THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF WITCHCRAFT
Before really getting into what Witchcraft is, perhaps we should take a look back at what it was- the h
history of it. Witches should be aware of their roots; aware of how and why the persecutions came about,
for instance, and where and when the re-emergence took place. There is a great deal to be learned from
the past. It's true that much of history can seem dry and boring to many of us, but that is far from so
with the history of Witchcraft. It is very much alive and filled with excitement.
There have been many books written on the history of Witchcraft.
The vast majority have suffered from bias-as will be explained shortly, but a few of the more recently
published ones have told the story accurately.. or as accurately as we can determine. The late Dr.
Margaret Murray traced back and saw Witchcraft's origins in Palaeolithic time; 25,000 years ago. She
saw it as a more or less unbroken line through to the present, as as a fully organized religion throughout
western Europe for centuries before Christianity. Recently scholars have disputed much of what Murray
said, She did, however, present some tangible evidence and much thought-provoking material. As a probable
development of religio-magick (rather than Witchcraft, per se), her theories are still respected.
Twenty- five thousand years ago Palaeolithic Wo/Man depended upon hunting to survive. Only by success
in the hunt could there be food to eat, skins for warmth and shelter, bones to fashion into tools and
weapons. In those days Wo/Man believed in a multitude of gods. Nature was overwhelming. out of awe
and respect for the gusting wind, the violent lightning, the rushing stream, Wo/Man ascribed to each a spirit;
made each a deity... a God. This is what we call Animism. A God of Hunting, most of all a god
controlled the sky. A god controlled the waters. But most of all, a god controlled the all important hunt..
a God of Hunting. Most of the animals hunted were horned so Wo/Man pictured the God of ?Hunting also as
being horned. It was at this time that magick became mixded in with these first faltering steps of religion.
The earliest form of magick was probably of the sympathetic variety. Similar things, it was thought,
have similar effects; like attracts like. If a life-size, clay model of a bison was made, then attacked
and "killed"... then a hunt of the real bison should also end in a kill. Religio- magickal ritual was
born when one of the cavemen threw on a skin and antlered mask and played the part of the Hunting God,
directing the attack. There are, still in existence, cave paintings of such rituals, together with the
spear stabbed clay models of bison and bear.
It is interesting to see how this form of sympathetic magick survived right through to relatively modern
times. The Penobscot Indians. for example.
Along with this God of Hunting there was a Goddess, though which came first (or whether they evolved together)
we do not know, and it is immaterial. If there were to be animals to hunt, there had to be fertility of
those animals. If the tribe was to continue (and there were a high morality rate in those days) then there
had to be a fertility of Wo/Man. Again sympathetic magick played a part. Clay models were made of the
animals mating, and in accompanying ritual the members of the tribe would copulate.
There are many carved and modeled representations of the Fertility Goddess extant
Generally known as "Venus" figurines, the Venus of Willendorf is one of the best known. Other examples
include the Venus of Laussel and the Venuses of Sireuil and of Lespugne. All
are similar in that the feminine attributes of these figures are greatly over-
emphasized. They have heavy, pendulous breasts, large buttocks, an oftimes
swollen belly- as though pregnant- and exaggerated genitalia. There is
invariably complete lack of identity with the rest of the body. The face is not
defined and the arms and legs, if there at all, are barely suggested. The reason
is that Wo/Man was solely concerned with the fertility aspect. Woman was the
bearer and nurser of the young. The Goddess was her representatiive as the
Great Provider and comforter; Mother Nature of Mother Earth.
With the development of agriculture there was a further elevating of the Goddess,
she now watched over the fertility of the crops as well as of tribe and animal.
The year, then, fell naturally into two halves. In the summer food could be
grown, and so the Goddess predominated; in the winter Wo/Man had to revert to hunting,
and so the God predominated. The other deities (of wind, thunder, lightning, etc.)
gradually fell into the background as of secondary importance. As Wo/Man
developed, so did the religion- for that is what it had become, slowly and
naturally. Wo/Man spread across Europe, taking the gods along. As different
names (though not always totally different; sometimes simply variations on the same
name), yet they were essentially the same deities. This is well illustrated in
Britain where, in the south of England, is found Cernunnos (literally
"The Horned One"). To the north the same god is known as Cerne; a shortened form.
And in still another area the name has become Herne.
By now Wo/Man had learned not only to grow food but also to store it for the winter.
So hunting became less important. The Horned God came now to be looked upon more
as a God of Nature generally, and a God of Death and what lies after. The
Goddess was still of Fertility and
Also of Rebirth, for Wo/Man had developed a belief in a life after death.
This is evidenced from the burial customs of the period. The Gravettians
(22,000-18000 BCE) were innovators here. They would bury their deceased
with full clothing and ornaments and would sprinkle them with red ochre
(Haematite, or iron peroxide), to give back the appearance of life. Frequently
family members would be buried beneath the hearth so they might remain close to
the family. A man would be buried with his weapons; perhaps even his dog- all that
he might need in the afterlife.
It is not difficult to see how a belief in a life after death came about. at the
root of it were dreams.
With the development of different rituals for fertility, for success in the hunt,
for season needs there necessarily developed a priesthood; a select few more
able to bring results when directing the rituals. In some areas of Europe
(Though probably not as generally widespread as Murray indicated) these ritual leaders,
or priests and priestesses, became known as the Wicca- The "Wise Ones". In fact
by the time of the Anglo-Saxon kings in England, the king would never think of
acting on any important matter without consulting the Witan; the Council of Wise
Ones. And indeed the Wicca did have to be wise. They not only led the religious
rites but also had to have knowledge of herbal lore, magick and divination; they
had to be doctor, lawyer, magician, priest. To the people the Wicca were
plenipotentiaries between them and the gods. But, at the great festivals, they almost
became like gods themselves.
With the coming of Christianity there were not the immediate mass conversion that
is often suggested. Christianity was a man made religion. It had not evolved
gradually and naturally over thousands of years as we have seen that the Old Religion
did. Whole countries were classed as Christian when in actuality it was only
the rulers who had adopted the new religion, and often only superficially at that.
Throughout Europe generally the Old Religion, in its many and varied forms, was
still prominent for the first thousand years of Christianity.
An attempt at mass conversion was made by Pope gregory the Great. He thought that
one way to get the people to attend the new Christian churches was to have them built
on the sites of the older temples, where the people were accustomed to gathering
together to worship. He instructed his bishops to smash any "idols" and to
sprinkle the temples with holy water and redidicate them. To a large extent
Gregory was successful. Yet the people were not quite as gullible as he thought.
When the first Christian churches were being constructed the only artisans
available to build them wre from amung the pagans themselves. In decorating the
chruches these stonemasons and woodcarvers very cleverly incorporated figures of their
own deities. In this way, even if they were forced to attend the churches the
people could still worship their own gods there.
There are many figures still in existence today. The Goddess is usually depicted
as very much a fertility deity, with legs spread wide and with great enlarged genitalia.
Such figures are usually referred to as Shiela-na-gigs. The god is shown as a horned
head surrounded by foliage; knows as a "foliate mask", and also sometimes referred
to as "Jack of the Green" or "Robin o' the Woods". Incidentally, these carvings
of the old God should not be confused with gargoyles. The latter are hideous
faces and figured carved on the four corners of church towers to frighten away
demons.
In those early days when Christianity was slowly growing in strength, the
Old Religion the Wiccans and other pagans was one of it's rivals. It is only
natural to want toget rid of a rival and the Churched pulled no punches to do
just that. It has frequently been said that the gods of an old religion become the
devils of a new. This was certainly the case here. The God of the Old Religion was
a horned god. so apparently, was the Christian's Devil. Obviously then,
reasoned the Church the pagans were Devil worshippers! This type of reasoning is
used by the Church even today. Missionaries were particularly prone to label all
primitive tribes upon whom they stumbled as devil worshippers, just because the tribes
worshipped a god or gods other than the Christian one. It would not matter that the
people were good, happy, often morally and ethically better living than the
vast majority of Christians... they had to be converted!
The charge of Devil worship, so often leveledat Witches, is rediculous. The Devil
is purely Christian invention; there being no mention of him, as such, before the
New Testament. In fact it is interesting to note that the whole concept of evil
associated with the Devil is due to an error in translation. The original Old
Testament Hebrew Ha-satan and the New Testament Greek Diabolos isimply mean "opponent"
or "adversary" it should be remembered that the idea of an advanced and complex
civilization. The Old Gods through tjeor gradia; development, were very much
"human" in that they would have their good side and their bad side. It was the
idea of an all-good, all loving deity which necessitated an antagonist. In
simple language you can only have the color white if there is an opposite color,
black, to which you can compare it. This view of an all good god was developed by
Zoroaster (Zarathustra), in Persia in the seventh century BCE. The idea later
spread westward as was picked up in Mithraism and later. in Christianity.
As Christianity gradually grew in strength, so the Old Religion was slowly pushed
back. Back until, about the time of the Reformation, it only existed in the outlying
country districts. Non-Christians at the time became known as Pagans and Heathens.
"Pagan" comes from the Latin
Pagani and simply means "people who live in the country". The word "Heathen"
means "one who dwells on the heath". So the terms were appropriate for non-Christians
at that time, but they bore no connotations of evil and their use today in a
derogatory sense is quite incorrect.
As the centuries passed, the smear campaign against non Christians continued.
What the Wiccans did was reversed and used against them. they did magick to
promote fertility and increase the crops; the Church claimed that they made women
and cattle barren and blighted the crops! No one apparently stopped to think that
if the Witches really did what they were accused of, they would suffer equally
themselves. After all, they too had to eat to live. An old ritual act for fertlity
was for the villagers to go to the fields in the light of the full moon and to dance
around the field astride pitchforks, poles and broomsticks; riding them like
hobby horses. They would leap high in the air as they danced, to show
the crops how high to grow. A harmless enough form of sympathetic magick. But
the church claimed not only that they were working against the crops, but that they
actually flew through the air on their poles.. surely the world of the Devil!
In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII produced his Bull against Witches. Two years later two
infamous German monks, Heinrich Institoris Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, produced their
incredible concoction of anti Witchery, The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer).
In this book definite instructions were given for the prosecution of Witches.
However, when the book was submitted to the Theological Faculty of the University of
Cologne the appointed censor at that time the majority of the
processors refused to have anything to do with it. Kramer and Sprenger, nothing daunted,
forged the approbation of the whole faculty; a forgery that was not discovered
until 1898.
like a fire flashing up suddenly in unexpected places; spreading quickly across
the whole of Europe. For nearly three hundred years the fires of the persecutions
raged. Humankind had gone mad. The inhabitants of entire villages where
one or two Witches were suspected of living, were put to death wit the cry:
"Destroy them all.. the Lord will know his own!". In 1586 the Archbishop of
Treves decided that the local Witches had caused the recent severe winter. By dint
of frequent torture a "confession" was obtained and one hundred twenty men and
women were burned to death on his charge that they interfered with the elements.
Since fertlility was of great importance fertility of crops and beasts there were
certain sexual rites enacted by the Wicca, as followers of the nature religion.
These sexual rites seem to have been given unnecessary prominence by the Christian
judges, who seemed to delight in prying into the most minute of details concerning
them. The rites of the Craft were joyous in essence. It was an extremely happy
religion and so was, in many ways totally incomprehensible to the gloomy Inquisitors
and Reformers who sought to suppress it.
A rough estimate of the total number of people burned, hung or tortured to death
on the charge of Witchcraft, is nin million. Obviouisly not all of these were
followers of the Old Religion. This had been a wonderful opportunity for some
to get rid of anyone against whem they bore a grudge!. An excellent example of
the way in which the hysteria developed and spread is found in the case of the so
called Witches of Salem, Massachusetts. It is doubtful if any of the victims hung
there were really followers of the Old Religion. Just possibly Bridget bishop and
Sarah Good were, but the others were nearly all pillars of the local church until
the time the hysterical children "cried out" on them.
But what about Satanism? The Witches were called worshippers of the Devil.
Was there any truth to this? reason for the belief. The early church was extremely
harsh on its people. It not only governed the peasnats way of worship but also their
ways of life and love. Even between married couples, sexual intercourse was frowned
upon. It was felt that there should be no joy from the act, it being permitted
solely for procreation. Intercourse was illegal on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays;
for forty days before Christmas and a similar time before Easter; for three days
prior to receiving communion, and from the time of conception to forty days after
paturition. In other words, there was a grand total of approximatedly two months
in the year only when it was possible to have sexual relations with your spouse..
but without deriving pleasure from it of course!.
It was no wonder that this, together with other such harshness. led to a rebellion
albeit a clandestine one. The people this time the Christians finding that their
lot was not bettered by praying to the so called God of Love, decided to pray to his
opposite instead. If God wouldn't help them, perhaps the Devil would. so Satanism
came into being. A parody of Christianity; a mockery of it. IT was a revolt against
the harshness of the Church. As it turned out the "Devil"
did not help the poor peasant either. But at least he was showing his disdain for
the authorities; he was going against the establishment.
It did not take Mother church long to find out about this rebellion. Satanism
was anti-Christian. Witchcraft ws also in their eyes anti Christian. Ergo Witchcraft
and Satanism were one and the same.
In 1604 King James I passed his Witchcraft Act, but this was repealed in 1736.
It was replaced by an Act that stated that there was no such thing as Witchcraft
and to pretend to have occult powers was to face being charged with fraud. By
the late seventeenth century the surviving members of the Craft had gone underground;
into hiding. For the next three hundred years, to all appearances Witchcraft was dead.
But a religion which had lasted twenty thousand years, in covens, oftimes only
of family members the Craft continued.
In the literary field Christianity had a heyday. Printing had been invented and
developed during the persecutions, therefore anything published on the subject of
Witchcraft was written from the Church's point of view. Later books had only these
early works to which to refer so, not unnaturally, they were heavily biased against
the Old Religion. In fact it was not until 1921, when Dr. Margaret alice Murray
produced The Witch Cult in Western Europe, that anyone looked at Witchcraft with
anything like an unbiased light. From studying the records of the trials of the
Middle Ages, Murray (an eminent anthropologist and then Professor of Egyptology
at London University) picked up the clues that seemed to her to indicate that there
was a definite, organized, pre-Christian religion behind all the "hogwash" of the
Christian allegations. Although her theories finally proved a little far fetched
in some areas, she did indeed strike some chords. Wicca was by no means as far
reaching and widespread as Murray suggested (nor was there proof of a direct,
unbroken line of desecent from the cavepeople), but there can be no doubt that
it did exist as an indubitable religious cult, if sporadic as to time and place.
She enlarged on her views in a second book, The god of the Witches, in 1931.
In England, in 1951, the last laws against Witchcraft, were finally repealed.
This cleared the way for the Witches themselves to speak up. In 1954 Dr. Gerald
Brousseau Gardner, in his book Witchcraft Today, said, in effect, "What Margaret
Murray has theorized is quite true. Witchcraft was a religion and in fact it still
is. I know, becaus i am a Witch myself."
He went on to tell how the Craft was still very much alive, albeit underground.
He was the first to give the Witches side of the story. At the time of his writing
it seemed, to him, that the Craft was rapidly declining and perhaps only
hanging on by a thread. He was greatly surprised when, as a result of the
circulation of his books, he began to hear from many covens throughout Europe.
Note to remember find information on the Malleus Malleficarum for historicals
All Still happily practicing their beliefs. Yet these surviving covens had learned
their lesson. They did not wish to take the chance of coming out into the open.
Who was to say the persecutions could not start again?
For a while Gerald Gardner's was the single voice speaking for the Craft. He
claimed to have been initiated into an English coven, near Christchurch, just before
the start of the SEcond World War. He was excited by what he found.
He had spent a lifetime in the study of religio magick and now was a part of it.
He wanted to rush out and tell everyone. But he was not allowed to. Finally
though, after much pleading, he was allowed to present some of the true Witch beliefs
and practices by weaving them into a novel: High Magic's Aid, Published in 1949.
It took five more years for him to persuade the coven to let him do the factual
treatment. Complementing Witchcraft Today, his third book was published in 1959,
titled The MEaning of Witchcraft.
From his lifetime study of religion and magick, Gardner felt that what he found as
the remains of Witchcraft was incomplete and, in places, inaccurate. for millenia
the Old Religion had been a purely oral tradition. It was not until the persecutions,
with the seperating of covens and the resultant loss of intercommunication, that
anything was put into writing. At that time, when the Witches were having to meet
in the shadows, the rituals were finally written down in what became known as
The Book of Shadows. The Book was then copied and recopied as it passed, over the
years from coven leader to coven leader. It was only natural that errors would
creep in. Gardner took the rituals of the coven to which he belonged a basically
English/Celtic group and rewrote them as he felt they should have been. This form
then became known as "Gardnerian Witchcraft". In recent years there have been
many wild and wonderful theories and accusations advanced, from "Gardner made up
the whole thing" to "He commissioned Aleister Crowley to write The Book of Shadows
for him". Such charges scarcely bear the dignity of a response, but details
of Gardner's pre paratory work can be found in Stewarty Farrar's books:
What Witches Do and Eight Sabbats for Witches.
However, whatever one's feelings about Gardner, whatever one's belief in the
Wicca's origins, all present day Witches and would be Witches owe him a
tremendous debt of gratitutde for having had the courage to stand up and speak
out for Witchcraft. It is because of him that we can enjoy the Craft, in
its many forms, today.
In American the first Witch to "stand up and be recognized" was Raymond Buckland.
At that time there were no covens visible in this country.
Initiated in Scotland (Perth) by Gardener's High Priestess, he set out to
emulate Gardner insofar as to try to straighten the long held misconceptions
and to show the Craft for what it truly is. Soon Sybil Leek arrived on the scene,
followed by Gavin and Yvonne Frost and other individuals. It was an exciting time
as more and more covens, and many different traditions, came into the open or at
least made themselves known. Today the would be Witch has a wide selection
from whic hto choose: Gardnerian, Celtic (In many variations), Saxon,
Alexandrian, Druidic, Algard, Norse, Irish, Scottish, Sicilian, Huna, etc.
As I said in the Introduction to this we are all different. It is not
surprising that there is no one religion that suits all people. In the same way,
then, there can be no one type of Witchcraft to suit all Witches. Some like lots
of ritual, while some are for simplicity. Some are from Celtic backgrounds, others
from Saxon, scots, Irish, Italian, or any of a number of others. Some favor
a matriarchy; others a patriarchy and still others seek a balance. Some prefer to
worship in a group (coven), while others are for solitary worship. With the large
number of different denominations, then there is a now more likelihood of everyone
finding a pathy they can travel in comfort.
Religion has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the caves of pre history.
Witchcraft, as one small facet of religion, has also come a long way. It has grown
to become a world wide religion, legally recognized.
Today, across America, it is not at all unusual to find open Wiccan festivals and
seminars taking place in such unlikely places as family camgrounds and motels
as as the Holiday Inn. Witchs appear on television and raido talk shows; they are
written up in local and national newspapers and magazines. Witchcraft courses are
given in collegs. Even in the Armed Forces is Wicca recognized as a valid religion
Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 165-13 "Religious Requirements and Practices
of Certain Seleted Groups-= A Handbook for Chaplains" includes instructions as to
religious rights of Witches right alongside those of Islamic groups,
Sikh groups, Christian Heritage, Indiana Heritage, Japanese and Jewish groups.
Yes, Witchcraft has a place in past history and will have a definite place
in our future.
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