A Witches Past and Present History

By understanding our past,
we open the doors to our future.
The Craft: Past to Present
Witchcraft has a long eventful history, some of those events are joyous while others serve to remind us of the consequences of seeking to live freely. Witchcraft is often called the oldest religion existent in the West. It is pre-Christian. It is also pre-Judaism, pre-Buddhism, pre-Islam and pre-Hinduism. Many statements made about Witchcraft are disputed and judged even by those with no real research or knowledge of their own. In actuality, it is closer to Native American traditions and the early Shamanic traditions of many areas. Unlike many of the more modern religions, those currently referred to as mainstream, Witchcraft is not based on dogma and scriptures. Witchcraft, the Old Religion, takes its teachings and inspirations from nature. The Sun, Moon and Stars are looked to for their insights and information, as well as trees, birds, animals, seasonal cycles and other vibrational realities.
It is probably important to note here that Wicca or Witchcraft is not Shamanism, and that Shamanism is not a religion but rather an ancient mystical practice that uses altered states to contact Gods, Spirits and other energies from this realm and others.
    These  efforts were made to bring healing, wholeness and guidance into the life of the Shaman and his or her tribe. Shamanic practices exist within Witchcraft and many other religions. The Shamanic view is "that for wholeness all realms must be incorporated including the mental, physical and spiritual realms."
    Anthropologist Dr. Margaret Murray felt that she had traced back and saw Witchcraft¹s roots in Paleolithic times some 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. She felt that it was a fully organized religion throughout Western Europe. Many recent scholars have disputed and sought to dismiss her findings with regard to Witchcraft, but few have disputed or found fault with her opinions regarding the existence of a religio-magick system.
    We can see throughout anthropological research that early man and woman tended to deify that which they held in awe or did not understand. This is a process now called animism. Early man and woman also practiced what we now call sympathetic magick. Sympathetic magick is the art of showing a deity what one wants or needs by acting out the symbolism necessary to bring about an understanding of that need or desire. Tribes gathered to show the deity that food was needed through successful hunts or that fertility was required within the tribe or animal population. In this way the act of ritual was born and became a part of the Old Religion then and now.
    The primitive people of those thousands of years ago were hunters who followed animal herds. Some of those primitive people were called Shamans. These Shamans were said to be able to attune themselves with nature and the animals. Early man believed the concept of a Mother (female) lifegiver and a Father (male) who hunted and protected.
    Early man respected animals and their lives that had to be taken for the tribe's survival. To show this respect, after hunting, the unused parts and skins were filled with rocks and given to the waters or the womb of the Great Mother. Their skulls were kept and used for portents and guidance. During these times, many symbols of the Goddess were carved in stone, and womb cave openings were honored as symbols of the Mother. Symbols of the God were also carved on cave walls along with symbols of the animals that came to sacrifice themselves for the survival of the tribe.

 
    The phases of the Moon were marked, as well as the Sun's cyclic journey through the sky. As time passed, fishing and wild food collection became an important part of life. During all this time the Shamans were working with the energies of the times and as villages grew from settling tribes, the people combined their energies and efforts for the good of the clan. In this we see what probably represented the first covens.
    These groups continued working with the energies of the land. Working more and more to attune with the areas they had settled in. Learning the ways of planting and growing crops. Marking the seasonal wheel and watching the signs of the earth and sky, planet and star, animal and plant became magickal sciences. As these magical sciences became more understood they could be more easily worked with and further studied.
    During this time other cultures, more organized and Warrior based were coming into power. Sometimes these Warrior clans would drive the followers of the Old Religion into the hills and mountains where they became known as the Faeries, the Sidhe or spirit people. In some cases the Goddess of the Old Religion would be married to the invading clans Gods within newly created mythology. The Celts, like others, adopted many of the Goddess features and incorporated them into the incoming Druidic Mysteries. Through this intermingling and marriage the "faerie blood" was implanted into the new conquerors.
When Christianity first arrived there was no real change. The people viewed the Mother/Child/Sacrificial King of the Christ mythos as simply another version of their own earlier tales.
    The mythology of the Goddess cycle with Consort/Mother/Child was often adjusted by conquering Patriarchies.The Priest of the new Christian Religion would often work with the Priest of the Old Religion in the celebrating of seasonal rites. The early groups of the Old Religion (the covens) became known as the benders
and shapers of the subtle forces that they had knowledge of. They became known as the "Wit", "Witta", "Wicca", "Wicce",or "Vitki", Irish, Anglo Saxon and Germanic words respectively meaning " to bend or shape".
    During the 12th and 13th century many temples were built for this new religions' Goddess "Mary." By now Pope Gregory The Great decided to make an attempt to mass convert to 
Christianity. He did this by building new Christian churches over ancient pagan worshiping sites. He was somewhat successful since the artisans who built the churches were most often pagans. Because of this many of the churches to this date can be seen full of Green Men, quarter guardians and pentacles.
At this time the Church began to truly realize how difficult a rival the Horned God and Fertility Goddess were in their created battle for followers.
    The early Old Religion had a much more attractive P.R. package than the religion of Christianity with all of its¹ restrictions. Christianity incorporated this information when creating the concept of a totally evil opponent to their own deity. It was no accident that this figure resembled
the Horned God.
    Poetry and the music of the Goddess were still widespread compensating the peoples need for the Goddess in some manner. Pope Gregory also instituted the first Papal Bull in 1233. In 1324, an Irish coven led by Dame Alice Kyteler was tried by the Bishop of Ossory for worshiping a Non-Christian god. Dame Kyteler was saved because of her title but the rest of her group were burned for heresy.

 
    During the next centuries' wars, plagues and crusades advanced over Europe. Joan of Arc lead the armies of France to victory. She was popularly bruited as a sorceress and originally alleged a witch, but she was officially condemned as a heretic and was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, as a relapsed heretic. This fact indicates the embryonic stages of Witchcraft accusations, when in 1431 it was much simpler to secure a conviction for heresy rather than sorcery. Unfortunately within the century the reverse would be true.
    During this time the stability of the Medieval Church was shaken and the feudal system was breaking down. The Christian Church was swept by religious revolts that Church felt it could no longer tolerate.In 1494 The Papal Bull of Innocent the VIII unleashed the inquisition against the Old Religion. Issued on December 5, 1494, it served as justification for pitiless persecution. It instituted the of combating the "Devil" and saving mankind from "his" clutches. (Three earlier Bulls"Sixtus 4th," were the first to equate sorcery and black magic with heresy, thereby facilitating the task of the Witch hunters. 1473, 1478 & 1483).
 
    In 1486 the Malleus Maleficarum "the Hammer of the Witches," was produced by Dominicans Kramer and Springer, two of Pope Innocent¹s Inquisitors. This laid the ground work for a reign of terror that gripped Europe well into the 18th century. All of this indelibly equated the incorrect definition of the word Witch, created by the Christian Church, as a reality in the minds of many.
    During this period it is estimated that 9 million men, women and children were tortured, some estimate 85% of those were women and children. They were tortured and killed under this incorrect and convenient (for the Church) definition. Misogyny (hatred of women) is evidenced as a strong element in the medieval Christianity. Because women gave birth they became acutely identified with sexuality, and due to the views at that time regarding sexuality, they were associated with evil. The Malleus stated "All Witchcraft stems from carnal lust, which is in women, insatiable." Anyone could be accused of this concocted evil and anyone could accuse anyone else, including children. In those days it was "Guilty until proven innocent."
 
    These so called Witches (per Christian definition) were held prisoner, stripped, tortured (at the time it was legal), deprived of sleep, food and much more, all in an effort to obtain a confession to the act of Witchcraft, as the Church defined it. Even after confessing to the inquisitors many times, the torture would continue until a full coven of thirteen names were given. Confessions were all written entirely by the Inquisitors to be signed by the prisoners.
     Occasionally torture would bring a merciful strangulation before the pyre, but this was not usually the case.
    The job of inquisitor became quite profitable since these hunters were paid for each conviction. Midwives (who were considered threatening to the patriarchal medical society), up-spoken women, the elderly and any other possible problem creators for the Church were targeted. Many say that few who died were actually members of any covens of the Old Religion, but due to the sheer numbers some may have been. In the Bishopric of Trier in Germany, in 1585, there were only two villagers left and only one single female inhabitant after the arrival of the Inquisition.
 
   

Page 2