Greetings!
These allegations have history.
>Which was shockingly stupid thing to say but might interest the article
>- i thought vets say most of the mutilations are done by other horses -
>ie kicking biting etc?
True, I am sure. Also, I can imagine humans attacking a horse to cause
the owner of that animal distress, and may leave false clues to mislead
investigators and aggravate the distress and anxiety.
I am about to publish a book which includes an account of the mysterious
mutilations of horses in mid 19th C. Sweden, the record being created
some decades later.
But the account is different from the modern accounts. Instead of
attributing the attacks to anonymous satanists, the alleged miscreant is
actually named by a magical practitioner who records the incident some
years later, entirely accepting the supernatural component. Anders
Fjallmark was a horsemen whom a farmer refused to pay for a season's
work. The account describes how, in revenge, the horseman shape-shifted
into the form of a bear using a specially constructed "ring-belt" made
from a dead man's skin. The account gives some detail of the process.
Then, in the bear's guise, he attacked the horses.
The horseman named was Sami but I think the account also reflects a
pan-European magical culture. Professor Monter in Toads and Eucharists,
the male witches of Normandy 1564 - 1664, French Historical Studies,
Vol.20, No.4 1997 notes that blacksmiths were particularly suspected of
witchcraft, specifically the healing and harming horses. I published a
text from 17th C. Normandy which included a brief spell for protection
of horses against "werewolf farriers". Ironically, the spell itself is
highly blasphemous and obscene, but the blasphemy, being in Latin, was
probably unknown to the practitioner! Guidon, Magic Secrets, Society of
Esoteric Endeavour.
My best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
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