The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #154768   Message #3634723
Posted By: Jack Campin
19-Jun-14 - 07:06 PM
Thread Name: Jews Harp banned?
Subject: RE: Jews Harp banned?
Similarly 'Witches Trump' carries echoes of persecution and misogyny

I suspect it's a product of New Agey Wiccan wishful thinking. The word "trump" first occurs in a description of the storm-raising ritual of the witches of North Berwick in 1592. It isn't mentioned in any sort of negative way: the purpose it was put to was described as evil, but the instrument itself wasn't. It was a trump used by a witch, but not a "witch's trump". The text is here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/kjd/kjd11.htm

(Sensationalist and paranoid as it is, there's nothing anti-Jewish about it, either).

So, where is the earliest documented usage of "witch's trump"? It's not a phrase I've ever met with.