| Many people perceive witchcraft to be evil. It is not evil, however it can become evil, depending on how the person controlling the magic decides to use it. The reason many people associate witchcraft with the devil and evil is because of the misconception that a witch had to make a pact with the devil which is not true at all. In the European Witch hunts and the Salem Witch trials, the word "witchcraft" was used to refer to harmful, or black, magic and the worship of the devil. The word "witch" comes from the word Wicca, an old English word that represents the male and female participants in an ancient pagan tradition that worships the Earth and the many gods that make up the Earth. The common meaning of witchcraft is the art of foretelling the future and the use of supernatural powers to do so and to perform spells to make their dreams come true. However, witchcraft is not just that, it is another name for the magical and mystical aspect of Wicca. In the Salem witch trials, 19 people were murdered only because 2 girls became sick and had a few enemies who they wanted to punish. Then when they saw what power they had and what they could do, they then expanded their accusations to more and more people, even distinguished people in the colony. None of these people practiced witchcraft, just got on the bad side of these two girls. Ironically though, it is believed that the cause of the two girls sickness was a spell done by them, gone wrong. These two girls lived out their lives and never were punished for their "witchcraft" but they sent 19 others, even a few of their friends who threatened to turn them into the jury and judges. These trials only lasted for less then a year before the judges realized that the girls were lying. In Europe, 200,000 to over 9 million were killed, the numbers vary depending on what source you use. Even the great military leader Joan of Arc came to her end by accusations of witchcraft. She did posses a supernatural power however, it was that of visions, not of witchcraft. She would see visions of people and then later meet them and she saw things happening then weeks later see the same thing happen. This could be considered either a gift or some sort of mental condition. These trials lasted for more than 700 years. The 1100's to 1800's are known by Wiccans and Pagans as the Burning times when over 9 million people were accused of witchcraft and most were burned, but others died in other barbaric ways. Once you were accused of witchcraft, you were pretty much dead, even if you were innocent. I say this because one way of "proving" if one was a witch or not was to throw the accused in the river and leave them there. If the accused drowned, they were innocent, however, if they rose to the top and were able to stay there, then they were "proven" to be a witch and they were later killed using one of many brutal techniques. There were many brutal ways of torture to make someone confess, although many only confessed to make the torture stop. One of these brutal ways is the rack. The accused was tied to a board by their ankles and wrists and rollers at either end of the board would pull the body in opposite directions until the accused confessed or every joint was dislocated. Another way was to tie the accused to the round side of a wheel, with his arms and legs stretched out across its spokes. The executioner then smashed the limbs with an iron bar. One of the most brutal ways was The Iron Maiden. The maiden looked like an iron coffin. There was a special button that caused her to open her doors and pull in her victim then shut the doors. Spikes lined the interior, however they were not long enough to kill outright. This caused a very slow and painful death. The worst part of all of this is that most of the people killed were innocent. They had simply made a neighbor mad or maybe not paid their taxes to their landlords. They also blamed people whose opinions differed than those of the state or if they had committed some sort of dishonorable act. Even some educated people, like those who specialized in herbs or medicine, were used as scapegoats. In any case, when something went wrong in the village or town, these people were blamed. This is one example of the fact that people don't want to take the blame for any of their own problems. They need to find someone else, someone virtually helpless, to blame it on. They gave these people the title of witches, giving any witch in the future a bad name. Granted, a few of these people may have actually been witches, or seers, like Joan of Arc. The fact of the matter is that over 9 million people are dead because people can't take responsibility for themselves or look to reason instead of superstition. |
| Persecution Of Witches By Delyn Trager |