Modern witchcraft attracts believers from all corners of society, all over the world. “They come together to understand the life, nature, evolution and the mysteries of the universe through witchcraft”(The History of Wicca partly real; partly imaginary). Wicca does not acknowledge the concepts of sinning, sexual restriction, animal sacrifice, or misogyny. Many would argue that Witchcraft is a democracy because there is no strict credo or disciplined regime, except for a simple basis: we should not misuse the generosity of nature by disturbing the balance with wicked behavior. A true witch would never use his or her magic or spell to harm any animate or inanimate being. Witches believe in the strict Law of the Three, which means that whatever …show more content…
a witch does, good or bad, it will return to them threefold. The Wiccan Rede, a statement or moral system in the religion of Wicca, has a well- known saying “An it harm none, do what ye will,” It essentially means that you are free to do anything as long as you do not impose harm to anyone, nature, and your own self. The term witchcraft had once been defined in a negative way; in the past it had been referred to as the act of “human harnessing of supernatural powers for the malevolent purpose of practicing black magic” (History of Wicca). There are many misconceptions about Wicca and other Pagan religions, most of which are preserved by the ignorant, who don't know any better, and the willful resistance, the people who believe that any form of Paganism is derived from Satan. Witchcraft is not tantamount with Satanism. In fact, most do not believe in the existence of Satan, nor in the belief in Hell, or original sin. Unfortunately, the image of the witch has been associated with the evil, heathenism, and sinfulness due to prejudices created by the Church for the past several hundred years; many of the misconceptions of Wicca, like the worship of Satan, was created by the Church. The church demonized the practice of other religions and belief systems, especially polytheistic religions. The Christian church deemed all forms of Paganism to be evil, any religion that worshiped “false idols” was viewed at as heathenism. During times of great death and disease people would often look towards religion to find an answer to why such devastation was cast down unto them, and witches, unfortunately, were turned to in blame. The Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347, not long after the horrifying effects of the plague swept throughout most of Europe. Fever, chills, deliriousness from pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and the most notable; people were covered in grotesque black boils that oozed blood and pus. “The Black Death was terrifyingly, indiscriminately contagious[....]people who were perfectly healthy when they went to bed at night could be dead by morning” (National Geographic’s The Black Plague). At the time, the people of Europe did not understand that the Black Plague was caused by a bacteria due to the lack of sanitation and disease that ran ramped during the fourteenth century, instead because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was the work malicious witches seeking to do evil. Witches were used as a scapegoat to explain something no one understood at the time. As a result, the persecution of witches spread unmercifully, everywhere in Europe men, women and occasionally children were accused of being witches and consorting with the Satan. Witch hunts, as they were called, lead to the result in countless trials, torture, and execution of thousands of innocent people. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV allowed the sanction of torture on witches, people that were accused of being a witch would be subjected to some of the most horrendous, most cruelest, forms of torture to reveal the names of witches in their covens, and under agonizing pain these people would give the name of their friends, neighbours, and strangers. The craze sought to eradicate the influence of witchcraft, it spread to the New World colonies where, similarly to Europe, people were accused, persecuted, and subject to trial; the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were infamous for their witch delirium. The witch hunt craze lasted almost three centuries went it slowly died down, but true practitioners of the Craft died with it. Many of the existing covens were wiped out and the few surviving hid and lost contact with other covens. The contemporary neopagan revival has flourished in society; now followers of the fundamental dogma of Wicca, “As it harm none, do as thou wilt,”and practice the arts of the Craft in a society more tolerant of religion.
“Wicca is closer to the law of Karma and its consequences. If you harm nature, the nature will harm you. If you do good to nature, it will promote your well being and happiness” (The History And Background Of Wicca). In today’s society, people have started understanding witchcraft and practicing it as a religion of Nature. Wiccans understand that nature is a superior entity and humans are simply one of the many parts of nature, both seen and unseen. Who is a witch? Ordinarily you cannot tell who is a witch, but “Wiccans come from all walks of life. They are doctors and nurses, teachers and soccer moms, writers and firefighters, waitresses and computer programmers,” they are normal human beings with a different belief system (Basic Principles and Concepts of Wicca). Wiccan’s are known for celebrating Sabbaths and performing rites and rituals, as is custom in almost all religions. The eight holy Sabbaths witches celebrate are: Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon. Samhain means "End of Summer", and is the third and final Harvest, it is usually celebrated on October thirty-first because the Veil between worlds is lifted. Yule is also known as the winter solstice, the dates vary from December twentieth to December twenty-third. Imbolc means in the belly of the Mother “because that is where seeds are beginning to stir as it is Spring,” it is celebrated February first or second to bless the seeds and consecrate agricultural tools (The History And Background Of Wicca). Ostara is the Spring or Vernal Equinox, its is celebrated when the midpoint of day and night is in perfect balanced. Beltane is also known as Roodmas or May day, because it is celebrated on May first to honor the coming of Summer. Litha is the Summer Solstice, it
is celebrated when the day is longer than night because that is when life and light are abundant. Lammas is sometimes called Lughnasadh, is celebrated July thirty-first to acknowledge that the hot summer days are ending. Mabon is the second harvest on September twenty-first, “The Autumn Equinox divides the day and night equally, and we all take a moment to pay our respects to the impending dark” (The History And Background Of Wicca). All of these Sabbaths are taken very seriously, practitioners would often make certain food, burn incense, perform specific rituals, give thanks to all of the earth’s gifts, and give offerings of food and wine to their patrons. Along with celebrating Sabbath holidays modern Wiccans and witches perform rituals. Wiccan rituals often involve “casting a circle,” drawing a circle on the ground, to protect the practitioners from outside malevolent forces, there is usually an altar at the center of the circle. Depending on the ritual or spell, a variety of tools may be used. “These include: a knife, a wand, a chalice, a cauldron, statues of gods and goddesses, a broom, candles, water, bells, herbs, stones, salt, essential oils, incense and more” (History of Wicca). Handfasting is a ritual between two Wiccans for some handfasting is similar to a temporary marriage that last for a year and a day, at which point they decide whether to continue their relationship or not. For some Wiccans this is a marriage ceremony for permanent dedication to each other. Some Wiccans are recognized by civil authorities as "clergy" and can perform this as a marriage. If the partners decide that their fates are not to be aligned then a rite called parting of the ways will dissolve the handfasting or marriage. If the handfasting is successful and the partners have a child a wiccaning will be performed. Wiccanings are performed to welcoming a baby into life and into the family of the religion, but this does not obligate the baby to adopt and practice the religion. A common tool when practicing the craft is a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire. In the coveted pages of a Book of Shadows are instructions for rituals, spells, personal experiences, blood lineage, and records of herbal remedies. Each witch’s Book of shadows is unique and personal, witches write their own versions of the book and pass it on to future generations so that they can write their own spells, create rituals, and add on their interpretation of the Craft; “a text that exists in several different versions and adaptations” (History of Wicca). One of the founders of modern Wicca, Gerald Gardner, wrote his own version of a Book of Shadows to instruct new practitioners in the ways of the Old Religion. A book of Shadows is the closest thing to sacred tomes found in Wicca. There are many symbols that Wiccans use in their Book of Shadows and their rituals. Some of the most popular include those for the God and Goddess, the four elemental powers, the moon phases. The pentacle is one of the most well known symbols in Wicca that is most often misunderstood or connected with Satanism when in fact the Pentacle is used to represent the four elements and the soul, or spirit. Symbols like the pentacle, triquetra, triskele, triple moon, and so on are all Pagan symbols and they all are synonymous with harmony.
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft is a concise, 231 page informational text by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. Published in 1974, it explores the economic and social conditions present in the Salem village during the 1600s that led to the hysteria surrounding witchcraft. Multiple graphs and illustrations are present, as well as an average sized font, an abundance of footnotes typically on the left page, and a prominent voice from the authors. The book was written to serve as a more comprehensive informational piece on the Salem witch trials due to the authors finding other pieces written about the same topic to be inaccurate. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum wanted to create something that utilized
In order to understand the outbreak of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, explore the social and economic divisions and tensions within Salem and the surrounding communities. Both Boyer and Nissenbaum have a strong background in history. Paul Boyer (1935-2012) was the Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a cultural and intellectual historian who authored several other books. Stephen Nissenbaum was a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who authored several other books as well. In Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of
Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft explores and breaks down the events that took place in the small village of Salem in 1692. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed, use primary sources, both published and unpublished, to tell the crazy and eventful history of Salem. They go into great detail in why some folks were accused of being Witches, the arrests and the so popular Salem Witch Trials. The main reason for this book was to try and find out what caused the terrible outbreak of events that happened in Salem and they do so by looking into the History and Social life in the famed Salem Village. The history of Witchcraft in Salem is a well-known story from High School on and this book goes in depth about why things happened the way they did and how the social aspect played a big role is the story.
Upon Googling “witch” almost all the images are of women riding on broomsticks. This is today’s pop culture view of witches, however it has it’s roots in Early Modern stereotypes of witchcraft. It was probably easy to find the old, ugly hag down the street and accuse her of being a witch, but there is more to the story. In the case of Françette Camont, the stereotype of witches helped to put suspicion on her, however she wasn’t convicted because of the stereotypes that applied to her, but rather it was personal feelings toward her and a needed catalyst for the trial to start that led to her execution and the execution of many other witches.
Witchcraft is the most illogical and despised practices involving the supernatural power. “It implies the ability to injure others. A witch usually acquires his power through an inherent physical factor or through the power of another witch. Witch possess a special organ called mangu, located somewhere behind the sternum or attached to the liver.”[11] Woman/man may become a witch through the influence of another witch or contact with another witch. Witches do not intend to do harm; they are as much the victims of witchcraft as those upon whom they practice it. They have innate power and often don’t know what they are doing. The belief in witchcraft helps people explain the causes of illness, death and misfortune experienced by a person or a group when no other explanations can be found. Most of the time when witches create injury and calamity, they were punished by death, sometimes by exile. They also were forced into admission of guilt by torture, fear, or the hope for lighter punishment. “Most witches work by night, are capable of covering long distances very rapidly, tem...
Throughout the late 17th century and into the early 18th century witchcraft prosecutions had been declining. This trend was the result of a multitude of social developments which altered the mentality of society. One of the predominant factors in this decline was the Scientific Revolution, the most important effect of these advances was making society question concepts of witchcraft. Along with this new mental outlook, we see that the Reformation had a similar effect on social opinion concerning witchcraft and magic. These two developments changed societies view on the occult and this led to a wider scepticism concerning witchcraft, this favoured those who had been accused and therefore caused a decline in prosecutions. Beyond the two trends mentioned however, it is important to consider judicial reforms and an improved socio-economic situation which reduced tensions within society. These two changes were certainly not as influential as the Scientific Revolution and the Reformation but heavily altered the circumstances in which accusations were normally made. With the altered social attitudes and mental outlook these changes in living situations all contributed to bring about the decline in witchcraft prosecutions.
Witchcraft is a term which sprouts many different meanings. As stated above, it is attributed to witches. But what is a witch? Probably an evil haggish-like women who has signed a pact with the devil if we think of it in the English sense. So witchcraft must be evil doings; putting curses on people to make their life miserable, using wicked spells to transform humans to frogs etc. But does this hold true to everyone's idea of what witchcraft is.People's believes on the subject of witchcraft might differ between different cultures.
“Jumping to conclusions is like playing with wet gun powder: both likely to go off in wrong direction.”-Charlie Chang. The puritans were a group of English Protestants who adhere to strict religious principles and oppose sensual enjoyment. The puritans had a strong belief that the Devil could be walking among them at anytime. Due to this belief, the puritans believed that people could sign there souls away to the devil. By signing their souls away to the devil, a person could become a witch or wizard. In Arthur Millers’ novel The Crucible, the puritans go on a hunt to rid their town of witches. The puritans also had a big emphasis on how one would act in society. For example, if one didn’t go to church often, the people would be very suspicious about that one. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the puritans become suspicious of others because of a strange event. The strange events lead the puritans to mistrust and reject each other. In both of Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister Black Veil” and in Miller’s The Crucible, a strange event makes the puritans jump to conclusions of witchcraft.
As we may already know, the town of Salem was subject to an epidemic of the accusations of witchcraft that lasted over ten months. Witchcraft of this time period was not taken lightly. In England alone over 40,000-60,000 people were killed after being found guilty of witchcraft. Needless to say the people found witchcraft as a virus that infected the town. The first cases started off with the daughters of Samuel Parris, the town minister, accusing his slave, Tituba, of being a witch. She claimed that she and others in the town were witches and there was even a wizard. The town broke out in hysteria in further months. Over 100 people were put in jail because of accusations. The council that were to find these people’s innocence or guilt were corrupted as well because to claim innocence meant you were guilty and if you were to claim guilt you could be redeemed. Many of the items found incriminating were pins and voodoo dolls. Many of these people faced the psychological terror of being pressured into claiming guilt to a crime, you didn’t commit in front of a committee and scared the community to death that they were going to be subjected to. Many of the witnesses to these trials were said to have undergone physical distress or act inhumanly. Many historians say to these records that since their body was put under so much strain and fear of the witchcraft that surrounded them all the time, their bodies going through strange changes such as paralysis or temporary blindness with no real cause rather than stress. But many historians also believe the witnesses were voluntarily acting and committing fraud against the others. But why was this such an enigma to understand why this small town in New England was all of a sudden becoming a cen...
The controversies that surround Wicca start with its exact origin. There are some who believe that it has its origins in Witchcraft due to the similarities between the two. Witchcraft itself is a Pagan practice [polytheistic and non-Christian, Muslim and Jewish in origin] that began with the Celts around 700 B.C. As the movie The Burning Times depicts, the region during this time period was primarily a rural culture so the Celtic traditions were based completely on Nature. Their months were even named after trees and their festivals revolved around the solstices and equinoxes (Steiger). A polytheistic religion, they worshiped a host of female and male deities and are most notably associated with the concept of Goddess worship, a strong belief in the divinity of the female (Burning Times). These paganistic beliefs and rituals gradually over the centuries combined with other European religious practices, such as magic, potions, and ointments for healing, to form what we call in modern times Witchcraft. Groups who did not hav...
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
Witchcraft is the use of these forces for negative ends, to extort evil, and magic asks for positive ends. Witchcraft has been found to exist in all corners of the globe at some point. It is no coincidence that during the Enlightenment, witch hunts in Europe and North America became common. The aim was to rid society of these people regarded as unreasonable and dangerous. By contrast self-proclaimed witches still have a function in some societies today, mainly in the developing world. Magic however is often a word used to describe certai...
In general witchcraft is sorcery, the magical manipulation of the supernormal forces through the use of spells, and the conjuring or invoking of spirits. Wicca is the most common witchcraft. During the middle ages and the renaissance, it was defined as evil magic. This is the very reason Joan of Arc was burned at the stake; she was accused of being a witch. Although many think that it is a religion that worships the devil, Wicca does not have anything to do with worshiping the devil or Christianity. The most common form of witchcraft is done with the use of spells. To set a spell, the person doing it will set up an altar/table in which to place the candles and symbols on. The spells consist of words that can either be chanted or inscribed in something. The candles are used to direct the spell towards a specific purpose, such as: pink-love, white-healing and peace, and black-death. These colors can be used for different meanings; however, these are the standard meanings. There are many other colors out there with their own unique meanings, like if a spell was being set on a person; a candle that was their favorite color could be used. The symbols used consist of charms, pictures, flowers and belongings depending on the spell being set. These symbols must represent the spell and they cannot just be anything done quickly without thought. For example, if the person were trying to make their friend heal from a sickness a picture of the person or something that represents them would work.
Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life.