The Wonderful World of Wicca
Before there was more than a rudimentary written language, there was a belief "in a multitude of gods" (Buckland 1). These spirits were connected to the world around us and given physical representations, most often as animals, but also parts of the natural terrain, such as streams and the wind blowing through the trees. The origins of Wicca have been traced as far back as 25,000 years ago to the Paleolithic era by the late Dr. Margaret Murray (Buckland 1). A popular and widely published NeoPagan, Starhawk, is quoted in Dennis Carpenter's Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft as saying "the Goddess religion is unimaginably old" (48).
Of course, most people are at least vaguely aware that Wicca, or Witchcraft, was nearly destroyed as a religion by persecution of individuals suspected, rightly or wrongly, of being a witch during what is commonly referred to among Wiccans as the "Burning Times." The Salem witch trials come to mind as the most infamous era in witchcraft. It was during these years that witchcraft went into hiding. Until this time, Witchcraft was "a purely oral tradition. It was not until the persecutions, …with the loss of intercommunication, that anything was put into writing" (Buckland 7).
Laws against Witchcraft existed until England, in 1951, repealed the last laws against it. Then, in 1954, Dr. Gerald Gardner proclaimed himself a Witch with this statement in his book Witchcraft Today: "Witchcraft was a religion and in fact it still is. I know, because I am a Witch myself" (Buckland 6). Gardner soon learned of many other witches practicing underground throughout Europe.
Today, Wicca, although not widely accepted, is not feared and hated as it once was. In fact, Peter A. Clayton remarks that "Paganism . . . is making a comeback [through the media bringing it to our attention]" (par 1), and Charles Colson reinforces Clayton with the statement that "Given the nature of media coverage . . . the emphasis on New Age practices . . . is calculated. After all, editors read polls, too" (par 6). These statements support the fact that Americans are getting what they want and "while 97 percent of Americans believe in God," says Pollster George Barna, "only 67 percent believe in an 'all powerful … Creator … who rules today'" (qtd.
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.
Witches were also mentioned in the bible in multiple places. In Hebrews, Exodus 22:18, one reads, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide) This basically translates to, “any women practicing dark arts or unnatural powers should be put to death.” Again in the bible, witchcrafts is mentioned “when the prophet Samuel admonishes King Saul of the Israelites, for seeking aid of the Witch of Endor” (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide). Then God punishes King Saul for this sin by killing him and his sons and allowing the Philistines, Israel’s enemy, to destroy his army (The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference
Legally, the idea of accusing witches disappeared worldwide because there is not enough factual evidence to prove that someone is a witch in a courtroom. Many of the people executed during the witch hunt names were reversed in the eyes of the church in light of this idea (Document 94). The belief in witchcraft and witches still continued, and in 1787 a woman was killed for suspected witchcraft in Philadelphia (Godbeer 30).
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…………………….
One of Magliocco's main arguments is that these Neo-Pagan cults all have roots in both anthropology and folklore in their early development. Magliocco offers a detailed historical analysis and examines influences found all the way back to classical traditions. She concludes this analysis by bringing her reader back to the contemporary and offers us insight into how both the fields of anthropology and folklore have helped shape Neo-Paganism into what it has become today.
Wicca is an old religion, having begun “more than thirty-five thousand years ago” as stated by Starhawk, a Wiccan (qtd in Allen 18). Even though it had started long before him and many events involving witchcraft had happened, research has shown that a man named Gerald Gardner was the one who brought the religion of Wicca to the public eye in the 1950s (Allen 19). Gardner said it was thought to be the pre-Christian religion of Europe called the “old religion” (Adler 637). ...
It starts out with some kind of cosmic force from darkness. When I watched the video “Wiccan Creation”, I realized that many religions start off with the creation in darkness and then there is that spirit or force that ignites. “The world was in darkness and from this nothingness, a spirit created our lady. The lady dance and give birth to the stars and planets and with her joy and love she created trees and flowers (“Wiccan Creation, 2011). The Wicca’s creation story does not stop there. The spirit created the Lord for the lady’s soulmate. The lord is half spirit and half animal and together with the lady they will populate the planet (“Wiccan Creation, 2011). In other stories of Wicca’s creation, they called the lady and lord the Goddess and God. The Wiccan Goddess is the mother of all things, the moon is the symbol of the Goddess. She also represents death in 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 witches were taught to communicate with spirits and to communicate with the energies such as earth, air, fire, water and spirit (“Wiccan
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...
Wicca, commonly known as the “Craft” or “Old Ways” is an expression used to describe various traditions of contemporary Paganism, an earth-centered religion that shows a substantial amount of respect for nature; celebrating the changes in the season and lunar cycles (Mankiller, Wicca); As stated by Morrison Wicca celebrates, “the beauty of the moon, the stars, and the sun (5)”; and the worshipping of the deities (Morrison, 2001). Those who follow the path of Wicca are usually referred to as “Witches” or “Wiccans” derived from the Anglo-Saxon term wicce, which can be translated as “Sorceress” or “Wise One” (Morrison, 2001), they are nothing like the witches seen in modern media (Mankiller, Wicca). Throughout History Wicca has been depicted as a Satanist related religion, leading to mass persecution of those who adhere to its principles (as seen in the Salem Witch Trials); few truly fathom the Wiccan faith. The real truth about Wicca is that, it is a religion centered on the theology of the deities in form of the Patron Goddess and God, it is a matriarchal religion, with varying traditions and religious branches, that doesn’t believe in predestination, and has basic tenets that must be followed.
The Salem witch trials was a very big thing back in the 1600’s. At that time Puritans believed in witchcraft and that the devil could conjure your spirit. They were scared of these things happening in their village so they would do anything to prevent it from happening,. This included killing anyone suspected to be with the devil or to be a witch. It turned out to be a big problem when a group of girls were supposedly seeing spirits sent out at them and the devil would come to them telling them to sign his book.
In Jw.org it states that thousands of people in European colonies died and millions of others suffered from torture, arrest, interrogation, hate, guilt, or fear. Also there was well over seventy percent of the people accused of witchcraft was women especially the poor, and or elderly. Therefore no one was safe not even the men, rich or poor. In the case of being accused of being a witch it state that if you are going to be blessed which means to be thrown into deep water that if you were to float then you were to be hanged on the spot but if you sunk then you were deemed as innocent so you do not get hung you get pulled out. Also another way to be deemed as a witch is to look for the devils mark which consist of a complete inspection of the body. Therefore modern day witchcraft did exist all over the world and thousands of people were accused of witchcraft and thousands also lost their lives due to scapegoating.
By the reign of William III, there were becoming increasingly less cases of witch-hunting/trails and ultimate executions. The last recorded execution in England of an alleged witch is in 1682, though trials and accusations would still be brought alleged witches right up until the 1800’s both in England and on the continent in most cases /crown rule where witch-hunting/trials and executions took place, probably the most famous and certainly one of the most written about witching episodes is that of Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts.
First, Wicca, the formal organization of witchcraft, is a mystery religion. Each practitioner is considered a witch, and practitioner of The Craft, which contains several different beliefs concerning theology and divinity depending on an individual because of their freedom to study what they seek. Members may choose to be solitary, or part of a coven, which is a group of Wiccans that share beliefs and conduct rituals together. Though different groups of Wicca may differ in certain viewpoints, there are few unambiguous attributes of the religion. These explain that “deity is inspiring, and immanent; Humans are a part of nature; Divinity is manifested in all things and is the central part of nature; God and Goddess images are recognized as higher forms of divinity.” (Church and School of Wicca). The main rule that the Wiccans abide by is the Wiccan Rede, which preaches: “An ye harm none, do what ye will.” (Church and School of Wicca). Magic plays a huge part in the Wiccan religion, with spells, rituals, ceremonies, healings, and divination, etc., among the fundamental practices.
...ches and witchcraft have been passed down through generations to generations. From way back to the 1200’s to today in the present times, that is how long witches have been around. As of the history of witches and witchcraft, stories were used to keep the history alive inside the stories written in ancient mythology to Walt Disney’s movies. Check your family history. What and who were they. Were they witch hunters or were they a witch? There’s more to the story of Halloween or All Hallows Eve than meets the eye. What story or legend will come next?
...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.