We see her on every Halloween decoration
the wicked witch riding her broomstick, stirring her cauldron,
or simply showing her ugly face. Where does this legend come from?
We must go back too the kind and gentle people that once
inhabited the forests of central Europe.
The Wiccans
The Wiccans were very knowledgeable in the Healing Arts.
They knew how to mix herbs and the minerals of the Earth
to make medicines to cure many illnesses. They were highly
sought after by other peoples to cure their ills.
All was well until Christianity began to spread over Europe.
The Christians had the mistaken idea that sickness, pain
and suffering was a punishment from God for man's evil ways
and anyone that relieved the pain from a suffering person was
thus interfering with the will of God, and did "The Devil's Work".
The Christian priests especially hated the Wiccan priestesses
because their skills were so much better than theirs,
and they were so loved by the people. They began to make up
hideous crimes, and false accusations against these gentle women
to turn the people against them.
They tortured thousands of innocent people, made them confess
to those crimes, then hung or burned them at the stake.
These false accusations became an entrenched part of human
folklore, and some actually came to believe these terrible stories
as truth. Sllowly these evil teaching were dispelled.
The healing of the sick became acceptable again and the secret
knowledge kept hidden for so long was returned to mankind.
But the legend of The Wicked Witch still remained and became
part of the folklore of Halloween.
It is hard for us to believe today there could have been a time
when the healing of the sick was a crime, that a person could be
tortured and murdered for helping those in pain. But sadly such
ignorance once existed.
Let us pray it will never exist again.
~author unknown~
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