October
brings the explosion of Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations in the
shops. Witches and sorcerers are always been popular costumes, more recently
due to the Harry Potter phenomena. Check out any major Halloween store and you’ll
fund a nice selection of witch outfits ranging from the classic Wicked Witch of
the West to a New Age version but what is a witch?
With
our terminology lesson over, let’s move on. Every society has a version of
sorcery or witchcraft as far back as mankind goes. Sometimes people used
witchcraft as an excuse to explain the world around them. Nature-based
religions started out this way. Gods, or spirits, caused the rain to fall,
babies to be born, and folks to get sick and die. Faith in those gods among the
people gave the leaders power. Even today, faith in religious leaders,
regardless of the avenue pursued, can make some people perform horrendous acts
or amazing ones. A little theatrics didn't hurt (hence the 'witch-doctor' image) when doing the healing. It helped to focus attention.
The
Christian-based views of witchcraft are directly related to the Church. Before
the Catholic became the power house it was in the medieval times, folks timed their
lives to the wheel of the year. Planting, sowing, and harvesting the crops,
along with excess livestock took up most of the villages’ time. True physicians
were few. Medical knowledge, which included the use of herbs, tonics, and the
appeal to the local gods tended to be a woman’s realm. Folks were superstitious
and believed in charms, signs, and curses.
Even
after the conversion to Christianity, loyal people continued to practice
customs honoring the ancient deities; for example: May Day festival celebrated fertility. Residents left a tiny saucer of cream for the ‘wee ones’ to stave off bad luck. Some of
the celebrations were incorporated by the Mother Church into ‘modern’ feasts as
a method of making the transition from pagan to Christian easier.
The
Romans were tougher on sorcerers and witches compared to the early Middle Ages.
What
changed?
Around
900 A.D. a paper was published called the Canon
Episcopi. This paper described the Devil perverting woman. It was the start
of the prosecution against witches. Up to this time, festivals were still held
in the honor of the Huntress, Diana, and the Wild Hunt. The paper was targeting
this practice. Maleficus was defined
as a person who made a pact with the Devil and more often that not, those
people tended to be women. The Church sent out men to investigate reports of
heresy and witchcraft. The men were armed with a book called the Malleus Maleficarum.
One
man who spoke out against the hysteria was Johann Wier. He published a paper
called On Magic in which he argued
that those people claiming to be witches really were suffering from mental
conditions. The establishment didn’t like his views and he was accused of
witchcraft.
As
modern people we know that a person under duress, aka torture, will admit to
almost anything. The Inquisition period was a time in which neighbor, family
members, or rivals wanting land or wealth, accused another person. The village
healers were now looked upon with suspicion. Was that tonic to cure the cough
really a potion to turn the patient into a frog? Witches were trussed and
thrown into water. Thankful family members broke down and cried when the
accused drowned, innocent of the charge. Those unfortunate enough to survive by
floating or swimming were thought to have been rejected by the water, only to
face execution via burning (the ‘only true’ way to kill a witch). The comedic troop,
Monty Python mocked this in the movie Monty
Python and the Holy Grail. How many people died after facing the
witch-hunters? Estimates of up to 200,000 or more with entire villages eliminated.
Let us not forget, one of the many charges against the Templar Knights was
witchcraft.
The
mother of Queen Elizabeth I faced an accusation of witchcraft, among others, by
King Henry. Was Anne Boleyn a witch? No, she was a wife in the way of another
woman Henry wanted. King James I of England & Scotland wrote a book of the
craft and pushed the witch craze, and those ideas followed immigrants to the New
World. The most infamous witch trials in America occurred in Salem Village (MA)
in the late 17th century, where a couple of young girls, with the ‘help’ of a
West Indian slave, started accusing villagers of casting spells after they ‘had
fits’. Paranoia and hysteria had other members of the village joining in. By the
end the trails, 19 people had been hung as witches and one hundred jailed: all
due to a couple of spoiled, spiteful children under the influence of a
vengeance-seeking slave. In a sermon given by Increase Mather, Cotton Mather’s
father (Cotton was instrumental in pushing the trials), the preacher criticized
the questionable evidence used in trials that were suspect as best.
The stereotype of a witch is an older
woman dressed in black clothing, with a hooked nose and facial warts.
She carries a broom and spends time mixing ingredients in a metal
cauldron. The only part of the image that is correct is the older woman. Why? Because as we learned, village elders, primarily women, had the knowledge of healing and herbs. One had to simmer many of the plants used for tonics. After all, would you really want to chomp down on a piece of willow bark for that toothache or would you want to swallow a tea made from willow bark? Who made the poultices for sore muscles or croupy coughs?
Today,
witchcraft is practiced by many people in many countries although it is not always
looked upon as acceptable. Witches are still persecuted in Third World
countries. In the USA, witchcraft has gone main stream. There is a difference
between a witch and a Wiccan. Wiccans belong to one of a multitude of a nature-based
religion whereas a witch works with the forces of nature to perform a task. One
can be one or the other, or both.
For
more reading see:
Behind
the Crystal Ball – Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity Through the
New Age by Anthony Aveni
2002
University Press of Colorado
ISBN
#0-87081-671-3
A
History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans
by
Jeffrey Russell
1980
Thames and Hudson
ISBN
#0-500-27242-5
Stay
safe out there!
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