Portuguese Witchcraft?

[paganmom23]

I am hoping someone can help me with this. I have recently learned that my mom's
great grandmother was a witch. Since both of my parents are deceased my aunt (my dad's sister) had some papers from my mom that my dad never showed me.
I don't speak portuguese but my aunt showed me the paper anyhow.
I picked out the word "Brujeria" or "Brujera".
I asked an older neighbor from the neighborhood I grew up in. She looked at the paper and her eyes got wide. She said something in portuguese that sounded like
"curse" and "black dog".

The paper had the date 1860's. It looked like a letter, but wasn't really legible.
My old neighbor's daughter told me to destroy the paper, that nothing good could come of it and told me to go home and pray. They are the old school catholics.

I grew up in a mostly predominant portuguese neighborhood. I would like to know if
anyone can help me identify what my old neighbor might have been talking about.

Wasn't sure where to post this.
Thanks for your help in advance.

[Artiste-LiLi]

I know very regarding the magic you speak about.....but I do know that there are many many free online translation devices...I have a good one on my desktop called "babelfish" and it translates from Portuguese to English. Just type in the text in Portuguese and tell it to translate to English. I have heard that Portuguese Witchcraft is supposed to be quite powerful...and if your great-great grandmother was in the craft..then you are what my family calls a "heritage witch". Good luck in your search.

[paganmom23]

I am hoping someone can help me with this. I have recently learned that my mom's
great grandmother was a witch. Since both of my parents are deceased my aunt (my dad's sister) had some papers from my mom that my dad never showed me.
I don't speak portuguese but my aunt showed me the paper anyhow.
I picked out the word "Brujeria" or "Brujera".
I asked an older neighbor from the neighborhood I grew up in. She looked at the paper and her eyes got wide. She said something in portuguese that sounded like
"curse" and "black dog".

The paper had the date 1860's. It looked like a letter, but wasn't really legible.
My old neighbor's daughter told me to destroy the paper, that nothing good could come of it and told me to go home and pray. They are the old school catholics.

I grew up in a mostly predominant portuguese neighborhood. I would like to know if
anyone can help me identify what my old neighbor might have been talking about.

Wasn't sure where to post this.
Thanks for your help in advance.

Thank you very much for your help, but I don't have the document. As my aunt only showed me and some of the writing wasn't very legible.
But I will try the translator you suggested.
Would there be someplace online where I could read about this type of "witch craft"? Other than me typing something in say like google?

[Cathubodva]

Hi. You wont be able to translate 1860 Portuguese in Babelfish because the writting of portuguese changed a lot since then. One example is, for instance, Pharmacia is now written Farmácia, and such other examples. Translating normal portuguese is already a pain, translating a "special" one would be nightmare.

I find your text amusing because in Portugal, there is a strong witchcraft tradition deeply rooted in christianity and you find them wherever you may go, all you need is ask. Even tho there are witches dedicated to doing harm, the majority of the ones i encountered served their comunity with prayer, spells, cleansing and other spiritual work. On the other hand, are you sure its portuguese? Unless the graphism changed, portuguese witches are called "Bruxas" not "Brujera", brujera may be a spanish word, and trust me, any portuguese will resent being mistaken for a spanish :hehehehe:

Anyway, i speak rather fluently portuguese and i understand it and read it rather well, doesnt matter if its medieval portuguese or contemporary so if you want i can translate the readable parts of the document for you. I believe you're better off with me than with babelfish :hehehehe:

[Cathubodva]

Sorry to bother you again, but if you dont speak portuguese how can you tell your old neighbour said something that resembles black dog and curse in portuguese? Black dog is cão preto and curse is maldição, pretty much unrelated i would say.

[Cathubodva]

Im answering you bits by bits :)

There is no place online where you can read about a portuguese style of witchcraft. for one, there is hardly any interest in my country's folk traditions, besides, the people that do practice folk withcraft dont really know how to use a computer. There is one group here with internet support, but they practice british traditional witchraft and the clan of tubal cain is hardly portuguese. If you want to get around portuguese witchcraft you really need to go out there in the streets and find them. There is no unified practice, no circle castings, no quarters calling, and hardly any showable paganism at all. Unlike other countries, people being or believing they have been bewitched are very very common, specially if you live in a older part of town or in what we would call the suburbs. In the place where i live there are quite a handfull of them, and people go there to ask for "works". I've also visited some and as i told you in my previous post, they usually work for the community, being most of them mediums, doing spiritual cleansing, a lot of folk practices and supersitions.

[paganmom23]

Sorry to bother you again, but if you dont speak portuguese how can you tell your old neighbour said something that resembles black dog and curse in portuguese? Black dog is cão preto and curse is maldição, pretty much unrelated i would say.

I can pick up some words and I asked my neighbors daughter to translate and she said it was black dog and curse.

[Claudisealass]

I find your text amusing because in Portugal, there is a strong witchcraft tradition deeply rooted in christianity and you find them wherever you may go, all you need is ask. Even tho there are witches dedicated to doing harm, the majority of the ones i encountered served their comunity with prayer, spells, cleansing and other spiritual work.

Cathubodva, your replies are extremely interesting to me. I am Portuguese also and I am living in Australia, so it is virtually impossible for me to follow or learn about the folk ways of our people and as you know there are not any sites to look up. Though I am a beginner, I too am not really comfortable with calling the quarters and casting circles, I guess that makes me a non pagan witch, or just typically Portuguese ?!?! :)

The problem is I have a grandmother who had used the book of Sao Cipriano for over 50 years and I have firm reasons to believe against me and my family (her own children). Are there any people you could suggest for me to contact/email/write who could help to remove whatever is hanging over us? Do you have any suggestions? I have been sick for so long, that I lost a decade of my life. After trying so many treatments, doctors, specialists and tests which all state my health is perfect, there has to be something more, even though it took a while for me to believe that could be so. I have spoken to people here who are primarily of wiccan faith and I find it hard to follow the complex rituals and have my heart in it. Do you have any advice or direction for me? I speak fluent Portuguese, so calling someone wouldnt be a problem. My email is Claudisealass at AOL. Many thanks in advance for reading this.

[Lightburner8899]

I'm Portuguese too and I can tell you that back in the days those words were often very close to the Spanish language...

So the word Brujeria means Witchcraft... and the word Brujera means witch...

Now those words are written differently Brujeria -> Bruxaria and Brujera -> Bruxa...

Hope this helps...

LB