The Witch's Ladder

The witch's ladder is a fetish which is made from a piece of cord or hair, and feathers, and it is supposed to be used for magic or dark witchcraft. The cord is knotted and an individual feather is tied up by each knot, and the end result takes on the shape of a ladder.  Various charms can also be knotted with the piece of cord, and the number of charms and the number of feathers are also supposed to have specific effects which can be specifically tailored to a person's individual requirement. There are various different types of witch's ladders ranging from different number of knots, different colors of feathers and cord, and also their different purposes.

In the past, the ladder was thought to cause a person to die by tying the knots while chanting a spell then hiding the ladder somewhere.  A way to undo the spell is to find the hidden ladder then untie each of the knots.  Nowadays, they have a wider range of uses, including beneficial things such as good luck, and to help you fulfill a goal that you set yourself.

The first witch's ladder which was found and recorded was in Wellington, Somerset, in the attic of a house where an old woman had died. The ladder was also found with around 6 brooms, therefore it was then believed that it was used against the neighbours to cause them death and also to get milk from their cows.  Do you think that milk must have been a lot tastier back in the day in order to go to these lengths to get your hands on it? The 1.5 meter long ladder was eventually handed into the Pitt River museum, where it remains in the "Magic and Witchcraft" court.  Eventually, other witch's ladders were found in Italy, and they were slightly different in appearance than the one in Wellington, but their purpose was to cause someone bad luck and to become ill, by placing it under their bed.

Nowadays the ladders are good for both good and bad, but if I ever own a farm one day, I don't want someone to use it on me to get away with my cow's milk!

The Dark Side Of Kuman Thong Spirit Vessel for Good Luck and Wealth

In Thailand, there is a belief that there are effigies which grant their owner luck and wealth, known as Kuman Thong, which translates into “golden child”.  They are similar to the effigies for the boy spirit Elegua in the Santeria religion in Cuba.  The charm describes the spirit of a young child or baby and they are usually made of wood, and sometimes they may even be made partly of gold.  The boy spirit is also a big responsibility to take care of.  The effigies are given a home on their owner’s shines,  and they require to be looked after well, given food, treats, and drink daily, and they are worshiped and prayed to so that they may grant the owner luck and wealth.  If the owner neglects this responsibility that they have taken up, then it’s believed that the spirit boy can become enraged and cause misfortune.  This practice has been around since the 18^th century and it was told in a Thai fairy-tale called Khun Chang Khun Phaen, and the main character gains a powerful spirit by removing the stillborn foetus of his son from his wife.

Like many good things, there is a darker and more eerie side to the Kuma Thong, and it doesn't involve any malicious curses or ghost stories, or poltergeists in which the owner of the charm is harmed, like you would expect.  In the past, the original Kuma Thongs were required to be made with a dead fetus, which were often surgically removed from the wombs of their mothers.  The dead fetus would be transported to a cemetery where a sequence of dark incantations were chanted as the fetus is being dry roasted above a fire so that the spirit can be bound to it. The name "Golden Boy" doesn’t sound too appropriate now right?  Illegal practitioners of this are also known to bless their fetuses by covering them in fat from human babies or Nam-man, which is gathered by placing a candle under the chin of the corpse of a pregnant woman then collecting the oil which comes out of her skin.  

A recent arrest was made in 2012, of a 28 year old man who was smuggling 7 roasted fetuses in order to sell them on the black market for £24,000.  In 2010, the temple Wat Phai Ngoen situated in Bangkok, was found to have collected almost 350 aborted fetuses which it had collected from an illegal abortion clinic and was helping to dispose of them, although it’s believed that some were sold off to black magic practitioners too.  Incidents like these show that despite the practices being illegal, there are still those deeply dedicated to the occult that are still willing to buy these burnt fetuses.

Do any of you have any good luck charms?  If so, do you have any which you think other people would consider strange? 

Penanggalan - The Dark and Terrifying Malaysian Vampire

The Penanggalan vampire is a variation of vampire from South-East Asia, primarily Malaysia.  Like the Loogaoo, the Penanggalan vampire is not quite undead since it’s a living person during the day who transforms into the vampire at night. The Penanggalan vampires are all woman who at night detaches their heads from the rest of their body in order to fly off in search of victims, but their stomachs and entrails are still connected to their head and they glow in the night as they fly around. Talk about scary and disgusting!

In folklore, the vampire is either a beautiful old or young woman who gained her powers through the use of black magic or through other dark and supernatural methods in order to stay beautiful forever.  A woman may also become a Penanggalan by being cursed by someone with the use of black magic.  The Penanggalan was also said to be a midwife who had made a pact with the devil to not eat meat for 40 days, but she failed this and as punishment she was cursed forever to suck the blood from mothers who have given birth and their infants. This vampire can also control its hair and organs like tentacles in order to remove obstacles from its path as it flies.

The penanggalan flies around at night in search of pray. The vampire can drink blood and also eat flesh, but it prefers to drink blood. This vampire may also wait on rooftops of houses where women are giving birth, and it screams out when the infant is born.  It’s preferred pray are infants, the blood from mothers who recently gave birth, and the placenta which it eats after it has been buried. If the vampire is unable to gain entry to a house, then it can stretch its tongue through under the front door or any other small openings and then it begins to such the blood from its victims. Victims who come into contact with the tongue but are not killed in the encounter, are said to then die from the wasting disease unless they are healed by a medicine man. Many Malaysian houses are built on stilts, therefore it is also believed that this vampire can use its organs like tentacles and squeeze its way above the floorboards then proceed to devourer any infants in the premises.

There are a few ways in which one ca protect themselves from this vampire.  One way to protect yourself against it is to scatter the spiky leaves from the pandanus palm tree, in hope that the vampire would puncture its exposed organs and lungs on them. The thorny vine can also be strung up around windows and doors, so that the flying vampire can get its organs snared in the vines and then it can be killed with a machete. Although the snares wouldn’t protect the infants for when the vampire enters through under the floorboards, therefore several months before a child is expected to be born, the family can plant pineapples under the house, and the spikes from the plant and fruit will protect against the penanggalan. Pregnant women can also sleep with scissors or nut cutters, since the vampire is afraid of these items.  A way to identify when a midwife is a penanggalan is to notice if they are licking their lips when a woman is giving birth as if they are looking forward to drinking her blood at night, and these vampires tend to avoid making eye contact when they are in their human form. Men should find out where the vampire lives and when it flies away into the night, they should go into the house and locate the detached body and either cremate it or stick broken glass down the neck so that when the vampire returns they puncture their organs and die or are unable to go into their body and daytime comes and they die. A non-lethal way of dealing with one of these vampires is to find the detached body and move it back to front so that the vampire with attach its body with its head facing the wrong way for everyone to see.

It is also believed that the penanggalan’s body begins to decompose when it becomes detached from its head therefore she stores it in a vinegar vat in order to preserve it while she flies around. Similar to the loogaoo, if you find her detached body and rubs garlic paste on the inside, then the vampire with perish. 

How would you react if you saw this monstrosity flying outside your window at night?