Belief in witchcraft exists around the world and varies from culture to culture. Historically, people have associated witchcraft with evil and usually have regarded a witch as someone who uses magic to harm others, by causing accidents, illness, bad luck, and even death. Some societies believe that witches also use magic for good, performing such actions as casting spells for love, health, and wealth. People around the world continue to practice witchcraft for good or harm.
Unlike those who practice witchcraft for harm, the followers of Wicca believe in practicing magic only for beneficial purposes. They worship a deity with male and female aspects, but some traditions emphasize the female, or Goddess, side of the deity.
The term witch comes
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They may fly under their own power, ride tools such as brooms or rakes, or ride magical animals. This is not true, while there are spells and rituals involving brooms, we do not fly on them.
Some witches have great knowledge of how to make herbal potions and charms. A potion is a drink that causes a desired effect in person’s health or behavior. A charm is a magical incantation (word or phrase), or amulet that helps to bring about the desired effect. The practice of Wicca—Witchcraft as a religion flourishes primarily in English-speaking loosely organized in groups called covens. Some covens are made up of only women or only men. And other covens are mixed. Many Witches do not join a cove but practice alone as solitaries.
The practice of Wicca is controversial, primarily because many Christians find the idea of a religion based on witchcraft objectionable. Some Christians associate the form of witchcraft with the worship of Satan. This, however, would be difficult, as Wicca does not acknowledge the existence of a “Satan”. Satan and the Devil are Judeo-Christian inventions. Others fear that Wicca might be tied to modern cults. This is not true. Wicca is a religion, legally recognized as such. The U.S. Army, with the publication of the Army pamphlet 165-13, A handbook for Chaplin’s recognizes Witchcraft as a
Witchcraft, the use of magical faculties, most commonly for religious, divinatory or medicinal purposes, something that is supernatural. One would think something of the supernatural order would be null and void to the concepts of social norms and labeling. Well one would be wrong. From the start of this ordeal in Salem social order was one of the first things to be thrown down on the people of Salem. The first three women accused of practicing Witchcraft and being witches were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. These 3 women who lived in Salem during the Witch Craze of 1692 were seen as “rejects” and the “outcast” of the community. Sarah Good was no more than a homeless person, always begging for food and place to sleep. Sarah Osborne wasn’t a poor women like the lesser Sarah but she was a mean old lady who was confined to her bed most of the time due to her old age. Now Titbua, she wasn’t a fre...
Julian Knight was responsible for one of Victoria's worst mass shootings, the Hoddle street massacre. To grasp why Knight committed the crime, we first must delve back into his past. Julian Knight was born on the 4th of March, 1968. Julian was the eldest of three children. He was adopted by a family with strong military ties. Knight's family were often moving, until in 1978 they settled in Laverton, Victoria. Despite his IQ of 132, which put him in the top 3 percentile of the population, he struggled in school. At the age of 19, Julian successfully joined the Army, and commenced training at Duntroon. Julian had been obsessed with the military and guns and often fantasised about killing in combat. However, Julian resented the hierarchal system of the army, as cadets who had joined only months earlier had authority over him. It became too much for Julian and he stabbed a Sergeant, resulting in his expulsion from Duntroon. Having no means of earning an income, his girlfriend ended their relationship. Knight applied to join the Police force, but was rejected due to the stabbing. Julian was rapidly running out of money and decided to sell his car. The car broke down on the way to the buyer and could not be sold. Exacerbating the situation, Julian's mother converted his childhood bedroom into extra living space, leading Julian to feel rejected. Unable to handle the financial hardships and social rejection, Julian took his Ruger 10/22 rifle, Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun and perhaps most devastatingly, the military grade M14 303. rifle, and set about murdering 7 people and injuring 19.
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...
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.
Witchcraft first emerged in Renaissance Europe and consisted of, “the individual’s making, for whatever reason and to whatever end, a pact or covenant with the Devil, thereby gaining the power to manipulate supernatural forces for anti-social and un-Christian ends.” (Currie 8). Obviously, witchcraft is not something that is done out of love for God, so this statement from Currie would be true because the witches were doing supernatural things and
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.
Yardley, Meg. "Social Work Practice With Pagans, Witches, And Wiccans: Guidelines For Practice With Children And Youths." Social Work 53.4 (2008): 329-336. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
The Encounters podcast I listened to was “Episode Eighteen: The One about the Bell Witch”. The interviewers are Ellie Hasken and Jesse Fivecoate. The person being interviewed is Brandon Barker, a member of the IU folklore faculty. The supernatural creature mentioned in the podcast is the Bell Witch from Adams, Tennessee. Brandon Barker is from the nearby area in Tennessee and grew up hearing about the Bell Witch.
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.
The Islamic faith also believes in witchcraft but believe in two separate kinds. The belief that an individual practices witchcraft for the good of society to rid of evil and reverse any evil doings is one.
Wiccans contradict cultural norms, the term “norm” can also be equaled to the “medium,” while all of those values that stand beyond that medium are considered as deviant. On the medium, we have traditional Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and other approved religions that are supported by millions of individuals. If we look at the demography of Wicca, then it would be clear that the whole quantity of this neo-pagan practice barely equals to 150,000 followers around the world. As a result, it is a demonstration of divergence from the “medium” or deviation from the norm. The same behavioral deviant patterns such as practicing witchcraft or worshipping of non-recognized gods underline the abnormality of Wiccan religion, simply because the actions of Wiccans contradict the laws and morality of the dominative and widely-accepted religions. Christianity, and all its subdivisions and branches, prohibits people from admiring nature but encourages worshiping the Holy Trinity and honoring God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The behavioral values of Christianity are based on obeyance and Christian morality, what technically and practically constitutes the order in the social life of their followers. In contrast to Christianity, Wicca ignores certain morality order and systems, which brings chaos in their ideological belonging and commitment. This can be explained
Witchcraft and magic are practices that call upon supernatural, unseen forces. 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.
HIST303 Witch Hunting 1400-1700 Essay 1: Describe the nature of "witchcraft"and explain why it was threatening to Christianity. Prepared by: Sikiki Angela Lloyd Due: 4 April 2014 Student Number: 203139861 Image: The Witches' Sabbath.
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.