Response 3
Wicca, Witch, Witchcraft
By Erina Ibrahim special to The Suburban October 12, 2017
Do Witches still suffers from the prejudices and stereotypes?
Among many Contemporary Pagan movements, Wicca is the best-known movements and practiced until now. Wicca is considered the modernisation of the Old Religion according to its followers. The practitioner of this religion is called wiccan. Wiccans believes that the religion began in prehistory. Wicca is a recognized religion although it's acceptance by the society and law is still unclear because of witchcraft.
Wiccans or also called Witches. The rumor of witches being evil and worshipping Satan is entirely false. Wiccans believe in either one bi-gendered god or tow gods: one god and
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Samhain is one of the biggest festival for Wiccans. It is a time to remember those who have passed away. So, what is the significance of Samhain for a Wiccan? Samhain meaning “summer’s end” is the beginning of new year. At this time, the dead ancestors were believed to be back to earth for certain period of time.
But is it same the celebration of Samhain and Halloween? The answer is Halloween and Samhain are not the same. These are completely two separate holidays which differs majorly in practice wise. Halloween is rather a folk holiday. People celebrate Halloween by dressing up in frightening costumes or disguises. On the contrary, Wiccans celebrate Samhain which is the festival of dead. It is more focused religiously and spiritually to honour the dead. For Wiccans Samhain is a serious religious observance which is celebrated in private than publicly as Halloween.
As Schultz depicted in her article “History and Effects of Witchcraft Prejudice and Intolerance on Early Modern Women”, female witches were considered more vulnerable and threat to the society. As this has been increasingly spread throughout the history, woman witches never had anything to do with Satanic activities or so. In Wicca, the concept of Devil and demonic activities were never present. Thus, the misconceptions created throughout the years are all
What images come to mind when you think of witches? Many people immediately imagine a black pointy hat, bubbling cauldron, green warty skin, and Halloween. Usually the image that comes to mind is something scary and evil. Real witches do exist. Most modern witches go by the label Wiccan now. Wiccans practice Wicca, which is a nature-based religion with many different branches or denominations. The basic tenant of all Wicca is called the Three Fold Law. The Three Fold Law states that whatever you do will come back to you times three, good or bad, so do not cause harm or, in other words, “harm none”. It is kind of like the concept of karma in one lifetime. There is debate over how old the religion actually is with some saying that it is an ancient religion that pre-dates Christianity and some saying it is more modern, starting in the 1950’s with Gerald Gardener. Regardless of how old the religion is, Hollywood’s portrayal of witches often does have some kernel of truth, albeit sometimes it is hard to find.
Witchcraft was anything considered as “the act of invoking spiritual powers to accomplish a supernatural task", such as telling the future (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). However what defined a witch soon became ambiguous; people would accuse someone of witchcraft if said person was talking to themselves or had the witch’s mark, which was often just a mole (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Witches were severely feared because they were thought to be serviceable to the devil. Puritans believed the devil had supernatural powers similar to those of God’s and he would use his powers for selfish sadistic intentions. Puritans believed Satan was active and walking among the earth, and he would attempt to recruit witches to serve him. Puritans were petrified of this possibility because Satan can only be constantly looking to wreak havoc (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Soon people commenced witch hunts and accused witches and wizards were incarcerated and put on
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
Associations were made between witchcraft and mental weakness, a person had to be mentally weak to become to the devil or willing to let him in. Both of these ideas were more closely enforced with women, continuously seen throughout the Malleus Maleficaium, which was hinged on the idea of female mental frailty, they were presented as a more popular contender for an allegiance with the devil as their weakness made them easier to approach. As an immensely influential text during the early modern period Malleus Maleficaium can be seen to provide a general idea of society’s view on witches. Malleus Maleficaium provides three reasons as to why women are more susceptible to the devil; their female traits make them ‘naturally more impressionable’ and convert other women in the neighbourhood. The description of women as the ‘fragile female sex’ shows the link between women and vulnerability, whilst both men and women could be seen to be weak, it was primarily a female fault. The idea of women’s susceptibility to sin and her need for guidance was reinforced by society. Tales of women’s wrongs were passed down, beginning with Eve’s original sin, women inherited a unstable nature that could easily fall prey. Pierre de Lancre, a French magistrate during the witch hunts, explained the larger number of female witches by referring to the primarily female names for witches which had been used throughout history, such as fate and nimphe. Similarly the Bible contains many negative examples of female witches such as the Witch of Endor, enforcing the idea of women’s need for guidance to remain on the right path, the idea of the deceptive women was established throughout history and society’s ideas on women made them more likely candidates for witchcraft. The mythology surrounding witchcraft could be
From the medieval times to these modern ages, the Wicca religion is still confused with the unmoral religion of Satanism. The Wicca religion has been around for many centuries. The Christian religion has harmed Wicca’s reputation by spreading fear that Wicca is an evil religion; no better than the worshipping of Lucifer. From the witch burnings in the medieval period till now, Wicca has been classified as part of Satanism. Common witch lore and costumes around the time of All Hallows Eve depict witches as evil beings, doing unspeakable things with malicious intent. This is a very common occurrence and is unfair to all that practice the ancient religion. Granted, uneducated people could easily place Wicca in the same category as Satanism; however, these two religions are completely different from each other and Wicca is obviously the better of the two.
...en accused on the premise of being heretics or using healing magic (cite, cite). Furthermore, women who were brought to court on allegations of witchcraft in Europe in the early modern times are often of low social-economic status, in contrast to men who are oftentimes of superior social-economic status. This is because men are often victimized in order to bring about financial gain through the confiscation of their property. Witchcraft in early modern Europe can definitely be regarded as sex-related, but was by no means sex-specific (Larner, 2002).
She also represents death, which is necessary for rebirth. The Wiccan God is a horned God, and the sun is his symbol. He is also the lord of the underworld who tends souls until they are reborn (Sabin, 2011, p 235). Wiccans pray to the Goddess and God (Sabin, 2011, p233). These Gods created witches for the soul purpose to help heal.
The controversies that surround Wicca start with its exact origin. There are some who believe that it has its origins in Witchcraft due to the similarities between the two. Witchcraft itself is a Pagan practice [polytheistic and non-Christian, Muslim and Jewish in origin] that began with the Celts around 700 B.C. As the movie The Burning Times depicts, the region during this time period was primarily a rural culture so the Celtic traditions were based completely on Nature. Their months were even named after trees and their festivals revolved around the solstices and equinoxes (Steiger). A polytheistic religion, they worshiped a host of female and male deities and are most notably associated with the concept of Goddess worship, a strong belief in the divinity of the female (Burning Times). These paganistic beliefs and rituals gradually over the centuries combined with other European religious practices, such as magic, potions, and ointments for healing, to form what we call in modern times Witchcraft. Groups who did not hav...
In this essay I will discuss the role of gender in witchcraft and why the majority of people executed as witches were women. There have been various explanations by different historians for why the majority of witches accused were women. One of the first models concerning Witchcraft and gender to be produced was the ‘Witch-cult‘ idea. This theory was devised by Margaret Murray in the early 20th century and revolved around the idea of Witchcraft being an actual pre-Christian religion. This pagan woman-based religion centred around ‘The Horned God’ who from the Christian point of view was Satan.
While pre-modern texts seem to claim that witches are always evil, modern texts offer a different possibility. Modern texts such as The Status of Witchcraft in the Modern World, and Witches, Not What You’d Expect, claim that witches aren’t always in it for personal gain, or even for the wrong reasons. Some may choose witchcraft to form a deeper connection with the world around them, while others may practice it as a religion such as Wicca. This is important in relation to my definition due to the claim that not all witches are trying to carry out evil at the hands of the
Beginning in the Middle Ages and through the seventeenth centuries, an infiltration of witchcraft persevered throughout Europe. The witch craze resulted in the torture and persecution of witches. More than 100,000 of witches who were tried were centered in the area of southwestern Europe. The mass hysteria of witches was denounced because of their rejection of God and their pact with the devil, which resulted in harsh punishments and accusations. One reason for the persecution of witches was they were thought to be the cause of bad harvests, epidemics, natural disasters, and personal tragedies. Witches also had a part in the religious aspect of Europe. The witches were persecuted because of the lack of a main religion, which was significant to life during the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. At this time of the witch phenomena, Europe was in a state of instability and people in Europe looked to benefit from the persecution of witches in the form of goods and money. The persecution of individuals as witches in Europe was mainly a repercussion of economic circumstances, strong religious beliefs, and prejudices of the people.
Women are viewed as very naïve and impressionable because they are influenced much easier and therefore they are more likely to become involved with the devil. Women were “more credulous, and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather attacks them”(120). Women being credulous and naïve makes it easier for the devil to entice them into witchery. They were also much more impressionable making them prime targets for “disembodied spirits” to influence them and cause wickedness (120). The spirits referred to are those of evil and without faith, and since women were more vulnerable they would be more likely to abandon faith and be inclined to follow the devil. Sprenger and Kramer state that a “wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith, which is the root of witchcraft” (121). This further shows how much more likely it would be for women to become witches since the naivety and impressionability of women is what would cause the quickness to waver and abjure faith.
Witchcraft was relentlessly thought as the work of the devil with only sinful and immoral intentions. Julio Caro Baroja explains in his book on Basque witchcraft that women who were out casted from society and unable to fulfill their womanly duties became witches as a way to compensate for her failed life. They were thought to be a threat to society as they dwindled in evil magic. This misunderstanding may have originated from the literary works of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, in their published book, “Malleus Maleficarum”. Accusations of being adulterous, liars and dealing with the devil materialized because of the...
For many centuries to the present day, Christians have lived in fear of witches. They were known as to be the devils child who only practiced black magic and thought of as the Christians “persecution”. Witches have been known to mankind since the 1200’s. Throughout the 1400’s, the examination of witches was more focus and moved from the Jews. In the church’s law, it was stated that the belief of existence and practices of witchcraft was “heresy”. Because of what the Christians believed, churches would then torture and hunt down anyone who they thought were witches and killed the many women and only a few of the men. They even made them make the confession of flying through the midnight sky, being in love with the devil himself, practicing black magic and even turning into animals.
...se, destroy and threaten the survival of the Christian world. However, the threats to the Church were economic and sociopolitical and not witchcraft. The Church was struggling with internal conflicts, rebellions, social changes as a result of the breakdown of the feudal system and they were reflected in terms of religious dissatisfaction that demanded religious reform. These threats were treated as heresy rather than political dissent and its response was to frame the motives and practices of heretics in terms of satanism. Witchcraft threatened Christianity because it provided an alternative values system compared to the established patriarchal institutions and questioned male power. Witch beliefs represented the inverse of the positive values in medieval patriarchal society and the stereotype of the witch is the negative standard for women.