Witches' Sabbath or The Great He-Goat (Spanish: Aquelarre[1] or El gran cabrón[2]) are names given to a fresco probably completed between 1820–1823[3] by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The work shows Satan in the form of a goat-human figure rendered in silhouette, presiding in moonlight over a coven of disfigured, ugly and terrified witches.[4] The painting is one of Goya's best known works,[5] and is generally assumed to be a satire on the credulity of the age,[6] and a mocking condemnation of both popular superstition and the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. The painting examines the themes of violence, aging and death.[7]
Tamsin Blight (aka Tammy Blee or Tamson) the so-called “White Witch of Helston”, was undoubtedly the greatest of the Cornish conjurors during the 19th Century, and one of Britain’s most famous hedgewitches.
Born in Cornwall, England, during the closing years of the 18th Century, Thomasine Blight (as she was more properly known) achieved great success as a conjuror in West Cornwall, at first during her time at Redruth, and later after her removal to Helston. She was said to be able to remove a curse or spell that had been cast upon someone, as well as to put spells on those who displeased her. She also engaged in shamanic trances using hallucinogens to help predict the future and to communicate with spirits.
She began practising as a cunning-woman about 1830 and was certainly well known as one by the time she married James Thomas, another conjuror, in 1835. From the time of her marriage through until the 1850s the two of them formed a remarkable magical double-act, and were widely consulted by their many clients. Many of Blight's customers were farmers who came to see her about sick cattle, others were young women anxious about their marriage prospects. She performed great healing remedies for farmers of sickly animals using herbs, and many people visited her to receive a charm made by her to carry for healing. In most cases Blight was able to provide uncanny cures that confirmed her magical reputation.
Blight's and James Thomas's marriage came to an end after Thomas proposed sleeping