifters and spirit allies.

4:30 Speaker 1: North America's peoples carried their own witch lore. Among the Navajo,

4:35 Speaker 1: Ye Naldlushi, skin walkers were witches who donned animal skins

4:40 Speaker 1: to stalk the night, feared as traitors to community harmony.

4:44 Speaker 1: In New England, Algonquian stories warned of winter spirits like

4:48 Speaker 1: the wendigo, born of hunger and taboo. Spanish America fused

4:52 Speaker 1: indigenous beliefs with Iberian Bruhia. Nahua texts described Nahuales shamans

4:58 Speaker 1: who could become owls or jaguars. Colonial officials baffled folded

5:03 Speaker 1: them into witch categories. In Haiti and the Caribbean Obia

5:08 Speaker 1: and Vodu practitioners, mixed African ritual, European charms and rebellion

5:14 Speaker 1: against slavery, and of course Salem, Massachusetts sixteen ninety two,

5:20 Speaker 1: a tense stew of Puritan dread, land disputes and adolescent theatrics,

5:26 Speaker 1: ending with twenty deaths and centuries of cautionary tales.

5:30 Speaker 3: Planning a moonlight shape shift. Don't forget pelt Care keeps

5:35 Speaker 3: your fur silky through every curse.

5:38 Speaker 1: Magic, morality, rebellion, and healing. The world beyond Europe is

5:43 Speaker 1: a kaleidoscope of witch stories, whether through chicken legged huts,

5:48 Speaker 1: gin lamps, or foxes with questionable flirting skills. People everywhere

5:53 Speaker 1: have tried to name the forces just beyond sight. Next

5:57 Speaker 1: we'll watch witchcraft fade from the gallows but linger in

6:00 Speaker 1: memory and then burst back in new guises, Romantic villains,

6:05 Speaker 1: feminist icons, and even TikTok trendsetters,