Witchcraft Essay Research Paper This paper will

Witchcraft Essay, Research Paper

This paper will provide a general survey of witchcraft, past and present. The paper will also discuss contemporary witches, and how they practice their craft. It will also include the history and myths of werewolves.

Most experts agree that witchcraft represents “the old, pre-Christian, tribal religion of Europe” (Starhawk Truth or Dare 7). Although witchcraft is commonly associated with the use of magical spells and other anti-social behaviors, experts also agree that true witchcraft is actually nothing more than “a form of nature worship that has long been popular in alternative circles” (Catala 2). However, it is also acknowledged that there are two basic types of witches. According to the occult writer Marion Weinstein, witches may choose to follow either a negative or positive path in the practice of their craft. The negative path relates to the traditional stereotype of witches who use demons and magical spells in order to harm others and thereby manipulate reality for their own selfish gain. On the other hand, the positive path relates to the original practice of witchcraft which dates back to prehistoric times in European history. In this original form of witchcraft, the practitioners spend their time worshipping nature and goddesses as opposed to casting spells against others. According to Starhawk, a modern authority on witchcraft, magic powers can be raised for the purpose of changing consciousness and improving one’s spiritual life. Thus, in her own words: “Witchcraft is a mystery religion, based on ritual, on consciously structured collective experiences that allow us to encounter the immeasurable” (Truth or Dare 7). The positive form of witchcraft is based on ancient practices of nature worship in which rituals are used to align oneself with the cycles of nature. Thus, as noted by Starhawk, “witchcraft takes its teachings from nature, and reads inspiration in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the flight of birds, the slow growth of trees, and the cycles of the seasons” (Spiral Dance 2-3).

Witchcraft as it is known in modern times can be traced back to the pre-Christian beliefs of ancient Europe. In those days, the people were for the most part farmers who lived off the land. Those people generally worshipped the gods and goddesses who were associated with nature in the hope that such worship would help them to have successful harvests each year. During the 1920s, a British anthropologist named Margaret Murray conducted research into the origins of European witchcraft. Murray discovered a definite link between modern witchcraft and the pagan religious cults of ancient times. She noted that the goddess-worshipping aspects of ancient witchcraft predated such patriarchal, monotheistic religions as Judaism and Christianity. Thus, Murray concluded “that witchcraft had its primitive beginnings in Europe over 12,000 years ago during matriarchal times” (Weinstein 82).

The origin of the term “witch” can be traced to the Old English word “wicca,” which is in turn related to an Indo-European word meaning “to bend or shape” (Gadon 235). This refers to the witch’s interest in magically changing reality at will, as well as to the transformation in consciousness which occurs as a result of the rituals used in practicing the craft. The term witchcraft it translated to craft of the wise ones. In ancient and early medieval times, witches were generally accepted because the people believed that they served an important role in society as a whole. Thus, as noted by Starhawk, “healers, teachers, poets, and midwives, they were central figures in every community” (Spiral Dance 5). In the late medieval period, the practice of witchcraft in Europe was virtually wiped out by the Christian Church. During that time, witches and suspected witches were hunted down, tortured, and forced to confess to horrible deeds such as casting spells on their neighbors or having sex with the devil. During that period, it has been estimated that 9 million people, mostly women, were executed for the crime of witchcraft (Spiral Dance 5). In many cases, the accused witches were executed by being burned at the stake. This bloody persecution against witches continued in Europe for more than two centuries. The witch burnings which began in the late fifteenth century “reached their peak in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries” (Gadon 211). Although most of the accused witches during that time were women, there were some reports of eccentric men being rounded up and executed as well. By the late seventeenth century, the persecution of witches reached the level of hysteria. For example, in the British colony of Salem, Massachusetts, hundreds of accused witches, most of them actually innocent, were hunted down, tried, and executed. At its height, the witchcraft hysteria caused people to begin turning against any neighbors who were different from themselves.

The persecution of witches began in 1484, when Pope Innocent VIII issued his Summis Desiderantes, a papal bull “ordering a holy war for the extermination of all witches and magicians” (Tompkins 52). With the help of the Dominican theologians Heinrich Kramer and Johann Sprenger, Innocent VIII established a reign of terror known as the Inquisition. The primary goal of the Inquisition was to remove the perceived threat against the Christian Church which was posed by the nature-worshipping pra