ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights often-overlooked but important aspect of the witch/devil relationship: the erotic. It argues that the Devil's frequent sucking at witches' genitalia, as well as accounts of sexual intercourse between witches and devils, provides strong evidence for understanding English witchcraft as a sexualised activity. From the 1640s onwards the focus of pamphlets shifts from non-penetrative sexual acts with animalistic familiars to accusations of witches sleeping with man-like devils. Patricia Crawford has argued that many women were aware of theories concerning conception and would have 'had reason to believe that any pleasurable heterosexual genital contact could lead to pregnancy'. Many narratives are ambiguous, and while they have definite sexual undertones, some hint at a more maternal relationship. Sexual activities such as cunnilingus and fornication were incorporated into popular witchcraft print and made even more unnatural through the substitution of man and woman with Devil and witch.
