The Erotic Bond As Weapon

Once the enamored woman had exhausted all the possibilities of the above magical cants, she was then obliged to employ the most powerful weapon in this type of magic. She had to bind her lover so tightly

through intimate relations that he would be unable to leave her for another woman. The "binding" or "impotency spell" thus consists of rendering the man impotent, except when in the presence of the woman who bound him either through the conjuration or some other magic practice.

Men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries literally believed in the possibility of producing this kind of spell, ironically justifying the double meaning of the term "sorceress" as pronounced by the male lover. Frequently we find men who appear before the Inquisition, afraid that they have fallen victim to this embarrassing spell and hoping that the imprisonment and sentencing of their domestic Circe will release them from it. Women were at once perpetrators and victims of an attitude that helped them to achieve their goals, but that also brought them to the attention of the Inquisition. Although these details cannot be described here, the repertory of conjurations itself reveals sufficient information to help us understand their circumstances. "Love magic" also contains the appropriate cants for "binding" a man to prevent him from approaching anyone other than the woman who loves him.

The conjuration of "the shadow-broom" appears in multiple versions throughout Castile, Valencia, and other regions. According to the documents, it renewed "illicit relations," its essentially erotic content recited by a woman generally completely naked and with her hair down. The shadow-broom came to symbolize an entreaty to both a demonic spirit and to the man whose return was desired. Actually, each sorceress added the touches from her personal repertory which seemed most opportune or which most openly suggested the possibility of inducing the absent lover to desire the woman once again. In one case the woman simply swept her own shadow with the broom, saying, "Come, husband, for I am alone."^[38] The beata from Huete, however, added a conjuration allowing us to appreciate the symbolic value of the scene:

Sombra
cabeça tenéis como yo
cuerpo tenéis como yo
yo te mando que ansí como tienes
mi sombra verdadera
que tu vayas a Fulano
e lo traigas a mí^[39]

[Shadow,
You have a head like mine
You have a body like mine

I command that, just as you have
My true shadow,
You go to (man's name)
And bring him to me]

María de Santarem, tried in Cuenca in 1538, employed a cant that seems to apply sorcery of the beans to her specific case. She would pitch several black chickpeas as she mentioned them (calling them beans in the invocation), finishing the spell by positioning herself to await the conjured man:

Sombra señora
con vos me vengo a enamorar
sombra señora
con vos me vengo a consolar
ava, que me habéis de ir por Fulano
y me le avéis de traer
ava, que quiero echar las suertes
ava, que si en vos cayere
ava, que me lo avéis de traer . . .
¡ah! en vos cayó la sombra
presto, presto
traédmelo preso y atado
y presto en un crédito
y no me lo dexéys a la puerta
sino traédmelo a mi cama^[40]

[Madame shadow
I come to fall in love with you
Madame shadow
I come to console myself with you
Bean, you must fetch (man's name)
And bring him to me
Bean, I want to cast lots
Bean, I want to cast them
Bean, if it falls to you
Bean, you must fetch him to me.

(Here, she pitched the chickpeas, letting the last one fall in her shadow.)

Ah! The shadow fell on you
Quickly, quickly
Bring him captured and tied
And quickly on your word
And don't leave him at my door
But bring him to my bed]

Sexual relations constituted the real weapon which the sorceresses and their clients relied upon in order to retain a man. The woman's physical surrender, however, guaranteed neither his constancy nor his good humor, the two fundamental goals that were desired. Consequently, sorceresses cast spells obliging the man to seek out only one woman, who became the heroine of these occult narratives. Our enamored women counted on a wide range of methods for their purposes. They may have bewitched the man by using his semen to cast various "impotency spells." Similarly, he may have been bound to the woman by means of some love potion composed of her sexual fluids. The following are examples of several practices which, while not always poetic, were indeed quite expressive.

Throughout Spain, sorceresses frequently performed the "conjuration of the oil lamp's wick," which utilized semen. The woman would collect it after having had "contact with her friend"—called illicit in the documents. The cotton or linen with which the woman cleaned herself after intercourse was twisted into a "wick," then placed in an oil lamp and ignited. For several nights she would leave it burning while she recited:

Así come arde esta torcida
arda el corazón de Fulano

[As this wick burns
So shall (man's name)'s heart burn]

Doña Juana de la Paz performed this conjuration in Valencia,^[41] while in Castile we find a similar procedure where the woman recited a more complex and explicit cant:

Vida de la vida
de la carne y de la sangre
de Fulano
que me ames . . .
y te conjuro Fulano con Barrabás
y assí como estas torcidas arden en este candil
assí me quieras^[42]

[Life of life
Of the flesh and blood
Of (man's name)
You must love me
 . . . And I conjure you, (man's name), with
Barabbas

And just as these wicks burn in these lamps
You will love me]

Another curious ceremony with wicks had to be performed collectively. The women all sat in a circle and called upon the man to perform "lewd acts." Lighting nine wicks, they would pass around three grains of salt, three lumps of coal, nine nails, nine beans, and a wax candle. They would throw the salt, beans, and other objects into the circle and then pick them up again; if the two beans indented with teeth marks landed together in the circle, it was a sign that the absent man would return.

Women's menstrual blood also contained magical powers that could be channeled to the same ends as semen. In this case, the sorceresses generally did not utilize this ingredient alone, but would add the brains of an ass and pubic hairs. Once the dish containing the impotency spell had been prepared, the man would have to eat it for the desired effect. Laura Garrigues, for example, added a little pepper; doña Juana de la Cruz simply dried the blood and mixed it with wine; other women spread it on a meat dish. The conjuration recited by doña Juana de la Paz adds a poetic touch:

Yo te conjuro
sangre de la fuente—o de mi fuente—la vermeja
que vaya Fulano tras de Fulana
como el cordero tras la oveja^[43]

[I conjure you,
Blood from the crimson fountain—or my fountain—
Make (man's name) follow (woman's name)
Like the lamb after the sheep]

The inclusion of menstrual blood, pubic hair, and semen guaranteed these rites the most obvious and astonishing sexual content. Yet the "conjuration of the sexual member" probably originated because some women dared to venture even further in their desire to cause their lovers' impotency with other women. Laura Garrigues held her lover's penis and, making several crosses, recited: "I repeat, the cross enters" [Hago coro, entra cruz].^[44] María Antonia de Neroña made the sign of the cross on her lover's back—presumably in bed, although the document does not specify where—and said:

Hasta que esta cruz te veas
tú me ames y me quieras^[45]

[Until you see this cross
May you love and desire me]

Besides these "love potions" and magical concoctions, sorceresses resorted to less complicated rites also aimed at rendering the undecided lover impotent. The Valencian sorceresses would take a ribbon touched by the man, and at the stroke of six, they would make nine knots, tying and untying them nine times; the woman would then wear the belt for nine days. Variations of the "spell of the knots" with cloths or similar objects appeared in Castile and other areas.

These rituals thus describe clearly women's anxieties regarding love, but a more profound analysis reveals that, although they wished to be accompanied and loved by men, material support was an equally desired goal, a fact evinced orally through the conjurations.