Naema, The Witch: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Mediumistic Romance

Naema,

the witch

Witchcraft legend from the XV century

DICTATED BY THE SPIRIT

JOHN WILMONT

EARL OF ROCHESTER

VERA KRYZHANOVSKAIA

Translation to English;

Cielo Ramos Urquizo

Lima, Peru, October 2022

Reviewer:

Angélica Araujo Perez

Original Title in Portuguese:

Naema, a bruxa

© VERA KRYZHANOVSKAIA

Translated into English from the 7th Portuguese edition

Cover:

El aquelarre de las Brujas Frans Francken The Young. 1606. Alberts and Victoria Museum, London.

World Spiritist Institute

Houston, Texas, USA      

E–mail: [email protected]

About the Medium

Vera Ivanovna Kryzhanovskaia, (Warsaw, July 14, 1861 - Tallinn, December 29, 1924), was a Russian psychographer medium. Between 1885 and 1917 she psychographed a hundred novels and short stories signed by the spirit of Rochester, believed by some to be John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester. Among the best known are The Pharaoh Mernephtah and The Iron Chancellor.

In addition to historical novels, in parallel the medium psychographed works with occult-cosmological themes. E. V. Kharitonov, in his research essay, considered her the first woman representative of science fiction literature. During the fashion for occultism and esotericism, with the recent scientific discoveries and psychic experiences of European spiritualist circles, she attracted readers from the Russian Silver Age high society and the middle class in newspapers and press. Although he began along spiritualist lines, organizing séances in St. Petersburg, he later gravitated toward theosophical doctrines.

Her father died when Vera was just ten years old, which left the family in a difficult situation. In 1872 Vera was taken in by an educational charity for noble girls in St. Petersburg as a scholar, St. Catherine's School. However, the young girl's frail health and financial difficulties prevented her from completing the course. In 1877 she was discharged and completed her education at home.

During this period, the spirit of the English poet JW Rochester (1647-1680), taking advantage of the young woman's mediumistic gifts, materialized, and proposed that she dedicate herself body and soul to the service of the Good and write under his direction. After this contact with the person who became her spiritual guide, Vera was cured of chronic tuberculosis, a serious illness at the time, without medical interference.

At the age of 18, he began to work in psychography. In 1880, on a trip to France, he successfully participated in a mediumistic séance. At that time, his contemporaries were surprised by his productivity, despite his poor health. His séances were attended at that time by famous European mediums, as well as by Prince Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

In 1886, in Paris, her first work was made public, the historical novel Episode of the life of Tiberius, published in French, (as well as her first works), in which the tendency for mystical themes was already noticeable. It is believed that the medium was influenced by the Spiritist Doctrine of Allan Kardec, the Theosophy of Helena Blavatsky, and the Occultism of Papus.

During this period of temporary residence in Paris, Vera psychographed a series of historical novels, such as The Pharaoh Mernephtah, The Abbey of the Benedictines, The Romance of a Queen, The Iron Chancellor of Ancient Egypt, Herculaneum, The Sign of Victory, The Night of Saint Bartholomew, among others, which attracted public attention not only for the captivating themes, but also for the exciting plots. For the novel The Iron Chancellor of Ancient Egypt, the French Academy of Sciences awarded him the title of Officer of the French Academy, and in 1907, the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded him the Honorable Mention for the novel Czech Luminaries.

About the Spiritual Author

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester was born on April 1 or 10, 1647 (there is no record of the exact date). The son of Henry Wilmot and Anne (widow of Sir. Francis Henry Lee), Rochester resembled his father in physique and temperament, domineering and proud. Henry Wilmot had received the title of Earl because of his efforts to raise money in Germany to help King Charles I regain the throne after he was forced to leave England.

When his father died, Rochester was 11 years old and inherited the title of Earl, little inheritance, and honors.

Young J.W. Rochester grew up in Ditchley among drunkenness, theatrical intrigues, artificial friendships with professional poets, lust, brothels in Whetstone Park and the friendship of the king, whom he despised.

He had a vast culture, for the time: he mastered Latin and Greek, knew the classics, French and Italian, was the author of satirical poetry, highly appreciated in his time.

In 1661, at the age of 14, he left Wadham College, Oxford, with the degree of Master of Arts. He then left for the continent (France and Italy) and became an interesting figure: tall, slim, attractive, intelligent, charming, brilliant, subtle, educated, and modest, ideal characteristics to conquer the frivolous society of his time.

When he was not yet 20 years old, in January 1667, he married Elizabeth Mallet. Ten months later, drinking began to affect his character. He had four sons with Elizabeth and a daughter, in 1677, with the actress Elizabeth Barry.

Living the most different experiences, from fighting the Dutch navy on the high seas to being involved in crimes of death, Rochester's life followed paths of madness, sexual abuse, alcoholics, and charlatanism, in a period in which he acted as a physician.

When Rochester was 30 years old, he writes to a former fellow adventurer that he was nearly blind, lame, and with little chance of ever seeing London again.

Quickly recovering, Rochester returns to London. Shortly thereafter, in agony, he set out on his last adventure: he called the curate Gilbert Burnet and dictated his recollections to him. In his last reflections, Rochester acknowledged having lived a wicked life, the end of which came slowly and painfully to him because of the venereal diseases that dominated him.

Earl of Rochester died on July 26, 1680. In the state of spirit, Rochester received the mission to work for the propagation of Spiritualism. After 200 years, through the medium Vera Kryzhanovskaia, the automatism that characterized her made her hand trace words with dizzying speed and total unconsciousness of ideas. The narratives that were dictated to her denote a wide knowledge of ancestral life and customs and provide in their details such a local stamp and historical truth that the reader finds it hard not to recognize their authenticity. Rochester proves to dictate his historical-literary production, testifying that life unfolds to infinity in his indelible marks of spiritual memory, towards the light and the way of God. It seems impossible for a historian, however erudite, to study, simultaneously and in depth, times and environments as different as the Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations; as well as customs as dissimilar as those of the France of Louis XI to those of the Renaissance.

The subject matter of Rochester's work begins in Pharaonic Egypt, passes through Greco-Roman antiquity and the Middle Ages, and continues into the 19th century. In his novels, reality navigates in a fantastic current, in which the imaginary surpasses the limits of verisimilitude, making natural phenomena that oral tradition has taken care to perpetuate as supernatural.

Rochester's referential is full of content about customs, laws, ancestral mysteries and unfathomable facts of History, under a novelistic layer, where social and psychological aspects pass through the sensitive filter of his great imagination. Rochester's genre classification is hampered by his expansion into several categories: gothic horror with romance, family sagas, adventure and forays into the fantastic.

The number of editions of Rochester's works, spread over countless countries, is so large that it is not possible to have an idea of their magnitude, especially considering that, according to researchers, many of these works are unknown to the general public.

Several lovers of Rochester's novels carried out (and perhaps do carry out) searches in libraries in various countries, especially in Russia, to locate still unknown works. This can be seen in the prefaces transcribed in several works. Many of these works are finally available in Spanish thanks to the World Spiritist Institute.

Table of Contents

I - The pact

II  - The materialized evocation

III  - The wax statue

IV -  Raimundo's misfortune

V  -  Judgment and condemnation

VI -  Salvation with dishonor

VII -  Tenacious struggle

VIII -  Victory against evil

IX  -  The monks’ fight

Rochester, John Wilmot, Conde de (Espírito).

Naema, the witch: witchcraft legend from the XV century / Conde J. W. Rochester; novel obtained by the mechanic medium Wera Krijanowsky; translation by Eliseu Rigonatti – 7th ed. - São Paulo: LAKE, 1991.

1. Psychography - 2. English Novel- I. Krijanowsky, Wera

II. Title.

91-2222

CDD-133.93

-823

NAEMA, THE WITCH

(Legend)

‘What is the meaning of the fantastic legends according to which certain individuals have sold their souls to Satan in exchange for certain favors?’

‘All fables carry a teaching and a moral meaning; your error is to take them literally. This one is an allegory that may be explained this: those who call evil spirits to help them obtain the gifts of fortune or any other favor rebel against Providence. They renounce the mission they have received and the trials they must undergo in this world, but they will reap the consequences of it in the life to come. This does not mean their soul is condemned to suffer forever. However, instead of detaching themselves from matter, they immerse themselves deeper and deeper in it. The joys they have preferred on earth will no longer be available to them in the spirit world until they atone for their wrong through new trials that will perhaps be even greater and more painful. Out of love for material pleasures, they place themselves under the power of impure spirits. Hence, they tacitly establish a mutual pact which leads them to ruin, but which will always be easy for them to break with the assistance of the good spirits if they firmly desire to do so.’¹

I - The pact

A beautiful July day in the year of grace 1485 was coming to an end; the last rays of the setting sun were playing on the towers and walls of the little town of Friburgo in Brisgau². The suffocating heat had given way to a pleasant coolness, and from the surrounding heights a light breeze blew balmy and vivifying smells.

This calm and serene beauty of nature formed a mournful contrast to the interior of a large, gloomy, vaulted room, whose stone walls exuded moisture: it was the city prison. No rays of sunlight could penetrate through the narrow grilles that served as windows, and only a colorless gloom faintly illuminated the unfortunate beings imprisoned in there.

On one of the piles of straw thrown haphazardly on the stone tiles, laid an old woman, visibly in agony; meadows of white hair framed her face, disfigured by suffering and flooded with cold sweat; strips of bloody linen wrapped around her legs, evidently broken by torture, for the slightest movement drew from the unfortunate woman a groan that had nothing human in it.

Kneeling at her feet and reciting the prayer of the dying in a voice broken with sobs, was a girl of dazzling beauty, although disturbed at this moment by an expression of intolerable suffering and deep despair.

Tall and svelte, she could have been seventeen or eighteen; her cambric blouse and short skirt of gray cloth hinted at her admirable shape; the features of her countenance were of great licentiousness, of a classic regularity; and her hair was golden blonde, hanging in disorder, wrapped around her like a veil, stretching down to the tiles her silky locks of incredible opulence.

She too had certainly been subjected to torture, for her bare legs and arms were covered with bloodstains and burns; clasping her small hands together convulsively against her chest, she prayed in a whisper, leaning anxiously over the dying woman every time she made a move.

Suddenly the old woman reopened her eyes, and her dull gaze turned to the girl with an indefinable expression of love and sorrow.

‘I’m sorry. Lori, Lori, if only you like me could die before dawn’ she murmured.

At these words the girl shuddered, and with a deafening groan she snared the poor woman; but under the atrocious pain caused by this sudden embrace, a piercing scream escaped from the lips of the dying woman, a spasmodic shudder shook her whole body; then suddenly her head hung inert, her wide-open eyes became glassy, and her limbs stiffened. Death, more merciful than men, had come, and with his sweet hand put an end to the suffering of the unfortunate woman.

Lori had suddenly thrown herself backward, at the old woman's scream; but seeing that she had nothing but a corpse in front of her, she was overcome by a fit of mad despair. With screams, cries, torrents of tears, she pulled out her hair, beat her breast, hugged the dead woman, covering her with kisses, giving her the most tender nothings; but this overexcitement died out as soon as it came. Overcome by the moral pain and the unbearable physical suffering that her disordered movements caused to her tortured body, she prostrated herself on the straw and remained crouched down, leaning against the wall in a sad apathy.

Immobile, with her livid and discomfited face and her eyes closed, one would believe that the girl was dead, or at least had fainted. However, it was none of that, a mute and icy stupor immobilized only her limbs and her aching brain continued to work, as the poor Leonor revived her own life.

She saw herself as a careless and happy little girl, in a clean and comfortable little house that belong to her father, old Klaus Lebeling, who held the modest position of a clerk in the merchants' court. She had never known her mother; but Aunt Brígida, her father's sister, had brought her up with a mother's care, pampering her and giving her tenderness. And between this sweet and pious creature and the father who adored her, Lori grew up beautiful and innocent, like a flower opening in the sun.

Her aunt had taught her the art of embroidery that she herself practiced, but the student soon surpassed the teacher. With the inspiration that only a great talent can provide, Lori's fairy fingers created real pictures; on the flags, banners, and church ornaments that she embroidered, the gold and silk threads seemed to come alive under her hand and turned into living flowers, or into cherubs’ real heads.

Thus, the fame of the young embroiderer spread rapidly, and many orders came in from the city and its surroundings, transforming the family's modest wealth into an almost luxurious well-being.

Klaus Lebeling was proud of his daughter, the admiring glances that fixed upon her and of the suitors she had, among whom was even the son of a wealthy businessman, who represented for the daughter of a poor, lowly clerk, a match as brilliant as unexpected. But Leonor's heart remained cold, and she had frankly refused the request of the rich suitor, who, wounded in his pride, withdrew full of anger and resentment.

Then, in a painful clarity, the happy and fatal day that decided her destiny appeared before the girl's spiritual eyes.

It was Christmas.

She had attended Mass with Brígida, and was about to leave the old cathedral, when, by the font of holy water, she noticed a richly dressed young man whose eyes had set on her with passionate admiration. He was a handsome young man, tall and slim, whose tightly tailored clothes of the time brought out his elegant shape. From his velvet hat, adorned with a white feather, some brown hairs shown, and a short, slightly frizzy beard framed the lower part of his face. The gold chain on his neck and the sword at his side showed that he was a wealthy patrician, or some noble lord from the surrounding area.

With