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The History of Witchcraft

Witchcarft is?


Witchcraft is a broad term used to describe many
faiths. Also known as "wise craft" or
"craft of the wise", Witchcraft is a
peaceful, nature-based faith or path.
Practitioners of Witchcraft or "witches" are often
accused of devil worship due to the prevalence of
misconceptions within the general public.
Witchcraft was all but eradicated by the spread of
Christianity because of the interpretation of
biblical verses such as:


"There shall not be found among you any one that
maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the
fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of
the times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a
charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or
a wizard or an necromancer."
(Deuteronomy 18:10 - 11)

or

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
(Exodus 22:18)

The witch trials


Between the years of 1450-1750 hundreds of
thousands of people were captured, tortured and
killed for the practice of Witchcraft. By some
estimates, between 80 - 90% of the witch-hunt
victims were women. A book called:

THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM


"The Hammer of the Witches" was written in 1484 by
The Bull of Innocent VIII and decreeing Inquisitors
Sprenger and Kramer and would be used
as the guide in hunting, torturing and killing
the "witches".


When the Malleus Maleficarum was presented to the
Theological Faculty of the University of Cologne-
the appointed censor at that time-the majority of
the professors refused to support or have anything
to do with it. However, it is a terrible fact that
Sprenger and Kramer forged the approbation of the
whole faculty; a forgery that was not discovered
until 1898.

The real truth


While most of what became known as Witchcraft was
invented by Christians, some aspects of Witchcraft
can be traced back to ancient pagan traditions.
The word "witch" comes from the old
English "wicce" and "wicca" in which female and
male practitioners held a great reverence for the
feminine, masculine and earth elements of "God".
Unlike Christianity, the Wiccan tradition was
focused on the convergence of both earth and
heaven instead of worshipping a single, male God
figure who stood over and was removed from
ordinary life.


The witch was usually a midwife, healer, herbalist
and/or wise-woman or man who fashioned their way
of living around nature and the seasons. Most
witches were skilled in the use of herbs and were
quite adept at healing those that were ill. Today,
modern witches seek the vast knowledge of the
ancient wise women and men to return to a nature-
focused way of life.

Christianity shaping paganism


Between the years of 200 - 500 C.E, Orthodox
Christianity successfully maneuvered its way into
the Roman government. Unlike the common perception
that there was widespread conversion to
Christianity, it was a slow and difficult process.
Christian leaders pandered to the Roman
government, incorporated aspects of paganism into
the religion and presented Christianity as a way
of bringing order and conformity to the faltering
Roman empire. Christians were not well-liked or
respected within the Roman Empire, therefore,
winning acceptance was no small feat. Romans
easily incorporated new goddesses and gods to
their pantheon and they granted everyone religious
freedom. The Christians, on the other hand,
refused to accept any god other than their own
which made them traitors to the Roman state.
Despite the "bad press" and suspicion against
Christians, they were able to win political
prominence which facilitated the establishment of
Christianity as the official religion of the
Roman Empire. The orthodox were very skilled at
using political means to accomplish this feat.
They designed an organization capable of managing
large numbers of people, they assembled the Bible
to encourage uniformity and prohibited and burned
other writings. It was this uniformity that
appealed to the Roman Emperor Constantine and
while he personally converted to Christianity only
on his deathbed, Costantine recognized
Christianity as a means of conquering dissention
within the Roman Empire and subsequently declared
it to be the Empire's official religion.


To the Romans, Christianity resembled several
elements of Roman pagan belief, particularly
Mithraism. Mithra was closely tied to the sun
gods, Helios and Apollo and Mithra's birthday was
celebrated on December 25th, close to the winter
solstice, which later became Jesus's birthday.
Also, shepherds were thought to have witnessed
Mithra's birth and were to have partaken in a last
supper with Mithra before his return to heaven.
The Mithraic high priest's title, Pater Patrum
soon became the title for the bishop of Rome, Papa
or Pope. These remarkable similarities were
explained away by Christian leaders as the work of
the devil, declaring the pre-Christian faith of
Mithraism and paganism to be evil.


The worship of Mary paralleled pagan goddess
worship and neither the Bible nor the early church
encouraged Marian worship or recognized her as a
saint. Mary's significance was diminished by the
early Christian leaders because of her association
with pagan goddess worship and subsequently, the
concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit prevailed.
The triple-goddess figure, Maiden, Mother and
Crone was a pagan concept, and Mary represented
the Maiden and Mother aspects in Christianity.
However, the most powerful symbol, the wise Crone,
was excluded from Christianity and later was used
to represent the ultimate enemy of the church -
the witch. Pagan worship was prohibited in 392 and
constituted criminal activity, pagan temples were
destroyed, and in 435 a law threatened any heretic
in the Roman Empire with death.