History of Witchcraft

From early times god and goddess magick was called upon to bless the fertility of the earth and the safety of farm crops and animals. Ritual dances were created to harness this energy, by leaping and jumping in the manner depicted in an ancient hymn dedicated to Zeus, which entreated him to leap for the well-being of the herds, crops, and communities of Crete.

Witchcraft has always been regarded as essentially feminine magick aligned with lunar energy, stemming from the days when it was women’s work to grow and harvest plants and herbs, while the men did the more manual labor and hunted.  Women learned how the potency of plants responded to the phases of the moon, the time of day or night, and the seasons of the year. They also learned to create  powerful and highly effective spells, perfumes, poisons, and potions to entice, destroy, manipulate, defeat, challenge, fascinate, and confuse. Because she possessed enigmatic knowledge and abstruse healing powers, the witch that is from rural areas in general began over time to be regarded as a threat to the very foundation of male dominance. <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P> </O:P>

In 1258 Pope Alexander IV issued the first Papal letter to empower the Inquisition to deal with witchcraft, but only when witchcraft was “manifestly savored on heresy.” In doing so, he laid the basis for the persecution of any woman who dared step out of line, especially those who were healers or possessed scientific knowledge that might be regarded as a threat to male supremacy. The Church was pretty intolerant of females who educated themselves, or embraced any other religious belief, such as paganism or witchcraft. 

The persecution of witches continued over the next 700 years, with hundreds of thousands killed in the name of religion. It is salutary to remember that most of these victims of religious piety were simply misunderstood wise women, healers, herbalists, and midwives, or were people of a different religious persuasion and those who owned their own properties, upon which the authorities cast a greedy eye.

The decline of witch-hunting came about not because witchcraft was stamped out, but because adverse public opinion made the “establishment” reconsider its actions and finally turned against witch-hunts for fear of losing the support of the masses.