Kischuph
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
In the Kabala, the higher magical influence. It is divided into two branches, an elementary and a spiritual, and includes exorcism. Sometimes Kischuph exhibits a striking resemblance to the witchcraft of medieval times. Sorcerers were said to change themselves into animals, and go long distances in a very short time. They may also induce pain and disease and death in men and animals. Still further allied to witches are the women who make a contract with the Schedim, and meet them at certain times, dance with them, and visit these spirits who appear to them in the shape of goats. In many countries such women are killed." This form of Kischuph is true sorcery; the other form, material Kischuph, is rather evil sympathy, consisting of disturbing influences on the natural elements produced by exciting false "rapports" in various substances. 66 Kiss, Bewitched by means of a: Florence Newton, a notorious witch of the Middle Ages , was on several occasions accused of having bewitched people by means of a kiss. The first was a servant-maid who had refused alms to her. About a week later the witch kissed her violently, from which time she suffered from fits and was transported from place to place, now being carried mysteriously to the top of the on. house, now being placed between two feather beds, and so Koshei : (See Slavs .) The witch also caused the death of one David Jones, who stood sentinel over her in prison, by kissing his hand, and by the same means brought about the death of the children of three Youghal aldermen.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When the Encyclopaedia of Occultism compiled this in 1920, kischuph (Hebrew kishuf) was presented as a graded department of "the Kabala", split into spiritual and material branches. Modern scholarship treats the word quite differently: it is the ordinary biblical and rabbinic term for forbidden sorcery, the offence of the mekhashefah of Exodus 22:18, and it is largely separate from the speculative Kabbalah of the Zohar. What has genuinely transformed the subject is documentary: thousands of Aramaic incantation bowls and the magical papyri and amulets recovered from the Cairo Genizah, together with the Jewish magical handbook Sefer ha-Razim, edited by Mordecai Margalioth in the 1960s, now let historians read actual Jewish spells rather than infer them from demonological summaries. The appended note on Florence Newton also needs correcting: she was not a witch "of the Middle Ages" but was tried at Youghal, County Cork, in 1661, in one of the very few full Irish witch trials on record.
Written for this edition, 2026.