WITCHES

When the Crusades failed, the Church and the nobility that had supported these wars found themselves in serious financial and political trouble. And they were confronted by upheavals and challenges to their authority throughout Europe. The so-called heresies of the twelve and thirteen hundreds, and the rebellions of serfs and peasants that stretched into the fourteen hundreds and beyond, threatened their power. And a tremendous amount of the wealth and the power had devolved into the hands of the women during the Crusades, because they were left to run everything from vast estates to small trades while the men were off at war.

Although most Witches already are aware of what I am going to say, it still begs to be stated for those who are unaware. Again I quote from Ms. Curott’s Book of Shadows

Another reason the persecutions took place was because of the development of the medical profession. Only men were allowed to be educated, and only men could be doctors. They usurped the role of the village herbalists and midwives, most of who were women, and made it illegal for them to practice. They wiped out their competition by force. It was a period of tremendous repression, and the misogyny of the culture had deep theological roots. The Church was actually responsible for the Plague—they were the ones that killed all the cats for being Witches’ familiars. And with the cats away, the rats sure played.
Entire villages were wiped out, even children. A terrible murderous madness swept over Europe. But, it wasn’t just the Church and the doctors. The nobility seized and consolidated their land holdings and forced the peasantry off of the land and into the growing cities, and government officials used the persecutions to enforce their control.

Those midwives Ms. Curott was referring to were often murdered just because they helped some poor woman bring a child into this world. With the death of the midwives, many poor women were left to their own devices for giving birth. Without the aid, skill, and succor of the midwives, the mother and child/children often died. What would those fundamentalist Christian anti-abortionist think of that bit of misogyny? John Dee [1527-1608], Astrologer Royal to Elizabeth I, often stated that “everything he ever learned of any value was learnt from the old women of the villages.” An honest, accomplished medieval man who was often ridiculed. Gee, could it have been because of his honesty?

I need to address Ms. Curott’s allusion to, “the misogyny of the culture had deep theological roots”. I believe that, among other things, much of this stems from the teachings of St. Paul. You know, the Jewish man and Roman citizen who used to kill Christians and then fell off his horse, had an epiphany, and became a self-castrated, woman-hating zealot. Ernest Renan (See the Catholic Encyclopedia) theorizes that St. Paul’s epiphany was actually a “cerebral commotion, a passing delirium”. St. Paul simply changed his persecutions from Christians to Pagans. He spent the rest of his life trying to abolish Goddess worship all over the Mediterranean regions. Just take a look at the Book of Acts. It is rife with vituperations against kindly Goddess worshiping peoples. There is no argument that St. Paul HATED WOMEN. All of the extant writings point to little else. Even my dearly departed, saintly mother, who was a church secretary for thirty years for a major Protestant denomination, viewed St. Paul as a misogynist. St. Paul must have felt it was his major life’s quest to “put women in their place”, i.e., silence them and strip them of all theological power—power that they enjoyed under the auspices of the Goddess which, of course, carried over into the secular. Even today there are shades still of this unspoken attempt at control. Almost every week in the missile there is some passage of the “word according to St. Paul”. Women are being silenced even while they are reading passages from the Bible. Here are some interesting passages from the Bible—ones which are not often referred to even in readings. You will see why these aren’t mentioned very often, except perhaps in the most diabolical of Christian churches. Note: The link was lost. You know, one of those “404 error” pages. I am investigating to see if I will be able to bring these quotes to you in the future. Thank you for your patience. One can only speculate on what happened to them…

A Witch either never lost her ‘voice’, or if she did, after her own epiphany, took it back.

If you think I am in the minority in my opinions about the Apostle Paul, just read Paul, the false Apostle by Scott Nelson. And, Notable Quotes—The following are quotes from other sources on issues concerning Judaism, Christianity, and the false apostle Paul which can be viewed at this hyperlink, again by Scott Nelson. If you want to learn even more, you may as well go to his main page which is located here Yeshua (Jesus) & Judaism vs. Paul and Christianity

When will the Roman Catholic clergy be able to marry? When will they be able to experience conjugal ‘bliss’, as well as the emotional love of a female/male (assuming females ever get to be priests) partner? Don’t give me the, “But the priest is married to Mother Church” nonsense, either. What total hokum! For instance, how can a male priest understand what a married woman is experiencing if he doesn’t at least have a wife and/or children of his own? It is difficult enough for laymen. Just ask any married man! Perhaps then he (the priest) would have some inkling. Once upon a time priests DID marry. This is in the historical record. It might be interesting to discover why this changed. What machinations caused this 180-degree reversal? My guess is that it had more to do with the “seven deadly sins” than with the “seven virtues”! When are women going to be allowed to be priests in the Roman Catholic Church? Seriously…and more importantly, what has been the historical role of women in the Church since its inception? For the unaware, Jesus Christ was a Jew. He was also nearly always surrounded by the three Marys [I read that, The Fates]. I believe he wanted to improve women’s role and their treatment on planet Earth, and that this was somehow part of his ‘mission’. Millenniums had passed between Abram’s (Abraham’s) exodus from Ur of the Chaldees to the birth of Christ. y the time of Christ, and with few exceptions, Hebrew women, i.e., the women of the ‘one god of Abraham’, had been reduced to less than the value of livestock [Don’t get mad at me, it’s written in the Bible]. These same women were descended from those of Ur who had worshiped goddesses and gods, and who no doubt had been priestesses and exercised a substantial amount of ‘power’ both secularly and religiously. These goddesses were, by the way, more ‘powerful’ than the gods of the day. As the millenniums passed and generations of women lived and died with the ‘one god of Abraham’, the power and strength that had been theirs both spiritually and secularly through their goddesses became less than a myth. The patriarchs had effectively subjugated the women. By the time of Christ, some DNA memory from a time long, long ago must have had these women’s descendants yearning for a Messiah more fervently and profoundly than any of the Hebrew men. Jesus Christ was a shining ray of light and hope for these women, but then along came St. Paul who put the kibosh on their hopes for another two millennium. I believe in Reincarnation, not people to bugs, but humans to humans or humans to spirits. If St. Paul reincarnated (and surely he must have to in order to rectify some of the things he did to women) no doubt he reincarnated as a woman, and is living where the women today are covered from head to toe and treated abysmally by men. I know where that is. Do You? [Note: 10/22/01—I wrote this over a year ago, I guess we all know where this is now since the events of 9-11-01 in NYC.] Yes, and I do not believe this is the treatment Christ had intended for the women of this world. Of course those to whom I am referring do not believe in Christ, but in Allah. Allah would have been outraged at the treatment of these women by the hands of a few misguided religious zealots! I’m sure he did not treat Fatima in such a way. I am not Islamic, but I do know that true followers of that religion DO NOT treat their women as the Taliban do. In fact, the al-Qaeda hijacked the Islamic religion when they attacked NYC. ‘Tis sad, but true.

Even today, isn’t it interesting that when one does a ‘spell check’ on the computer, Christian comes up with a capital ‘C’, but neither Witch nor Pagan does. Humph. Here we have a perfect example of Christian religiosity permeating society. Was this an oversight, or was there intent involved? Well, there it is-- something broken and out of sync with the rest of the world. Isn’t it about time to make things fair and either capitalize all religious names or none at all? If this planet is going to survive, everyone of ALL religions needs to start respecting other people’s religion. Check the history books for past and present wars, and terrorism today. Almost all of it has religious intolerance at its heart or ‘basic building block’. And not to harp on the subject, but while you are at it, check out what is happening in countries today that do not treat their women well. [We know of one that is getting the bejesus bombed out of it.] What goes around, comes around. [I guess it DID!] When you understand this, you will have your own epiphany.

I will be addressing Genesis Chapter 19, verse 8 in my Rants and Rave section. This ties in with the treatment of women as previously mentioned. Tune in later for some startling revelations by Raven…

Returning to the Middle Ages and regarding the amount of people murdered at this time; I have read anywhere from several hundred thousands to 11 million. Ms. Curott states that “relative to the overall population of Europe at the time, those hundreds of thousands would be equivalent to about nine million people today.” There may have been a lot of cats murdered, but there were a lot of dogs murdered, too, as well as any other pet one of these poor souls cherished.
Mentioning the landed gentry and government officials exercising control by persecutions to move the peasants off of their lands sounds familiar, doesn’t it? History is replete with examples, but the Witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts come to mind. One more thing for now, if you know your history, you will already be cognizant of what someone who is an authority in these matters once told me. Apparently, more people were killed by the fundamentalist Christians, such as the Calvinists, than by the Spanish Inquisition. Supposedly, they (the radical Protestants) just took the “bull” the Spanish Inquisitors started and ran rampant with it. This might be something of interest to check out on the World Wide Web. I would suggest starting at www.About.com and seeing where it leads. It could prove to be VERY interesting…

Update: August 29, 2001—Check out this article entitled Acidic Fatwa at About.com and then tell me that women are not abused in this ‘day and age’. Note: Looks like this article has been archived. Perhaps it is located somewhere in the About.com files. Also, check out About.com for information relating to the Taliban (sometimes spelled Taleban). To read About.com articles specifically relating to the plight of the Taliban women check out Taliban Women at About.com.

Wow! What has happened to About.com?

I will be adding more and more to this page, so bookmark this page and then check out Witch sites such as, The Witches' Voice, AREN, and others in my Links section. Please believe me when I tell you that you won't want to miss Ravon's graphics which are incredible! The pictures just under my title, WITCHES, and at the end of this page are examples of her beautiful work. Her graphics are free, but it would be nice to give her a link. Travel there and come back often to see what I have added to my own site. In Love and Enlightenment--Blessings, Raven, July 2000 [Updated October 2001, March 2002, January 2008]...