I research about two character today . One of them is a magic and unreal character which it,s been creating in 15 to 16 century in stories . The Character more come from a supperstation idea of ordinary people in the traditional old world. They made character which has two kind of ( good and bad) behaviors . The people were supposed the character as an evil or something like a gust. Also In somehow the theory can be bases on a religions beliefs which it would wanted make fair to control the people mind. people thought witches is a gust creative that is able to fly through the air and it can effect on the people life.
The content was they are supposed to be able to cause bad luck to those who offend them .
They believed they can punish the farmer by destroy their products if they do something against them.
People thought this is kind of evil which if people don't obey what the witches are command to them, they would be involving in their life by punishing .
Witchcraft the Wonderful Craft of the Modern Day Witch
Do You Want To Be A Witch?
Witches have not received good publicity. Witches always end up to be the bad guys in television shows, movies, and books. But witchcraft is not evil. It is a religion and way of life. It is the craft with only the utmost respect for Mother Nature. They may possess supernatural abilities and can perform rituals that are out of the ordinary but they are not what the society pictures them to be. If you are one of those that believe in the witches’ religion and craft then there are ways you can do to start your path in becoming a witch.
First thing of course is to do a lot of research.
Everything at first is about the fundamentals and less of the practical applications. This is to equip your mind of the basics and what to expect when you become successful in becoming a witch. This is also a good way to think of what you want over and over again.
After reading everything about witches and witchcraft, you should be able to embrace it. Witches love and respect Mother Nature. That includes everything and everyone living in it. You should be able to be in sync with the environment because it will be your guide throughout your journey in becoming a witch.
Next would be finding a place that you feel belong with.
Like an artisan in his workshop, this place will be your haven- the one place where you can do all your rituals freely and without disturbance. You should also make sure that the place you will choose feels right. It will serve as your best friend so make sure that it flows with you.
Make your ownBook of Shadows. This book is like the personal journal of witches. This is where they write their experiences and the knowledge they have acquired over the years. Your very own Book of Shadows will be filled with spells and rituals that you can use as reference and will be with you forever.
Live the witches’ life by experiencing magick and practicing spells. This defines witches. Witches can do spells and rituals that can help lift away pain, can protect from harm, etc. You do not need to be frustrated when you cannot do complicated spells at first because it is not possible. Always start with the basics because this will build the foundation of your becoming a witch.
Becoming a witch is a choice. It may have been a family legacy in the ancient history but because of circumstances, the legacy has stopped and so nowadays, the practice of witchcraft is a result of great respect for Mother Nature. And so if you really want to become a witch make sure that your ideals and principles are intact because this craft is not to be taken lightly. This is a way of life for some, a religion even. And so be 100% sure when you start taking your path in learning witchcraft because from this day on everything should be done wholeheartedly.
When witchcraft is practised as a religion, it is called by the Old English term for witch, Wicca. This term is used to counter all the negative stereotypes that society has given witchcraft. Wicca is primarily a religion that worships nature, and sees all creation as sacred. In fact, all Wiccan holy days follow the cycles of nature and the changes in the seasons. Wicca also worships both a male and female deity, a female Goddess and a male God, who had together created the world and everything in it.
Witchcraft is neither black nor white. Witchcraft is a religion that respects Mother Nature and She is neither completely positive or completely negative, this is the same for witches.
Spells are used by Wiccans, and are a series of rituals and prayers that are conducted in witchcraft to ask for divine help in a certain aspect of life. All spells must adhere to the Wiccan Rede, the witchcraft code of conduct, meaning that any spells used to manipulate, dominate or control another person is forbidden. In witchcraft, spells may also be changed or adapted to suit a Wiccan’s personality or specific wishes in casting the spell. In this site there are a range of free spells to practise at home.
A good Book of Shadows will serve as a witch craft reference guide a place where you keep tables and correspondences, spells and rituals that you’d like to try, divinatory meanings and many other things of that nature.
The Wiccan Rules (Rede)
The Wiccan Rede is the rule of conduct that all witches must follow while practising witchcraft. It rules that a witch may engage in any action, as long as it is carefully considered, and their actions harm nobody, including themselves. Witchcraft is ruled by the Threefold Law, which is the belief that any action taken by any witch that affects another person, will come back to the witch threefold, whether it be harm or good.
Beginner Witchcraft, Paganism, Spellcraft and Magic
To some, these words have no place outside of fairytales and films; they’re figments of overactive imaginations that don’t belong in the “real world”. Yet to those who believe in them; witches, they're symbols of pride and a sacred heritage that spans thousands of years.
Who or what are witches? Is thttp
://www.witchcraft.com.au/here such a thing as mag
The violent Japanese witchcraft anime coming back to life
Belladonna of Sadness is an experimental rape-revenge jazz musical anime that proved a commercial failure and shut down the production company – now it’s being re-released
If you haven’t seen Belladonna of Sadness, it’s hard to believe it even exists. On paper, it looks like a cruel joke or a satire of first-year film student wankery: An experimental rape-revenge jazz musical anime so psychedelic it makes The Yellow Submarine look like Steamboat Willie? A deal with Satan in exchange for sexual liberation and magic powers literally powered by patriarchal decay? So infested with phallic symbols (some subliminal, some…less so) it puts a high school bathroom wall to shame? Yet it is not only an utterly hypnotic and transgressive masterpiece of adult animation, but one very evocative of the feminist zeitgeist right now. Directed by Japanese director Eiichi Yamamoto,
Directed by Japanese director Eiichi Yamamoto, Belladonna is a very loose adaptation of a 19th-century French history book called Satanism and Witchcraft, which portrays medievalwitchcraft sympathetically as a woman-led underground rebellion against the feudal system and the Catholic Church. The film opens with the narrator’s saccharine warble and peasants Jean and Jeanne, “smiled upon by God”, have just gotten married and are deeply in love. But when they ask for their lord’s blessing, he casts Jean out and subjects Jeanne to a village-wide gang rape. Traumatized and shunned by her husband, she wishes for revenge and power, which she achieves by forming a pact with Satan. Orgies and ultraviolence ensue.
All of this is rendered in avant-garde animation techniques and trippy watercolour inspired by Gustav Klimt and Aubrey Beardsley. But gorgeous as it is, Belladonna, it seemed, was too much even for sexploitation-saturated 70s Japan (not to mention the rest of the world), and the film became a commercial failure that killed its production company. Because of this, the film was not officially released in the UnitedStates until this May thanks to a restoration by Cinelicious Pics, and accompanied by a companion art book released on August 23rd by Hat and Beard Press. Although not without its flaws (its fixation on beauty as good, its rather ham-handed symbolism, its bizarre lulls of paternalism), Belladonna is a captivating film with rebellious portrayals of female empowerment and sexual violence that remain spot-on today.
A still from Belladonna of SadnessCourtesy of Cinelicious and Mushi Productio
From MorganLeFay to TheCrucible, witchcraft has always doubled as a sexy pop cultural shorthand for female empowerment. But sometime in the past few years, it made a Faustian bargain with white feminism and was reborn as the ultimate “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt. Witchcraft now joins sad girl memes and mugs of Fuccboi Tears as endlessly regrammable artillery for punch-clock, performative liberation. Crystals, sage, and tarot cards have gone where self-care goes to die: Goop.
It’s not hard to see why. Witchcraft’s aesthetic makes it prime for co-option by “marketplacefeminism.” With alienation the new black and black the new pink (at least on Wednesdays), the topical outfits of The Craft means it girls can flirt with outsider edge without slumming it. Covens appeal to Buzzfeed quiz-accredited “bad bitches” who dislike the Taylor Swift blemish of #girlsquad but find #girlgang too ripe for accusations of cultural appropriation. And the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition lend it all the untouchable reverence of solidarity and homage. Witchcraft, in short, has been sanitised, flayed, and de-boned by the mainstream into an automatic gesture of girl power.
Belladonna’s portrayal of witchcraft as female liberation is far more nuanced and thus far more subversive than a blind embrace of feminist branding. Desperation forces Jeanne to seek help from the devil, who appears as an adorable, penis-shaped pixie who teaches her the pleasures of her own body. But he coerces her into giving him her body and soul in exchange for power and sexual awakening, and the more she gives, the bigger he grows. Having given him control over half of herself, she uses her power for financial independence, and is punished for it by an angry mob. When she gives the devil full control, she ends up being a Black Plague-healing, orgy-throwing soul mule for him, even as she syphons the power of the villagers with her sexuality. When she seeks autonomy again by asking the lord of the village for control over “everything” in exchange for her devil-given knowledge, she suffers again for her hubris — permanently.
“Jeanne would be a “bad victim” by today’s standards — flaunting her sexuality after her attack, using her sexuality to gain power and manipulate. The film, of course, never uses this to shift the blame”
Belladonna, like most witch-themed allegories for female empowerment, does not make the mistake of simplifying witchcraft into an inherently positive act of liberation. Robert Eggers’ 2015 feminist breakout hit The VVitch forces main character Thomasin into a bittersweet version of empowerment — she gains independence from her toxic, Puritanical family, but only out of necessity and as a member of the witch tribe who terrorized her family. Even girls’ night favoriteThe Craft makes it clear that fucking with power that isn’t yours comes at an expense. These films all share the common refrain that women can and do make shitty life decisions and Faustian bargains that ruin relationships for the pursuit of power, in ways other women may disapprove of, but they still remain sympathetic. Just like the selfish asshole who nevertheless excels at his job thus excusing his shitty behavior trope that TV shows like The Knick and Mad Men have milked for so long.
Far more feminist as well is its portrayal of rape and more importantly, the aftermath. 2016 headlines and comment sections are dominated by two concurrent debates surrounding rape—the use of rape as drama in fiction and the perfect victim. A lot of male-helmed TV shows,GameofThronesbeing the most egregious, use the rape of female characters as an easy backstory. Game of Thrones in particular loves it as a shortcut for instant emotion — instant sympathy for the villainess, instant coming-of-age of a heroine unaware of her own sexuality, instant emotional depth for a male character forced to watch. Critics recently confronted HBO’s programming chief about the network’s gender imbalance in portrayals of sexual violence, but it’s less of a numbers issue than the way a lot of male writers handle rape—lazily, condescendingly, voyeuristically. As a way to pat themselves on the back for portraying such a black-and-white, unambiguous rape case even as real life victims face disbelief and blame for not acting the “perfect victim.” Emma Sulkowicz, for example, who has been accused of lying for messaging her alleged rapist after and for making a sex tape as performance art. Amber Heard, for another, who has been called a gold-digging opportunist since the day she accused JohnnyDepp of physical abuse.
FromMorganLeFaytoTheCrucible, witchcraft has always doubled as a sexypop cultural shorthand for female empowerment. But sometime in the past few years, it made a Faustian bargain with white feminism and was reborn as the ultimate “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt. Witchcraft now joins sad girl memes and mugs of Fuccboi Tears as endlessly regrammable artillery for punch-clock, performative liberation. Crystals, sage, and tarot cards have gone where self-care goes to die:Goop.
It’s not hard to see why. Witchcraft’s aesthetic makes it prime for co-option by “marketplacefeminism.” With alienation the new black and black the new pink (at least on Wednesdays), the topical outfits ofThe Craftmeans it girls can flirt with outsider edge without slumming it. Covens appeal to Buzzfeed quiz-accredited “bad bitches” who dislike the Taylor Swift blemish of #girlsquad but find #girlgang too ripe for accusations of cultural appropriation. And the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition lend it all the untouchable reverence of solidarity and homage. Witchcraft, in short, has been sanitised, flayed, and de-boned by the mainstream into an automatic gesture of girl power.
Belladonna’sportrayal of witchcraft as female liberation is far more nuanced and thus far more subversive than a blind embrace of feminist branding. Desperation forces Jeanne to seek help from the devil, who appears as an adorable, penis-shaped pixie who teaches her the pleasures of her own body. But he coerces her into giving him her body and soul in exchange for power and sexual awakening, and the more she gives, the bigger he grows. Having given him control over half of herself, she uses her power for financial independence, and is punished for it by an angry mob. When she gives the devil full control, she ends up being a Black Plague-healing, orgy-throwing soul mule for him, even as she syphons the power of the villagers with her sexuality. When she seeks autonomy again by asking the lord of the village for control over “everything” in exchange for her devil-given knowledge, she suffers again for her hubris — permanently.
Belladonna, like most witch-themed allegories for female empowerment, does not make the mistake of simplifying witchcraft into an inherently positive act of liberation. Robert Eggers’ 2015 feminist breakout hitThe VVitchforces main character Thomasin into a bittersweet version of empowerment — she gains independence from her toxic, Puritanical family, but only out of necessity and as a member of the witch tribe who terrorized her family. Even girls’ night favoriteThe Craftmakes it clear that fucking with power that isn’t yours comes at an expense. These films all share the common refrain that women can and do make shitty life decisions and Faustian bargains that ruin relationships for the pursuit of power, in ways other women may disapprove of, but they still remain sympathetic. ust like the selfish asshole who nevertheless excels at his job thus excusing his shitty behavior rope that TV shows likeThe KnickandMad Menhave milked for so long.
Far more feminist as well is its portrayal of rape and more importantly, the aftermath. 2016 headlines and comment sections are dominated by two concurrent debates surrounding rape—the use of rape as drama in fiction and the perfect victim. A lot of male-helmed TV shows,GameofThronesbeing the most egregious, use the rape of female characters as an easy backstory.Game of Thronesin particular loves it as a shortcut for instant emotion — instant sympathy for the villainess, instant coming-of-age of a heroine unaware of her ownsexuality, instant emotional depth for a male character forced to watch. Critics recently confronted HBO’s programming chief about the network’s gender imbalance in portrayals of sexual violence, but it’s less of a numbers issue than the way a lot of male writers handle rape—lazily, condescendingly, voyeuristically. As a way to pat themselves on the back for portraying such a black-and-white, unambiguous rape case even as real life victims face disbelief and blame for not acting the “perfect victim.”Emma Sulkowicz, for example, who has been accused of lying for messaging her alleged rapist after and for making a sex tape as performance art. Amber Heard, for another, who has been called a gold-digging opportunist since the day she accusedJohnnyDepp of physical abuse.
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/32497/1/the-violent-japanese-witchcraft-anime-forgotten-until-now
Happy Halloween, Tudor Enthusiasts! I was contemplating a Halloween-themed blog post for today... I already did the "haunted Tudors" post last year - which I hope you'll read if you get the chance! When I considered the topic of witchcraft (which is interesting all on its own) I thought it would be perfect for a spooky post today. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do! Because witches were not as prevalent during the 16th century, I've extended this post to encompass the 17th century as well - becausethatis when witch hunting really got going. Let's take a look at witches of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties....
Witchcraft in a Nutshell Witchcraft persecutions began during Elizabeth I's reign - around 1563, which was actually much later than other areas of Europe... Witch hunts in southern France and Switzerland began as early as the 14th century. In early modern tradition, witches were stereotypically women. The common belief was that these women would make a diabolical pact with evil spirits and appeal to their intervention. They would reject Jesus and the holy sacraments, and take part in "the Witch's Sabbath" - a parody of the mass and sacraments. By paying honor to the 'Prince of Darkness,' they would in turn receive preternatural powers - thereby becoming evil. Folklore said that the 'Devil's Mark' would appear on the new witch's skin like a brand, to signify that the evil pact had been made.It was said during Elizabeth I's reign that the devil's mark had been spotted on Anne Boleyn- though this has been popularly seen as a cruel and unwarranted slam against her. Interestingly, the reasons for a woman to make a pact with the devil were varied - people believed that women, in their frustrations and struggles, would appeal to the devil in order to gain powers to deal with infertility, fear for her children's well-being, or revenge against a lover. Although witch persecutions were not really in effect until 1563, the use of witchcraft had been deemed as heresy by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. From then until about 1750, roughly 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, and hung across Western Europe.
What was a Witch like? Witches were frequently characterized as being ugly and old women. (Though in Anne Boleyn's case, people were apparently willing to overlook those characteristics when they called her a witch). They were typically described as "crone-like," with snaggle teeth, sunken cheeks, and hairy lips. Not a pretty picture, and certainly similar to how we picture witches today! Also, if they were the owner of a cat, they were all the more likely to be considered a witch - that's right, even in the early modern period, cats were considered a sign of witchcraft. For that reason, most cats during the Tudor period in England were burnt or otherwise destroyed because of the fear that they would attract evil. As sad as that is, I find it interesting - we hear frequently about how kings and queens kept pets such as dogs and monkeys...but never cats! Now we know why!
Witch Persecutions Witch persecutions were not a pretty thing. Similar to your average 16th century execution methods, the witches were handled cruelly and harshly, and were typically put under some kind of awful torture to gain a confession of their craft and other witches in the village. 'Thumb screws' and 'leg irons' seem to be the most common forms of torture used on the witches, and they usually resulted in a confession - This, of course, would have been taken as proof that witchcraft really did exist in England, because a woman being tortured would confess it! Whether it was said out of pain and agony or not, it certainly gave witch-hunters cause to continue looking and persecuting... and it only increased the fear of evil and the devil! 1645-1646 marks a short period of time when 'witch fever' gripped England hard. A man named Matthew Hopkins, a renowned witch finder, had 68 people put to death in Bury St. Edmunds and 19 people hung in Chelmsford in a single day. He was given exorbitant amounts of money for touring England and ridding towns and villages of evil witches. The grateful townsfolk would do anything and pay any price to rid their homes of the devil's influence! Because of this, many people lost their lives. Hopkins' main 'tool' to discover witches during this period was by using a needle and poking/prodding a wart, mole, or insect bite to see if the woman felt any pain. If she didn't, it was 'solid proof' that the mark was indeed the devil's mark! There could be no question that she was a witch and would have to be executed! However, his 'needle' was no needle at all. It was a 3 inch spike that retracted into the spring-loaded handle so the women would not feel a thing.
Witch Testing Other witch tests included the swimming test. Mary Sutton of Bedford was tossed into a river with her thumbs tied to her opposite big toes. If she floated, she was guilty; if she sank, she was innocent. Either way she would die! Poor Mary Sutton floated, and was therefore burnt. In August 1612, King James I (who was famously terrified of witchcraft), ordered that the Pendle Witches (three generations of a family), should be marched through the streets of Lancaster all together and hanged. In fact, King James I was so fearful of witchcraft and the threat of evil, that he advocated a book calledDaemonologia -published in Edinburgh in 1567. This was a guide telling his subjects how to detect witchcraft and how to protect themselves from it. His writings included descriptions of the devil's mark, the swimming test, and the fact that a witch cannot shed tears! Witchcraft Statistics & Facts
From April 1661-Autumn 1662, 600 witches were found - 100 were executed.
Mother Samuel, from Huntingdonshire, was tortured into confessing to the death of Lady Cromwell in 1590. She, her daughter, and her husband were all hanged and their naked bodies were left there for onlookers to see.
In 1616, nine witches were hanged at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England, for causing epilepsy in a boy.
Major Thomas Weir was strangled and burnt for witchcraft in 1670 [at age 70] for incest and bestiality. His sister, Jean, was hanged for similar crimes.
Margaret Aikens, a 16th century Scottish woman was known as "The Great Witch of Balver." She said she could detect other witches, and under supervision, she was taken around the world for that purpose.
Jane Wenham was the last person in England to be convicted of witchcraft. This was in 1712.
Witchcraft continued... During James I's reign, the 'new world' of America was discovered - and unsurprisingly, witch hunting continued there. The Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in 1692 stemmed from King James' fear of witches - and that fear continued through his son Charles I, and all the way throughout the Stuart dynasty. Witches were no longer the subject of folklore and medieval myths - they were a real, tangible representation of the devil. They could inflict diseases on people, spoil crops, bring about bad weather, and perform other unspeakable and detestable acts of devil's work. Witches and witchcraft were a scary reality of the 16th and 17th centuries in England. Even to this day the history of witches remains something of a mystery. Was there really some kind of mythical power that certain women held? Did people truly (successfully) practice the dark arts? Or were the thousands of executions and horrible tortures for nothing? Although certainly a sad and somewhat creepy history - it is an interesting history of a type of people and a major fear of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties. http://thetudorenthusiast.weebly.com/my-tudor-blog/witchcraft-in-16th-17th-century-england
Interpretations of Historic Witchcraft
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the figure of the European witch was interpreted and reinterpreted in numerous ways, depending on the orientations of the scholars involved. They described her (typically) as variously an antisocial practitioner of malevolent magic; as a pro-social healer, midwife, and magician condemned by churches and universities; as a victim of mental illness or of accidental poisoning by mind-altering plants; or as a deliberate user of mind-altering plants who sought a shamanic "soul flight." She was either the follower of a Satanic religion developed in opposition to Christianity, or she was the inheritor of pre-Christian Paganism. She was supported by her neighbors, or she was the unfortunate scapegoat for social tensions, a lonely victim with no family to protect her. These different pictures of the typical witch of the Burning Times or the Great Hunt (both terms for the persecutions that peaked in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) in turn reflect the sympathies of the writers, whether pro or anti-Catholic, socially rebellious, socially conservative, feminist, or Neopagan. These different perspectives on historical European witchcraft have also influenced what is today called Neo-pagan Witchcraft, a new religious movement.
Since the mid-1970s, historians have more closely examined the court records of witch trials in various European countries (and in North American colonies). They have studied the verdicts, punishments, social status of accused witches, lists of goods confiscated from the accused, and other evidence. In one notable case, scholarly re-examination of older work revealed a major forgery, a portion of Etienne Leon de Lamothe-Langon's Histoire de l'Inquisition en France (History of the French Inquisition), written in 1829. Lamothe-Langon's description of huge 14th-century witch trials with hundreds of executions in the South of France turned out to be complete inventions by the writer—who had also written a profitable series of "gothic" horror novels with titles like The Monastery of the Black Friars.
Today, informed estimates of the total deaths in central and western Europe range from 40,000 to 50,000, much lower than the millions once claimed. Contrary to the picture created by writers such as Lamothe-Langon, the Inquisition (an arm of the Roman Catholic Church created in 1246 to combat heresy) did not execute many witches; secular courts were more likely to condemn accused witches than were church courts. As many or more accused witches were executed in Protestant lands as in Catholic countries, and the witch trials did not peak until 1550-1650, a period that historians describe as "early modern" rather than "medieval."
During the early Middle Ages, Church writers were more likely to insist that witchcraft was a delusion and that priests should discourage their congregations from believing that anyone could cast spells or fly through the air in the entourage of a Pagan deity. The famous Canon Episcopi, publicized in the tenth century but possibly of earlier date, stated that it was heretical to believe in witchcraft, not to practice it. This ecclesiastical legal document, like others of its kind, urged bishops and priests to combat the practice of sorcery, but also suggested that people who believed that they were witches were deluded by the Devil. Another set of church ordinances from the late eighth century demanded the death penalty not for the witch, but for the person who murdered an alleged witch—again, because believing in witches was a Pagan superstition.
After the Black Death swept Europe in the 1340s, mysteriously killing thousands of people, Europeans were more likely to accept conspiracy theories involving enemies of Christianity, defined variously as heretics, Muslims, Jews or possibly witches. Officers of the Inquisition now began to expand their scope from Christian dissenters and heretics, such as Cathars and Waldensians, to people who supposedly had chosen to follow a diabolical anti-Christian religion (rather than a lingering Paganism). New manuals for witch-hunters appeared, such as the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches," a book that although authored by Dominican monks was used and reprinted equally by Protestant witch-hunters in Germany and England. By the sixteenth century, the witches' sabbat was regarded by authorities as a parody of the Christian Sabbath, the worshipful aspect of a religion which was a distorted image of true religion, i.e., Christianity. According to the records, the sabbat was generally held in some wild and solitary spot, often in the midst of forests or on the heights of mountains, at a great distance from the residence of most of the visitors. (The use of the word "sabbat," clearly derived from the Jewish Sabbath, indicates the way in which medieval and early modern Christians tended to blur distinctions between all perceived enemies of Christianity, whether Jews, Muslims, Pagans, or perceived sorcerers and witches.)
The witches themselves told a story—usually after torture— of taking off their clothes and anointing their bodies with a special unguent or ointment. They then strode across a stick, or any similar article, and, muttering a charm, were carried through the air to the place of meeting in an incredible short space of time. Sometimes the stick was to be anointed as well as the witch. They generally left the house by the window or by the chimney, which perhaps suggests survival of the custom of an earth-dwelling people. Sometimes the witch went out by the door, and there found a demon in the shape of a goat, or at times of some other animal, who carried her away on his back, and brought her home again after the meeting was dissolved.
In the confessions extorted from them, the witches bore testimony to the truth of all these details, but those who judged them, and who wrote upon the subject, asserted that they had many other independent
Witchcraft & “Wicked” Women
Introduction:
Witchcraft has its roots deep in African history and culture, long before the dawn of colonization. With the coming of Colonialism, however, Africa was impacted on political, social, and economic levels, which are linked to the occult, and have led to a culture in which women are further to blame and are oppressed.
Colonization has affected witchcraft in severe ways, which look different across the continent. Apartheid and white dominance have caused extreme poverty and political insecurity to be rampant in black communities. This results in jealousy, and many of society’s problems manifest themselves in the form of witchcraft as a result. Additionally, Christians have come in and have attempted to convert native Africans to their religion, and have been a forceful factor in the eradication of witches, who are often deemed wicked women, a context primarily derived from Western culture.
Witchcraft comes with many societal risks and is used as an underlying form of control over women and their behavior. This furthers the cultural distress seen right now such as economic turmoil, social friction, political distrust, and racial conflicts. It is particularly important that this issue is explored, because the issues of poverty, jealousy, and corruption are not isolated, so neither can be chaos, insecurity, and violence—thus the issue becomes one of global importance.
Background:
Witch hunting and witchcraft itself are illegal in most parts of Africa today, as laws with Western ideological undertones are passed. For example, the South African Suppression of Witchcraft Act was passed in 1957, which not only forbade the use and production of witchcraft and traditional South African medicine, but essentially made it illegal to “cry witch”. Witchcraft is a difficult subject to look at, because researches found it so rarely arose spontaneously in social conversation.
In recent years, accusations of witchcraft have risen to unprecedented heights; exactly why this is the case is one of the purposes of our exploration. There is speculation that it is due to unequal economic development of urban areas, reflecting tension between rural villagers and urban elites. Author Adam Ashforth takes this a step further, acknowledging that these kinds of tensions creates jealousy between black community members, and “If people carry jealousy in their heart, the Sowetans say, they can do anything to you”(Ashforth 1200).
Another point of exploration is the issue of women’s suspected involvement in witchcraft. Research done by S. Drucker-Brown claims that these accusations are significant as an attempt to control the behavior of women. Erik Bahre goes so far to suggest that it is a manner of controlling female sexuality in an age when urban settings don’t facilitate Victorian ideas of femininity.
Witchcraft is also a rationale for explaining strained family relations and unfulfilled obligations. Accusing someone of being a witch will essentially cut him or her off from the family and any future inheritance (Daswani, 451). In addition to this, Kirby has found that witchcraft accusations have risen due to several factors: (1) seasonal rainy season famines, (2) tensions in the house, (3) women’s leisure, (4) men’s frustrations, (5) general insecurity, (6) economic deprivation and food insecurity and (7) availability of an easy solution” (Kirby, 203). It is key to note reason number three “women’s leisure.” This means that women having free time puts people in a suspicious mindset against them, and are thus more likely to be accused of witchcraft.
Though both men and women can be witches, the majority of witch hunts in the past have been aimed against middle-aged female witches. Why exactly women, and specifically older women, find themselves the target so often is also in contention. This is also a topic which we will explore further.
Key Areas of Research:
While the themes above are common in witchcraft, it does not look exactly the same in different parts of the continent. We will look at two cases to highlight these differences, one being witchcraft in South Africa, where apartheid had a significant impact upon witchcraft, and the second being West Africa, looking at Ghana specifically. These examples will show how witchcraft is still a form of control and dominance for men over women even though they have different means of doing so.
Spellcraft: An Examination of Witches of South Africa
Map of South Africa with Soweto
In South Africa, Adam Ashforth and Erik Bahre have researched and discussed the issues of what creates a rise in witchcraft, and, primarily, why women bear the blame. In general, the literature on the subject is drawn out into three different areas of focus—the impacts of Colonialism and apartheid on political, social, and economic tensions, the impact that the climates of political, social, and economic spheres have on the occult, and why women are the ones to blame. Adam Ashforth and Erik Bahre attempt to put all three questions into the same scope.
Ashforth attempts to convey the narrative of witchcraft by beginning with apartheid. Apartheid and white dominance have caused extreme poverty and political insecurity to be rampant in black communities of South Africa. When apartheid was lifted, black neighbors looked around at each other, and they looked hard. Jealousy was induced, and as a result suspicion. It is argued, as will follow, what exactly the impacts of jealousy are in a social sphere—will the jealous neighbor maliciously accuse a wealthier one of advancing through witchcraft, or will the wealthier neighbor accuse the jealous one of malicious witchcraft?
Nothing solidifies such a lack of faith in one’s self as economic instability. Adam Ashforth discusses this briefly in the piece, “Of Secrecy and the Commonplace: Witchcraft and Power in Soweto”. He discusses extensively the impacts of apartheid on the economic climate of South Africa. The very nature of apartheid severely limited the freedom and mobility of black citizens about the country. As one can expect, this limited access to affluent areas kept black citizens poor. It was only in the very late twentieth century that apartheid finally lifted, and so much of the poverty still exists.
This is also discussed with a little more detail in Erik Bahre’s “Witchcraft and the Exchange of Sex, Blood, And Money among Africans in Cape Town, South Africa”, as he discusses the economic tensions which exist post-apartheid. Here, Bahre offers up a reason for the remaining socioeconomic barriers, though hardly detailed. He goes on to insist that since apartheid was so recently lifted, the educational hurdles still exist for black South Africans who were raised in societies with lower quality education than white South Africans (305). This is a pattern which is seen time and time again—even in America, it has been reported that inner cities, which typically have high populations of black and Hispanic minorities, have lower rates of high school completion, or college aspirations, than the comparatively privileged children of suburbia. And so the possibility of this correlation between poverty and poor education is not surprising.
Moving forward, Bahre also discusses the impacts that this economic strife causes in social spheres, and specifically in gender relations. First, he attempts to prove that women are more commonly suspected than men, claiming that the number of women accused in relation to the number of men accused in the past fifteen years has been twenty to one (308). Ashforth doesn’t directly cite this ratio, but he does agree with the assertion that women are more commonly accused of witchcraft than men. Thus begins the discussion of why this is so. Bahre claims that women are willing to be sexually open—but what they want in return is money (309). Whether that is achieved through prostitution, or through what Americans call “gold-digging”, it does not matter. Ultimately, the outcome is that men see women more negatively, as “typically evil” in their lust for affluence (310). This clearly will bear a connection to witchcraft later on.
Second, Bahre argues that men suffer from serious insecurity as a result of their inability to provide adequately for their families (312). This kind of insecurity about ones’ self can lead to a need to prove that one is capable of control and masculine strength. Bahre argues that this, coupled with general negativity towards women, manifests itself primarily in domestic and sexual violence (315). This kind of gender tension in a social sphere is an obvious cultural stressor.
Ashforth elaborates further on gender tensions which may perhaps lead to the reason behind the negative regard of women. He argues that the sexual freedom and independence of women in a traditionally patriarchal culture leads to the emasculation of black South African men. He says, “Most families in Soweto are headed by women, thus compounding the anxieties of masculinity and the formation of male sexual identities amongst families with female ‘breadwinners’ in a society stressing the norms of male dominance” (1209). He continues, saying that it is also the sexual freedom allowed to urban women that men find to be particularly threatening, especially “in places, like Soweto, where good women are not supposed to have sexual desires, while males are supposed to be rampant”(1209). This seems to be agreed upon by the two authors, who agree that it is modern ideas of femininity which terrify and threaten men, causing social insecurity and mistrust between the genders.
Let us consider how the idea of witchcraft is culminated from all of the above. Adam Ashforth is convinced that jealousy is what creates witchcraft. He says, “The most commonly cited source of the hatred driving the desire to inflict harm through witchcraft is jealousy. If people carry jealousy in their heart, Sowetans say, they become your enemy, and they can do anything to you” (1200). Money and freedom and power are what drive us. If one neighbor has more than another, especially in a social warzone like South Africa, it causes jealousy. Moreover, though white South Africans and Colonists are the ones who instilled the suffering of apartheid, they do not bear the worst of it. Ashforth has an explanation for this as well. He says that, “In many ways jealousy is the flip side of the coin that is egalitarianism. We rarely feel jealous of a king but endlessly envy courtiers of a similar rank” (1201). And so it is that we are more likely to attack and accuse our peers.
The Wicked Witch of the West: Witchcraft and Witches in Ghana
Map of the Regions of Ghana
The experience of researchers is that witchcraft in Ghana is not easy to study; this is because it so rarely arises in casual, commonplace conversation among Ghanaians, and that “to mention witchcraft [is] to admit an interest” (Drucker-Brown, 533).
According to N. Gray, the imposition of laws regarding witchcraft in Ghana have made a decisive contribution to the eventual transformation of witch cleansing (formerly execution, slavery, medicinal cleansing, and ostracizing) from a “coercive, quasi-judicial process driven by accusation into a voluntary, therapeutic practice centered on confession” (Gray, 341). This is due in thanks to the Pentecostal Church.
Through colonization, Europe brought Christianity to Africa. In Ghana specifically, this came in the form of the Pentecostal Church. Daswani describes the Pentecostal Church as a transformative agent that emerges through relationships. The missionary process is said to be “an ongoing process that is never complete and through which Pentecostals are constantly negotiating old and new worlds” (Daswani, 444).
The Pentecostal Church has played two roles in Ghana in regards to controlling witchcraft. On one hand, it offered a chance at redemption of witches, and on the other hand, it targeted witches in sometimes rather violent manners. In the first instance, converting to Christianity was a way out for witches who were experiencing familial tensions and living in poor conditions as some of the lowest members of society. Offering salvation, the Pentecostal missionaries would teach people how to pray effectively, preach in public, and develop spirituality. The Holy Spirit would be evoked and witches could be healed. For some, the church also offered new chances at authority and power, if the individual was suited for it. “The main agenda of this sort of Pentecostalization is deliverance, which is based on the fear of spirit forces, especially witchcraft” (Onyinah 2009, 110).
On the other side of this, we see the church as an instrument against witchcraft. Meyers’ research shows that these evil actors are agents of the Devil. Before, witches were just another role in society, still pretty low and still evil, but now they have the Christian attribute of being hell-ish. The missionaries assumed the Devil was confronting them through the ‘heathen religion’ in general and the activities of the ‘fetish priests’ in particular. They called forth a fight against witchcraft. Street sermons were held, and they preached the dangers of the Devil (Meyer, 105). Ultimately, by introducing this personalized devil and the association of the gods with demons, “the missionaries strengthened the belief in witchcraft and sorcery. However, they failed to provide for the holistic needs of the people, especially those of healing, exorcism and protection” (Onyinah 2004, 333).
The king, chiefs, and powerful household heads are the ones who are attributed with the ability to see witches, and thus it is their responsibility to defend their domain from attack. Drucker-Brown finds that witches attack at night, and invisibly wobri (“to chew and swallow”) the bodies of their victims, which typically causes lingering illnesses and deaths. It is commonly believed that witches conduct their deeds in spirit form while her physical body sleeps. Sometimes this can appear as a ball of fire (Adinkrah 2004, 335). A victim, however, will often see the witch or witches attacking. This can lead to an accusation being made by a victim during an illness. In some cases, it seems that a name mentioned by a sick person in a feverish state can also be taken as an accusation. Also, children descending from a matrilineage of witches are often thought to inherit tendencies toward witchcraft (Adinkrah 2011, 744).
In the past, post-mortem investigations occurred to reveal the witchcraft substance, known as soo, in a person’s body. Soo is described as a cotton-like residue in the intestinal tract. In addition to this, witchcraft is said to be “inherited from one’s mother and the uterine kin of a convicted witch are always suspect” (Drucker-Brown, 533). This shows that it is inherently (partially literally) a female trait. It should be noted that locals believe that witchcraft is an active practice and that the kin of a witch need not be witches, just suspect.
Additionally, witchcraft can be transmuted through medicines. An active witch could feed an innocent person a witchcraft substance, or it could happen to someone being recruited as a novice. The medicine will be compelled to act as a witch, which could include such actions as being forced to steal the flesh from a victim. This flesh is used to feed senior witches in a communal feast. As such, sudden weight loss is usually considered an effect of a witch attack. Once eaten, human flesh becomes an addiction, which leads to the deliberate consumption of medicine. Variations of the type of attack depend on the type of medicines consumed (Drucker-Brown, 539).
These medicines incorporate substances that are both curative as well as poisonous, and substances that operate both mechanically within the body and metaphysically. Medicine is not only used by witches, but also as a defense against witchcraft (Drucker-Brown, 540).
Use of medicine is very different for males and females. In both cases, a close kinsperson will be the most likely target. Females are most often accused of killing their own infants, killing a co-wife’s child, or attacking a husband or brother-in-law. Men, however, are usually accused of bewitching their rivals (Drucker-Brown, 540).
The primary punishment for a convicted witch is execution. This is not the only option, however. Convicted witches are sometimes sent to the nearby market town, where they are allowed to live segregated from the community but are free to go about the town. They are often sent here if their witchcraft cannot be controlled by the medicines available to ordinary household heads or chiefs, causing further shame. Witch settlements like this are known as Paraguayan-fandango,which literally means ‘old ladies’ section’. The witches are allowed to live here because the townsfolk are protected with special medicine (Kirby, 199).
This segregation is still a form of punishment, however. The women have had to leave their families and their homes, and are basically branded with a scarlet letter leaving them degraded by their banishment. As the name of the section indicates, many of the women are indeed elderly and face a shortage of food as well as poor living conditions. Most deny that they are witches, but some say that they “must be witches if everyone says they are” (Trucker-Brown, 535). Regardless, being ostracized in the witch settlement if far preferable to them than death.
Moreover, some witches are never formally convicted, but through gossip they still experience many of the social implications. Sometimes even, just for personal advances people will start to gossip about this, which leads to many women falsely being accused. Women, especially those who are older, are considered easy targets in this society (Geest, 448). This is especially true for women whose behavior or outward demeanor is considered eccentric: for example “those who mutter to themselves or are regarded as inquisitive, meddlesome, garrulous, and cantankerous” (Adinkrah 2004, 336).
The following video illustrates many of these issues, specifically for the woman of Gambaga (Northern Ghana). This is a clip from the documentary film by Yaba Badoe called “The Witches of Gambaga.” It is a clear example of the way accusations are based on jealousy and suspicion, and that there are very dire consequences for these women.
Though the geographic location of both areas is different, the general pattern that researches reveal to us is strikingly similar. In both areas, we see tensions brought on by Western theology and ideology.
In South Africa, this tension is brought on in the form of the imposition and then relief of apartheid. As Ash forth and Brahe have expressed, the economic barriers brought on by this form of severe segregation have remained racially charged into the modern day, almost two decades after it was lifted. It is the jealousy inspired within the black communities of South Africa that Ash forth blames for the spike in witchcraft accusations in those areas.
Similarly, it is undeniable that Christianity was brought to Ghana by Western colonists. This Pentecostalism has stigmatized witchcraft, apparently supporting violent means of dealing with the issue of witchcraft. While apartheid only wrought disastrous impacts, however, Pentecostalism also provides alternative ways of “cleansing” or “saving” the accused, with methods which involve significantly less violence.
In both cases, women seem to be targeted. In the case of South Africa, while men can be and have been accused of witchcraft, both Brahe and Ash forth agree that it is primarily the women who find themselves at the violent end of the equation. In Ghana, the association between femininity and witchcraft, which is most powerfully exemplified through the language and through the theory that witches tend to receive their powers from their matriarchal line, exposes a bias against women. It becomes undoubtable within this context that women are seen to be the primary possessors of supernatural abilities, and are thus somehow viewed as intrinsically evil.
The reasons for why are varied, but both regions seem to accuse women of witchcraft based on their social behavior. In South Africa, it is sexually free and financially ambitious women who are seen to be the most evil by the society in which they live. This is potentially because the urban settings of South Africa and the general economic strife in black communities no longer support the Victorian ideals of femininity which deal with purity, and the reliance of South African women upon the men of their family (ideally the husbands). In the urban settings, South African women can no longer rely on the economic wealth of men, who, if willing to be married and settle down, rarely provide enough wealth to care for the family to the wife’s standards. In Ghana, witchcraft deals with the social view of women in relation due to the household; specifically, the happiness of the men of the household (which seems to be regarded as the responsibility of the women of the household), the relations between members of the family, and the amount of time a woman may have for leisurely activities. This last note brings to mind the proverb, “Idle hands do the Devil’s work”, and undoubtedly such sentiment is at play here.
The final tie between the two cases is the issue of poverty, social difference, and general insecurity. Both regions show a spike in witchcraft when faced with the insecurity of living under stressful and poor conditions. Undoubtedly, this places instability at the top of the chain when it comes to reasons why witchcraft and violence are so prevalent.
nd different colours to create witches character.
https://blog.uvm.edu/vlbrenna-rel163/witchcraft-wicked-women/
Witchcraft
The word "witchcraft" derives from the Saxon wicca, some-times translated as "wise person" but more accurately derived from an Indo-European root, "weik," that produced words in various Western languages related to magic, religion, and divination. Currently, the word is used to designate a variety of very different but vaguely related phenomena including, but not limited to, (1) the magical/religious practitioners in a variety of third world pre-industrial societies; (2) the Satanism described in the anti-witchcraft books beginning in the late fifteenth century in Europe; (3) the Neopagan followers of Wicca, the religion started by Gerald B. Gardner in the 1940s; and (4) individuals (primarily female) who are reputed to have psychic abilities.
Interpretations of Historic Witchcraft
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the figure of the European witch was interpreted and reinterpreted in numerous ways, depending on the orientations of the scholars involved. They described her (typically) as variously an antisocial practitioner of malevolent magic; as a pro-social healer, midwife, and magician condemned by churches and universities; as a victim of mental illness or of accidental poisoning by mind-altering plants; or as a deliberate user of mind-altering plants who sought a shamanic "soul flight." She was either the follower of a Satanic religion developed in opposition to Christianity, or she was the inheritor of pre-Christian Paganism. She was supported by her neighbors, or she was the unfortunate scapegoat for social tensions, a lonely victim with no family to protect her. These different pictures of the typical witch of the Burning Times or the Great Hunt (both terms for the persecutions that peaked in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) in turn reflect the sympathies of the writers, whether pro or anti-Catholic, socially rebellious, socially conservative, feminist, or Neopagan. These different perspectives on historical European witchcraft have also influenced what is today called Neo-pagan Witchcraft, a new religious movement.
Since the mid-1970s, historians have more closely examined the court records of witch trials in various European countries (and in North American colonies). They have studied the verdicts, punishments, social status of accused witches, lists of goods confiscated from the accused, and other evidence. In one notable case, scholarly re-examination of older work revealed a major forgery, a portion of Etienne Leon de Lamothe-Langon's Histoire de l'Inquisition en France (History of the French Inquisition), written in 1829. Lamothe-Langon's description of huge 14th-century witch trials with hundreds of executions in the South of France turned out to be complete inventions by the writer—who had also written a profitable series of "gothic" horror novels with titles like The Monastery of the Black Friars.
Today, informed estimates of the total deaths in central and western Europe range from 40,000 to 50,000, much lower than the millions once claimed. Contrary to the picture created by writers such as Lamothe-Langon, the Inquisition (an arm of the Roman Catholic Church created in 1246 to combat heresy) did not execute many witches; secular courts were more likely to condemn accused witches than were church courts. As many or more accused witches were executed in Protestant lands as in Catholic countries, and the witch trials did not peak until 1550-1650, a period that historians describe as "early modern" rather than "medieval."
During the early Middle Ages, Church writers were more likely to insist that witchcraft was a delusion and that priests should discourage their congregations from believing that anyone could cast spells or fly through the air in the entourage of a Pagan deity. The famous Canon Episcopi, publicized in the tenth century but possibly of earlier date, stated that it was heretical to believe in witchcraft, not to practice it. This ecclesiastical legal document, like others of its kind, urged bishops and priests to combat the practice of sorcery, but also suggested that people who believed that they were witches were deluded by the Devil. Another set of church ordinances from the late eighth century demanded the death penalty not for the witch, but for the person who murdered an alleged witch—again, because believing in witches was a Pagan superstition.
After the Black Death swept Europe in the 1340s, mysteriously killing thousands of people, Europeans were more likely to accept conspiracy theories involving enemies of Christianity, defined variously as heretics, Muslims, Jews or possibly witches. Officers of the Inquisition now began to expand their scope from Christian dissenters and heretics, such as Cathars and Waldensians, to people who supposedly had chosen to follow a diabolical anti-Christian religion (rather than a lingering Paganism). New manuals for witch-hunters appeared, such as the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, or "Hammer of Witches," a book that although authored by Dominican monks was used and reprinted equally by Protestant witch-hunters in Germany and England. By the sixteenth century, the witches' sabbat was regarded by authorities as a parody of the Christian Sabbath, the worshipful aspect of a religion which was a distorted image of true religion, i.e., Christianity. According to the records, the sabbat was generally held in some wild and solitary spot, often in the midst of forests or on the heights of mountains, at a great distance from the residence of most of the visitors. (The use of the word "sabbat," clearly derived from the Jewish Sabbath, indicates the way in which medieval and early modern Christians tended to blur distinctions between all perceived enemies of Christianity, whether Jews, Muslims, Pagans, or perceived sorcerers and witches.)
The witches themselves told a story—usually after torture— of taking off their clothes and anointing their bodies with a special unguent or ointment. They then strode across a stick, or any similar article, and, muttering a charm, were carried through the air to the place of meeting in an incredible short space of time. Sometimes the stick was to be anointed as well as the witch. They generally left the house by the window or by the chimney, which perhaps suggests survival of the custom of an earth-dwelling people. Sometimes the witch went out by the door, and there found a demon in the shape of a goat, or at times of some other animal, who carried her away on his back, and brought her home again after the meeting was dissolved.
In the confessions extorted from them, the witches bore testimony to the truth of all these details, but those who judged them, and who wrote upon the subject, asserted that they had many other independent proofs in corroboration.
Powers of Witches
In the eyes of the populace, the powers of witches were numerous. The most peculiar of these were: The ability to blight by means of the evil eye, the sale of winds to sailors, power over animals, and the power of witches to transform themselves into animal shapes
Witches were also believed to possess the power of making themselves invisible, by means of a magic ointment supplied to them by the Devil, and of harming others by thrusting nails into a waxen image representing them.
Witches, Drugs, and Shamans
As the nineteenth century closed, two interpretations of the medieval and early modern witchcraft period were gaining adherents. One interpretation, suggested above, held that the persecuted witches were leaders and followers of an underground pre-Christian religion. The second, somewhat related to the first, was that at least some of the accused practiced an underground form of European shamanism, utilizing an ancient tradition of entheogenic plants such as Amanita mush-rooms and members of the solanaceous plant genus such as henbane, mandrake, belladonna, and datura.
Witchcraft as "The Old Religion"
The identity and motives of the witches and their accusers continue to be re-interpreted. In the period from 1890 to 1930, however, one interpretation of the trials not only blossomed but produced a genuine new religion. That was the theory that the witches followed an underground pre-Christian religion. Even though most modern scholars reject the notion, it contributed to the birth of today's fast-growing Neopagan Witchcraft.
Charles Godfrey Leland, an American lawyer, political journalist, and folklore scholar who lived a number of years in the Italian city of Florence, produced three books in the 1890s arguing that some Italian peasants, through their innate religious conservatism, maintained not only a pre-Christian but a pre-Roman religion, dating to the days of the ancient Etruscan culture. Camouflaged with Catholic saints' names and other details, this hidden "Old Religion" maintained its own deities, creation stories, prayers, and rituals, Leland wrote, describing these surviving bits of Paganism as "something more than a sorcery and something less than a faith." His most influential book, Aradia: or the Gospel of the Witches, published in 1899, synthesized traditional legends with material gathered for him by a woman known as Maddalena or Margherita (her surname may have been Talenti) and translated from local dialects into standard Italian, which Leland spoke and wrote moderately well. Aradia, which Leland claims was originally a Semitic goddess name, is described as the daughter of Diana, goddess of darkness, and Lucifer, god of light. Aradia comes to earth, and in the style of Michelet, teaches her ceremonies to outlaws and outcasts, as well as the secrets of poisoning corrupt feudal lords. What remains problematic about Aradia is the source of Leland's witchcraft gospel. Is it genuine, or did Maddalena herself concoct it to please her wealthy American patron, or did Leland shape it from a body of genuine invocations, stories, and folk practices?
Twenty years after Leland's work, the English archaeologist Margaret Murray (1862-1963) developed her own version of the "Old Religion" through her reading of witch-trial records from the British Isles and France. A recognized Egyptologist, Murray turned her attention to the witch-cult problem while World War I prevented her from working in Egypt. Her 1921 book The Witch Cult in Western Europe and its two successors laid out an apparently clear picture of the Old Religion. Even though that picture has largely been refuted by more recent historians such as Russell Hope Robbins, Elliot Rose, L'Estrange Ewen, and Ronald Hutton, its evocative power threatened to overwhelm the former academically accepted idea of the medieval and early modern witches as victims of bigotry, social stresses, and mob psychology. Many followers of modern Witchcraft continue to accept large portions of Murray's version of earlier witchcraft.
In essence, her version was this. The "witch cult" was a pre-Christian religion centered on a fertility god (somewhat parallel to the Greek Pan), whom Christian theologians deliberately confused with their Devil in order to persecute the witches. This god was often depicted with horns, and a man portrayed and embodied him during group rituals. (Murray had much less to say about goddesses than did Leland.) Covens of witches, ideally consisting of thirteen persons, grouped together at four major holidays—Candlemas, around 1 February; May Day; Lammas, around 1 August; and All Hallows or Hallowe'en. These large-group meetings, with their feasting and fertility rituals, alternated with smaller meetings ("esbats") for spell-casting and other local witch business.
In medieval England, Murray claimed, the Old Religion had been protected by the Plantagenet dynasty of kings, beginning with William the Conqueror in 1066. These were "sacred kings" who had to die as sacrificial victims or else find a substitute after they had reigned for seven years, or a multiple of seven years. Murray held that the murder in 1170 of the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket (later made a saint), supposedly at the orders of King Henry II, his longtime friend, was actually the substitution of a voluntary victim for the king himself. Murray also maintained that the French mystical warrior maiden Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was in fact a priestess of the Old Religion. This underground religion, in Murray's view, permeated medieval society, and its followers left traces in the carvings on Christian churches and in folklore.
Murray's views were almost immediately attacked by historians who pointed out that she manipulated evidence, lifted quotations from witch-trial records out of context, and ignored evidence that did not fit her theory. But her picture of the "Old Religion" was embraced by many folklorists, occultists, and all those who wanted to believe that British rural life retained traces of ancient Paganism, even after 1500 years of Christianity.
Witchcraft the Wonderful Craft of the Modern Day Witch
Do You Want To Be A Witch?
Witches have not received good publicity. Witches always end up to be the bad guys in television shows, movies, and books. But witchcraft is not evil. It is a religion and way of life. It is the craft with only the utmost respect for Mother Nature. They may possess supernatural abilities and can perform rituals that are out of the ordinary but they are not what the society pictures them to be. If you are one of those that believe in the witches’ religion and craft then there are ways you can do to start your path in becoming a witch.
First thing of course is to do a lot of research.
Everything at first is about the fundamentals and less of the practical applications. This is to equip your mind of the basics and what to expect when you become successful in becoming a witch. This is also a good way to think of what you want over and over again.
After reading everything about witches and witchcraft, you should be able to embrace it. Witches love and respect Mother Nature. That includes everything and everyone living in it. You should be able to be in sync with the environment because it will be your guide throughout your journey in becoming a witch.
Next would be finding a place that you feel belong with.
Like an artisan in his workshop, this place will be your haven- the one place where you can do all your rituals freely and without disturbance. You should also make sure that the place you will choose feels right. It will serve as your best friend so make sure that it flows with you.
Make your own Book of Shadows. This book is like the personal journal of witches. This is where they write their experiences and the knowledge they have acquired over the years. Your very own Book of Shadows will be filled with spells and rituals that you can use as reference and will be with you forever.
Live the witches’ life by experiencing magick and practicing spells. This defines witches. Witches can do spells and rituals that can help lift away pain, can protect from harm, etc. You do not need to be frustrated when you cannot do complicated spells at first because it is not possible. Always start with the basics because this will build the foundation of your becoming a witch.
Becoming a witch is a choice. It may have been a family legacy in the ancient history but because of circumstances, the legacy has stopped and so nowadays, the practice of witchcraft is a result of great respect for Mother Nature. And so if you really want to become a witch make sure that your ideals and principles are intact because this craft is not to be taken lightly. This is a way of life for some, a religion even. And so be 100% sure when you start taking your path in learning witchcraft because from this day on everything should be done wholeheartedly.
Brief Class Description
Witches are known for their prudence in battle. In return of casting time lag, they perform large-scaled magic attacks. Their thorough move will burn, freeze and shatter their enemies with the power of natural elements such as fire, water and wind, and finally drive foes into checkmate.
Have a little girl due in October? Looking to name a character? Here's my [seemingly endless] list of witchy-sounding baby names, and I love almost every single one. Most of them also fit in the "clunky but cool" category, or "vintage." Keep in mind that most plants, trees, herbs, spices, flowers, gems, space and nature names fit the bill. Also, I've put any actual witch names from legend, myth, literature, movies, etc in bold. I have not considered the names of actual, living people. Feel free to point out anything I missed, and sorry for any repeats.
The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior. The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures, blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters. The physicians called in to examine the girls could find no natural cause of the disturbing behavior. If the source of the affliction
The Salem Village Meeting House where the trials took place
was not attributable to a physical malady, the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan. Witches had invaded Salem. In February the village began praying and fasting in order to rid itself of the devil's influence. The girls were pressured to reveal who in the community controlled their behavior. Three women were identified and examined. One, Tituba (a slave), confessed to seeing the devil who appeared to her "sometimes like a hog and sometimes like a great dog." Even more troubling, Tituba confessed that a conspiracy of witches permeated Salem Village. In March the afflicted girls accused Martha Corey. The three women previously denounced as colluding with the devil were marginal to the community. Martha Corey was different; she was an upstanding member of the Puritan congregation - her revelation as a witch demonstrated that Satan's influence reached to the very core of the community. Events snowballed as the accusatory atmosphere intensified and reached a fever pitch. During the period from March into the fall many were charged, examined, tried and condemned to death. The hangings started in June with the death of Bridget Bishop and continued through September. As winter approached, the hysteria played itself out as criticism of the procedures grew. In October, the colonial governor dissolved the local Court of inquiry. The convictions and condemnations for witchery stopped. Nineteen victims of the witch-hunt had been hanged, one crushed to death under the weight of stones and at least four died in prison awaiting trial.
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The Trial of Martha CoreyFriday March 11, 1692 was a day of fasting and prayer in Salem. During the day the community's minister, the Rev. Samuel Parris, asked the girls to reveal another witch. They did, and the accusation shocked those who heard it for it implicated Martha Corey (Goodwife Corey) a new but upstanding member of the congregation. Immediately a delegation was sent to the Corey farm to interview the accused in the hope of clearing up this discrepancy. Martha Corey's sarcastic response to the accusation disheartened the delegation who immediately called for her arrest. Her trial was the scene of much agitation. In the courtroom Martha's accusers writhed in agony as they were forced by an unseen power to mimic the witch's every movement. When Martha shifted her feet the girls did also, when Martha bit her lip the girls were compelled to bit their own lips, crying out in pain. They saw the specter of a black man bending over the accused and heard the drum beat calling the witches to convene on the meetinghouse lawn. Deodat Lawson, a visiting minister, describes the scene:"On, Monday, the 21st. of March, the magistrates of Salem appointed to come to examination of Goodwife Corey. And about twelve of the clock they went into the meeting house, which was thronged with spectators. Mr. Noyes began with a very pertinent and pathetic prayer, and Goodwife Corey being called to answer to what was alleged against her, she desired to go to prayer, which was much wondered at, in the presence of so many hundred people. The magistrates told her they would not admit it; they came not there to hear her pray, but to examine her in what was alleged against her. The worshipful Mr. Hathorne asked her why she afflicted those children. She said she did not afflict them. He asked her, 'Who did then?' She said, 'I do not know; how should I know?' The number of the afflicted persons were about that time ten, viz. four married women: Mrs. Pope, Mrs. Putnam, Goodwife Bibber, and an ancient woman named Goodall; three maids-. Mary Walcut, Mercy Lewes, at Thomas Putnam's, and a maid at Dr. Griggs's; there were three girls from nine to twelve years of age, each of them, or thereabouts, viz. Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam. These were most of them at Goodwife Corey's examination, and did vehemently accuse her in the assembly of afflicting them, by biting, pinching, strangling, etc.; and that they did in their fit see her likeness coming to them, and bringing a book to them. She said she had no book. They affirmed she had a yellow bird that used to suck betwixt her fingers; and being asked about it, if the had any familiar spirit that attended her, she said she had no familiarity with any such thing, she was a gospel woman, which title she called herself by. And the afflicted persons told her ah, she was a gospel witch. Ann Putnam did there affirm that one day when Lieutenant Fuller was at prayer at her father's house she saw the shape of Goodwife Corey and she thought Goodwife N, praying at the same time to the Devil. She was not sure it was Goodwife N., she thought it was, but very sure she saw the shape, of Goodwife Corey. The said Corey said they were poor, distracted children, and no heed to be given to what they said. Mr. Hathorne and Mr. Noyes replied it was the judgment of all present they were bewitched, and only she, the accused person, said they were distracted.
Peabody Essex Museum
"The Trial of George Jacobs" a 19th century view of the witch trials
It was observed several times that if she did but bite her underlip in time of examination, the persons afflicted were bitten on their arms and wrists and produced the marks before the magistrates, ministers, and others. And being watched for that, if she did but pinch her fingers, or grasp one hand hard in another, they were pinched, and produced the marks before the magistrates and spectators. After that, it was observed that if she did but lean her breast against the seat in the meeting house (being the bar at which she stood), they were afflicted. Particularly Mrs. Pope complained of grievous torment in her bowels as if they were, torn out. She vehemently accused said Corey as the instrument, and first threw her muff at her, but that not flying home, she got off her shoe, and hit Goodwife Corey on the head with it. After these postures were watched, if said Corey did but stir her feet, they were afflicted in their feet, and stamped fearfully. The afflicted persons asked her why she did not go to the company of witches which were before the meeting house mustering. Did she not hear the drum beat? They accused her of having familiarity with the Devil, in the time of examination, in the shape of a black man whispering in her ear; they affirmed that her yellow bird sucked betwixt her fingers in the assembly; and, order being given to see if there were any sign, the, girl that saw it said it was too late now; she had removed a pin, and put it on her head, which was found there sticking upright. ... she denied all that was charged upon her, and said they could not prove her a witch. She was that afternoon committed to Salem prison; and after she was in custody, she did not so appear to them and afflict them as before." References:
Lawson, Deodat, A Brief and True Narrative of Some Remarkable Passages Relating to Sundry Persons Afflicted by Witchcraft at Salem Village(1692) [reprinted in Commager, Henry Steele, The Heritage of America (1949)]; Starkey, Marion, The Devil in Massachusetts (1989); Trask, Richard, "The Devil Hath Been Risen" (1997).
Destiny Aliano
Dena Alsurakhi
Marin Malki Witchcraft What is Witchcraft? Maleficium Witchcraft. Explain the early legal concepts of witchcraft. Since the beginning of the Catholic Church, the concepts of witchcraft have always been illegal, taking in the concepts of the grand inquisition and the Salem witch trials (although Salem was a puritan town). Witchcraft would have been deemed casting hexes, making curses, or the result of a jealous neighbor. Witchcraft was usually punishable by burning at the stake. Which type of person was most likely considered to be a witch? The types of people that were most likely to be considered a witch in Salem, MA in 1692 were those that were outcasts (strange, retarded, handicapped, deformed), non-practicing Christians, those that others envied due to wealth or looks.
How did property ownership contribute to accusations of witchcraft? Property ownership influenced the greed of others who desired that certain property.
Woman living alone were usually targeted because others (especially men) thought women shouldn’t be able to manage their own lives.
During the 1600s, it was rare for women to manage property and money.
The belief was that women needed men to survive. People would assume that since the woman was living alone, she had to get help from some source and that source was believed to be an evil spirit.
People who accused others of witchcraft believed the land of the supposed witch was cursed and feared to go near or on it. Explain ergotism and its relation to the unusual behaviors displayed by those possessed. Ergotism is a form of fungal poisoning caused by the ingestion of the ergot fungus.
Ergot is a fungal disease of rye grass.
It transforms the grain into enlarged, hard, dark spur-like structures.
Ergot grows best in damp conditions and infects foods such as porridge and bread made from this grain.
Ergot contains similar chemicals found in the synthetic drug LSD.
Those infected with ergotism usually experience violent muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions, hallucinations, and crawling sensations on the skin.
Those who are believed to be possessed experience a change in social behavior, sleep disturbances, personality changes, aggressive behavior, and amnesia. Explain how stress and clinical hysteria could account for some of the unusual behaviors observed. Hysteria is a behavior which exhibits excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.
The symptoms of hysteria include excessive weeping, silent states followed by violent screams, hiding under furniture, and hallucinations.
Often times, hysterics try to injure themselves in any way possible but not to the point of serious harm. Those who have a huge guilt within them experience hysteria.
During the Salem Witch trials, it is believed that the three girls were involved in a fortune-telling event, which was an act that was forbidden at the time.
Unable to cope with their crime, the girls feared that they would be discovered.
The paranoia bothered the girls so much that they started to exhibit unusual violent behaviors. Maleficium witchcraft is fictitious. It is based on the crazy, demented and distorted beliefs of those who felt that witchcraft was evil and the work of the devil. It comes from the 1486 document Malleus Maleficarum (the 'Hammer against the Witches'), used to torture and murder the innocent. There has been a great, growing interest in Wicca throughout the world. Wicca is another name for the practice of witchcraft. Black spells and white spells are the two main forms of modern day witchcraft magic. Black spells enlist dark and seductive methods of intrusion and mind control, tactics that evoke emotions and thoughts of; lust, greed, envy and much more. White spells enlist colorful and admirable methods of intrusion and mind control, tactics that evoke emotions and thoughts of; compulsion, infatuation, conceit and much more. The key to modern day witchcraft is making the victim believe that the “curse” is actually real. Modern day witches do not fly on brooms or cast spells. They channel their energy and connect to nature, instead. In what forms does witchcraft
exist today? Depending on the area where they live, modern day witches are treated like normal human beings. There are towns made up of pagans alone. But, there are certain places that are against witches completely. As of 2009, over 50 people (aged between 60 to 100 years old) in Kenya were burned alive for practicing witchcraft. How are modern day witche
treated? Theological Witchcraft https://prezi.com/g_w1wsqdojcf/witchcraft/
The bounty of the earth is celebrated in the high rituals of pagans. (Above) A Wiccan priestess is silhouetted by the afternoon light. In the foreground are examples of Wiccan cooking for the vernal equinox: (clockwise from near right) beet-pickled eggs; roast beef in tarragon; bowl of eggs boiled with onion skin wrap; bread with eggs; Ukrainian painted eggs; and apple crumble.
Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images
What do witches eat? If you're thinking of blood and feathers and cauldrons bubbling with eye of newt and toe of frog, you couldn't be more off-menu.
The correct, and disappointingly dull, answer is pizza, bread, fruit, nuts, granola bars, Cornish hens, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks coffee, leg of lamb, beer, cheese, Merlot, frozen cheesecake and other supermarket comestibles.
The banal diet of the neighborhood witch is one of several stereotype-busting nuggets to be found in Alex Mar's book Witches of America, an immersive first-person study of paganism in the U.S. Her book was preceded by a documentary called American Mystic.In the course of describing how and why Americans from different backgrounds and belief systems are drawn to the occult, Mar also reveals how food is used in the rites of contemporary witchcraft.
As part of a quest that fused spiritual self-inquiry with anthropological research, Mar, who describes herself as "an over-educated liberal New Yorker," dove deep into pagan communities in San Francisco, Illinois, New England and New Orleans. Keen to find out if "even a piece of me skews magical," she attended mega witch conventions, participated in exorcism exercises and dance revels, attended a Gnostic mass and a workshop on poisonous herbs, offered gumdrops to Santa Muerte (the popular Mexican folk saint of Death, who is known for her sweet tooth) and even trained briefly in witchcraft.
But she is candid enough to admit that when she started on this fascinating and unpredictable journey into the occult, she nursed similar prejudices about food and witchcraft.
"I'm half-Cuban, half-Greek from New York, and Greek cuisine includes octopus, tripe and sea urchin. So I'm quite used to foods that many would consider squeamish," she told me. "But I still had the notion that witchcraft was performed with very repulsive ingredients. Somewhere in my subconscious, probably from the Brothers Grimm, magic is performed using raw animal parts and human blood. And yes, folk magic in some parts of the world does use animal parts and animal blood, but when it comes to everyday food, what witches eat is no different from what others eat."
She discovered this early on in her research. One of the first witches Mar met was "Morpheus," a skinny, redheaded pagan priestess in baggy jeans who welcomed her to her trailer in the Bay Area with "a pan of premade enchiladas." Soon, Mar watched as carloads of witches drove up to an autumn equinox gathering at Stone City in the Bay Area (the hub of American paganism) armed with picnic gear — "baggies of herbs," coolers, and "brown paper bags crammed with discount groceries."
Witches of America is full of modern-day Wiccans and witches who Skype, drive pickups and drop off their kids at school. And though Mar did meet a young necromancer who "harvests" heads from a New Orleans graveyard, he is clearly an outlier.
Many witches keep their magic lives quiet and prefer to remain in the "broom closet," coming out only to friends and fellow believers. Morpheus, for instance, is the alias used throughout the book for a woman whose day job is with the federal government. But she is also a respected Bay Area priestess who sings to the moon, and who dragged crushingly heavy stones down dirt roads to build a henge to The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of war.
Since paganism has deep pre-Christian roots in nature worship and the harvest cycles, the bounty of the earth is celebrated in its high rituals.
At the very first pagan ritual Mar attended, Morpheus, dressed in fitted black velvet, presided as priestess at her self-built henge. Mar had watched her bake a bread sculpture of a sun god, lay it out on a dish and place "a dry ear of corn between his dough-legs" for a phallus. The figure was carried up the hill and laid out surrounded by pomegranates and apples, symbolizing the fertility of the earth.Later, Mar watched Morpheus take two jars filled with cream and dark ale, the favorite foods of The Morrigan, and pour them out as offerings.
Today, the term "witch" is used to describe the nearly 1 million Americans who practice paganism. Once used as a derogatory term, the word "pagan" has been reclaimed and is used as a giant catchall, says Mar, "for people who practice a nature-worshipping and polytheistic religion, which has its own rites and rituals, just as any other religion has."
"One of the things that impressed me was how practical pagans are," says Mar. "If you could get an ingredient for a spell at a discount store, that was fine. It was better to be serious about your practice than spend the whole weekend going into the woods looking for an herb that can be found in the produce section of Whole Foods."
Where food has a starring — and endearing — role to play is at Samhain (pronouncedSAH-win), the major pagan holiday, which coincides with Halloween. Pagans believe that at this time of the year (from late October into early November), the veil between the worlds of the living and dead is thinnest, and therefore the best time to commune with one's dead ancestors and loved ones. And what better way than to break bread with them?
"At these Samhain gatherings, many witches will dance and drink and eat the things the person they are remembering enjoyed," says Mar. "The belief is that you can channel physical pleasure to the dead person, you can invite them to come closer and taste their favorite foods for that one night. If, say, you had an aunt who was partial to cherry pie, you would leave one out for her. Some witches drink whisky for the deceased who loved a good whisky. I find this aspect of the pagan community very moving — the fact that foods you consider everyday can be made into an offering, not just the ceremonial foods like a chalice of red wine sanctified by the church."
Perhaps the one area where popular fairy-tale notions of food and witchcraft match the reality is in the casting of spells, something Mar learnt firsthand. Finding herself in the coils of boyfriend trouble, she asked Morpheus, by then a friend, for a "binding spell" to protect her boyfriend from the "emotional voodoo" of his former lover.
Morpheus emailed back with a Freezer Spell that involved buying a cow's tongue from the butcher, slitting it open, inserting something representative of the ex-lover, like a photograph, and writing out what Mar wanted to do to her. Then, instructed Morpheus, dress the photograph with "any mixture of these things: mustard (for disruption), red and black pepper (to make ill words burn in her mouth), cloves or slippery elm bark (against malicious talk), and the most important one, alum, to stop her tongue." Finally, sew or pin up the tongue, wrap it in foil and stick it in the freezer.
And so Mar drew up her shopping list. But that's about as far as she went. "I was a little bit self-conscious about it," she says. "Sewing up a cow's tongue and chanting over it was too dramatic, and I hesitated."
Witches make up and wearing dresses
Research learning and inspirations
What I learned about this research is many things which about my aim chatterers such as ;
Research learning and inspirations
What I learned about this research is many things which such as ;
Where does this character come from; This character come from different way in the history and from different definitions.Some part of the history says that witches come from religions and say that it was a (believes) in the ancient time. In during the history They have been in different culture and different part of world. In the moderns country they become as a character for people and most of people knows that as a fantasy things.They In the classic culture and countries that has more historical culture like countries in Africa like Ghana , Egypt or south Americas countries like Bolivia or Asian countries like India and China they are more witnesses and more is families to people to be witches be involving in their daily life as a thing that does not exit by the real life it could be by the specific persons and specific peoples. This character become more famous and appears characteristic in the (15 and 16) centuries as a in during the western industries revolutions by different authors. This believe and idea more come from Christianity to the society as an god or bad character as we know today this as a witches or a wizards. In other religion like(Joeism and Islam) there are examples in the their spirit books.What I knew about this before the this research was something like general characters of magics producer.
What have got inspirations to complete my work place ? I got many inspirations from this charterer and its wearing.I had two researches a primary and a secondary researches. With this researches: I could learn how should represent my character with destining. I mean I realize to how is expectations from my character by a visitor. I recocnised how is related my character behavior as a witches by its design. I am got inspiration from every specific part of my charterer fantasy design such as ( its Hat,Hair,clothes,suites,coats, coloury sucks,clothes designs,shoes,witches scarf, also withes colour design for clothes and specially its make up) I learned how to make an atomsfear for my work and character to exhibition to my work to people as much as it is giving familiar and interesting feeling to the viewer. Also I got inspiration to design a appropriate background with my character make compositions between them . For this project I would like
to use Photoshop tools which I have already worked with them.
Fortuna, Fortunata
Elora
Elora
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