"Strange News Of The Scratching Mass"

Scratching mass, a term which, until very recently, didn't exist online. It became the subject of debate in Will Maclean and Joel Morris' six-part supernatural podcast series, 'Broken Veil', but what is a scratching mass?

We first heard the words "scratching mass" uttered in episode two by Sara (played by comedian Sara Barron). Well, we didn’t exactly hear her say the words, as Sara refused to speak them aloud because they repulsed her, and instead wrote them down for Will and Joel.

The term was part of Sara's story in which she'd found herself inside a "modernist, 1960s-era" corporate building filled with American-style plug sockets where she'd been booked for a strange corporate gig. While lost and disoriented inside this sterile, windowless building, she tried to call for help using an intercom on a wall. A distorted voice responded with two cryptic phrases: "Station 14" and "scratching mass".

Sara explained, "They said two words, I don't like saying them," adding, "I'm not a religious person, it felt unclean."

While the podcast hosts were able to explore the meaning behind the mysterious Station 14 a little more, the trail on scratching mass went cold for a few episodes. It wasn't until the finale of the podcast that we found out more. The last episode begins with Will and Joel leafing through information they'd been anonymously sent in a mysterious package at the end of the previous episode.

The bundle of papers included a photocopy of a pamphlet, which Will describes as being "like a chapbook" dating back to the 1640s, a "sensationalist witch hunting report". Joel reads the title, "Strange News of the Scratching Mass". The chapbook's library stamp indicated that it was from a private library owned by Noctuax - the same sinister organisation linked to Station 14 that was intertwined with every strange story told in the series.

The term "scratching mass" has ties to ancient witchcraft practices, as does the chapbook anonymously delivered to Will and Joel, which was produced at the height of the witch hunt craze in England. This was the time of unjust trials led by the infamous witchfinder Matthew Hopkins.

The pamphlet tells the story of 13 women who were taken from their community and put on trial because they were suspected of performing a scratching mass.

According to this mysterious pamphlet, a scratching mass is a "blasphemous parody of the Eucharist. It's a ritual done on the Sabbath." Joel explains that when everyone else is in church, you do your scratching mass - you attempt to contact dark forces to do your bidding. It's a magical spell or a procedure to deliver you from peril.

The actual wording in the pamphlet: "Whosoever performeth the scratching mass will be delivered from dire need to a place of safety."

Joel explains that the assumption is that these witches knew Hopkins was coming and they did a scratching mass to deliver them to a place of safety away from the witch hunt, but it didn't work, and they were subsequently captured and taken away.

The 13 women were taken to the county town and put in cages, but one woman, Agnes Clamp, vanished. One morning her still-locked cage was found empty with no evidence of how she escaped. Agnes dodged the gallows and was never seen again. A decade later, a local chapman claimed to have seen a woman with a striking resemblance to Agnes, but when he approached her, she denied this, claiming her name was in fact Ursula Godwood. Joel concludes, "She had been delivered from danger. She was a new person."

The exact details of how Agnes managed to successfully perform a scratching mass has been lost over time, perhaps withheld from the public in a secure private library somewhere in rural Essex.