This is a post I made many years ago as a teenager. It was in response to a thread where posters were discussing whether or not witches/demon worshipers have killed people in modern times. I don't care to defend anything here. I still agree with some of it, but some of my views have changed radically. I thought someone might find it intresting. The research I did was my first foray into the occult outside of TV and Church, which I had rejected not long before. I made a disassociation between pre-Christian religion and neo-paganism, and was lambasted for it. Things appear to be more complex. I was more presumptious then, hadn't done any psychedelics, and didn't really know what I was talking about.
First, it should be noted that throughout societies, throughout time, there have been a multitude of Pagan religions. Indeed, a pagan is the modern sense is anyone who is not a Christian, Muslim or Jew. But since religions have been around since people have, it's safe to say the entirety of the world was awash in paganism for thousands of years. But for the sake of perspective, let's keep in mind that "pagan" is a fairly recent term used by religions which (minus the Jews) seek to convert the entirety of the world to their faith. Pagans are people who do not believe in the "one true God". This holds true whether we're talking about a tribe of Indians in South America, or about a "coven" of witches in the Middle Ages. Because of this, the term "pagan" isn't very useful for research. But, the word certainly has ties to witchcraft right? In pre-Christian times, did people believe in a "pagan" religion? The simple and direct answer is no. The Druidic religions of Europe would have never used the term because it didn't exist. Pagan is a shortened form of the latin word paganus, and thus wouldn't have been uttered before the Roman invasions, save perhaps for a few traveling wise men who were looking to increase their knowledge of distant languages. Paganus means what? People who live in the country.
What this means, is that the definition of the word was changed to suit the needs of the authority, and fairly recently. It's a simple matter to equate the new definition with the old. The clerics, and their followers developed a fear of those people who weren't directly under their control... country folk. In a time when the fastest travel was by horseback, the world was a much bigger place. A person could spend their entire lives and never see the land 10-15 miles from their homes. There was a widespread belief in supernatural occurrences during those times not only evidenced by witch trials, but in commonly held beliefs in faeries, pixies, werewolves, vampires, dwarves, gnomes, and others. What were these country people up to? What were these "pagans" doing out there in their seclusion? Well, for one, they weren't listening to the clergy. They didn't make it to church on Sundays, or on any day, and so, didn't have the guiding light of Christianity to order their lives. This fostered a mistrust which was goaded on by the church. Since pagans weren't part of the flock, their lives were immoral, their thoughts and intentions evil. They needed to be saved/converted. And so the spread of the one true god has gone. Building churches wasn't too hard, but insuring that they were used for their proper purpose proved difficult in sparse areas. Not many clergy wanted to leave the comfort of civilisation to settle in a dangerous area where the people saw them as disruptors who sought to impose a culture on them they neither needed or desired. So, to a degree, a wall was created between the new society of order, progress, and Christianity, and the old society of subsistence based on a hodge podge of various beliefs reflecting those of conquering armies who had previously occupied the land. This old society would be conquered, but it wouldn't happen overnight.
But perhaps I'm not going back far enough. The basic problem here is that before the rise of Christianity in Europe, the people weren't exactly record keepers. To contrast, the Arab world 2-3 thousand years ago had a much more advanced civilisation, and their histories aren't complete by any means, the majority of recovered texts are either mundane record keeping or were written sometime well after the historical occurrences took place. The rise above subsistence for Europe as a whole did not occur until a later time, and thus leaves us with little to ponder. We can piece together quite a bit, but there will never be a definitive picture of Druidic life. Beyond that, The Catholic church saw fit to destroy all evil works, which would have been anything that pre-dated Christianity. This creates the odd realization that native Europeans were actively destroying their own culture, while fervently trying to collect and preserve the culture of a distant land. Such is the march of progress. For as great as the Romans may have been, it was indisputable that the Arabs were, and had been for some time, more advanced when it came to science and math, tools which raise populations above subsistence. This influx of knowledge and faith also created an easy way to maintain power in Europe. If you wanted to be a part of the new way, if you wanted to reep the rewards of higher civilisation, you had to partake in the new religion. Instead of getting your creation myths from mom and dad or the local shaman, the church was the only source of true knowledge, knowledge that had to be taught from the top down.
Like paganus, the terms Wicca and coven, can shed some light on what was probably not occurring in pre-Christian Europe. Wicca is Old English and cannot be traced back further. Whether this is due to the level of cultural purging in those times or not, cannot be made certain. What is known is that Wicca generally translates to necromancer, or "people who communed with the deceased". How prevalent was this practice in pre-Christian Europe? Again, we can't know because the history isn't there for us to ponder. Of course, Christianity doesn't tolerate "talking to dead people" because they might be demons in sheep's clothing, but in the context of pre-Christian times, it's reasonable that if there was any such practice, it would have been an integral part of the regions culture. That is, a basic function of community. You can examine just about any primitive religion anywhere in the world, from American Indians, to Aborigines, to South African tribes, and you will find that they all look to the spirits and deceased ancestors for guidance. It would not be unreasonable to say that in pre-Christian Europe, Wicca were shamans, or, cultural leaders. For Christianity to grow and prevail, it follows that these people should be "demonized" and marginalized.
The term coven is easier to discover. Sound like converge? Convene? Yep, another Latin word which wouldn't have been in use during pre-Christian Europe. So we have another case in which, due to association with devilry, a perfectly good word is no longer available for use in it's general sense. What about 13 witches in a coven? This conception was begot from superstition, or possibly tortured confession, the reliability of which is laughable, and was popularized by a study of witch trials. There were thousands and thousands of trials, and it's "provable" that there were at least 18 instances in which exactly 13 witches gathered in a coven. Of course, throughout the multitude of witch trials, these coven hosted much larger and smaller numbers of participants. Confession by torture revealed that witches would sometimes act alone, with a fellow witch, and with any where from 3-12 witches. Some covens were attended by hundreds of people, and all numbers in between.
So, how does this relate to modern day "Wicca" a religion made official only in the last 100 years. First we must examine the structure and purpose of this neo-pagan religion. Great and small, religions are cultural constructs and are meant to bring about order in community. Whether we're talking about Christianity and the promotion of man over nature (science) or some tribal religion in the wilderness (subsistence), real honest to goodness religions existed for the community as a whole, regardless of whether it was forced or not. This is not the purpose of Wicca. First, Wicca sprang up in regions which already had firm religious foundations, and their "roots" are highly questionable. If one seeks to discover common themes throughout the world of witchcraft, digging will do little good as many a new witch has discovered. The only apparent reoccurring themes are based off language which didn't exist at the time, illusions such as 13 in a coven, and real documented practices which have for the most part, lost their original meaning. In other words, Wicca has had to make it up as it went.
Witchcraft has become a flight of fancy, who's meaning varies from witch to witch, coven to coven, and so on. Few embrace "traditional" elements such as the pointy hat, the broomstick, black cats etc. Most professing witches distance themselves from the conventional picture all together. The practices of witchcraft vary, as evidenced by the various forms, black/white and in between, and if you attempt to find common bonds by perusing witch web sites, you get the idea that they're not even sure what they're doing, and they certainly aren't attempting to form a cohesive whole. This certainly doesn't present the picture of a religious culture. What it does represent is a counter-culture, which is a totally different beast than religion. Sure, counter-cultures can become movements, and eventually supplant their oppressors, but witchcraft doesn't have this in mind. So if there was a central theme to witchcraft, what would it be?
Witchcraft as it is today represents a movement away from logic, science, and human order. They site being closer to nature, communing with nature, being at one with the spirits. Of course, how they go about this quest varies from person to person, as it is, in it's innocent form, an attempt to know the self, through the self. That is, without the construct of culture being involved. So they fear becoming like those who currently hold power. Hardly a recipe for success. This concept as counter-culture certainly isn't specific only for witchcraft, but the exact recipe could be considered inferior to other movements simply because idealism and mystery are held in such high regard. In other words, they're living in a dream world of history and mythology that simply doesn't exist. They want to return to a world of shamanism and leave the modern world behind and in doing so, return to a oneness with nature. The only problem is that going back would really suck. Living in the wilderness where you're close to nature and controlling community health with the help of spirits and ancestors, being close to animals, viewing the world in all it's beauty without a clout of masonry might sound romantic, but you won't find too many witches giving up their cars, electricity, cold air, ice, TVs, etc. Tribal living is only romantic to those not living it. It's subsistence living. Hardly a threat to the modern world, though there will be people who find themselves mal-nourished and deluded to the point that they commit evil acts. A good parallel would be the Manson family. Though Charlie wasn't a witch, he certainly had the same ideas, and unlike most spiritualists, he committed himself to the cause and ended up with a bunch of deranged followers. However, there have been hundreds of attempts at communal living and the vast majority of them only end up having an effect, for better or worse, on those directly involved.
But it was once a threat right? What were those pagan up too? They certainly weren't all innocent right? Well, we've already briefly examined the relationship between religion and it's unifying effect, and I've attempted to show that Roman and post-Roman times used Christianity to promote a life of science over subsistence, and control the power base of the movement. At the time, more so than today, many people felt that the world was about to enter a new phase in which death, hunger, and suffering were on the cusp of being history. It was the march of science/religion which was to bring about this change, and it's not unreasonable to assume that people who resisted this movement would be viewed as wanting to subvert God, and destroy the great age of peace and harmony which was at hand. Declaring them bumpkins wasn't enough, the whole of the land needed to be enlightened, and quickly. The most reasonable estimates for witches burned during the inquisition are generally in the 300,000 range. This doesn't account for other forms of heresy, and certainly wouldn't account for impromptu witch burning that never made it to paper. Where did all the witches come from? Very few witches were reported directly to the authorities based on questionable behaviour. Instead, witches were found out based on the confessions of other witches. If you could net one single witch, you might get a confession in which several other people were fingered. These people were brought in and, through confession, named others. The process repeated itself until the local community hosting the witch trials either A- had exhausted their local supply of "witches", or B- got the idea that the process wasn't scientific enough. What's up with B? Apparently, it would happen that the process would slowly finger people closer to the town base, and as time went on, prominent members of society were fingered. The constables, the sheriff, a wealthy land owner, or even a priest might eventually be fingered. When the doubt in people's minds became great enough, witch trials did more harm than good. If you can blame illness, death, and leaky roof tops on unproductive members of society (witches), you can reinforce the necessity of Christianity and create fear, and by extension, a powerful grip on the hearts and minds of your followers. But when you end up burning productive members of the community, based on hearsay, it no longer seems like a great idea, and can serve to injure the authority of the church. And so, witch mania would sprout and die across Europe like tiny lights in a field flashing on and off.
But what about flying. The history of pointy hats is vague and boring, and the shape changing associated with black cats and other animals is obviously not worth touching. But "flying" to covens was widespread. Simple confession by torture isn't enough to explain away the many accounts of flight, only because other, more damning confessions weren't so often pulled forth by the question itself. That is, it was widely known by non witches, that witches flew... to covens. So there must have been some practice which lent itself to the concept. It was noted in many cases that witches would apply a salve to their bodies before attending a coven, though the actual reports of this practice were only widely noted in southern Europe. Apparently the salve was a mixture of henbane and mandrake, among other plants. The active ingredients in these plants are quickly absorbed by the skin and are toxic. Below the lethal dose, they are highly hallucinogenic. People under it's influence described being lifted up in the air, and being transported to other realms, or lavish festivals.
It was apparent to many of the learned clergy that much of what was confessed was imagined (torture and possibly "tripping" will do that), though there doesn't seem to be much association between the salve itself and flying, as the salve was a preparatory measure among many, and the clergy weren't really concerned with the cause so much as ridding the world of the effect. Because so much that was confessed was too fantastic to believe, the church decided that imagining these unholy acts was just as bad as if they had actually happened and it made no difference in their punishment. It would be my guess that these salves were originally used to commune with "spirits" just as many subsistence cultures across the globe have used hallucinogenics. Not exactly evil, but not to conducive to a structured scientific world. And in those times, it's not unreasonable to assume that the people who attempted to preserve the old ways found themselves with less and less material as time wore on. They either got with the program or were rebellious. So still some persisted, set against the new world order, yearning for a time when things were "better" and the old gods ruled. A time, which like some of today's counter-culture yearns for, never existed. But still they had their bits and pieces, their salves, and what was once a might culture became folk lore, and a make it up as you go affair, one that's relevant so long as it is not the status quo. So perhaps the few actual witches that were burned at the stake were, in many ways, much like today's counter-cultures, viewed as idiots blocking the march of progress.
I've had a hard time finding reports of people being killed by witches. 3 boys aged 18-21 killed a man in his home in Virgina, there was a mention of witchcraft, but was more of a vague "occult" connection. However, murdering someone in their own home by stabbing them to death, and then slashing an x in their head doesn't really sound like part of a ritual, any more than what Manson did. A high school cheer leader was burned to death by three "goth" girls and the cry of witch craft quickly sprang up, though not by the perpetrators admission. Burning and witches you say? Witches traditionally get burned, not the other way around. It's likely that it simply seemed like a quite nasty way for these three girls to kill the object of their hatred, which is probably what the church had in mind. I've read of another similar instance between adolescent girls in which the object of hatred was clubbed, cut, and then partially burned. Witch craft involved? Nope, all it took was blind hatred and a mentality which doesn't concern itself with possible repercussions. Beyond that, I'm having trouble finding witches that have killed people. Perhaps it happens all the time, but is never reported. I would be interested in personal accounts or articles I can reference. But it seems to me, witches are still a scape goat, a way to instill fear in the populace and to insure that the big red guy doesn't wander too far from the spotlight. Of course, today, just as in the inquisition, witches are no threat in and of themselves. There are only so many people who will "tune in and drop out" and they will be the losers in tomorrows distribution of power. But that doesn't mean witches can't be used to the churches advantage, and the world of the "occult" will continue to be invaluable to the establishment.
--------------------
rahz
comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace I am I feel I do I love I speak I see I know
why there is reality and patterned, law-like consistency at all, rather than noise or non-reality is not a question physics answers. It's a question physics presupposes an answer to in order to provide other answers.
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