European
Witches
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Witchcraft
Exposed - By Bogdan & Giancarlo
powerful European Magick that they
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Throughout European history witches have been desperately
persecuted.
Popular neopagan beliefs suggest that witches were female
or male shamans who were made into malicious figures by
Christian propaganda. But the familiar witch of folklore
and popular superstition is a combination of numerous
influences.
The wrongful characterisation of the witch, as an evil
magic user, developed over time. The advent of Christianity
suggests that potential Christians, comfortable with the
use of magic as part of their daily lives, expected
Christian clergy to work magic more effectively than the
old Pagan way. While Christianity competed with Pagan
religion, this concern was paramount, only lessening in
importance once Christianity was the dominant religion in
most of Europe. In place of the old Pagan magic
methodology, the Church placed a Christian methodology
involving saints and divine relics — a short step from the
old Pagan techniques of numerous deities, amulets and
talismans.
The Protestant Christian explanation for witchcraft, such
as those typified in the confessions of the Pendle Witches,
commonly involve a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to
the intervention of the spirits of evil. The witches or
wizards addicted to such practices were alleged to reject
Jesus and the sacraments, observe "the witches' sabbath"
(performing infernal rites which often parodied the Mass or
other sacraments of the Church), pay Divine honour to the
Prince of Darkness, and, in return, receive from him
preternatural powers. Witches were most often characterized
as a woman. As a witch she reasons disrupted the societal
institutions, and more specifically marriage. It was
believed that a witch often joined a pact with the devil to
gain powers to deal with infertility, immense fear for her
children's well-being, or revenge against a lover.
The Catholic Church and European society was not always
obsessed with hunting witches and blaming them for bad
occurrences. Saint Boniface declared in the eighth century
that belief in the existence of witches is unchristian. The
emperor Charlemagne decreed that the burning of supposed
witches was a pagan custom that would be punished by the
death penalty. In 820 the Bishop of Lyon and others
repudiated the belief that witches could make bad weather,
fly in the night, and change their shape. This denial was
accepted into Church law until it was reversed in later
centuries as the witch-craze gained force. Other rulers
such as King Coloman of Hungary declared that witch-hunts
should cease because witches do not exist.
The Church did not invent the idea of witchcraft as a
potentially harmful force whose practitioners should be put
to death. This idea is commonplace in pre-Christian
religions and is a logical consequence of belief in magic.
According to the scholar Max Dashu, the concept of medieval
witchcraft contained many of its elements even before the
emergence of Christianity. These can be found in
Bacchanalias, especially in the time when they were led by
priestess Paculla Annia (188-186). However, previous to
this time, not all witches were assumed to be harmful
practicers of the craft. The Malleus Maleficarum defined a
witch as evil and typically female. The Malleus Maleficarum
outlined how to identify a witch, what made a woman more
likely to be a witch, how to put a witch to trial
(involving extensive torture and confession) and how to
punish a witch.
In England, the provision of this curative magic was the
job of a witch doctor, also known as a cunning man, white
witch, or wiseman. The term "witch doctor" was in use in
England before it came to be associated with Africa. Toad
doctors were also credited with the ability to undo evil
witchcraft. (Other folk magicians had their own purviews.
Girdle-measurers specialised in diagnosing ailments caused
by fairies, while magical cures for more mundane ailments,
such as burns or toothache, could be had from charmers.)
"In the north of England, the superstition lingers to an
almost inconceivable extent. Lancashire abounds with
witch-doctors, a set of quacks, who pretend to cure
diseases inflicted by the devil... The witch-doctor alluded
to is better known by the name of the cunning man, and has
a large practice in the counties of Lincoln and
Nottingham."
Source: Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and
the Madness of Crowds
Such "cunning-folk" did not refer to themselves as witches
and objected to the accusation that they were such. Records
from the Middle Ages, however, make it appear that it was,
quite often, not entirely clear to the populace whether a
given practitioner of magic was a witch or one of the
cunning-folk. In addition, it appears that much of the
populace was willing to approach either of these groups for
healing magic and divination. When a person was known to be
a witch, the populace would still seek to employ their
healing skills; however, as was not the case with
cunning-folk, members of the general population would also
hire witches to curse their enemies. The important
distinction is that there are records of the populace
reporting alleged witches to the authorities as such,
whereas cunning folk were not so incriminated; they were
more commonly prosecuted for accusing the innocent or
defrauding people of money.
The long-term result of this amalgamation of distinct types
of magic-worker into one is the considerable present-day
confusion as to what witches actually did, whether they
harmed or healed, what role (if any) they had in the
community, whether they can be identified with the
"witches" of other cultures and even whether they existed
as anything other than a projection. Present-day beliefs
about the witches of history attribute to them elements of
the folklore witch, the charmer, the cunning man or wise
woman, the diviner and the astrologer.
Powers typically attributed to European witches include
turning food poisonous or inedible, flying on broomsticks
or pitchforks, casting spells, cursing people, making
livestock ill and crops fail, and creating fear and local
chaos.
Both "white" and "black" magic is catered for at
Witchcraft
Exposed - By Bogdan & Giancarlo
One of the most popular and
effective forms of witchcraft today is Wicca. It uses a number of
materials and rituals
taken from books of
magickal lore (Grimmoires). This site has further
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