When you decide that you may want to try taking the Wiccan and Pagan path, you should know a bit of some of your history.
Witchcraft has been traced back to at least 25,000 years ago. It has been traced as an unbroken line through to the present and as afully organized religion throughout the western portions of Europe long before the on-slaught of Christianity.
The Pagan men and women lived in peace and harmony with both nature and themselves. The Wicca (the "Wise Ones") became the doctors and councels of the villages. They cultivated the land and raised their families in a peaceful and prosperous environment.
When Christianity began thre was not an instant mass conversion that is often talked about. Christianity was a man made religion. It had not evolved the way Paganism had, over thousands of years, gradually and naturally. Ony the rulers, not whole countries adopted Christianity, and most times, only superficially.
Pope Gregory the Great DID make an attempt and was largely successful, at mass conversion. He thought that one way to convert the Pagans was to build the Christian churches on the temples of the Pagans, where the people were used to going to worship. He instructed the bishops to destroy any "idols" in the temples and sprinkle them with holy water to cleanse them. As successful and clever as he thought he was, Gregory wasn't aware of how smart the Pagans really were. When the Christian churches were being built the only people in the villages that could do the construction, were the Pagans. Whiles decorating the churches the Pagans cleverly incorporated figures of their own deities. They figured that if they had to go to worship in these churches, they could at least worchip their own Gods.
The Wiccans and Pagans became rivals of the church as it began to grow. And naturally, the Christians wanted to eliminate their rivals. The first, and largest attempt at this was the Christian claim that the Wiccans and Pagans were worshipping the Devil. The God of the Old Religon was a horned god. So was the Christian's Devil. By reasoning, then, the Christians believed that the Pagans were worshipping the Devil. This reasoning still exists today and continues to haunt the Pagans of today. Eventually all prinative tribes were labled as devil-worshippers because they worshipped a god other than the Christian God. It didin't matter to them that they were happy, good people that were often morally and ethically better people than he vast majority of Christians. Yet these people HAD to be converted.
The long running charge of Devil-worship, so often aimed at Witches. is absurd. The Devil is purely a Christian invention. There wasn't any mention of this Devil before the New Testament. The association of evil to Devil was due to an error in translation. The original Old TestamentHebrew HA-SATAN andthe New Testament Greek DIABOLOS mean "opponent" or "adversary". Not Satan or Devil. Remember that the idea of dividing Supreme Power into good and evil is the idea of an advanced civilazition. The Old Gods were "human" in the sense that they had a good side and a bad side. It was the idea if an all-good, all-loving deity which then required an antagonist. This idea was developed in Persia in the 12th century BCE. The idea was later picked up by the Christians.
During the time of the of the persecutions, Christianity was growing, the invention of the printing press took place. It wouldn't be any suprise then that most of the materials printed at the time came from a Christian perspective. A lot of propaganda against Wiccans and Pagans were printed. Much of it caused hysteria to the towns people and made the cry of Witch that much more knows.
As for Satanism? The Witches were called Devil worshippers, yet this is completely untrue. But with the function of the early chirch the people were willing to believe anything they were told because of it's harsh treatment towards the people.
These forms of Christian persecutions against non-believers led many to rebell against the church. Some if the Christians found that theu weren't bettered by praying to this God of theirs and decided to pray to his opposite instead. This was the beginnings of Satanism. It was a parody and a mockery of Christianity.
When the church discovered this rebelion, they logiced that Satanism was anti-Christian and Witchrcaft was anti-Christian. Therefore Witchcraft and Satanism were on and the same. This is another form of Christian reasoning that is firmly intact today.
Roughly about 9 MILLION people were burned, hung or tortured to death on charges of Witchcraft. Not all of these people were actually followers of Witchcraft. But this was the perfect time to off anyone whom they felt opposed the new Christian church and it's teachings, In the witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts it is somewhat questionable if all but two people, Bridget Bishop and Sarah Good, were involved in Witchcraft. (in New England and England, the punishment for Witchcraft was hanging. In Scotland and Continental Europe it was to be burned at the stake).
To many, these tales and deaths are years behind them, covering the pages of a dusty history books somewhere. But the truth is, the proverbial burnings are still taking place today...and the fire is growing. By knowing some of the history before you begin to seek out the Goddess and God, you know what you too are in for. These are the people that came before you and died in the name of Witchcraft. And there are people that die today in it's name as well.The Christian church and the fundamentalists would love to see modern day burnings. But as Witchcraft has been legally recognized since 1985 as a religion in the USA, we don't have to suffer these Burnings any more! Stand up for your rights as a Wiccan or Pagan and give thanks to those thay passed before you.
