| WITCHCRAFT (WICCA) History of Witchcraft Historically, the name Witchcraft has been used to refer to two unrelated and often mutually exclusive religions: - Wicca, the revival of a pre-Christian religion of Northern Europe, and - Satanism, the worship of the Christian devil, Satan. The roots of this confusion can be traced back to Europe during the Witch burning times of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Wiccans were accused of worshipping Satan and selling their soul to him. This false belief continues today, and is still being actively promoted by some Christians. This paper will deal with the religion of Wicca only. It is unrelated to Sata11ism. Wicca, is a reconstruction of an ancient Pagan religion of Northern Europe which pre-dates the Christian era. It can be directly traced back to the writings of: - Margaret Murray who authored The Witch Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches . These books promoted the concept that some of the Witches who were exterminated by the Inquisition (circa 1450-1792) were remnants of an earlier, organized, and dominant pre-Christian religion in Europe. - Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant, who: - joined a Wiccan Coven in 1939, taking the (then) usual vows of secrecy - persuaded the coven to let him write a book in 1949 about Wicca in the form of a novel, �High Magic's Aid�. He carefully revealed a few of the Old Religion's beliefs and the historical persecutions that they endured - wrote Witchcraft Today in 1954 in which he described additional details about the faith - wrote The Meaning of Witchcraft which described in detail the history of Wicca in Northern Europe. According to Gardner, Wicca: - began in prehistory, as ritual associated with fire, the hunt, animal fertility, plant propagation, tribal fertility and the curing of disease, - developed into a religion which recognized a Supreme Deity, but realized that at their state of evolution, they "were incapable of understanding 1tll , Instead, they worshipped what might be termed "under-Gods: the Goddess of fertility and her horned consort, the God of the hunt. - continued their predominately Moon based worship, even as a mainly Sun-based faith of priests, the Druids, developed and evolved into the dominant religion of the Celts. By this time, Celtic society had gradually spread across Northern Europe into what is now England, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland etc. They never formed a single political entity, but remained as many tribes who shared a common culture and religions. - survived the Roman, Saxon, and Norman invasions by going underground - suffered major loss in numbers during the active Christian genocides, which continued into the 18th Century - reached a low ebb by the middle of the 20th century. Much of the theology and ritual had been lost; Wiccan covens had become so isolated that they had lost contact with each other . Relationship between Witchcraft and Christianity The first missionary to the Celts was probably St. Paul. His conversion of the Celtic land of Galatia is recorded in his Epistle to the Galatians of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). Later Missionaries and the Roman army gradually spread Christianity across Europe, easily converting the rulers and the Druidic priesthood, but having less success in bringing the common folk to the new religion. Much of Christianity was derived from Wicca, Druidism and other Pagan sources; this includes the sites of many cathedrals, the lives of many Christian saints (who were really pagan Goddesses and Gods), and many Christian holy days. There are many vestiges of Paganism which remain a part of our culture; e.g. Groundhog Day, Christmas, May Day, Halloween, the names of the days of the weeks and months of the year, common sayings, numerous traditions associated with holidays, etc. In order to gain a complete religious monopoly, the Christian Church decided during the 15th century to hunt down and burn believers in the Old Religion. The Church created an imaginary wicked religion, and said that Wiccans were evil Witches who followed that religion, sold their sold to Satan, etc. Hundreds of thousands of suspected witches were exterminated during these "burning times" which lasted until 1792 in Europe and into the 1830's in South America. The Roman Catholic church burned witches; the Protestant churches hung them. Wiccans went underground, and stayed out of sight until the middle of the 20th century. Wicca emerged from the shadows in England in the 1950's with the publishing of books by Gerald Gardner. It has expanded at a furious rate in North America and Europe. They total about 200,000 in North America, where they have overtaken such established religions as Buddhism, the Quakers, and Unitarian-Universalism. The Canadian Census of 1991 recorded 5,530 Neo-Pagans, which would be mostly composed of Wiccans. However, the actual number is believed to be much greater, as many Wiccans are known to lie to the census taker rather than expose themselves to physical harm in the event that their faith became publicly known. Wicca is the only religious group of significant size whose members are persecuted in North America. Many Assaults, arson, economic attacks are reported yearly" There have even been shootings and one public stoning! The perpetrators of this religious hatred are usually very devout, very concerned but terribly misinformed people. They believe the misinformation that has been spread about Wiccans continuously since the Middle Ages. It is only in Eastern Massachusetts, Southern California and in a few cities in North America that most Wiccans feel secure while coming out of the (broom) closet. Wiccan Beliefs Their beliefs include: - Wiccan Deities: Most Wiccans believe that a creative force exists in the universe, which is sometimes called �The One" or " The All". Little can be known of this force. They regard the Goddess and the God as representing the female and male aspects of the All. Most regard various pagan Gods and Goddesses (Pan, Athena, Diana, Brigit, Zeus, Odin, etc) as representing various aspects of the God and Goddess. - Respect for Nature: Wicca is a natural religion, grounded in the earth. All living things (including stars, planets, humans, animals, plants, rocks) are regarded as having spirit. - Gender Equality: Wiccans celebrate the sexual polarity of nature: the fertilizing rain is one manifestation of the male principle; the nurturing earth symbolizes the female. Females are respected as equal (and sometimes at a slightly higher rank) to males. They aim for a female-male balance in most of their covens (groups), although men are typically in the minority. Sexuality is valued, and regarded as a gift of the Goddess and God, to be engaged in with joy and responsibility. - Three-fold Law The law states that: |
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